Watercolor Fish Cake

My in laws came into town the other weekend to celebrate my father-in-laws big 66 birthday. That's the retirement age and a "big" deal. They live in Eastern Washington about 2 hours away, so it is always fun for them to come over to the "big" city and play. We lucked out weather-wise fortunately.

 My mother-in-law asked me if I would make a special cake for him for his birthday and of course I said yes! He is very much into fishing and so I started brainstorming ideas for the cake. Obviously I wanted it to be watery. I have seen a lot of techniques using fondant to make the waves or a ruffle in buttercream around the cake. I love the ruffle look but I thought maybe a bit "girlie"

Watercolor cake- Top of the cake

Naturally, I started my research on pinterest. I looked up "fish themed cake" and I saw this really cool one of a fish (made from fondant or gum paste) jumping out of the water...BINGO! That is what I wanted to do. 

The "Big" One Fish Themed Cake

 If you haven't noticed my quotations around "big" in this post then I am pointing them out now because this indeed is a "big" birthday. I loved the play on word of "big" as it relates to fishing.

For dinner we went to Ivar's on the piers to even suit the fish themed birthday even more. Unbeknownst to him as it was a bit of a surprise cake. I love the look on his face in this picture! He is thinking of his birthday wish but is just so tickled with joy at the same time! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Succulents Don't Suck

If you are like me and obsessed with succulents then this blog post is for you! I have been dying to play around with some piped buttercream techniques to make them. I did some in depth research, by first visiting my local craft store to take some pictures of the fake ones to see the shape and the coloring. I then read up on some techniques online to make them and checked out what other people have been doing and the possibilities are just endless!

Succulent Garden Cake

 What's your favorite succulent? There are just so many fun ones to choose from. And of course I don't know all the "technical" names for them. On the cake I like the spiky one that looks like a zinnia (the minty green one on the right). I also liked making the ones that stick straight up and are also spiky.

Another fun thing I got to try on this cake is playing around with gold leaf. It is SUPER delicate and has a static cling reaction when you peel it off. I got it all over me the first time. Luckily that is why I bought extra haha. I think what I love most about having it on the side of the cake is that it almost looks like the succulents are growing on top of a rock. My husband was the one who actually pointed that out to me. And I think he is right especially since it is a "Semi-naked" cake. It does look very earthy.

 The technique to make them are relatively easy. I used the petal tip, leaf tip and star tip to make most of them. The lime green spiky ones I used a #5 round tip to make them stand up straight.

Succulent Cake 

I was debating about making themed for Mother's Day and still thinking they would be a fun option. However, I just got my hands on some Russian piping tips which I am super excited to try out. (I am hopefully going to get to that this weekend.) And if all goes well then I will have a tough decision to make.

Succulent Cupcakes

Another fun little baking project I got to do was succulents on cupcakes! How cute are these?! And yes I may have added a couple cute little cactus themed ones in there too because I like them. 

Succulent Buttercream Cupcakes

Various Succulent flower cupcakes

See the little minty guy above. He's my fave