Disclosure: I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Cake Boss. I received product samples and a promotional item to thank me for participating. As always, all opinions are mine alone.
This time of year is a big one for baking, as evidenced by the amount of sweet treats on Pinterest whenever I visit. It seems everyone is looking for the perfect dessert in preparation for Christmas. I have a secret to admit though, that you may already know.
I’m terrible at decorating cakes. *insert sad face here*
I love to bake, it’s actually my favorite part of being a creator in the kitchen. I even come up with some pretty delicious cake and cupcake recipes. The problem? I can never do them justice. I’m naturally a bit of a shaky hand person, and all that fancy icing and fondants scare me. I’ve watched Cake Boss for years and though I’m often impressed and even intrigued with what Buddy Valastro and his crew do, I never thought I could come close to those amazing creations.
When I learned that Michael’s had a full selection of Cake Boss bakeware as well as cake mixes, icing, and even fondant, I was inspired. Not only are there mixes, there’s also plenty of tools and fun stuff to play with. I received a TON of Cake Boss goodies that were perfect to set up a little cake decorating party with a few friends, and I thought it’d be fun to make it a brunch, with easy finger foods, coffee, tea, and mimosas. I invited a few of my blogger friends that live close by, as well as my mother in law and my daughter was there to play too. Mr. Harris took the little guys to the bounce house at the mall to give us a few hours of girl time and we had so much fun!
When I received the packages, I was so overwhelmed and this isn’t even the full line of Cake Boss products!! There was everything from cake pans (which I desperately needed), these adorable flower cakelette pans, a cake carrier and a cake decorating turntable. As if those items alone weren’t super generous, I also received a decorating tip set complete with icing bags, a fondant smoother and fondant cutter, an icing spatula and a “spoonula”, along with tons of icing, fondant and fun tools to use with the fondant like a letter impression set, a fondant ribbon cutter and an acrylic fondant rolling pin with an adorable flower and dot pattern. I also received the 4-piece Cake Boss mug set, dessert bowl set with matching dessert plate set and two sets of the 4-piece prep bowl set. There was also tons of sprinkles (yay!) and last but not least there were boxes of Cake Boss Divine White Cake Mix which includes Buddy’s “secret” for velvety moist cake -a pouch of custard crème!
I made the cakes the night before my brunch so they’d be all ready to decorate when everyone arrived. I tried the cakelette pan as well as the 9 inch cake pans, and both cooked the cake evenly and they were so easy to plop the cake right out and cleaned right up with no staining or residue. I know some of you bakers understand that, you know those pans that just stain no matter what… well not these!
I also used the dessert plates and mugs for everyone’s place settings and the bowls were used for the food as well as little things like holding sprinkles or melting icing. The dessert bowls are ceramic, but the smaller prep bowls are plastic and have a rubber grip on the bottom so they don’t slip while you’re cooking or baking. I loved that! I placed the food at a smaller table near our big “work” table where we started with decorating the little cakes and worked our way up to the big cakes.
We really had a lot of fun, and my friend Kesha at Home Life With Mrs. B was the pro of the group. She had taken some cake decorating classes and she showed us all about the tips and how to use them, as well as tips for the unsteady hand – I desperately needed those! Stephanie at Spanglish Spoon was brave and tried the fondant, and she had fun using the fondant ribbon cutter and the fondant smoother and the fondant cutter to make her creation. Her and my daughter RiRi worked together to make the cute little dots and it turned out really cute! My mother in law and I lightly decorated but I was having fun chatting away, watching them work, and of course taking photos of everything.
I gave away generous gift bags packed with items my guests could enjoy and try out even more at home, and I also have a lot of items left over that I can’t wait to play with even more. This was such a fun experience and I’d definitely recommend a fun cake party as a way to get together with your friends or even for kids. Once the boys came home they wanted to decorate some cakes too, so of course we let them. So fun!
Here’s a ton of photos, we really did have a blast and I’m already thinking of ways that we can do this again!
My mother in law beginning her cake decorating.
Red Moscato Mimosas were a hit!
Frostings and fondants! These dollar store baskets stacked with cake decorating items placed in the center of the table really set the tone for the day.
Stephanie icing the cake on the decorating turntable.
Cutting the fondant stripes.
Fun polka dots!
RiRi’s decorated little cakelette.
Stephanie’s cute mini cake.
Love the multi-colored icing swirls on all of the dishes!
A shot of the ladies!
L-R: RiRi, My mother in Law, Me, Stephanie, and Kesha!
Once everyone left D-Man decorated his own cake. Can’t have too many sprinkles, ever!
Oh, I like that fondant cake, I think I could do that one!!
Yes, it was really cool looking!