Monday, March 29, 2010

A Few Random New Ones....

I'm going to keep this kinda short because I've had such a stressful week last week. So let's get right into the cakes!


70th Birthday Dance Theme Cake
Small 8" Chocolate Diabetic Cake with Chocolate Ganache Filling. Covered the cake in a purple fondant and used chocolate fondant for the accents. I hand cut all the dancing figures around the side and used cutters for the circles. For the 70, I rolled fondant, shaped it, and sprinkled glitter dust to make it shine. For the ribbon, I hand cut it out, and laid it over dowels for it to hold it shaped as it dried, then hand piped Happy Birthday.
Easter/Spring/Baby Girl-Baby Shower Cake
12" Red Velvet with Buttercream filling and 8" White with Raspberry Filling both covered with fondant. All accents are made with fondant. This was a first attempt using the quilting technique, I really wished that I had just done the sides because it started getting confusing on top. The baby carriage was cut and warmed up in the oven to give it a fabric effect then decoration were added after cooled. Overall, I was very pleased with how this cake turned out. Of course, after my last baby shower cake, I was terrified to deliver it.... but luckily I've learned from the mistakes and was able to build this much stronger and sturdier. Thanks to a great website that I found, Cakecentral.com, I have been able to learn all sorts of new techniques so that my cakes look better and better!
The Bunny...

I used a cookie cutter for the outline of the bunny but I wanted to give him more of a 3D effect so I built him up using fondant accents. He's so cute!

I just learned that I have another cake this weekend, using a spring theme.... it's also from my first repeat buyer!! woohoo!

Monday, March 15, 2010

3rd Birthday for Twins...

Some one came to me and asked if I could do two cakes for his twin girls who were turning 3. He claimed that they always had to share everything and never got to be individuals, so this birthday they wanted to do something different: separate cakes. I asked about their favorite things and he claimed they each have a stuffed animal that goes everywhere with them. I used this to create the two themes of the cake:

The Doggie Cake:
This is a chocolate cake covered in buttercream and fondant for the decorations. I loved working on this cake because I loved the dog stuffed animal picture that I had to work with. This dog came out looking exactly like the picture and I was so happy with it. To make the 3, I used fondant and sculpted it into a 3, I baked it to give it a different look and to harden it. It is held in the cake using lollipop sticks. The hardest and most labor intensive part of this cake were the paw prints. I had to do each one by hand and it took forever! I'm going to learn how to make my own cookie cutters, my dad promised to teach me!


Close up of the Doggie:
This is a close up of the dog that I loved to make. He turned out so cute and I am proud of myself for making him look exactly like the picture.


The Bunny Cake:
This cake is a white cake but colored pink inside and covered with buttercream and decorated with fondant. I used alot of the same techniques for this cake as I did with the doggie cake. I made the three the same way but using different colors. The bunny didn't turn out exactly like I wanted but it was very difficult giving him the stuffed animal look that I was going for. I wanted him to look like he was slouching and kind of lifeless in a way, like a stuffed animal. The flowers were cut out using two different size daisy cutters and colors and stacked on each other to give a more 3D effect.

Close up of the Bunny:

To make the bunny, I colored the fondant pink. I started with the base of the body, I used a big chunk of fondant to give it a good base. The head came next, I poked two holes for the eyes then rolled some chocolate fondant into tiny balls for the eyes. I rolled a little piece of white fondant for the nose. For all the limbs, I rolled four equal size balls of fondant, and sculpted them into the shaped they were to be. To finish, I cut out a little heart for his belly and gave him some ears.

This weekend was alittle less stressful than the last, which was a nice break. I started off just doing a small cake with no fancy decorations:

To me, it looked like it came from a bakery... I guess thats a good thing... I dunno. I wanted to practice my buttercream skills since they are a weakness of mine. I liked the ridges I gave to the sides of the cake , its still a new technique for me.

Thats all for now.... This week I have a dance themed cake coming up! I'm really excited about this one. As far as I know, this is the only one this week, so hopefully we have nice weather out and I can take a break and get away from the powdered sugar cloud for a day!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

My First Chaotic Weekend

Ok, so I haven't been updating my blog a lot because this whole thing is exploding! It seems like for every 1 cake I make, I get two other orders from it. Let's just say, I'll stay busy for awhile.


I started this past weekend off with a rush order to make a poker cake for a guy who was leaving their group. They wanted it Friday so that they can all get together and wish him a great farewell... This is what I came up with

"The Odds Are Now In Your Favor"

This is a 12" round cake covered in colored buttercream. I made the strips and middle circle out of fondant. The cards are made out of fondant with buttercream writing. I decided to make a last minute run to JoAnn Fabrics to get some felt for the cake board to give it a nice finished touch. I heard great reviews from this cake, I suppose ever the server at the restaurant was interested.




Baby Boy Carriage Cake

Looking at this cake, I will always remember the drama that went down with this cake. I learned so much from this one. The top layer is a 8" round white cake with raspberry filling and covered with fondant. The bottom tier is a 12" round german chocolate with coconut-pecan filling covered with fondant. For the decorations, I used fondant for pretty much everything except the ribbon work around each tier, which was buttercream. Ok so with the drama, it all started with the baby carriage, it didn't harden over night like I expected and was just flopping over and wouldn't hold up. Not Good!! I panicked and threw it in the oven in hopes that it would dry out and harden up. Well, when I took it out it was really soft and puffed up. This was all within 3 hours of delivery... yikes! I ran to the store and bought some gum paste, a really fast drying material, to make a new carriage out of. Now I was down to 2 1/2 hours. AHH! So I get home and had a sigh of relief because the old carriage had cooled and harden and it would just fine and I didn't have to make a new one. After that I was on my way packing it up and getting ready for delivery when all of the sudden, it slid out of my hands, I caught it, but it was enough to jolt it and knock the top tier right off... I covered my face and opened the box to see what a mess it made. AHH! I had one hour to get it delivered so I worked my magic and was able to get it to look decent. All was fine.... Oh man... it was bad...

I learned that delivery is no piece of cake.......





Hannah Montana Birthday Cake
After the Baby Cake drama, I didn't even want to look at another cake, but I had to go on and get my confidance back. I had to work on a Hannah Montana Cake to be delivered Sunday and this is the finished product. It came out strong which helped my have faith again in my work. They wanted a simple white sheet cake, one layer, and covered in buttercream. I cut out circles with fondant and placed them all over the cake. The Hannah Montana logo and figure were printed on cardstock and cake wires were used to hold them up.
After this chaotic weekend I was looking foward to only having one cake to do this weekend... oh but I was wrong... I have FOUR!!! I know I can do it though.. I have confidance in myself to get it all done. I have a cake on Friday, that isn't anything special, they just want a plain cake with nothing on it. I have two cakes to deliver on Saturday for twin girls turning 3! Excited to do these cakes! And I am finishing the weekend off with a Steelers cake on Sunday.....
I hope I have a break next weekend with only one cake..... *crosses fingers*

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Kitty Pilot Cake


So here is my latest creation. I call it Kitty Pilot Cake. It was made for a women who's husband is a pilot and they have a black cat who is a complete "Daddy's Girl." So I wanted to include all the elements that were given to me and this is what I came up with. Both the cat and the plane are made out of fondant, the cake is covered in fondant and the clouds are buttercream frosting.



Here is a close up on the kitty. He was a stubborn little thing because he didn't want to stay together... He is held together by two lolliop sticks through his body and wires holding together his arms. I sculpted him out of fondant and painted him black because fondant is really hard to dye black. I wanted the cake to have a cartoonish feel to it so I had him standing holding a remote control pretending he is flying the airplane.



Here is a close up on the airplane. I am proud of how this turned out. I had to cut each piece out of fondant and then I pieced it all together once the fondant was hard enough to stay in place. The pieces were held together with wires and water was used as a glue.

This was my latest creation but stay tuned for the cakes to come this week. I have a poker cake, where I am going to make a large poker chip. I have a baby shower cake, which is going to be decorated using baby blue and chocolate fondant. And on Saturday I will be completing a Hannah Montana Cake for a little girls birthday.