Finished Birthday Cakes

I apologize for my lack of photography skills in these pics. But, I was extremely busy with my deadline (OK, so it was self-inflicted, but whatever!) of multiple cakes due on the same day for the big 30th B-day Bash. Check 'em out below!

Giant Corn Dog Cake!

Chocolate butter cake with homemade raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream frosting

Christian Louboutin High Heel Shoe Cake

Golden luxury butter cake with whipped chocolate ganache frosting;

shoe is molded out of gum paste

Classic Layered Birthday Cake

Banana cake with cinnamon peanut butter fudge filling and
white chocolate cream cheese frosting

Bachelorette Cake

Vanilla-apricot pound cake with apricot syrup and vanilla buttercream frosting

(oh, and a special twinkie surprise underneath the purple thong)

I'm not going to go into detail on every cake - that would take too long and you would get bored. So, I'll just try to touch on some highlights and give some tips if you are ever planning on making multiple cakes.

First off, I have to give props to my guest star "creative director" - my awesome sister - on the bachelorette cake. (she's the one who just got her MFA in costume design from UCLA) While we were sitting in traffic I had her draw up some designs and then she ended up decorating the cake, since I kinda had a few other things going on. Anyway, this cake is hilarious and AMAZING! I mean, look at the attention to detail! So...I guess I can add "exotic" cakes to my repertoire?

Feedback on the other cakes is as follows...

• Banana cake = best tasting. Everyone raved about this cake flavor combo.
  
• Shoe cake = prettiest. If you don't think this is pretty, there's something wrong with you!
  
• Corn dog cake = most impressive. Not too shabby for my first carved cake.

Cake tips:

Plan ahead - obvi. Everything had to be done on Saturday, July 4. I started baking/prepping on Sunday, June 28. However, I started on the gum paste shoe about a week before that - it takes a few days to dry and I had never done a shoe before so wanted plenty of time.

• Back out from your due date and plan to bake/make something every day - so you don't drive yourself crazy (well, it could still happen...).

Don't be afraid to freeze. Cake is usually best the day its baked. But, there's no way to make and decorate four cakes in one day. Well, unless you have a large staff and a commercial kitchen. I don't. So, bake the cakes ahead of time; when completely cool cover in plastic wrap and foil; put in freezer.

• Let cakes thaw in their wrappings in the fridge.
• Don't thaw on counter because the condensation with make your cake soggy.

Be prepared for mistakes - if its your first time trying something. I'm somewhat of a crazy perfectionist (when it comes to certain things) so its hard for me when a frosting doesn't turn out, or a cake falls (both of these happened to me last week).

• Mistakes will happen - even to the best bakers. So, take a breath and take a step back. You can usually find a way to fix most problems.
• Brad had to remind me of this a few times...