My niece Abby turned 4 years old!  She requested a princess pirate birthday cake to match her princess pirate birthday party theme.  2 years ago I made Abby this Dora and Diego cake for a party she shared with her cousin Aaron.  I’m so impressed at how far my photography has come since then!

I knew that this cake needed a tiara.  I’ve made simple tiaras before and I wanted to try something a bit more complicated.  I used this template I found online as a guide, but didn’t follow it exactly.  I printed the template, taped it to a large round can and then taped a piece of wax paper on top of the template.  I then used my clay extruder to make ropes of gum paste.  I used different size ropes, loosely following the template and formed this pretty tiara.  After shaping the tiara, I let it dry for about 2 days.  It wasn’t completely dry at this point, but I handled it really carefully and I had no problems.  Next time I think I will give it a week to really get it rock hard.  Once it was “dry” I removed it from the round can and airbrushed it in this rich gold color.

The princess part of the cake was fulfilled with the edible tiara.  When I think of pirates, stripes definitely come to mind.  For a girly pirate, I needed to make the stripes hot pink and black.  So the bottom tier was striped, but still needed something extra.  So I added a cute scalloped ruffle.

For the top tier, I hand painted a gold treasure map all the way around the cake.  I used gold luster dust mixed with a little vodka until it turned into a nice paint consistency.  Painting the cake freehand made me really nervous, but I just went for it!

The finishing touch was loads and loads of edible fondant gold doubloons.  I textured some yellow fondant with a rubber flower stamp.  Then I cut out lots of round coins in 2 sizes and airbrushed them in gold to brighten them up.  The kids at the party loved picking the coins off the cake.  Happy Birthday Abby, can’t wait for you to turn 5!

Here is a pretty, simple, and elegant birthday cake I made for a birthday.  Shira’s mother in law ordered the cake to celebrate her birthday.  She wanted it elegant but didn’t want it to look too much like a wedding cake.  We agreed that making the cake in this Tiffany blue color would be the perfect idea.  I quilted the tiers and added edible pearls for extra glam.

I had a kind of flower in mind to add to this cake.  I really wanted to add cabbage roses like the ones seen in this purple ruffle cake.  So I made them and allowed them to dry.  Then Shira’s mother in law called and decided she really loved these fantasy flowers that I had made for this black and white engagement cake.  So I started over and made these instead.  I really like how they look on this cake, and they are fun to make!  I just use different sized scalloped round cutters to form the bottom layers.  Then I used any flower cutters I could find to fill in the center.  I added a few edible pearls that I colored blue to match the cake.  Simple and gorgeous!  Happy birthday Shira!

I am really proud of this cake and just realized that I never shared it here!  When my sister in law got engaged in Disney World, I knew I had to make her a Mickey Mouse themed engagement cake.  But how do I make it look elegant?  After many internet searches I came across these Mickey Mouse shaped sprinkles.  They come in a variety pack of black, white, and red sprinkles.  I made the bottom tier white, quilted it, and added black Mickey sprinkles.  Then I did the opposite for the top tier.  I finished off the cake with gum paste fantasy flowers that I made up as I went along.  They are made from different sized scalloped round cutters.  For the centers I used a flower cutter and added some black Mickey sprinkles to tie the whole theme together.  They loved their cake and most people didn’t even notice the hidden theme at first.  Mazel tov Miriam and Tuvia!