Minnie Mouse 1st Birthday

Tropical Elegance Bridal Shower

For this bridal shower the bride and groom had lived together for a while, so they didn't have any need for traditional shower gifts. Instead, the bridal party wanted to help raise money for a tropical honeymoon. Guest gave presents off a travel agent's wish list rather than a registry.

The bridesmaids wanted to maintain an elegant bridal shower feel, but put a tropical twist on it. The table center pieces were candles in glass bowls filled with sand. Sprinkled around the bowls were dried purple orchids and shells.

For the cake, the hostesses wanted to continue the elegant tropical theme. They had brought in the color swatch of the bridesmaid dresses for me to match (Victorian Lilac), in addition to the dried orchids.

Here is the end result. It is a white cake with a coconut-banana creme filling and frosted with buttercream.

Daughter's Daphne Cake

Did you know that there are no Scooby-Doo Daphne decorations out there. I thought for sure that I could find a plastic figurine or something to put on  top of a cake. So when my daughter, a week after her 3rd birthday, requested that for her fourth birthday that I make her a "purple Daphne cake," I thought - no problem. That year went by too fast. Come the eve of her birthday party, I realized that I would have to free-hand it. Normally, free handing is my thing. However, I am by no means an illustrator and to have to reproduce a cartoon icon such as Daphne was intimidating.

I was so surprised by the outcome and have to say that of all the cakes I have ever decorated this is the one that I am most proud of. I actually had trouble cutting into it.

Fondant- The Adults' Play-Doh

I LOVE, Love, love decorating with buttercream. It is my medium of choice. You can do anything your creative mind can think of with buttercream. However, it is messy and my fingertips always managed to get stained (even with gloves on).

Fondant (the other icing) is like Play-Doh, but for cake decorators. The clean-up is much easier, but I feel that the decorating takes much long. Every piece of decoration is cut and formed by hand. Technology, that I don't yet have, has made it much easier because now you can use your Crikcut(sp) to cut out lettering and shapes. Even without such new-fangled contraptions, you can still create endless decorations with fondant. Nonetheless, I like the feel of piping flowers and borders better.

Anyways, here is my first fondant cake that I made for my sister's birthday. I ran into tons of troubles and frustrations while working on it. The illustrations in Wilton books make it seem so much easier than it really is. Problem #1- Smoothing the fondant on the sides. This cake had a pudding filling and was nice and spongy so the cake would move every time I smoothed it. Which resulted in a lot of folds and airbubbles on the sides. In the pictures it always looks like the icing is nice and firm against the cake. I found this impossible to achieve.
Problem #2- You really need to have the cutters for the shapes. As I was trying to cut out the shapes with a knife the fondant would tear or pull. I ended up using my tips to cut out circles that I latter fashioned into a leaf shape.
Problem #3- It dries out pretty fast and become brittle. When piecing the cake together some of the decorations I made began to look like pieces of baked rubber.
Problem #4- Judging the perfect amount of water to use to attach decorations. Honestly, this problem probably sprung out of frustration. By the time I reached the decoration part of making this cake I was ready to buy a cake from the local grocery's bakery [gasp!].
Problem #5- I really fades quickly. Buttercream cakes can also fade, but usually their colors darken. At least this is what I have found to be the more common occurrence. This sucker when from funky pastels to baby shower pastels. I stored the cake in the refrigerator, so it has been for the most part out of the light (except when my 3 year old is looking for juice).

All in all, it was a learning experience. I don't think I will let fondant get the best of me. I think next time I will try it on a smaller, single layer cake.

Barbie Cake Fit for a Princess

While shopping at our local grocery store my daughter and I stopped in the bakery department to look at their cakes. Having once been a grocery store cake decorator/trainer I find that I always gravitate to their cake case to check out their decorators work. My daughter spotted a Barbie cake on display near the order stand. 

"I want a Barbie Cake!" she cried. 

My daughter loves all things purple, pink, Barbie and princess. So, naturally I promised her a Barbie cake for her 3rd birthday (6 months away). When it came time to start planning her cake I asked her what she wanted. Of course she replied, "Barbie Cake." Honestly, I had hoped that she would change her mind because I didn't want to buy a new pan, but she still wanted her Barbie cake. 

So, I decided to be thrifty and use a cupcake pan that my husband had found on clearance for me at a drug store. I think it worked out nicely for this. I also used an actual Barbie Doll rather than a pic for the body. A three year old will want a toy to play with once they are through eating the cake, not just a doll's head and torso. I sterilized the doll by boiling the legs and wrapped the legs in cellophane before inserting it into the cake. 

She was so happy with her Barbie cake that she cried when we cut into it- mainly because her new Barbie was dirty.  

Barnyard Baby Shower

Free-handing is one of my favorite things to do as a cake decorator. Maybe it is the organic nature of this method of decorating. The cake creates itself as you go along, adding an element here/there and sometimes taking the decorations in a whole different direction.

Sometimes when I sit down with a client the cake is created during the consultation: colors are chosen or swatches are given and detailed pictures are drawn. These meetings are nice because I have a clear idea of what the client wants and client has a clear idea of what they will receive, usually (I do have my fair share of horror stories).

However, I also have clients that give me a just theme and free reign to create their cake. These are some of my favorite cakes.

Recently, I was contacted to make a baby shower cake. The mom-to-be chose a barnyard theme for the nursery and the shower hostess wanted to use that theme for the shower. Since the sex of the baby wasn't known, she also wanted me to incorporate pink, blue, and yellow - my only guidelines. In fact, the client even told to have fun with it! (Have I mentioned how much I loved this client?)

Because both the mom and dad-to-be had very large families and the hostess was on a budget, we decided on a marble, single-layer, buttercream, half sheet cake.

Here is the end result. I had a lot of fun creating it, but most importantly. the hostess and mom-to-be loved the cake.