By request...more cakes

Perhaps one of these could spark an idea for your next cake or celebration. Each cake baking and decorating experience is its own adventure and definitely far from perfect. With every one I have learned something new from. When starting your own cake baking and decorating experience, try to be patient and remember to just have fun - it's just going to get cut into and eaten in the end anyway.

The Race Car Cake is a shaped pan decorated almost entirely with a star tip. You can't see too well in this picture but the tires looked flat. It might have been better just to use Oreo's for the tires. The cupcakes are iced and topped with an Oreo dotted with buttercream to look like tires.

I loved to create the Treasure Chest. I used two loaf pans for the cake shape and decorated one upside down creating the lid of the chest. The base frosting was chocolate buttercream and I ran a fork over it to try to create the wood grain look. The red strips are cut from rolled fondant and the sand is crushed graham crackers. I filled the chest with whatever I could find that looked like treasure and made sure not to place anything too far toward the back of the chest so that the lid could sit in a slightly open position.

The Robot was fun to create from a round cake pan, a square pan, and four glass oven safe prep bowls. I decorated him with Nerds candy, black licorice, and a single Dots candy. I did wish I had a slightly larger cake board at the time for him, as I would have extended his elbows out slightly away from his body. I think he's pretty cute though - don't you?

Kung Fu Panda. It was a delicious cake! Again from my Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakesbook. Yellow cake, with lemon curd filling and a Vanilla Bean Buttercream. It served the large number of party guests well. The design could have done without the pillars, but it was not my cake and was insisted upon.

This one was a basic yellow cake and chocolate frosting. I drizzled some white ganache across the top of the cake before decorating it in a basket weave pattern with a rope border. But I'd have to say that my favorite part was the pile of homemade chocolate dipped truffles on top of the cake. Yummy!

The Raspberry Laced Vanilla Cake was a recipe I had found on the back of the Pillsbury SOFTASILK® Cake Flour box. The batter seamed heavier than I was use to, so I worried about the texture of the cake. But in the end it really had a lovely flavor and texture. And the design was a simple lattice pattern with fresh raspberries and mint leaves.

This oval basket weave cake with the birds was a Wilton Class - Course 2 - final cake. During this course I learned so many new and dramatic techniques to enhance the look of a cake. I learned how to use color flow and royal icing. The birds were made from color flow. And all of the many different flowers I learned to make with royal icing.

The flowers on this cake were also done with royal icing. These little drop flowers are a quick and easy way to decorate a cake.

And these roses and flowers I made for a wedding cake from fondant mixed with a little gum paste. I love how the roses turned out. The gum paste allowed me to roll the petals out thinner for a more realistic look, while the fondant allowed me a little more time to work with the flower before setting up.