cakes Rae makes

Jungle Baby Shower Cake: Made for a jungle themed baby shower...

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:45:46 -0500

Jungle Baby Shower Cake: Made for a jungle themed baby shower for friends. Multiple parts of this one aren’t edible. The animal figures were bought at JoAnn and D&G Occasions. I had most of the trees from an earlier purchase at Sugarcraft but I got a few more at D&G as well. The rocks are actually Candy Store Milk Chocolate Rocks found at Walmart. The cake is made from two 11x15 layers, one chocolate and one yellow. I just cut it up and did a little trimming/sculpturing to create the rock formation. And because it’s for a large shower (40+ people), I used my leftover cake mix to make the extra cupcakes.

Balloon & Gift Birthday Cake: Made for a celebration of our...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:05:00 -0500

Balloon & Gift Birthday Cake: Made for a celebration of our December birthdays at the office. Design idea came from what I did with the Garden Girl cake. I didn’t have a lot of time for this one but didn’t want it to be just a two-layer yellow cake with a boring birthday design on the top. So I to cut around a design on the side to give it a little extra dimension. I did a quick Google search and found a clipart image that matched what I was thinking (balloon attached to a gift box) and blew it up in Photoshop so I could print it and use it as a guide while cutting. Once I had it cut, it all came together nicely.

Fancy Snowmen Cake: For @modernmami’s daughter’s...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:21:00 -0500

Fancy Snowmen Cake: For @modernmami’s daughter’s Christmas-y birthday party and modeled after this cake they found online. It’s a 8 inch 2-layer vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting. The snowmen are made from gumpaste. The eyes are chocolate tootsie rolls and the noses are orange flavored rolls. The “boa” scarves are puffy pipe-cleaners, the one non-edible item on the cake due to some uncooperative cotton candy. The trees are all molded chocolate with light green and white chocolate accents. The trim includes medium sized pink candy pearls and the “fancy” hats are made from flavored tootsie rolls (I used hat cake toppers to mold them). Finally, I brushed the snowmen and trees with candy pearl dust over to give them a little bit of a “snow” shine.

Guitar Cake: This one was for a “Rock Star” themed...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:33:53 -0400

Guitar Cake: This one was for a “Rock Star” themed birthday party. Made with a Wilton guitar-shaped pan. Since the pan called for a little more cake batter than your typical pan, I doubled the batter and used the left-over to make cupcakes. I then used the cupcakes to add a little color to the cake. Knobs, etc., on the guitar are made from silver M&Ms.

Bumblebee Cake: Made for a friend’s son’s birthday....

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:24:49 -0400

Bumblebee Cake: Made for a friend’s son’s birthday. Bumblebee is pretty popular so it was impossible to find cake appropriate toys I could use to build a scene. Instead I made the car based on the toy seen pictured here. My car carving skills need work so I’m not a huge fan of the final product. However, the kids loved it and that’s really all that matters.

This was carved from an 11x17 layer and 9x13 layer. I used the left over pieces of cake to raise the car up off the board with some extra Oreos used to support additional areas under the car. The wheels are Oreos. The lights are a combination of flavored Tootsie Rolls and fruit roll-ups. I printed out the Autobot logo and used that as a guide when drawing it on the front of the car. It’s not the best but it’s recognizable. Then I taped the printout to the top of the box for delivery.

Apple Bundt Cake, Caramel Frosting: No novel designs here, just...

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:55:00 -0400

Apple Bundt Cake, Caramel Frosting: No novel designs here, just yummy homemade Apple Bundt cake with homemade caramel frosting. It was good but, in the future, I’d serve it warm so that the frosting is still a little warm and the apples are nice and mushy. (Made for my friend’s birthday.)

Garden Girl Birthday: Based on the Garden Girl Party theme...

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:43:26 -0400

Garden Girl Birthday: Based on the Garden Girl Party theme available at party stores, specifically the invitation. We went with both a 2-layer, 13x9 cake and 24 cupcakes to make sure there’d be enough cake to feed everyone. I used a daisy and butterfly cookie cutter to trace and cut out the right and left top edges of the cake. The bees on the cake and the eyes on the ladybugs and bees were made out of sugar and purchased at a local baking supply store. The bee wings were made from white melting chocolates using a plastic bee mold.

I wasn’t liking where the cake was headed as I was working on it but it turned out to be pretty cute. Especially once it was delivered and set up at the party itself. It looked great on top of a green tablecloth with toy bugs scattered in between the cupcakes.

Baby “It’s a boy!” Shower Cake: Made for a friend’s baby shower...

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:32:00 -0400

Baby “It’s a boy!” Shower Cake: Made for a friend’s baby shower and based loosely on these party supplies. Obviously she’s having a baby boy. She loves peppermint so I wanted to try and tailor the cake for her. After looking at several peppermint chocolate cake recipes, I ended up using two boxes Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix and adding a layer of crushed/chopped York Peppermint Patties in between the two layers. I coated the bottom layer lightly with vanilla frosting and then covered it with the patties. This took almost entire bag of the candies but it did create a decent layer of the candy in between the cake layers. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the Triple Chocolate Fudge frosting I used on the sides of the cake to give it just a little extra peppermint kick. Then I used vanilla frosting for the decorations on the top. The baby is a party favor found at a local party store as are the “BABY” decorations. The chocolate frosting on the sides did get a little thin once the peppermint extract was added making it drip a bit. I’m sure it only bothered me but it is worth noting if you plan to do anything more substantial with the peppermint flavored frosting.

In the end, everyone seemed to enjoy the cake and that’s all that matters!

Backyardigans Cake: Made for a friend’s 3 year old son’s...

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:55:00 -0400

Backyardigans Cake: Made for a friend’s 3 year old son’s birthday party. 3 layers (choc, yellow, choco) to help boost it up a bit to make the sides easier to decorate (and they were still the hardest part!). Bought a Backyardigans party table centerpiece at Party City and used the characters from that to decorate the top. The sides made the way the rest of the party supplies were decorated.

Syzygy Cake: A co-worker’s youth group leader was retiring and...

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:53:00 -0400

Syzygy Cake: A co-worker’s youth group leader was retiring and they were throwing her a party. She liked to bring in games for the youth group and Syzygy was one of her favorite games. They came up with a gameboard for me with words that were relevant to the leader and that’s what I used to make hte cake. This is 2 layers of 13x9 yellow cake and the Syzygy letters are made from melting chocolate colored blue. I made a thin layer of the chocolate on aluminum foil and then used a little square candy cutter to get the squares. Then I added the letters with white melting chocolate. Even the pieces in the draw pile had letters on them.

Camping Cake: Made for a friend’s daughter. They went camping...

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:06:00 -0500

Camping Cake: Made for a friend’s daughter. They went camping for her birthday so she wanted a camping themed cake. Found the little girls at Toys-R-Us. They actually came with camping accessories but I ended up making my own sleeping bags out of fruit roll-ups. The tent is made from graham crackers covered with fruit roll-ups as well. The fence, trees, bridge, and canoe are all cake decorations I got online. I used candy and other snacks to create the rest of the effects. There is “pebbles” candy you can buy that look like rocks, the pretzels served as wood, and candy corn for the “fire”. Also, I used chocolate frosting for the campground but covered it in crumbled graham crackers to make it sandy like Florida. The candles were placed to look like tiki lights. Easy way to make a 2-layer 13x9 cake look like a campground.

Tinkerbelle & Fairies Cake: Made for HP’s birthday. She saw...

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:14:00 -0500

Tinkerbelle & Fairies Cake: Made for HP’s birthday. She saw this cake in the bakery book at Publix and asked me if I could make it for her. I couldn’t get those exact cake toppers anywhere local and the shipping online made them way more expensive than this set of figurines from Amazon. The figurines are now ridiculously expensive but the Disney Fairies line was new at the time and I got them for $13 (and, more importantly, free shipping). The entire cake was comprised of 2 13x9 layers. I cut the second layer in half and then cut one half diagonally. I used the left over cake to cut out Tinkerbell’s lily and the toadstool the fairy on the bottom level is standing upon. I also had some confectionary flowers and a couple of my candy rocks to add other details.

BRATZ Cake: For the birthday of a daughter of a friend, one who...

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:39:00 -0500

BRATZ Cake: For the birthday of a daughter of a friend, one who clearly loved the Bratz dolls. At that point (back when Bratz were first really popular), there were no cake pans for these dolls. I bought a table centerpiece or party decorations (I’m not sure which at this point) at Party City and used one of the pieces (pictured with the cake) as a template to cut out a 13x9 cake. To ensure there was enough cake for the entire party, I put the doll on top of another 13x9 layer. It’s not perfect but I remain pretty happy with it.

Dinosaur Cake, Take 2: Remember my last dinosaur cake? Yeah that...

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:45:00 -0500

Dinosaur Cake, Take 2: Remember my last dinosaur cake? Yeah that friend’s other son wanted a dinosaur cake for his birthday too. My friend looked through her bucket of toys and gave me back the dinosaurs and trees. She couldn’t find the rock formation so I made due. This time I used candy to create my additional rocks rather than marshmallows because it was much easier. Just went to a candy shoppe and picked out a bunch of candy that looked rock-like. It’s not as good as the other cake but the kids still liked it.

Dinosaur Cake: Made for a friend’s son’s birthday. He wanted a...

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:50:00 -0500

Dinosaur Cake: Made for a friend’s son’s birthday. He wanted a dinosaur cake and I found a dinosaur toy set at Target that was perfect. It came with a tree and the fake rock structure that also worked on the top of the cake. I used marshmallows and nuts (the kind you can buy to sprinkle on your ice cream) to create the additional rocks, etc. This is an 11x17 cake which meant I had 1/2 a bowl of batter left. I used that to make the additional round layer I used to help boost the rock formation in the back corner. This remains one of my favorite cakes.

Firefighter Themed Cake: A friend got her first firefighting job...

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:47:00 -0500

Firefighter Themed Cake: A friend got her first firefighting job and we were celebrating. 13x9 pan, double layers, house made with chocolate and graham crackers, fire trucks bought in toy section at Target. Not pictured: We stuck a candle through the doorway of the house so we had actual fire coming out of the house.

Gravestone Birthday Cake: Made for a friend’s friend’s birthday....

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:57:00 -0500

Gravestone Birthday Cake: Made for a friend’s friend’s birthday. Wilton shaped cake pan on top of a 13x9 layer to give a more 3-D look.

Pumpkin Cake: Made for our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest at...

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:50:00 -0400

Pumpkin Cake: Made for our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest at work. Wilton shaped cake. When I make this cake again, I’d actually make it pumpkin flavored cake. Now that I do a lot of customized cakes, I use this cake when I need round pieces of a cake. (It works better than the perfectly round cake pans.)

Halloween Cupcakes: Made for our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest....

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:50:00 -0400

Halloween Cupcakes: Made for our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest. Gummy bats were bought at target.

Power Rangers Cake: My friend’s son, Gavin, wanted a Power...

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:22:00 -0400

Power Rangers Cake: My friend’s son, Gavin, wanted a Power Rangers birthday cake so I ended up getting this set of toys at Toys-R-Us and using the logo in the center of the cake. 2 layer 13x9 cake. One of the toys kept falling over so I went with it and made it look like he’d gotten knocked over by one of the Rangers. The kids loved it. They kept wanting to play with it so their mom finally put it away until we were ready to blow out the candles.