How to make a Birthday Guppy Fish Cake!

My father-in-law loves fish!  Little did I know before I met my husband  that there is a whole world of guppy breeding and showing out there. Who knew?! I found this quirky tidbit of information out the first time I met my future in-laws. I was immediately intrigued by the fish breeder aspect of my father-in- law  although somewhat disappointed when the chef in me found out that he was breeding guppies and not some other  exotic or satiating fish. The exact details of these shows is a mystery to me however I know numerous primped and polished fancy guppies are judged and awarded prizes and plaques based on fancy guppy standards, to which my father-in-law has apparently mastered according to the substantial number of plaques he has been awarded over the years.

 Besides adding another shade of color to our family crest, guppy breeding does benefit me and my family
 with a steady stream of new and colorful fish available to add to our home aquarium. Consequently I'm not sure the fish coming in have such an optimistic view of their impending situation.  While my father-in law has mastered the skill of fishery somehow the love and skills of 'fishing' were not embraced or accepted into my husbands genes. Our family history with fish is similar to a non-greenthumbers history with house plants.  The fish are brought in with the greatest of intentions but slowly, most times quickly, the inevitable happens and our tank is near empty once again. If fish were to haunt the tank they lived in, our house would be a near horror show for new in-coming guppies. Possibly one day our fishing skills will improve or my father-in-law will give up trying to replenish our supply, but neither seem likely to happen anytime soon.

Needless to say for my father- in-law's 60th birthday, fish was the mandatory theme! The guppy cake was my secret recipe of gluten free cake, with regular gluten-full cupcakes on the side. Each were topped with mini guppies and fresh lime filling and frosting. Hopefully the tutorial below will help you wow the fish lover in your life!

Enjoy life with cake,

Leah

 How to make a Fondant Guppy Fish!

Start with grey tinted fondant and gumpaste mix 50/50 of each.

Roughly shape it into a guppy.  The back of the fish needs to be 

flat to secure to the cake but I added extra fondant to 

give a rounded body shape to the fish.

Add an eye. Use a small amount of grey fondant and press it into 

the place the eye should go then press an even smaller amount of black fondant over the grey. 

Secure with a dab of water if needed.

Gently press a fork over the body of the fish to create scale texture.

Using a teal fondant rolled very thin cut a few mismatched shapes out and secure them with a few drops of water to the fish body. Texturize with the fork.

Mix teal and black fondant in equal parts with 

white modeling chocolate.

 Mix until smooth but streaked in different colors. 

Roll out and cut into a large fan shape for the tail.

Attach the tail with extra fondant or using gum glue. 

(Gumpaste dissolved in equal part of water)

The body of the fish will be very fragile until it hardens in the refrigerator.

Take a few small thin strips of black fondant and press it into the tail to 

form a striped pattern. Attach with a small amount of water as necessary.

Cut top and bottom fins out of teal fondant and 

chill the whole fish for at least 1 hour.

 Attach to the cake with buttercream first then with small skewers or toothpicks as needed to support the shape. If the fish breaks apart at the fins or tail reattach the part with buttercream.  Chill again for several hours to firm the buttercream before adding further embellishments.  I piped extra teal buttercream over the tail to widen the shape and add textural contrast.

How to Make a Call of Duty Ghosts Cake

COD! Who doesn't play this game?! I became hip to it  when after I got married it became clear to me that I could either watch my husband play this game for hours on end or try and join in. My husband has been a long time fan of Call of Duty and Modern Warfare games (Is there a difference between those two?)  In the early days of my playing I found it incredibly difficult to maneuver which made for an all around very frustrating game. Within seconds of 're-spawning' I would be shot and killed again and again, or on the rare chance I had someone in my cross hairs I would get flustered and temporarily forget how the controllers worked and end up with my gun aimed at the sky and running around in circles, or stuck in the corner literally unable to maneuver out to shoot my opponents.

 I'm sure the hoards of teenage boys I was playing against online at the time were shouting numerous expletives at their failure of a teammate or high-fiving each other by the speed they could eliminate this crazy person who couldn't make it out of the corner.

 I'm convinced that besides me and my husband everyone who plays COD is a teenage or pre-teen boy. Don't believe me? Just listen to the chatter happening during any given match. There's the sound of  wanna-be gangsta's rapping for I suppose everyone's 'listening pleasure' or the mindless conversations of gamers, who forgot their blue-tooth's were still on, talking about their day in junior high, or best yet the shrill pre-pubescence voice of teen boys cursing and telling each other how horrible campers are.(Campers = me!) Camping is the art of hiding in one spot and shooting anyone that happens to pass in front of you. I guess camping is a 'no-no' for true COD gamers due to the lack of skill it takes besides being able to find a good spot to hide. But lets be honest in a real life situation I would not run around in the open but I would hide to catch my enemy off guard and by surprise so yes I am an advocate for camping and also quite good at it!

That was then.... Now LaLaDeathCake (great name right??!!)(and no I probably won't accept your friend request on-line because I'll assume your someone annoying I'll just have to mute) is a raging killing machine! My competitive nature won out and I  buckled down and focused until I could run and shoot with the best of them.... Ok I'm still not very good but what I lack in gaming skills I can make up with cake! (To my credit I can also calm, soothe, feed and/or play with my 5 months old while maintaining a somewhat decent kill/death ratio.. Take that pre-teens everywhere!) Last week Call Of Duty's latest installment was released and in honor of my and my husband's favorite after the kids go to bed activity this was the cake I made.

Enjoy life with Cake,
Leah

PS. As always leave any questions in the comments below and we'll figure it out together!

I started the cake with carrot cake. This was the 'free' cold drink cozy 

I got with the COD Ghosts game. 

 I'm sure the 'free' part was added back into the $60 game. 

I used it as the templet for the Ghosts logo. 

If you don't have a Ghosts cup cozy, print a pic from a Call of Duty Ghosts image search. 

Drop it into word to adjust the size if needed for the size of your cake.

I filled the cake with a cream cheese frosting and covered the cake with black

 fondant and a white and black camo.  

Click here for how the steps on covering 

a rectangle cake with fondant and making white and black fondant camo!

To start your stencil use the cup cozy to trace out the Ghosts logo

 onto a piece of regular printer paper.

Cut out the middle of the logo. This will allow only the

 white parts of the logo to come through when its stenciled onto the cake.

Next use an edible color spray/mist to transfer 

the design onto a piece of black fondant.

Most craft stores carry a Wilton pearl-essence spray that can be used.

I experimented on a scrap piece of fondant first 

before trying to use the stencil on the cake.  Don't worry too much about

 getting the stencil perfectly even.  Once the spray is on the fondant 

you are going to go over it with white gel color so any inconsistencies can be evened out.

To make the 'Ghosts' logo even more accurate I also painted more detail onto the

 fondant using white and black gel color and a small paint brush.

After a trial run or two transfer the stencil to the top of your chilled cake.

Again once I had the rough stencil in place then  I painted more detail using gel food coloring.

Use extra black gel color to really make the eyes,

 nose, and scar across the skull pop.

Next roll out white fondant and cut out 'CALL of DUTY' letters.

Secure the letters to the side of the cake with water.

The longer sides I painted GHOSTS on with more gel food coloring.

I also painted a little more camouflage pattern over the ghosts lettering.

But looking back at this picture I do like the white lettering 

on the plain black background as well.

Chill the cake for at least a few hours to allow

the fondant to harden and all the gel color to dry.

A light coat of the white cake spray and Call of Duty Ghosts cake is done! 

Now get out there and eat some cake and play some COD!

It's a GIRL!!!!

I haven't had the energy to tackle any big projects lately... mostly because of the little girl baking in MY oven over the past 21 weeks!  Regardless, an  announcement this big deserves a special cake.

 I finished this cake around 5 am a few nights ago while in the middle of playing the "I can't sleep or get comfortable... and I have to pee" game.  Even though I was tired, groggy and a little bitter to be awake it was great getting back to decorating!
 Here's a quick run through of my day and my very late night.

 I started by making rice krispy treat figures.
One duck...

& one block.

 Next I covered a double layer 8" cake with light green fondant.

 As Cake Boss would say I "dirty iced" the treats, or put a coat of icing on the figures so the fondant would stick.

I covered the duck with a mixture of modeling chocolate and yellow fondant.

 Added some girly details.

 Modeling chocolate is used for detail work like this because unlike fondant it is mold-able and smooth-able, but my duck was still a little lumpy.

 Rolled out zebra stripes and covered the block.

This was the end of day one and beginning of my long night.

A friend had this picture posted to Facebook as their lastest Pin to Pinterest

 ( I'm willing to bet it was tweeted on Twitter somewhere too)

 I used the same idea to cover the front of the cake with green and light green roses.

 Cut out leaves from fondant scraps I had.

On a side note: I seem to always have a lot of little pieces of different colored fondant and gumpaste leftover from cake projects.  These scraps will stay fresh for months by covering them with a light coat of shortening then wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and storing them in a plastic container.  It's nice to have an arsenal of colors for decorating whenever you need it.

Next I attached a few gumpaste flowers

Followed by touching up some areas of frosting that were squished by the flowers.

 Finally lots of edible glitter for the flowers. What girl doesn't love glitter??

And .. voila! 5 am and the announcement cake is done!