Pauline Bakes: Peter's 30th Birthday

I got a request from my cousin, Sandy, to come up with a poker-themed cake for her boyfriend, Peter. He is celebrating a milestone birthday, the big 3-0. I had made Vegas-themed cupcakes a couple of months back for a coworker, so I thought "sure, I can do this!" Sandy then informed me that there must also be a royal flush represented on the cake as well. This was a bit trickier, but in the words of Barney Stinson, "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!"

The poker chips came out just how I wanted them to! I made black, red, and white ones to have a variety to play around with. The dice I made with white fondant and edible marker.

The royal flush was the most difficult piece of this cake. I didn't want to make separate cards and stack them on top of each other in fear of an ugly rippling effect, so I kept them as one piece of fondant with indentations to mimic a hand of cards. I had to make a template first and then cut it out, because there was NO WAY I was free handing that!

Along with the poker-themed cake, Sandy wanted cupcakes topped with turtles. Yes, turtles. An odd request for a 30th birthday party, but special to the couple nonetheless. So I busted out my tools and got started molding and sculpting all of the little pieces that I would need for this project. I rolled out green balls of fondant and shaped them to form the turtle shells. I then wrapped the shells with a snake-like piece. The flippers I made from small circle cutouts that I sliced in half. Everything was attached using gum glue adhesive (gum paste dissolved in water). The eyes are drawn with edible marker.