Butterfly Cake and Flower Cupcakes

I have to give credit for this Butterfly Cake to Birthday Express. I found out the day before that I needed a cake for my niece's birthday party (we were trying to coordinate schedules). I am the cake lady so, naturally, I volunteered to make the cake. Especially since it was mentioned we could always BUY a cake. I couldn't allow THAT. I was looking for ideas for a simple cake. One I could bake, cool, and decorate in about 2 hours. This one looked like it fit the bill. It only uses one 8" or 9" round cake pan, so I used the rest of the cake batter and icing to make the Flower Cupcakes. I added Wilton Color Gel (Sky Blue and Christmas Red) to make the purple icing. It actually had a satiny sheen to it.

Game Cube "Pikmin" Birthday Cake

This cake is probably the most interesting to date. My son was turning 7 years old. For two months I heard him tell me he wanted a "Pikmin" party. "Pikmin" is a video game for the Nintendo Game Cube. He loves it! If you have ever played the game, you would understand the cake a little better.

My problem was, there isn't a party store that sells "Pikmin" party ware. What is a mother to do? I downloaded a picture of "Pikmin" and made postcard invitations on the computer. I went to Kinko's to make glossy copies of them to mail out. I also used the photo to make name tags for the favor bags.
Since "Pikmin" products are not sold in the US, I went on eBay and found "Pikmin" figurines on sale. They were shipped straight from Japan in record time (2 days). I used these little guys on the cake. I know, some collector is probably going to freak out over it, but they DO look adorable all over this cake.

Cinderella Carriage Cake

"I'm having a Princess Cake!"

My daughter, for her 3rd birthday, knew she was going to have a princess cake. She was so deep into the Disney Princess movies. I knew she was going to have a princess cake, but I didn't know how she was going to get it. I had already made the "Princess" Cake for my best friend earlier in the year. I also knew I wanted to make Cinderella's carriage for her. But how was I to do it?

Once again, I pulled out my Betty Crocker Bake 'N Fill dome cake pan. This is another cake where, in hindsight, I should have used a more dense cake batter. I had one Bake 'N Fill dome on top of another to create the "carriage" and the weight of the cake started to make the whole thing "sink". Luckily, we got through the party and ate that cake before it started to LOOK like something was going wrong.

The horses and carriage wheels are made with Rice Krispies treats I cut out into horse and wheel shapes. To make sure they would stand up, I anchored them in melted Wilton green candy wafers. Then I sprinkled the candy with decorating stars while it was still warm. This was to resemble flowers on the path. I did the same thing to anchor the wheels, fence, anything, besides the cake, that was going to be standing up.

To make the writing, I typed out the words in a font I liked on the computer and made them the size I wanted. After printing it out, I placed a sheet of wax paper on top of it and traced the letters with pink melted Wilton candy melts (Place the melted wafers in a Ziploc bag and cut a hole in the corner). After the candy hardens, you can remove the letters gently with a spatula and place wherever you want.

Basketball Cake

This cake went along with my son's present. We took him to see the Harlem Globetrotters for his 13th birthday. It was great and he had a blast. I had even considered making the cake look like an official Globetrotters ball.
Once again, I pulled out my Betty Crocker Bake N' Fill dome cake pan. This time I decided to fill it...with cookies and cream pudding! I colored some icing orange (obviously) and covered the whole thing. Then, I used the tip of a butter knife to make the grooves in the "ball" where the lines would go. That way, If I messed up the placement, I could just smooth out the orange icing and start all over again. The grooves made it easier to keep the "lines" in the right spot.
Once again, I didn't know what to do with the candles, so I made dots of icing all around the cake and placed candles in them. It made blowing out the candles much more interesting.