American Baker in Germany

This cake was for a family who was moving away. The family are good friends of mine and our daughters are very close friends as well. I knew I had to make them something special for when they were ready to leave. There is no preparation for saying goodbye to a close friend, but I started planning their cake maybe a month before their farewell party. I knew them well enough to know that it's not an adventure that they're looking for. It's friendship and experiences. How do you represent that in a cake? I finally decided to include a whole bunch of aspects of them as people that I think of when I think of them. First thing I think of: the cat. I knew he had to have a place of pride right on the top of the cake. I even debated carving the cake to look like a cat, but eventually decided a topper was enough. The colors of the cake had to represent them as well. A year and a half ago they had an epic princess party with a pink cake. The bottom layer, then, had to be pink. The...

This cake was a commission from my husband's coworker. He had a very exact idea of what he wanted for his daughter's second birthday. He asked for a cat cake covered in textured buttercream to look like fur, ears on the top, and a little cat face on one side. He wanted strawberry cake. And is there something I could use besides buttercream? I can't leave out the buttercream if it's not meant to be covered in fondant, but I can offer Swiss meringue buttercream. So, I experimented with strawberry cake and came up with a great recipe. I also made strawberry flavored Swiss meringue buttercream and colored it pink.  The day before, I also cut two triangles out of 50/50 mixture of gum paste and fondant to make the ears. I then rounded the corners and laid them over a rolling pin so they would be curved.  Then I filled and crumb coated the cake in pink strawberry buttercream.  I made a little face out of fondant. I freehanded the eyes out of pink fondant, surroundi...