Happy 5th Birthday Reagan!

 8"-10"

I was so excited to make a purple cake! I think purple is my new favorite color because lately my eyes are drawn to everything that color! I can't wait to get the pictures from Reagan's mom and grandmother from the party because they always have the prettiest decorations! The cake is chocolate and strawberry. I made Reagan's cake last year as well. You can see it here. =)

Peggy Does Cake Has 10,000 Fans!!!

I would like to congratulate the fabulously amazing Peggy from Peggy Does Cake on her 10,000 fans!! She is an amazing cake decorator and she is always promoting fellow sugar artist's work on her Facebook page! To celebrate, she is having 5 awesome giveaways for the month of April. No matter where you live in the world, you are eligible to participate! For full details on the rules and eligibility, visit her blog,  http://peggydoescake.blogspot.com/2012/03/its-finally-here-peggy-does-cake-big.html! Also, go check out her Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/PeggyDoesCake! She's a total gem, one of the sweetest ladies you'll ever have the privilege of knowing! =) 

Addison's 1st Birthday

6"-8"-10"

I had the privilege of making the baby shower cake for Addison's mom while she was still in her tummy and now I was chosen to make her 1st birthday cake as well! =) The top and bottom tiers are white almond sour cream cake and the middle tier is chocolate. All three tiers have cream cheese filling. 

Sofia's 1st Birthday

6"-8"

Sofia's mom sent me a picture of a cake that she liked and wanted a version of it for Sofia's 1st birthday. =) The topper for the cake was a Hello Kitty topper, which was added after the cake was picked up. The top tier is chocolate cake and the bottom is strawberry. 

Hailey's Minnie Mouse Cake

 

 4"-6"-8"

Hailey's mom sent me lots of pictures of adorable things that she was going to be using for Hailey's birthday party for my inspiration for the cake. She also wanted a little miniature version of Hailey on there somewhere. So this is what I came up with. =) The top tier is strawberry cake, middle is chocolate and the bottom is white almond sour cream cake.

Raelynn's 3rd Birthday

 

 6"-8"-10"

This cake is inspired by the Jessie character from Toy Story. My original plan was to make gumpaste Woody and Jessie characters but I ended up not having the time to do it unfortunately. The top tier is chocolate cake, middle is white almond sour cream and the bottom is strawberry cake.

Kennedy's Yo Gabba Gabba cake

6"-8"

I was given a picture by the customer of the cake that she wanted so I basically copied it but made a few changes here and there. The top tier is chocolate cake and the bottom is white almond sour cream cake. All of the characters are made with gumpaste.

Happy Birthday Kris!

8"

Here is another version of my corset/stiletto cake. The cake is white almond sour cream with buttercream filling.

Jacob's Baby Shower Cake

6"8"

This cake was fun to make! It was a new theme for me so I was excited. The customer wanted black and white polka dot cake with red accents to match the theme of the firefighter baby shower. So this is what I came up with. The top tier is white almond sour cream cake and the bottom tier is chocolate cake. =)

Happy Birthday Mayte!

6"

This cake was ordered by one of my really good customers. He wanted a cake like the one that I made for my co-worker, Wanda, recently but he said that I could change it up if I wanted to.   =D  So I decided to change the colors and the shoe a little bit. You can see Wanda's cake here. The cake is strawberry with cream cheese filling. =)

Ariana's Birthday Cake

4"-6"

There was a REALLY big mix-up on my part with this cake. The original cake that the customer requested was this one. So I made sure to write down all of the details and I even drew myself a little picture of the cake as a quick reference for me for when it came time to decorate it. The customer then changed the order altogether and requested something completely different...which was totally fine except for the fact that I completely forgot to update the changes in my cake order book and it totally slipped my mind that she had even made the changes! So when it came time to make the cake, I made it like the picture that I drew with the details that I had written, and not like the cake that she really wanted. I feel terrible about the mix-up...I've never done anything like that before. Luckily, she was a really good sport about it even though I know that she was disappointed. On a positive note, I will make sure that this never happens again! Both tiers are chocolate cake with cream cheese filling.

Baby Shower Cake

6"-8"-10"

The mommy-to-be wanted an exact replica of a cake that I had made before so that's what I did. =) All 3 tiers are butter cake.

Bailey's 1st Birthday

4"-6"

Little Bailey's birthday is in February so she got a Valentine birthday party! =) This cake is a design that I have done before but with different colors. You can see it here. Both tiers are white almond sour cream cake.

Little Valentine's Day Cake

4"-6"

My customer sent me a picture of a cake to replicate so this is not a "Dusty original", as my sister calls it. Haha! I do not know who to give credit to for the design, but it's really cute. =) The top tier is chocolate cake with chocolate filling and the bottom tier is white almond sour cream cake with strawberry cream cheese filling.

Marilyn's Angry Birds Cake

6"-8"

 The inspiration for this cake came from a photo sent to me by Marilyn's mom. I'm not sure who to give the credit to, unfortunately. I added a couple of my own touches, including the topper that says "Happy Birthday". I wanted to add more touches here and there but I didn't have the time that I needed to do so. Little Marilyn was happy with her cake so I was super glad about that. =) Both tiers are strawberry cake with buttercream filling.

Happy Birthday Leah!

4"-6"

Leah's mom sent me a picture of a cake that she wanted. Well, she actually sent me about 5 or 6 pictures and then finally landed on this one. I told her that she was going to have me hand rolling fondant balls forever with this cake having not just 1 but 2 rows of ball border on each tier! Haha It did take quite a long time but I think it came out cute. =) The top tier is strawberry cake and the bottom tier is white almond sour cream cake.

Happy Valentine's Day!

6"-8"

I made this Valentine's Day cake for my family a little early since I will not be going to visit them on February 14th. The top tier is carrot cake with cream cheese filling. The bottom tier is chocolate cake with a caramel buttercream filling.

Wanda's Burlesque Cake

6"

I made this cake for my co-worker, Wanda. We share a passion for high heels! =) I usually bring Wanda my cake tops after I bake and level my cakes, or "Dusty's top cake" as she calls it. Haha! Her favorite is my chocolate cake so that is what she got. Happy Birthday Wanda! xoxo

Gumpaste Stiletto Heel

 Hey guys! I made this shoe yesterday to be a topper for a birthday cake that I am working on. I will post pics of the cake this week. The salt shaker is just to give you an idea of the size of the shoe. The heel is made with gumpaste. You can't tell from this pic, but the buckle has sparkly silver hologram glitter on it that has flecks of hot pink in it so it's really pretty in person! I apologize for the quality of this pic...I took it with my cell phone last night so I will take better pics of it with my dslr camera this week. I'm a big fan of spike heels and stilettos and I wear shoes like this one to work EVERY day. So when I wanted to make a gumpaste heel, I started looking for tutorials and all that I found were shoes that I wouldn't personally wear myself. Some of them didn't look like real shoes either..kinda flat and stubby. So I figured that I would just have to try making one of my own. In October of 2010, I made a little 6" shoe box cake and I wanted a sexy heel to be the topper for it. I knew that it had to be high and look like something that I would like to wear! This is the shoe that I came up with...

I wanted it to have more straps but I was still new to caking at the time and I had no idea how to bring my idea to life. That was the first and only high heel that I had made until yesterday. I had been researching stiletto gumpaste heels again and I found some sexy ones that I got excited about but I couldn't find any tutorials to go with them. So I just kept looking and I came across one that I loved! And guess what? There was a tutorial with it on how she made it! =) Her name is Roxanne and she is amazingly talented! She came up with a neat little contraption to form the sole of the heel after she cut it out. Very creative! And her shoes are so lifelike!! When I made my purple heel in 2010, I had cut out 2 soles but I have no idea what I used to form them (it was too long ago so I can't remember). =/  Luckily, I kept the 2nd sole, already formed and hardened so I just used that to drape my freshly cut out gumpaste sole on for the new shoe. I will show you guys Roxanne's awesome tutorial that I found! Well first, check out her Valentine inspired shoe that I got my inspiration from here. And here is her tutorial of another amazing shoe that she created! I love her version of the spike for the heel! Go check out her awesomeness! She's on facebook too! She is The Cake Engineer. When you guys visit her site, tell her that Cakes by Dusty sent you!

Congratulations Pebbles!

6"-8"-10"

This was my first time stenciling on a cake. I practiced on a dummy cake first and it came out perfectly. So I was excited about that, obviously! Then when I did it on the actual cake, it did not come out perfect and that was not a happy moment for me. =/ I think that my royal icing was a little too runny for the stencil but I didn't come to that realization until after I had stenciled on both of the tiers! Grrrrr! Next time I will make sure that my royal icing is thicker and hopefully that will give me better results! The top tier is strawberry cake, middle tier is chocolate and the bottom tier is white almond sour cream cake. I was excited to make those cute little baby girl shoes again. =)