Isaiah
Here is a fun fact about me you don’t know. I have eighteen nieces and nephews with one more due to arrive in May. Isn’t that crazy? The youngest of them is Isaiah. He is such a great kid and I am so proud to be his Auntie! Yesterday my sister and brother-in-law hosted a fabulous party celebrating his 1 yr Birthday with 150 of their closest friends and family. Part of my birthday gift to my sweet nephew was to make a small birthday cake he could eat all to himself. When trying to come up with ideas on what type of cake to make I had a difficult time trying to “figure it out”. There was no theme for the party other than the colors yellow and grey. I also wanted to come up with a design complimenting the style of Isaiah and his parents. My nephew has the cutest Converse All-Star sneakers and when I saw them last week I instantly knew I had found my inspiration. I asked if I could bring his shoes home with me and from there I started to make mental notes of how I would re-create them.
Actual Converse Shoes
The cake version had to be a realistic (as possible) replica of his shoes to scale. I textured fondant to make the shoes have a canvas type of appearance. I painted edible silver metallic paint for lace eyelets and used food coloring pens to write Isaiah’s name and to draw a black line around the base of the shoe. I tried to make some of the seams look frayed and the cake itself were 3 cupcakes (per shoe) bonded together by buttercream frosting and carved to look like Isaiah’s shoe.
After attaching the last eyelet I took a step back and just beamed with happiness. The shoes were better than I could have hoped for. I quickly took a picture with my phone and sent it to my sister. She texted me immediately afterward sharing her excitement about the finished cake. By the time I cleaned up the kitchen I was so tired I accidentally grabbed the cakes believing they were the real shoes and stayed up a little longer fixing whatever it was that needed fixing as a result.. oops!
Isaiah tearing into his birthday cake
My sister sent me this picture of Isaiah eating his birthday shoe this morning. I’m told there is video as well and I can’t wait to see it. Anyway, I wanted to share with you a clever idea for a kids birthday cake. I plan on doing a more detailed tutorial of how I made this cake in the future eventually, stay tuned!
Oh My God! I can’t believe my eyes, I mean this is a real masterpiece! If you didn’t show the way you made it I would never believe it’s really made. I don’t know if the day ever comes when I’ll be able to make at least a sock – cake! This is sooo cool!
Oh my gosh, that’s so good. I was wondering why anyone would put frosting in their kids shoes until I realized. Wow, very good!
no wonder you mistook them for the real things, they look totally real! amazing job, wow.
I love this!!!!
Can you buy other cakes for special occasions from yourself???
Hi Converse Shoes,
I’m glad you love the little shoe cakes. Unfortunately I no longer bake and decorate cakes for hire.
Love the cake! So cute! Do you mind sharing what brand of fondant that you use? Thanks!
Super cute!!!!!
OMG that is seriously the cutest cake I have ever seen. Really impressive!
This is fantastic! How talented you are!
This is just amazing! What a great idea! And the birthday shoes look so real and cute!! I wish I had 1% of your talent…
This is the best kid’s bday cake I have ever seen!!! I couldn’t help adding you to our link luv roundup today, come by for a peek! http://www.luvinthemommyhood.com/2010/03/link-luv-roundup_24.html
Wow..just wow! You did an incredible job and I think the fact that you mistaked them for real shoes is additional proof of that. 150 close family and friends?! I only wish I were so handsome and popular tehe.
Absolutely cute and well done as can be!
This is wonderful. What a lucky boy to celebrate with these two fun little cakes. I can see why you mistook them for the real thing. They look SO authentic!
Absolutely adorable! You are sooooo talented. I have 2 boys of my own and my brother just found out yesterday that he and his wife are having a boy. I think I’ll need so serious cake decorating classes before I tackle these adorable shoes.
Jana
Oh my goodness… these are amazing!
Thank you Alice. It was incredible to see how real the sneakers looked at the party. Your passion for life spills over in many wonderful ways and we are recipients of this gracious spirit. You are very special. Aloha.
These are great! I can’t wait to see how you frayed the edges in the tutorial.
So cute! I saw this in Craftzine (where the photo makes this look like actual Converses) & had to stop by. Love this idea! Thanks for sharing it with us.
this is soo awesome… mine friend is a dj and lives in converse…. he’s 23 in a few weeks so I’ll definately start practicing, have no idea where to start with the icing to give it the canvas look….if its not too much trouble can you please expain or tell me what to google to find a how to?
your amazing!
Wow, amazing!
Congratulations, Isaiah! 😉
Wow, Alice, these are amazing! The detail is really incredible they look so real… my dad was looking over my shoulder and was really impressed by the eyelets. That one detail adds a whole new level of complexity!
It was lovely to meet you tonight… thank you for all the help and introductions! 🙂 I hope I run into you again!
you are amazing … this is fantastic
I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to this kind of thing I cannot even begin to wrap my head around this cake! Wow. WOW.
Uch. I know I’m going to end up trying this, which will result in me sobbing in a muddled heap on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night.
Thanks everyone for your sweet comments about Isaiah’s birthday cake. I plan on doing a more detailed tutorial in the future as well as other cake tutorials.
Janie: I’ve done a similar types of cakes where I make baby booties out of cupcakes which look woven. I’m not sure if I’ll be doing any of them soon, but perhaps next time I make cupcakes I’ll save a few and do a tutorial on the booties. Not sure when I plan on doing an ice cream cake, but they are fairly easy to make. I’ll keep your request in mind and perhaps I’ll make one in the near future as well.