Christening Cake with Sleeping Lamb and Baby Blocks

This is a cake I made for a baby boy's Christening.  I sculpted the lamb out of marshmallow fondant mixed with a little tylose powder so that it would harden when dry.  To make the lamb's wool I rolled out little ropes of fondant, then rolled them into swirls and attached them with a little water.  The black details are Americolor edible marker.  

I printed out the letters and numbers onto paper in the chosen font, set the paper over the strip of fondant, and used a pin to mark where the letters should go.  Then I piped the letters with royal icing, using the pin marks as a guide.  It worked like a charm!

The blocks are solid marshmallow fondant with royal icing letters.  I weighed the fondant on a scale so that each block would be the same size, then molded them into shape (not as easy as you might think!)  Next time, I would insert wooden skewers into the cake and then place the blocks onto the skewers to give the blocks a bit more support.  I also would have rolled the fondant a but thicker to make it more opaque.  Every project is a learning experience!

Pink and Orange Graduation Dessert Table

I just love this pink and orange dessert table.  The colors just pop against the white icing and the hot pink tablecloth.

There were lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon-vanilla buttercream, chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, and brownie pops - a lot of them! 

It didn't hurt that the weather was simply gorgeous that day!

Here are some behind the scenes pics of the finished pops.

And my snapware cupcake carriers from Costco came in mighty handy once again.  Costco doesn't have them anymore, but I think Martha Stewart has caught on and she is selling them at Macy's.  I also think you can get them online.  I simply love them and use them for everything.

More pops.  Save the styrofoam from the purchases you make - they are indispensible for letting the coating dry on the brownie pops.

Brownie pops swirls - my favorite way to decorate pops!

Decorating Cupcakes Using Royal Icing Transfers

A friend asked me to make cupcakes with the number "18" on them for her daughter's 18th birthday celebration.  I didn't want to pipe the 18's with icing because I didn't think they would look uniform enough, so I decided to make the "18" using royal icing.  I love the uniformity and the dimension these gives to the cupcake.

 Here's how I made these:

1.  Find a font type and size of the numbers you want to place on the cupcake and print them out on paper.
2.  Tear out strips of waxed paper and place the paper with the printed number underneath the waxed paper where you want to pipe.
3.  Using stiff royal icing and a small tip such as a PME #1.5, pipe the outline of the number.  Make sure there are no gaps in your outline.  Slide the printed number underneath the waxed paper and repeat the outlining until you've piped the desired number of outlined numbers.
4.  Fill in the outlines with flood consistency royal icing and let dry overnight.  If you are using the same color to outline and flood, you do not need to wait for the outline to dry before you flood.
5.  Once dry, carefully peel the number from the waxed paper.  I used a small, thin offset spatula to help loosen the number from the waxed paper.  Make extra, because a few may break.
6.  Ice cupcakes and set the number on top.  And voila!  Cute cupcakes!