A Fall Birthday

A super cute little girl I know turned one last fall, and I got to make her cake! We went with an apple cake with a touch of cinnamon, and lots of fall leaves.

I made the leaves a week ahead out of fondant, using leaf cutters and silicon molds to get the vein effect. I then laid them out on crumpled foil to dry so they would have a more natural look. The little apples and acorns I just hand shaped out of fondant mixed with a little gumpaste.

One thing I've discovered is that for black and red fondant I really like to use the premade Satin Ice. When I make homemade red fondant it tends to be sticky from the amount of coloring I have to add, whereas the Satin Ice has a great texture and flavor.

Spring cookies!

Here in the depths of winter, it's nice to think about spring arriving one day. I made these for our teachers in May last year, and I'm about ready for some signs of spring for this year!

I used royal icing on sugar cookies for all of these. For the butterflies and top flowers I used a toothpick dragged through the wet icing to get the patterns. For the 'thanks' cook I freehand wrote the letters--they were a little squished, but overall I thought they turned out ok. For the bunnies I mixed a little clear alcohol (vodka I think it was) with a very little red pearl dust, and then painted in the ear color. Once the alcohol evaporated, the ears were left as a delicate pink.