Sweet Escape Baking

Just Girl That Likes To Bake

A Very “Purple” Baby Shower

Mar 10

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This weekend was my future sister-in-law’s baby shower! She is getting ready to deliver a baby girl this May! I know she is excited, but I definitely can’t wait for a little girl to be around!

I based this design off an image I had come across on the internet, and loved the overall look. The mommy-to-be is not a fan of pink (gasp!) so we went with the next girliest color, purple. While I am still questioning the idea of putting a newborn baby into a bathtub with bubbles, I have to say my giant cake-ball sculpture turned out great! I’m a big fan of the legs I added to the bottom of the tub.

The cake is chocolate cake with oreo-cream cheese frosting (yum!).

I recently converted to Satin Ice fondant, and could not be more in love! Not only is it easier to work with, it actually tastes good too.

If this cake taught me anything, it’s that I need practice piping. If anyone has any recommendations for make royal icing “bubbles” without leaving a point that needs to be pushed in, I’d love to hear about it.

Check out that bow!

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Tinkerbell

Mar 9

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A Tinkerbell inspired cake!

For the second year in a row I’ve had the pleasure of making Maira’s birthday cakes! Last year it was Foofa inspired, this year we moved to Tinkerbell. This cake turned out exactly how I’d hoped.

I swirled the main fondant to give the very green cake some texture, and used fabulous silver sprinkles to add some “pixie dust” to the cake.

Yellow and green swirled “velvet” cake with cream cheese icing!

The cake really took form when the birthday girl added some Tinkerbell touches.

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Hello Kitty Cake

Jan 15

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Happy Birthday Kristall!!

Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream in Hello Kitty cupcake wrappers. The letters were created out of red and white fondant.

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My 1st Wedding Cake

Aug 23

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Isn’t it beautiful?

Inside is white cake with vanilla frosting and raspberry jam. The tiers are 14″, 10″, and 6″ from top to bottom respectively. Cupcakes are white cupcakes, filled with raspberry jam, topped with vanilla frosting and a special fondant decoration.

Creating this cake was so much fun thanks to my new assistant, my tadpole Kristall, who helped me with all of the details the day before the wedding. I also figured out some new tricks while making this cake that will definitely help me in the future.

First of all, kneading the fondant before rolling it really makes a difference. When I covered the middle and top tier and realized how much smoother and shinier the fondant became because I had kneaded, I ripped off the fondant on the bottom tier and started all over (crazy, I know!). I still didn’t get the tier perfect, I’m not sure exactly how to perfectly cover such a big tier, but the decorations were enough to hide any imperfections.

Next, with the help of my tadpole, I began using my diamond quilting marker to put the diamond patterns along the edges of the top and bottom tiers. This took patience….I’m not always so good with my patience. I then went over each mark with an mini-pizza cutter type instrument that I clearly don’t know the real name for.

Kristall was responsible for all the silver dragees/balls, then came the ribbon and we were done and onto our next cakes, an engagement cake for my stepbrother and a personal cake for Kristall.

The cake was stacked at the location, because a. cake is heavy and b. I was not driving a 3-tier cake on my lap through the Bronx, pothole central.

Oh! One last thing. Congratulations to the bridge and groom, Rosalie and Pedro on their exciting new life together.

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Happy Birthday to ME!

Jul 27

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Last year I wondered if it was normal to make yourself a birthday cake, and then I made two. This year I restrained myself and only made one.

The cake is marble and has chocolate fudge frosting. I used left over frosting from the baby shower cake I created the same weekend as my birthday, which I dyed to purple. I recently got a brand new cupcake cookie cutter that I finally found a use for. I used the same technique as the onesies on the shower cake, and rolled different colors of fondant into the white to create sprinkles, as well as the striped letter for the “Happy Birthday!”

For now, I think making your own birthday cake is okay, I’m hoping it doesn’t go farther than that in the future (i.e. my own wedding cake, or baby shower cake) ;)

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Welcome Baby!

Jul 27

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Having no job during the summer really allows any cakes I have the opportunity to create to get my full attention. I worked very hard on the details of this cake to create a great baby shower experience for a friend. The first layer of the cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting, and the top is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yum!

I am really satisfied with the overall cake but extremely unsatisfied with the bow. Despite making a bow two days ahead, then remaking it, the humidity in the air refused to let the fondant dry out accordingly and I got two droopy bows. Next time, I think I will do the bow farther ahead of time to give adequate time for it to dry.

The bottles and onesies came out great. I molded the bottles myself and created placards for them to sit on with my fluted cookie cutters. For the onesies, I created a template from cardboard that I then cut around to create the shapes. To get the stripes, I rolled different colors of fondant together, which is my new favorite technique!

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National Elementary Honor Society

Jul 11

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An open book for the Induction Ceremony for my school’s branch of the National Elementary Honor Society.
I created the book by baking two red velvet cakes in a 9×13 inch pan and then carving the shape of the book. Next time, I would use more cake to make a larger book, because in the end it was much smaller than I anticipated.


The cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting.
The cupcakes are yellow cake and dark chocolate cake with blue and white swirled buttercream icing.
We laid the cake out in the middle of a table, and used two cupcake stands to present the cupcakes.


I love icing cupcakes! I made my favorite buttercream recipe for the icing here. I dyed half the batch blue and kept the other half white. I put half of each into the pastry bag, and piped the tops with frosting. I love the “swirled” look that creates.

Luau "Moving Up" Cake

Jul 11

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The Kindergartners at my school had their moving up ceremony the week before school ended this year. One of my colleagues had a Luau celebration party for her excited students and their proud parents.

The cake is white “rainbow cake” and all the decorations were made with dyed fondant. I used a sharp knife to cut the flowers out to get a hibiscus shape and used my leaf cutter for the leaves.

You know it is a successful cake when there is not a crumb left to be found at the end of the party, especially when children are involved.

A Beachy Bridal Shower

May 24

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White Cake with Chocolate Ganache Mousse and Buttercream Frosting

This cake is a second attempt at this cake, but in two tier form created for a bride whose wedding will take place on an island.

The dots and borders were created with royal frosting (my new best friend). The shells are white melting chocolate molded into different types of shells using a specific mold easily found at a local craft store.

The day I was making the cake was very humid and warm, and therefore the fondant and I were not friends. All in all, I need to work on my patience and time management so that I do not get stressed out.

If anyone knows of a better set of alphabet cutters I would greatly appreciate the heads up, I really do not like the unevenness of the ones I used for the lettering on this cake.

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A Questionable Birthday

May 14

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Chocolate Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting

I really enjoyed making this cake for a few reasons. The first being the challenge of the interesting shape, a new favorite that I will definitely try again. I baked the cakes in square pans and used circle cookie cutters to cut out the edges. It gives the cake a unique shape and adds depth to a usual present themed cake.

The second reason was the challenge of creating question marks for the cake. At first, I was convinced my alphabet cutters included a question mark, but I was wrong, only a exclamation point. I was ready to throw in the towel until my wonderful boyfriend suggested using the “2″ cutter. I did just that, bending the final product slightly to create the question mark. We debated about the little arm and whether it was correct, but in the end I won out.

After putting the cake together, I was a little worried I had just made The Riddler a birthday cake, but was happy to see I was the only one who noticed the resemblance.

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