Twin 1st birthday cake..

This was probably one of my if not my favorite cake I have ever done! It was for a friend of a friends sisters twin boys first birthday! Brown and blue and white fondant decorations with polka dots and #1 made out of gumpaste and sticking out of the cake with two small 4 inch round smash cakes in buttercream!

Time to upload some more cake photos...

I have 1 or 2 more photos from Auri & Sam's wedding cake to post and a cake I made for my mother and father in law for their birthdays! The last cake is a one year anniversary cake I made for a couple! It has fondant roses with pearl dust hand-painted on!

Sarah's 10th birthday cake!

Here is a picture of my niece Sarah's 10th birthday cake! She wanted taylor swift so she got taylor swift! Chocolate cake with buttercream icing, edible image and fondant dots and butterflies!

WooHoo! My cake was published in a magazine!

Silly me got SO EXCITED this morning because as I opened my new MailBox news issue which comes out every few months, I had a big surprise. I got to a section where they showed various birthday cakes submitted by cake decorators and there it was...the birthday cake I did for my dad two years ago (when I was still very new at this, as you can tell by the AWFUL hand writing)...but I do love this cake because it was so much fun making the tools and designing the measuring tape and letter to dad to look as real as possible. So...here is the page of the magazine...i scanned it so I could put it on here! So excited...i just submitted a whole bunch more photos...who knows...maybe in months to come i can find more of my cakes in the magazine...that would be awesome!



The bottom middle cake is mine and the right middle paragraph is the paragraph about my cake! I wish I could make it bigger...if you want to see a bigger version...email me at aprilcstarkey@gmail.com and I can send you a bigger one where you can see the writing and such!

Love, april

Sam & Auri's wedding cake!

I had the priveledge of making my brother in law and now my sister in laws wedding cake! He proposed to her with chocolate covered strawberries so they wanted them all over the cake! Their cake turned out very simple, elegant, garden style and beautiful! They picked a good design! I hope they liked it! I believe they did! These are just a few pics, hopefully once they get the professional ones back I can get a copy and post it here as well!

Love, april

Two wedding cakes to post!!!

Hello! This week I made two wedding cakes! One was a small one tiered buttercream wedding cake with purple flowers on it for my husband's co-worker!

This second one I finished today for a wonderful couple that go to my parents church! They have been married many years with three boys but they never had an official ceremony or reception so they did that today! Here is the cake they had me make for them! Its three tiered fondant covered with fondant daisies and hand pressed diamond cut pattern!

After the topper and flowers were put on and around it that she wanted...

Linda Birthday Cake!

Hello! This cake below was made for my sister's MIL. Her name is Linda and since she is a mom and a grandma, they had me put all three! I hope she likes it! Its a half sheet WASC cake with vanilla buttercream frosting! YUM! I just drew a whole bunch of vines all over it and swirls and then added some spring like flowers and leaves! To get the circle border in the middle so nice, i used the rim of an 8 inch round pan and pressed gently into the cake and then went around the indentation and filled it in with a border! If I tried to make a circle on my own, it would SO be lopsided! Multiple views below...beware! :0)

Love, april

in the box and ready to go!

Laura's Birthday cake w/ step-by-step photos!

Hey all! I thought it would be fun to take photos step-by-step of each process of making a cake! From start to finish, I have tried to capture it on camera for you to see. I will post the recipe for the cake and the buttercream in case you all would like to follow these steps and make this cake in the same way or in your own variation!

So here goes...

Its a white almond sour cream cake (basically your normal white cake) with homemade buttercream icing. I was using Dixie's...YUM YUM...but shipping + price was getting too much so I found one that I think I love...because it crusts well so I can smooth it and it tastes pretty good too!

CAKE RECIPE:

1 box white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teas. salt
4 egg whites
1 1/3 cups water
2 Tbls. vegetable oil
1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons clear vanilla flavor
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients first and then add the liquid ingredients and beat on low speed for 2 minutes. This will make two eight inch rounds or nine inch if that's what you have! Also it will make around 24 cupcakes approximately.

BUTTERCREAM RECIPE:

1-1/3 cups Crisco
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk, depending on consistency needed
3 Tbsp powdered Dream Whip (*)
2-3 Tbsp clear vanilla, depending on your personal taste
2 lbs powdered sugar

(*) A powdered whipped topping mix made by Kraft Foods, usually found in the cake/sugar aisle in the grocery.

There is really no wrong way to mix it, but i mix all ingredients minus powdered sugar first and then I add in the powdered sugar slowly. Mix it until the icing becomes smooth! I first put in 1/3 cup of milk and realized the icing was too stiff so I added another 1/4 cup. Just play with it!

PICTURE TIME...


First you want to get all your ingredients together!

You then want to put in all of the dry ingredients and mix to kind of sift it all together!

Then start adding your liquids...right here I am adding the oil!

here I am adding my eggwhites...i just crack open the egg and toss it back and forth between each shell until I separate the yolk from the eggwhite! super easy and fun!

then you add the vanilla! yum yum

here is the sour cream going in...you cannot taste it and it adds GREAT MOISTNESS to the cake!

After all ingredients are in...start mixing on low to medium for about 2 minutes.

while batter is mixing, go ahead and prepare your pans by spraying or lining them or whatever you do.

one great way to get your cakes more even is "bake even strips" by wilton...mine look UGLY because I have used them so much! You soak them and wrap around your pan so the cake bakes more evenly in the oven!

pour in your batter evenly and pop in the oven! Depending on the oven, two eight inch rounds can take anywhere from 35-55 minutes...i checked at 35 and barely moved them and they jiggled so I automatically put it in for another 10 when they jiggle! Tonight i ended up baking them for 50 minutes!

after a few minutes on the cooling rack I take a knife and go around the outside of the cake to separate it from the pan.

I then level the cake by taking a serated knife and cutting off the top part that is a little round!

onto the icing...mix in all ingredients and slowly add powdered sugar as I am doing here...messy but yummy!

here's the icing being mixed! mix it until its smooth!

I put some buttercream in a bag and cut the tip off and am now filling the middle of the cake before I stack the other one on top!

here is the middle filling after I smooth it out...you want to keep away from the edge a little because the weight of the top cake will push it out some!

here are the two rounds stacked on top of eachother!

Have fun with putting on the icing, do not be afraid of putting on too much because you will go back and take lots off when your smoothing it!

here is what it looks like after I roughly put it on....

here it is as I try and smooth it and take some excess icing off with my spatula

here it is after 15-20 minutes...let it crust for 15 minutes or so and then take a paper towel or computer paper and go all around the cake and smooth it with your hand on top of the paper towel....it gets it nice and smooth!

next...get all your cake decorating supplies out! I have my cake turner on the left, my fondant and bags on the right....

in the middle i have my coloring, shapes and spatula that i need!

here is the fondant...you can make your own or buy from wilton or satin ice! if your eating it, buy satin ice, if its just for looks, wilton is fine...reason being is because wilton tastes yucky but works well!

put some color in the fondant and start kneeding it and playing with it to get the color worked through! Have some shortening nearby to keep your hands and the fondant from getting dry/sticky!

roll out the fondant!

have fun...its like play doh for adults...cut out any shapes (cookie cutters are great) that you may have!

lay them somewhere until you put them on the cake!

i decide to write "happy birthday" first so I know where I can put my designs!

here it is as I am getting going on it...

here it is all done...the vines/swirls are buttercream and the border and rest of the decorations are fondant!





some up close shots



some side shots...



Hope you enjoyed coming along on this cake making ride! I hope I inspired you enough to want to try making one on your own...you can do it! If you need any help...just ask me!

Love, april