Monday, December 29, 2008

I Love My Christmas Present

While I did plan on taking this week off, I quickly changed my mind after I got my Christmas present this year from my dad, and went ahead and snuck in a last minute cake. (Sorry to everyone who I turned down!)
My least favorite part of the cake making process, after cleaning of course, is leveling cakes. I hate it. I hate hate hate it. It's very difficult to level a cake perfectly, to make the top flat and beautiful. Messing with serrated knives, accidentally cutting things unevenly-yuck! And, there are crumbs everywhere.  All over me, and the counter, and the floor.  Gah!  
Early in 08, I heard some people talking about a contraption that happened to be an automatic cake leveler, and that if their kitchen was ever on fire, that this was the one piece of equipment that they would save. Many loved it even over their Kitchen Aid Mixers! When I discovered what it was, and that it would basically make my life easier since I wouldn't have to level cakes, I wanted one terribly.
Anyways, I am horribly difficult to buy a present for, no one ever knows what to get me, because I always say "I don't know" or "nothing" when I am asked. When my husband discovered that I wanted one of these things, he covertly sent my parents an email telling them what I wanted.
Well, what I got was better than the one I had heard about before! Turns out that my dad figured out what parts I would need, and he and my grandfather spent hours making one for me! My granddad is an excellent craftsman, but needed help with making something like this, so he employed the help of a friend who happens to be a machinist. Apparently, the three of them took a couple of Saturdays out at the machinist's workshop to get this to work to perfection, and it means so much more than the store bought one would have. I basically couldn't wait to use it.
What happened when I used it was that something that normally takes me about an hour to do took me less than 2 minutes!  That was for 9 layers of cake for my 3-tiered cake.  It was awesome!  The tops of the cakes just slid off, and there were hardly any crumbs on the floor.  It was effortless, and the tops of my cakes were about as perfect as I could ever imagine getting them.  I am so excited!
Thank you to my dad for coming up with such a great idea, and to my granddad and his friend for all their hard work.
Turns out that me taking this order was a bit serendipitous for the customer as well.  I met the little boy's (Levi) mother early this week when she dropped of her deposit, and she told me that planning his birthday had been pushed aside because he had had extensive cranial surgery in the fall.  So, by the time she helped him heal, and then being overwhelmed with Christmas in addition, there was so much on her plate that she had simply forgotten about the birthday cake!  Well, I am thrilled to have been able to make them this cake, and I hope that they loved it.  The cake was designed around an adorable invitation that Levi's dad designed himself-very cool.
Happy 1st Birthday to Levi!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Fabulous And 50!

I really enjoyed making this bright, vibrant cake for a 50th birthday.  Again, it's just so fun to get to do something different!
The birthday girl's sister was the one who ordered the cake as a surprise, and she wanted something with right, something spirited, something fabulous!  After a bit of discussion back and forth, we decided on this cute, funky cake.
Topsy turvy cakes used to be so intimidating, but after making several, they are getting easier and easier.  The cake is covered in Satin Ice.
You can see that I am still experimenting with the gumpaste numbers on the top.  This time I painted them with gold and vodka, and then applied little red flowers to the center.
And, of course, the bright red boa makes it even more fabulous.
This was a pretty fun cake to make, and a good one to close out the year.  I am taking the rest of the year off, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  See you all in 2009!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

It's Been Awhile!

Being so busy around the holidays means not having too much time to post stuff in my blog.

A couple of weeks ago, a woman hired me to make 7 dozen cookies for her holiday party. She was having a trio of musicians come to her house, and wanted a musical theme, along with some Christmas themed cookies. Here are some of my favorite-the Christmas Trees and Snow Men!
I decorate my cookies by first making a dam with thick royal icing, and then flooding in the outline with thinner icing. Once the filling is set, I decorated the tops with more stiff icing. A trick that I have started doing is using plastic piping bags and cutting a very small hole at the end to decorate with. This eliminates having to deal with cleaning the metal tips, and as you can see, it works great!

This past weekend, I had two pretty interesting cakes. This first one I love, because it is girly, soft, and feminine, is pink and lavender. The client gave me free reign with the design, and this is what I came up with. Lots of flowers, inverted stripes on the bottom tier, and of course, one of my signature bows.
For the number, I have been enjoying experimenting making the numbers more whimsical. Lately I have been making ropes of gumpaste and twisting them into the right shapes. I attach a lollipop stick to the back with egg whites to stick into the cake. I like how they have been turning out!
The next cake is probably one of the most difficult ones I have done to date. It was for a groom's cake, and the groom wanted the cake in the shape of the Houston Astros emblem. They wanted it hollowed out, just like a real star.
I think a lot of people who don't make cakes don't understand how difficult these things are, and I had to think a LOT about how to accomplish this.
Thank goodness for Cakecentral! Those of you who are on Cakecentral probably know or know of Doug. He is awesome. He came up with a diagram from me, along with pictures for me to cut the cake and piece it together. From there, my husband blew the diagram up for me on his printer, and helped me piece the papers together for the right shape.

I baked two full sized sheet cakes, and filled and frosted, etc. I then stuck it in the freezer to firm it up to make it easier to cut the pieces out. I then laid the pieces of paper on top of the cake, and got to cutting! I arranged them on the cake board, and attached each piece to the other pieces with thick frosting. When I had figured out the puzzle, what I had was a HUGE star.

Covering it in fondant was hard. I'll leave it at that-lots of trial and error.

The cake board, of all things, was also very tricky. The ones at Cake Carousel that would fit this size cake were over $20 (whatEVER), so I headed out to Home Depot, and found a nice, sturdy piece of precut wood. I liked this idea for several reasons-the main being that the wood is incredibly strong and can support the weight of the cake. This would reduce any cracking or shifting that might happen with a cake board. But...what would I cover it in? It needed to be something that I could easily clean and wipe off, since the decorating had to be on the surface of the board.
I could not figure this out. I didn't want fondant, because I worried it would get dirty. I thought about a plastic table cloth, but that would look terrible! I wasn't sure how to do a board covering in royal icing, either. I walked up and down the aisles of many, many stores trying to figure this out, when I came across metal wrapping paper for Christmas. It looked just like the stuff they use on the cake drums, and was about 75% less expensive than the stuff Wilton sells. It worked like a charm! To make to cake board look better, I trimmed the top of the board with black and white ribbon. I wish I had a better photo of this thing, because really, it was pretty cool. But, am I glad I am done with it! ;)
I have also recently made this cute Minnie Mouse Cake for a friend. It's all fondant, and a big step up from the buttercream Mickey Mouse one I did about a year ago.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Weddings, Wedding Showers and Birthdays

Those of us who live in Texas just know that the best time to have an outdoor wedding around here is early spring, or late fall. This is pretty much the only time that it isn't sweltering hot (but no guarantees) or way too cold (less frequently an issue).

I love this green hydrangea cake that I did this weekend. It's just perfect for an outdoor wedding-light blue polka dots, ornamented with fresh, green hydrangeas. I also love the monogram on the front, which I piped with royal icing. Overall, I think they cake is both whimsical and elegant.





Also this week, I made a Gift Box Wedding Shower Cake. This was kind of funny, because the person who ordered it had such a familiar name, and I just couldn't place it. It turned out that she is a neighbor of mine, whose son is also named Nathaniel! What a teeny world we live in!

I piped with scrolls in black buttercream. The bow is fondant mixed with Tylose, and I also dusted it and the peals with Super Pearl to give it an extra sheen. Also, I tried something new this week by making my own fondant. Let me tell you that it tasted amazing, and I think it is something I will continue to do.

Last week, I made a miniature, 2 tiered topsy turvy zebra print cake. It was teeny tiny, but somehow that adds to the cuteness.

Friday, October 31, 2008

I Don't Mean To Brag, But...

...this cake kind of deserves it, right? I am SO in love with it!

I love the Pink Cake Box, and a couple of weeks ago, a man who was getting married on Halloween contacted me and asked for ideas for a cool wedding cake. The first thing that popped into my head was the awesome Corpse Bride cakes that they make. I sent him a photo through email and no more than thirty seconds passed until he said "Yes, let's do it!" Cool!

This is my version of the cake, with a few differences. I don't airbrush my cakes, and the Pink Cake Box had their swirls airbrushed on, so instead I used black fondant to look like vines crawling up the cake. The middle tier is different widths of black fondant stripes.

The colors were a little tricky, because I wanted them muted and not too bright. For the blue, I found a color called Wedgwood Blue, which had gray already incorporated in it. For the purple, I used Violet, and mixed in a teeny bit of black.

The topper is something I searched and searched for, and finally found on a website called Heteromorphic.com. Little did I know that it is a collector's item, and that these suckers are $$$. I had found one on amazon.com and another on eBay for about $100, but heteromorphic definitely had the best price by far.

The finishing touches are the butterflies and dragonflies. This cake is beyond gorgeous, I can't even tell you how much I love it.

The other cake I made was for a very sweet girl who ordered a cake for a friend's 21st birthday. She wanted my topsy turvy zebra cake, but didn't need that many servings, so we decided to do a one tiered version of it. Very, very cute!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Zoo Baby Shower

This was a fun cake to make, because I got to make my zoo cake in a different color scheme. I also got to make a new animal!

The cake was based off a nursery bedroom set from Target, and featured khaki, green, and blue colors, along with some adorable animals. My favorite animal on the quilt was a blue and green turtle, which I put on the top. I wish the photo for him was better, because he was really cute!

The other animals were a lion, blue elephant, and giraffe.

The inside of the cake was chocolate with vanilla frosting, which together I think makes it taste like a giant Oreo cookie.

What a fun cake!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Nate's 5th Birthday

Last week was my son, Nate's, 5th birthday! Since birthday parties are all consuming events, it was the only cake that I made that week.
I am so sad to not get a photo of this cake before it got damaged! After loading up the car with Nate's cake, presents, party drinks and snacks, I totally left my camera memory card at home. By the time I got a hold of a camera, the sun had melted one of the chocolate towers. Shoot!
Anyway, this was meant to be a Spiderman 3 cake, with a city scape. The buildings and cars were chocolate transfers. I got the idea from the Whimsical Bakehouse, and also from some cakes on Flickr.
In additional, I piped on some spiderwebs on the top tier with royal icing.
Despite me only being able to see its flaws, Nate loved it, and had a great birthday. He wanted to do it at the "Pirate Park" again. which was where we had it the year before, too. We ate cake, led the kids on a treasure hunt (a treasure chest filled with candy) and had a great time!It's hard to believe he is already 5! Happy Birthday Nate!!! We love you!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Nathaniel's First Birthday

This weekend I made a cake for a little boy named Nathaniel, which is near and dear to my heart, because my own son's name is Nathaniel! It is not a name I come across too terribly often, and I also thought it was neat because both boys were born in October.
My client Jennifer and I shared a few "My Nathaniel" stories, and I can honestly say that she was a delight to work with!
So Jennifer's Nathaniel really loves puppies. His mom said that whenever he sees them that he can't help but laugh. She ordered a cake that was inspired by Pink Cake Box (who else?), but later added on a couple of little puppies on the top.
It was also really important to her husband that the name Nathaniel was on there, so I ended up doing the cutout letters at the bottom, to make sure that it was front and center.
It ended up being a pretty cute cake, and I really hope that everyone enjoyed it.

Doing a cake for Nathaniel's first birthday made me all nostalgic, so I had to post a photo of My Nathaniel's first birthday. This was 4 (!) years ago, before I was even thinking about making cakes. I remember staying up late slaving over this funny thing-it was a cake mix (gasp!) and even worse, canned frosting (OMG) that I tinted bright blue and then put the little sugar space ships on. We still lived in our 3 level apartment, and had it filled with family. That is in my top five favorite days ever.
Now Nathaniel's 5th birthday is coming up in 2 weeks, and he wants a Spiderman Party. Can't wait!

Monday, September 29, 2008

OSSAS!

OSSAS=Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show. And it is a huge deal for anyone in the cake world! It is pretty much the biggest competition in the US, and there were SO many famous cake decorators there that my head was spinning. One of the coolest things I got to do was sit in on a class taught by Marina Sousa and her adorable assistant Dawn of Just Cake. It was a lot of fun!
My cake ended up taking a different turn from what I had expected. I had intended it to be taller-four tiers, with the bottom being a 14 inch petal shape. But, for some reason, I just could not get the bottom tier to behave. After several hours of wrestling with it, I trimmed it down to three tiers.
I waited until Thursday to cover my dummies because I was afraid of the colors fading on them. I was working late into the night (with my husband sitting at the kitchen table finishing up his work to leave early with me Friday), and took a step back to look at it. The mermaid wasn't on there yet, but with the turquoise crown, and the ocean-y colors, I turned around and told him that it looked like a mermaid princess cake. He agreed, and we felt like a good way to add an extra element to the cake, and also to help buffer the issue with the missing tier, would be to add the mermaid on to it. What a great decision that turned out to be! It's funny how differently things can turn out from what you intended!
The mermaid I think is really special. Her body and tail are all one piece of sculpted fondant. The tail I made using the end of a #5 tip for the scales, and then painted it with a mixture of Vodka, turquoise gel food coloring and white sparkle dust.
The purple flowers are whimsical dogwood blossoms made from gumpaste. I used a lilac cutter for the turquoise flowers, and then used pearl dragees for their centers.
I piped the middle tier in turquoise, and then added more pearls for some extra details.
The crown on top is from gumpaste. I used lace cutters for the top points, as well as the pretty detail around the base. The pearls on top are hand rolled pearls dusted with Super Pearl.
Then over the entire cake, I very generously brushed White Sparkle Dust all over it to make sure it would shimmer and shine. I was pretty proud of it...
And very happy to announce that I won second place in my division! Woohoo!

Now on to some of the other AWESOME cakes I saw. First, let me say that I don't know the names of the artists who created these, so if you do, please email me so I can give them credit!
There were so many there that were just amazing....I'm going to start with my favorite one.
This one was an Alice in Wonderland themed cake. It's so inspiring to me to see that a cake that is whimsical and pretty could still be entered into the main competition, because honestly, competition cakes can be so stuffy sometimes.
I love all the cute little details on it. I really like the Cheshire Cat on the top. I also really admire the tea pot shaped tier in the middle. Amazing.











My next favorite is a cake inspired by Coco Chanel. This cake is really beautiful in person, but I am sad to say that it was damaged by a spectator. Can you even imagine? Working for weeks on a cake, only to have to damaged by someone's wandering hands? The Do Not Touch signs are there for a reason!
Everything on this cake is in the theme this artist intended. From the black quilted fondant to replicate a Chanel bag, to the fabric looking roses, this cake was breath taking. And very original.









My husband loved this one. It was really cool in person. This was not in the wedding cake competition, but in the general competition. To me, it looks like something Duff would have made!
I'm guess this person made the cool things on front by layering paper thin piece of fondant, then rolling them, and then slicing them like cookie dough. I'm not sure, but that's my best guess.





Unfortunately, last night I snuck out before the competition was over because of the 5 hour drive home, but from what I understand, Rebecca Sutterby of Sugar Creations took the top prize! Her cake struck me when I saw it, because of the flawless turquoise piping. How in the world do these people get their piping so perfect? But against the white cake, it was stunning.
Congratulations to everyone!
There was so much inspiration this weekend...and so much to learn. I've always thought my cakes were pretty good, but compared to the flawless ones around me, I can't believe how much I need to learn! I better get to practicing for next year...

Friday, September 19, 2008

Polka Dots and Paw Prints

Weeks like this make me LOVE making cakes.
I always get butterflies in my tummy when making cakes, anticipating how people will respond to it. But this week, it's worse because I am actually invited to the party! This is the first time that I have been invited to a client's party, and this is for a child in my son's preschool class, so I am nervous to see what the other mommies think.
I am so glad that they chose the color turquoise, because it isn't a color you see very often and when you do, it really stands out. She wanted a darker turquoise for the background with lighter blue polka dots, and then a couple of flowers and butterflies. Even I can't help but admit that it is so pretty!
The second polka dot cake I made was for a baby shower for a woman that lives in my neighborhood. I have had this cake saved in my Cake Inspiration folder on the computer for about a year now, and am thrilled to finally complete it.
The fondant is cream with chocolate fondant polka dots. The bows are made from straight fondant, which worked really well. It's a very elegant cake, just perfect for this kind of party. I hope they like it!
Last but not least is this little Puppy Cake. This idea was sent to me through an email, and I have no idea who made the original, but the design is adorable. The puppies are all fondant, as are the paw prints. The letters were done with a special cutter-let me warn you that these cutters are exceptionally difficult to use, so make sure you have plenty of time and patience if you chose to use them. There is a video on You Tube by Aine2 which helped me and made the process a little easier, but I still spent about an hour getting these suckers out of the cutters.
The overall look is perfect though, which definitely makes the whole process worth it!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Hurricanes and Luaus

This week I had a bit of a luau theme going. I had a luau cake, and also an order of cookies with the same theme.
Misty was one of my first ever clients. I've always felt a bit grateful to her, because she gave me one of my first "breaks" when she ordered the first ever cupcake cake exactly one year ago. I hadn't had much experience yet, but she took a chance on me, and since then, business has been booming!
This year, her son is turning two and she wanted a Luau type of cake. Her invites and party decor had monkeys on banana surf boards, palm trees, things like that. I scratched my head on this one, trying to figure out how to make it cute. This is what I came up with.
The top tier has the palm trees, each one with 6 leaves and hand sculpted coconuts. The bottom tier was pretty time consuming, as it features 8 fondant monkeys in various types of beach wear. Some sport swim suits while others wear grass skirts. Some are drifting across the waves on their surfboards and the others are hanging upside down from the tier below.
On the top of the cake, two fat monkeys sit below a palm tree in the "sand". The sand is Vanilla Wafers that I pulverized in my food processor.
On the cake board I wanted something a little different, so I tried to make the name look like an SOS sign you might see on the beach. Very cute! I am really happy with this cake.
The next cake is a repeat-a three tiered version of my Ducky Cake. These are always fun to do because of the bright, girly colors. With the hurricane rolling through tomorrow, I had to convince my client to let me deliver it tonight to Amazing Jakes. It is a huge place, and heaving that cake through there turned my arms into noodles! But all the nice compliments and people goggling the gorgeous cake made it worth while.
I also made two dozen matching ducky cookies, which I didn't get a pic of.
To finish off the week, I did some really cute flip flop cookies for a little girl's birthday party. That client was a bit dismayed that for her fun luau party they would all be stuck inside to avoid the nasty weather. Hopefully they will have a great time anyway!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Wall-E Cake

This weekend is my gorgeous daughter, Charlotte's, birthday. Charlotte is obsessed with Wall-E. I think this summer we ended up seeing it 7 times-and we are planning on seeing it again tomorrow afternoon after the party!
Charlotte has been talking about her Wall-E birthday since the movie came out in June. When I did a Google search on Wall-E cakes, one similar to this popped up on Flickr, and was the main source of my inspiration and direction. The orignial was produced by http://www.donbuciak.com/, and his Wall-E cake far surpasses my own!
Wall-E was a tough one to build. He is an 8 inch cube of cake, covered in bright yellowy-orange fondant, and then piped with royal icing for the details.
He has two wheels which are tough to see in the photo, complete with tire treads.
His head was sculpted out of rice krispy treats, and then attached to a peice of PVC for the neck, which was also covered in rice krispy treats and fondant.
His little arms are from cardboard wrapped with fondant and decorated like black and white hazard tape.
The cake board is covered in "dirt" and "mud", which is really cake crumbs and brown sugar mixed together.
All in all, Wall-E is pretty cute in person, and Charlotte loves him. I hope he tastes great, too!
Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Friday, August 22, 2008

New Techniques

I was super busy this week-3 Cakes, 2 dozen Cupcakes and 4 dozen cookies. At some point I need to realize that there is only one of me! I did a couple of things that I haven't done before-edible image plaques and chocolate transfers.
Cindy contacted me all the way back in April, wanting a girly dinosaur cake. This sounded so much like my own daughter-someone who loves dinosaurs which are typically "boyish" things but, she is still girly. Cindy basically wanted her cake to have the dinos on it, but look like a girlish sweet cake. Sometime combining things like that can be tough, but this time it all came together perfectly.
At first I had wanted to make the dinosaurs out of chocolate using chocolate transfers. I got about 4 good ones, but the lines just weren't clear enough due to how complex these particular drawings actually are. I looked around and found an article on Cake Central about edible image plaques. You can print out photographs from a food dedicated printed filled with food colorings onto edible paper. You then cut out the images and attach them to gumpaste with some piping gel. Well...looks pretty cute!Cindy and her husband loved the cake, and thought it was perfect! They also ordered 2 dozen pink and green dinosaur cookies.
Next was this Pony cake that was originally designed by Cakes By Ashley, who is no longer making cakes. Kristen was a former client of hers, and wanted me to recreate one of her designs.
The horse on top was done with the same technique as the dinosaurs above. This is such a cute technique, and I am so glad I found it! The top tier is meant to look like denim, with a little pocket and piped stitching on the front. The bottom tier is piped with the bandanna print using royal icing. There is a fondant rope around the bottom of each tier. The animals are fondant. Kristen also ordered 2 dozen cookies, but I forgot to take a photograph! I really like getting to do new variations on cakes, and even though I've done several barnyard cakes, this one is different and sooo cute!
I also made these Scooby Doo cupcakes. They were iced in lime green and dark blue, and then topped with chocolate transfers made in the shapes of dog prints and doggy bones. If you would like to have more information on how to make chocolate transfers, the Whimsical Bakehouse has some wonderful instructions! http://www.amazon.com/Whimsical-Bakehouse-Fun-Make-Cakes/dp/0609608967/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219438299&sr=8-1
For the last part of this entry, I wanted to tell you all about the SPS system. Since I share all of my wonderful cakes, it's only fair to share the struggles and mistakes I have made as well.The SPS system stands for Single Plate System, and is one of the sturdiest was to support tiered cakes. It consists of four legs that fit very snugly onto a plate where the tier will rest on. What happens is that all the weight from the top tier is put onto the legs, and not onto the cake. Wooden dowels are not quite as reliable, case in point:
I have been using wooden dowels for the majority of my cakes, but in the past several months have had 2 issues with my cakes because of doweling within them. This morning, I took a peek at the Pony Cake, and saw that the top tier was leaning forward. When I went to investigate and correct the problem, the fondant on the bottom tier cracked open pretty severely, and even separated from the sides of the cake. I disassembled the cake, took a look at it, and realized that the wooden dowels inside had shifted from the weight of the top tier. After several hard hours of hard work, the cake was reassembled, but this time with the SPS in place. The fact is that wooden dowels have a propensity for slipping, and it just isn't worth the risk! As I said, I was incredibly busy this week, and having to completely re decorate a cake was not something I was up for. The SPS system is inexpensive (not to be confused the SFS, which costs hundreds of dollars), and pretty much ensures that your cake will be delivered in flawless condition.
Off the soap box now-have a great weekend!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Lots of Girly Cakes

The cake to your left is super cute. And teeny tiny! I am just so in love with it I can hardly stand it. It's my favorite cake of the week!
A repeat client, who I made the original Butterfly Cake for, is turning 30 this weekend. Her sister in law, who is also a client (Graduation Cake) gave me a call and requested an adorable cake from the Pink Cake Box. Yes!!! Of course I will make anything inspired by that bakery!
The cake is three tiers, but Stacy wanted it as small as possible. So, the tiers are 4, 6 and 8 inch rounds. It's a miniature version of a gigantic cake, and it is adorable. I actually think its smallness greatly increases its appeal to me-dainty and petite and gorgeous.

Next up is another girly cake for another repeat client, who had ordered the Circus Cake a while back. This is for her daughter's 2nd birthday.
She had sent me the invite, which was of a pink and green lady bug with orange antennas. She wanted it to just be a cute, girly cake, and that's what she got!
Even though it is only two tiers, is actually feeds more people than the 3-tiered cake above.
The bows and number 2 are gumpaste, and the hand sculpted lady bugs are made out of fondant. For the large pink bow in the center, as well as on some of the loopy bows and stripes on the cake, I used a special wavy cutter to make it look like ric rac ribbon. This cake is covered in whimsical fondant flowers and the cake board is set off with a feather boa.
In great contrast to the dainty cake is this gigantic zebra cake. It was for a 1st birthday and was requested by a local photographer who loved my topsy turvy zebra cake I did a few weeks ago. After lots and lots of deliberation, we tweaked the design and went with something that I had seen another decorator do. I also added the wired decorations.
The cake board is decorated with a black and white tulle tutu that I made myself. Let me tell you that I did not charge enough for this, as I spent about two hours putting it together this morning! There was also a smash cake with a light-able fondant candle that I made to go along with the whole ensemble.

Monday, August 11, 2008

People's Cakes from Every State


Take a look at this site which displays cakes from all 50 states! This green one here is the one chosen to represent Texas, and was made by Romano's Bakery in Dallas.
I am surprised that of all the gorgeous intricate cakes out there that something so simple was chosen, but hey, it's still a pretty cake.
The site can be found here, and is fun to look through! http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20041107_1,00.html

Friday, August 8, 2008

Baby Shower Week

So this week, I am back making cakes! It feels so good to be in the kitchen again, with bright food coloring-stained hands.
My first cake was for a woman that was at the shower where I made Sophie's Cake. Another one of their friends is having a baby, and they wanted a lovely cake.
Pink and brown is so fashionable right now, and she wanted one tier brown with pink scrolls, and the other pink, with brown polka dots. I experimented a bit with the scroll work-I wanted something that was whimsical and elegant at the same time. I did some research and found this pattern that I liked in ACD on another cake, and replicated it. The piping is done in royal icing over Satin Ice Dark Chocolate Fondant.
I ended up piping a border on the chocolate bows because I needed them to stand out. The one on the bottom tier was blending in too much, so I just added tiny little dots of pink royal icing along the borders. This was my first time to do this, and I was really happy with it!
The inside of the cake is a very decadent White Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Curd and Italian Meringue Buttercream.
The other cake is one that I have been dying to make for about a year. I am a huge fan of Sugar Creations, and this is one of their designs.
This is for a baby shower for a baby boy. Apparently, the parents to be are huge soccer fans, because the invitation said that they were expecting a new team mate! How cute! When they started talking about wanting a soccer cake, I sent them a photo of the original version of this one, and they were thrilled with the idea of doing something so whimsical, cute and soccer oriented.
For the soccer ball, I decided to make it out of Styrofoam covered in fondant. It turns out that soccer balls are a little tricky to master, since they are made from perfect geometric shapes (hexagons and pentagons). At first I thought about cutting all the pieces out and putting them together like a puzzle. That actually turned out too complicated, so I cut out the black pentagons and then etched in the lines for the hexagons with a knife.
The inside of this cake is Chocolate Butter and Fluffy Vanilla frosting. The two of them together tastes like a giant Oreo cookie.
What a fun cake week.



Monday, July 21, 2008

Precious Car-Go

A fellow mom from a nearby city, Angie, has started up a new business! These clothes are just too adorable. I wonder if I could get my picky little Charlotte to wear one of these beautiful tutu inspired skirts? The pink and green one reminds me of my Rose and Hydrangea Wedding Cake. Take a look at her wonderful site, located at http://www.preciouscar-go.net/servlet/StoreFront


Friday, July 18, 2008

Oh No! No Photos!

Can you believe that I did not get one single photo of the one single cake I did this week? Funnily enough, Charlotte (a woman who shares a name with my lovely tenacious daughter) arrived quite early this morning, before I could snap any photos. This was much to my dismay. I did ask her to send me some pics when she got a chance, so hopefully she will! The cake was a 1 tiered zoo animal cake. Since Charlotte was going to have a balloon theme, I made fondant balloons on wires for all the animals to hold. It was too cute!

So, this week being as slow as it was, I Googled Butterfly Sweets. I'll admit, it is a LITTLE silly to Google yourself, but I got curious as to what people out there are saying about the bakery! And do you know what I found? All sorts of awesome blogs that I have been a part of! I just wanted to share a couple of cool ones. Forgive me, I just thought it was flattering to be mentioned. ;)

My Turquoise Cake with Scroll Work must be pretty popular, because it was featured in two blogs-The Planner Pages and Bliss Wedding Market.










This one I have always found amusing. The man's name is Adam, and he posted a first birthday cake I did for a little boy named Adam to be his first birthday cake. http://blogs.menupages.com/chicago/category/menupages_news/

This cake used me for inspiration on Topsy-Turvy Cakes, and fondant. http://www.squidoo.com/decorate-with-fondant

This one called Dreamers Events is a really beautiful website that featured my Rose and Hydrangea Cake. http://dreamersevents.wordpress.com/ Favor Ideas also featured the same cake: http://www.favorideas.com/learn-about/wedding-planning/choosing-your-wedding-colors/





One of my favorite is written by a woman who was born under a Magnolia Tree, and is currently planning her wedding in Manhattan. She liked my Girlie First Birthday Cake. http://magnoliasmarriageandmanhattan.blogspot.com/

http://www.eagerlittlemind.com/ also posted two of my photos, but I am not sure if they liked my cakes or not! They weren't too complimentary-they don't like fondant and think my cakes are too busy! lol!

A really fun one is a site that compares lamps to cakes: http://lampsandcakes.blogspot.com/ They loved my Cupcake Cakes!

I am one of http://thecakekid.blogspot.com/ favorite Cake Sites.


http://snazzy-cakes.blogspot.com/ Has some references as well.

Anyways, I hope this wasn't too painfully boring to read! I love discovering new cake blogs, and was hoping some of you would enjoy it as well.
Have a great weekend!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Super Sweet 16

I am not a zebra print kind of girl. I love bright colors, but animal prints just aren't me. However, this cake does have me changing my mind!
The girl who I made it for had fallen head over heels in love with a cake from the Pink Cake Box, and wanted it recreated (only in pink, instead of the dark blue as the original). I told her of course I would make it for her-I love doing topsy-turvy cakes. And I really love making something new!
For the topsy turvy cake, I followed the instructions from Cake Central. For supports, I used the SPS system. The SPS system is something that I just recently got into. And the sturdiness it gives a cake is just amazing.
The zebra stripes are strips of black fondant that I cut out and applied to the cake with water. The bow is shiny (like the original), which I accomplished by spritzing it with vodka. The number on the front is fondant mixed with a bit of Tylose. And then the wired stars set it all off.
This cake was a joy to make. I love the pink and black together!
Here is a photo of the original, done by Pink Cake Box.





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