I’ve always loved frosting and sprinkles, especially pink frosting on birthday cake! My grandma would make my cake every year because my Mom is a health food fanatic and the cake my mother made had so much wheat germ in it, it could take someone’s eye out…  When January rolled around, my Grandma would ask, “what kind of cake  do you want for your birthday? My reply was always the same, angel food cake with pink frosting and sprinkles!

My Grandma was awesome, we would sneak sugar together behind my Mom’s back,  I would spend Sunday afternoons at her house  making frosted sugar cookies and all kinds of colorful baked treats.

The years went by and I never outgrew my love for frosting and sugary decorations, no doubt that my attraction to these things is closely tied to fond memories of her.

Four generations, it was Easter Sunday, thus the crazy bonnet on my head, I was probably licking candy off my lips…

Today I do my best to stay away from sugar for health reasons, but I’m still so in love with the artistry of cake decorating, looking at beautiful cakes, cupcakes and sweets on Pinterest brings back so much sweet nostalgia for me.

A few months ago Danielle Smith, (one of my subscribers) suggested I try decoden, she thought I would enjoy making something in this fun style based on sugar and sweets that originated in Japan.  I wasn’t sure what decoden was so I googled it.  Deco- to decorate and den- which means phone in Japanese. A trend which started with over the top decorated phone cases, now extends far beyond cell phones  covers and is popular among crafty DIYer’s world wide.

I was immediately enamored with this trend and loved the idea of repurposing tile adhesive and plumbers caulk into faux frosting…. Sweet heavenly days, there are so many things that I would like to cover with this magical crafty frosting…

But I wasn’t sure what to do first so,  I just wrote in my journal, “make something with decoden in the future” and filed it away.

Two weeks ago I ran into Jenny and Aaron  from Everyday is a Holiday at the CHA show in Anaheim, they were there to promote their new book, Mixed Media Masterpieces with Jenny and Aaron…..

These two wonderful people are so magnificently talented, I’ve swooned over their blog and their art for years, when I saw their book I knew it would be good, then  I took a peek inside and saw this…

 Oh my goodness! It was as if my grandma was whispering from heaven,” you can still have a pretty cake for your Birthday Debi !”

Jenny and Aaron’s book is a must have, filled with gorgeous pastry themed artwork, prints and  fun whimsical inspiration!

After ooohhing and ahhing over every page, I excitedly went off to Home depot to buy plumbers caulk and then to Micheals to get a cake decorating set, styrofoam and a hot knife.  I am so excited about this project and my head is now spinning with more frosting inspired ideas!

Here’s the video….

and some tips that the video didn’t cover,

-A lot of you have asked what the name of the font is that I used for this project, I found it on picmonkey.com and it’s called, Rye

I love it because it reminds me of  vintage carnival lettering.

-Many of the decoden tutorials recommend using the plumbers caulking as shown in my video, however I found the tile adhesive to be much easier to work with and it seemed to hold it’s shape better in the piping bags after adding the paint to it.

There could be reasons I’m not aware of as far as durability, the caulking might hold up better over time than the tile adhesive I’m not sure?

So far my letters are looking good , nothing has chipped off or cracked, I’m going to hang them in my craft room!

Let me know in the comments what your favorite birthday cake is and if you liked my video and want  to wish me a Happy Birthday,  I would love for you to share my video with a friend.

Wishing you a creative week!

Sincerely,

Debi