guitar cake |

As some of you recall, before this year I was cursed with the inability to bake (anything that wasn’t hideous, anyway). And as one of my New Year’s resolutions, I set out to address this fatal flaw. For some context, here is an example of the type of cake I used to bake. Don’t look if you just ate.

Note the special type of two-layer cake where you can actually see from the outside that it’s two layers. And what is up with those strawberries?!? On a side note, my penmanship has gotten far worse over the years.

This next one is a little blurry, but just ask yourself when you look at it: does this look like an authorized Sanrio Hello Kitty product to you? (The cake, not the giant Hello Kitty in the chair.)

I had not yet discovered the round cake pan at this point in time. Nor did the internet have enough rich content on how to make an inoffensive cake. Cake pops weren’t even invented. And I thought it seemed wasteful to cut off bits of cake so that the layers could lie flat against each other. I call this the “Sloped Cake Style”. Other people call it “gross”.

As you may recall, I started off with cookies, which used to be a source of annual embarrassment for my neighborhood cookie exchange. I feel pretty good about my cookie progress. So it’s time to share some of what I’ve done with cakes.

Here is the very first cake that I’ve ever made that didn’t require me to serve people lots of alcohol ahead of time before unveiling:

I used marshmallow fondant to make the stars, letters and dolphin and piped the decoration on the edges. The cake was frosted in buttercream.

I also made some mini-cupcakes. They’re shown here on a cute little platter from Nora Fleming. It was for my husband’s birthday celebration so I put the margarita mini in.