lego batman birthday cake with handmade fondant batman and chocolate lego pieces

I've been making birthday cakes for Doan's son ever since his first birthday, and his fourth birthday was no exception! This year the theme was Lego Batman, so we decided that I'd make a Lego Batman fondant topper, and since I already had a Lego chocolate mold, I decided to make colorful edible Legos to decorate with as well!

First I made the fondant topper in advance, in order to give it time to dry. I started by using black fondant (or you could use white fondant and tint it black), made a little log, folded it in half to make two legs, and then started them shaping them to look more like Lego character legs. (Using a mini rolling pin worked great for this!)

Then I formed all the various body parts - a torso, two arms, and two Lego hands.

Next, I made a cape, and formed the head and used fondant tools to add the details for the face.

After assembling the body parts using a bit of water applied with a food safe brush, I used yellow fondant to form the belt and the Batman logo.

An edible marker worked great for drawing the Batman logo!

And the final step was attaching the head, secured with a toothpick! Then I let Batman dry out for a week or so.

The day before making the cake, I made my chocolate Lego pieces to decorate with. I used this silicone Lego mold to shape my melted chocolate.

After pouring in my melted chocolate and giving it a few hard taps on the counter to release any air bubbles, I chilled it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes of so, making it super easy to pop them out. Then I stored the chocolate Legos in airtight containers until it was time to decorate.

For the cake, I baked up two 10-inch rounds of my favorite vanilla cake (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book! Note that the recipe is for two 8-inch rounds, so to adjust for two 10-inch rounds I used 1.5 batches of the recipe and adjusted the baking time.) Then after letting the cakes cool, I sliced them in half horiztonall to give me four cake layers, and then filled them with freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries.

For the frosting, I whipped up two batches of my Swiss Meringue buttercream frosting (recipe also in my book!), covered the top and sides with a quick crumb coat of frosting, and then let it chill for 30 minutes before adding a final smooth layer of frosting. Then I place the entire cake in the refrigerator to chill overnight.

The morning of the party, it was time to decorate!

I added my fondant Lego Batman to the top of the cake, secured with a toothpick and a bit of buttercream on the bottom of the topper, and then piped the birthday boy's name on the front of the cake using a small round tip.

Then it was time to add my chocolate Legos! I used alternating colors, and secured them with a bit of buttercream on the bottom of each chocolate piece.

I thought it turned out super cute!

Doan later told me that all of the kids were fighting over the chocolate Lego pieces! ;)

Hope you had a happy birthday, Roland!!!

unicorn cupcakes

Sometime last year, my friend Monica asked me to make unicorn cupcakes for her goddaughter. She wanted pastel swirl frosting, topped with little fondant unicorn horn toppers. We decided that I'd make chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and I bought gold cupcake liners to match the gold unicorn horns!

About a week in advance, I started making the fondant toppers, in order to give them time to dry out. I tinted my fondant with gold gel-based food coloring, and then brushed on gold luster dust to give it a shiny gold sheen. I also made little ears for the unicorns, using a petunia flower cookie cutter (similar to this one) and then cutting out the petals to make ears.

Then when it was time to bake the cupcakes, I made my favorite chocolate cupcake batter (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), and baked them in my new shiny gold cupcakes liners. Once they were cool, I whipped up some cream cheese frosting (recipe also in my book!) and divided it into three portions. Then I tinted each portion with yellow, pink, and green (with a teeny bit of blue in it, to give it more of an aqua feel).

Then I fitted a pastry bag with a large star tip, and when filling the pastry bag, I filled it with all three colors of frosting, to give it that swirl effect.

These colors make me so happy!

Then it was time to add my fondant decorations. I placed a unicorn horn in the middle, with ears on either side.

 

 
Cute, right?

 
I hope Monica's goddaughter enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed making them! Happy Birthday!

animal kingdom birthday cake

My good friend Helen has an adorable daughter named Marni, who I've been making birthday cakes for since she was born! Since her birthday party is coming up this weeked, I thought I'd better get around to posting her birthday cake from last January! (So sorry for the delay, where does the time go?!)

The theme for her birthday party last year was "Animal Kingdom", and it was a five-way party with some of her friends from class. Each child picked an animal to represent them on the cake, and I had decided to make them as flat fondant characters to go around the sides of the cake.

First: Marni chose a giraffe, and I started by tinting fondant with golden yellow gel-based food coloring, and then rolled out and cut my shapes. For the head I used a circle cutter, but for the body and ears I used a knife to free-form cut my shapes out. 

For the details, I tinted fondant with chocolate brown for the muzzle, mane, and spots (with which I used a medium round piping tip to cut out), and for the feet and horns (antlers?) I used fondant tinted with chocolate brown and a bit of super black to achieve a darker brown.

Second: Marni's friend Lauren chose a monkey, so I used fondant tinted with chocolate brown. The steps were basically the same as the giraffe, using circle cutters where ever I could, and otherwise using a paring knife to cut out my shapes.

For the face, belly, hands and feet, I used ivory to tint my fondant. And a heart-shaped cutter worked out great for top 3/4 of the face.

Third: Marni's friend Emma chose an elephant, so I used a tiny bit of super black to tint my fondant a light gray color (use sparingly, as the gray can get dark very fast!) Here, heart-shaped cutters worked out create for the ears! (I used this set of nested heart-shaped cutters).

Fourth: Marni's friend Sabrina chose a penguin, so I used super black to tint my fondant, and a combination of nested circle cutters and nested heart-shaped cutters to assemble the penguin with black and white fondant.

For the details, I tinted my fondant with orange, and used a paring knife to cut out my shapes.

Fifth: Marni's friend Wyatt chose an owl, so I tinted my fondant with chocolate brown and a bit of super black to get a darker color brown. I also used white fondant for the eyes, and orange tinted fondant for the feet.

After finishing all of the fondant details and using an edible marker to add eyes and other details, I was done! Here's how all of the animals came out:

Aren't they cute? :)

And instead of writing all of their names on the cake, I made little leaves out of leaf green fondant and a leaf cutter, and used an edible marker to write their names on them.

For the cake, I made 1.5 batches of my favorite vanilla cake in two 10-inch round cake pans (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), and after it was baked and cooled I sliced each cake in half horizontally to give me four cake layers. Then I filled the layers with fresh whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries. (I make this combination every year for her!)

Once the cake was assembled, I whipped up some cream cheese buttercream, tinted it with sky blue, and frosted the top and sides of the cake with it. (I usually do this in two steps - a quick crumb coat to lock in all of the cake crumbs, refrigerate for 30 minutes, and then a final smooth coat).

Then I let the cake chill in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I added a piped beaded border along the bottom of the cake, and then added my previously made fondant animals.

Then I pipe some plants in between the animals (using frosting that was tinted with forest green), and added my previously made fondant leaves next to each animal.

I also made a second cake, a 10-inch coffee chiffon cake for the adults! This one was decorated simply with rainbow sprinkles surrounding the number "5". (You can read here on how I did this!)

The party was held at the Discovery Museum in Sausalito, which has so many fun things for kids to do, as well as spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We had a fantastic time celebrating with you, Marni! Happy Birthday!