Tidbits

C is for Cake

Posted by Anne Yorks on Sunday, February 28, 2010

It’s my birthday tomorrow. I’m going to be 31. In my mind, I always think I’m 27. That was the year I got married to Topher. It was such a wonderful year, I guess it is just burned in my brain forever. I hope 31 is another good year.

I love birthday cake, but I’m not much of a cake maker, yet. I still have a lot of practice in my future. I enjoy doing cookies. Cookies are like a postcard and I love the detail. Cakes are like billboards. I just haven’t translated my skills to the big canvas. Here are a few projects I have done…

For my daughter’s first birthday I did flower cupcakes.

Isn’t that pedestal so cute? Topher and I found it at a going-out-of-business sale. It was a steal!

I also did a cake for my niece’s 5th birthday. She asked for a butterfly field. Using a butterfly idea from the book Hello, Cupcake!, I did this cake. My niece loved the butterflies!

I decided to merge cake and cookies for my daughter’s 2nd birthday cake.

Everything is cookies, including the mini-flowers that make up the #2. I used two different sizes of flowers on the cake and added the leaves after placing the cookies. I made a lemon flavored buttercream icing. It was the bomb!

But, I really like doing cake cookies the best. This is one of my favorite birthday cookies.

It’s a topsy turvy cake shaped cookie. It can get a little tricky because of the small areas of color next to each other. Here is how I accomplish this design.

First I outline the entire cookie and fill with purple icing. I let it dry for several hours. The longer the cookie dries, the less likely colors will bleed into each other.

Then I fill each small area with a small amount of icing.

I just tap the icing gently into place with a toothpick.

Once the small areas are filled. I let the cookie dry overnight before adding the detail.

Once the cookie is completely dry, I add flames to the candles.

and some dots and swirls and little cake decorations…and before you know it the cake is done!

I have been so busy lately that I did not have time to make myself a huge, major big cake for my birthday. But I did plan a small surprise for my family for my birthday dessert tomorrow. It should be fun and I will be sure to share the pics with you Tuesday as well as other birthday details.

Have a sweet day,
Anne