Cake Endeavours

Finally getting to celebrate Miss E's birthday properly along with her friend who turned 16 today with a chocolate cake covered in chocolate fudge icing.  Added each a car with their initials to celebrate learning to drive.  I can't believe they are 16.  I really don't know where the time went.  Though I do not miss all the work that went into planning and hosting birthday parties!  

 Debbie's sister asked me to make a cake to celebrate her 50th birthday.  This was an 8" three layer marble cake with buttercream icing. I haven't made a fondant flower in quite some time.  I made it a few days before so that it had time to harden and then dusted on the edible gold dust. Cake topper was made on my Cricut machine with vinyl and card stock.  More gold was added with dust covered malt balls.  They are such an easy decoration to do and I love the look.

 When I was asked to the this cake, I had not heard of Raya and the Last Dragon movie.  Thankfully, Miss E educated me followed by a few Google searches.  This was a 3 layer 8" cake.  I am finally writing this post almost 3 months later and for the life of me can't remember what flavour this cake was.  I'm pretty sure it was either chocolate or vanilla.   I love how the butter cream icing turned out with the ombre effect from purple to light blue.  The cake topper lettering was done on my Cricut machine using a Raya like font.

To celebrate this milestone birthday I was requested to make a carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  This was a 6" cake with 3 layers.    For the New York Rangers logo I printed it off and laminated it, then trimmed it out and adhered it to the cake with icing.  I used blue and red M&Ms for decoration.

Back in August we took a trip to Niagara Falls with my in-laws and had lunch at  the Queen Charlotte Tea Room .  The home made sticky toffee pudding was amazing.  I decided that I was going to turn it into a cake for Thanksgiving.  While it's not quite as delicious as the one from the tea room, it's a pretty close second. I made a 3 layer 6" cake with toffee sauce and a light whipped cream cheese.   I kept it in the fridge until we were ready to serve it.  This way the toffee sauce didn't drip everywhere while cutting the cake. With the extra sauce, I heated it up to poor over each slice; just in case it wasn't sweet enough!

 Thanksgiving isn't the same without some form of pumpkin dessert.  Cheesecake is always appreciated in my family.   Baking a cheesecake in the Instant Pot is so much easier than in the oven.  It's pretty fool proof.  I wasn't worried about how the top was going to look as I was covering it with a whipped cream icing.  Can't have pumpkin without whipped cream.  Though Miss E would have preferred it from a can, I'm sure.

 It was so nice to be able to celebrate this milestone for my cousin and her husband in person!  I was asked to make cupcakes and a special cake for the two of them as they are both celebrating their 60th birthdays this month.   This was a 4" four layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  The theme was black and gold.  I splattered edible gold paint all over the cake then topped it with black fondant flowers and gold dust covered malt balls.  We lost two of them on the ride over to the floor in the car, but it wasn't that noticeable.  This is why I usually take a picture before a cake leaves the house.  Ha! The cupcakes were carrot and red velvet.  I didn't check to see if I had red dye before I made the cupcakes, so they were more of a maroon/burgundy velvet colour.  No one complained, so that's good.  :)