Chloe's 2nd Birthday Cake

Since the colorful Sesame Street birthday cake last year Chloe has turned two, and this year we celebrated with lot's of color and cute cupcakes (not actual cupcakes, just the theme).

The cake was chocolate and frosted in vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream (which received countless rave reviews).

Even though I knew this cake undoubtedly delicious and irresistibly cute, the fact that Miss birthday girl could hardly keep her fingers out of the frosting while exclaiming "Mmmmm bipday cakes! Yum!" is definitely my biggest compliment. (Regardless of whether or not there were little finger prints in the once smooth frosting by the time cake was actually served to guests.) Seeing someone I love so happy and absolutely thrilled about her birthday cake is humbling, and I am happy to have once again been a small part of her special day.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Irish birthday cake made with Swiss meringue buttercream.

Cake decorating is an exciting thing for me- there's always something new to learn! As long as I've been decorating cakes, I've always used a traditional American buttercream made with either shortening, butter, or a combination of both, depending on the particular use, mixed with confectioners sugar, meringue powder, and flavored with vanilla extract. This frosting is not a bad one, and I've found that many people love it homemade. In the past few months though I've learned that American buttercream (AMBC) is not the only type of buttercream out there, and it's definitely not always the best option for decorating cakes.

Cake torted and covered in a light crumb coat.

Over the weekend I finally set aside some time to make Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC). From what I've learned there are three main types of meringue buttercream: Swiss, Italian, and French. They are made with sugar, whipped egg whites, and lots of butter. The result in each is a very light, not overly sweet, and smooth frosting. The difference between the three is the method of preparation. As I said before I am just learning this, so I have only made SMBC, and let me tell you- it is nothing short of amazing!

Still working on achieving the perfectly smoothed look.

Irish birthday cake.

SMBC is SO smooth and tasty. It is not overly sweet, which I love, and it can be flavored in so many ways (which I am hoping to experiment with soon!) The recipe I tried is from baker and decorator, Jennifer Bratko who runs a successful cake business in san Francisco, From Scratch SF. She is very precise and accurate in her recipes, making them nearly flawless. I've read through many of her blog posts about cake, butter, frosting, and decorating. I always learn something new. Jennifer's recipe for SMBC is made by whisking sugar, egg whites, and salt over a double boiler until it reaches a temperature of 160 degrees F. It is then transferred to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whipped on high until stiff peaks form. The last step is to add 1 pound of room temperature butter to the meringue and to fit the mixer with a paddle attachment. The butter and meringue need to be mixed on the lowest possible setting until the butter emulsifies with the meringue creating a super smooth and light frosting. Here is the link to Jennifer's recipe and tutorial. Don't be afraid to try this one out! It will definitely change your opinion on buttercream.

Smooth top and sharp edges.

Since it is difficult for my husband and I to eat a whole cake ourselves, I made this cake for the friend of a friend's birthday party over the weekend. It was simple white cake with a vanilla bean SMBC. Everyone loved it and said that it was the lightest creamiest frosting they've ever tasted, success! Besides being so tasty, SMBC is actually much easier to decorate with. It smooths out very quickly and easily, giving a nearly flawless finish and sharp edges.

Addison's 4th Birthday Cakes

For this little lady's fourth birthday she celebrated with two parites: one with her friends and one with her family. I had the wonderful opportunity of making both of her birthday cakes. Better yet, the colors were pink and green, one of my favorite combinations, and the parties were strawberry themed. 

Birthday party with friends cake.

Birthday party with family cake.

The first cake was a teeny cake (for a tiered cake of course) because there were only a few party guests. The bottom tier was a 6 inch 3 layer cake, while the top tier was only a 4 inch 3 layer cake. I used white cake and filled the layers with white chocolate mousse and fresh sliced strawberries. After stacking the tiers and frosting them up with vanilla buttercream, I piped all of the swirls and stripes finishing it off with mini candy strawberries I made out of color flow icing. The topper was 3 hand dipped white chocolate covered strawberries rolled in pink sanding sugars. The end result was perfect for a small party.

Addison's second birthday cake for her family party was similar to the first, but still different. I wanted her to be surprised again. I didn't want her to see this cake I had spent hours working on only to think, "It's the same as last time." She probably wouldn't have cared much because cake is cake, but to me it had to be special.

I used the pink and green again, but this time the cake was much bolder in color. I loved it. I was also able to use the same color flow icing strawberries I made for the first cake, and they still had matched well.

One obvious change besides the color was the piping. I did paisley on the bottom tier this time around. It's so girly and cute. (Just like Miss Addison.) I love the way it turned out on this cake. 

This cake was slightly larger with a 8 inch 4 layer bottom tier and a 6 inch 4 layer top tier. The cake was alternating layers of vanilla and milk chocolate cakes filled with vanilla buttercream.

Classic. Simple. Delicious. Appeals to most everyone. 

I kept the topper the same just because it's cute and fits perfectly with the theme. 

Chloe's First Birthday Party

What better theme for a little one's first birthday party than Sesame Street? Love it. I also loved the way her cake turned out, and I think she did too.

Sesame Street first birthday.

Sesame Street Birthday Cake

Three tiers iced in vanilla buttercream and covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. Each tier was a different flavor. Bottom (10") tier is chocolate cake, middle tier (8") is confetti sprinkle cake, and top tier (6") is dark chocolate cake.

Elmo Smash Cake

In addition to the birthday cake, I made my very first attempt at cake pops- the wildly popular bite size pieces of cake on a lollipop stick and dipped in chocolate- yes please! I used Bakerella's recipe and tutorial when making these and they turned out great!

Elmo

Oscar

Cookie Monster

Big Bird

The kids loved them, the adults loved them, and many people almost didn't believe they were edible.

Time for the smash cake

Happy Birthday Chloe, can't wait for next year!

Hannah's 9th Birthday Cake

Hannah is the eldest daughter of some friends of mine and Brian's from church. For her 9th birthday I was able to make her cake, and I was told that she loves pink. Recent inspiration came from a photo I saw of three dark brown colored cakes with bright flowers on top. They were gorgeous, and to me pink and brown is a perfect combination.

The cake was a white cake filled with chocolate mousse and covered in chocolate ganache- yum! The lilies were made out of royal icing. I also dyed the cake layers two different shades of pink and swirled them together, it baked up perfectly.

White cake dyed pink after baking.

Leveled cake layer.