Mission Impossible?

Hunting for the right birthday present to surprise a loved one could almost seem like a mission. And this cake that I made is the result of one such mission of a loving husband. He approached me to make a surprise birthday cake for his wife and said that his wife's favorite thing was the merry-go-round or carousel. She has a thing for this particularly simple yet fun ride. She would neither miss them at the amusement parks nor at the souvenir shops.

Anyways, I set out to work on the design for this cake and usually when I make a themed cake, I like to know more about the person's hobbies, favorite timepass etc., so I can incorporate it in their cakes. So, the other things that the husband mentioned about his wife are: She loves flowers, the movie Madagascar, shopping at Macy's and Dillards and of course, the carousel. Finally, the cake was designed to make it look like she is being gifted with all of her favorite things for her birthday.


Red roses for flowers, Macy's shopping bag, Dillards' gift card (seen in the first picture),


her favorite characters Alex and Gloria from the movie Madagascar and last but not the least, the carousel - all made out of fondant and made to be completely edible.


I made the carousel as a keepsake box so she could add it to her collection if she liked. And to add to the surprise, I put a cupcake (actually, I didn't have time to bake a cupcake, its a piece of cake I cut in round shape) inside of the carousel box.


The verdict? The wife called me the next morning and said she was adding the carousel to her collection. Looks like 'Mission' Accomplished :-)

Red roses

I made this cake a long time ago. This cake was made for someone whose favorite color is red and ... roses are red :-) And not just that, the cake itself is a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

The cake is decorated with medium size roses in the center and mini or small size roses around the border. The roses were hand piped with royal icing and it worked out great. Because I was working on several cakes at the same time, it helped to have these made ahead of time. The outside of the cake is covered with crushed roasted pecan nuts.