Jungle Animal Cake for Meleia

This is just a quick post on the cake I made for possibly the cutest baby on the face of the planet, who turned 1 last week.  She is the youngest daughter of two of my favorite people: Jasmine and Ken.  

Watching this video helped me plan out how I wanted to make each animal.  My favorite was the baby giraffe, but Meleia's older sister preferred the monkey.

Also, I think I solved my issue with the Wilton letter cutters by stylizing them a bit.  They look much better on this cake.

pic via Abe

2009 Christmas Treats

Normally, I make time to bake a few different treats to give out to my favorite people for the holidays.  My life has just been too hectic baking-wise lately and I just can't find the energy.  [Every person I know sheds a single tear.]  Sorry guys!

So, the only treats I will make this year were for Elisha's mom, Toni, who threw a Christmas party this weekend.  What I made for her were: Vanilla Christmas Tree Cupcakes (yes, I know they look like green dookie swirls), Red Velvet Cupcakes, Sugar Cookie Mittens, and Gingerbread Santa Hat Cookies.  Elisha suggested that I do hats and mittens because each guest was asked to bring a pair of mittens or a cozy hat to give to the homeless this winter.  I want to also mention that their family is the closest thing I know to the Huxtables and I love them for it.  Such a warm and fun family to be around!

Martha Stewart has yet to let me down.  Both cupcakes came from her books.  The vanilla cupcakes were adapted from the White Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream recipe in the Baking Handbook and the red velvet cupcakes came from Cupcakes.  I have been able to find both recipes on marthastewart.com.  The only thing I changed for the vanilla cupcakes was that I used a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream instead of a strawberry buttercream.  I really love the cupcakes fresh out of the oven.  So moist and fluffy.  When they are day old, they get slightly dryer and a bit more dense so make sure you eat these straight away!  The red velvet recipe was quite different than the one I have used before.  Martha's uses oil instead of butter and cake flour instead of all purpose.  I found that I like Martha's recipe better because I get a stronger cocoa flavor and they are very moist. 

Gingerbread Santa Hat Cookies

Sugar Cookie Mittens

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Minnie Mouse Cake

This particularly cute cake is for my friend Aura's sister, Victoria.  I can't take credit for the design because it was modeled after a picture that Aura had texted me.  I like this cake for its details.  The mini Minnie Mouse silhouettes with the tiny bows are my favorite part.

The ears concerned me because I thought they wouldn't dry in time and would droop and fall off.  All the decorations were done in fondant except for the ears, which were made from gum paste because it dries and hardens faster.   I made sure to make the ears a couple hours in advance to allow drying time (over night would have probably been best).  I used very stiff black royal icing to attach them onto the cake and they seemed to hang on pretty well.  I was also concerned about the ears during transportation but I think they made it to its final destination in tact.  Just in case of the worst, I gave Aura an extra pair of ears and the rest of my black royal icing to take with her.

For this cake, I used my 40% off Michael's coupon to purchase Wilton's 37 Piece Alphabet and Number Cutters.  I'm not really a fan of how the letters came out mainly because they were uneven.  Some letters were chunkier than others.  I will most likely be on the market for better alphabet cutters.  I really like these and these.

I love the mini bow!

It makes me smile that she matches the cake.  Happy birthday, Tori!