Birdie Baby Shower Cake Squares

Last week, a girlfriend asked if I could make a cake for a baby shower she was throwing.  I suggested that she go with cake squares instead of just a cake -- maybe that's a southern thing, they seem to be something new to alot of my friends.  It's pretty much just a pre-cut sheet cake.  It's really nice at a shower because no one gets stuck cutting slices of cake for everyone.

My friend sent me the invitation as inspiration and that's when I got really excited!  Here's the top section of the invite -- I'm not even sure what the rest of the invite looks like because I just fell in love with that birdy at first sight.


I just loved it!  I knew I wanted to create that bird on the cake somehow.  I started out with fondant but I couldn't get exactly what I wanted.  So I pulled out the royal icing to see if I could make a little birdie worthy of the cake squares.

I traced the bird onto a sheet of paper that I used under a sheet of wax paper as a template that I piped white Royal Icing over.  I let them dry overnight and then I used a white pearl dust (mixed with a little vodka to make it stick and then evaporate) for a little sparkle.  I cut a few flowers out of my homemade pink fondant for a little color.

I baked a 13x9 chocolate cake using Barefoot Contessa's recipe -- it's my favorite!  I frosted it with a vanilla buttercream and cut it into squares.  I bet it would be great to show you a picture here of what that looks like... but I didn't take one.  Oops!  I piped pretty pink icing to cover up the cuts and outline the squares.  I used the flowers and birds to decorate each piece.

I hope the shower guests enjoyed eating this cake as much as I enjoyed making it!

I'm linking up!!!  Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Too Cute Tuesday, These Chicks Cooked, Works for Me Wednesday, Cast Party Wednesday, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, Foodie Wednesday, Thrilling Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Sweet Treats Thursday, Turning the Table Thursday, Sweet Tooth Friday, Chic & Crafty Party, I'm Lovin It, Tasty Thursday, Bake with Bizzy, Friday Favorites, Fun with Food Friday, Foodie Friday, Friday Flair, Sweets for a Saturday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Beach Party Cupcake Toppers

For the last few years, I have been charged with creating my nephews' birthday cakes. It's always something fun and I love working with the boys to decide what they want! This past weekend we had a birthday party for my oldest nephew and it was at the river - a beach party theme. Lot's of swimming and splashing and... CUPCAKES!

I loved making him cupcakes. He has decided that he likes chocolate cake. His mommy does not. So usually, I don't make chocolate cake for him. When you do cupcakes, it's easy to do a variety. I made some vanilla cupcakes along with these chocolate beauties.

So they looked really yummy and I know he would have been happy with these, but...  he really wanted them decorated with some of his favorite sea creatures.  He had adorable pajamas on one morning that had crabs, sharks, and octopuses.  I snapped a photo of each creature with my iPhone and thought about how to make them.  Here's what I came up with...

I cannot believe how cute they turned out!  I used the pictures on my iPhone as a template for the designs.  I pulled up the photos on my phone and laid wax paper on top.  I then traced the basic design of each.  I used these outlines under the sheets of wax paper that I piped Royal Icing onto as guides for where to draw.  I just used the basic Wilton recipe for the icing.  I outlined the shape of each animal and immediately flooded each one and let them dry overnight.  The next day, after removing them from the wax paper, I piped on the white for the eyes, gills, and mouths.  I used a black food color pen to add the black dots to the eyes on each design.  The day before the party, I rolled out homemade marshmallow fondant and cut our the circles to mount them on.  I used a little of the leftover icing to secure the critters to the fondant and then I decided to add bubbles!  That always makes me think of Finding Nemo :)...

Here they are on the cupcakes -

And here's the Happy Birthday boy with his cupcakes!  He's a cutie!!!

Linking up at

This Chick Cooks' These Chicks Cooked

We Are That Family's Worked for Me Wednesday

Sugar and Dot's What I Whipped Up Wednesday

Lady Behind the Curtain's Cast Party Wednesday

Paisley Passions' Thrilling Thursday

Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursday

The Frugal Girls' Chic & Crafty Party

Simply Sweet Home's Friday Favorites

Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin' It

Alli-n-Son's Sweet Tooth Friday

Little Brick Ranch's Foodie Friday

WhipperBerry's Friday Flair

Sweet as Sugar Cookie's Sweets for Saturday

A Well Seasoned Life's Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Nap Time Creations' Tasty Tuesday

Funky Polkadot Giraffe's Too Cute Tuesday

Screaming Sardine's Month Long Cupcake Party

Blueberry Ruffle Cake

This weekend, I had berries that I needed to use, again.  I know, I know, what a problem to have!  I decided to make a strawberry cake and I'll share that recipe in a later post. 

For today, I thought I'd share how I iced the cake.  I used this method because I just didn't want to worry with getting the icing smooth.  Sometimes, I just can't be bothered with picture perfect icing.  This is a great way to cheat!  And it turned out really cute...



I first applied a crumb coat of icing to the cake.  I wanted to make sure that I didn't have any cake peaking through if my ruffle lines weren't perfect.

I then used my 102 tip to pipe a stripe of icing against the very bottom of the cake.  The line doesn't need to be very flat -- in fact, wiggles and bumps make it even more interesting since we're trying to make it look like a ruffle.  I then worked my way up the side of the cake letting each line slightly overlap the line below it.

Once I made it to the top of the cake, I just kept on making ruffles into the center of the cake.  I left an area on top to fill with blueberries.  I wish that I had left even more room for them because each bite of this cake with a blueberry in it was just wonderful.  I loved it!

This post is linked up at:

      Sugar & Dots What I Whipped Up Wednesday

      We Are That Family Works for Me Wednesday

Jump on over to these pages to find lots of other fun posts!