A Rockin' Birthday Party!

Shortly after Christmas, Adam bought Guitar Hero and...not surprisingly...I was quickly addicted to it. I talked him into getting Rock Band 2 we'd have 4 instruments (drums, guitar, bass, and a microphone) a few weeks ago and I play it every chance I get - in between lab work and cakes, that is. Yesterday was my birthday so we decided to have a bunch of people over - just an excuse to play more Rock Band and make another cake! These are the invitations we sent out:


I decided to make a cake in the shape of a guitar. While carving the cake to that shape was relatively easy, covering it with fondant was a different story! I didn't realize it would be difficult to cover those sharp turns and curves at the top of the guitar until I actually tried! Luckily, I was able to cover my mistakes with decorations on the guitar.


The neck and head of the guitar was gluten-free chocolate cake and the rest of it was marble cake. The whole thing was covered with raspberry cream icing and then with fondant. The silver pieces were first made with grey fondant and then I painted over it with silver sugar dust dissolved in clear alcohol. The guitar strap was also made of fondant, and I hand-cut the Barbie and the Rockers logo (that took forever!). Remember Barbie and the Rockers from the 80s? Yea man, they were awesome. The musical staff was written on the cake board with pens that write in food coloring, and I made the notes and letters out of fondant. And last, but not least, the guitar strings...I just made these out of piped royal icing, but I wasn't really happy with them. First of all, they don't lay as straight as I'd like. And secondly, they just don't look as realistic as I'd like. If I were to make another guitar, I might try using fishing line or real guitar strings!

The party was a blast! We asked everyone to dress in "concert attire" so we got a wide range of outfits! I was a hippie rocker. I asked Adam to get me a T-shirt from Bakerella that says BakeLove so I was going to write underneath it "not war." Get it? Bake love, not war! (Mike's idea, I can't take credit.) So I sewed a few patches on my jeans, got some peace sign earings, found some awesome star-studded blue sunglasses, and wore a hippie headband. I actually forgot to put the words "not war" on my shirt, but whatever!

Here's a bunch of shots of the different bands that debuted at the party:

Me and Ben (sorry, Ben, you got cut out of this one)

Nicole, Shelby (nice outfits you two!), and Adam

Jiejin, Shelby, and Jack...I have a feeling it won't be long before JJ and Jack get Rock Band for the Wii!!!

Jeanette & Mike (awesome costumes!)

Lorelie and Nani! Lorelie had the cutest "Miss Behavin' " outfit on and Nani was sporting the awesome T-shirt Robin bought her that said "I love Ph.D.serts!"

And the other people I unfortunately didn't catch on camera: Elise, James, Ben (kind of), Matt, and Lourdes. You guys have escaped this time....but watch out for next time!!! Muahahahaha!