Happy Monday! So sorry this one is a day late but last night was, after all, OSCARS! We have a party every year and celebrate it up big. More on that later. 


Speaking of celebrating every year. This was my second year making a birthday cake for this special client! It was fun to sit down with her and let her design her heart out when it came to her cake. She loves Tiffany Blue and she loves Sterling roses. So I came up with this ultra feminine version of her favorite colors and her favorite flower. 


The cake is a yellow vanilla cake filled with fresh strawberries and vanilla buttercream. Then I covered it with Tiffany Blue fondant and piped on dark purple filigree which I then embellished with candy pearls. Finally I added on a 75 petal sugar Sterling rose. She was simply delighted. 


I love to feature cakes like this one because, while it IS an "average" 8 inch cake, it didn't have to be the "average" piped buttercream with shell border cake like you would get from the grocery store. The fun part of going to a cake designer is that you can have your "average" birthday cake be anything but average. There will be Big Birthday's in your life and for your loved ones, where you will want the Big Cake but every year you have your birthday and there is no reason to settle for an "average" cake when you can have something made especially for you!

As I mentioned, last night was our Oscar Party! This meant I was following a theme for the night. This year was "Night at the Movies" so the cake part of this had to fit in. What's better than Popcorn Cupcakes? No, that's not really popcorn. It's mini marshmallows! 


I made the cupcakes...in this case just simple yellow cake cupcakes...and then I started on the marshmallows while waiting for the cupcakes to cool. The only baking tip here is that I knew I had the Cupcake Collars to go on these to cover up the actual baking liners but when people eat them they remove the collar and you do want a liner to match so I baked these in red and white baking liners. 


Now the marshmallows. This is another one of those labor intensive decorating tips. I used 20 marshmallows per cupcake so it would look like a crowded box of popcorn. Each marshmallow was snipped with an X about 3/4 the way through it. I then "smooshed" each one so that the four corners of the marshmallow would shape more like popped kernels and finally dusted each of them with yellow luster dust. When I had all the marshmallows done for that cupcake I put a little bit of buttercream on it and randomly placed the "Popcorn" on top. 


When I arrived at the party location I added the collars and set them out on the table. The guests had no idea that this was dessert! They just thought it was another form of popcorn holder! I have to say, that's one of the most fun parts of my job. When I can take cake and make it look like something that is not cake and have everyone believe that it's not cake...now that's FUN!


To see more Oscar Party ideas check out this week's Cherry Blog: http://thecherryontopevents.blogspot.com




More fun coming up this week. We are working a baby shower this weekend and I'm doing the cake as well! SO cute! Can NOT wait to share this one with you!

Cat