Last weekend at Heavenly Bites Cakes I had the pleasure of making dueling football helmets for a daughter and dad - Molly was celebrating her high school graduation and upcoming freshman year at Ohio State and her dad Kevin (a huge Washington Redskins fan) was celebrating his 50th birthday!

Now, I know Ohio State and the Washington Redskins will probably never actually duel each other on the football field, but at this graduation/birthday celebration, all bets were off! :)

The Ohio State football helmet was made of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting:

The Washington Redskins football helmet was made with vanilla caramel cake and chocolate filling & frosting:

Wishing Molly an awesome college experience and wishing Kevin an amazing 50th birthday!!

Decades and Yankees

Last weekend at Heavenly Bites Cakes I had four cakes due - one was Yankee's themed and the other three were Decades themed.

The first one up was a Yankee themed birthday cake for 7 year old Jason, who is a huge Yankee fan! He was having a Yankee themed party at City Sports in Englewood, NJ.  The cake was covered in white fondant and decorated with navy blue pinstripes...there was a gray circle on top representing the colors of their "away" uniforms. On top of that was a baseball, a bat, a mitt and standing up on top of it all was a navy blue Yankee jersey with Jason's name across the top and the #7 as his jersey number. Unbelievably, I did not take a picture of this cake...I couldn't believe it!  I realized it after I got back in the car after dropping it off. I was so mad at myself for that! Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture from Jason's mom!

Next up was a decades themed block party in Maplewood, NJ. Four people from the neighborhood were celebrating milestone birthdays - 2 people were born in 1970 and were turning 40, 1 person was born in 1960 and was turning 50 and 1 person was born in 1950, turning 60! What a fun way to celebrate!

The cakes that were ordered had fondant figures of the birthday folks, dressed in attire from the decade in which they were born...and the cakes were decorated to represent the decade using historical references. Here they are!

1950

1960

1970

Rockabilly Wedding Cupcake Tower

Wedding Bells were ringing at Heavenly Bites Cakes this past weekend!! I had an order for a Rockabilly theme wedding cupcake tower for an awesome bride and groom who were throwing a really cool reception party for their guests! 

When I first got the order, I wasn't sure what Rockabilly was, so off I went to the internet to educate myself! I did a google image search to get some visuals and found out that "the term “Rockabilly” refers to an early style of rock n roll made popular during the 1950’s. Some popular Rockabilly artists are Elvis Presley & Johnny Cash. In the world of fashion, Rockabilly refers to the clothing styles that were popular during this same time period. Think of Grease (the movie), pin-up girls, and Bettie Paige."  AWESOME!

The bride chose a really fun design of tattoo-like hearts with the word "Love" on them and tiny purple bows for cupcake toppers. For the cake topper decorations, she ordered matching heart tattoo cake toppers with their names on them, roses and a black and white polka dot bow around the base. (inspired by Bella's Cupcakes of New Zealand) Here are the pics!

The cupcakes were red velvet, chocolate and lemon with cream cheese buttercream frosting. The cupcakes with the hearts on them had giant swirls of frosting that the hearts were nestled in. The cupcakes with the purple bows were dipped in buttercream frosting for a smooth finish.

The cake topper was 2 layers of red velvet and 2 layers of chocolate with chocolate ganache filling and cream cheese frosting.

This was such a fun project to work on and I discovered a whole new slew of websites/blogs while researching!! I love learning new things from my clients!! Thanks again for ordering Jen - congrats to you and Dennis and all the best to you in the years to come!! :)

Do the Monster Mash!

This weekend I had an order for a monster cake for a "Silly Dilly" birthday party - the birthday boy, Dylan (whose nickname is Silly Dilly) was celebrating with a dress up silly party and loved the monster cake picture (by Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes) I had sent as an idea to his mom. They decided to just order the head since the whole monster would've been too much cake.

This cake was SO MUCH FUN to make - it employed techniques I've never used before and I LOVE getting to learn new things!! The cake was chocolate with chocolate buttercream frosting and filling. Since it was a silly party, the Dylan's mom asked me to do the letters upside down - such a great idea!

On a technical note, making the fur on the monster required cutting tiny little "v's" into the fondant (not so deep that you'd hit the frosting underneath, but deep enough that you had a little flap to pull up to create the look of the fur) took about an hour and a 1/2...imagine doing the whole body!?!? Also, the construction inside the cake was interesting to design - because I was making a giant head, I was concerned that the top would collapse the bottom of the cake, especially since it was sphere-like, so I put several dowls into the 2 layers on the bottom of the cake with a cakeboard halfway up and then another 2 layers of cake on top.

When I delivered the cake, I got to meet Dylan and his sister Luna, who had made me thank you pictures - the SWEETEST thing ever!!! And Dylan was so excited about the monster cake, he had drawn a picture of it on his chalkboard and it was AWESOME! I got to see some pictures from the party and everyone looked they had an awesome and SILLY time! :) Happy Birthday Dylan! 

Backyard Beach (turned Tornado Watch) 4th Birthday Party

My sweet cousin Caroline turned 4 last weekend and I was honored to do the cake for her backyard beach party! Unfortunately, the weather was calling for not only rain and thunderstorms, but also possible tornadoes too! In New JERSEY!!! Fortunately, we only had a thunderstorm and it came after the kids had plenty of pool, slip n slide and swingset time, so they were ready to head inside for some cake!

The cake was yellow cake with chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. It was so fun to see all the kids gather around the table waiting for their slice!  They all sat on towels on the living room floor to make it feel like they were lounging at the beach - the most hilarious part was when one little boy sat down on another kid's slice of cake! haha! Luckily there was plenty to go around, so he got another slice! :)

Happy Birthday Caroline! :)

Three-peat!

Nothing gives me more pleasure than working with a repeat client - it makes me so happy to know that they liked their last order so much that they decided to use my services again!

This past weekend I did the first birthday cupcakes for Rylan - I had done the baby shower for his mom (peapod cupcakes and cake topper) and his christening (angel mini-cakes), so I was thrilled when asked to do his 1st birthday!

His mom planned a Mod Monkey birthday party for him and ordered a monkey cake as well as a cupcake with a mod monkey topper for the birthday boy to smash, smush and eat to celebrate his 1st year!

Here are the pictures!

Happy Birthday Rylan!

Crazy and Exciting Times!

It's been a crazy but exciting month for Heavenly Bites Cakes! May has by far been my busiest month with cakes, cupcakes and cookies galore! Every project is so fun and tests my abilities at a new and different level...I just love it!! :)  I believe I have already exceeded the amount of orders I filled all last year and it's only May! Thank you to all my wonderful clients, especially my repeat clients - I'd be nowhere without you!

Since my last blog post, I've filled 7 orders! 30th Birthday Guinness Cupcakes, a double celebration birthday cake, a christening cake, a Shrek grooms cake, bridal shower high heel cookies, a college graduation party and christening mini-cakes with angel toppers.   Here are pictures and descriptions of all!

30th Birthday Guinness Car Bomb Cupcakes

These cupcakes were not only Guinness themed, but also had Guinness extra stout in the batter, as well as Bailey's Irish Cream in the frosting!

Double Celebration Birthday Cake

This cake was ordered by Marisa - one of my very first and fabulous clients! She ordered it for her Grandma's 85th and her Uncle's birthdays!  The cake was one tier of vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream filling and frosting and a second tier of chocolate cake with chocolate pudding filling and vanilla buttercream.  The flowers and banners were made of fondant.  I don't normally do buttercream-only cakes, so I was very pleased with how this one came out!! I know it's no Sylvia Weinstock, but I liked it! :)

Georgia's Christening Cake

I was thrilled to do the cake for my college roomate's daughter Georgia's christening - the cake was one tier of vanilla cake and one tier chocolate cake. Both tiers had chocolate ganache filling and vanilla buttercream.  Decorations were made with fondant.  Again a buttercream-only cake, which was a challenge to make smooth, but so much fun to work on!

Shrek Grooms Cake

When I got the request for a Shrek grooms cake from a sweet bride-to-be for their upcoming rehearsal dinner, I couldn't help but wonder what the story was behind that! Luckily, one of my co-workers was in the bridal party and she gave me the low-down! Apparently, the groom is a big cuddly guy, (just like Shrek) and his friends all call him Shrek! Love the idea - such fun! I am sure the groom was so excited that his bride thought of this very special touch! The cake was carrot cake with walnuts mixed in and was filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting.

High Heel Bridal Shower Sugar Cookies

These high-heeled sugar cookies were ordered by the bride-to-be - she had seen the idea and loved it so she ordered them as favors for her bridal shower!  The sugar cookies were made with a high heel cookie cutter and frosted with royal icing!

College Graduation Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for my cousin's graduation from St. John's University in NY - Go Kristin! :)  The cupcakes were red velvet with cream cheese frosting and chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  This is the first time I melted the frosting and dipped the cupcakes, which gives them this smooth and shiny look - I LOVE it!!

Christening Angel Mini-Cakes

It was too hard to choose between the cute little angels on top of these cakes, so I had to include 3 pictures here! :) Each mini-cake was made to serve 2 people and were made in the following flavors: red velvet, vanilla & chocolate. The mom who ordered them came up with the fabulous idea of making the hair of the angels on top of the cakes match the flavor inside! Red-head = Red Velvet, Blonde = Vanilla,

Brunette = Chocolate...umm how creative is that?!?!?! Awesome idea!

Phew! What a crazy couple of weeks! So much fun to make all of these goodies and even more fun to be able to post the pictures of the final products!!  Hope you've all enjoyed!

Coming up in June...a monkey 1st birthday cake, a beach birthday cake, a Thomas the Tank Engine cake (ummm, gotta be sure to keep my little sweets bandits away from that one in the fridge!! haha!), A Rockabilly wedding cupcake tower, a monster cake, an Ohio State cake, a Washington Redskins cake and a super-secret baby shower cake (cannot be revealed until it's made and delivered!)!! Woohoo!!