Hello cooks, craftsters, eaters and friends!

I’ll be taking a blogging break for about three weeks or so. I know, that’s a long time! But there’s A LOT of batter in my mixing bowl, so to speak, so just let me get through the next weeks, and I’ll be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

In the meantime, I leave you with pictures of birthday cakes I’ve made pre-GWAC (Girl With A Curl). Back then, I kept thinking I needed a place to share these. I now have this blog, and you! Hope these have you (virtually) happily munching away ‘till my next post.

Here we go!

Simeen’s Starburst Cake (Pound Cake With Pink Fondant)

The Story: My friend Simeen is a Starburst candy addict. A peculiar habit of hers is picking out all the pink ones and keeping those for herself; she shares the rest! I thought it would be great to surprise her with big pink cake that looked like an actual pink-wrapped Starburst. This was my first (and so far only) time with fondant. (YES, the fondant was pre-made. Teehee.)

Jen’s Piggy Cake (Traditional White Birthday Cake With Buttercream)

The Story: Jen loves pigs. She is known to harbor a preponderance of porcine bric-a-brac in her apartment. She has a pig wallet. A pig apron.  A pig small vacuum cleaner, even. So fine, she can have a cake shaped like a pig on her birthday, too! This was a basic round cake (Magnolia Bakery’s recipe) and two cupcakes for the ears and nose (ears were two halves of a cupcake). I used different candy to finish off the piggy face. Oink, oink!

Connie’s Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting)

The Story: This was one of the trickiest cakes I’ve had to make, because Connie’s birthday is at the height of summer, and cream cheese frosting melts easily. I remember having to stick this in the fridge a couple of times before it set properly, all the time cursing the heat in the apartment. The baby carrots were made from store-bought (at least I admit it!) marzipan that I tinted orange and shaped by hand. The green “leaves” were from snipped parsley stalks!

Sara’s Birthday Cake (German Chocolate Cake)

The Story: Sometimes, I use covert tactics to find out what my friends’ favorite types of cakes are. I ask them casually months before, and file the answer away so I can surprise them with it on their birthday. I sometimes think they know that I’ll ask, and they pretend to not know why when I do, haha! But for her birthday, my friend Sara came right up to me and said, “Look, let’s not beat around the bush. I would love a German Chocolate Cake on my birthday.” And a German Chocolate Cake, art-directed by my brother and executed by me, was exactly what she got.

Jaxon’s 1st Birthday Cake (Yellow Cake With Buttercream)

The Story: Jaxon is my godchild. I love him. That’s the story! (Waves were made with buttercream through a star tip, figures were from a baking supply store, and sand was crushed Nilla wafers.)

Whew!

The cakes you see above were all first-time attempts, inspired by ideas on the net, from my cookbooks, and the spirit of the people I made them for. (I’ve never been to culinary school, save for a very basic Wilton cake-decorating class.) I hope you enjoyed taking virtual bites of these, and that they inspire your attempts as well.

See you in three weeks, all. Stay curly!