Designer Cakes By April

Houndstooth cake

2010-09-05T21:23:00.001-07:00

Houndstooth cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

I LOVED making this cake. She wanted houndstooth pattern and I had only limited time to make this cake so I didn't have time to order an edible image so I tried to print one of myself but the black would only show up as an outline so, no joke, I went back over it with a food marker and colored in each of the tiny black houndsteeth (funny, is that what it's called?) haha. It was a little crazy but it turned out good.

I need your feedback about Fairies!

2010-06-13T18:26:00.001-07:00

I need your feedback about Fairies!
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

My amazing and talented friend Gigi paints fairies such at this one and many more. You can check out all her work at www.gigitales.com. She and I are collaborating on a project. I would make the fairy themed cakes and little plastic fairies like this one would come with it as decoration and then can be taken home by the kids at the party as favors. Please tell me if this is something you would like to see and if you would order it for your little princess' party. Thanks for your input!

Heather's Rock Star Cake

2010-06-13T18:23:00.003-07:00

Heather's Rock Star Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

My employee Heather got married and I got to make her whatever cake I wanted. I originally made her the square orange and pink cake w/ the daisies on it but then I knew it wasn't "Heather" enough so I made her this rock star cake too! It was way more her and I thought it rocked!!! The gum paste flower and feathers were the best.

Heather's Princess Cake

2010-06-13T18:23:00.001-07:00

Heather's Princess Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was so pearly and pretty but I'm glad I didn't leave it as Heather's only cake. But how fun is it to have 2 wedding cakes!!!

Masculine 50th Birthday Party Cake

2010-06-13T18:06:00.001-07:00

Masculine 50th Birthday Party Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was one of the most challenging cakes I have ever made. Making chocolate cigars with custom gold labels was one thing, modeling the guy on a motorcycle was another, but the black and grey striped fondant was a whole different story. This cake was inspired by a Tammie Coe piece and now I know why she charges what she charges because the striped fondant was not funny at all. The bottom tier was my first attempt and the top tier was my second attempt. I'm sure if I did it a few more times it would get easier. I'm sure having a sheeter would make this job so much easier! And if you want to keep the stripes from mutating you have to "fold" the fondant around the cake. It gives it a different but kind of cool look. You go Tammie Coe!

Green flower cake on custom stand

2010-06-13T18:05:00.001-07:00

Green flower cake on custom stand
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was super fun to make! First of all this color of green is my total favorite. Then the funk flowers were just a blast to create. I made the board and painted it custom for this cake and I think it totally made the cake!

Leaf Cake

2010-06-13T18:04:00.001-07:00

Leaf Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

There were so many leaves on this cake!!!! I had Mandy cutting them out and she made so many of them we ended up making a demo cake very similar to this one for the bridal show just to use up the extra leaves and because this cake was just so cool we wanted one like it in the shop.

Cupcake holders

2010-06-13T18:03:00.001-07:00

Cupcake holders
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

These are FABULOUS cupcake holders made by "The Cakehole Project" in Phoenix, AZ. They had a booth at the bridal show too and we made the cupcakes for their display. They are absolutely the coolest cupcake holders I've ever seen!

More cupcakes

2010-06-13T18:02:00.001-07:00

More cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The holders are cooler than the cupcakes.

Super Mario Bros Cupcakes

2010-06-13T18:01:00.001-07:00

Super Mario Bros Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

We found a picture online and had to make these fabulous cupcakes for my friend's son's birthday.

Treasure Island Birthday Cake

2010-05-23T19:42:00.001-07:00

Treasure Island Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was over the top fantastic. It was quite a project. You can see the dry ice "smoke" coming out the top of the volcano. The palm trees were made of chocolate and gum paste and the dinosaur, dragon, and alligator were made out of modeling chocolate, covered with fondant and then airbrushed.

Dragon

2010-05-23T19:41:00.001-07:00

Dragon
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This is only the 3rd time I have ever modeled anything in my life and I think it turned out okay. I keep finding these hidden gifts and talents that I didn't know I had. It's crazy! I have been very blessed as I continue to use my talents.

Love Damask and Stripes

2010-05-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

Love Damask and Stripes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

I love the combination of the damask and stripes on this one and especially with the green. The horizontal stripes are so much easier on a square cake than on round we found out. Still not the easiest thing to make look good but way easier than round. :o)

Cherry Blossoms w/ the pet

2010-05-23T19:39:00.001-07:00

Cherry Blossoms w/ the pet
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The bride and groom requested this cake because they loved the cherry blossom cake and then saw on "Ace of Cakes" where there was a dog taking a bite out of the wedding cake. So... I took some photos of their husky dog and made a little model of her taking a bite out of the corner. I didn't take out too much because I couldn't bare marring the cake more than absolutely necessary. Believe it or not I've never really considered myself to be a sculptor and this in only the second time I've done it but it was like 10 times better than the first time. I even shocked myself how much it really looked like their dog!!!

Damask and Quilting

2010-05-23T19:38:00.001-07:00

Damask and Quilting
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This is a remake of a similar cake I did last November. Cute with the pink flowers and feathers. :o)

Remake of Blue Vintage Cake

2010-05-23T19:37:00.001-07:00

Remake of Blue Vintage Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

I had a ball making this cake the first time in blue and had just as grand a time making it a second time in green. I really liked the green. It leant an elegance to the cake that went well with the vintage theme of the wedding.

Ivory and Lavender

2010-05-23T19:36:00.001-07:00

Ivory and Lavender
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was originally supposed to be smaller but they wanted it big so we put a styrofoam bottom on and made the rest cake. The middle tier was purple velvet but since it was dark outside everyone thought it was just chocolate. It really was purple. I didn't realize that a little bit of food coloring goes a long way!

"Rexy Bones" Cake

2010-04-25T18:51:00.001-07:00

"Rexy Bones" Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was for my boy's 3rd birthday. He loves the movie Night at the Museum and wanted a "Rexy Bones" cake. With limited time I didn't know how else to create a skeleton so this is what I came up with. I hand cut the bones with an x-acto knife out of gum paste.

Pink Damask!

2010-04-25T18:27:00.003-07:00

Pink Damask!
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

LOVE LOVE this cake! The bride's invitation was pink black and white damask so we took that and incorporated it into the design. Just the pink and white layers are cake, the black layers are just separators.

Modern Chic

2010-04-25T18:27:00.001-07:00

Modern Chic
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was one of my favorites of the weekend too. It was a challenge getting those stripes straight on the bottom of the cake and the cutouts were a challenge too but in the end it turned out really nicely. We had to redo the board once because the separator under the cake was too big and we didn't realize it until we put the cake on top of it and it was all wrong so we had to rip off all the fondant on the board and completely redo it. It was a little crazy.

Simple and Organic

2010-04-25T18:26:00.001-07:00

Simple and Organic
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The bride and I went back and forth quite a few times deciding on the design of this cake. I had something else in mind but this is what she wanted and I'm really glad she did because it turned out really really nice. It was one of my favorites of the weekend, and we had 8 weddings...

Colorful wedding cake

2010-04-25T18:25:00.001-07:00

Colorful wedding cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

You know me... I always love a modern and different twist on a traditional cake and I think the bride did well with this one. Her mom wanted only one color of ribbons but she wanted all three. It turned out really fun.

Damask w black & pink bows

2010-04-25T18:24:00.003-07:00

Damask w black & pink bows
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake turned out very elegant. It was a lot of fun to make because it was somewhat traditional with cool modern accents.

White on White Damask

2010-04-25T18:24:00.001-07:00

White on White Damask
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was so elegant. From a distance it kind of looked just white but if you look up close there was a white damask pattern on the white.

More Fishing Lures

2010-04-25T18:23:00.001-07:00

More Fishing Lures
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Fishing Tackle Box Cake

2010-04-25T18:22:00.003-07:00

Fishing Tackle Box Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This was half the cake for a 50th Birthday party for a husband and wife turning 50 in the same week. Apparently he is a big fan of fishing, Coors Light, and Skoal.

Coach purse cake

2010-04-25T18:22:00.001-07:00

Coach purse cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This was the other half of the husband wife 50th birthday party cake. She's a big fashionista!

Happy Birthday Town of Gilbert

2010-04-25T18:20:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Town of Gilbert
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was for the 90th Birthday Celebration for the Town of Gilbert at the Global Village Festival. It was a lot of fun to make. We had much grander plans but when it was due at the same time as 8 other wedding cakes we had to tone it down a little bit so we could get all the work done. The iconic water tower was way more work than we thought it was going to be but we liked how it turned out. The "photos" around the bottom of the cake were edible images of the town of gilbert "then and now." it was really fun to be able to put them on the cake.

2nd Wedding

2010-04-25T18:19:00.001-07:00

2nd Wedding
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This was a tiny cake for a second wedding of an older couple who didn't want to make a huge to do over their wedding but wanted something cute. You can't tell really in the photo but the R was all super glittery. It was a fun cake.

Ruffly Birthday Cake

2010-04-25T18:18:00.001-07:00

Ruffly Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This little girl was turning 2 and her mom wanted her cake to match her outfit. It was a ruffly tutu type skirt and a shirt with a ruffly cupcake on it. This cake was a lot of fun to make.

Farm Cupcakes

2010-04-25T18:17:00.001-07:00

Farm Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

These cupcakes went with the ruffly cake. The birthday girl also apparently LOVES farm animals and they were having a petting zoo so we made some super fun farm animal cupcakes for the party too.

Seashell Wedding Cake

2010-04-25T18:03:00.001-07:00

Seashell Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was a take off a cake in a magazine. The cake in the magazine had way smaller tiers but we needed the cake to feed 100 people so we had to make it bigger but it was a really fun cake.

Cell Phone Cake

2010-04-25T18:02:00.003-07:00

Cell Phone Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was for a 12th birthday party and she was getting this phone for her birthday.

More Todd Heap Cake

2010-04-25T18:02:00.001-07:00

More Todd Heap Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Todd Heap of the Baltimore Raven's was turning 30 and his big Birthday bash was here in town. We were privelaged enough to be able to make his cake. It was personalized for him with his interests and nicknames. We also made 75 football jersey cookies to go along with it. LOTS of work, but worth it.

90th Birthday party

2010-04-25T18:01:00.001-07:00

90th Birthday party
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was a version of a cake we did a couple of months ago. A friend's grandma was turning 90 and she is a huge fan of cribbage and golf and they wanted her to be a princess for a day. When we get a better photo of this cake we'll post it. Forgot the camera again...

White & Green Wedding Cake

2010-03-21T19:04:00.001-07:00

White & Green Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The bride brought me a photo of a cake she wanted from "Vanilla Bake Shop" but wanted green flowers instead of the taupe in the photo. I had never made serious gum paste flowers before but like usual I just say I can and then just do it the best way I can figure out. I dusted the green flowers with pink petal dust and the centers w/ brown and then the entire thing w/ pearl. It turned out really elegant. Thanks for the inspiration from "Vanilla Bake Shop" and I think they may have been inspired by "Cake Girls." Either way, they are all amazing cake decorators.

Tomato and Sausage Pizza Cake

2010-03-21T19:03:00.001-07:00

Tomato and Sausage Pizza Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was a ball to make! The birthday guy's favorite pizza is sausage and tomato and he is a big "M.A.S.H." fan, hence the "40-77" for his 40th birthday party. I airbrushed the white fondant for the crust then used royal icing for the "sauce" and then made all the toppings out of fondant.

Tiffany's Box Cake

2010-03-21T19:02:00.001-07:00

Tiffany's Box Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake ended up being so much more work than I imagined. Most of it was the lid. The fondant wasn't drying fast enough and it was trying to cave in on itself. We ended up having to reinforce it underneath with sucker sticks and cardboard. Anyway, the finished product durned out really nice.

Wedding Cupcake Tower

2010-03-21T19:01:00.001-07:00

Wedding Cupcake Tower
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cupcake tower had 170 cupcakes on it! The cake on the top was so cute and dainty. The cupcake wrappers totally made them look totally sophisticated and fancy.

Zoo Cake

2010-03-16T19:05:00.001-07:00

Zoo Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was a serious project. We had 4 weddings and a ton of cake last week and I get a call on Thursday night about doing this cake for Monday morning. I so wanted to say no but when it's something this cool I just can't pass it up. Melissa and i worked on Sunday to make the cupcakes, cut out the rhino and Phx Zoo logo and prep the cake and then I came in at the crack of dawn on Monday morning to finish the cake. It turned out so much better than I could have imagined. We were so pleased with it. It was for a final job interview process at the zoo and she got the job!!! Who knew that our cake would help someone get a job. That's why we do what we do. It makes people so happy.

Shark Breach Groom's Cake

2010-03-16T19:03:00.001-07:00

Shark Breach Groom's Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

How cool is this cake? We had a ball decorating it. I made the shark out of rice crispy treats and Melissa decorated it... gotta love the 2 rows of teeth! I decorated the ocean scene and Heather did all the shells and beach. I LOVE the fun interesting cakes like this one.

Super Fun Stripes Wedding Cake

2010-03-16T19:02:00.003-07:00

Super Fun Stripes Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Let me just say that horizontal stripes are crazy crazy hard to make look good when you're working with fondant. We could have done them out of real ribbon but that just wouldn't be our style, we had to do it right. But I LOVED how this cake turned out. It looks like a cake that would be in a fashion magazine... if there were fashion magazines for cakes... :o)

Demo Cake For a Photoshoot

2010-03-16T19:02:00.001-07:00

Demo Cake For a Photoshoot
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

i stayed up until midnight last night making this cake for a photoshoot for a magazine that will be coming out in July. They wanted a clean and modern cake so I think that's what I delivered. The quilting was crazy intense on a cake this big, and putting miniature dragees at all the intersections took hours. You may not be able to see it but the black tiers have a scrollly impression on them. It looked cool in real life. The M turned out kind of "interesting" but it was like 11:00 at night and I was fried. Oh well, there's no changing it now.

Yellow Wedding Cake w/ Piping

2010-03-16T19:01:00.001-07:00

Yellow Wedding Cake w/ Piping
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was so much fun to make!!! We had some issues along the way. We were having issues getting this color right. I colored the fondant and it was pretty close then covered the tiers and after they sat for a while the fondant turned like a peachy color. It was absolutely not right. Just as I was ready to pull the fondant off and redo I had a great idea to airbrush the cake! It worked perfectly and we ended up with the perfect color. It was bizzare. I just filled the cup with water and added one drop of yellow and it was perfect over the weird peachy color. I'm just glad we hadn't started on the piping yet!

Denim and Diamonds Sweet 16

2010-03-08T14:46:00.001-08:00

Denim and Diamonds Sweet 16
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The theme was denim and diamonds so we kept with the blue tones with lots of bling. It's hard to see in this photo but there is bling at the corners of all the diamonds. Our favorite part was the pocket and jean stitching elements. It was too fun.

Pea In A Pod Baby Shower Cake

2010-03-08T14:45:00.001-08:00

Pea In A Pod Baby Shower Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was a replica of a "Cake Girls" cake that I saw on TV. It was so darling I had to make it.

Sunflower cupcake tower

2010-03-08T14:44:00.003-08:00

Sunflower cupcake tower
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This wedding had a sunflower / garden theme so we made 140 cupcakes for the tower with fancy fondant sunflowers on them.

Tree stump cake for cupcake tower

2010-03-08T14:44:00.001-08:00

Tree stump cake for cupcake tower
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

I wish I had taken a photo from the top of this cake. It looked like a tree stump with their initials carved into it. The top had tree rings carved into the fondant

sunflower cupcakes

2010-03-08T14:43:00.001-08:00

sunflower cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

They were just so cute even while sitting in their boxes.

White & Purple Wedding Cake

2010-03-08T14:40:00.001-08:00

White & Purple Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This was an interesting color of purple but we matched it pretty well. Who knew that it was yellow that we needed to tone down the bright purple???

Beatles Cake

2010-02-28T15:26:00.003-08:00

Beatles Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This birthday cake was fora die hard Beatles fan turning 30. I took images from the "Abbey Road" and "Revolver" album covers to create this "artsy" cake. That was the instructions... It had to be artsy not funky and cool so I hope we achieved that. I was pleased with it.

Boston Terrier Cake

2010-02-28T15:26:00.001-08:00

Boston Terrier Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Okay, this birthday cake was for the owner of the Boston Terriers, not the dogs... She just happens to love her pooches very much so that's why we put them on the cake. The paw prints were fun to make. We cut out hearts and then modified them a little bit and then added the circles.

Fondant Dogs

2010-02-28T15:25:00.001-08:00

Fondant Dogs
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

These dogs were really fun to make. I've never modeled dogs before but I've done farm animals and monkeys... how hard could it be? These are supposed to be Boston Terriers and I think I did an okay job for being an amateur modeler (is that even a word?). The noses could have stood to be a little shorter but for my first time I did alright. :o)

Cupcake Cake

2010-02-28T15:24:00.003-08:00

Cupcake Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was so much fun to make!! It took quite a bit of carving to make the top like I wanted it but I thought it turned out great. You may not be able to see it in the picture but the "frosting" section was airbrushed with pearl and dusted with super fine edible glitter. The cherry on top was just the cherry on top. :o)

Cub Scout Shirt Cake

2010-02-28T15:24:00.001-08:00

Cub Scout Shirt Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Melissa made and decorated this cake and did a phenomenal job! I have the best employees ever!! When it comes to detail there is no holding back with Melissa. Talk about a cool cub scout banquet dessert.

Special Order 60th Birthday Cake

2010-02-28T15:23:00.001-08:00

Special Order 60th Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Well, all the cakes we do here are special order but this one was super special order. I love it when they taylor the cake to the person it is for. Apparently he likes poker, golf and is some sort of "pretty pretty princes." I'm not sure of the details and I didn't ask.... :o) Everything is edible on this cake except the flag pole, it's a sucker stick.

More Valentine's Cupcakes

2010-02-28T15:22:00.003-08:00

More Valentine's Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

These were fun to make. I really liked the variety of designs. It made the cupcakes way more interesting.

Valentines Cupcakes

2010-02-28T15:22:00.001-08:00

Valentines Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

We baked these in red cups with white polka dots. The hearts are made from red fondant engraved with a heart design. The design was done with a rubber rolling stamp by my good friend Erin's scrapbook design company. They are called "roller doodles" and if they haven't yet been used with ink they (or any other rubber stamp) can be used to put an impression in fondant. Check them out at www.glitzitnow.com. Fun technique.

Kai Lan Sugar Cookies

2010-02-28T15:21:00.001-08:00

Kai Lan Sugar Cookies
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Yay!!! The food color printer is working again!!! These cookies were crazy amounts of work. Mostly because I had never made them before and wasn't sure what I was doing. We printed the images on frosting paper and then made a card stock template to cut out the cookies with a knife so they would match the images. If it had been more than 24 cookies I may have made a cookie cutter... Then we iced them with royal icing and layed the images on top of the wet icing. i made a huge mistake though and stacked them too soon before they were dry and the images came off on the parchment paper in between them. I had to print new images and then add a new layer of frosting and redo the images. It was CRAZY. I made Wall-E cookies too and the same thing happened but I didn't have the frosting sheets to recreate those so we had to make cupcakes with mini Wall-Es on them but I forgot to take a photo of those.

60th Birthday

2010-02-28T15:20:00.003-08:00

60th Birthday
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

We did 3 60th Birthday cakes 3 weeks in a row. It was fun. The colors on this cake were so bright and fun. When I dropped it off some little girls playing outside asked if I was from "The Cake Boss." It was cute.

A Mini Remake

2010-02-28T15:20:00.001-08:00

A Mini Remake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

We did a wedding cake back in December like this but it also worked in a mini version for a baby blessing. We of course added the W instead of the cute balls and the banner on the bottom tier.

Beatles Cake

2010-01-31T19:36:00.001-08:00

Beatles Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was for a bridal shower that had a "Beatles, All you need is love" theme. That was the only instructions I got. I didn't even get a color scheme to work with so I thought long and hard about how to get this one done so that it was not tacky or juvenile yet keep with the theme. The bass drum on the top was styrofoam. Real cake just won't stand up like that and then the little silhouette people are the actual Beatles.

Masculine 60th Birthday

2010-01-31T19:35:00.001-08:00

Masculine 60th Birthday
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The colors for this one were brown, black, and yellow because we wanted a masculine but fun cake. Sometimes cakes with these types of designs are inherently feminine but the color scheme really made this one masculine. It was a big hit at the party.

Dress "cake"

2010-01-25T21:03:00.001-08:00

Dress "cake"
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This was a demo cake I did for the "Cake and Flower Parade" at The Inspirador in downtown Chandler last week. It was ENORMOUS! It was 3 feet tall and it was too tall to fit in the Expedition. That was lame. I had to ask the boy who works at the water and ice next door to drive me to the event in the back of his truck. That was sexy! The flowers were done by Aspen Weeks of Aspen Rene'e Studios. Check out her fabulous work at www.aspenreneestudions.com

Back of Dress "cake"

2010-01-25T21:02:00.001-08:00

Back of Dress "cake"
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This was the back of the same dress. It was almost prettier than the front. The laces and bow were just fun.

Club Penguin Ice Castle Cake

2010-01-25T20:46:00.001-08:00

Club Penguin Ice Castle Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

LOVED this cake! The ice castle was a nice little challenge to make. For some reason I thought the board was way bigger than it really was so most of the penguins and puffles had to go on top of the castle.

Geriatric 40th Birthday Cake

2010-01-25T20:35:00.001-08:00

Geriatric 40th Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

You have gotta love this cake for a 40th birthday party!!! Depends and Viagra... Need I say more?
Melissa who works for me did this cake and knocked it clean out of the park!!! We only hire the best!

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

2010-01-25T20:34:00.001-08:00

Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was white with chocolate buttercream on the inside and strawberry shortcake on the outside. Melissa made this cake too while I was out of town and did an amazing job on it! I have the best employees ever!!

Cupcake Tower

2010-01-25T20:33:00.001-08:00

Cupcake Tower
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Melissa was very busy while I was out of town! She did a beautiful job on this cupcake tower!

Jeff Gordon Baby!

2010-01-25T20:32:00.001-08:00

Jeff Gordon Baby!
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This fondant cake was done for a HUGE Jeff Gordon Fan! The logos were fun to make but totally time consuming. You can't see them but there was a Quaker State Oil, Chevy, & Pepsi logos too.

Black, Pink, & Silver Cake

2010-01-25T20:31:00.003-08:00

Black, Pink, & Silver Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

A Pretty little cake for a 33rd birthday!

White & Green Wedding Cake

2010-01-25T20:31:00.001-08:00

White & Green Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

Pretty white on white cake with green bows

Fabulous black & white wedding cake

2010-01-25T20:30:00.001-08:00

Fabulous black & white wedding cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This couple couldn't decide on what the cake should look like so I told them they had to trust me. The groom kept bringing up the "tribal" look is cool so I did this. I thought it was totally cool!

Vintage photo frame cake

2010-01-25T20:29:00.001-08:00

Vintage photo frame cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This was a demo cake I made for a good friend of mine who has a scrapbook design company called Glitz Design. I used her frame stamps to make impressions in the fondant and then brushed them with petal dust to antique them. Then the paper flowers on top and the rub on images are from the same collection. Check out her stuff at www.glitzitnow.com

Tinkerbell's Hollow

2010-01-04T19:03:00.003-08:00

Tinkerbell's Hollow
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was for my 4 year old's birthday party. She loves Tinkerbell and when we went to the Hollow at Disneyland it was just too much inspiration not to turn it into a cake. everything is edible except the Tinkerbell. I wanted to maker her out of sugar but I just ran out of time.

Flowers, mushroom, butterfly, and grass

2010-01-04T19:03:00.001-08:00

Flowers, mushroom, butterfly, and grass
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

These were some of the decorations on the Tinkerbell cake.

Elegant Wedding Cake

2010-01-02T19:30:00.001-08:00

Elegant Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This wedding cake was all real cake!!! It weighted like 75 pounds! It was HUGE and totally awesome! This is a new record for me! I have never made a cake this big before. The bottom layer was chocolate with chocolate buttercream, the next layer was lemon with white chocolate mousse and raspberry, and the top 2 tiers were carrot cake with cream cheese filling. YUM!!!

Chocolate Wedding Cake

2010-01-02T19:26:00.001-08:00

Chocolate Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake is all sided with white chocolate! How crazy is that? The black swirl was a transfer sheet and the bow is made of fondant.

Ginger Bread House Cake

2010-01-01T19:17:00.001-08:00

Ginger Bread House Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This looks like a gingerbread house but it's not... its' a cake!!! The brown and the windows and door are fondant and all the rest is candy and royal icing. I thought it turned out really fun. I had to keep it all red and green for Christmas. The thought of making a rainbow bright cake just didn't sit well with me. I'm so opinionated sometimes. :o)

Wedding Cake at Christmas

2009-12-23T00:43:00.001-08:00

Wedding Cake at Christmas
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was all real cake, chocolate with chocolate buttercream. YUM!! It was super heavy. As simple as it was this cake was so very elegant and just beautiful. It was very fitting for a wedding at Christmas time.

60th Birthday Party

2009-12-23T00:41:00.001-08:00

60th Birthday Party
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The assignment was to not make this too much like a little girl's cake so we couldn't decide what colors to use. This is what we decided on and it turned out really fun.

Snowflake Cupcakes

2009-12-23T00:39:00.001-08:00

Snowflake Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

These cupcakes were so fun to make. The sanding sugar on the snowflake cutouts and the crystal sugar on the cupcake made them seem very wintery... :o)

I'm going to be on TV!

2009-12-16T16:14:00.000-08:00

Set your DVRs again my friends... I'm going to be on Arizona Midday next Wednesday the 23rd. The show is live from 1-2 p.m. on Channel 12 and we will be making cake pops! Fun and De-lish!

Barn Cake

2009-12-15T08:48:00.001-08:00

Barn Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

I only had a couple days notice to make this cake but it turned out just like I envisioned. She said they were having a barnyard theme party and it was up to me to decide what kind of cake went along with that. I thought that the barn was a super cute idea and went to work. The walls and roof were impressed with a woodgrain pattern to make them look like wood slats and shingles. And the animals were made out of fondant. But one of my favorite things about this cake was the hay bundles at the corners of the barn.

Lots of Dots Wedding Cake

2009-12-15T08:39:00.001-08:00

Lots of Dots Wedding Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

The bride designed this cake. She was very sure about what she wanted and thank goodness because it turned out very cute. It actually turned out cuter in real life than I had pictured in my head. She originally wanted real ribbon around the bottom tier that was the blue with the white polka dots but I refused to do it. I have this thing against real ribbon on cake so I made it out of fondant and then just piped the little dots on it and it turned out so much cuter than if we had just tied real ribbon around the cake. I'm such a cake snob... :o)

Rainbow Trout Cake for Grandpa

2009-12-15T08:36:00.001-08:00

Rainbow Trout Cake for Grandpa
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was for my husband’s Grandpa. He is a huge fisherman and so we had to make him a fish cake. I made it so late at night and there was so much more I wanted to do with it but I just didn’t have time. I could have worked on this cake for another couple of hours but when it hit 1:30 in the morning it was time to go home. But it was still super cool and for sure the most fun birthday cake he had ever had in all his 88 years.

Christmas Cake

2009-12-15T08:33:00.001-08:00

Christmas Cake
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This is a demo cake I made for the Taste of Chandler event in November. It was so much fun to make. People kept asking me if this could be made in real cake and the answer to that is that the first 4 tiers probably but the top one would be a little precarious. :o)

Artsy Wedding

2009-12-15T08:31:00.001-08:00

Artsy Wedding
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was so very cool. It was for a wedding at the Phoenix Art Museum. It started out as 3 white tiers and then I airbrushed the black and silver on it to get the faded effect. I had to “wash” it three times before I finally got the color and fading right. The topper was also very cool. It was like a brushed aluminum or something. It just made the cake that much cooler.

Elmo Birthday

2009-12-15T08:30:00.001-08:00

Elmo Birthday
Originally uploaded by Designer Cakes By April

This cake was so fun to make! It was for my niece's birthday. She loves Elmo so we had to make her a cool cake. I had her mom, my sister, cut out the Elmo, which was so very fun for her I'm sure. She's a cop and cake decorating is not her thing but she so graciously helps me when I need her and in return I helped her make this super fun Elmo party cake.

Colorful 40th Birthday Cake

2009-11-25T09:47:00.000-08:00

This cake matched the decorations of the party perfectly. The table that this cake sat on was probably the cutest table I've ever set one of my cakes on. The candy bar behind it all matched and the cupcake tower with matching cupcakes that I made just made it look like a fabulous colorful party for a woman who is absolutely still fabulous at 40!

Purple Butterfly Cake

2009-11-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

This cake was so much fun to make. I love the more artsy cakes that come from a great idea. I made the rose on top out of red fondant. It's much more difficult to make flowers out of fondant than gum paste but I couldn't bear the thought of coloring gum paste red and the fondant came that way. The branch was made out of black fondant and the silver butterflies and dragonflies just made it look so magical and whimsical in a dark sort of way. The black and silver airbrushing on this cake just give it that extra depth and character that you just can't get any other way. LOVED this cake! We also made butterfly cookie favors for her to give to her guests at the end of the party!

Princess Tiara on a Pillow

2009-11-25T09:39:00.001-08:00

This cake was inspired by a dream that her mom had for this cake. The ivory base and all the trim were painted with antique silk luster dust and the tiara was embellished with edible pearls. The "pillow" was trimmed with fondant ropes and tassels that, no lie..., we made with a play dough extruder (never used for anything but fondant I swear). It was such a darling cake. We also made little crown cookie favors for the party guests.

"Love Nest" Wedding Cupcake Tower

2009-11-25T09:36:00.001-08:00

300 cupcakes and a cake for the top of the tower took much longer than I could have anticipated. Being the perfectionist that I am I had to add all the little details that take time to do but make a HUGE difference in the finished product. The theme for the wedding was "Love Nest" hence the nest with eggs on the top of the cake. The cupcake flavors were chocolate with chocolate buttercream, white cake with lime topping, and pumpkin chocolate chip with cream cheese frosting.

Tooth sugar Cookies

2009-11-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

These cookies were for an open house for a dentist office. These were so much work to make!! I completely underestimated how long it would take to make 160 tooth shaped cookies with smiley faces. I couldn't find a cookie cutter that was big enough for what I wanted so I made my own out of stainless steel stripping, a cardboard cutout of the shape, needle-nose pliers, and a wooden dowel. It was crazy but we got them done! Yeah!

Las Vegas Theme Engagement Party

2009-11-08T12:34:00.001-08:00

This was a super fun cake to make! The sign was super time consuming but was worth every minute. I thought it turned out really nice... But now that I look at it the letters are a little bit not straight. I thought they looked straight when I did it... I guess that what happens when you are going on very little sleep. Something funny about this cake... I had to deliver the previous cake to Fountain Hills at 2 and this one wasn't due until 6 also near Fountain Hills, so I took them both at 2 and then left this one in the walk in cooler at the Basha's Bakery and then picked it up when it was time to deliver. When I was walking out with it somebody said, "wow, I didn't know Basha's made cakes like that!" :o)

Black & White Wedding Cake

2009-11-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

I LOVED making this cake. I got a new stencil set and they are so fun. Usually I would have done the dark on the light but I really liked the reverse effect. I saw a cake similar to this one on TV and loved it so much I had to make it, thank goodness the bride agreed and liked it too or that would have been awkward...

The quilting on this one took forever... I made it really small because it just looked so much more sophisticated, and then I put the tiniest silver dragees at the corner of each quilting mark and that was a ridiculous challenge. They are so small you probably can't even see them in this picture but they are there and they made the cake look really great in person.

Halloween Wedding!!!!!

2009-11-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

This cake is one of the coolest cakes I have ever made. People were freaked out about the thought of a Halloween wedding cake but I thought it was awesome. I actually got married on Halloween 9 years ago but I didn't have a cake so I loved every minute of this one. This cake was so much work though. I swear we used every tool in our arsenal. Of course the airbrush makes this cake. It just wouldn't have been the same without it. Also, I painted on this cake which I had never done before and I actually quite enjoyed it. Then we made the skulls out of white chocolate, we just forgot to color the eyes black, oh well. Then I made the grave yard scene out of gum paste. And of course you can't have a Halloween wedding cake without the Corpse Bride on top right... I was told that the bride got choked up when she saw it because she loved it. That is why I'm in the biz, to make people happy. As hard of work this week was it is still so rewarding and still kind of like craft time. I just love what I do so much.

Scary Face Pumpkin

2009-11-01T21:05:00.001-08:00

This cake was the most fun thing to make EVER... It was for an 8 year old boy. The airbrush just adds so much dimension to the cake. I actually feel like a real artist when I make cakes like this one. I forgot my camera this day so this was taken in the fridge with my blackberry so it's not the best picture but you get the idea... :o)

Happy 50th

2009-11-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

This was for a surprise birthday party for a 50th birthday. The party was decorated with a masquerade theme and she wanted a fun cake with Phantom of the opera and Paris themed items on it. So... I made the Arc De Triumph, the Eifel Tower, the Moulin Rouge windmill, and the phantom mask out of gum paste and the rose out of fondant. This cake was no joke. All three layers had a different kind of cake and filling. I hope a ton of people came to this party because this was a TON of cake.

Baby Shower cake

2009-11-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

I got a picture of the CUTEST baby bedding to base this cake on. It had stripes and polka dots as well as some really pretty damask pattern. I originally tried to put that pattern on the cake but the stencils on a round cake are crazy difficult and it just wasn't working so I had to "wash" the cake and start over with a new design. But I was really happy with the way it turned out. It was so cute.