Clown Fish

We made a clown fish from cupcakes (the blue cookies are supposed to be bubbles and the licorice are supposed to be a green hook with orange worm).

Solar System

We made this solar system with a foil background, orbits drawn in permanent marker, 4 sizes of cakes plus cupcakes, cookies for comets/moons, gumballs for tiny moons, bridge mix for asteroid belt, lots of fun sparkly frosting, colorful twizzlers for rings on the planets, etc.

Pirates

Canons on side of ship are lifesavers, with candy bar squares sticking out to be the doors that open to allow canon fire. The anchor is 2 molded starburst. The anchor chain is a candy necklace with the back half concealed under the cupcakes. The mast is 2 Milky Way bars. The sail is a Hersheys bar with one row removed (for the flag), wrapper left on. The skull/crossbones is more shaped starbursts. The canon balls were supposed to be whoppers, but are frosting blobs. :)

Treasure Chest

Allie and I used a square cake pan, baked about 2/3 or 3/4 of the batter the first time (to make the bottom) and the rest the second (for the lid). We frosted the bottom, then laid a sheet of wax paper on the frosting and piled the candy (candy necklaces and bracelets and ring pops) onto it, coming out the front and saving about 2-3 inches at the back to mount the lid. Then I cut a cardboard square to match the size of the lid, covered it with foil (like a chest liner) and frosted the cake lid on top of it. The cake lid held its weight on the candy...I didn't need to use anything else even though I had planned to use skewers to secure it. I used 5 brand gum sticks to make the brackets outside the chest.

Chess Cake

Double layer square cake, frosted with my favorite Betty Crocker chocolate and butter frostings (I scored the grid with a bread knife, then made the lines with frosting, then filled with squiggle lines, then used a wet knife to make the squares more smooth.). Then I washed some plastic chess pieces we have and arranged them into a named game (smothered mate...thought that was funny given that I was crashing Mike's work birthday lunch with the cake) and used the taken pieces on the words.

Graduation Cake

For Earl's graduation, Kristi and I made this double layer round cake. We used licorice (the kind you can pull apart for the cheeks, mouth, "hood", and tassle. The mortar board is a symphony bar and a mr. goodbar pasted together with chocolate frosting and cut with a hot knife to make it stand flat against the pan. The part on his forehead and all other details are frosting. The diploma is just rolled paper with a ribbon.

Slippery Cake

I have to admit this was an accident, but if you want to create the sliding effect of Merriweather's cake on Sleeping Beauty, just use frosting that's less stiff. This cake was a result of Esther's request for party beads, balloons, and candles.