Abracadabra!

Let me tell you that this has been my FAVORITE cake I have worked on thus far! I had so much fun putting this cake together.

I started this cake with two tiers of chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream icing, which was the bottom portion of the black top hat. I covered this in black marshmallow fondant and created a red fondant ribbon for the base of the hat. The brim of the hat is a 10" cake board covered in black fondant.

Once I had the hat assembled, I created colored hankerchieves out of fondant and gumpaste. I laid these on the hat and arranged to make it look like they were coming out of the center of the hat. Once I had these in place, I started working n the rabbit.

The rabbit's head is made of rice krispy treats (RKT) and I placed a dowel out the bottom of it to insert into the cakeboard and cake. I covered the RKT with white gumpaste. The ears were created separately with white gumpaste, a bamboo skewer and then pink fondant in the center of the ears. Once these hardened, I inserted the bamboo skewers into the rabbits head. I added the facial features with fondant and gumpaste. The paws are just pieces of gumpaste that I formed into ovals and then created creases in them, to look like little toes.

The other pieces I created were a magic wand and some playing cards. The wand was crafted from a dowel rod covered in black marshmallow fondant and then added some white gumpaste to both ends. The playing cards are created from gumpaste and I hand painted the hearts and such on them with food coloring.

I absolutely LOVE how this cake turned out! The customer who ordered it could not pick it up today, so she sent a friend instead. I cannot wait to get an online review back from the customer to see what she and her sone, Slate thought of their extra special cake design. I will keep you posted on their comments.

Thanks for following along and reading about my magical cake design.

Happy baking to all!

It's A Jungle Out There!

I received a request for a birthday cake for a little boy who LOVES Disney Jr.'s Jungle Junction. I created a sheet cake with a nice dirt pathway for the various critters on wheels to travel across. We also made some nice, lush green grass for them to play on.

The critters on wheels included bugs (the brightly-colored balls with antennae on wheels), Ellyvan the elephant and Zooter the pig. Ellyvan was made out of rice crispy treat and then covered in gumpaste. Zooter was made completely out of fondant, as were all of the bugs. For all of the wheels, I took some small cars I purchased at the dollar Store and ripped them to pieces so we could use the wheels on these fun characters. The Jungle Junction signs were made of fondant and then used buttercream to decorate them.

This was a really fun cake to work on and I learned about more Disney characters that I had never heard of before this order. If i keep up the work on these specialty character cakes, I will be ready if and when the good Lord blesses me and my husband with children!

A Goldwing Fanatic's Birthday!

My father-in-law just celebrated his birthday on March 17. He has got to be the biggest Honda Goldwing fanatic that I know or have ever met. I decided to make him a special birthday cake this year with the Goldwing emblem.

Here is a look at the actual Goldwing emblem. I made mine on black fondant and hand-painted the emblem with gold luster dust mixed with lemon extract. The lemon extract has the highest alcohol content of all the extracts, and therefore dries at a much faster pace than the others.(Just a little free tip for any of you folks wanting to give this a try yourself.)

Anyway, my FIL loves pound cake the best, so I made a 7Up pound cake and then iced it with my own recipe of vanilla buttercream. He LOVED it and I loved watching his face light up when he saw his special cake and took his first bite to realize it was pound cake...just the way he likes it!

Here are a couple of photos of his special Goldwing pound cake:

Cupcakes for a Special Ballerina

I received a call for an order of cupcakes with ballet decorations. I decided to create a variety of ballet shoes and tutus. The ballet shoes are made from gumpaste and I finished them with pearl luster dust. Then, I added them to the top of the cupcakes and piped the ribbons with buttercream icing. The tutus are also made of gumpaste and I gave a little glitter to them with pearl luster dust, as well. For the bodice portion, I thinned out some clear piping gel and coated the bodice with this mixture. Then, I added the coarse sugar crystals and let it dry. Fort he tutu portion, I piped buttercream for the skirt outline and the pleat accents. All in all, I think these cupcakes turned out SO cute and I was thrilled with the design. I am loving this sugar crystal decorating technique and can't wait to use it again!

Here is a close-up of these adorable little cupcakes so that you can better see the sugar bodice detail and the ribbons on the ballet slippers.

Thanks for looking!

A Princess In The Making

So I just delivered my Princess Tiana cake today and the client seemed to really like it. I absolutely loved working on this cake design and I enjoyed trying out some new decorating techniques.

I started this cake project by adding my lace accent to the underneath of the cake board. I tried gluing it to the top of the cake board to help hide the rough finished edges, but with the baord being finished with a wax coating, the hot glue would not attach to the top of the board.

As for the cake, I started by icing the cake layers with buttercream icing (yellow on the first layer and cream on the top layer). Then, I cut a pattern from posterboard for the white feather-looking pieces of the underneath of her dress. I used the pattern to cut out fondant accents. Then I made a larger feather-like pattern for the green layer of her dress - also made from fondant. I then dusted the green fondant pieces with a pearl luster dust to give it a little glittery effect.

I finished up the detail of the dress with a green rope of fondant at the base of the 6" round. I cut out freehand three leaves and cut some veins into the leaves for detail and attached them to the rope detail. I used gumpaste for the flower accents and cut them out with my cookie cutters. I let them dry in a curved drying rack and then attached them to the rope effect with a dot of buttercream icing. I finished off the flower detail with a bit of buttercream icing in the center of the flower and added green pearl sugar dragees.

As for the tiara itself, I made it from gray-colored fondant. In the future, I would make it from gumpaste so that it dries faster and a bit harder. I painted it with silver luster dust. Then I used thinned piping gel to paint the tips of the tiara and then shook clear sugar crystals on top of it to create the glassy-look. It took it a bit of time to dry. I secured the crown in the top layer of the cake with toothpicks from the base of the tiara.

All in all, I think this cake turned out beautiful and I hope to have the opportunity to work on another cake design real soon that challenges my technique the way this one did. Thanks for the order, Amelia!

Mardi Gras Sweet Sixteen

In honor of Fat Tuesday, I thought I would highlight a Mardi Gras sweet sixteen cake that I created recently for a client in Boone, NC. The cake itself was three tiers - a 10" chocolate layer, a 8" vanilla layer and a 6" lemon layer all with vanilla buttercream and covered in buttercream-flavored fondant. All of the accents are made of fondant and I finished off the detail with gold sugar dragees.

For the topper, I hand-crafted a mask worthy of a Mardi Gras celebration. The mask was plastic and I added the feathers and beading with a hot glue gun. The beads hanging at the side of the cake were purchased at a local retailer and displayed by wrapping them around the wooden dowel rod that supported the mask into the top layer of the cake.

I would have like to have made the mask and beads from gumpaste, but with the client being the one to carry this cake in her personal vehicle from Winston-Salem to Boone, NC I was afraid something would break on the cake and I wouldn't be there to fix it or replace it. Perhaps I will have the opportunity to do another Mardi Gras cake sometime soon and I can test my mask-making skills at that time!

Halloween Treats

Over the Halloween holiday, I had a few cake requests that were a lot of fun to work on. First, I created Mr. & Mrs. Frank N. Stein for a costume party for a friend. I got this idea from a fellow cake baker on Cakecentral.com. I think they turned out super cute!

The other cake and cupcake order that I got for Halloween was for a pink lemonade flavored cake with chocolate cupcakes. I used my cricut for some of the decorations, including the haunted house, bats, and pumpkins. The tombstones were freehanded.

Happy Birthday to a REAL Trooper!

I made this cake for my best friend's step-dad who just celelbrated his birthday and is a retired NC Highway Patrolman. He LOVED the cake and could not believe how real the hat looked! I had such a great time watching his face as they brought the cake out to surprise him. Happy birthday, Willie!

Cherry Blossom Cake

I have always loved the simple beauty in cherry blossoms. I had a final cake project for my last cake class and decided to take inspiration from the cherry blossoms. I made an almond-flavored cake with raspberry filling and covered it in marshmallow fondant and added beautiful cherry blossoms made from tinted royal icing. I think this cake turned out beautiful and would make a great design in a multi-tier version for some springtime weddings. I'm just saying...order up!

A Birthday Cake with REAL Yellow Roses

I received a request for a cake with three yellow roses on top for a special birthday gift. Since the roses were real and needed to be kept in water and the cake kept clean, I used the little water viles that came with the roses to insert directly into the cake and keep the roses hydrated. I think the cake turned out simple yet sophisticated. Thanks for the order, Alex!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

This cake was created for a special gal in my bible study group who loves her Daddy as much as I love mine! She had me create a cake for his 63rd birthday in his favorite flavor...carrot cake with cream cheese icing. She said it was as yummy as it was pretty. Thanks for the order, Tracy!

Tenacious D Guitar Pick

So while Michael and I were in the NC mountains this weekend celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary I received a phone call for a cake order. She said she would send me a picture of the cake she wanted me to design for her boyfriend's birthday and warned me it was going to be the ugliest cake I ever decorated. A day or so later, she sent me an email with this picture for inspiration...

Tenacious D Pick of Destiny

Boy, was she right! This thing is so ugly it's kind of cute! I can't wait to begin working on it and see how she and the surprised boyfriend will like it. Thanks, Jessica, for giving me the opportunity to test my extreme food coloring skills!

Keep those custom cake orders rolling in...I always love a good challenge!

A Gift of Sophistication

I finished and delivered one of my favorite cake designs to date this afternoon. This cake was for a friend's 50th surprise birthday party and the client asked for a stacked package design in square and black and white. The rest of the design was left up to me, and I throroughly enjoyed working on this one! I think it turned out beuatiful and very classy.

The bottom layer was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing and filling. The top layer was a strawberry cake with strawberry fruit filling and strawberry buttercream icing. The fondant was all vanilla flavored marshmallow fondant made from scratch. I truly hope the client was as thirlled with the look and taste of this cake as I was! I can't wait to see what the next order will bring. The creativity of the design is what keeps me truly excited about cake decorating!

Passed the Test Again!

Well, I took my fall cupcakes to bible study and the ladies went NUTS for them. I may have even gotten a cake order from it. The gal that runs the bible study mentioned wanting to order a cake for her dad's birthday! That would be super!!! I love to see a person smile while enjoying a great cupcake -- it makes me feel warm and fuzzy!

I Passed The First Test!

Well, I passed the first test...the folks at the office LOVED my spice cake and cream cheese fall leaf cupcakes!!! The second test will be tonight at bible study...I will keep you posted of my next cupcake test grade!

Cupcakes for the Fall

As we begin to welcome in the Fall season, I thought I would bake some cupcakes to get us in the mood and ready.

I started with a spcie cake recipe for my cupcakes and topped them with a creamy and rich cream cheese icing. Then, I took red, yellow and orange fondant and combined them to create the perfect coloring for some fall leaves. Once I got the fondant rolled out, I used some mini cookie cutters to cut out the leaves. I used a toothpick to add in all of the leaf veins to make them even more real-life looking. I put a little bit of golden yellow sugar on top of the cream cheese icing and then topped them off with the beautiful and yummy fall leaves.

The real test will be when I take these to the office and to bible study to see how the real judges weigh in!

Cupcakes from Wilmington, NC

I received a call the other day from a lady in Wilmington, NC that wanted me to deliver an order of assorted cupcakes to her friend here in Winston-Salem who is celebrating a birthday today. Here are the oh-so-yummy cupcakes he gets to enjoy...

Happy Birthday, Ted!

Birthday Boots

I finished my Boots cake and delivered it Saturday morning to a very happy birthday boy celebrating his third birthday. This cake took A LOT of time, buttercream icing and patience. I had to hand carve this from the template I made. Let's just say that cake is not the most sturdy medium to try to carve and then ice with buttercream. At any rate, it all turned out well and everyone was happy!

Step One: Make a Template

So I have already started on the basics of my Boots cake. I have found an inspirational image and have created a template of it to help me carve the perfect shape. Tonight I will begin baking my cakes, carving them and doing a crumb coat of icing. I will keep you posted of my progress and post pictures as I go.

This cake is going to be a chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a vanilla or raspberry buttercream icing. It is going to taste INCREDIBLE and hopefully look just a adorable when I am all finished. Stay tuned....

Boots Cake

I just received an order for a Boots (from Dora the Explorer) cake for a little boy's thrid birthday. I can't wait to get started on this one!

I have found a picture online for inspriation and will be sure to share my final product pictures as soon as I have it complete. Stay tuned...