My niece was very specific in her birthday cake request this year--a pink dragon. Wow. That was a new one. 
Not too shabby, right? My sister came up with the idea of using the candies for the spikes and horns, and also for using the party straw for the fire. Shaping the body and icing the cake was a group effort. The finished product uses two round cakes, four Ho-Ho's, and three Ding Dongs. And all that frosting? That took 13 cups of powdered sugar.
These are the cakes I decorated for the combined Kolby and Jasmyn birthday party, which is this afternoon.
The fish is for Kolby and the butterfly for Jasmyn. After the Worst-Cake-Decorating-Experience-Ever of the last birthday party, I was extra careful in my frosting choices and am confident that this trip won't end in tears. 
Decorating these cakes was the first time that I tried out using my left hand to pipe stars. Usually my left hand just sits around wearing a gorgeous ring. He doesn't get involved in tedious things like writing, cutting, waving, teeth brushing, etc. But yesterday when my right hand had cramped into a twisted mess, it was time for the ol' left hand to put in his time. And he did a mighty fine job, I think. Somebody also wanted to try his hand at decorating, so the fish cake became a testing ground for both of us.
I made a cake for my niece's birthday this weekend. She wanted something that had to do with ballerinas or horses, because she wanted a horse and she thought that she would wake up on her birthday and be a ballerina. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any examples of either of those things that I liked, so I ended up making one of the cakes that looks like a doll dress. It was my first attempt, and I made a lot of mistakes, but I think it turned out okay. Tip: the frosting that is sold in the cans in the grocery store does NOT make a good crumb base. Even though it seems convenient and it's midnight and you just need to get something on the cake so that it doesn't dry out overnight, take the time to make some real icing, or else while you drive the cake up to the birthday party the store-bought frosting will melt down and take all the nicely decorated icing with it. Your doll will end up without a skirt, and you will end up crying in the passenger seat, and your fiance will spend the drive patting your hand and wonding why you are emotionally unstable.
But before the skirt fell off, she looked nice, huh?
And this was the cake that I made for another niece. This one turned out much more stable, I think.
