Big News and Cake Shoe Teaser Pics

BIG NEWS!! I put the check in the mail yesterday, so I think it's "official." I'M RIDING IN MUSES 2016!!! My sister and I are both subbing it to ride together, so I've got 60 shoes to do in a little under 300 days...and yes, I'm very very VERY excited!

There are some shoes that a lot of Muses shoe enthusiasts (and even shoe designers and shoe artists in general) like to take a crack at. I've previously compared it to a Jedi building his or her first light saber, but if you're not a huge geek like me, what I'm getting at is there are some themes that are just "rite of passage" shoes. For example, I feel like everyone has to do their take on the Ruby Slipper (my first is here, though I will certainly do more in the future) - it's just so iconic, you kind of have to. A Cinderella Shoe is also popular with a lot of Muses/shoe enthusiasts, for similar reasons. My first is here.. The last one I'd put in this category is the Tiffany box shoe, based on the iconic blue-with-white-ribbon box. I've seen quite a few of these from Muses and non-Muses alike (seems like a popular bridal shoe), and I shamelessly stole the idea for this 2014 shoe.

The most recent shoe I've added to the list is the Birthday Cake Shoe. I've probably only seen a handful of these so far, but I expect they'll get more popular because it's such a very cute idea. Here are some of the awesome 2015 Birthday Cake Muses shoes I've seen:

• This amazing tiered Barbie cake shoe (not sure if it's a riff on a stripper coming out of a cake, those Barbie cakes where you stick a doll in, or both - but I love it to bits), 
• This wearable pair of birthday cake shoes from the brunch competition
• I found a shoe where flip flops were used to make layers (y'all know I love a good riff on a flip flop), but now I can't seem to find it...maybe I saw it on Instagram? If/when I find it again, I'll add it here.  EDIT - I found the shoe I was thinking of! Here it is. Four flip flops make up the cake layers, with chocolate frosting and some dollops of green and blue decorative icing and candles for the 15th Birthday. Love it!

In terms of non-Muses/wearable shoes, check out Shoe Bakery. Very cute stuff, very fun to surf through, and I drew a ton of inspiration from there.

Two of my favorites, ready to go!

For 2016, I obviously need to step it way up (IT'S JUST MY FIRST RIDE EVER, NO BIG DEAL), so I picked Birthday Cake shoes as the "signature" shoe for our ride for my sister and I (still doing other types of shoes too of course, but I think we'll each have between 5 -10 cake shoes in our 30).

I got a little obsessed, because if it's worth doing it's worth overdoing, am I right? Basically I wanted to really master Birthday Cake Shoes. I'm not really inventing anything new here, pretty much just combining wearable cake shoes I've seen (mostly Shoe Bakery) with the DIY cake postcard tutorial, so you're probably good to go on making your own just armed with those links. Shoes + sponge for cake + silicone caulk frosting +  glitter = Birthday Cake Muses Shoes. However, I really hate riding the learning curve, and there was definitely a bit of one at the beginning on these (I just finished my sixth), so I'm putting together everything into an exhaustively detailed tutorial.  It's all pretty straightforward (mostly it just takes some practice and patience), but I will share every single tip or trick I've found the hard way because I'm hoping it spares anyone who wants to do their own cake shoes (for Muses purposes or if you just want to wear a pair) some heartache.

While I'm working on the full post for these, I wanted to put up some pictures as a bit of a teaser trailer. Also, I'm pleased to announce the tutorial will be available in both written AND video form! Yes - my very first vlog! So check back, that'll be here soon. In the mean time, hoard wedges (seriously, they are the best - the higher the better) and check out these PICTURES!

One of the first cake shoes I did, a pastel pink and yellow birthday cake with "frosting" roses (super cute and super easy - I will reveal all my secrets soon, I promise)

Close up of "frosting" details

Side view (before lettering was added)

Back view showing some more frosting details and the frosting between layers on the heel

Another pink and yellow cake shoe, with some rainbow chunky glitter mixed in with yellow fine glitter to give a confetti cake effect:

Side view of the thick funfetti cake layers with pink frosting in between

Frosting roses and "16" candles on the toe that aren't actually candles (they're translucent polymer clay and dental floss for the wicks - it'll be in the tutorial)

Top view so you can see the pretty frosting "Muses" and roses

Here's a super, super girly birthday cake with pink and blue frosting and RAINBOW CAKE LAYERS, like one of those fancy Pinterest cakes I imagine moms with way more free time than me making:

The birthday cake your inner child always dreamed of, assuming you have a rainbow-lovin', unicorn -obsessed, sparkle-coveting, super-girlie inner child

Top view showing "Muses" and "2016" written in frosting plus fancy edging and pink candles (that are actually paper straws) 

Side view showing the "cake" - I just love how the rainbow cake layers turned out!

Because we're all New Orleans food lovers here, I had to do a half and half lemon-chocolate doberge cake shoe too:

Lemon on one side, chocolate on the other with white and yellow frosting. Also - golden candles, white icing lettering and some big white frosting roses

Chocolate side of the cake/shoe - many, many cake layers

Back of the cake showing where the chocolate filling and lemon filling meet. I did them a little uneven, like a real doberge.

And finally, this Oreo chocolate shoe I just finished (obviously heavily influenced/shameless stolen from here):

A chocoholic's dream: dark chocolate interior, layers of chocolate cake and lots of chocolate frosting and a realistic looking Oreo cookie on the front that isn't actually a real Oreo (that'll be in the tutorial too)

2016 in white "frosting," chocolate frosted accents 

Layers of chocolate cake with chocolate icing and Oreo bits crumbled into the frosting along the egde

Close-up of the fudgey goodness...can't you just taste it?

And here are some group shots of the first five I finished:

OK, so this teaser trailer wound up being as long as the whole movie. Sorry - I just love these cake shoes! More surprises coming in the full tutorial...

Six done so far (or close to done)! Next I'm planning to do a nice Southern red velvet cake (maybe with armadillo-gray icing as this year's Steel Magnolia's tribute), a Portal-style Black Forest cake, a mint-chocolate cake, a birthday cake with sprinkles and "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" candles...what else? Any ideas?