Top 13 in 2013!

Typically at the end of each year I like to reflect on my favorite cakes from the previous year and share them with you. This year I am going to mix it up a bit and share the most popular post from this year!

 

I had a lot of fun putting together these parties and tutorials to share with all of you. So I hope you have enjoyed them and they have given you some ideas for your own cakes and parties. Thanks for allowing me to share my crazy cake life with all of you and I hope that 2014 brings many many more cakes and parties to share.

 

Here are the 13 most popular posts from 2013!

 

How to Make an Elephant Tutorial

 

 

 

Finding Nemo/ Under The Sea Baby Shower

 

 

Construction Themed Cupcake Toppers Tutorial

Capital Area Cake Show 2013 Wedding Cakes

 

 

3-D Edible Teddy Bear Tutorial

 

 

 

Cole's Wild Safari Birthday

 

 

 

Dragons Love Tacos Birthday

Capital Are Cake Show 2013 Divisional Cakes

Easter Bunny Butt Tutorial

 

 

 

Realistic Coral Cupcake Tutorial

 

 

 

Haley and Erik Timberlake Farm Wedding

Wedding Cakes

 

 

Little Southern Gentleman Baby Shower

 

I hope you enjoyed a look back at some of your favorite posts! Please share your favorite cake or party from the past year!

 



Brielle's Pretty and Pink First Birthday

I am so excited to share this pretty pink first birthday dessert table we did for Brielle's first birthday. I usually get to do a lot of boy birthdays so it was fun to make everything pink and girly for a change. The theme was cupcakes and the colors were pink and purple so we made everything super pink and girly. For the dessert table I made chocolate cupcakes, strawberry push pop shooters complete with tutus, strawberry milks with cookies, and rice cereal treats in the shape of cupcakes. We also made the backdrop for the desserts table and all the little tutus for the push pops. I love the way the display turned out and hope I get to make more girl themed dessert tables in the future.

 

Close-up of the little tutus we made for the push pops!

Baby girl getting a sneak peak at the table.

She was intrigued by the cake but was unsure what to do with it.

She ended up just picking off and eating the sprinkles instead of smashing it.

Happy 1st Birthday Brielle! i hope we get to be a part of many many more!

Safari themed Shower for Little Baby VanGosen

Ok so it has been a really long time since I have lasted blog but I wanted to share this cute safari themed baby shower dessert table that I did for my good friends Marty and Janice. I also made there gender reveal cake a little while ago so if you missed that be sure to check it out.  

 

The theme for the baby shower was safari and the colors were green, yellow, and brown. I based the cake of the cute invites that were sent out and then tried to keep all the desserts in the same theme. For the dessert table I made chocolate covered Oreos, animal print cake pops, apple pie pops, and zebra cakes. (Ok so I didn't make the zebra cakes but I enhanced them and they fit the theme so a win in my book).

 

 

I love the way the animal print cake pops turned out!

 

Full disclosure I put Janice to work wrapping her own baby letters in yarn, but hey that's what friends are for right? I was really cursing the B's the night before the party but I completed them and think all the letters turned out great. I hope they keep those letters forever because they were a labor of love.



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I think this little zebra is my favorite!

Here is the sweet invite the cake was based on.

 

Momma and Daddy to be!

 

So of course my gift had to incorporate cupcakes. Hopefully this little girl will like to bake and I can put her to work for me.

Congrats Marty and Janice! I can't wait to meet you little one!

Mini edible taco cookies tutorial

So I'm back to show you my how to make cute taco cookies for your very own Dragons Love Tacos party. These cookies are so cute and tasty and all the kids will love them. [Buy the Book] If you are planning your own Dragons Love Tacos party. To check out more great party ideas check out my guest post on Spaceships and Laser Beams.

So first up you will need vanilla flavored and regular Oreo cookies, hot tamales, shredded coconut, chocolate buttercream, and orange flavored tootsie rolls. First take your regular Oreos and grind them up in a food processor. Then add the ground Oreos to a small amount of chocolate buttercream to make taco meat. Then take green food coloring and add it to your coconut to make lettuce. Next, take your orange tootsie rolls and shred them through a cheese grater to make cheese. Lastly, cut the ends of the hot tamales to make tomatoes. 

 Now that you have all the fixings you need for tacos it’s time to make the taco shells. First, pull apart the vanilla Oreos and scrap out the filling. Then you will need to cut a small portion of the end of each Oreo so that it will stand upright. Once you have completed preparing all of your taco shells you are ready to assembly your tacos. Remember for each Oreo you have you can make one taco.
Start with a line of chocolate buttercream towards the bottom of the taco where you made the knife cut. Then add the other side of the taco shell (cookie) against the buttercream line. Once you have both ends together the buttercream should hold them together upright. Make sure that you put the writing on the Oreos to the inside of the tacos so you don’t see the writing when the tacos are assembled.

Once you have your taco shells assembled you can add all of your fillings to complete your mini tacos. Start with the Oreo “taco meat” and make sure you get the Oreos to stick to the buttercream line you added previously. After the “taco meat” is added then add some shredded coconut lettuce on top. Complete each taco with shredded Tootsie roll cheese and two or three hot tamales.  Then just repeat until you have as many mini tacos as you want for your party. 

There you go super cute edible mini tacos for your Dragons Love Tacos party or for your very own Mexican fiesta. Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and stay tuned for another great gender reveal party I have to share with you guys.

Dragons Love Tacos Third Birthday

So this year for my nephew Owen's third birthday he decided he wanted a party based on his favorite book right now which is Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin. This is a super cute book about dragons that love tacos, so if you want to lure dragons to your party better serve tacos, but better watch out for that spicy salsa. I decided to use the cover art dragon for the cake but made him green instead of red because that is Owen's favorite color. Of course as with every cake we make for Owen it has to be special so we decided to make this dragon smoke because he had to much spicy salsa at this party. The smoking dragon was a big hit with all the kids. I also included sugar cookie "chips" with fruit "salsa" and dragon feet cookies. Hope you enjoy the party this year. If you missed last years party be sure to check it out here.

 

 

We decided on less desserts this year and focused more on the dragon cake. I think it turned out really well and Owen loved it!

The tacos are made from Oreo cookies. I will be sharing a tutorial on how to make them in the near future.

Of course if we wanted to lure dragons to the party we had to have a taco bar!

Time to break open the dragon pinata!

This was a favorite activity!

Too much spicy salsa for this dragon!

 Making the dragon smoke was a little tricky to figure out but we managed to pull it off and have more knowledge moving forward for our next smoking cake! Happy Birthday Owen! I hope you loved your cake and had a blast at your party! You are turning out to be one awesome little dude and I love being here to see you grow up!

Here is a short video of the cake in action!