The Super Awesome Porsche Cake

A few days before Father's Day, I decided to go really, super crazy, and make a totally-out-of-my-skill-set-and-comfort-zone cake for my dad? Why, you might be thinking? I had a few reasons.

First, the best time to make a crazy, potentially-disastrous cake is for someone you love. That way, if the project completely tanks, they'll still love you. It's only cake, after all.

Second, I wanted to tackle a project of this scale on my own for a while now...just to see if I could. Also: good practice.

And third: my dad has been incredibly helpful this year, and I wanted to thank him the best way I knew how, with a cake. He helped me pick out my new car, and did all of the scary haggling with the even scarier car salesmen, he helped put me through college, he loaded up all my stuff after graduation, and he's graciously (slight sarcasm here) letting me live at home until I can find a place to live.

You might be wondering why I didn't make a super fabulous cake for my mom, since, after all, she's done just as much as my dad in those areas, if not more, if you include all the times she took me out to lunch, or listened to me complain over the phone, or just put up with me in general.

But I also thought that since a) my mom isn't a huge dessert person (unless it's lemon or key lime flavored; I did get her cupcakes!) and b) I think she's more grateful that I didn't destroy her kitchen or get cake crumbs everywhere.

OK, OK, OK, time for the big reveal:

BAM!

And yes, if you've been following my twitter or facebook, this isn't such a surprise. But I really tried hard to keep it a surprise from Dad. At first, I was going to do all the baking and everything when he was at work, that way he wouldn't even know I was making a cake, but since I'm terribly disorganized, and have the worst time management, it was pretty obvious that I was making a cake. But I wouldn't let him see me decorating it, because the final design was still going to be a surprise! I didn't even tell my other family members, but eventually my mom guessed that it was the Porche. (Adam thought it was a taxi. Uhhh, what?)

Since we had a ton of family over for Father's Day, I gifted this lovely chocolate pound cake to all of the fathers in attendance: Uncle Kerm, Uncle John, Big Adam, and Dad. Thank you for being such amazing role models and fabulous parents!

Courtney's Cake

Who needs to study for finals when there are birthday cakes to be made?

OK, so maybe that's not the best logic in the world, but with only a few days until graduation, I didn't exactly have my priorities in order. And it wasn't just a cake for anybody. And I only had one final left anyway.

Ah, rationalizing.

So this delicious (if I do say so myself) red velvet cake is carved into a Tampa Bay Lightnings jersey, which combines two of Courtney's loves. (And, by the way, she is the biggest Lightning fan I've ever met, which is awesome, because hockey is awesome. I just wish Atlanta still had a team...sad day.) And if you weren't able to figure it out, the cake was for her 21st, hence the big 21 on the jersey and all.

In hindsight, the sleeves aren't exactly even, but I'm hoping I'm the only one who noticed (until I pointed it out to all of you),  and the Lightning logo probably could've been bigger, too, but that's what I get for doing something last minute.

One day I'll learn to stop procrastinating. Just not today.

Ooooh! And I got to use my airbrush machine too! The fondant I colored was a bit too light, so I mixed up my own airbrush color and just did a bunch of layers of color until it darkened up to the lovely blue that you see in the picture. Definitely enjoyed the practice. I also learned that you gotta be super careful when you put your fondant accents on top of your airbrushed fondant, because if you drip any water or gum glue or whatever you're using on the fondant, it makes the color run. And that's bad.

So there's my advice for the day! And happy birthday again to Courtney! :-)