Castle Cake for Abby and Cate

This is Abby (5) and Cate's (3) birthday cake. Their birthdays are both in the first week of March so we did their party together.  They told me they wanted a Princess Cake and I was going to do the Princess Doll cakes but I decided since I hadn't done a castle cake before I would try it.  I had a blast doing it and lots of fun doing the detail work.  I wanted to do a moat and bridge but I simply ran out of time. 



This is a chocolate cake from Ron Ben Israel's recipe  Chocolate Layer Cake. It can put you into a chocolate coma, which isn't a bad thing for some.  I used the same butter cream recipe and fondant recipes that I have used in other cakes, but I am about to bust out and find different recipes.

I used a plywood board for the cake board.  Very helpful for heavy cakes.  I covered it with foil.
 

Cate carefully checked out each thing on the Castle.  I put the plastic Princesses on the cake so they could have a toy when they were done eating the cake.  Abby checked out the cake too.  The girls dressed up as princesses and their guests wore whatever costume they wanted.

 

The front door garnishments were made from a Wilton silicone mold and then painted with bronze luster dust and vodka.  The vodka evaporates and leaves the dust adhered to the fondant. 

 

The walkway was Wilton Pink Sugar Sprinkles.  I made the flowers out of gum paste and used some Wilton flower sprinkles to fill in the extra spaces.

 I bought the crowns and princess hearts from Walmart.  They are Wilton decorations.  I made the baby roses out of fondant.  I used royal icing for the leaves on the tree and around the roses. I also used royal icing to glue on details.

 

My favorite thing to make was the "bird bath".  It was also the hardest.  But I think it turned out super cute.  I also like the stairs leading up to one of the side doors on the turret and the little vase of roses at the edge of the balcony at the top of the stairs.

The girls were so excited for the birthday party.  Their grandparents from Main flew out just for the occasion as did their Aunt and Uncle from Montana.  You can tell they just love to be Princesses.

Davy's Fourth Birthday Cake - Buzz Lightyear and Friends

 This cake was fun to do.  At first I didn't know what to do but I figured out how to make the aliens after doing some research on line.  The Buzz Lightyear is a toy that Davy gets to play with when all the partying is over.

The fondant turned out much better on this cake.  I still used the Marshmallow Recipe, but I am planning on checking into buying fondant on line. 

I used the Funfetti cake mix.  Davy likes sprinkles, a lot!  So I always do this because it is his favorite.

For doing a theme cake I think it turned out pretty good.  There is always room for improvement and I can see things in this cake I would do differently but all in all I really like it.