preparation for birthday #1!

my daughter's FIRST birthday is this friday and her party is the 19th so i have TONS of work to do...so far i have the invitations and her "1" shirt for on her birthday and during the party done.

that's it- no crafts, cakes, cupcakes, decorations or anything else...so, let's see how much stuff i can make happen in a little more than a week!  here's a peek at the cake's i've made for the last two birthday parties i've thrown.  the first is for my friend eric who hadn't had a proper birthday party for far too long because his birthday is too close to a holiday.  so we decided to throw him the best party we could must up, all eric-centered.

I made a portrait of him in cake (details and more well-lit pictures of which can be found on my flicker- http://www.flickr.com/photos/gravystrudle/5475773402/in/set-72157626132784436/ ) My most recent birthday cake extraordinaire was for my husband- who is particularly fond of things that "go boom".  I made him a (fully functioning) ACME Bomb cake.  If you are interested you can see the full video of the cake in action as well as the after photo go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gravystrudle/5475773772/in/set-72157626132784436/.  I can't wait for this extra special birthday party for my little girl.  Keep posted, I will update on what i've come up with for this fantastic event!

Edibles...

I have recently started to make sculptural cakes and cupcakes, trying to learn the techniques.  Here are a few of the delicious beauties I have made so far:

More photos can be found on my flicker ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/gravystrudle/ ) in the edibles set.  The first image is one of my Valentine's cupcakes with gumpaste flowers.  Working with gumpaste is not too bad, a lot like clay in some ways.  I had some problems with cracking but other than that they turned out pretty nice!

Here is the little cake I made for Valentine's Day.  It is a strawberry cake with chopped up strawberries inside and a fudge icing on the top.  Continuing the theme of strawberries I sliced a strawberry into thin slivers and made it into a rose- seen in the detail here.

The most recent edibles I have made were for a celebration of the Tibetan New Year last night.  This year is the year of the iron hare- hence the rabbits.  They are made of chocolate that I melted and piped on wax paper.  I'm looking forward to exploring this technique further to create some more intricate designs.  Keep an eye out for more edibles- I have St. Pat's, my daughter's birthday and MANY more special occasions calling for (or being an excuse for) fantastic looking and tasting treats.