A Fairy Cake for a Sweet Birthday Girl

Fairies are a favorite of a dear friend so she requested that theme for her daughter's first birthday. The human shape is a challenging thing to make in edible form, and I cautioned her on expectations of realism. She showed me a book with these worm-like fairies and I was game.

We discussed a pink lily as the backdrop(based on this toy) and the design was born.

To make the flower, I used a leaf cutter on pink colored gumpaste. I dried the cut pieces on curved surfaces (a paper towel cardboard tube lined with waxed paper works great) for over a week to be sure they were stiff. The day before I made a pink gumpaste circle about 2 cm thick which I stuck the tips of the petals into before it dried.

Of course I wanted this cake to taste amazing, so against my better judgement I decided to use a whipped cream/cream cheese icing. It was challenging to smooth nicely, and almost insane to pipe! The purple border at the top was intended to be star-tipped beauty but as you can see I could barely get it to look decent. I learned my lesson and made the lower purple border with a larger star tip. Luckily the green lily pad should look natural, and therefore imperfect.

Three layers of cake and two of the strawberry cream filling from Cooks Illustrated created a show-stopper.

The vine along the outside of the cake used a tip #3 and a small star tip for the pink flowers on the vine. I feel lucky to be a part of this sweet girl's life.

Sugar cookies with a Ballerina Cake

A very sweet girl I know well turned three recently, and I made her a Ballerina Cake and cupcakes.

The cake was a three-layer chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache filling, decorated with white chocolate (colored pink), swiss buttercream, and a sugar cookie ballerina on the top.

Sugar cookies adorned the cupcakes, creating little ballerina costumes that tasted as good as they looked. The method I used included re-shaping an oval cookie-cutter so that I could create the toppers for the cupcakes:

 Then, I decorated the cookies using my basic buttercream frosting and candy pearls.

It seemed like a good idea to make a few crown shaped cookies as well (I purchased that cookie-cutter).

For the cupcakes, I used a petal tip (Wilton #104). Piping a blob in the center to begin, then doing three layers of petals:

 

 

I transported the cupcakes and cookies separately, then did the final assembly at the party.

My passion is creating unique desserts that taste as good as they look.

For the chocolate cake, I made a 6" round and two 8" round cakes, and torted them.

I filled the chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache, so it was almost like eating a truffle with every bite.

I frosted the cake with Swiss buttercream, and had previously made pink-colored white chocolate decorations in the shape of bows, dots, and zig-zags a few days in advance.

For the ballerina cookie(I made two, in case one broke!), I decorated it with buttercream icing and 'pearls' (that were actually white sprinkles painstakingly placed).

To assemble, I used a white lolipop stick and buttercream icing to secure the cookie to the top of the cake.

Overall, the cake and cupcakes were a hit. The best part was ballerina-loving Leticia's reaction to the cake and cupcakes. Happy Birthday, Leticia! My Dina is so blessed to have you as her friend.