I know...I know

So I know it's been forever since I have posted, but I have a good excuse, which I will share with you later. :)

I took most of the summer off this year, because it was the last summer I had with my little boy until he started Kindergarten! And then life in general got hectic, so I only made a few cakes for a select group of friends and family.

Earlier this summer, I made a sweet little princess cake for a friend of Nate's. They went to preschool together last year, and I just love her mom! I also made a cake for her last year, my Girly Dinosaur Cake. This year she wanted a pink cake, with some turquoise and purple on it. We decided on polka dots, with a beautiful princess on the front, and a crown on the top.

Once summer began to come to a close, I made this cake for Charlotte! It was her 4th birthday this year, and all she wanted in the world was a Little Mermaid cake. At first she wanted me to make Ariel from fondant (yes, my four year old thoroughly knows what fondant is!) but after a trip to the Disney store, she coerced me into buying a set of figurines that were of Ariel's sisters. Charlotte and I made this cake together, and I am very proud to say that she made all of the starfish. The shells and starfish were liberally doused with disco dust, and the sand is brown sugar.

Soon after that, I entered the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show again. I wanted to make a cartoon-like cake. The coffee cup on the top was from chocolate fondant mixed with Tylose. The whipped cream is royal icing, and the cherries are fondant. At the last minute I decided to add on the cute little strawberries. This was a super fun cake to make, but it did not place in my division.

Last but not least, I made my son, Nate's, 6th birthday cake. Nate is absolutely Bakugan crazy, and he wasn't too particular with the

design of the cake as long as it had lots and lots of Bakugans on it. I ordered some edible images, and then decorated the border of the cake with Bakugans instead of my regular fondant balls. He was very happy with it!

I have been receiving lots of emails asking why I am not taking orders, and would like to make an announcement regarding this. At the end of October, my family and I moved to the Denver area after my husband was relocated for a job position. We are very excited to start this new chapter

of our lives, but I am sad to leave behind all of my wonderful clients in Dallas. I am hoping to start making cakes in Denver soon!

Butterfly Sweets Featured on AOL!

I am so proud to share that Butterfly Sweets has been featured on AOL's new site, Party Central! Three of my cakes were featured, including my Circus Cake, Princess Cake, and Raggedy Anne Cake. Please check them out at: http://www.holidash.com/party-central/birthday/food/bizarre-birthday-cakes

Wedding Season!

I love June, and all the weddings that are associated with it! The two cakes that I have recently made are both designs that I have been dying to make for quite a while.

First is this beautiful Tiffany Box inspired cake. These are 3 square tiers, 6, 9 and 12 inches. The color was achieved using Americolor Turquoise. For the bows, I wanted them to be messy and unfurled, like a present wrapped coming unfurled. The bows are all gumpaste and I painted them with white disco dust. And then lots of pretty, gumpaste cutout flowers and hand sculpted roses.

The border was made with a bead maker, and is also gumpaste.

Next, I made this really pretty purple cherry blossom and dogwood wedding cake. This one was fun, because I love making gumpaste flowers!

The cake was painted purple to achieve a nice, bright color that would be less likely to fade. It was painted using a large brush, Americolor Electric Purple food coloring and vodka.

The branch that twists its way around the cake is chocolate fondant. I detailed the branches with a gumpaste tool to impress a wood like pattern onto it.

The flowers were all made from gumpaste and cut from blossom and dogwood cutters. Once they were dry, they were dusted with Cosmo pink petal dust. I attached them onto the cake with royal icing, and then piped pretty little centers onto each one.

I really loved making both of these cakes!

Partridge Cake

My wonderful repeat client Eleshia, whose family has ordered at least 5 cakes from me in the past, ordered another cake from me for this weekend.

This family loves the Pink Cake Box as much as I do, and ordered a version of one of their cakes, only in different colors. The original was done in red and blue, but since was Morgan's First Birthday, they wanted me to change the colors to pretty pinks and greens to match her nursery bedding.

The partridges were hand molded in bright pink fondant, and the details for the eyes and beak were black fondant. The butterflies were also fondant.

The ribbon around the bottom of each tier were done using my ribbon cutter so that the top of the ribbon was done in a zig zag pattern.

On the bottom tier are abstract flowers. They are layered with dark pink, light pink and black fondant discs, and then have green royal icing dots piped around the border. They also have teeny little green leaves!

I hope that Morgan had a wonderful 1st birthday!

Pink Alligators, Purple Leopard and Blue Turtles

My oh my was I ever overwhelmed this week!  Mostly because it was the last week of school, which meant fun parties, graduations and other ceremonies to attend.  But add several cakes in the mix and I am officially swamped!

In addition to my son's Tae Kwon Do cake, I had some other orders to take care of.  One for a friend of mine, and then two other high labor orders from some very, very good clients.

Last year, Audra ordered the Over The Top birthday cake http://butterflysweets.blogspot.com/2008/05/over-top-birthday.html for her beautiful 1 year old daughter.  This was an extremely lucrative design, because I am constantly getting requests to replicate it.  This year, she ordered from me again to help her celebrate Brynlie's 2nd birthday.  

She had decided on an accessories theme-purses, shoes, cell phones and the like.  We both did research and finally decided on a design first done by Cakes By Ashley.  We tweaked it a little bit and added the purple leopard print to the middle tier and turquoise as an accent color.  

The accessories are all gumpaste and hand painted.  The leopard print is also hand painted, and I was so excited to get to do this.  I normally will dilute food coloring with some kind of clear alcohol (vodka for example) to paint with, but this time painted with straight good coloring and a tiny brush, to make sure the color was strong enough.  Audra also ordered 3 dozen cookies from me, but I did not get a good photograph of them.

I hope you had a great 2nd birthday Brynlie!

There is a great family who has ordered several cakes from me in the past year.  They are the sweetest, nicest people and I loved working with them!  This year, Eleshia ordered three cakes

 from me and some cookies.  

One of her friends is expecting a baby boy, and is very excited about the turtle bedding she has picked out for the nursery.  Being as enamored with the Pink Cake Box as I am, she decided on a cake like this one-blue and chocolate brown-with the pretty pregnant lady made from fondant on the top.  And to compliment the cute turtles, I made these turtle sugar cookies!  It is all so cute together.  Thank you so much, Eleshia!  See you again in a couple of weeks!

Last but not least, I also made this Pink Alligator cake.  Once upon a time, my husband and I were very good friends with another couple, Sam and Kate.  Our two husbands have known each other since the 8th grade, and then I came into the picture in high school, then the three of us went to the same college.  On the night of our rehearsal dinner, we met Sam's new girlfriend, Kate.  We were very close friends for years but with school, jobs and babies, our weekly get togethers have dwindled down to about once per year. :( 

Kate sent over an email about a week before their daughter Emma's party, asking me to make her birthday cake.  I was already a little overwhelmed with all of the end of year festivities, but I have a soft spot for Emma and worked her in.  Emma wanted a pink alligator party, and Kate picked out a repeat cake of mine-the Girlie First Birthday Cake.  But to add a funny touch, I put on the adorable little pink alligator onto the front of it.  Happy 3rd Birthday, Emma!  

Proud Mommy! (And A Tae Kwon Do Cake)

Since there was a cake involved, I can officially post this.  My 5 year old son had a big night tonight-testing for his orange belt in Tae Kwon Do as well as his preschool graduation ceremony.  I am always looking for a reason to have a house full of people, so thought it would be a perfect excuse for a party.  And more importantly, a cake!

The graduation cap is all fondant, but the top is fondant mixed with Tylose.  The tassel was made by running some fondant through a pasta  shredder.

Everything else is pretty standard stuff-all fondant.  I used an impression mat on the orange belt fondant to replicate the fabric pattern on his belt.  Also, I had to put wired stars on the cake, but had a fun time making the wires spiraled.  

I also made my little boy's likeness in fondant, which he had a fun time devouring.

Nate had a great party and a full house full of family.  Congratulations on all your accomplishments Nate!  We love you! 

Hunny

Last year I made a cake that some of you may remember-the very cool Indian cake that was for the police officer that was being shot at when I called to fill her order.  She was so happy with that cake, that she hired me again this year to make her daughter's 2nd birthday cake.

Anya wanted Pooh and the gang on the cake, but her daughter Morgen had a hard time deciding what she wanted on the top of it.  After much discussion, she settled on Pooh holding a hunny pot.

As usual, all my animals are made from pure fondant.  On Eeyore, you can see that he has delicate stitching, which is really cute and makes him look more authentic.  Also, all the details, for the stripes on Tigger and the bumble bees, the eyes, etc, are all hand painted with black food coloring and vodka.

The hunny pot is also made from fondant, but the honey pouring from it is yellow royal icing-perfect  touch!  Also perfect-the dozen honey bees swirling around the cake, hoping to get a taste of the yummy stuff inside.  

I hope Morgen has a great 2nd birthday!