Cakes of the Week

So this past week was very busy for me cake wise. I had two separate and totally different cakes for the weekend. The first was for my friend Melissa, who's little girl Nora was turning 2. Melissa was going with a rubber ducky theme and had found this cute bathtub cake for the party. The second cake was for my friend Cecilia's husband Doug, who was reaching the great age of 40 this past week. She requested a martini glass cake with cake bites on the side.
Both cakes had their challenges and both cakes were fun to make. I was pleased with how each one turned out.

To start the bathtub cake, I had to make some rubber duckies. Using yellow fondant, I shaped four balls into three different sizes, one for the body, one for the head and two for the wings. Then I also had a small orange ball to make the beak.

First, take the largest of the balls and shape that into the body of the duck.

Then, keeping the second ball it's original shape, I placed it on the body to make the head of the duck.

I flattened the last two balls a little and shaped them to create the ducks wings. I attached them to the side of the body with a little water.

With the orange ball, I simply shaped it into a beak and once again attached it using water. Then I took a very small paintbrush and some blue food coloring to paint on the duck's eyes, and I had my rubber ducky.

Rubber Ducky, you're the one... You make bath time so much fun...

Now on to the cake...

I used three layers of vanilla cake to create the bathtub because part of the top layer would be cut out to make the actual tub section. I was worried about getting that section out, but thankfully it went a lot smoother then I could have imaged.

After the cake was covered in buttercream, I used blue fondant to create the water in the tub.

Using fondant, a toothpick, edible metallic silver dust, a small paint brush and black food coloring, I made the faucet for the tub.

The duckies were quite content in their bathtub home.

To make the bubble, I rolled out some fondant and then used a large round pastry tip to cut them out. I quickly rolled them and the tossed them in some pearl luster dust.

A little fondant on the cake board to create a tile floor and Nora's cake was complete. Happy Birthday Nora!


Now on to Doug's cake...

With this cake I assembled the layers and then cut out the shape of the glass.

After getting the buttercream as smooth as I think I have ever gotten buttercream, I piped a little detail on the glass and then wrote salutations with melted chocolate to the birthday boy.

Then with a little food coloring, edible metallic dust and fondant, I topped the martini off with the customary olives on a toothpick.

The olives surrounding the cake are actually cake bites, and fun and sweet final touch. Happy 40th Birthday Doug and welcome to the club.