Fluffly Lemon Cloud Cake

This fluffy lemon cloud cake is the first thing I always want to eat at the end of Passover (and it was my birthday cake from a few years ago). 

This lovely, 2-tiered cake was so much fun to make and not nearly as tricky to decorate as it looks.

Purple Ombre Sprinkle Cake

 

Alright, we're making sprinkle cake today. You'll need ingredients for your favorite vanilla cake recipe, a round cake pan (I used a 7 inch), and whole lot of sprinkles.

Mix up the vanilla recipe and evenly divide the batter into however many bowls you like. I used 5 colors so I can get a true ombre effect from white to dark purple. Each color will be a layer of cake. Tint each batter with increasingly more purple, or whatever color you're using. I start light and then move to the darker colors so if I mess up (say, I add too much purple to the lightest purple) I still have enough batter to mix up another lightest purple and use the other one as a middle color.

Okay, so we skipped a few steps. Bake the cakes, stack them with your favorite frosting recipe (I used this creamy buttercream). Ice the outside of the cake, throw some sprinkles at it (yes, literally). I promise you a better tutorial sometime in the future...

 Ta da! I used fresh strawberries between the layers as well. Doesn't cut as clean, but the taste is great and really, when you're making cake that's what counts. Very impressive and, if you have some patience, really not much harder than a traditional layer cake (except for the mess!).

Every year, my mom asks for a sprinkle cake for her birthday. This year's sprinkle cake (on the bunny stand, far right) was a smaller affair, but very sweet nonetheless.

Baseball Cake

Take me out to the ballgame! This baseball cake was commissioned as a birthday surprise. A three-tired cake with a baseball on top. The biggest layer, the bottom one, was only 6 inches across. Think miniature.

The birthday boy's girlfriend wanted a Giant's colored baseball themed cake and left the designing up to me (my favorite kind of order!). Well, baseballs aren't orange, so I did the best I could to keep tried to the theme and stick to the basics of the game.

Everything is fondant-free, of course. I just used swiss meringue buttercream for everything. It's nice because it hardens up in the fridge so it's easy to work with.

My first time using the grass piping tip, can you believe it? I like the added texture.I had some trouble with the orange/white seam, as you can see, but I learned enough that the next time I make a cake like this, it'll be even better. Not everything I make is perfect, especially not the first time around, but I try to make each project into a learning experience.

I got lucky with the dome shape at the top  - the carving could have gone horribly wrong but it worked out great! Overall, not a perfect cake but definitely a fun one! Raspberry chocolate cake on the inside, by the way. Yummy!

Pink Ombre Mother's Day Sprinkle Cake

I love this cake.

Let's say it again: I LOVE this cake. This cake was inspired by this fabulous cake.  My mother saw it online and asked for the same cake, but in pink!

The outside of this tall cake is absolutely covered in rainbow sprinkles. I took all the nonpareils in the sprinkle drawer and mixed them together to make a huge bowl of rainbow sprinkles.

 

And the inside is even more special! Six layers of pink ombre fade, each a bit more pink than the last. 

Creamy white frosting inside. 

Pink cake and sprinkles, what more could you ask for? I served this cake with fresh juicy strawberries. I soaked the berries in juice and sugar, then dumped them on top of everyone's slices. It was the perfect finish!

Just be careful when adding the sprinkles...it's a little hard to get them to stick to the sides and there were sprinkles bouncing all over my kitchen floor as I was throwing them at the cake trying to get them to stick. 

This cake was made for Mother's Day, but it would be fabulous as a birthday cake or as a graduation cake if done in school colors. 

Or any type of celebration cake, really. It's quite festive and I think I'm going to be using this decorating technique quite a bit.

Maybe I should buy some more sprinkles. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Candy Cake

I swear, I really was planning on taking pictures of the inside of this cake. During the party I cut a nice slice and put it aside, promising myself that I'd take more pictures in the morning. Then my suitemates and I ate it. I'd apologize to you, but it was so tasty that I really don't feel all that badly about it.

The cake had 3 layers: chocolate, peanut butter, and chocolate peanut butter swirl.

Layered with chocolate peanut butter ganache (just add some peanut butter and extra cream to your favorite ganache recipe) and chocolate peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

As you can see, it's decorated in kit-kat bars, Hershey's kisses, and colorful m&m's. 

And tied off with a ribbon, because you know I can't resist. 

This lovely cake was made for a candy-loving friend's birthday.  

The decoration was incredibly fast and easy - took only about 20 minutes total!

This cake was incredibly rich - perfect with a glass of milk around a table with friends.