Today’s sweet and simple cake was for a girl who loves yellow.  Last time, that was her only request – she wanted her cake to be yellow, so I made this cute bunting cake.  This year, she’s into lions, too, so this wild little cake it was!
Peg + Cat = Fun Cake!
One of the pleasures of designing cakes is that I get to hear about all sorts of fun kids’ shows that I would otherwise know nothing about.  A recent example is this cake, based on the show Peg + Cat.
That’s Peg there on the side, and the blue fella dangling from the balloon is her cat.  They like to do math.
In the initial request for her daughter’s cake, the mom described the show as “a math-themed series featuring a girl and her cat who solve math-related problems,” while also involving “barn animals, three teens, 100 chickens, and an alien”.  Um…as you do?  This show sounds AWESOME!  🙂  I was instantly intrigued, and couldn’t wait to make this cake.
When not solving math problems, Peg and her cat like to bake cakes, hence the mini-cake on top. Â I like these guys.
A few hand-painted elements finished this cake: the birthday girl’s name is modelled after the font used on the show, and around the base tier I painted a replica of the cool watercolour-style background art they use.  Notice that the clouds are infinity symbols – way to tie in the math reference!!
Feel Better – It’s Cake!
Today’s cake will make you feel better.  Cake always make things better, but this one especially so, because it was made to feature some of Johnson & Johnson’s most popular personal care products.
Every part of this cake is entirely edible.
The Band-Aids, Tylenol, Motrin and Johnson’s Baby Lotion are made from solid modelling chocolate, and covered on all sides with edible-printed packaging.  You can slice them up and eat the entire box or bottle, packaging and all!
The “wooden” crate is made from modelling chocolate (with chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream inside), the marbled cake board is fondant and even the tissue paper is edible wafer paper.
I actually had a great experience while delivering this cake.  I had set the box on the receptionist’s desk while we waited for the contact person to accept the delivery.  Another employee came by and peeked in the box, then commented, “Well, that’s misleading.”  I asked her what she meant, and she explained, “That box says ‘CAKES by Caralin’.”  When I assured her that it actually WAS a cake, she was floored!  “Really??” she asked, “That whole thing is edible??”  It was fun.  🙂
Well, I hope they enjoyed eating it as much as I enjoyed making it!
Purple Owl Baby Shower Cake
This baby shower cake was for a momma-to-be who is a HUGE fan of purple. Â I created this cake to match her owl-themed nursery, and of course I had to use lots of purple!
In her tiny bundle was a sleepy wee baby owl, also purple!
Race Car Cake
Vrroooom – today’s cake is a sweet but simple race car cake, for a very sweet four-year-old. Â I love the red and blue colour combo. Â I think it really punches it up!
Woodland Creatures Cake
Today’s cake is a cute woodland scene, with a furry Mr. Fox and his friend the Owl.  
I’d been wanting to try a tree stump cake for a while, so I was thrilled to get this request! Â It was fun playing with the textures to get the cut side and the bark looking just right. Â The colour scheme, polka-dot mushrooms and golden leaves were made to match the party invitation.
The bark was a blend of modelling chocolate and fondant. Â Edible paints don’t stick as well to modelling chocolate, so this made the paint bead up slightly on the sides – perfect for that rough bark!
I really enjoyed this one – WOOD you eat it??  🙂
Miss Monkey Business
Today’s cake was for the first birthday of a very special little monkey. Â …Okay, it wasn’t actually for a monkey, it was for a human child (in case you were concerned), but since she was born her parents have called her their little monkey. Â For her first birthday party, then, they thought it fitting to represent this nickname in cake form!
And so, may I present Miss Monkey:
Isn’t she a cute little monkey?  The theme for the rest of the party was pink and gold, which we tied in to the cake with Monkey’s pink-and-gold hair bow and her own little pink-and-gold mini cake with a 3D #1 on top.
Momma said after the party: “I have to tell you….the cake was the hit of the party! Thank you so so much for making my little monkey’s first birthday extra special!”  It was my pleasure!  🙂
Minion Buzz Lightyear Cake
What is it about these crazy little minions that everyone just loves?  Well, they’re cute, silly, fun-loving and ever so slightly ridiculous, so what’s not to love?  If the new Minions movie opening today is any indication, they’ve long outgrown their humble Despicable Me past to shine brightly on their own!
Today’s cake was for a little boy who just couldn’t decide between his love for these fellas and another childhood fave – Toy Story‘s Buzz Lightyear!  If there’s ever a day to get everything you want, surely it’s your birthday, so I combined the two, into a minion wearing Buzz Lightyear’s outfit!
From all evidence, minions do love playing dress-up, so I thought this would be appropriate.  Of course, he had to get all the details of his costume right!  In this case, his outfit (and the whole cake!) is entirely edible, including some tasty modelling chocolate wings.
One small creative update: while Toy Story‘s Buzz had Andy’s name on his foot, I thought we’d update this one with the birthday boy’s name!
Well, I hope this birthday was “to infinity, and beyond” (and full of giggly minion-noises)!
Poochie-Dog Pup Cake
I made a dog cake! Â This is Poochie. Â The name Fido had already been taken by my recent unicorn cake, but I think this fella is more of a Poochie anyway.
He’s a pretty boy. Â 
He’s a yellow lab on the outside, chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream on the inside!
Sit! Â Stay! Â Good boy.
Super Awesome Unicorn Cake!
Meet Fido. Fido is a unicorn. Fido is a cake. Fido is a super awesome unicorn cake!
He’s very happy to be an edible unicorn. You can tell by his toothy grin.
Like all unicorns, he is made of sunshine and magic (and cake – lots of cake).
And, also like all unicorns, he poops glittery rainbow Skittles turds. (It is known.)
Okay, you might be wondering at this point why I made a giant unicorn cake that is pooping glittery rainbow Skittles turds. A fair question, I feel! This majestic beast of sugary wonder was constructed as part of a farewell for wonderful woman who is pretty majestic herself. She’s transferring to another office within her company, and the team requested this cake as part of her send-off. This shows just a hint of how much they’re going to miss her! Oh – and she LOOOOOVES unicorns. Did I forget to mention that? And Skittles. And… glittery rainbow turds, apparently.
Mmmm… rainbow-y.
If you’ve been paying attention, you might also have wondered why his name is Fido. Well, when I was building him, my husband thought the internal structure looked more like a dog than a unicorn, so he named him Fido. The name stuck, so I went with it! I felt he needed a more unicorn-y last name, though, so I extended it to Fido McSparklebutt, and gave him a sparkly heart butt tattoo to live up to his moniker. I thought, as an awesome unicorn, he could pull it off. I think I was right. 🙂
Big shout-out, too, to The People’s Cake’s Kaysie Lackey for her Craftsy teachings on the internal structure of this fella. It was my first time attempting a cake that stands on its own four legs (since most cakes have no legs to speak of at all…), and her guidance saved me a lot of trial and error!
Here are Fido and I together before he went to his fancy party! (Sorry for the photo quality – this was a quick phone snap!)
Yay Fido! What a guy.
Well, that’s all the unicorn pics for now, folks. Fido wishes all of you a cake-filled day. And remember: Always be yourself. Unless you can be a unicorn cake. Then always be a unicorn cake.
…Sound advice, Fido. Sound advice.
