Thinking about Cakes

Jeni Says:

Lately I have been thinking a lot about cakes. Not so much about the cake, but about the icing, fondant, and decoration. You see, I have two kids with Birthdays in March, and I need to out do the cakes I made them last year.
My problems are as follows:

#1: I have no ideas... at all...
#2: I need something that will top the cakes I made last year.
#3: Lately, I find myself with too many birthdays in March.

Every year, I try to make them the nicest cake yet. The problem with this, is eventually you reach the limit of your cake making abilities. Another problem with this, is eventually you run out of ideas... my children tend to find something they like, and stick with it... forever. For example, Davy likes Dragons and Art. I made him a dragon cake and an art cake, and now I have no idea what to make him next. Fortunately, his birthday isn't until August.
Last year I made Davy this Art themed cake:

I made the bottom layer (the canvas) from cake, squared if off, and iced it with butter cream frosting, then covered it with fondant, and folded the corners like a canvas. Then I "painted" a picture on the canvas. The paint box is made of fondant covered cake, and the paint tubes and  brushes are made from fondant, painted with gel food colouring, and pearl finish. It took about 2 days, to make it.

His cake the year before was a Dragon themed cake. But Davy likes to challenge me, and asked for a Dragon shaped cake, with dragons on it.

Sorry about the pics on this one, the cake making ran a bit longer than expected, and my husband snapped a couple pics quickly before we cut it!





The idea behind this, was to make a dragon shaped island, inhabited by dragons. I sculpted the 'island' with cake, and covered it with rocks and trees. The wings/mountains, are made of sugar cookie pieces, covered in royal icing, with icing sugar sprinkled on the tips for snow. The three dragons living on the island are made of fondant, with painted rice paper wings. I piped the waves around the island, then poured royal icing inside to make the water.

John, my oldest, is going to be 16 this year. His birthday is in March. Last year we took him to the Tim Burton art exhibit in Toronto, as he is a huge fan of Tim Burton's. So for a cake, I took some monsters from one of the sketches we had seen, and made them into this cake:

The main Cake part is, of course, made of cake. The monsters are also made of cake. It was, as I am sure you can imagine... VERY DIFFICULT. I tried out the cake pop recipe a few weeks before, and found it was easily moulded. I shaped the monsters, coated the cake pop with several layers of royal icing, then decorated them with more royal icing. It took about a week. I like the way it turned out, but wouldn't do it again.

The year before John had taken to collecting Top Hats (as he is also a mad hatter fan) so I made him a mad hatter hat. It wasn't the best cake I had ever made, but I have an excuse.... John's birthday is 5 days after my youngest son's birthday, and that year, it was 5 days before my wedding. (note that I made my wedding cake, and did all the baking for the tea buffet, and the desert buffet, baked and decorated 200 wedding cookie favours, arranged my own flowers, and crocheted table toppers for all 30 tables) Cake decorating time was at a minimum that year, but he understood and loved the cake.

I made the cake with thin layers of white and red, as he was also into stripes back then. It didn't want to hold up very well... and I was afraid that it was going to tip as I was decorating it. The card is made of white chocolate, melted, poured on a sheet of wax paper then cut with a hot knife.

A few years before, I made John a dragon cake, this was back before I had made many cakes, and I used a moulded cake pan, and the inspiration for the cake came from the fact that John had asked for a dragon book for his birthday.



I am trying to come up with something new for John's cake this year... but don't know what to make. Of course I ask him and he  does not have any ideas either. Maybe I will surprise him with a plain old round chocolate cake!

Ryan, My youngest, is turning 3 in March. Last year, he was really into froggies, and I made him this froggy cake:

It was pretty easy. Three layers to each tier, with butter cream icing and royal icing for the accents. The froggies and rocks are made with fondant. To make the grass, cat tails, and logs I piped the royal icing onto wax paper, let them get hard, peeled them off, and stood them up in the butter cream. For the logs, I made the ends flat, then the lines for the bark, put a glob of butter cream on the cake, and used it to support the pieces of the logs. It was really a fun cake to make, and didn't take a lot of time.

Ryan's cake the year before (ten days before my wedding) was a little less creative, but I will show the picture anyway:

I rented the cake pan from the bulk barn, and decorated it as shown. It took a surprising amount of time, but turned out pretty good.

Ryan needs a cake this March as well. He wants a dinosaur cake, because he really likes the cartoon "Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs" on Playhouse Disney. I am still working out the details... but have a little bit of an idea about what I am going to make for him.

I will have to start soon, with the planning stages, if I am going to manage both birthdays, and keep my job! I might have to book a week of holidays,... but stay tuned for the results!

(I will leave off with a few pictures of cakes I made... but not for my children's birthdays.)

This was my first ever attempt at a fondant cake. It wasn't for anything particular... but Julie made this amazing fondant cake with fondant for Halloween, and I had to try it! (Maybe if she has a picture of that cake, she will post it for everyone to see what started it all)

 This one was for my Father in law's birthday, of course he is a Nascar fan... Those logos were the worst thing I have ever done...they took HOURS.. and several tries!

This one was for my own baby shower when Ryan was born. I don't remember how I ended up making the cake for my own shower... but here it is.