My sister's cheetah cake.

I made a cake for my sister's birthday who I love very much.  She is the best gift my mom has ever given me. Of course, I wanted to make her feel special with one of my cakes.

 I ended up doing a funky design for my special girl.

My Sister's Cheetah Cake

Fondant covered Coconut Pound cake with a pineapple filling.

Hand painted cheetah print.

Fondant cover based to mimic a zebra print.

I was very pleased with the paint job on this cake.  I used gel food coloring mixed with vodka.  When cake decorators hand paint cake, they usually use a gel food coloring mixed with either vodka or lemon extract. I will say that I should have waited a little bit after I applied the fondant to start painting it.  It need to dry out just a bit before adding the moisture of the gel food coloring mix.

The gel food coloring is different that regular food coloring.  It's not the kind of food coloring you would find at supermarkets. It's thicker and richer in color.

These kind of food coloring are found usually found in specialty shops.  What's great about the gel is the pigment; the colors are so much more intense.  So much so that when I am coloring fondant I actually use a toothpick so that I don't get too much of the coloring on.  Here is a picture of the technique...

Courtesy of Examiner.com

Of course it also depends on the amount of fondant you're coloring.


About the bow...

As you may remember, I've discussed making a fondant bow in the past ("sometimes the cake is gift".) The first bow I ever made was for this particular cake. It's is a prime example of what happens when you don't let the loops completely dry before touching it.





Notice the difference in the two bows.  The second bow was pretty much perfect.  It takes a whole lot of  patience and love to make a great bow.

By the way, the cake was a 6 inch round cake.

"Roll the film!"

This cake was for a film student's birthday.

Film Reel Cake

Chocolate Fudge Cake with chocolate chip buttercream filling.
Fondant and gum paste covered.

To make this cake I knew I had to dry out the gumpaste rounds for the top and bottom of the cake a few days ahead of time. When it was time to start decorating, I covered the top with black fondant and scored the fondant with a icing tool to mimick the roll of film. You can see the details a little better in the picture below.

Icing Tool

Once the gumpaste rounds dried, I placed the cake on one of the rounds and then place the other round on top.  Once that was completed, I wrapped a ribbon of black fondant around the cake.  I then cut out the white fondant squares for the film and placed them on the film.

Lesson Learned: Make sure gumpaste is completely dried before handling.

I think I moved the gumpaste too soon .  It sort of wrinkled in the center.  Next time I will make the rounds about a week or so in advance.  I waited 5 days before using these rounds.  Sometimes when you color gumpaste it takes a little longer to dry as well.

Thanks for reading : )

Have suitcase...will travel.

Sorry it's taken so long to write about my new cake adventure.  I am pretty excited about this one.  Some friends are traveling cross country and I wanted to give them something special.  I wanted to be sure that it was small enough for them to consume right away because who wants to come home after long trip to find a moldy cake in the fridge.

Suitcase Cake



This cake was 6 inches x 4.5 inches x 2 inches.
Pretty small cake :o)

Vanilla buttercream cake with Strawberry buttercream.

Everything on the cake is fondant.

I took a sheet cake and cut it half. I could have made this cake bigger but like I said it was just a little something to wish them a good trip.  I saved the other half of the sheet cake for another cake I am making next week.  

Cakes can be frozen if stored correctly.  I hate to break it to some of you but it is a common practice among cake decorators.  Some cakes are frozen a couple of weeks in advance.  The longest I've frozen a cake is a week.  Cakes must be cover securely in plastic wrap then covered in aluminum foil.  I then place my cake in a plastic bag.  This is to prevent any freezer burn.  Once defrosted, the cake is wonderfully fresh and moist.  Some say it takes even better then it did the day they made it.

This was quite a simple cake.  I covered the sheet cake in chocolate fondant and made all the buckles and handle separately. I then painted the belts and painted brown luster dust on the whole cake.  The luster dust gave the cake an aged look.  I then painted the buckle and the corners with a gold luster dust.

Today's Lesson:  If possible paint your pieces before you add them to your cake.

I waited until I add all the pieces to then paint them gold.  It was driving me insane. I can be a bit of a perfectionist sometimes and the fact that the colors kept running into each other was just killing me.  I would paint everything first and then attach it.  It will be a much cleaner look.





Luster Dust from NY Cake
Picture is enlarged

 Luster dust is expensive for what it is.  Its about 2g of powder for about $5.00 but its an important part of cake decorating, so you kinda of have to just suck it up.  It will definitely transfer your cakes and designs into something really special.  Some people will put it into their airbrush and brush it on that way.

Happy Graduation!!!

My niece has struggled at school for quite a few years. .  But she overcame her obstacles and graduated  from high school this year!!!!! YIPPPEEEE!!!

I'm so proud of her and I can honestly say that she is one of my heroes.

So what does an Auntie do.....

Happy Graduation Cake

Price $250

Books are vanilla butter cake with a strawberry buttercream.

Apples and Graduation Cap is made out of Rice Crispy Treats.

Pencils, diploma, bookmark, eraser are made out of fondant/gumpaste.

This cake had some challenges. I had to make this cake in less than 24 hours. I usually make a cake with this much detail in a minimum of 3 days.

So what does mean? I rushed to get the cake finished. I didn't take my time and added extra pressure on myself.  I find that when I give myself extra time my anxiety level is much lower which makes for a more perfect cake.  Even  though I was extremely happy to do it...I won't make that kind of commitment again.  FYI...it took a total of 12 hours from beginning to end to finish this cake.

Lessons Learn: Give yourself time and everything will turn out fine.

1. I've said it before.  You cannot make a fondant cake in a hot or humid room. I of course did exactly that.  I didn't learn my own lesson.  It's okay. I am one of those people that needs to make the same mistakes over and over to finally get it.  Also the cakes weren't firm enough.  They definitely drooped but hopefully I did a good job masking it by adding all the sugar accessories. This was due to the lack of support from the cake board. I promise never to have a droopy cake again. 

I will also remember to turn on the air conditioning.  I keep forgetting to do this. I also wouldn't bake the cake on the same day.  The oven  raises the temperature in the room and ruins the fondant.

2. My buttercream was also not firm enough and it made the fondant melt right into it.  Fondant is a sugar based product and if it has too much moisture, it will disintegrate.

I really need to remember to stop adding so much milk to the buttercream.  Buttercream needs to be thin so that it spreads easily onto the cake but I think I'm just making it way too thin.

Beginning stages of graduation cap.



Rice Crispy Treat Apple covered in fondant.


This cake was also my first time using Rice Crispy Treats (RKT) for sculpturing.  One word to describe my experience with RKT...FANTASTIC.

I have truly fallen in love with Rice Crispy Treats.  It looked perfect.  It was so easy to mold and work with.  These apples were hand molded and painted. FYI...Rice Crispy Treats have to be covered in buttercream or melted chocolate before adding fondant.  This will fill in the grooves and make the fondant look smooth.

The sugar pencils and eraser were so fun to make.  They really looked like real pencils.


 I'd love to hear what you think.  Thanks again for reading.

Crack this one open.

It was January 2, 2011 when I decided that I was going to really give this cake thing a try.  I decided that Easter was going to be the day for my first cake debut.  Of course I new I had to practice playing with fondant before Easter (that's how I came to make "bird on a bush" and the piggies cupcake.) 

Once I felt comfortable with fondant, it was time to make the Easter cake.  The actual cake was an inspiration from a cake I saw online.

Easter Egg 2011



Fondant cover pound cake with buttercream filling
Gumpaste chicken feet.
Price: $95



Cupcakes

Bunny made out of fondant.
Buttercream frosting to look like grass.

Crushed Oreos to look like dirt.
Fondant carrots.



Fondant Ducky.
Buttercream frosting with blue piping
 gel to make it look like water.



Gumpaste Daisy.
I guess this was actually the first time
 I made a gumpaste sugar flower.
 I used colored sugar for the center.

This is was so much fun to make!  The reaction from my friends and family was priceless. 

Lesson Learned:  Cream cheese frosting can't be left out.

Cream cheese frosting is very soft and needs to be refrigerated.  After I made the cupcakes, I realized I had refrigerate them.  The "water" was losing it's shape.  This was the only time I put fondant figures in the fridge and not worry about condensation.  The fondant figures were set to dry way in advance.  This helped with the condensation problems that occurs with fondant.

Uncle Gino is a big fan.

So I have this Uncle Gino...well he really isn't my uncle but my boyfriend's uncle. My boyfriend and his uncle have a very interesting and beautiful relationship.  The best part is watching them when they are watching Napoli or the Italian National soccer team play.  I've never seen anything like it!  They scream and yell for about good 90 minutes give a or take a minute for injury time. Its friggin' scary and hilarious at the same time!

I knew that for Uncle Gino's birthday I had to give him something extra special.

THE MARADONA CAKE

Price: $75

Pound cake with cannoli (or how he likes to say it "ganol") cream filling.
Fondant soccer shirt with fondant accents.
Buttercream grass.

To understand how important Maradona is to uncle Gino you have step back to the era of Maradona.  It was 1984 when Maradona was transferred to Napoli and the following years were one of the best years Napoli had ever had.  Maradona was a saint in the eyes of the Neapolitans and fans alike. 

Take a look at the kind of spectacular goals Maradona made:

I've digressed...back to the cake.

Making the cake was quite easy.  The most challenging part was getting the right shade of blue. Oh gosh, if I didn't get that blue right..."Oh marone!"

I piped the buttercream using the same technique that I used for the "bird in a bush" cupcake.  Once everything was set up, I used letters cutters to make the "happy birthday" message.

Two Lessons Learned: 1.Air bubbles in your fondant are no good
               2.Steam before you buttercream.

• If you are not careful applying your fondant, you can create air bubbles.  If you look closely at the cake you will see an air bubble on the left hand corner. I either made the mistake of not using my fondant smoother when I applied the fondant on the cake or I didn't pin prick the fondant when I rolled it out.  Sometimes you develop bubbles while your rolling out fondant.  To get rid of the bubble, get a straight pin, prick the bubble and continue rolling the fondant. This will certainly make the bubble disappear.
•  Steaming fondant cakes is a technique that cake decorators use all the time.  Steaming the cake makes the cake quite shiny and helps to get rid of all the extra powdered sugar left on the cake from when you roll it out. Unfortunately, I steamed the cake after I added the buttercream. Argghhh!  Buttercream melts when the steam hits it. Luckily, I was able to fix the cake and no real damage was done. :o)

Thank you again for reading.

Forza Azzurri!!!!!

Smell the pretty flower.

As I walked around my neighborhood...

I started to take notice of all the beautiful trees and flowers and suddenly a thought went through my head. 

Oh yea!... It's time to add flowers to my cakes. 

I thought a Peony would be a nice flower to start with.

So here we go...

  These are the tools I used to make the Peony:

Top Center: Gum Paste
Left to Right: Rolling pin, shaping foam, ball tool, brush, gum paste glue, floral wire, Styrofoam ball.
Bottom Center: Peony cutters

I wasn't totally prepared to make the Peony. I needed petal dust and forming cups.  This flower will just have do without. 

The first thing I had to do was to roll out the gum paste as thin as paper.  I started with smallest cutter first.  It takes about 6 or more petals from each cutter to create the flower.  Once I cut the petals, I thinned them out with the ball tool and shaping foam. 

I then attached the petals to the Styrofoam ball.  I used the floral wire to hang the Styrofoam ball from a cooling rack to allow the petals to dry as I placed more on. Its important to allow the Peony to completely dry before handling it. 

Today's Lesson: Forming cups and flower formers are necessary to make gumpaste flowers.

 In this case, the forming cup would have come in handy.  Oh well...  I was able to use a small bowl to allow my Peony to dry.

The finished Peony...

Sing for me pretty.

My client was receiving her Master's in voice and needed a cake for her voice recital.



Price:$280

 I surprised her with my first 2 tiered cake.

Voice Recital Cake
Vanilla butter cake with chocolate chip buttercream filling.
Keyboard is fondant.
Notes are edible images.
Girl is 50/50 fondant.
Toppers are gumpaste, notes are fondant.
Cake is covered in white fondant.

I was so proud of this cake.  It took me over a week to dry the fondant girl. I made it to look like the client.  If you look closely, she is holding a microphone :).

Making the fondant girl was the hardest accent to make on this cake.  I made her in 3 parts. First, her head and body then her hair and clothing and finally her arms. Everything had to be dried before putting it all together.

When making a 2 tier cake, it is important to add dowels to the bottom tier and then adding one dowel down the center through both tiers.  This will help support and stabalize the cake and this cake had to travel 35 miles to its destination.

Dowels

This is an image of a  larger cake being doweled.

Center Dowel

Today's Lesson:  Edible images are a great idea but challenging to work with. 

 If the room you are working in is warm the edible image will become weak and can easily break.  The image can also disintegrate in your hands if you peel it off incorrectly. .

Fix: When working with edible images be sure that...

 1. The room is cool when working.

 2. You peel off image correctly.

Turn on the air conditioner and be sure to buy extra images, just in case.  Luckily for me, I purchase a few extra images.



Happy 4th of July

"My country 'tis of thee...
Sweet land of liberty...."

Don't you just love this time of year?

BBQ's, fireworks and friends.

When I was invited to a friend's house this weekend for a fourth of July BBQ, I thought cupcakes would be the perfect thing to bring.  I wanted to make sure that I brought something small just in case someone else brought some other sweets. 

Cupcakes are great for something like this.  They don't take up much space and are perfect for the little kiddies running around.

First thing I thought about was "theme". Yeah I could a July 4th themed cupcake but I thought that would be expected. Right?

So I decided to make BBQ/Picnic themed cupcakes.

First, I had to get the fondant accents ready.  I thought hamburgers, hot dogs, shish kabobs ( pinchos in spanish), pickles and corn on the cob.  It's not as difficult as it sounds...just time consuming.

 First up, the hamburgers.  Here is where your modeling tools, small square cookies cutters and small round cookie cutters will come in handy.  After I colored all my fondant to the exact colors I needed, I started molding the bun and hamburger,cutting the cheese and tomatoes and shaping the lettuce...



Little cheese slices




Time to make the lettuce. 

 When making the lettuce, you will need a shaping foam and a ball tool.  This will give the lettuce the curve it needs to look real.

For the tomatoes, you would use a veiner tool. Although the tomatoes will probably not be seen, I still thought it was important to add the details.




Completed fondant accents

 Once all the pieces were complete,it was time to make the cupcakes..




Can you tell what kind of cupcakes they are?

 That's right I use a hand held mixer for all my cakes and cupcakes.  I have to say that your chances of over mixing the batter is reduced dramatically when you use a hand held mixer.

Once everything is done, its time for the assembly.  Here's the finished product..



CUTE!!!!!!
Price: $40/dozen



Have a great holiday!!!!!