Making a Purse Cake with Make the Cut!

Every year, one of the highlights of my daughter's birthday is the two of us designing and making her birthday cake. Having a mom-made fancy birthday cake is a tradition my mom started when my sisters and I were little, and when I had my daughter I decided to do the same thing since I have so many good memories of it.

This year we decided to try a purse cake (yes, we watch Cake Boss!) and here's how it turned out. Of course Make the Cut! and my Cricut Expression played a role, I used Make the Cut! to create the pattern pieces and cut them out on my Cricut.

Oh, and if you think this purse bears a striking resemblance to the Round Purse available in the 99 Cent Store, it's because I used that file to cut most of my pattern pieces.

Here's the finished purse, and below are some photos of the process and the whole finished cake.

Cutting the cake pieces.




Cutting the fondant for the sides of the purse.

Peeling off the pattern from the "leather" trim pieces.

The birthday girl painting the gold buckles for the purse straps.

Adding some faux stitching to the "leather" pieces.

The complete cake.

Close-up of some of the details.