June is the kickoff of the summer party season in our home, with Stacey's birthday, Andrew's birthday and Father's Day charging at us in quick succession over five short days.  But once those parties were over this year, I got to make two more cakes for two more celebrations this past weekend, both of them for kids turning three, but for two different families living on opposite sides of the city:  one for a boy, the other for a girl.

As I've mentioned before, while all birthdays are magical in their own ways, I feel like third birthdays are a huge developmental milestone.  That was the birthday where I remember looking at Stacey and seeing, for the first time, a little kid instead of a baby.

So to make two 3rd birthday cakes in one weekend was lots of fun for me.  I knew each of these kids had had very real input into their cakes' themes, for the first time in their little lives.  They each chose their very favorite thing (at the moment), and they couldn't have been more different from each other! 

So, without further ado...

In this corner, weighing in at 3 years old and an entire bag of crushed Oreos is Cohen's monster truck birthday cake! 

His parents gave me free reign to hit up Toys R Us for monster truck cake toppers and "victim" Matchbox cars.  This cake and its bright, bold colors made me so happy every time I opened the fridge and saw it.  Well, its colors and the tire tracks running up and down and all around.  Not to mention all that Oreo crumb dirt*.

And in this corner, weighing in at 3 years old and four pounds of fluffy, pink buttercream frosting is Tula's Barbie doll dress cake!

I love how these two cakes could not be more clearly for a BOY and a GIRL.

But I also happen to know that while little boys and girls might lead us to believe differently, there is still some sugar and spice and everything nice in each little boy, and there are some frogs and snails and puppy dog tails in every single little girl.

Happy 3rd birthday Cohen! 

Happy 3rd birthday Tula!


* If you ever need to make Oreo crumbs, it could not be easier.  Throw the entire cookies (cream filling and all) into your food processor and zap away.  The cream filling somehow disappears into the crumbs and you can't even see it!

Ok, so no, I don't sell "Rolox" watches on the streets of New York and scatter like flies when the heat comes after me.  But I do find gorgeous cakes on Pinterest and recreate them in my kitchen.  There are thousands of incredible bakers out there, and they have created millions of amazing cakes.  And this little thing called the internet makes pictures of them all available!  For free!  But still, every time I do it, I feel that twinge of guilt that says I ought to somehow credit the original artist somewhere on my cake.

My latest was this week, when a friend requested an engagement cake for a family party.  She sent me a picture from this great bakery, Sweet Sugar Treats in Australia, and asked if I could make it for their party this weekend:

I was, of course, super pumped to get to recreate such a beautiful cake for a dear friend, and I was flattered she thought I was good enough to make such a lovely cake.  Plus, I thrive on positive feedback, so I love getting compliments on my work (don't we all?), but still, I feel like a cheat and a scoundrel for being a copycat.

Should "imitation is the highest form of flattery" trump my plagiarist feelings?  Am I over-thinking and over-reacting, as I tend to do anyway?

Or am I right in feeling guilty about this?

Anyway, to get back to the cake itself, I adore the sweet simplicity of this cake.  But as simple as it looks, I had to cut out about a million tiny fondant hearts to drape over the sides.  I cut out this many hearts three times over:

And I cut the silhouette of the couple out of black fondant using the pushpin trick that I learned from Sweet Sugar Belle.

I don't know how other bakers are able to cut out silhouettes without the tiny rough, jagged edges I seem to end up with.

My proportions are obviously different than the original inspiration cake from Sweet Sugar Treats (which I totally expected), and overall I'm quite happy with how it turned out:

Congratulations and best wishes to A&W, P&G and A&A!