Cake decorating since July

Although I haven't been blogging, I've still been making and decorating cakes. It's probably what I've been doing most - although there is always a cross stitch on the go for when I'm watching TV.
Here are the cakes that I have made in the past 3 months:

It was my fiancé's (now my husband) 27th birthday in August, and so naturally I had to make him a cake. I asked what he wanted and he requested a race car cake. I forget what I made the actual cake of, but all of the icing is fondant. I pushed green fondant through a strainer to create the little bushes, and used black fondant for the tyres. I made the flag out of white fondant and a skewer, and then I painted the black squares on to it.
Joel made the cars himself - it took him ages, but it was so worth it!! They turned out great.

Then I found an excuse to make a Dolly Varden cake (and buy myself the tin!). One of the nurses at work was leaving, and although people suggested a make some kind of cake with a needle on it (she worked on the immunisation program) I talked everyone in to a vintage Nurse cake.
It was surprisingly easy to make and to cover with fondant. I put rolls of icing around the skirt of the cake and then draped the fondant on top. Because you want it to look like fabric it isn't an issue to just leave the fondant how it falls.
The apron I got from a Mrs Claus cake pattern, and I designed the hat myself. Although not shown in this photo, I ended up painting a Red Cross on the front of the apron and hat. Everybody enjoyed it!

The next cake came from a request from someone I used to work with. She has two sons with birthdays close together, and although she's tried, she hasn't been happy with the cakes she made in the past. Apparently there were issues with a Mickey Mouse cake whose skin colour was too pink, and she dropped sprinkles on his chin. So he looked sunburnt with stubble!
So she asked me to make a Woody (from Toy Story) cake. I googled some ideas and you should see the types of cakes that people are making out there! They're amazing!! So while I didn't go to the effort of making a cowboy hat out of fondant, I think the cake still turned out pretty well.

And just one week before my wedding it was my (new) nephew's 2nd birthday, and he's obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine - as I think most 2 year old boys are. So a Thomas cake it was.
This one really scared me - I made a 10 inch square cake and then cut it and sculpted it together to look like Thomas. But there are so many different versions of Thomas, and I had issues with his face! So while I was out picking up some more icing, I also got one of those edible Thomas pictures, just in case!
But it all turned out quite well. I was still worried that the kids, being quite harsh critics, wouldn't like it, but as soon as we brought it out my nephew shouted "Thomas!". So all was good, it was a success and everyone enjoyed it (including parents!).