Riley loves Foofa off of Yo Gabba Gabba. So I did a little research on the Internet to figure out what a Foofa was. She kinda looks like a cross between a "who" from whoville and a pink onion. I love having new themes for children's parties. I feel bad for parents when their children want a certain theme for their birthday party and there aren't any decorations to go with it. Who knew trends began as early as age 1? 
This was my first birthday cake for a man and a dog. My friend Angela has a dachshund, AJ, and it was his birthday. They were also celebrating a friend's birthday, Ronald. The joke was that AJ's name had to come first on the cake. The cake was simple, but I think it turned out nice. Had it been for either AJ or Ronald I could have been more creative, but with the two of them together I couldn't come up with anything that would be appropriate for both.
My husband's coworker, Tara, is having a baby. She isn't finding out the sex of the child until delivery. So for her baby shower at work, I decided to use baby pastels. I saw some pictures of baby blocks cakes that I thought were really cute; so I thought I'd give it a try. I ran into a few problems while making the cake. 1. I only had 1 6inch square cake pan, so I had to back all 6 eight layers one at a time. 2. I didn't think to "size up" the blocks before adding my letters. After I had the letters on I realized the two bottom blocks were not the same size. 3. Since the finished cakes needed to be stacked, I wasn't sure how to finish it and send it to work with Jason. We tried to transport it stacked and the top block fell off. Luckily it fell backwards and only squished the front. We ended up separating the top from the bottom and Jason stacked it when it got it to work. This is just one of those live and learn lessons. Some cake designs will have to have "on site" set-up. So if I am not able to deliver the cake myself, I need to make sure that I pick a design that can be transported without setup. I just hope that Tara was not disappointed with her cake. My intentions were to make her shower special. 
I try to encourage my students to work hard throughout the year. One of the ways I do it is have a ESL Super Star of the month. I look for students who show great improvement. At the end of the year, I invite them in my room for refreshments. I wanted the cake to be bright and I used marshmallow fondant to make the stars. 
Most baby showers are pink or blue but there are still a few people who want to be surprised when their new little one arrives. Green has always been the color for neutrality but it has been updated when paired with brown. Baby apparel, bedding, and accessories are going for more trendy looks with brown/green, brown/pink, and brown/blue combos. The inspiration for this cake came from a picture of the table cloth that was going to be used at the shower.
The 14 inch and 8 inch tiers were covered in Cornelli lace made out of royal icing. I also used royal icing to attach the edible pearls. Since royal icing dries hard, I knew that it would travel and hold up better than had I used butter cream. Ribbon was used around the bottom of the cake to incorporate the wedding colors. 
I used a plain square for the base, the 14 inch was too large to fit on a round cake stand. I hope to one day have a square silver cake stand to add to the display of my wedding cakes. 
Heather's Granddaddy turned 80! I used the invitation as an inspiration. I thought it turned out very elegant but at the same time still masculine. I made the stripes out of marshmallow fondant with a butter cream base. The funny thing about this weekend is "when it rains, it pours". I started out with one cake and ended up with three. Not only did I have the birthday cake, but I had my first wedding cake. Luckily, I starting prepping for the cakes on Tuesday so I wasn't too stressed out.
