Good News!!!!

As some of  you may know the reason for starting this blog was  because I lost my job 2 years ago and I found out that I was able to do something creative.  I was" lucky" enough to loose my job  and figure out that there was more to me that my career.  Blessings  are sometimes disguised and this was surely one of them

The unfortunate part of  my wonderful new job is that it leaves me very little time for my new hobby...fondant work.

I've had some friends ask me to make cakes for them and my answer has always been "Oh I just  don't have the time"...well that's going to change!

I have decided to make this blog not just about "how to learn from my fondant mistake" but "how to make a hobby and a job work."

Recently, a  friend asked me  to make cupcakes for her baby shower and since this was my first time  making these sweet little confections again,  I agreed to make the fondant toppers.
150 of them...ARGGGHHH!!!!!

I've seen  many cake designers make a cake mimicking a baby's touche underneath a blanket and I said to myself- "why can't we make the same thing  as a cake topper?"

BABY UNDERNEATH  A BLANKET

First thing is to look at the calendar- how many days off do I have before the shower- 8 days off and one month before the shower.

8 days and a month. That's enough time!! I can plan about 20 toppers-each day off. Perfect. I won't have to worry. Plenty of time to make them at a nice steady pace.

Ha! I am sure you all have guessed by now- I didn't stick to my schedule and left them all  for the week before the baby shower.

LESSON LEARNED: KEEP TO THE SCHEDULE

I ended up having to make 160 toppers  in 4 day.  It just so happens that while this is going on at home, work wasn't any less stressful. It was the busiest time and I was working 10 hour days.   was feeling so stress and I wasn't enjoying my fondant project as much as could have.

Definitely stick to the schedule.  Stress takes away the reason for having a hobby in the first place-to relax.


How did I fix this predicament I put myself in... I started a assembly line of little baby booties.

I then rolled the little legs and "glued" them  to the booties using a gum paste/water mixture.
Once I did this was completed, I added the feet.  The feet were tiny balls of fondant that I "glued" to the legs. I then took a brush and wet it with the gp/mixture.  I made an indent with the brush to give the tiny feet a arch. Once I had a rhythm, it went quite smoothly.

I then rolled out the fondant and cut 3 in by 2 in square. I used a rotary cutter to create the seam...

VOILA...BABIES UNDERNEATH BLANKETS!

A Fashion's Night Out and a Cake!

My sister put in a request for a cake which she needed for a co-worker's birthday.  My poor sister, who has no sense of time and planning, put in the request Wednesday night for Sunday. As some of my readers might know, I like to plan my cakes and do cake accents in advance.  I have a lot of free time, right?
So what's the big deal?

The deal was that this week was a special week.  This week was FASHION'S NIGHT OUT NYC!!!  If you haven't heard, FASHION'S NIGHT OUT is a night where stores in the high fashion areas of NYC throw events to celebrate fashion and style.  Ideally, the night should increase sales but most people just go out to dress up and  party.  I was looking forward to it all week long.  So my dilemma was how do I put on an apron when what I really wanted to do is to put on PUMPS!

I CHOSE THE PUMPS!!!

FASHION'S NIGHT OUT NYC in the Meat Packing District!



One of my best friends sipping on a cocktail from one of the many events we went to that night.

One of the best event of the night was at Matthew Williamson.

I figured that I would just take one day to recover from FASHION'S NIGHT OUT and work on the cake on the following Saturday.  My saving grace is that I'm a pretty good planner so I was able to make the cake without any stress. :o)

Blue Polka Dot Cake

$50/12 servings

Vanilla Butter Cake with Vanilla Buttercream covered in Vanilla fondant.

50/50 Fondant bow.

I had never tried this bow before. I was very pleased with the results!!  Here is picture similar to the techniques I used...

Courtesy of http://www.makeit-loveit.com/

It really was a great week! Fashion, style and cakes...I love it.

By the way, who says you can't wear an apron and pumps in the kitchen...

September 11, 2011

A moment to remember.....

Although it's difficult today to see beyond the sorrow,
May looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.
~Author Unknown

Happy Birthday Baby! You're one!

Baby's First Birthday



California Gurls!!!

So I know I said I would talk about a cake that I created for a 1 year's birthday but I just finished a cake for a client and I'm just so excited to share it with!  What do you make for a little girl who just loves Katy Perry? A Katy Perry Cake of course!

Katy Perry Inspiration Cake



Front



2 Tiered fondant covered cake with fondant accents.

Top Tier

Chocolate butter cake with white chocolate/praline filling

Bottom Tier

Vanilla butter cake with pineapple filling





Left side

Right side




Back

First things first. I had to get the cake board ready.



Then there are the cakes, which are such an important part of the cake decorating processes. You need the product to taste good and then you need to level the product. The cake needs to have a straight edge.  If the cake isn't straight, the whole thing will be lopsided, including the design.

Below is the tool I originally purchased for leveling. Don't waste your money.  I spent $25 on this thing and I only used it once. A professional cake leveler will cost about $300.  I ended up buying the Fat Daddio's cake knife for about $15 and it's now my new best friend.  You just need to have a steady hand and a good old-fashion level when using the knife.  I spent at least 6 hours baking, cooling, leveling and filling cake. Remember after filling a cake, it needs to settle at least overnight.

Once I finished the actual cakes, it was time to start coloring the fondant.  Coloring the fondant can be time consuming especially on a cake that has so many colors like this one.  You want to be sure to spend extra time on getting the color right.  More fondant is always better than less...don't skimp on this dept. Let's just say at the end of this step I had a lot of extra sky blue fondant.

Next is making the decorations for the cake.  I knew I needed the fondant to dry out a bit before adding it to the cake so I made the decorations the night before.  I still covered them with plastic wrap because I wanted them to be a little flexible so they would wrap around the cake. There were some pieces that needed to be completely dried.  The glittered cupcakes were completely dried before I added them to the cake. 

Here is a closer look at the some of the accents:

The glittered #10 and cupcakes were made with fondant and edible glitter.

My most favorite part of this cake was the Popsicle. I just loved it and I don't know why.  Too bad it was on the back of the cake and no one was really going to see it.

I loved making the scalloped edge for the cake.  It was the first thing I added to the cake and I swore it made the cake perfect just like that. 

CUTE!!

Thanks for looking. Please feel free to ask questions. :o)









The drama continues...

First, I would like to apologize for not posting in awhile. I had just gotten back from a mini vacation when I had to deal with a NYC earthquake and a hurricane. It was quite a dramatic week.  I hope everyone made it out of this drama okay.

Speaking of drama...

 I last posted about a cake I was doing for a friend's birthday. We tried the lion cake and it kind of  didn't work. So we ended up with a shopping bag cake design.



$200/Serves 20-25



Vanilla sheet cake covered in fondant.

Gumpaste tissue, flowers and lipstick.

Cake board is covered in fondant.

Details on the cake is fondant.

Originally when I decided to do the a shopping bag cake, I was going with a standing shopping bag (not one that was laying down). Unfortunately that didn't work out. Here is an image of a standing up design...

Picture is courtesy of Cakecentral.com

Lets talk about the drama of this cake. In order to get the affect of the standing cake I made 3 sheet cakes, cut them in half and trimmed them to be able to stack them up. Well lets just say I started out with a bag and ended up with a wallet (quoting a friend of mine).  I was concentrating so much on getting the lines straight I didn't realize I was cutting too much.  So it was 9:30pm, the night before the party and I had to make a new cake and design.  ARGGGHHH!!!!!  Thank goodness I live in NYC and some of the supermarkets are opened til midnight.  So I rushed to the car, jumped in, rushed to the supermarket to buy all new ingredients and rushed back home.  I made it to the supermarket and back in less than 40 minutes. I was up till 1am baking the new cakes.  It was a tough night.  I won't even tell you about the drama that I woke up to the next day.

Here is what the details of the new cake....

This gumpaste "tissue" was dried a week in advanced, shaped and painted. 

The shopping bag handle was made using a clay/fondant extractor. My new favorite toy!

These flowers were made to look like Gerber daisies. Noticed the trim? I used the clay extractor for the trim as well.

The lipstick was made to look like a MAC lipstick.  I couldn't find my silver luster dust so they this just had to do :o).

Thanks for reading.  Stay tuned to see what I did for a little girl who turned 1!

Shopping Bag Cake

Stay tune for how I made this cake.