Leopard Sweet Sixteen

Oh to be young agian... This cake was made for Kelly, whose family and friends threw a surprise party for her to celebrate her 16th birthday.  She certainly was surprised!!  What a lucky girl to be surrounded with those she loves on her birthday, and what a nice mom and family to organize the whole thing for her.

Kelly's mother requested a 20-25 serving cake decorated with an animal print and "something pink".  This design is what I came up with and Kelly's mom approved - a big pink bow on a hand-painted leopard print cake, with pink pearls around the base.  Kelly's not a chocolate lover (I know, I know...), so this cake is very vanilla.  It's a vanilla bean butter cake, filled with our famous Oreo cookie filling, and frosted with vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream.  It is Deeee-lish -- I hear Kelly was a big fan of the Oreo frosting too!  I know some kids who have offered to buy my oreo frosting from me by the bowlful.  It is that good.  I dare you to try it - but you'll have to buy a cake to do so, since I'm not parting with the recipe for it just yet.  It's an Enchanted Icing original recipe!

Kelly and her friends had a wonderful time at the party. Here's wishing Kelly a happy birthday and a wonderful year ahead.  The best is yet to come!

Matisse

This cake was made for the Sweet Sixteen party for a lovely young woman named Matisse.  She was indeed named after the famous French artist, Henri Matisse; I am a fan of his work, and think her name very cool and creative.  So of course the question was how to combine the interests of a contemporary 16 year old with some inspiration from her namesake?  This cake was the result.

Matisse, like many girls of her age, loves fashion and shopping.  Her mother told me that Matisse was born in a hospital room with a view of Bloomingdales, sealing her fate.  Her mother and I decided to use this funny story as the theme for the cake.  Her mother also asked if I could incorporate the artist Matisse's iconic signature into the design.  The artist was also known for his cut-out designs (the work at right hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC), some of which had a motif of what looks like a 4-sided flower.  Thus, I was inspired by flowers by Matisse the artist, but made my own version in colors loved by Matisse the 16 year old.  It is hard to see in the top photo, but the flowers go up the sides of the bag in addition to being scattered on the board holding the cake.

Finally, a certain 14 year old daughter of mine had the brilliant idea of adding some teen-appropriate details, including a lip gloss, eye shadow and necklace from fondant.   She even made the eye shadow and lip gloss herself, and I think she did an amazing job!

The cake itself was the shopping bag, and there were two flavors in two tiers.  The bottom tier was chocolate cake with oreo filling and chocolate buttercream on the outside, and the top tier was vanilla cake with raspberry buttercream and fresh raspberries, with chocolate buttercream outside as well.  Everything was covered by the green fondant "bag".

Here's to Matisse and I hope she had a fabulous party and birthday!