I love getting requests for theme cakes I have never done.  When I first started making cakes many years ago, topsy turvy cakes were all the rage.  They were so trendy that I started hating them.  Now they are requested, but a lot less often.  I haven’t actually made one in so long that I don’t even have a post about it!  I’m not even sure I have a photo! When I got an order for an Alice in Wonderland cake, you better believe this was going to be a topsy turvy cake.  Abby’s sister asked for a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake for her 2nd birthday, and a Frozen cake for her 3rd.  I love that the two sisters have such different interests and personalities!

I started making this cake by decorating the cake board.  I cut squares of black and white fondant and glued them to a cake board in a checkered pattern.  I love how the black and white graphic makes the whole cake pop out of the cake board.

The Cheshire Cat was a really important part of the cake.  I cut all the pieces out of fondant and pieced them together.  I used a black food coloring marker to add the outlines and black details.  Once I added the face to the cake, something was missing, so I added some paws and immediately, the cat was done!

For the top tier I used a mint green fondant and then lightened it up to create the harlequin pattern.  I cut all the diamonds by hand and placed them one by one on the cake. Then I attached heart shaped candies to all the corners. 

No Alice in Wonderland cake would be complete without a tea cup!  I took one of my own tea cups and shaped a piece of fondant inside.  I let it dry for a few days so it would hold the shape.  I formed the handle, base, and saucer separately and assembled after each piece was dry.  I painted the tea cup details with gold luster dust mixed with vodka and a fine paintbrush.  Since Abby is celebrating her 2nd birthday, I put a number 2 on a playing card with hearts, reminiscent of the Queen of Hearts.  The cake was still missing some whimsy so I added these ribbon roses and hearts on swirled cloth covered wire.  Happy Birthday Abby!  Hope it was wonderful!

Some families have the custom of waiting to cut a little boy’s hair until he is 3 years old. When my nephew turned 3, we celebrated his birthday with a party and a hair cutting ceremony.  He needed the perfect cake for the celebration!  I love this new look of making a shorter bottom tier, then a super tall center tier, and a small top tier.  I have been doing it a lot lately, and I’m not sick of it yet!

On the bottom tier I draped some fondant tzitzit, traditional garb for a boy starting at 3 years old.  To make the strings I used my clay extruder and some white fondant.  It’s definitely one of my favorite non cake tools!

For the center tier I used a fish scale pattern cutter and placed these fondant cutouts in a randomized pattern.  Then I added a pair of gum paste hair scissors.  One of the kids at the party thought they were real!  That was a huge compliment.

The cake was topped off with a fondant yarmulke and 3 fondant candles.  Happy 3rd Birthday Aryeh!

Sometimes simple cakes are harder than more detailed designs.  This cake was really fun to design.  It was made for a small celebration, so the family didn’t want anything too big. Just because the cake needed to be small; this is a 6″ round cake that measures 6″ tall as well; doesn’t mean it needs to be boring!  I covered the cake and the cake board in gray fondant.  I had to do a good job of covering the cake since there were not many decorations to cover mistakes!  I really wanted to wrap the cake in a NYC skyline so I designed a really cool fondant cutter for my husband to print for me.  We ran into all sorts of problems, it would have been quicker for me to cut it by hand, but we were determined to get it right! After applying the black skyline, it looked a little flat and dark, so I added some yellow squares for windows.  I also added some silver stars in the sky.

I made the cake topper a few days in advance to allow it to dry and harden.  I hand cut the batman symbol out of black fondant and attached it to a thin yellow piece of gum paste. Once it was dry, I attached it to a lollipop stick using stiff royal icing and placed it into the cake.  I added another tapered piece of yellow gum paste down the top and side of the cake to make it look like it was shining into the sky.  Happy 3rd Birthday Alex!