Bear Cupcakes

I made these for my youngest daughter's second birthday. We were having some family over, but still not a big enough group to merit the hugeness of the cakes I tend to create. I saw the idea for making different kind of bears on the Kraft Foods website (I think). So, I think some of them look more "bear-like" than others, but overall they were cute. I made them different flavors since most of the party-goers were adults.
The Brown Bears were chocolate cake with peanut butter inside and chocolate frosting with chocolate mint ears.
The Koala Bears were yellow cake with peanut butter inside and peanut butter frosting and Nilla wafer ears and nose.
The Polar Bears were yellow cake with oreo inside and vanilla frosting and marshmallow ears.
The Panda Bears were chocolate cake with oreo inside and vanilla frosting and oreo eyes and chocolate mint ears....Andrea

Happy Thanksgiving!

My sister and I love Thanksgiving. It's by far my favorite holiday of the year. Tonight I made these turkey cupcakes. The head is a Hersey's kiss. Actually, it's a dark chocolate kiss. I used dark chocolate since my husband really likes it - as a way to thank him for watching our kids while I obsessed over the turkey cupcakes ;-) The wings are a peppermint patty cut in half. The tail is candy corns.


Nothing yummier than a crate full of turkeys! ... Amanda

Pea Pod Cake

We actually made this one together. A friend of Andrea's asked her to make a large cake for a big baby shower. Amanda wound up visiting the same weekend and was there to help with the cake. So, it became a joint effort (for which Andrea was extremely thankful). It was so fun to work on it together....Andrea and Amanda

A Variety of Cupcakes

Penguins, Pigs, Spiders, Smileys, Hearts, Baseballs, and Volcanoes.

Hearts, Polka Dots, and Flowers.

Flowers, Balloons, and Butterflies.

....Andrea

Another Caterpillar Cake

I made this one for our 5 year old's first birthday...simple and cute. It's made from a bundt or tube pan cut in half and positioned like an S....Andrea

Dora Cake

another early one....Andrea

Princess Cake

By baking the cake in a glass bowl and then turning it upside down and cutting a hole in it, you can then place a Barbie style doll (wrapped in plastic wrap) in the cake and decorate the doll as well as the cake creating the look of a fancy princess dress....Andrea

Puppy Cake

an early one....Andrea

Cookie Monster Cake

A simple one. I printed out a picture of Cookie Monster from the computer. I cut around his face, lightly set the picture on the cake, and then traced around it with a toothpick. After I had my outline, it was easy. One note...the black parts are made of sprinkles. You have to use SO much coloring to create black frosting, that when I can I avoid it (by choosing another color or by using something like sprinkles instead) or occasionally I buy the black gel frosting from the store....Andrea

Car Cake

A car cake made from cake baked in a glass bowl and a loaf pan cut in half and then mini-muffins for the wheels. I also made cupcake versions of it using candy for the wheels and mini-muffins for the hood and trunk....Andrea

Train Cake

Jay liked Thomas the Train when he was four, so I made a train cake for his birthday....Andrea

Turtle Cake

This cake remains one of my all-time favorites. I made it for our son, Daniel's first birthday. It's made from baking in a glass bowl. Then I shaped cupcakes to create the head, tail, and feet....Andrea

30th Anniversary

My sister-in-law Laura and I made this cake for our in-laws this weekend (our husbands are brothers). We stole the idea from Andrea's 50 cake.

My father-in-law is quite obsessed with landscaping, so we tried to do a landscaping cake. The green is colored coconut and we used extra chocolate cake, crumbled up, for the dirt around the outside... Amanda

50th Cake

This was a cake I made for my Mother-in-Law's 49th birthday...yes, 49th. Apparently her daughters have made it a habit of celebrating those "milestone" birthdays a year early just to torment her....Andrea

Baseball

My husband, Tim, is turning 28 on Wednesday. Today we had a big family birthday party for him. We did a "Field of Dreams" theme - the guys all played baseball in the afternoon, followed by dinner with baseball park food, then watched the movie.

After an inexplicable failed cake mix, I decided to make a cookie cake. This is actually 2 cookie cakes with marshmallows sandwiched in between. After baking & cooling both cakes, I topped one with marshmallows and popped it under the broiler until they were gooey, then flipped the second cookie on top. The "dirt" is graham cracker crumbs; the "bases" are white chocolate covered fig newtons. The 2 yellow candles in the corners are foul poles. The baseball gloves around the perimeter are just candies I found at Wal-Mart. Oh, and the baseball in the field is actually a styrofoam ball. I set it on a glass and frosted the top 2/3 of it. I then put it in the freezer for a couple of hours. When I took it out, I flipped it upside-down on the cake and frosted the rest. It worked pretty well!

Tim really liked it and has told me he wants a baseball field cake every year....Amanda

Butterfly Cake

This was for my daughter's 6th birthday....Andrea

Caterpillars

Here's the caterpillar cakes I made for my twin's first birthday. The frosting didn't turn out too well as it was unusually hot that day (April in Pittsburgh isn't usually hot!). My sister gave me this idea as she made it for her son's birthday one year. It's a bunt cake cut in half to make 2 C shapes, then put back together to form an S. I used part of a styrofoam cup for the nose so that it was a little smaller than the rest of the head. I also used dum-dums for the antennae....Amanda

Blue's Clues Part II

Here's the Magenta cake I made for my 2 year old daughter, Rebekah's birthday in April. That's the one thing about twins - I have to come up with 2 cake ideas for their birthday, which is twice as fun!....Amanda

Blue's Clues

Here's a picture of the cake I made for my 2 year old son Joey's birthday in April. I made a 8.5x11 cake and cut the shape out, then crumb-coated it and decorated it. I was very pleased with how it turned out... but if I were to do it again, I'd crumb-coat it with blue rather than plain white frosting....Amanda

Flamingo Cake

We have a friend who is crazy about flamingos. So, last year for her birthday I surprized her and made her a flamingo cake....Andrea

Piggy Cake

....Andrea

Penguin Cake

Julia's first birthday was in December. Since we had a number of family members attending the party, I made penguin cupcakes to go along with the penguin cake so we'd have enough to go around. For the round portions of the big cake, I baked in my glass mixing bowls (I have one large and one small). I then cut the arms and feet and beak out of a standard 9x13" cake pan....Andrea

Snowman Cake

This was for my son, Daniel's, third birthday in January....Andrea

Sports Theme

When our children turn 5, they have a big birthday party which includes both family and friends (prior to five it's just family). So, for Jay's fifth birthday party in March, he wanted a sports theme. So, I made a bunch of individually decorated cupcakes each made to look like a ball. I was really pleased with how they turned out, but it took me forever....Andrea

Hannah's 7th Birthday

I think I'll start at the most recent cake I have made and work my way backwards. This cake was made for our oldest daughter, Hannah, who turned 7 in July. I asked her what kind of cake she'd like and she said, "Nothing complicated, Mommy. I know you are really busy." So, we settled on a number 7 with purple (one of her favorite colors) frosting.....Andrea

Yoda

Last year for my husband's birthday, we did a Star Wars theme. Here's his Yoda cake. You can't read it in this picture, but it says "When 900 years old you reach, look as good you shall not"....Amanda

The Beginning

We love to make cakes. We primarily make them for our family and friends' birthdays. We are constantly looking for new ideas or inspirations for our cakes, so we decided to post pictures of the cakes that we have made so that perhaps they will help inspire others...
The two sisters,
Andrea and Amanda