Portfolio: Abby Cadabby Birthday Cake

Today we celebrated the first birthday of Abby Lu, the daughter of an old coworker of mine.  I contacted her mom some time back to ask if I could do Abby's first birthday cake and she jumped at it.  Her original theme was candy, to symbolize how 'sweet' her daughter is, who is just the most darling little girl, second only to my own (hey, I'm allowed to be biased on my own blog, thankyouverymuch!).  But later she changed it to Abby Cadabby, which is also just as cute.

Here's a picture of Abby Cadabby...isn't she adorable?

This one really stumped us however, as we weren't sure what she wanted for a cake design.  Anna was certain however that she did not want a character shaped cake which was fine by me.  I just kept it in the back of my head until I found something I liked.  Then I saw a design for a fun and funky wedding cake that was three tiers with the top tier as a giant cupcake.  The colors were the same as Abby Cadabby and it was simple, but elegant.  I sent the picture to Anna, who loved it.  Houston, we have inspiration!

Here is a picture of the original cake:

(I apologize sincerely because I didn't bookmark where I'd found it or who made it, so if you are the creator and happen upon this little blog of mine, please let me know and I will happily credit you  UPDATE: Thanks to my friend Victoria, we discovered this cake was originally made by Perfect Endings Bakery and was featured on Cake Wrecks!)  

And here is what I created:

Anna ordered some cupcake toppers off Etsy which we placed on the cupcakes.  And her decor was amazing!

I swirled the interior with pink and sky blue, which created some purple parts as well.  Yummy!

I made the smash cake separate for easier smashing and sprinkled it with white sprinkles.  The stripes covered the whole bottom tier as opposed to just the sides like the inspiration cake and I used a wavy edge pastry cutter to add some more texture and dimension.  I changed the dots into stars to fit better with the fairy nature of Abby Cadabby, nixed the big bow and altered the color choices slightly.   The topper is an unfinished wood letter from Michael's which I painted pearl white and adorned with sparkly gems I had laying around.  Anna had a large crowd coming to the party, so I also made three and a half dozen cupcakes for her as well (truthfully, it was closer to five dozen cupcakes to account for any size fluctuations and quality control).

Anna loved it and her daughter even more so.  Here's the little tyke with it:

Seriously, is she just not the cutest thing you've ever seen?  Ok, well maybe second cutest.  You sure can't beat this:

Sybilla thoroughly enjoyed the party too!

This cake was a lot of fun to make and went over well.  I used a chiffon cake recipe instead of my traditional butter cake because I was out of milk and unable to get to the store.  I think it was a good choice overall.  If you're interested in more info on the chiffon cake, check out my notes!

Happy birthday Abby Lu...may you have many more ahead of you!

Happy caking,
Kelly