Therese’s daughter Aden was having a birthday and wanted a leopard print cake. So, I set out to find a great pattern I could recreate in royal icing.

I spent several hours piping icing into perfect leopard-like shapes. My shapes are on the left, the pattern I studied is on the right:

Once the spots dried, I iced a 12″ two-layer chocolate cake with pink icing. I then added the birthday phrase, a beaded border, and the leopard spots.

I would loved to see how these spots would look on a tiered cake!

Detail shot of the spots: Outlined in 100% thickness royal icing and filled with a looser version of the same icing to make a ‘pillowy’ look.

Happy Birthday, Aden! I hope it was a great one!!

I made 48 cupcakes: two dozen vanilla and two dozen chocolate. The guest of honor loves cream cheese icing, so that was my frosting of choice. The project pretty much invaded my kitchen for the whole day as I got an assembly line going.

For every dozen, I made 6 chocolate and 6 vanilla with the same topping.

White swirl with pink sugar crystals.

Pink swirl with white nonpareils.

White iced with pink sugar pearls and pink jumbo heart sprinkle.

And pink sugar-crystal-coated with a white jumbo heart sprinkle.

I lined some Xerox paper box lids with heavy-duty foil so Felicia could easily transport the cupcakes to her office.

They all looked so cozy next to their cupcake neighbors.

And, being a lover of all things bulk, it makes my heart smile to see mass quantities of anything, especially cupcakes.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color of the hot pink ones.

All in a day’s work!

Want to know the upside to doing cupcakes instead of a regular cake at a shower or party?
1: You can have several flavors.
2. You can get various designs.
3: You don’t have to guess on serving size
4: You don’t need utensils or plates (which saves the hostess money!)

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With Valentine’s Day just 48 hours away, why not whip up a batch of these for your sweetheart?

I started by combining all the dry ingredients.

The filling was made from cream cheese, a dab of sugar, and a few tablespoons of maraschino cherry syrup. I wish I had gotten a photo of this after I’d gotten the lumps worked out! Kinda looks like pink cottage cheese. Eww.

Dry ingredients were mixed together with the wet ones to form the batter.

And sour cream provided the moisture.

Mmm. Lookin’ good so far!

Bake right up, you little loveys!

A pretty pretty batch. Fairly uniform, which is good! I must be learning a thing or two now that I’ve made about 30 batches.

Each cupcake was ‘cored’ to make room for the filling.

A teaspoon of the cream cheese filling as well as a pitless (that’s important) maraschino cherry filled in the hole.

And the top plug was replaced.

I did that a dozen more times and voila! A set of filled cupcakes ready to be iced!

The icing used the remainder of the cream cheese filling, plus some powdered sugar and some more maraschino cherry syrup.

How pretty! You could stop there and people would still be delighted to try them. But why stop there?!

I added a little cocoa powder to a mesh strainer (you DEFINITELY want to do this over the sink!)

And lightly dusted each cupcake with a slight tap of cocoa (this takes some practice…some got a heavier dusting than others).

Since these were for my cousin’s birthday and not for Valentine’s Day, I wrote him a message on the serving plate.

After being dusted, each cupcake was topped with another cherry. Aren’t they just so cute?!

If this doesn’t scream “VALENTINE’S DAY!”, I don’t know a dessert that would.

I mean, look at that cherry! The cherry alone is gorgeous enough, but then look what’s under it!

And what’s under it tastes extra, extra yummy. Ask me how I know.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO YOU!

I’m more of a golfer than a footballer, so I found this sweet photo online that I could use to get the proportions of the design fairly accurate.

After baking two chocolate layers and stacking them, I carved them into a football shape using my trusty bread knife and set to the task of icing the whole thing.

Here’s a glimpse of the base coat.

I used homemade marshmallow fondant to construct the laces. I was really pleased with how well they turned out. I also used strips of fondant for the stripes on either end of the ball (not shown, see below).

Next, I used piped stars to create the OU logo (while simultaneously attempting not to feel like a traitor to the real Big Red back in NE. )

To finish off the edges of the cake, I added some green ‘grass’.

I was really pleased with the final result. I later found out that Nick and Mary received lots of compliments on this cake at the wedding reception–the main one being that it was even better than their professionally-made wedding cake. Wow! I was flattered to hear that!

Nick and Mary, thank you for allowing me to be a special part of your big day. All of God’s blessings and happiness to you both!

–Abbi

The invitation was a mint green with brown and white polka dots, so I used that design as the inspiration for my cake. I made a two-tier cake (top tier vanilla, bottom tier chocolate) with classic buttercream icing tinted pale green.

I’d been wanting to try my hand at using fabric ribbon on a cake, so I did some research as to what I would need to do to make it food-safe. Once I gathered that info, the next trick was to decide how to disguise the ribbon’s seam.

I wanted to make some sort of plaque with Dax’s name on it, so I used Candy Melts! I used my computer to print out the perfect letters, then placed wax paper over the top and traced the letters using melted white chocolate. While the letters set, I poured milk chocolate into shallow rectangular molds. Before the chocolate bars set completely, I arranged the white letters.

The little chocolate bars covered the seams perfectly!

Even better, I’d discovered a new way to ‘write’ on a cake!

The final product:

Congratulations, Thompsons!

I made a sheet cake and two 6″ round cakes (guess why) and designed a stencil on the computer using Adobe Illustrator.

Rather than leveling the cakes as I would normally do, I left the ‘dome’ on the top of the 6″ rounds. They gave the cake some body (pun thoroughly intended).

Then I started adding stitching and lacy details to make the shape unmistakably feminine:

Add a little bow and some squiggles for fun, and we are ready to party!

Detail of the ‘corset ties’:

See the nice curved effect created by the slightly domed round cakes? So much better than just cutting a flat cake into a shape.

For the color scheme, I stuck with the hues Crystal had selected for Lynley’s nursery: raspberry pink, brown, and two shades of green.

Polka dots and bows are always popular decor at baby showers, so why not roll with it? I made a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing and fondant accents.

Top view:

This was the first time I had used fondant to make bows, and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. So cute!

Crystal and me at her shower. Congratulations, friend! That Lynley is sure a cutie! Glad I could help welcome her into the world!

Why not invest in a unique, hand-crafted book that will easily become a treasured keepsake? For this holiday season, I’m offering two options: Custom or Collection

CUSTOM: I love creating one-of-a-kind journals and sketchbooks and can easily customize a design for anyone on your gift list! Each book is designed-to-order, so to guarantee that your book(s) will be finished in time for Christmas, please have your orders submitted to me no later than NOVEMBER 15th. That will allow me ample time to create a design for each of your items, collect the perfect materials, and give each book the amount of artistic finesse and patience they deserve.

Please note: a 50% non-refundable deposit is required up front for all custom orders.

COLLECTION: I also currently have several designs in my inventory available for sale. I have listed images of each book as well as a brief description and price.

“Precious Pink” is 8.5″ tall by 5.5″ wide, hard-bound, 200 pages (pink paper), with a white satin ribbon bookmark.

The cover is made from a wonderfully soft and fibrous patterned paper featuring flowers and dots. The spine is embellished with two diamond rhinestone-studded brads.

The paste papers are a playful pink gingham. This book would be perfect for an expectant mother who is going to have a girl. Cost: $25. SOLD

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“Beaded Bohemian” is 5.5″ wide by 4.25″ tall, paper-back, 120 pages (pink paper).

I have two of these books available, and I am willing to sell them individually or as a set. The covers are cut from the same sheet of paper, so they are similar but not identical.

The binding is exposed and sewn using canary yellow thread. The stitches are embellished with seed beads. Cost: $8.50 each or $15 for a set of 2. SOLD

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“Bloomer Sooner” is 8.5″ tall by 5.5″ wide, hard-bound, 224 pages (neon green paper).

Features a recycled paper cover and wild paisley paste papers!

Prisma pencil illustrations and flower brads combine to embellish the front of the book. Cost: $30.

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“Namaste” is 8.5″ wide by 5.5″ tall, soft-cover, 120 pages (white paper). These book covers were cut from a dark blue yoga mat.

I have two of these books available. I am willing to sell them individually or as a set. Both feature a Japanese stab binding technique known as “Noble Binding”. One binding has been done with blue eyelets and twine.

The other binding has been done with silver eyelets and 1/8″ black satin ribbon.

The yoga mat covers are very durable and flexible. Cost: $15 each or $26 for the set.

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“Red Velvet” is 6″ tall by 5.5″ wide (a squarish version of the original), hard-bound, 200 pages (red paper) with black satin ribbon tie closures. The Red Velvet cover is made from flocked (fuzzy) wallpaper.

Detail of black satin ribbon tie closures. Cost: $30 SOLD

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“Stitch in Time” is 6″ tall by 5.5″ wide, hard-bound, 200 pages (lavender paper).

The cover paper features silver stitched spirals.

The book’s lavender pages and heather gray facing pages. Cost: $25. SOLD

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“Wild Child” is 4.25″ wide by 5.5″ tall, soft-bound, 160 pages (red paper) with silver eyelet embellishments. The Wild Child cover is made from black pleather.

Detail of the silver eyelets and red pages. Cost: $15 SOLD

To purchase any of these books, or to place an order for a custom-designed book of your own, email me or leave a comment on this post.

With either Custom or Collection orders, shipping is available at an additional cost, or the books may be picked up from my studio. I look forward to working with you and helping make your holiday gift-giving very fun and memorable this year!

I was provided with a plate that was the inspiration for a bridal shower Amanda was co-hosting.

I LOVED the leafy vines on the plate, and used them as my inspiration for the piping.

I did my best to imitate the colorful flowers that made the plates so cheery and bright.

I was pleased with the final result…

and it even looked quite a bit like the illustrations from the plate! Amanda and the other hostesses were quite pleased with how the cake turned out.

So fun to be able to trade favors with talented friends. A win-win situation, I’d say! What about you…what skills do you have? Let’s make a trade.