All posts by Melissa

My Favorite Posts Of 2013

Baby Mickey First Birthday Cake
Baby Mickey Cake

It is so hard for me to pick my favorite posts of the year, I put my heart into everything I make, and am really in love with everything I share.  Here are some highlights from 2013, starting with my most popular post of the year, this baby Mickey First birthday cake.

Crispy Peanut Butter Cups

This recipe for crispy peanut butter cups was shared with me by my sister-in-law.  She gave me a basic outline of how she does it and I wrote down measurements so that I would be able to replicate them perfectly every time.  They are the perfect non-dairy and no bake snack to keep in the freezer for those late night cravings!

Football Whoopie Pies

This recipe for whoopie pies is one of my most requested treats.  They are reminiscent of the classic snack cake Devil Dogs, but are way better!  Plus they are non-dairy.  I decided to make them in football shapes to celebrate the Super Bowl, but I usually just make them round.  Either way, they are delicious!

Designer Handbag Cake
Designer Handbag Cake

This cake was a challenge to make.  It was my first handbag cake I was ever asked to make, and I couldn’t pass on the challenge.  At the time, I didn’t really have any instructions, so I just made it up as I went along, and it came out better than expected!  I still can’t believe I made this, and that it’s all edible!  Donna absolutely loved it, and so did I.

Purple Ruffle Ombre Cake
Ombre Ruffle Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes that I ever made.  It might have to do with the fact that I made it to celebrate my sister-in-law’s bridal shower (hi Miriam)!  Her wedding color was purple, and since she didn’t pick a specific shade, I thought it would be super cute to do the whole thing in ombre, that way every shade was represented.  I think she still has the edible gum paste flowers.

Angry Birds Birthday Cake
Angry Birds Cake

I can’t go through a favorite list without mentioning this Angry Birds cake I made to celebrate Aviv’s 4th birthday.  It was so much fun to make, I am thrilled with the results!  The color scheme is really perfect and the cake is just so much fun to look at.  Aviv is still talking about his birthday cake!

Spelling Bee Cake
Knaidel Cake

This cake was just so cool to make.  Arvind from Queens, NY (my home town) won the Scripps National Spelling Bee-congrats!!  His teacher asked me to make him a special cake to celebrate with his classmates.  He was so surprised when I showed up with this custom cake depicting the winning word: knaidel.  He even took the little gum paste figure home with him!  Congrats again!

Minnie Mouse Clubhouse Cake
Minnie Mouse Clubhouse Cake

I love this cake because it was one of the tallest cakes I have ever made!  It was really fun to bring Mickey Mouse’s Clubhouse to life for a cute little 2 year old birthday girl.  Happy Birthday Libby!

Ballerina Bat Mitzvah Cake
Ballerina Bat Mitzvah Cake

Here is another insanely tall cake that I made this year.  This one also happened to be super heavy, and I carried it by myself!  This one was made to celebrate a Bat Mitzvah with a ballet theme.  The birthday girl wanted the cake to match her theme but tastefully done.  Mazel Tov Courtney!

Stacked Suitcase Wedding Cake
Stacked Luggage Wedding Cake

This was my first luggage cake I have ever made, and it was for a wedding!  Talk about pressure, but I think I did a pretty good job.  All the buckle details really bring this cake to life.  Since then, I have made at least two more pieces of edible luggage, and I can’t wait to make more!

Teacher Retirement Cake
Teacher Retirement Cake

I wanted to share at least one stacked book cake that I have made and this was the perfect one.  It was made for a teacher celebrating her retirement.  Her husband surprised her with it, and she was shocked!  She even emailed me to thank me for it afterwards.  Congrats Judy!

Pirate Birthday Cake
Pirate Birthday Cake

This cake was made pretty last minute for a special birthday boy.  His dad really wanted him to have a special Jake and the Neverland Pirates cake so I couldn’t say no.  I am so glad I made this cake, because it came out even better than I imagined!  The kids at the party loved eating the edible gold doubloons.  Happy Birthday Harry!

Gumpaste Chobani Yogurt Container

This next cake was fun, but my favorite part was the edible Chobani Greek Yogurt container that adorned the cake.  All the details were hand painted, after it was done, I almost didn’t want to give it away!

Pumpkin Doughnuts

I am usually busy with lots and lots of cakes, but I also do love developing recipes.  For the once in a lifetime holiday of Thanksgivukkah, I made these pumpkin doughnuts with marshmallow graham crcker glaze, and they were amazing!  I might have to make them again, just because.

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe

The last recipe I decided to share this year is also one for my favorite chocolate chip cookies.  After almost 3 years of blogging, I can’t believe I have never shared it with you before!  It is my go to recipe for a delicious and comforting treat.  I hope you enjoyed this roundup as much as I did; it has been a fun year, filled with cakes, recipes, and photography that just keeps getting better and better.  Happy New Year!

Tropical Monkey Cake

Tropical Monkey Cake

This was a fun and cute cake I made for Emma Jade to celebrate her 2nd birthday.  The colors are so cute and unexpected for a little girl, but that is exactly why I love them.  This is not your typical pink birthday cake.

Girly Gum Paste Monkey

The little monkey with a flower in her hair is my favorite part.  She is just so cute!  The little fondant bananas are really cute too.  I shaped them out of yellow fondant and added little black markings with an edible food color marker.  To add a little extra cuteness I brushed the bananas with glittery green petal dust.  The flowers were made using gum paste.  I used a flower cutter to cut the shapes but then added some texture with a gum paste tool.  I shaped them whimsically by hand and let them dry before attaching them to the cake.  I love the fantasy look they give the cake!

Funky Lettering

I used my funky letter cutters to spell out the birthday girls name.  Happy Birthday Emma Jade!

Musical Birthday Party

Keyboard Cake

Aaron had a fun musical themed birthday party.  His cake was made to look like a keyboard.  It’s definitely not to scale, but it’s so cute for a 4 year old!  All the buttons and keys were made out of fondant.

Black and White Piano Cookies

These black and white piano cookies were made to match the cake and the musical theme. I love the way they turned out!

Musical Number 4 Birthday Cookies

These number 4 sugar cookies were super cute as well!  Not being musical at all, I’m not sure that the musical notes are perfectly to code but they look good to me!

Musical Guitar Sugar Cookies

Here are the musical guitar cookies that were made to match the musical color scheme.

Musical Cake Pops

 

These cake pops turned out better than expected!  After dipping them in candy melts I piped black royal icing around each pop and then piped some cute musical notes all around.

Musical Mini Cupcake Toppers

These mini cupcakes were topped with fondant cupcake toppers.  They really tied the theme together.  All these treats were really fun to make, but my favorite is always the cake.  Here it is one more time…

Musical Keyboard Birthday Cake

Happy 4th Birthday Aaron!