boss baby first birthday cake

Along with "Inside Out" smash cake that I made for my friend Stephanie, I also made this "Boss Baby" smash cake for her son Jayden! Since her son totally looks like Boss Baby, she wanted to use a Funko Pop Boss Baby doll as the cake topper!

For Jayden's cake, we decided on vanilla cake simply filled with whipped cream, since he was just turning one and she wanted something semi-plain for him. So I baked up two 6-inch vanilla cakes (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), allowed them to cool, and then sliced them i half horizontally to give me four cake layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream. Since I was making two cakes, I totally forgot to take pictures of the cake stacking process, except for this one picture that I posted on Instagram (of the two cakes).

Once the cake was assembled, I covered it with cream cheese buttercream, and then using a medium round tip I piped a blue beaded border along the top and bottom of the cake.

Then I let it chill in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I was ready to decorate! I started by piping Jayden's name on the front of the cake, as well as "Boss Baby" on the top of the cake (as requested by Stephanie!)

And then I was ready to add the cake topper!

It's ridiculous because it looks exactly like Jayden! (See the second to the last picture!)

Happy Birthday, Jayden! Hope you enjoyed your cake!

inside out cake

Some time ago, I made a "Tangled" Rapunzel cake for my friend Monica, and we used a Funko Pop Rapunzel doll as the cake topper. A few months later, my friend Stephanie asked me to make her daughter an "Inside Out" birthday smash cake, using a Funko Pop doll as well! Her daughter Riley's favorite character from the movie was "Disgust", so we chose that as the cake topper!

Since Disgust's colors were purple and green, she requested that layers of cake matched those colors, and so I baked up two 6-inch vanilla cakes, one tinted with violet and the other tinted with leaf green. (You can find the vanilla cake recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) Then I sliced each cake in half horizontally, giving me four cake layers.

Next I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries, alternating the purple and green cake layers.

Once the cake was assembled, I covered it with cream cheese buttercream (I do this in two steps - first a quick crumb coat, then chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, and then I add a second smooth coat of frosting, smoothing it out with a large offset spatula). Then I divided the remaning frosting, tinted them with red, yellow, blue, and green, and using a medium round tip, I piped a rainbow beaded border on the top and bottom of the cake.

After letting the cake chill in the refrigerator overnight, I was ready to finish decorating the next morning. First I piped Riley's name on the front of the cake ...

And then I added the cake topper. Since the base of the topper was pretty narrow, I couldn't find a good way secure it to the top of the cake, so I ended up melting some white chocolate, poured a dollop onto a silicone baking liner, and pressed the bottom of the topper into it while it was still melted. The once it hardened, it made a great flat and secure base for the topper to stay on the cake!

I just love these Funko Pop dolls! They are so adorable and they make great cake toppers!

I also made a second smash cake for Stephanie's son Jayden, because she was having one big party to celebrate both of her kids' birthdays! (More on that in my next post!)

Happy Birthday, Riley! Hope you enjoyed your cake!

baby face cookies for a baby shower

Last year I made this macaron-topped peaches and cream baby shower cake for my friend Irene, and while I was at the baby shower, I bumped into a girl named Stephanie that I went to high school with years and years ago! We hadn't seen each other since high school, and it was so nice to catch up with her!

Several months later, Stephanie asked me to make a cake for her twin sister Selena's baby shower! While I wasn't able to make the cake because of previous commitments, I offered to make cookies instead, since I could make them a few days in advance and then wrap them individually in cellophane bags to keep them fresh.

The cookies would be cute baby face cookies to match the logo on the baby shower invitations, so I used a 3.5 inch round cutter to cut out shapes from my sugar cookie dough (recipe in my new book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!)

After the cookies were baked and cooled, I whipped up a batch of royal icing (recipe in my book as well!), and tinted the majority of it with ivory gel-based food coloring. Then I used ivory stiff royal icing to outline my circles, and ivory runny royal icing to fill them in.

Then before the ivory icing dried, I dropped two small rounds of pink runny icing (for the cheeks) into the still-wet ivory icing. This way, the pink cheeks wouldn't be raised, and would be flush with the rest of the ivory icing.

Then I used black stiff icing with a Wilton #2 tip to pipe the eyes and the little swirl of hair.

Finally, I used a Wilton #1 tip (the smallest tip possible!) to pipe the cute little smiling mouth.

After I let them dry completely, they were done!

Just look at all those little smiling baby faces! Brings a smile to my face!

Stephanie ended up giving the cookies out as the favors, which worked out perfectly because they were already individually wrapped!

Happy baby shower, Selena! Hope you enjoyed the cookies!