"Butterflies, LadyBugs and Caterpillars" First Birthday Cake

This cake was my first attempt to make a cake for someone outside of my family.  My closest friend's daughter had her first birthday.  I was able to try my hand at gum paste letters in this cake, as well as making my own butterflies, caterpillars and ladybugs.  I also "painted" the bugs with vodka and gel coloring, as recommended on most cake sites.  This cake was a hit in my book.  In just a short time I feel like I've come a long way.

The idea came from this cake at Cake Central.
The idea for the butterfly came from these videos.  Butterfly video 1, Butterfly video 2

About Me and This Blog

I'm a stay at home mama to 3 beautiful boys.  My loving husband has always encouraged me in my endeavors and I've picked up quite the list of hobbies over the years including, sewing, digital scrapbooking,  and drawing. 

My cake decorating journey began as a montage of these various crafts I have worked on over the years and the love I have for my kids. Ideally, I knew that I was artistic enough to make this fun, but I had no idea how to make or decorate cakes...I had to learn the "basics." I knew that I wanted to make a cake for my 5 year old's upcoming birthday, so I took some Wilton Classes at my neighborhood Michael's and watched some Youtube. I've been cake decorating for about 4 months, and I absolutely love it. This blog is intended to put the creations I have on display. I get many of my ideas from Cakecentral.com, and have many times gotten an idea off of there and made it my own. I'll do my best to link the cake that I drew my idea from as a thank you to them, and to recognize the work that they originally did. 

On average, these cakes  have taken me anywhere from 3-10 hours to make.  I usually do them over the span of about 2 weeks.  They are very conducive to my kids nap schedules.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making these cakes.