Princess torta is my friend's favorite cake and I had the opportunity to make it when she was visiting for her birthday! It is always nice to be able to bake something that creates this much excitement!

Princess torta is a fairly simple cake - vanilla cake layers, pastry cream, jam, whipped cream and marzipan but it is still delicious when it all comes together! The cake is topped with marzipan leaves and a marzipan rose.

This was a super last minute request. I had less than two days to plan and bake the cake but I pulled it off! It was a sour cream chocolate cake soaked in a Kirsch simple syrup. The layers were filled with a boiled vanilla frosting and a cherry ganache. The whole cake was iced in a milk chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and I tried a new technique with the icing to make ruffles up the side. I added a 'Happy Birthday' cake topper and some fresh cherries to finish it off.

I saw a similar design to these on Instagram and knew immediately that I wanted to make them. The Christmas potluck lunch at work seemed like the perfect reason! These are sour cream chocolate cupcakes filled with a white chocolate fresh mint ganache and topped with a vanilla bean and peppermint Swiss meringue buttercream. Each cupcake was topped with a gold fondant heart and then rainbow and mini gold star sprinkles.

I was SO excited when I heard the birthday party theme this year was Bollywood! I love bold colors and this theme really allows you to let your imagination run! They only needed a single tier for the party in terms of cake servings but I thought the theme would be conveyed better by a multi-tier cake so I did it as a display cake with her real birthday cake on the side.

The elephant cake topper is made with rice cereal treats covered in fondant. The top tier was covered in a hot pink fondant and piped with royal icing (and painted with gold). The middle tier was covered in blue fondant. A drape of orange fondant was added to look like a sari. Some accents were piped on and others were added in fondant. The bottom tier was covered in a purple fondant. I added a fondant border to the top and bottom of the tier and then added fondant flowers which were painted gold and dots piped on with royal icing. All in all, this is definitely one of my favorite cakes I have ever done and the birthday girl's reaction made it worth all the work it took to get this one done :)

The "real" cake was vanilla bean cake filled with caramelized white chocolate and passion fruit infused chocolate chunks. Each layer was covered with a passion fruit caramel sauce and passion fruit Swiss meringue buttercream. The passion fruit icing on the outside of the cake was piped on with various tips and a bright "Happy Birthday" cake topper finished it off!