September 10th, 2010
The recipient of this birthday cake was a man who loves his job as a construction worker. His wife wanted to emphasize that on his cake. She told me I had creative freedom but she did say that he wears a hard hat and works with a hammer on a daily basis. She also told me that he was employed by a specific labor union (that's the logo). This is the cake I came up with.
This cake was a marbled yellow and fudge cake with vanilla buttercream filling and icing with fondant accents. It was just a small cake to feed a handful of people but was still really cute... as "cute" as a cake can get for a construction worker!
The sides of the cake were probably my favorite part. The stripes weren't necessarily hard but I just think they add to the overall theme of the cake and they basically MAKE the cake! The hammer and hard hat were hand sculpted out of fondant. I don't think they were my best work but I still think they are not only recognizable but also cute!
The hardest, most difficult, extremely time-consuming, nerve wracking, etc., etc., etc... Can you tell I was stressed out about this part? The logo for his local laborers union was super hard to get it right. I had to hand cut out three different layers of fondant (navy blue as the base, white accents, and red accents). After I situated the layers on top of each other it still didn't look exactly right. I proceeded to hand paint more accents onto the piece. Now it's not an exact replica but I think it looks pretty darn good!
This cake turned out great, or at least I thought it did! The birthday boy agreed with me as well and loved it. Hopefully next year, he will want a cake that does not have that logo that has me shaking in my house shoes - because that was really hard!
"We absolutely LOVED the cake you did for Brandon's birthday! He said it was the BEST birthday cake he has ever had! You do amazing work and we will be ordering more cakes from you!" -Jennifer S.
September 3rd, 2010
This cake was for a friend of the family. Her parents are friends with my parents, her and I are friends, and the two of us are friends with each other's siblings. We are a close knit group!
Her parents have similar birthdays and the entire family goes to their lake house at the Lake of the Ozarks every year for Labor Day weekend to celebrate. The family stays there for an entire week so she wanted to make sure they had enough cake to last the entire time. She decided to add coordinating cupcakes to go along with the cake.
The birthday couple love their specific drinks and that was the theme for this cake. Sheryl loves her margaritas so that had to be depicted on the cake. The rim of the margarita glass was even lined with "salt" which actually was sugar.
Terry loves his scotch and that's what that glass of brown substance is on the cake. I feel like that needed to said seeing as that glass with ice could have been a glass of anything. Although, he knew what it was and that's all the matters!
The actual cake was a white cake with vanilla buttercream filling and icing. The cupcakes were strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. The "chocolate sauce" on the cupcakes was chocolate buttercream and the "cherries" were hand sculpted fondant. Everyone cheered for the cake and it lasted just the right amount of time and no one had to bring any leftovers home!
"Alicia--you are simply amazing! The cake you made for us was perfect and far exceeded my expectations!! I loved everything about it!!" -Stephanie P.
August 27th, 2010
This cake was for a birthday boy who loves the city he lives in... Kansas City! He wanted a cake that depicted the downtown Kansas City skyline, what little one there is!
I chose to do this cake in the Kansas City Royals Blue with black fondant accents for the buildings. The cake is a white cake with vanilla buttercream. There are also red sprinkles on the cake at the tops of the buildings and the windows on all the buildings were hand painted. This cake was fun to do but very time consuming even though it may not look like it. I had to make sure that I got the major buildings right and that you could tell it was Kansas City and not some other city! I think I did a pretty good job!
The top of the cake had hand piped writing in a font that looked like graffiti. Around the edge of the top I did the KC logo just to reinforce the fact that this cake was for a fan of the city!
Okay, now get ready for the next few pics. I couldn't put together a panaramic picture of the entire cake so I took pictures of one chunk of the cake at a time all the way around. So scroll through them and see if you can figure out which buildings are which!
Are you ready.... get set.... GO!
August 21st, 2010
This cake was ordered from a friend for her sister and sister's boyfriend. They have birthdays that are near each other on the calendar so they threw a joint birthday party. The party was a pool party so the cake had to match the theme of course!
The top tier of this cake (the pool) was a white cake with strawberry filling and iced in vanilla buttercream. The actual water was piping gel dyed blue. The bottom tier (the yard) was a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling and icing.
Alyssa and Cole (the birthday couple) met on a dating website (plentyoffish.com) and Alyssa's sister Stephanie wanted that to be incorporated. The fish were hand sculpted along with the inner tubes and fun noodles. Alyssa's fish is on the left in case you couldn't tell by those big fish lips!
In addition to the buttercream icing, this cake had many fondant accents. The towel, beach ball, and flip flops were some of them just to name a few. The couple loved the cake and it was a huge splash at the party! It fit the theme perfectly and Alyssa and Cole were in awe of the extra ideas I threw into this cake.
"I couldn't have asked for a better birthday cake for our birthday! The details were so amazing! It made our birthday feel so much more special that she incorporated the personal details into our cake! Everyone loved it and it tasted amazing! Thank you so much!" -Alyssa V.
August 15th, 2010
This cake was by far my most ambitious cake, I think, to date but also REALLY fun to do!
The birthday boy for this cake was far from being a little boy - he was turning 105!!!! His daughter in law came to me and told me about how he was a retired doctor and how she really wanted to see an old fashioned medical bag for the cake. She also told me that he played the saxophone to pay his way through medical school and wanted that incorporated as well, if possible. WELL IT WAS!
This cake was extra fun to make because I got to mold all the individual tools and accesories that went with the bag. Note* Unfortunately I was not able to sculpt a saxophone so that is the only part of this cake that is not edible, besides the wires.
A syringe - complete with blood in the shaft!
Pill bottles and pills (which are Tic Tacs, by the way!)
A surgical mask.
A doctor's prescription pad. This prescription was to have a happy birthday!
The medical emblem on the front of the medical bag.
Musical notes exploding out of the saxophone.
And here's a close up of the inedible saxophone. :( It still looks good though!
This cake served 35-40 people depending on the size of the serving. It was a white cake with chocolate buttercream filling and icing underneath a layer of fondant. The bag was hand sculpted and everything (besides the saxophone) was handmade by yours truly! This cake has by far become one of my more talked about cakes that I have done!
"The cake was absolutely spectacular. Everyone including the birthday boy loved it. You did a wonderful job on it and all of the family was very impressed. Your design and execution exceeded our expectation and it tasted really good too. Thank you for a truly exemplary cake." -Charlotte G.
August 13th, 2010
The recipient of this birthday cake was a friend's niece who was turning 18. She wanted her mom to order a cake from me but her mom told her she couldn't get a hold of me. Little did she know her mom and I were conspiring against her... in a good way!
The cake matched the colors of her party (purple, yellow, and the black and white of the zebra print) and all the guests loved it. I was also compared to Buddy the Cake Boss! WOW! What a compliment! The top tier was white cake with vanilla buttercream filling and the bottom tier is chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling. The entire cake was covered in fondant and even though some people do not like the taste of fondant, Cassi's birthday party guests loved every ounce of it!
She also is a huge fan of hippos so her mom wanted to incorporate that into the cake as well. She envisioned the hippo in the yellow tutu in the movie Fantasia. This was my interpretation. The birthday girl (and her guests) LOVED her cake and she was super excited to be surprised by a cake from Buttercream Dreams!
These cupcakes were for a man who got a promotion at Target. His wife ordered these so that they would match the overall theme of the party - Target! There were red and white decorations all over their home and the guests wore red shirts with khaki pants, an homage to the Target uniform. It was a surprise party so the guest of honor had no idea that there was going to be a party, let alone cupcakes, but he loved them!
The cupcakes were chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and vanilla buttercream icing. There were three different versions of the little cuppies. The target logo was made from fondant.
The red sprinkles were just your average everyday giant sprinkles.
And the last design was made from red candy melts squeezed all over the top of these cupcakes.
These cupcakes were a hit not only because they were delicious but also because they matched the surprise party so well!
August 7th, 2010
I received another order for just a smash cake, which is a bummer that I couldn't make the main cake for the party as well, but I'll take what I can get.
This cake was ordered last minute but it was fun to make because the mother of the birthday boy had some special requests. She wanted a lower sugar cake and icing, which was difficult, but in the end it all worked out. It was a yellow cake with vanilla buttercream icing. Both were reduced sugar variations of the normal cake and icing that I make. She also wanted the smash cake to match the theme and decorations of the party so she sent me this picture.
I think i did pretty well matching it to the decorations! Especially only having a picture and not seeing any of these decorations in person! The little birthday boy had a great smash cake to destroy that matched his entire party! I'm sure he loved it!
July 24th, 2010
This is Todd with his cake for his "Toddapalooza" party. He got hired on at a company where he was referred to by a friend. The two coworkers got bonuses and decided to throw a work party with all the money instead of spending it on themselves. What a great idea! His good friends wanted a cowboy gun slinger cake a la the video game Red Dead Redemption. I think this cake screams wild wild west!
The cake was half red velvet and half chocolate (alternating layers) with cream cheese filling and icing. My mouth is watering just thinking about this delicious creation!
The sign was handcut and handpainted made from gumpaste. It added to the overall theme of the cake and displayed the name of the party - Toddapalooza!
The sides of the cake were airbrushed to look like a western sunset. The cacti and broken wagon wheels were made from fondant.
The silohette on the top of the cake was an exact copy of the silohette on the front of the game Red Dead Redemption which is exactly what the cake was about. I was lucky enough to be invited to this party and it was so much fun but needless to say there wasn't any cake left at the end of the night!
July 10th, 2010
This was my first bridal shower cake and yes it was for a real bridal shower. The sister of the groom ordered this one to celebrate with at the bridal shower. She wanted something to incorporate not only the most important part of a wedding - the dress, but also the happy couple's wedding colors, which were brown and teal.
This was a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling and the bride on the top of the cake was made from pure fondant. Here's a close up of the bodice of the wedding dress.
Not only did the ladies at the shower love it but so did the bride-to-be. Unfortunately the happy couple was getting married on Catalina Island and that would have been a HUGE delivery charge so I wasn't able to make their wedding cake. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding Mary!
"It was so beautiful and the cake was SO good! Thank you again :)" - Kirby W.
July 17th, 2010
MY FIRST WEDDING CAKE!
Just kidding! Did I get ya?! This was for a local dance club that meets 4 times a year and has a themed party and dance. This time their theme was a hillbilly wedding complete with food from the road kill cafe, a bride and groom that was anything but traditional, and a lot of camouflage!
The top tier of this cake was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and the bottom tiers were white cake with vanilla buttercream. The cake was done up to look like a wedding cake... with a little twist!
Yes those are beer cans!
Yes those are pop tabs and beer bottle tops! All of which were cleaned profusely and stuck on the cake to look "elegant"! This cake was really fun to do and I always joke that this was my first wedding cake but in reality I'm still waiting for that order.
Here's a picture of the cake at the hillbilly reception. I think it fits the bill pretty well!
July 3rd, 2010
Every little kid loves Shrek and this birthday girl was no different!
This cake was my first carved cake. It was very difficult and isn't an exact replica of the ugly green ogre but I think it turned out well. I incorporated the little side cake for more servings and carved it into a little thought bubble with the Shrek font.
This cake was a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling. The birthday girl loved it and definitely could tell that it was Shrek - dirty teeth and all!
"Thanks for the YUMMY cake Alicia!" -Tracy R.
June 12th, 2010
This was my first smash cake... EVER! I loved doing it with the idea in my head that it would be destroyed hours after I was done with it by a little girl turning one! Charlie's aunt ordered this cake for her and just requested something girly and rockstar-ish. Here's what I came up with.
The cake was a white cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant accents. It was fun to have creative freedom with this one so naturally I had to include some flowers around the side of the cake - you can't get more girly than that?
I decided that I would make a gumpaste #1 that coordinates with the cake for every smash cake I make, unless the parents have a candle instead. Here's the "one" I made for this cake.
"Alicia, thanks for the cake!! It was great and she loved it. She dug right in." -Eric M.
For anyone that is interested in ordering just a smash cake here's the prices: $10.00 for buttercream icing only and $15.00 for fondant accents. A smash cake is included in the price of a first birthday cake and will coordinate with the main cake. I love making them and suggest them with any first birthday cake you order!
June 29th, 2010
The Twilight hype has gotten into the cake business as well and who am I to turn down a great idea for a cake! This was for a birthday girl that loves her Twilight movies and her birthday just happened to land on the day that Twilight Eclipse came out in theaters!
This cake was a chocolate cake with cream cheese filling and icing. The cake was then covered with fondant. The top of the cake was the logo from the movie whereas the red scarf around the cake was part of the cover image on the book.
The birthday girl had no idea that this was going to be the design of her but what better way to celebrate a birthday than to eat a piece of Twilight Eclipse themed cake and then go watch the movie?! Needless to say, she loved it!
June 5th, 2010
The last of the graduation cakes for the 2010 season was one for two high school seniors who are best friends but divided by two different colleges.
This two tiered cake was all chocolate with vanilla buttercream filling. The girls wanted all the attention to be on the decoration of the cake instead of a fancy flavor.
The top tier was dedicated to their high school - Goodbye Saint Thomas Aquinas!
And the bottom tier was divided between the two girls' respective colleges - Hello KSU & MU!
All the logos were hand cut out of fondant. The Missouri tiger was extremely difficult but I think they all turned out great!
Congratulations Emily and Liz - Class of 2010!
"We loved our cake so much, thank you! :) Everyone asked where it was from, so we will be passing your name along for other events. Thanks so much." -Emily S.
And with that cake I will close the graduation season, but can't wait for the orders for next year!
June 2nd, 2010
Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. The man that ordered this cake wanted a cake that was moist, chocolate, and delicious with rich chocolate icing. I came up with this chocolately cake!
Doesn't it just make your mouth water?!?! Can you taste the chocolatyness?!?! This cake was a chocolate cake with chocolate chunks. It was iced with chocolate buttercream and then drowned in chocolate ganache.
This cake was THE definition of DEATH BY CHOCOLATE! Yumm!
May 27th, 2010
A break from graduation cakes is definitely in order. This cake was for a guy who loves funky colors, skateboarding, big bold patterns, and just overall fun. Here is what I came up with along with the help of his sister.
This cake was a surprise for the birthday boy, Michael and included all of his favorite things! The Kansas City Royals and the Famous Stars and Stripes logo were hand cut and patterned on the cake to compliment the argyle on the sides of the cake.
The writing on the top of the cake was handpiped to look like graffiti along with some skateboarding companies logos.
Michael's cake was a white cake with strawberry filling, another classic combination. This cake was fun to make and the bright colors and designs make this cake definitively one of a kind!
May 23rd, 2010
Sheet cakes are not my favorite because they can be so plain, but they work so well for a lot of servings and easy cutting. Sean's cake was a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing. I tried to spruce up this sheet cake with a little extra design on the sides of the cake.
Sean graduated from Blue Valley West in Overland Park, Kansas and their mascot is the Husky. He will be attending Kansas State University in the fall where their mascot is the powercat.
Congratulations Sean - Class of 2010!
"I loved this cake! Not only the awesome decoration, but the taste. Alicia did a superb job on my son's graduation cake! I would recommend her for any occasion!" -Lyn F.
May 22nd, 2010
Here's Janelle, another 2010 graduate with a cake made especially for her. It was a surprise from her mom, and let me tell you, Janelle had no idea!
The cake was a strawberry cake with vanilla buttercream filling. Janelle's mom wanted a funky design to match the colors of Janelle's high school.
The little balls around the outside were gumballs and the cake board was made special to match the pattern of the cake.
P.S. These photos are courtesy of Janelle's mom Heidi. You can see her photography website here.
Congrats Janelle - Class of 2010!
This was another graduation cake, more traditional than the last with a little twist.
This high school senior loves her tiger print and just had to have that a part of her cake! The bow was hand painted to match the cake board.
Lexi's cake was a classic combination of white cake with chocolate buttercream filling (bottom tier) and chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling (top tier).
Here's a close up of her high school's logo - Saint Thomas Aquinas of Overland Park, Kansas and a close up of the school she will be going to in the fall - Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.
Congratulations Lexi - Class of 2010!
MAY 15th, 2010
Here it is, my FIRST cake order! Welcome to the world of caking, Alicia!
This was a graduation cake for two girls, Megan and Amanda - also known as Megs and Manders. Both tiers were confetti cake (white cake with multicolored sprinkles) with vanilla buttercream filling. I used pink, white, and yellow gumball to outline both tiers. These two girls took a different route for their graduation party cake and they loved it!
Congrats Megan and Amanda - Class of 2010!
