This might be my favorite cake to date!  I always love my cakes and often times have a hard time parting with them, but this one is super special.  I was asked to make the cake look like a stack of luggage to celebrate a travel themed wedding.  But that was the only requirement!  I was given freedom to make the luggage in any shape, texture, and color I wish.

For the bottom tier, I used an alligator texture mat to give the brown fondant this leather look.  Once the cake was covered, I brushed it with brown petal dust to give the texture more life.  Now this suitcase really looks worn.  I made all the buckles and handles ahead of time and allowed them to dry.  Once they were dry I was able to paint them with gold luster dust.

The blue and purple tiers were made with a goosebumps fondant texture mat.  The texture mat really makes them look like leather!  I used a quilting tool to give the leather some stitched detail. Those little details are really what make this cake look more like luggage.

Here’s a better look at the top tier.  It’s more of a rounded suitcase, I wanted to give the cake a little more dimension instead of having each tier rectangular.  The clasps on this tier are super cute.

Here is the back of the cake.  I couldn’t leave it plain, I had to add little hinges to each suitcase and I’m so glad I did!  Those hinges finish off the look, giving the cake a 360 degree design. Congrats on your special day!

This cake was really hard for me to photograph because of its odd shape and my lack of a real photo studio; but I still wanted to share it with you because it is so darn cute!  Making the cake was a challenge because each color was actually a separate cake.  I wrapped each Lego cake in a different bold color fondant and then cut a rectangle shape for the top.  Then I arranged the cakes to get this cute shape; it made me feel like I was actually playing with Lego!  After the cakes were arranged, I cut all the circles out of fondant and arranged them to look like the real thing.  Even the cake board was made of edible Lego!  I used a Lego type font for the birthday boy’s name and age.  His mom loved the cake and I’m sure he did too!

Happy First Birthday Dion!

First birthday cakes for little boys are really hard to design.  I made this cake for my nephew Ely, and as usual I was given artistic freedom.  Sometimes it is harder when I don’t have any guidelines, because then I have too many ideas.  I know the color scheme here is sort of patriotic but when I see this cake I don’t think 4th of July.  It just looks cute and preppy.

I am really obsessed with patterns lately so I knew I wanted to apply an argyle pattern to the bottom tier of this cake.  I cut out blue squares and turned them to give them the diamond look.  Then I used my linguine pasta attachment on my kitchen aid stand mixer to roll out thin and perfect red stripes.

I added a simple number one label to the top tier.  I like how simple the top tier is compared to the dramatic pattern on the bottom tier.

The cake was topped off with a giant cupcake adorned with a cute fondant candle.  The cupcake was taken off the top of the cake and given to Ely to use as his own personal smash cake.  He loved it!