I was asked to make a cake for a Dr. Seuss-themed 1st birthday party, so The Cat in the Hat seemed perfect!

I made a runout from royal icing, piping the outline in black, filling in the basic shapes with red and white, then adding the details in black while the coloured icing was still wet.  While it was drying out, I made the cake – a plain victoria sponge, sandwiched with chocolate butter cream – and covered it in fondant I had coloured light blue.

It turned out very well, and family of the birthday boy loved it.

Milo wanted a strawberry shark with lots of sharp teeth as Jaws is currently his favourite movie.  I started by adding red food colouring to the Victoria Sponge cake batter to make a very cool pink, and flavouring the buttercream with strawberry preserves.  Then I built up the basic outline using layers carved to shape and covered this with a mixture of cake crumbs and buttercream to get a nice smooth form.

This was covered with grey fondant which I’d left a little streaked for texture.  I merged this into white around the jaw to create the gum line, lining the mouth with pink.

I cut nice pointy teeth from another strip of white fondant and stuck those in place by moistening the back, adding eyes of black fondant and using some more of the grey for fins and tail.  A little blue food colouring mixed into the strawberry buttercream created exactly the right shade of ocean for the shark to swim in.

Some birthday wishes piped onto the top, and it was done.  It didn’t last long!

A new Star Wars movie.  One of the heroes a Stormtrooper.  Clearly Magnus needed a Stormtrooper helmet cake!

I built up the basic form in layers of chocolate cake and frosting, and carved it to shape.  Then I made a dome using a mixture of cake crumbs and buttercream, and used that to create a nice smooth, rounded top for the helmet.  After covering it all in white fondant, I added details in black fondant and painted in the vents with black food colouring. Thank you, Duane, for keeping me company as I worked late into the evening!

I think this is my new favourite.
: – )

Leave a cardboard box on the floor, and our cat Bean will sit in it.  This summer, he particularly loved the boxes we bought peaches in, so Ethan thought this would be a great idea for a cake.  Yay!

We made a chocolate sponge, cut it to size and covered it with blue fondant, then added layers more cake which we carved into a cat-like form – taking the dozing Bean as our inspiration.

Ethan helped make and colour the fondant, cut the cake to form the peaches box, and add texture to his fur.

It felt kinda weird eating out pet, but he tasted great!!