Baking, baking, and more baking

OK, I've wanted to learn how to decorate cakes for some time. For years, actually. And this last year, my mother-in-law gave me (among many other things) several baking items. So here is some photo documentation of what I've done so far:

The most recent thing is the Green Lantern Ring cake that I made for dear husband today, for Valentine's Day. He loooooved it. No one has ever made him a superhero cake, much less a GREEN LANTERN cake!!!! It even has a center glowy part, see?



Here are some of the steps, in reverse:


Carving and frosting the ring part (on a slant, so it'll lean upward once placed on the cake):




Slicing the ridges off the giant cupcake very carefully and with as little waste as possible:



The base, also green, because it's a GL cake after all, but a lighter shade so the ring will stand out more:


The original parts. If the two cake shapes in the back look suspiciously like the bottom and the very tip of the giant cupcake pan, there's good reason for that:



I also made some Valentine's Day cupcakes for work:


























And a giant cupcake and regular-sized cupcakes for my sister's birthday:


















And this last one is Brian's work, not mine, but I'm going to post it anyway because it was truly wonderful and he deserves credit for it. He made salmon-en-papillote, which is simple but a little time-consuming to make, has wonderful presentation (you open the pouch at the table, right before you serve), and is absolutely delicious. Not only that, but since it was for the whole family, he doubled the recipe (and we still had 2 rotisserie chickens that were consumed almost completely as well; but what are you going to do with several adults and multiple teenagers?):