2009 in Cakes

Let me just start by saying we ate a ton of cake last year! Yum, yum, yum!

I had so much fun branching out with cake decorating that I want to share some of my handiwork with you. Not really share it, because, you know, you can't eat cake over the internet. But share it by just letting you look at it. I guess that's kind of bad sharing when it comes to cake, isn't it?

Anyway...

I guess it's more about sharing the events that prompted the need for so many cakes. So here's some highlights of our year in cake! (Yup, just pictures. Not real food. Sorry.)

Here's my first cake of the year, and my inspiration to push on with new cake designs all year. It's pirate ships that I made for one of Wesley's friend's birthday parties.

My mother-in-law's birthday is in February, and I made her this little retro chiffon cake. Unfortunately, it didn't taste too great. But it was oh so pretty!

My brother's birthday is in March. Once Valentine's Day is history, don't you think you need another shot of chocolate? This is Burnt Sugar Candy Bar Cake. It was probably just about the best cake I made all year. We ate it at TGI Friday's and we got a lot of stares. But we were very selfish and didn't share any with strangers or waitresses. We're so rude.

Okay, well, I didn't make this chunk of cake, but I did share it! We had this when J--- & L--- visited from Iowa. We went out to a very fancy steakhouse with NO children. We were tickled pink that we could fit in a booth! Of course, squeezing out of the booth was a little harder after the cake.

I made Maypole cupcakes on May Day. They were so cute! Check out our plates, too. "April showers bring May flowers!"

My parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary so I made them a real wedding cake. They eloped and didn't have a wedding, so I wanted to give them a fancy cake. The layers were all different, but I remember that the butter cake with sweet lime curd was definitely the tastiest.

See the sweet couple? They agree, the butter cake with lime curd was the best! (Mmmm, curd...sounds gross, tastes yummy.)

Happy birthday to C---! She turned 4 last summer and we celebrated with a butterfly birthday party.
W--- turned 6 in the fall, about the same time he got into bug collecting. So it seemed appropriate to eat a choc-roach. I experimented with marshmallow fondant and I was really surprised at how great it turned out. We were going to stuff this baby with vanilla pudding so its guts could ooze out when we cut into it, but we thought that was taking the gross-out factor too far. That and I couldn't fit it into the fridge.

J--- turned 1 in the fall, so I made him the cutest cake of the year. This was easy to decorate and I was completely satisfied with the results. My sweet tooth was completely satisfied, too!

Our gingerbread house isn't a cake, but it wanted to fit in with the cakes, so I'm letting it. We let the kids do the decorating on this and we try to keep our intereference to a minimum. We also bring in reinforcements--my parents are always here to help for this. We'd probably go crazy if they weren't!

That wraps up 2009, but I did just make a cake for my husband's birthday, and it didn't want to be left out either! This is a cookies-n-cream cake, my husband's all-time favorite. Mmm, a great way to start off another year of cakes!