Princess Castle

I have never done a girl cake until now! I decided I wanted to do this cake just for fun and was telling a friend about it. When I told her she asked if I would wait and do it for her daughter's birthday that is coming up. I decided to go ahead and try one right now for two reasons. First I was so excited to finally do something girly I couldn't wait and second I wanted to practice once before doing the one for my friend since I have zero experience with girly things. It turned out to be pretty easy and so much fun! I can't wait to do this again and with more detail! Here is what I used:

Cake
Frosting
Waffle cones
Jumbo cones
Regular cones
Sprinkles

Building

BUILDING:
I always build everything before I begin frosting and decorating to make sure everything will fit and stay in place the way I vision it in my head. I used two square cakes stacked for the bottom layer. Then a round dish and a bowl stacked for the top. Against all four corners of the square cake on the cake board I used a jumbo cone with a waffle cone in it. Then on top of the back two corners of the square I used regular cones with waffle cones and lastly I used just a waffle cone for the very top. Once I knew everything would fit and look okay I took the cones off until the very end.

Frosting

FROSTING:
I first used a brown frosting to outline my door and windows using a #7 tip. The door was filled in with the #12 tip. Then I used the #18 star tip for the remainder of the cake (everything purple). This frosting that I used was a new recipe to give it kind of a shimmer look but wasn't very stiff so it made decorating difficult. A royal icing would have looked much neater.

Details

DETAILS:
I used a basting brush to apply Karo Syrup to the waffle cones then sprinkled pink sparkly sprinkles all over them. Then I used some pink frosting to stick them to the cup cones and frosting on the cup cones to stick to the cake and cake board. I frosted the cup cones in the pink frosting and used a zig zag scraper I have to give it a swirled looking texture.

Finishing

FINISHING TOUCHES:
Lastly I used the #233 tip to put grass along the front of the castle and around the front cones. I used the #2 tip to do some vines on both sides of the castle. Then I used the left over pink frosting for a couple drop flowers (tip #107) on the vines and along the grass. I also filled in the windows (#5) and put a door handle on the door. This was my first time trying flowers or vines or anything like that so I was cautious and didn't do many. Next time I do it I think I'll do some more vines and flowers and I will put a stone path to the door.
TADA! Here is the finished product!

Finished Castle Cake!

A Girl Cake...Just Because

Being the mom of all boys I haven't had much opportunity for doing girly cakes. However I have quite the stash of girl decorations! The dye I like is cheapest in a big pack that comes with girl colors as well. I have had to replenish my boy stuff quite a bit which means I keep getting more of the girl stuff that just sits in my cupboard. So I am doing a girl cake. Just because. I'm super excited! I've had this idea in my head for quite some time now and have decided to do it.There will be sparkles, sprinkles, pinks, purples, flowers and so much more! I'll document the process and be sure to post when I'm finished! Stay tuned..

Monkey Cake

I can't find the pictures of during the process of the monkey cake. I did this one the same time as the Giraffe cake though and they are VERY similar. For this cake I only used cake and frosting.

Monkey

BUILDING:
Click HERE to see the details of the giraffe cake for help on the head of this cake. The only difference is the ears and the mouth section. The ears are a round pan cut in half and attached with toothpicks. The mouth is the scraps from one of the big bowls. To stack the big bowls I trim the tops to make them flat and this mouth is one of those tops.

Finished Monkey just ignore the 5 yr. olds hand giving bunny ears in the back ground :)

FINISHING:
I frosted it brown and used a caramel frosting for the lighter brown areas then piped the mouth and nostrils. If I did this again I would have attached the ears differently to help them stay closer to the head more securely.

Giraffe Cake

This cake had a lot of firsts for me but turned out pretty good.
Here is what I used:
Cake
Frosting
Pretzels
Toothpicks

Back view built

BUILDING:
This was the first time I tried to bake a cake in a bowl. To get it to cook all the way through use a little bit lower heat setting and cook it longer. Make sure the center is cooked! I used two bowls the same size for the majority of the head and stacked them to make a round head. Before stacking them I trim the tops of so that they are nice and flat and sit flush together. Then I used a third little bowl for the very top of the head. For the ears I used a tiny square and cut it diagonally making two triangles and used those for the ears. For the mouth I used a cupcake.

Front View decorating

DECORATING:
I decorated it in yellow frosting. Then I got to use a cool new tip! It's the #233 tip and is so cool! It can be used for grass or hair and in this case I used it for some hair on the top of its head. I used some black and some brown for the details (spots, eyes, mouth and ears).

Finished Giraffe

FINISHING:
To finish it I used pretzel rods for the horns. I dropped a star of brown frosting on the top of the pretzels to hide where I cut them to shorten them. The only thing I would do differently would be the mouth. It doesn't look quite right to me but overall it was pretty cute for our Jungle themed party.

Dump Truck Cake

I was so happy with the way this dump truck turned out! There is very little cutting or shaping involved so it's a great beginner cake!
Here is what I used:
Cake
Frosting
Oreo's
Chocolate Cake Donuts

Side View of Cake

CAKE:
I baked one rectangle cake, two square cakes, a big loaf and a mini loaf to build this cake.
I wanted the back of the truck to look tilted to emphasize that it's a dump truck. To do this I cut one of the square cakes on an angle. I started at the top right side of the cake and cut down to the bottom left side of the cake. Then I pulled them apart and stacked the two thick sides together so that it angled down. Then I stacked the second square cake on top of that.

Front View of Cake

BUILDING:
After I got the back end situated I stacked the mini loaf on the big loaf and the big loaf on the front of the rectangle. The mini loaf was a little longer then I wanted so I trimmed that down.

Bottom Front Frosted

DECORATING:
To decorate it I frosted it in yellow frosting. Then piped the detail (bumper, grill, truck outline and window) in black frosting. The little boy this was for is named Cam so I made a license plate with his name on it using oreo cream filling and black frosting.

Finished Dump Truck

FINISHING:
The finishing details were the "dirt" it's hauling and the tires. The dirt is just crunched up oreo's and crackers. The wheels are Chocolate cake donuts and the headlights are miniature yellow marshmellows. He turned 3 so there is a three on the top of the cake. The left over dirt I sprinkled on the cake board.
This cake is very cute and easy And it feeds a lot of people!

Train Cake

My all time favorite cake so far is the train cake! It is super easy and is absolutely adorable!
Here is a list of everything I used:

Black licorice
Kit Kats
Chocolate cake
Frosting
Oreo's
Gummy Bears
Marshmellows
Popcorn
Coconut

The tracks

TRACKS:
The kit kats and licorice made the tracks. I had a hard time getting the licorice to balance on the kit kats and thought about using frosting to glue them together but when I placed the cake on top everything stayed in place pretty well and I didn't end up needing to use any frosting. If you were going to transport the cake then I would recommend using a little frosting to make sure everything stays.

The train

CAKE:
I baked 4 mini loafs and one big loaf. Three of the mini loafs are the cars and the one big one is the front of the train. The last mini loaf I used for the front of the train.

Details

DETAILS:
I used a #18 star tip to frost the majority of the train (everything in blue). The tops of the mini loafs I just frosted white so that the gummy bears and marshmellows would stick. The third car I left white to pipe my sons name on and to put the cowboy on. Then I put oreo's on for the wheels and piped a yellow window and a yellow grill on the front. For the piping I used a #5 tip.

The Finished Train

FINISHING:
The finishing touches were the popcorn steam and the coconut grass. I also crumbled some Oreo's up for dirt around the tracks. The popcorn is on threaded onto a piece of thin craft wire and stuck into the cake. I tried big white marshmellows and mini marshmellows but they were to heavy. The popcorn works great and looks awesome! The coconut I put in a bag with some green dye and mushed  it until it was the color I wanted and then sprinkled it onto the cake board. This was the finished product! My cowboy of a little boy was thrilled and it was a huge hit at the party!