Plants vs. Zombies

My son loves to play Apple Ipod/Ipad games. He is a fan of Angry Birds, but most recently that lost top spot to Plants vs Zombies. So - when he turned 14 he asked for me to do that for his cake.

The cake itself is a chocolate strawberry marble 1/4 sheet cake. He requested cookies and cream for a filling - which I found a fantastic recipe for on a cake blog called "That Really Frosts Me". This filling I could just eat with a spoon, straight out of the bowl!

The flowers, peashooter, lawn mowers, potatoes and walnuts were all made several days in advance, as were the zombies. I used 50/50 gumpaste and fondant to make them, so I would have time to mold them without the fear of them drying out too fast. The zombies were the most fun to make - I didn't have to worry about perfection for them! They are SUPPOSED to look scraggly and a little malformed!

The lawnmowers were made in 3 steps. First red was formed into a rectangle, a smaller round piece was placed on top. I use almond extract for my glue. Then black fondant was used to make the wheels and the top of the mower. Take a toothpick and make holes on the top part of the back end - this is where your mower handles will go. Set aside and let dry. The handles are just white fondant ropes which I made into a "U" shape, the same width of my holes. Let dry. Once the handles are dry (I let them go 2 days) I painted them with silver luster dust paint. I make my paint with luster dust and a little bit of vodka. Mix it until you have the consistency you want. I store mine in small baby food jars with lids. Once the handles are dry - attach them to the lawnmowers with royal icing. Let dry again with the handles leaning up against something. I have a large fruit box that I use to store my fondant pieces while they are drying.

The fence was made with the same 50/50, however after I rolled it out, I used a wooden impression mat and rolling pin to make the wooden fence effect. I cut the planks out, let them dry. After a couple days of dry time, I put them together using royal icing to hold them together. Let dry again.

The worst part of this cake was piping the grass. Once I had my buttercream tinted the desired colors, I used the Wilton grass tip to pipe it all on. I used a ruler to measure out and mark the squares. I piped all the light colors and then piped the dark colors.

Cookies as Wedding Favors

Our niece got married over Memorial Day weekend.  Since she lives in NC, there was no way it would be possible for me to do her cake for her.  Instead, I made her wedding favors - sugar cookie wedding cakes. 

I used my sugar cookie recipe and flavored it with lemon extract, instead of vanilla.  Again, I pre-cut the fondant to use as an icing layer.  Once the cookies were baked and cooled, I started the process of piping the cookies with royal icing and adding silver dragees. 

The finished product was put into a cookie bag and topped with cutout cardstock that I made beforehand.  Overall, I really like the look and feel of this method of bagging the cookies.  More work than the way I usually do it, but I think I will take the time to do this on my Christmas cookies this year. 

Kickin' it with Key Lime

You've heard of Key Lime pie, right?  Well, I was recently reading through on one of the many cake blogs I follow and ran across someone who made this cake.  It sounded wonderful and refreshing, so I thought I would try it. 

I made a trial run on this cake for my mom's birthday.  On that cake, I followed the recipe to a "T" and only had two layers of the cake.  The flavor of the cake was great, but the cake was very, very dense.  I much prefer a moister, "fluffier" cake.  The key lime flavor of the icing was very good as well - just a little lime tartness.  After the trail run, I decided I needed to tweak the recipe a bit for the cake, but left the icing alone. 

The second cake (pictured above) I added another layer and adapted my Orange Dreamsicle recipe, substituting orange juice for key lime juice.  This helped quite a bit in making the cake less dense, but I think it still needs to be tweaked a little more.  I think I will try adding some meringue powder to the batter next time and see if that helps. 

Overall - this was a quick cake to make!  The icing is great in flavor, but it does not pipe well in heat.  Don't allow your child to bake brownies at the same time you are icing your cake!  ;-)