There's a Party In My Tummy! ( Yo Gabba Gabba)

"So Yummy so Yummy!!"

For my son's b day I HAD to pull off a Yo Gabba Gabba cake. I did a little research online and decided a 2 tier character cake would be the best bet.



I also decided that I wanted the cake to be more then just "white" since it was for kids, i jazzed it up. I discovered an idea for "Rainbow Cake"

TTT: When you are coloring the batter, be sure to use icing color. Regular super market food coloring will run together and you will end up with something brown. 

The decorating for this cake was easy and didn't take long. the characters are pretty simple and with some planning ahead it was...well, a piece of cake. 

Muno

Muno is one of the main characters in the show, I figured he would be fun ( and easy) to re create.

Above is the "Muno" portion of the cake, covered in fondant ( as red as I could get it) and ready to go. 

Plex, is the robot character of the show and my personal favorite. I made the top layer Plex, I figured the yellow would contrast nicely with the red on the bottom. 

The finished product came out very nice and it was just the right amount of cake. I added the "light" on top of Plex's head and we were all set.

Did you think I would end without showing you how great the inside turned out?

TTT: Be sure you always have a cardboard circle between each layer of cake, It adds support and makes it much easier to cut.

Candy Apples

O. K. So these aren't really candy per se', but talk about yummy. We decided to make deluxe caramel apples to give as gifts to friends and family. These have been made before and through a few trial and error shots we were able to come up with a pretty good finishing product.

The granny smith apples were washed thoroughly and then the sticks were inserted at an angle that is meant to be straight up. The apples were then dipped into heated caramel and immediately put into the refrigerator to minimize dripping. Once completely cooled the caramel in the pan was reheated and then the apples were dipped again. The catch this time is to roll them into chopped nuts. ( I used peanuts)

Twinkle Toes Tip:
Be sure to sift the chopped nuts before you roll the apples in them. This way you wont have any nut "dust" on your apple, just nice evenly sized chunks.

Again the apples were put right back in the fridge. Although I would recommend dipping one at a time and refrigerating after each apple rather then doing them all at the same time. The nuts and added caramel are heavy and tend to pool at the bottom quickly if not refrigerated.

Next, chocolate chips are melted and the now cooled apples are dipped in the chocolate. Refrigerate again and there you go. Feel free to add decoration to the finished apples, or leave them as so. The were very tasty and you can see once they are cut into the layers look beautiful!

Frosty the Cupcake man

My son had a class party for the christmas holiday and I decided to take the opportunity to make something a little special.
Snowman cupcakes!

With chocolate chips for mouths it was easy to make these little treats looked surprised!

The hats were chocolate wafer cookies. They were a little difficult to work with and I'm trying to figure out if I can do something differently next time.
The noses ( made from orange slices) were not only edible, but the flavor went nicely with the vanilla frosting.

Twinkle Toes Tip:
 The chocolate cookies need to be inserted into the sides of the cupcakes, if you do this too soon, the whole cookie becomes soggy and gross. Make sure you cut a slit into the upper side of the cupcake before you insert the cookie as well. Good luck!

Everybody say "Wii!!!"

My son is a video game buff. A few years ago he received a Wii from Santa and things have never been the same. Making a Wii cake posed a few challenges. How was I going to make it stand up? Should I lay it on it's side? Should it be to scale?

I went over all these things and decided firs,t and foremost,it was going to be edible. I have seen so many awesome cakes that are made with all gum paste or rice krispies that, while edible, is not something I would want an entire "cake" made of. Who wants a giant rice krispy treat covered in fondant? I was willing to sacrafice a little of the "perfect looking" construction, for cake.

I knew that I was going to have to alternate layers of cake, with cardboard in order for it to stand up.

My original plan was to cover the cake with homemade modeling chocolate. I bought white chocolate chips and meledt them down. I followed the recipe (or so I thought) and it turned into a mushy greasy mess. It turned out, that since the bag of chips was white chocolate, it was 4 ounces less then a bag of regular chocolate.


Twinkle Toes Tip: Make sure you check and double check the ounces and size of ALL your ingredients before you leave the store, especially if you are using something for the first time.

I flavored my fondant with vanilla and then I  was left to determine how to cover this 8 layered cake.

The real Wii has a lot of panels so I mimicked to the best of my ability and layed the fondant on in strips.
After many layers of cake, cardboard, cake, cardboard, then 2 long dowels, I was able to make the wii cake standup.

The words and decoration on the front are also made from fondant. The only butter cream used was inside the cake as filling.
I will say that it took some time, but I am confident that I could do it again, and my son loved it!

Rock Star Cake

Every girl dreams of being a ROCK STAR at some point so this was my version of a totally girly Rock Star Cake

This was a huge and very heavy cake. The bottom layer was white cake, made from scratch. The second was yellow cake also made from scratch and the top layer was a yummy chocolate also made from scratch. All the stars on the cake are covered with Wilton Luster Dust to give them that rock star bling.

As an added bonus, I also created some pink lemonade cupcakes. Complete with edible microphones!

All and all, I feel the birthday girl really felt she could rock out!