whale birthday cake

For the past few years I've been making celebration cakes for my friend Irene, including her baby shower cake, her baby's first birthday cake (a smash cake and a tiered cake for her guests, as well as Korean Hanbok cookies!), and now, a cake for her baby's second birthday!

It's pretty much tradition that I made her a nectarine and cream cake (it all started with her baby shower cake!), but this time she wanted a strawberry and banana cake for baby! She wanted a whale cake to go with the nautical theme, and then I would make a second larger cake for the guests (which would be a nectarine and cream cake, of course!)

Somehow I forgot to take pictures of the cake and the filling, but you'll have to trust me when I tell you that I made two 6-inch vanilla cakes (recipe in my book!), sliced them in half horizontally to give me four layers, and then filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and sliced strawberries and bananas. Then I whipped up a batch up buttercream, tinted it sky blue, and did a quick crumb coat with it before smoothing it out, chilled it in the fridge, and then doing a final smooth coat on top.

Then it was time to add the whale details! A few days previously, I had made some fondant pieces to decorate with - the white ribbed piece for the whale belly ...

... two round pink circles for cheeks ...

and then I piped the eyes and mouth using black frosting with a small round tip.

Next I added two blue fondant whale flippers, and the final touch was fondant pieces for the water coming out of the whale's spout!

Now, I had modeled the cake after a picture of a whale cake that Irene had sent me, but after I was done I wasn't sure if it was fully apparent that this was supposed to be a whale. In fact, after I was done assembling my cake, my 8-year old son walked by and asked, "What is that? Why does it have a beard?"

Hmmmmm...

Anyway, Irene did a fantastic job with the food and decorations for the party! Everything was beautiful and delicious! Too bad the whale cake melted in the hot sun though! Aaack! By the time it was time to cut the cake, the whale looked like it had bangs made out of a wave of frosting! (I'm so sorry, Irene!)

Happy Happy Birthday, Aaron!

yellow roses birthday cake

My friend Renee recently asked me to make a rose cake for her mom's birthday, and the reason behind it was such a sweet one. Apparently every year, her father would buy yellow roses for her mom on her birthday. Her father passed away not too long ago, and Renee wanted to continue the yellow roses tradition, but in a new way. So she asked me to make a yellow roses cake. (Doesn't that just bring tears to your eyes?!)

We decided on a vanilla cake filled with fresh whipped cream and strawberries, so I made two 8-inch vanilla cakes and sliced each in half horizontally, giving me four cake layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream, sliced fresh strawberries, and more whipped cream on top of the strawberries.

I did this with each cake layer, giving me three layers of filling ...

and four layers of cake.

Then I did a quick coat of yellow buttercream, all over the tops and sides of the cake. (No need for it to be perfectly smooth here, as it will be covered with piped roses).

To pipe the roses all over the cake, which I've done many times in various colors and flavors (based on the original creation by I Am Baker, love her!), I used a Wilton 1M large star piping tip to pipe quick swirls to form the roses, repeating it all the way around the sides of the cake ...

and continuing the roses on the top of the cake as well.



I loved the result. It looked like a big bouquet of vibrant yellow roses!

Happy Birthday to your mom, Renee. I hope she enjoyed her yellow roses this year. :) 

teenage mutant ninja turtle cake

While writing my book a couple of years ago, I was recipe testing for a Keroppi shaped cake, which I ended up bringing to a get-together at my cousin Yvonne's house. It was a chocolate cake filled with peppermint whipped cream, and since there was a lot of cake left she took some to work to share with her coworker. Fast forward a couple of years, and that same coworker asked me to make a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake for her son's birthday! We decided that I would make the same cake, but this time in the shape of a Ninja Turtle, and filled with freshly whipped cream and fresh strawberries instead of the peppermint whipped cream.

I started by baking up two 9-inch chocolate cake layers, and used a cardstock cutout to trace and cut my Ninja Turtle shaped cake. Then I cut each one in half horizontally to create four layers, and topped each layer with a layer of freshly whipped cream ...

... as well as a layer of sliced strawberries, and another layer of whipped cream on top of that.

I repeated this process until all of the cake layers were stacked and filled.

Next I whipped up 2 batches of cream cheese buttercream. I set aside a bit of it to be used and colored later, and then tinted the majority of it leaf green, covered the top and sides of the cake with it, and smoothed it out with an offset spatula.

For the details on the face, I used a toothpick to outline the eyes, nose, bandana, and mouth, and then used black frosting with a #3 tip to pipe over the outlines and fill in the mouth and eyeballs.

Next I used a medium star tip with the green frosting to fill in the face and the sides of the cake.

Finally I used the same star tip to fill in the rest of the face - purple for the bandana, red for the tongue, and white for the whites of the eyes.

I thought he turned out pretty cute!

You can find the recipe and instructions in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!

mickey mouse birthday cake with handmade fondant mickey hat

My good friend Helen has an adorable daughter named Marni, who discovered Disneyland and Mickey Mouse a few months before her 2nd birthday. She loved it so much that Helen asked me to make a Mickey Mouse cake for the birthday party! We collaborated on ideas for a few weeks, before deciding to do two cakes - one for the kids, and one for the adults - and this is what we decided on for the kids cake! An 8-inch strawberries and cream cake, topped with a handmade fondant Mickey Mouse hat!

A few weeks before the party, I got started on the fondant hat, since I knew it would need time to dry completely. So I bought some black fondant (to save myself the time and colored hands it would take to color my own fondant), and got to work!

I started by rolling out the black fondant pretty thin, and then used an upside-down bowl to form the shape of my Mickey hat.

Then I used a pizza cutter and a paring knife to trim off the excess fondant.

Next I rolled out more fondant and used a round cookie cutter to cut out circle shapes for the ears. These would fit into little slits that I cut into my hat once everything was dry. (I also used black royal icing to "glue" the ears into the slits in the hat).



For the lettering on the hat, I used white fondant which I colored with golden yellow, and rolled it out into a long thin rope. Then I formed that into my cursive lettering and let it dry for several days before attaching it to my hat with just a bit of water.

Then the evening before the party, I started on on the cake. I baked two 8-inch vanilla cakes (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!), which cooled and then cut into half horizontally, giving me four cake layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries.

Once the cake was assembled, I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream, which I tinted bright red before covering the top and sides of the cake with it (first a crumb coat, then a 30-minute chill in the fridge, and then a final smooth coat of frosting).

The next morning, the cake was ready to be decorated!

I added two white fondant circles for Mickey's buttons ...

.. and then came the final touch, my handmade fondant Mickey hat!

I couldn't wait for Marni and Helen to see it!!!

In addition to the cake, I also made homemade oreos (based on Thomas Keller's TKOs), as well as the cake for the adults (stay tuned for my next post!)

The party was at a beautiful park with a playground, and featured dim sum, pizza, a one-man bubble show, as well as a live Mickey Mouse who came and played and danced with the kids! Soooo much fun!!!

Happy Birthday, Marni!!!

circus carnival cake with handmade fondant lion topper

Sometime last year, I received a request for a circus carnival cake for a baby's first birthday. Doan, the baby's mother wanted a lion topper on the cake, and a colorful circus themed border on the cake. So based on the sample pictures that she had sent me, I came up with this cake!

For the lion topper, I decided to do something in the same style as the giraffe topper that I had made for this giraffe baby shower cake. So first I tinted my fondant using golden yellow gel-based food coloring, and then shaped out the various lion parts that I would be needing - a torso, back legs, front legs, and a head.

Then I added ears, a white snout, used a black edible food marker to add eyes and a nose, and then used a flower shaped cookie cutter to make the lion's mane out of orangey-brown tinted fondant.

After attaching all the parts (with a toothpick in the center of the lion to hold the head in place), I added a cute little tail.

And a cute little fondant lion was born!

For the cake, I baked 1.5 batches of vanilla cake (recipe in my book!) into two 10-inch round cake pans, and  I sliced each cake layer in half horizontally to give me four cake layers. Then I filled each cake layer with freshly whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

After all the layers were assembled, I let the cake chill in the fridge while I whipped up two batches of cream cheese buttercream. I set a bit of the frosting aside (to be tinted various colors) and then tinted the majority of the frosting with Americolor royal blue. Then I used the blue frosting to do a crumb coat and a second coat over the tops and sides of the cakes, smoothing it out each time with an offset spatula (and chilling in between coats).

Then it was time to decorate! For the colorful beaded border I used a Wilton #12 tip, which I also used to pipe large polka dots all over the sides of the cake (and later smoothed them out with an offset spatula). The final touch was to add the birthday boy's name in big red letters using a Wilton #3 tip.

And then it was time to add the fondant lion, which I attached using a bit of frosting on the bottom of the fondant figure.

Happy happy birthday, Roland! Hope you enjoyed your cake! :)