Chocolate Overload...

I was asked by another co-worker to make her groom's cake. At first, she wasn't too excited about me using fondant to decorate the cake, but after I gave her a taste of my homemade fondant, she approved my plan. The design was pretty simple, all she wanted was replica of a Hershey's bar with a bite out of it. (Apparently, the groom has a huge sweet tooth for chocolate.) However, as my husband can attest, printing out the letters to make templates was a painstaking process. I think I'm going to need to take a class on how to use the latest version of Word because it is nothing like using the Word program I had in high school or college. Anyway, after much trial and error I was able to make templates for the letters. I was able to acheieve such a great silver color by first coloring the fondant black, cutting out the letters and then brushing them with silver luster dust. Jen even had a great idea to personlize the cake. Under the Net Wt. area I put the wedding date, 10-23-10 and the (60y). The (60y) was an inside joke between the couple. Apparantly, after Brian proposed, Jen told him that she just asked for 60 good years together and she'd be happy. I hope they have many more years than that together....

Congratulations Jennifer and Brian! I wish you a lifetime of happiness. It was a honor to sing in your wedding and make the cake. Have a great honeymoon! I'll be looking forward to hearing about it when you get back!

A fellow DMB fan....

After a long break, I decided to suck it up and go get my hair colored and cut at the salon. While I was there, I showed my stylist some of my cakes and she couldn't help but show Andy's DMB cake to another stylist at the salon who is a HUGE Dave fan. The fellow DMB fan loved it and asked me to make her a birthday cake so I couldn't help but say "yes." I think it actually turned out better than my first one...

I guess I'll have to come up with a new design for next year, but for now....Happy Birthday Carolyn! I hope you enjoyed the cake, your birthday, and that you were able to get your "Jimi Thing" on!

Rock Climbing Cake

So word has spread about my new "Cake Business" and I had my first order from a referred customer. I was asked to make a rock climbing cake for a little boy's 7th birthday party and I couldn't resist doing it. In fact, I picked my design from the first search result I found on google. I did take some creative liberties with the coloring of the "rock" itself and tried to give it some more dimension by painting it. All in all, I think it turned out well and my client (I can't believe I can say that I had a client!) was happy. Hopefully, I'll be her new "cake lady!"

The Official Fire Helmet

Well, it was a crazy week with my own Wedding Anniversary (Happy 2 years honey!) and finishing up my groom's cake for Heather and Joe's wedding, but it all turned out perfectly. I was able to enjoy a nice dinner out with my husband and I still finished the cake. I think the final project turned out pretty well, don't you? I'm so glad that I got this picture of Joe and Heather as they entered the reception. I think it was pretty obvious that Joe was both surprised and happy with his cake. I was a little sad when we cut into it, but I had nothing but good reviews. I declare it another cake success....

Tie Dye Birthdays

A co-worker of mine wanted separate birthday cakes for her twin girls. We decided to go with matching colors but different designs. I made one with zebra stripes and the other with polka dots. Each cake then had their own initial as a topper. I dont have pictures to post, but the cakes were also tie dyed inside. In the words of the girls, "they were really cool!"

Heather's Bridal Shower

I recently had the pleasure of co-hosting a Bridal Shower for my friend, Heather. It was one of the few times that I could exploit her feminine side and make a very girly cake for the occasion. Overall, the cake was pretty simple but I love how it turned out. I even added a little extra sparkle to the flowers by adding luster dust and pearls. Cute huh?

Sex & The City

The same woman that I had made the Snoopy cake for wanted another cake for her other daughters birthday. She told me that she was a very "girly-girl" and liked shopping and clothes. I immediately thought of something "Sex & The City" related, which in turn made me think of shoes since that was something the Carrie always obsessed over. I searched the internet for "shoe cakes" and found one that was a simple round cake with a shoe on top. I liked that idea and based my design off of that. I made the shoe a week ahead of time out of gum paste. I even found a stencil template online! The day before the cake was due I made my round cakes, filled and iced them and then proceeded to decorate them. I decided to go with a pink cake because that is the girliest color there is and added the zebra print for some sophistication. I had some extra edible luster pearls that I added to the shoe and to the cake until I was happy with the final look. All in all it was definitely a girly cake and my friend and her daughter loved it. Yay for another success to add to the blog!

The Fire Helmet

I have to say that this is my favorite cake that I've made to date. This was actually just a practice for a future cake that I'll be making for a friends wedding. In fact, its a replica of her fiances fire helmet. I can't take all the credit for the design or figuring out how to make it/put it together. I got a lot of instruction from another blog...DD Pies Slice...She had made a replica of her husbands fire helmet and listed explicit directions on how she made it and put it together. It took me over 6 weeks to get all the pieces and cake out together, but I was very excited with the finished product. My friend who ordered the cake was truly excited about it as well and that was all that mattered to me. Now I have a little over 6 weeks to get started on making the real cake for the wedding and hopefully everything will go as smoothly the next time around too.

Happy Fourth!

I had some free time around Independence Day and I wanted to make a fun cake for a party that my husband, Andy, and I were going to. I browsed the internet for ideas and eventually decided to make an Uncle Sam hat cake. To start out I made my stars out of gum paste and let them dry a week ahead of time. Then the day before, I baked three eight inch round cakes. I cut one it half and used it as the base or brim of the hat. Then I piled the rest on top of one another with chocolate ganache filling inbetween. Once the cake was filled and stacked, I let it sit in the fridge and set. After a few hours in the fridge, I shaped the hat part. It was something I did freehand so it wasn't perfect but I thought it turned out pretty well. The rest of decorating was easy, I just iced it, covered with fondant and decorated as you can see. I got the wire pieces that I put the stars on from Michaels. They're in the new "Ace of Cakes" section of the baking items. In the end the cake turned out well and everyone liked it.

Gravestone Cake

This was a cake a did for another birthday. It was a pretty simple cake that I made using a half sheet cake pan. Once the cake was baked, I made a stencil of the gravestone outline and cut the cake. Then I frosted it and covered it with the fondant. I didn't do much decorating as I thought it would look better with minimal design. Overall I thought it turned out well and the friend I made it for loved it.

Starry Night

Ahhh...after a long awaited and MUCH needed break from the baking/decorating world, I finally made another cake! Honestly, I was getting pretty bored on my days off and one can only spend so much time at the gym and clean the house so many times before there's nothing left to do. So, here's my attempt at painting Van Gogh's "Starry Night" on a cake. I think next time I'd rather make the design out of icing rather than paint it on with food coloring, but its not too bad for my first try, right???

Getting older....

So one of my coworkers wanted a "funny" cake to give her husband for his 40th birthday and I thought, why not a coffin cake? And here it is.... I think it was the easiest cake I've ever made and I was very happy with the results. Hopefully, I'll get to make another one of these soon! PS--the little card on top says, "We mourn the passing of your youth!"

Andy's Birthday

My husband and are I HUGE Dave Matthews Band fans. In fact, we danced to one of their songs at our wedding. So when it came time to make my husband's birthday cake the theme was easy to choose. I made the firedancer out of yellow tinted gum paste and let it dry over a couple of days, then I painted it and the blue background with food coloring. I tried using petal dust at first, but I couldn't get the colors to mix and be as vibrant as I wanted. All in all, I was quite pleased with the final outcome and so was my hubby. Happy B-Day Andy!!!!

Healthy Hearts Reunion

So I was asked to make some cakes for my hospitals Healthy Hearts Reunion. At first I was really excited about the idea, but once I got into the baking and creating...I was not excited. It was more of a tired and frustrated attitude. Anyway, twelve hours and lots of butter, flour, eggs, and powedered sugar later, I had four 12x18 cakes done. I assembled and decorated on site, which didn't take long, but after this weekend I am definitely taking a break from baking for awhile. And...personally I think I really need to work on my icing skills. Michael's cake decorating class....here I come!

Kaitlyn's Birthday Party

Ahh little girl's birthday parties.... Can anything be more fun than to make than a 5 year-old girl's birthday cake??? I think not. The pictures are proof enough...

Nurse's Cake

This is the cake I made for Nurse's Week for the PICU. I don't think its my best work, but its not too bad considering I made it the morning after working three nights in a row....

Happy Nurses Week to all the nurses out there in the blogosphere. You rock!

Japanese Cherry Blossom

This was actually my first attempt at making flowers... I used my friends birthday as an excuse to make a cake and to be my guiney pig at flower making. Altogether, it was a pretty easy cake to put together. First, I made the flowers and colored them with food coloring, then I made the branch out of rolled fondant and placed the flowers all around it. My friend liked the cake and so did everyone at work, so it was another successful experiement, but I still think I need to work on my coloring skills....

Transformers

Another girl from work wanted me to make her son's birthday cake. Apparently he loves Transformers, so it became the cake theme. Now while I wanted to make a 3D Transformer or something like that, I don't have anywhere near that skill, so I went with the Transformer logo instead. My husband helped me picked out the proper logo because apparently there are two different kinds, one for the good guys and one for the bad...who knew? Once the proper logo was found, I again printed it out on paper and cut it out to use as a template to cut my fondant from. I had to do a little improvisation with the rest of the decorating, but overall I liked the look. I found what I thought was a cool font on word and printed out William's name in italics to give some movement to the letters. Again, after cutting out the paper I used it as my template for the fondant and then placed the letters on the cake. It's a pretty simple design, but I like how it turned out and from what I hear, William liked it too. Yay for another happy customer!

Harley Motocycles

I was asked to make a cake for a coworkers husband's birthday. Apparently, he is a big Harley fan and has a few motorcycles that he rides frequently. I wasn't quite sure what to do with this cake, so I looked at a few pictures I saw online and pieced my favorite elements into this cake. Making the logo was the most difficult part. I printed out the logo on paper, cut out each letter and shape individually and then used those pieces as my templates to cut the fondant with. Making the logo took around 2 hours, but I didn't even notice the time pass. I made the flames out of store bought fondant (again because it colors easier) and used orange and red food coloring to give it the swirled colors, hoping that it would look more realistic. I free handed cutting out the flames and just put them around the cake to make it look like it was engulfed in fire. While I may not be a motorcycle person, this is still on of my favorite cakes thus far...

Snoopy cake for Kathy

A coworker asked me to make a cake for her daughters birthday. She said that when she was a little girl, her daughters favorite cake had been a Snoopy cake, so we went with that theme again. I searched online for ideas and thought making Snoopy with his dog house and Woodstock would be the most iconic. I used a breadpan to make the dog house and just carved the cake to the shape I wanted. Using store bought fondant, I made the wood slats for the roof and carved lines on the side paneling to make it look a little more realistic. Making Snoopy and Woodstock was easy and didn't take very long. The only disaster I faced was that I orginally covered the cake in white fondant and I thought it needed more color so I emergently made some green and covered the cake with that. Then I added my paw prints and "Happy Birthday Kathy" and it was complete. I have to say it was a really fun cake to make. I hope I get to make more like this in the future.

Spring is here!

I bought a new gumpaste flower making kit and thought I'd try it out. Thank goodness I work somewhere where I can bring all my goodies in to work so other people besides me eat it! Anyway, I thought I'd try out making some flowers and using my petal dust to paint some of them. Overall, I like how everything turned out. It was a lot easier to make the roses than I had expected so I made a few to put together on this cake. I used the petal dust to color the white flowers pink (just on the inside) and overall I think the effect was nice, but I need to work on my painting skills some. It was a fun experiement and everyone at work was happy to help eat my finished product...

Lingerie Cake

The next cake I made was for a friends bridal shower. I decided to make a lingerie cake, as that was the theme for the party. This was the first time I covered a cake in fondant and was a little worried about it, but it wasn't that hard at all! I did use store bought fondant to cover the cake, but I made sure to have some yummy icing underneath it. I made the base of the cake out of a 9x13 pan and used cupcakes to make the boobs. I made a template of the shape I wanted and cut the 9x13 cake accordingly. Then I placed the muffins in the appropriate places and shaped them. The I covered the entire cake with icing and used it to help smooth out the details, before placing the fondant on top. Once I covered the cake with fondant, I used ribbon to decorate it, in order to give it a more realistic look. All in all, it only took me an hour to assemble and decorate the cake the morning of the shower, which I thought wasn't too bad, since I'd worked a night shift the night before.

The cake was a big hit at the party. Happy Nuptials Sarah W!

Teddy Bear baby shower

The next cake I made was for another baby shower. This cake was again, inspired by a cake picture I found online. The only change I made was to make colors of the cake fit with the nursery colors. In learning from my previous mistakes, I made the cake from scratch and covered it with homemade chocolate marshmallow fondant. For those of you who haven't tried it, the homemade marshmallow fondant tastes MUCH better than the store bought stuff. I made my bow, bear and dots out of store bought fondant because I've found that it holds its shape much better and colors easier than the homemade. I've also found that if you want your fondant to dry out and harden, the store bought doesn't crack, but the homemade will. In order to keep my bow pieces 3-D, I wrapped the actual bow parts around napkin rings and let them dry over a few days. I also made my bear ahead of time and let him dry out as well. I assemled the cake the day of the shower and delivered that afternoon. I only charged $40 for the cake, which, as my husband pointed out, didn't give me much profit, but I could care less about that. It's all for fun!

My First Cake

My first cake was a cake I made for a baby shower. The theme was farm animals, so I decided to make a barnyard cake. I looked all over the Internet at pictures of farm animal cakes and found a few that inspired me. I was apprehensive about covering a cake in fondant, so I decided to frost it and use my fondant to make the decorations. The most time consuming part of the whole thing was coloring the fondant, which my husband was kind enough to help me with. (He's a keeper!). After I had all my colors, I started to make my animals and barn. I made a cow, a pig, a duck and a chicken. The barn was made from a cake I baked in a bread pan and then shaped to look like a barn. After I was happy with my work, I let my animals dry overnight and assembled the cake the day before the shower.

It was definitely a learning experience. I learned to never use a boxed cake mix to make a cake that will have fondant pieces on top of it or things will sink! I also learned that if I'm not covering the entire cake with fondant, I need to make sure my frosting is stiff enough to stay on the cake and not slide down. However, despite the many faults that I saw in my cake, the mommy-to-be loved it and that was all that mattered.