So my baby brother is getting married in 3 weeks.  2 weeks ago my sister and I were chatting with our awesome SIL to be and she told us that, because it was so expensive, she was going to forgo having a wedding cake.  Well, we couldn't let her go with out, so even though neither of us has ever done anything of the kind we volunteered to make her a wedding cake.  

She wants chocolate cake with raspberry filling and buttercream icing.

So first we made a test cake.  We made the top 2 tiers.  There wasn't quite enough batter so it's a little short.  And we were experimenting with the dots.  There is obviously room for improvement.  The taste was awesome though.  We used Smitten Kitchen's chocolate cake recipe.  It has both cinnamon and chocolate in it. We filled it with raspberry jam. Yum!



And we baked the whole thing for a wedding shower yesterday.  We learned a lot from this cake.  1. ribbon covers a multitude of cake sins. 2. bulging filling is a pain 3. coloring icing is a pain, thankfully the actual wedding cake will be white.
I think we may need to change the sizes of the tiers to get more difference between them.



Any advise, comments or suggestions would be welcome.

****UPDATE****

Well the wedding was this weekend and it was wonderful.

I was really happy with how the cake came out.  It gave me a few heart attacks, but was ok in the end.

First I want to that everyone for their encouragement and help.  The link to cake central was especially helpful.  I lurked around there quite a bit and learned a ton.

I torted each of the layers because the cake I made for the shower seemed to need more filling. I couldn't use jello in the filling because the bride is a vegetarian and dosen't eat gelatin, so we stuck with straight raspberry jam.  This is the top tier.  It's a 6" cake.  
Leveling is hard and the wilton leveler sucks.  I wound up mostly free-handing it with a big bread knife.

On the way to the wedding location the bottom tier slid about an inch off of it's cardboard.  It was crazy hot here and we tried to keep it cool, but I guess it warmed up a bit too much.  I tried to fix it, but was just damaging it so I gave up and called that side the back.  If you look you can see it in one of the pics.

These are quick pics taken with my phone.  There were flowers added to the top and a few to the side of each layer, but by that time I was running to change clothes and get my dd (a flower girl) dressed and ready, so I'll add pics w/ the flowers when someone e-mails them to me.

So here you go.


see the cardboard?

and the front


And the finished thing.  Pic stolen from my sister.

Here are a couple of dresses I whipped up for DD recently.

This is from Burda Burda 9879.  The pattern is sized HUGE.  This is a 9 month size (DD is 2) that I lengthened and took an inch of width out of each bodice piece. The blue tier is added too.  The white part is about 3 inches shorter than the original pattern. (I guess the pattern maker has never seen an actual 9 month old)



This one is a lengthened Burda 9708 and has a ribbon hem a la the Lazy Days skirt pattern.




close up of a ribbon scrap



This is a Mei Tei I made using the Ball Baby Overall directions for my cousin and his wife since they just had their first child.  They're natural, crunchy type people so I appliqued a tree.  



DD and I had to test it out.  I've really got to make one of these for me to keep.  I've made several, but keep giving them away.

I've been on a skirt binge lately.  They're so cute and so easy!

Sorry the color is off.  I had to use my phone since I can't find the charger for my real camera.

This one is wrinkly because it's pic was taken post wearing.








This one is for a friend's kid whose birthday party we're going to this afternoon.  I made it according to the waist measurement she gave me, but it looks huge.  Hopefully it's not too big.



and one action shot

Just finished this up for a birthday party this afternoon.  It holds 8 jumbo crayons.  I think it would also hold 16 regular crayons if you put 2 in each pocket.  This is the second one I've made.  The first was functional, but not great.  This is version 2.0 and much better!

I'm thinking something like http://www.childrensplace.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10001_10001_-1_597251_115557_25851|25924_baby%20girl|bottoms_babygirls

Anyone seen one?

I added my little one's initials in felt to this cheap t-shirt w/ wonder under then hand stitched around them with 6 strands on embroidery floss.  I had been planning to make her a Christmas dress, but ran out of time.  I was really pleased with how this quickie project came out.  In fact I may make a few more like this in less Christmas-y colors for everyday wear.



My brother is helping her hang an ornament on my folk's tree.

My parents both got laid off this past year so money is tight for them.  I helped them out by sewing gifts for all my cousins kids.  The girls got purses and the boys got super hero capes.

Here are the purses.  The 3 in the top row were for younger girls. 5-8 years old.  The 5 bigger ones were for the teenagers. 



Here's one of the big ones being held up.

This is dd Halloween costume this year.

I made her a black corduroy jumper with red buttons and a cape out of sparkly costume satin.  We finished it off with her sparkly red Converse and a basket for candy.

She was not in the mood to be photographed.

So this is a simple dress from New Look pattern 6578 with a peacock applique. It has lime green flower buttons.  The applique is a simplified version of one I saw on a shirt in a store.  I was having a hard time getting the dress to photograph well.  The dress is a nice deep chocolate brown and the peacock is sky blue and a paisley with sky blue, lime green and a bit of navy.




a shot of the whole applique.

and some action shots

I planned to make several summery tunics.  I bought fabric and patterns. I casually measured my daughter, who just turned 1 and perused the sizing chart and figured "eh close ehough"

1st I made the little overalls pattern in the 12 month size and it was too big. (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=297664.0)

Then I made the little sundress in the 9 month size.  It was adorable and way more trouble than it should have been.


It's also so big that it falls off.  It needs to be taken in at least an inch or 2 on the sides.  I'm still deciding if I want to pick out all that stitching, shorten the bias binding, take in the sides, then reattach the straps and bias binding. Ya know?

Then I made another tunic in the 6 month size and finally it fit.

Yay Victory!




I plan on making several of these and maybe some denim pants w/ ruffles of the fabric from the tunics at the hem.