This is a charming cake apt for the person I made it for.  I made this cake for the birthday of a lady who is such a kind, generous and thoughtful soul.  I work with her and I very much appreciate what she does for me and for the people around her.  She is a gem!

The drop flowers are made with royal icing, the cake is covered with buttercream and the basketweave on top of the cake is also buttercream icing.  I thought the basketweave would be a nice backdrop for the drop flowers.

Aside from white, I used 2 Wilton colors (violet and rose) but added two more shades — violet with a touch of rose and rose with a tinge of violet.

I made this as a part of my back-up plan in case my blue convertible car cake did not work out.  The person I was preparing the cake for played basketball and I wanted to try out ball themed cupcakes at some point  (my friend made sports balls themed cupcakes last year and they were really nice!).  I had made cupcakes last week and I had some extra black and white buttercream (just colored the white icing orange) so I was in good shape to make a few of these basketball cupcakes which took hardly any time at all.

Somehow, between attending meetings and meeting deadlines last week, I agreed to make a birthday cake for a surprise party for one of my officemates.  Even now, it is still a blur and I’m still not quite sure why I agreed to (1) make a cake during a weekday (2) make a cake with only 2 days notice knowing I will be working those 2 whole days and I will be attending a private launch party for Crate and Barrel the night before the birthday party.

I did not have much time to do the cake so I just planned for a simple one.  The other thing was the fact that it was a de-celebration and not a celebration.  The ideas were to make a kiddie cake to signify his mental age (yes, people can be mean!), basketball cupcakes with the words “You Suck” (the birthday celebrator plays basketball) and maybe something relating to the birthday celebrator’s blue Porsche but do something with it (smoke coming out?  flat time?).  The end result was this cake — blue convertible with a flat tire and a traffic policeman issuing a ticket, which I managed to do in the amount of time I had.

My favorite type of sprinkles for decorating Devil’s Food Cupcakes!  These sprinkles are either called Vermicelli sprinkles or chocolate jimmies and they make cupcake decorating fast and easy!  Delectable to look at and adds texture and flavor (White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate).  (Do I sound like an ad for these sprinkles?)

In the picture, I used White Chocolate and Dark Chocolate.  Not all Chocolate Vermicelli Sprinkles are created equal though so I personally get the ones made from real chocolate.

The white chocolate ones can be colored by putting the sprinkles and powdered food color in a self-closing plastic and shaking it.  This was introduced by Billy Reece when he appeared in the Martha Stewart Show in May 2006.

Thomas was a tank engine who lived at a Big Station. He had six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome.  He was a fussy little engine, always pulling coaches about. [...] He was a cheeky little engine, too. — from the story “Thomas & Gordon”.

Thomas the Tank Engine was a specific request of our friend’s son who was turning 3 last January.  As a famous children’s character, I wanted to make a Thomas cake with a difference and thought of making a 3D cake.  My biggest worry was making a cake that the kids at the party would not recognize.  Can you imagine slaving over a cake for hours and when you get to the party the kids ask “Who is That?”.  Just the thought of it gives me shivers…

Thankfully, one of my friends gave me the link to a “Tank Engine Cake Tutorial” and lent me her son’s Thomas the Tank Engine toy.  The tutorial was my reference in making the cake, although I had to make a few modifications either to make a closer copy of the toy I had or adhere to my personal preference or style of decorating.

The kids at the party had a blast and thankfully the kids recognized the cake as Thomas as soon as I entered the party venue (right before they started poking the cake with their tiny little fingers!!).

A number of our friends were away during the holidays so we invited everyone over for dinner at our house early January when everyone was back.  Our Christmas decorations were still hanging, my husband was trying out a Peking Duck recipe and I wanted to do a dessert with something red on it.  Love this dessert and it also happens to be the favorite of a number of our guests who were coming over for dinner.

I had already sketched a design for a Snowman Christmas Cake to take to a a Christmas lunch we were attending, unfortunately, something came up on Christmas Eve and I had to scramble on Christmas morning to decorate the cake.  I realized I had Christmas M&Ms in the pantry and some Wilton Christmas sprinkles and ended up with an M&Ms Christmas Tree cake instead.  Not exactly what I planned but I guess  it still looked very “Christmassy”.  Also had great fun putting the candy and the sprinkles together!!

Quick Bits:  M&M’s

M&M’s have been around since 1941.  They are produced by Mars Incorporated and originated from the USA but are now sold all over the globe.  They are round/button-shaped candy shells with an M printed on one side and have a variety of fillings such as milk chocolate (the most common), dark chocolate, peanut, almond (my favorite), among others. They come in a lot of bright colors and during the Christmas season, I always look forward to the Christmas edition where they come in red, green & dark green. They also have white M&M’s during Christmas printed with holiday greetings on one side.

A Christmas version of the Black Forest Cake.  I used Christmas jimmies to decorate the cake instead of chocolate curls.

This is a standard Black Forest Cake recipe which I am still tweaking.  Not a dessert for the kids though due to the alcohol content, so had to watch that those little fingers didn’t swipe the whipped cream frosting.

Quick Bits:  Origin of the Black Forest Cake

The Black Forest Cake is the english name for the German Dessert Schwarzwälderkirschtorte.  It is a cake made up of layers of chocolate cake with Kirsch or Kirschwasser  with whipped cream and cherries in between.  It is frosted in whipped cream with shaved chocolate on top.  The origin of this cake is unknown.  Some say it dates back to the 16th century while others claimed to have invented the cake in the 1900′s.  What is common though is that the cake is believed to have originated from Black Forest Region (Der Schwarzwald in German).  This region is well known for its cherries and Kirschwasser.  Kirschwasser is a distilled clear brandy made most commonly from Morello cherries.

Sources:  What’s Cooking America?, GermanFoods.org