I was a cake decorator for 25 years. I retired myself from it a few years ago, but my

daughter-in-law and son asked me to make birthday cakes for my granddaughters.

Aubree’s birthday was July 2nd, she turned 8, and wanted Monster High for her

birthday cake, and Alyssa’s birthday is coming up on August 8, she’ll be 4, and

she wants Shopkins. When your kids put your grandkids on the phone to ask you

to make their cake, it’s impossible to say no 🙂 Aubree sent me this picture of the

cake she wanted.

This is the picture my daughter-in-law sent me for Alyssa’s cake.

We decided we would use the little Shopkins characters Alyssa already

has since none of the stores in my town have them.

Aubree & Alyssa wanted their cakes to be different colors on the inside,

and strawberry flavored.

So I whipped up 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Strawberry Cake Mix, and made

some different colors using icing  paste colors. I baked one 10 inch round cake

for Aubree’s Monster High cake, and two 8 inch round layers for Alyssa’s

Shopkins cake. I made them a few days early and wrapped them up and

put them in the refrigerator. The cake is moister when I either freeze the layers,

or refrigerate them for a couple days. I don’t care for the store-bought fondant,

so I learned to make my own with marshmallows years ago.

How to make fondant:   http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

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I made the Candy Clay for the skull with Almond  Bark & Corn Syrup. The recipe is in Wilton’s Yearbook.

Here’s the link: http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Candy-Clay-1

I found a picture of the skull online and printed it out to make a pattern.

I laminated the picture and cut it out. I worked on a cutting board so when

I needed to move the skull, it wouldn’t bend. I didn’t take pictures as I

went because my fingers were greasy 🙂 Here’s what I ended up with.

I had some shimmery edible dusting powder, how convenient was that!

It really made the difference. I had white and pink, so perfect!

I didn’t have any black icing paste color and I really didn’t feel like

getting dressed, going to the store, and buying a complete set of

paste colors when all I needed was black, so, I used glittery black

piping gel instead.

I rolled pink candy clay between my fingers and it looked kind of like boney knuckles

and I thought “Cool border for the Skull Cake!”

For the Shopkins Logo, I also printed it off the internet and laminated it.

I needed to make some little flowers for the Shopkins cake so I colored

some of the fondant I had set aside. I used a little fondant flower cutter dipped in

powdered sugar, so it wouldn’t stick, to make purple, yellow and blue flowers.

I covered the two layer cake with the pink fondant, and spread it

out to cover the plate too.

The party is tomorrow so I don’t have the characters on the cake yet

but I’ll add a picture later with all the little guys on it 🙂