Music on Sesame Street Block

Lately, the Sesame Street theme has been a popular request. I was very eager and excited to make my version of the Topsy Turvy cake. Since I vow not to make the exact same cake twice, I created a new twist to the Sesame Street theme. I always remembered fondly of the piano episodes as a child & wanted to work it into the cake. The parents of this 2 year old being very artistic parents, I wanted to emphasize an artistic/musical theme while making a cake cohesive with a child's view of the Sesame Street cartoon. The result...

A Close-up on the "Sesame Street"...

The entire 4-tiered cake swirling up to the very top made this exciting cake fun to look at and kept the eye moving as if you were walking through the streets yourself with these characters.

Now for the flavors: the Bodhi party requested a special strawberry cake with strawberry cream-cheese filling in the top layers. I wanted to incorporate the fresh ingredient of luscious strawberries so I whipped them into both the cake batter and the cream-cheese buttercream. The very bottom layers were a rich chocolate cake with chocolate-fudge buttercream...it had a generous serving of chocolate so it was super rich and dark. The layer above that was the same chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream. This 4-tiered cake has something in it for everyone.

This is definitely a storybook cake that was a treat for the eye with all the vibrant colors and many characters to be discovered around each swirl. It even had a fire hydrant and a postal drop box - complete with the memories of the cartoon.

I really loved how Bodhi's name popped on top of the cake as candles for the birthday boy. I also loved how the sky above the townhouses were a nice light blue that tied into the piano layer. It was such a fun cake to design and create and in the end it was a cohesive-themed cake that came alive by telling a story of celebration.

With each of the characters playing a different instrument, I really felt like I created a home for them. They look like they are right where they're suppose to be all along!

Until next time ~ keep creating, imagining, & dreaming...

Cheers and happy holidays!

A Sesame "SWEET" Surprise

A SESAME "SWEET" SURPRISE

A very magical 2nd birthday celebration for a very lucky little boy...

It started with Sebastian's love of some of Sesame Street's all-time favorites: Elmo & Cookie Monster.

To my preliminary sketches with two options for this fun-filled birthday.

Little Sebastian's birthday was going to be Option #2 but we decided to tailor it some...keep reading & you'll see how.

I started by laying it out with some help with the Cookie Monster himself...

It was time to bake the chocolate cake and cover it with Ghirardelli white chocolate buttercream.

Then cover it with fondant and fondant alphabets & numbers using fondant cutouts that look like mini cookie cutters. Attach it to the fondant cake and add on some festive candy stars. Here's a picture of the back of the cake before I brushed the powdered sugar off.

Baked a sheet chocolate chip cookie for the bottom base, covered the middle layer with green fondant, and set the cake...it's starting to come together.

Now the part I've been eagerly waiting for...the ELMO!!!! I hand pipped him and that's probably the most time consuming part. My hand & fingers hurt after all that pipping. But Alas! He's done! Complete with the best parts of Elmo, his orange nose and fondant eyes with chocolate chip in the middle. The following picture is after I set Elmo on the alphabets cake I made earlier with the little Sebastian street sign.

While Elmo + Cake was chilling in the fridge it was time to bake & decorate the cupcakes. We have...

ELMO:

COOKIE MONSTER:

COUNT DRACULA:

It was time to deliver the boxed cupcakes, Elmo, & company to Sebi's big Sesame Street party!

My husband snuck in a picture of me in action, pipping on some last minute touch-ups to Elmo while we get setup:

He is so huggable and cute!

Here's Elmo & Co. ready at Sebi's party table.

And finally, the cupcake flavors were a fun Taro (purple yam) Count Dracula cupcakes.

Rich chocolate fudge Cookie Monsters with Oreo cookie halves.

And red velvet Elmo cupcakes. I distinguished the table Cookie Monsters from the Elmos by using Chips Ahoy cookie halves.

It was a super duper fun birthday with plenty of sweet & huggable Sesame Street characters. Needless to say, Sebastian is one lucky 2 year old!