My nephew and niece's birthdays this year called for another round of my famous (in my family, anyway) birthday cakes.


For David, I went with a Guitar Hero cake:





I had actually intended for it to look like an actual guitar, but I couldn't figure the strings out (none of the local stores had thin-enough licorice strings), so opted for the Guitar Hero look at the last minute. Of course, I didn't tell my nephew that, and he loved it.


For my niece, I had originally planned on making a cake in the shape of a tub of popcorn, since her party theme was "Hollywood." But she turned 12 this year, so I opted for making her more of a girly cake instead:





To make the star, I frosted and refrigerated the cake to firm up the frosting, then put a star decal on the top and dusted some (OK, a lot of) granulated sugar over the cake. When I removed the decal, the star shape remained. For the stars on the second cake, I melted yellow chocolate and put it in star-shaped molds. After about 15 minutes of refrigeration, I put them all over the cake. All the girls loved it.


I'm always a little sad when they cut into the cake, because it takes me so long to make them, but I enjoy doing it and hope it's something they remember as they get older: "Remember the year Tia made the cell-phone cake for your birthday?"


And at least I have a whole year to think about what to make for their next birthdays!