Mr. Peacock!

Last Tuesday, my son came to me and asked if I'd make a birthday cake for his friend. He said she'd never had a homemade cake, only a cake bought from the store. I didn't have much going on that week and no cakes were on the schedule... so I said yes. Then he began telling me he needed it by Friday... and that she really likes peacocks. Oh yeah... and that he'd like it to be a checkerboard cake!

Ummmm... I began to sweat just a little. (Bless his heart, I'm sure he didn't realize how much work this cake was going to be.) I'd never made a peacock cake before, but I thought it would be a fun cake to decorate. Plus I could put on my blog. Ohhhhhhh, the things I'll do for my my son and my followers! ;)

If you've ever decorated a fancy cake, you know it can take quite a while to do. It's usually not a project you can finish in a day or two or even three. I began thinking about ALL those peacock feathers... the head & body of the bird... trying to make the fondant look like feathers... mixing those amazing peacock colors... then there's designing the rest of the cake! Well, I knew I was going to be very busy for the next few days!

My terrific son helped out by baking the cake for me. It was a strawberry and vanilla checkerboard cake. He did a great job and the cake turned out perfect.

In the end, I only had one really late night and finished Mr. Peacock in plenty of time. My son's friend loved the cake! Her family even invited all the neighbors over to take a look. She said the cake was too pretty, and that she didn't want to cut into it. They did finally eat it after a couple of days.

Later she gave me a cute hand written card. In the card she thanked me and said it was "honestly" the best birthday present she'd ever received!
(That warmed my heart.)

Problems...

I have a problem. I'm unable to see a few of the pictures on my blog or on some other blogs. I need to know if you can see the pictures I've uploaded in my last couple of posts... Anyone else having problems?
Thanks so much!

Bird Cage Cake

Sometimes people ask me where I get ideas for my cakes. My honest answer is... everywhere. I can get inspiration from fabric, paper, drawings, jewelry, pictures, clothing, colors, different techniques, home decorating, crafts, and even the hardware store! The possibilities are endless!!!

This bird cage cake has always been one of my favorites. It was soooo much fun to decorate! I made it for my daughter's 18th birthday. When I asked her what she wanted, she told me she wanted a cake with bird cages as the theme.

Hmmmmm, there are a lot of cakes with birds on them, but bird cages??? I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I went to Google... of course. I typed in "bird cage drawings" and clicked on Google images. Then I began searching. Wham! There it was... right away I found my inspiration! These drawings jumped out at me because #1. they're adorably cute and  #2. I knew she'd love the color combination. (Her bedroom has the same colors.) I usually have to change things quite a bit to meet my needs, but these colors were already perfect... I love it when things are simplified for me!

Here are the drawings I found on Google images.

I love the way this cake combined different techniques... quilling, applique, and harlequin decorating. It was the first time I'd attempted quilling. (The flat ribbons of fondant that are looped and curled.) My quilling was very simple, but there are some gorgeous cakes out there with very intricate quilling patterns. So maybe in the future I'll attempt a more difficult design.

Next time you're fresh out of ideas for cakes... "Google it". You might just like what you find!!!