A Cake for Emerson

My youngest daughter, Emerson, turned 2 last week (October 27).  I was going to just make her a 'regular cake", with "just plain ol' frosting", but there was just no way I could NOT make her a fondant cake. :)
I have seen a lot of cute garden theme cakes, & I found a picture of super fun fondant buggies. I decided to make less fondant than I usually do for other cakes, b/c I always have more left over than I expect. However this time, I made too little for the actual cake part & had to roll it really thin, so it ended up rippling on the sides of the cake. Also, I haven't figured out the trick to icing the cake smoothly BEFORE the fondant goes on, so i end up with uneven cakes bumps (thus the ripples). I still have a ways to go in the art.

Fortunately, nobody in my home cares about that. ;)
I added cornstarch to the fondant for the buggies & mushrooms so that they would be stiff enough to hold their shape, and also dry out a bit. I made them that morning, & let them sit out on the counter all day. I made them all with my hands, a toothpick & a pizza cutter (for the bees' stripes), I'm really proud of them!  There are so many wonderful tools for this craft, but I don't have any yet. I found a tool kit at Michael's specifically for little figures & small details, but until we're not on a student family budget-lol-it'll have to wait.  The cake was a single tier french vanilla with chocolate fudge filling-DELICIOUS!

I usually let the frosted cake chill in the fridge for awhile before I put the fondant on, so the filling can set. Fortunately, nobody in my home cares about that either. :)
I wasn't planning on making so many grass blades, but since the fondant had to be rolled so thin, I had a couple huge tears (caused by moving it onto the cake) that needed to be covered. 
All in all, the cake turned out really cute and Emerson was super excited about it.
My camera has been broken for a few months & I haven't been able to get a new one yet, so these photos are all camera phone pictures....but they do the job :)

Bachelorette Party Cakes

I did these 2 cakes in back to back months, just a few weeks apart. I was definitely just winging it with the first cake. I made several cakes, round AND square, to have room for error! The first time, I carved the cake out free hand;

But with my second cake, I decided to trace the shape of the cake pans onto a big piece of paper, so I could sketch the shape before I got to carving cakes. I made a template by cutting out the final shape & then laid the paper over my cakes while I carved. This method made the process much smoother, & the cake corners were even.
In my google research on these particular type of cakes, I found a woman who'd used stainless steel bowls from Ikea to get the right form. And if you know me, you know I love any excuse to go to Ikea. :)
I was able to find exactly what I needed & the bowls really are perfect for this! 
I hadn't used multiple colors for the same surface before, so I had some overlapping issues with the skin tone/clothing colors.

But I am still really happy with the way the cakes turned out, & the clients were so thrilled, which always seals the deal for me :) I think in the future, I will make the cake's shorter, I think the length was a little too long for these.