Lego cake

Gabriel's ninth birthday was a 'block party' (legos, not the whole neighborhood) and the cake was GREAT! I used a white cake with strawberry filling between the layers. The buttercream icing is colored using gel food coloring, and the colors came out PERFECT! The supports in the middle were a challenge of their own, since the cake layers didn't bake up to the usual height for the PVC supports I had planned to use (humidity probably played a role in this). I spent some time trying to think creatively, to come up with something else that would act as supports inside the cake - had to be something dishwasher safe and with adjustable height, but not too big around (didn't want to damage the cake any more than necessary).....
Finally, the lightbulb clicked ON inside my head: LEGOS! Seems obvious now, right? Legos inside of a lego cake - DUH!
The circles on top of the blocks were made with a 'molten-n-more' pan, to get good cylinders (cupcakes would have worked, but these looked so much better!) It was tough to get them frosted, but the result was still yummy. :)

'Birthday Present' cake

Mayra's birthday party was kind of last-minute, so we came up with this square 'gift' cake - simple ready-made frosting and a bow made from satin ribbon (wired so it holds the shape better). If you make this cake with buttercream frosting, just add the bow RIGHT BEFORE you serve it, so the ribbon won't have time to soak up the grease from the frosting. :)

Rubik's Cube Cake

We had a huge Rubik's Cube cake for Chad's 14th birthday. We used a square cake pan, 4 layers (pvc supports for the bottom layers). The colored tiles are all rolled fondant, over white butercream frosting (this one was particularly yummy!)

Skateboard Cake

Chad got a new skateboard for his 11th birthday, and helped me to design this cake. We used two round cake pans for the board, trimming off the sides before placing them end-to-end, and then filled in the middle with the scraps of cake from the sides. Chad insisted that we needed to raise the ends, and luckily we had enough scraps left! :) The wheels are marshmallows, with gummy lifesavers for the bearings.

Basketball Cake

This one was for a Team Party at the end of the basketball season - Gabriel's team mates LOVED it! The basketball is made from the same dome pan we used for the R2-D2 cake (below) and I added regular food coloring to some buttercream frosting to make the ball orange. The stripes are simply black licorice. :)

Treasure Chest Cake

We celebrated Gabriel's 8th birthday with a Pirate Party. The cake is made with three layers of 13 x 9 cake, with a cardboard support under the top layer so I could prop it open as the lid for the chest. Everything 'inside' the treasure chest is candy - ring pops, chocolate coins, candy necklaces, and the Gushers fruit snacks that look like little jewels.

R2-D2 cake

The Star Wars party was a really really REALLY big deal, so we had to come up with a cool cake! The idea for te R2-D2 cake came from the 'Betty Crocker Bake-N-Fill pan', which includes a pan shaped like a dome - the perfect head for R2. Then it was just a matter of supporting the lower layers of the cake with PVC pieces, with disposable cakeboards in between each layer. The buttons on R2 were all candy, and the blue sections were rolled fondant. (the legs are cardboard covered in buttercream icing - couldn't come up with a good way to secure actual cake onto the sides of this one!)