Typewriter Cake

For Jordan

Cake: Vanilla with chocolate chips & vanilla buttercream frosting.

Details: fondant, sugar paper, giant tootsie rolls, candy dots, and black piping icing.

My friend Sydney Schutte contacted me to make this cake for her man Jordan. Last year I made him a sardine cake (not the flavor) and she was pleased! So she hired me again this summer. Jordan is a writer and he owns a pretty sweet vintage Remington typewriter. Sydney sent me a pic to replicate and I tried my best! I think it came out pretty rad!

Wal-Mart Employee Cake

For AL

Cake: Carrot cake with raisins, walnuts and cream cheese frosting.

Details: Fondant, sugar paper, various piping icings and cookie markers.

AL is retiring and for some reason has always joked to his wife, Sandra, that after his retirement he'd work at the all mighty and powerful Wal-Mart. Sandra hired me to make this wacky cake for his retirement party. So I googled the hell out of "wal-mart employee" and needless to say, I still don't get the joke, but I got the job done!

Jason Anderson Cupcakes Part 2

Jason Anderson (http://jasonandersonswebsite.com/) is one sweet musician throwing some of the most energetic, intimate acoustic shows right at you-- aiming for the heart -- and the dude never misses.

I had the fine opportunity to experiment with recipes and bring them to his shows!

He recently had his LAST one-month long residency at Pete's Candy Store (http://www.petescandystore.com/home2.html), a wonderful venue in Brooklyn, where he would play a set every Tuesday at 9pm. Unfortunate for his fans, but fortunately for him- he is moving to Massachussetts to start Grad School. He will be sorely missed at Pete's!

All treats for every show were 100% vegan, organic and this time... whole wheat!

Show #1: Vegan Chocolate Fruit Tartlets

Semi-sweet chocolate shell, orange honey tofutti cream inside covered with various fruit and apricot jam.

The fruit involved: Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, kiwi & mandarin oranges.

Show #2: Vegan Pistachio Rose Water Cupcakes

Cake: Whole wheat pistachio cake made with crushed pistachio nuts, coconut milk, honey, cinnamon, ginger & cardamom!

Icing: Rosewater buttercream with a a whole pistachio on top!

FINAL SHOW #3: Pomegranate Pink Velvet Cupcakes

**Those are Jason Anderson lyrics above**

I wanted to make all natural organic red velvet cupcakes without using food coloring, so this is what I came up with...

Cake: Whole wheat pomegranate and fresh cherry cake made with coconut milk.

Icing: Tofutti cream cheese frosting.

These were supposed to look like fireworks, but ended up being pretty anyway, so whatever deal with it!

The inside! I did it! Kind of!

Nike Dunk Cake

For Paul Falletta

via Laurie Pipitone-Falletta

Cake: Vanilla Cake with Reese's mini peanut butter cups. Chocolate buttercream icing with Reese's peanut butter chips mixed inside. Vanilla buttercream outside.

Details: Chocolate fondant, green & yellow fondant, orange, pink, blue black piping icing.

My cousin Laurie's brand new hubbie Paul loves his sneakers, especially his Nike Dunks and ESPECIALLY his De La Soul Nike Dunks. These shoes are insane looking and very fun to make out of cake and fondant. The humidity was at 95% the day I made it and this cake had the audacity to think it was going to melt on me! But thankfully to my other cousin, Stephanie let me high-tail it to her air conditioned house at midnight so it could stay there overnight and cool off. No more cakes in high humidity please!!!!

Boo Boo Cake

For Annie Larson

Cake: Chocolate raspberry with chocolate frosting and raspberry filling!
Details: Fondant, green sour belt candy, one yellow starburst, two Toffifay candies for the eyes and a sugar cone for ears!

According to Momma Larson's son, Arthur, the thing this woman loves most in the world is her dog Boo Boo!

So I made this cake for her birthday, granted -- it kinda looks like Scooby Doo*. But that's what the dog looked like, promise!

* Kids, I do Scooby Doo cakes now!

VEGAN German Chocolate Cupcakes

For Jason Anderson -- random show @ Pete's Candy Store

Cake: Whole wheat, raw German chocolate cupcakes.

Frosting: Beautifully sticky coconut brown sugar icing.

Jason's a local musician who is also pretty amazing. He asked me if I could make these for one of his shows at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY. I was super pumped for this challenge! And I succeeded! Hell yes.

Easter Basket Cake

For HOT TODDY Cake: Easter colored "danafetti" cake. Vanilla frosting. One layer of fluff! Buttercream icing on outside. Details: Candy grass, white chocolate bunny, dinosaur egg candy and jelly beans! My boss, TODD, has been asking me to make him a cake for months! I finally caved and made him and his family an adorable Easter cake.  Fun for the whole family!

Deer Head Cake

for Steven Casparie Cake: Vanilla! Chocolate icing! Details: The head, ears and antlers are made of rice krispy treats covered in milk chocolate. The chest hari is shredded coconut. The eyes are gumballs. Black & white piping icing for small details. Ashley's dad loves to hunt defenseless animals and keep their parts in the basement fridge so he can enjoy the fruits off his occasional murder spree all year long. I made him this cake for his birthday!

He normally has absolutely no whimsy (especially for Sam Branman) but I forced it upon him with this little guy.

Camera & Iced Coffee Cake

Cake: Banana nut bread cake with cheesecake filling...so good.

Details: White fondant, black piping icing, gold airbrush paint. The film strips are made of black fondant and edible gold spray.

Camera: (with very special help from Anastasia Tortora!) chocolate cake, one chocolate cupcake, chocolate icing, black fondant, edible gold spray, various licorice candies, Smarties candies, black piping icing.

Iced Coffee: Jungle Nut coffee flavored gelatin molded with coconut milk gelatin "ice cubes" inside. Chocolate hazelnut cookie "straw"

Pokki used to work at the cafe that I am not employed by wayyyy before I ever worked there. I know her because she comes in said cafe almost every day to get her iced coffee fix before high-tailing it to work, internship, a museum, school, etc. etc. busy busy busy girl!

And now she has graduated from The College of Staten Island with a degree in photography. She asked me to make a cake that included her two favorite things in the world: her camera and an iced coffee!

Good luck with everything Pokki! We all expect great things from you!

Gay Pride Cake

Cake: Rainbow (duh) Vanilla buttercream frosting

Details: Skittles, Candy paper (letters) & rainbow sour belts

Staten Island was having it's 7th Annual Gay Pride Parade & Festival right down the street from my house in downtown Staten Island. A good friend of mine, Arthur Larsen was helping produce this lovely event and asked me to donate a cake! Of course!

The event was sponsored by the Staten Island LGBT Community Center, they had all sorts of entertainment! Including food vendors, games, crafts and numerous musical acts (including Mal Blum, a very adorable Purchase College alumni [represent!] http://www.malblum.com/)

Check out their website to become more involved or find out information for future fun events!

http://manhattan.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=manhattan&cdn=citiestowns&tm=199&f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.silgbtcenter.org/

Spumoni Cake

For Dan Regelski

Cake: Hershey's chocolate cake. One layer of pistachio icing with crushed pistachios. One layer of Cremolata buttercream with almonds. And iced with a chocolate buttercream frosting.

Details: Pink piping icing, crushed pistachio, whole pistachios.

In Staten Island, there's a pretty famous location for purchasing ices in the summertime called "Ralphs Ices." People go nuts for these ices in the summertime. The line goes on and on. And the Italian people wait and wait.

The most Italian of those ices would be the Spumoni: a blend of chocolate ice, cremolata ice and pistachio ice.

And the biggest Italian supporter of this flavor? My best friend Dan. He was turned on to ices by me years ago and to this day, now living together in Staten Island, we enjoy spumoni on the regular.

So for his birthday I decided experimenting with making a Spumoni flavored cake!

Glass Bandits Cake

Cake: Rainbow (multi-colored white cake) Buttercream frosting.

Details: White fondant, black fondant, black piping icing.

I attended Purchase College and as a Dramatic Writing major (I know) I shared pleasantries with many members of the acting conservatory. Now we're all grown up! And many of them have gotten together a created a theater company! Check them out sometime, they put on some pretty amazing shows. And they're all very attractive.

This cake was for the opening of one of their productions: Wolves in Abasement -Adapted from August Strindberg's Playing with Fire, Written and Directed by Carl Holder.

Here's a little about them:

Glass Bandits Theater Company is a Brooklyn based collaborative gang of lovable misfits interested in making thrilling, accessible, unmannered theatrical events that bridge the gap between audience and performers. Our goal? To get young and non-traditional patrons excited about going to the theater! Can’t seeing a play be as exciting as watching a band play at the neighborhood dive? Everyone’s a Bandit! See a show, get some free glasses and let’s definitely grab a drink after.

Here's their website:

http://www.gbtheater.com/gbtc/Glass_Bandits_Theater_Company.html

Jason Anderson Cupcakes

Jason Anderson (http://jasonandersonswebsite.com/) is one sweet musician throwing some of the most energetic, intimate acoustic shows right at you-- aiming for the heart -- and the dude never misses. I saw him for the first time years ago when I attended Purchase College and I had the fine opportunity to see him a lot more since then, sing along with him, hang with him a bit and last month, make cupcakes for him!

He had a one-month long residency at Pete's Candy Store (http://www.petescandystore.com/home2.html), a wonderful venue in Brooklyn, where he would play a set every Thursday at 9pm. Hopefully, there will be more of those in the future!

Jason's vegan, hence I had a challenge: I set out to make treats for every show that were 100% vegan and organic.

Show #1: March 3, 2011

VEGAN Pineapple Brown Sugar Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcake with brown sugar soaked pineapple inside topped with brown sugar frosting. Melted Dum-Dum mosaic shards on top!

Show #2: March 10th, 2011

VEGAN Chocolate Banana Cupcakes
Vanilla banana cupcakes with chocolate chips and chocolate icing. Banana chip on top!

Show #3: March 17, 2011

This one I regrettably was not able to attend because I went to SXSW. But I hear it was amazing. Woe. Is. Me.

Show #4: March 24th, 2011

VEGAN "Hostess" Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcake with vanilla cream filling and chocolate fudge topping. Vanilla icing swirl on top!

Show #5: March 31, 2011

VEGAN Cheesecake with Tart Cherry Topping

Mini vegan cheesecakes with graham cracker crust with a homemade tart cherry topping.

Yeah, I didn't understand the possibility of this one either, but I figured it out. E-mail me if anyone wants the recipe!

Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes!

For Church @ Legion Bar

Every last Sunday of every month, my friends Tom Berlangero & Mike Luciano hold an open mic at Legion Bar in Brooklyn. I try to make it there each time and bake something for the crowd.

For more info:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Church-At-Legion-Bar/173132729392124

S'moas Cupcakes!

Vanilla cake with a caramel & toasted coconut center and chocolate fudge swirl & caramel buttercream icing.

Thin Mint Cupcakes!

Chocolate cake with chocolate mint icing.

Julian's Cakes!

For Julian

Lauren, a longtime friend of the family hired me through my facebook album to make her son three cakes for his birthday! He was turning two years old and he was having three parties, all different themes. This was a fun one but also a tough one. Julian is allergic to eggs and milk so each cake had to be part vegan, part regular. Many details!

# 1 Eric Carle Cake

This was to be an interpretation from the author Eric Carle's two children's books "Brown bear, brown bears, what do you see?" & "Polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear?" -- including the stripes and colors from his other books.

Cake: VEGAN vanilla cake, regular vanilla cake, vegan vanilla frosting, regular vanilla buttercream frosting

Details: White, blue, black, chocolate fondant. Rice Krispies (bears) Berry, apricot, strawberry & green apple sour stripes, chocolate chips & melted jolly rancher layer on top.

Here's a pic from above:

#2 Julian's Favorite Things Cake:

Cake: VEGAN vanilla cake, regular vanilla cake, vegan vanilla frosting, regular vanilla buttercream frosting.

Details to follow...

This one was for his actual birth DAY. Lauren gave me a list of things Julian enjoys, including:

Cheese-less pizza (gummies)

Legos (lego candy)
His scooter (blue fondant, one candy cigarette, one Good n' Plenty, Black Crow gummies)

Cupcakes! (a cupcake)

His elephant neck pillow (fondant)

His Ipad (fondant, vanilla icing)

"Wheels on the Bus" song. (rice krispies, mini-oreos, fondant)

#3 Click, Clack, Moo Cake

The weekend after Julian's birthday, his parents took him out to go see a play based on a popular children's book called "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type"

This is what we came up with for the cake:

Cake: VEGAN vanilla cake & regular vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream

Details: Black, white, red fondant. Red piping icing. And three non-edible, plastic toys.

Bustier Cake

For Laurie Pipitone

Laurie, my cousin, will be getting married in May. Her mom, Aunt Lisa (as I like to call her) hired me to make a sexy bustier cake for her surprise shower. Laurie works at Victoria's Secret and Aunt Lisa thought she would love something like this! I thought the boobs might be too big, but Laurie said they just right! Saying, "they weren't big enough" -- which made me feel okay about the huge boobs. No one should ever worry about boobs!

Cake: Chocolate raspberry & vanilla cake, vanilla buttercream frosting with fresh raspberries. Details: Black fondant, lilac piping icing, icing roses painted with silver luster dust, pearl sprinkles, black piping icing.

Metalocalypse Cake

For Olivia

Olivia's mom, Liz, hired me to make this cake for her daughter who was turning 20 years old. Olivia loves the show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim entitled "Metalocalypse" -- about a death metal band called Dethklok = Pretty heavy. That's the band's logo on the cake, along with some sweet flames all around the sides!

Cake: Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse & whipped cream layers.

Details: Black fondant, white, yellow & orange piping.

Space Cake!

Cake: Hershey's chocolate cake with Hershey's chocolate icing

Details: black and white fondant, white non-pareils, a half an orange, assorted gumballs jawbreakers and lollipops, wooden skewers.

For Mike Shissler

My good friend and roommate Mike Shissler was turning 24. Ashley and I wanted to make him something REAL GOOD. We went through great lengths to make this cake. Including late night car rides across the island, employing the help of Adrienne, Adrienne's next door neighbor, and our friend Dan -- which thankfully, they all came through in the best way possible! Thanks to everyone! And Ashley for baking the cake!

Now, this cake is 100% accurate! I studied the atmosphere like crazy to make this not just a cool looking cake, but a lesson is SPACE.

Also, Dan and I dressed like astronauts with metal bowls on our heads when we surprised Mike with his cake. Weirdest night of packing ever.