rainbow sprinkle birthday cake with beaded border

In addition to the whale birthday cake that I made for my friend Irene's son, I also made this larger cake for the guests! It's practically a tradition that I make her a nectarine and cream cake, so that's what we decided on again! And this time, I was able to use fresh nectarines straight from the nectarine tree in our backyard!

I baked up two 10-inch round vanilla cakes (recipe in my book!), and sliced each cake in half horizontally to give me four layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream, and sliced nectarines. Then I covered the whole thing with vanilla buttercream.

After a crumb coat, a quick chill in the fridge, and then a final smooth coat, I was ready to decorate!

To get the number "2" in the middle of the cake (see here for more examples of my rainbow sprinkles cakes), I drew it on waxed paper, cut it out, and placed it on in the middle of the cake. Then I piped a beaded border around the perimeter, and then added my sprinkles while the frosting was still sticky. I let the cake chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, and then I was able to peel off the waxed paper "2", and voila! A number "2" surrounded by sprinkles!

Here's a shot of the inside of the cake!

Happy Birthday Aaron!

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!

tiered peaches and cream layer cake with handmade gold fondant letter toppers

In addition to the blue bunting smash cake and Korean hanbok cookies that I made for baby Aaron's first birthday, I also made this tiered monogrammed cake for the party! Irene had wanted a white tiered cake topped with Aaron's initials in gold letters.

For the fondant letters, I started making them about a week in advance, to give them time to dry in time. I rolled out white fondant to about 1/8 inch thick, and then used a ruler and a pizza cutter to cut out long strips of fondant, with I used to form my letters.

Next I used this gold edible cake paint, or "cake graffiti", to spray my letters a pretty gold color.

I ended up spraying multiple coats, to get a nice deep gold color.

For the cake itself, Irene wanted the same cake that I had made for her baby shower - a fluffy vanilla cake filled with fresh nectarines and homemade whipped cream. So I baked up my favorite vanilla cake (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book) in two 8-inch cake pans, and then doubled the recipe to bake a larger set of layers in two 10-inch cake pans. 

Once cooled, I sliced each cake layer in half horizontally, giving me four 8-inch layers, and four 10-inch layers. Then I filled each layer with freshly whipped cream and fresh sliced nectarines.

Here's the 8-inch cake being assembled, and then frosted with cream cheese buttercream.

And here's the 10-inch cake being assembled.

After chilling both layers, I stacked them (with bamboo skewers inside to hold the top layer in place, see this tiered circus carnival cake for a picture of what I do with the skewers). Then, the final touch was placing the gold fondant letters on top (secured with a bit of frosting on the bottom of each letter).

I loved how the lettering turned out!

At the party, Irene did such a great job on setting up the Korean "dol" table! And look how cute the Korean hanbok cookies that I made look plated on gold trays next to the tiered cake!

Here's a quick photo collage of the party.

And a precious photo of the family :)

Happy Birthday, baby Aaron! Your party was spectacular!

korean hanbok cookies for a baby first birthday 'dol' party

Along with the blue bunting smash cake that I made for my friend Irene's son's first birthday party, I also made these Korean hanbok cookies! Irene was going to have a traditional Korean "Dol" table set up, so we thought it would be adorable to have plated Korean hanbok cookies (colored to resemble her son's Korean hanbok outfit for the party!)

I of course did not have a hanbok cookie cutter, so I asked my hubby to make me another custom copper cutter (yay hubby!). Armed with my shiny new cutter and a few batches of my favorite sugar cookie dough (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), I cut out my shapes, baked them at 350F until golden (about 10-12 minutes), and let them cool.

Once the cookies were cool, I started on the royal icing (recipe also in my book). I tinted the majority of it navy blue (Americolor royal blue gel coloring, along with a few drops of super black and violet), and piped the outline of the vest with stiff navy icing.

Then I filled it in with runny navy icing. Next I piped the details of the inside shirt with white stiff icing, and then filled it in with white runny icing.

Next I used stiff pink icing to outline the pants and a bit of detail on the vest, and then filled in the pants with runny pink icing (by the time I started on the next set of icing details, it was dark out so please excuse badly lit pictures!).

Next I outlines the sleeves with stiff brown icing, then added yellow dot details along the vest, as well as a yellow stripe and red stripe on the sleeve (done with medium stiffness icing).

To finish the rainbow sleeves, I filled in the remainder of the stripes (blue and green medium icing), and used red stiff icing to pipe a sash-style belt. And then (several hours later) it was done!

They came out better than I had expected!

Wheeeee!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from the party ...

... and I of course had to include a picture of little Aaron in his adorable Korean hanbok outfit, with his matching cookies!

Happy first birthday, sweet Aaron!!!

baby first birthday carrot cake (with applesauce instead of sugar) smash cake with handmade fondant bunting

My friend Irene has a son named Aaron, who recently just turned one! For his first birthday party, Irene asked me to make a few goodies, one of which was a carrot-cake smash cake for baby! To decorate, we decided that I would make a fondant blue bunting with his name on it, along with a big fondant number "1" for the cake topper.

About week before the party, I started making the topper, so that it would have enough time to dry. I basically took a big hunk of white fondant, rolled it out to about 3/4" thick, and then cut the number "1" out with a paring knife. (I did it this way, instead of shaping it, because I wanted the nice sharp edges).

To help smooth the fondant out a bit, I used square-edge handle on a fork, along with some cornstarch to prevent sticking.

Next, I started on the blue fondant bunting. After tinting my fondant a pretty shade of blue, I rolled it out really thin, and then used a pizza wheel (and a ruler) to cut out my triangle shapes. Then I used white royal icing to pipe letters onto each triangle of fondant (not pictured).

For the cake itself, I started on it two days before the party (I typically give myself one day to bake and cool the cakes, and then one day to frost and decorate). Irene wanted a cake without sugar in it, so I found this recipe from Natasha's Kitchen for an applesauce carrot cake. However I omitted the honey, and added a few squirts of agave instead, and I also made homemade applesauce instead of store-bought.

I also bought organic carrots to grate into the carrot cake (only the best for baby!).

I baked the cakes in four 6-inch round cake pans, and let them cool before filling and stacking them with freshly whipped cream.

Then I covered the tops and sides with cream cheese buttercream (crumb coat, chilled for 30 minutes, and then then final coat).

To finish off the cake, I used a Wilton #7 tip to pipe little beads of frosting along the top and bottom of the cake.

To secure each bunting triangle, I piped a small dot of frosting on the back of the triangle, before placing it on the cake.

And the final touch - the big fondant number "1"!

In the next few posts I'll have more on the rest of the goodies that I made, but in the meantime here's a picture of the birthday boy as he investigates his cake! He's SO cute!!!

Happy First Birthday, little Aaron!