My Version of the Shell Cake

It's sad that I look at this and think "Cool, Mom".

My Pinterest board is choked with girls' birthday party decor, because I love crafting Tootie Pie's birthdays.  The cake, being the centerpiece of the day, was the origin of all this looniness, since I made a Care Bear cake for her third birthday.  My husband, dull as he is, when he was prodded for praise on my glorious concoction, replied " you just copied it from the internet", as if there's a button for creating a Care Bear cake.  Four years ago and I'm still harboring resentment.

Her fourth birthday was celebrated at school, and I made a poorly documented Rainbow Leprechaun Trap cake.  Her classmates loved it, since there was a story behind it and, of course, a leprechaun trapped inside under the gold coins.  How cute!  For her fifth, the Princess Castle cake, which I think was the pinnacle of my cake making days.  For her sixth, a store bought pink cake that I tarted up with fondant flowers and a fondant Hello Kitty!  And, for this birthday, the shell cake. 


Please notice the shell chair she's sitting on.  Thank goodness
I'm a teacher and have gallon bottles of glue and glitter coming
out my ears!

Making cakes is kind of like giving birth; you forget how painful it is, so that you'll foolhardily repeat the process.  It takes hours, nay, days to make, and mere moments to disappear.  But, I know I will someday miss the days when my Tootie Pie would dream up her theme, and I'd research and improvise and stress and in the end, make her dream come true.  If the rest of her dreams were so easily achieved!

I followed this tutorial closely, just adding the mermaid detail, and crafting the top shell out of Rice Krispie treats instead of another cake on cardboard.  The mermaid was a doll from Tootie Pie's collection, who just happened to have pink hair; I removed her legs with a hot knife (she was hard plastic), and added a fondant tail.  To the cake dish I added brown sugar "sand" and pink and white chocolate shells to complete the look.  Each guest got Rice Krispie treats, cake, and chocolate.  Sugar fest!

The gallery of Birthday Cakes Past:

The cake that started it all: her third birthday
"Chris" cake - she loved the Care Bears
because her cousin gave her the plush version
but she'd never seen the show.  Hence, this
was "Chris" instead of Cheer Bear or
Whoever.

Her fourth birthday I made a rainbow leprechaun surprise
cake.  The sign was to trap the leprechaun inside with a
promise of gold.  Her classmates were intrigued by the premise.

A shot of the inside rainbow.  And a goofball.

This was probably the greatest of all my cakes, for her fifth birthday.

Six was a Hello Kitty theme.



Who knows what next year will bring?

Fondant Kitty

Hello! Kitty!  Squeal!  She's so cute.  I made her out of marshmallow fondant.  Cake topper for next week.  Her dress is still a little marbled, but do you think anyone will notice.  No!  I think they will be in shock from her adorableness.

Alright, I have so much fun planning these parties.  It is a ton of work, but so creative and I love every minute of it!  It's a great release of stress and tension of the real world.  Here's hoping I get my reveal done for the Undersized Urbanite contest.  It's due tonight!  Of course it is!

My Latest Miniature Masterpiece Castle

This miniature castle was created in 3 days and lasted around 15 minutes.  It was a challenge, but it was fun.  My inspiration was the princess cake from coolest-birthday-cakes.com.  That site has some great cakes!  The bottom is a frosted upside-down pan, just like the original.  If I hadn't gotten ahold of that secret, I'd be baking all night and we'd be having cake for another half a year.  The towers are flat bottomed and pointy ice cream cones.  The princesses are Polly Pockets run through the dishwasher, the railings are yogurt covered pretzels, and the rest is a marshmallow fondant covered cake. 

 

I love my yearly, or biannual, cake making experiences.  And my husband had the good sense to NOT say that I just copied it  from the internet, like he did with my Care Bear cake.  If there is a button on the web that I could just print a cake from, that would be an IPO I'd get behind!  The smile on my daughter's face makes the work worth it.  Happy Mother's Day to the Moms and all they do!