Gobble Gobble

This turkey consist of layers of individual cookies. It takes approximately 50 cookies.  I used a gumpaste poinsettia petal as the cookie cutter for the tail feathers and a snowman cutter for the body.  Once the cookies are frosted, they are assembled in rows held together with royal frosting.

This is a smaller version of the above cookie and I also cut off the hat of the snowman, so as not to cover the tail feathers on the completed display.

  Cookies constructed of smaller cookies make a nice display and will serve a number of guests.

This  cookie cutter  is approximately 8" across.  First he was frosted and then detailed in royal frosting.  

All of these cookies were covered in shrink wrap for shipping.

Callie

That all important FIRST birthday, lets celebrate!

This is a 13x9 sheet of Chocolate cake with a fudge filling. The cake was frosted in buttercream and the zebra print was hand-cut from black fondant and applied one strip at a time.  The design was finished with a pink peony and leaves of gumpaste.  

Rattlesnake

A long time client brought me this picture of a design her 6 year old son requested for his birthday cake.

First things first, I need to create the armature for the cake.  I started with a 20" cake drum, which allowed me to hot glue the armature to the board so the final cake would have good support during transportation.

The rattlesnake head and upper body is made of rice cereal treat.  The snake was to be chocolate cake,  I started with the trunk the cake which I wrapped with wafer paper to hold-its-shape prior to adding the fondant.  This paper is very light and will melt into the buttercream.

The remaining cake was added and the tail was wrapped in wafer paper, again for support.

The whole cake and cereal form was then covered in buttercream.  At this point I rested the cake in the refrigerator for a few hours to firm up.

The underside of a snake has long rows of scale and the back of the snake is small circular scales.  I started with all the areas of the underside of the snake laying rows of fondant in thin strips. Then starting with the head, covered the remaining area with fondant.  The pattern was pressed into the fresh fondant with a cake tip and diamond shape gumpaste cutter.  

   

Here is the finished cake, airbrushed and trimmed-out with gun, gun-belt and bad-guy black hat.

The sand is vanilla wafers ground in coffee grinder. and the message is cut from Fox Run cutters.

Happy Birthday Jake!

WWE

 This is a 10" square Chocolate cake with Strawberry Compote covered in black fondant.

The ladders, chairs, posts and characters were created with 50/50 paste a few weeks in advance.

The ring ropes were made of colored long bamboo picks.

I love the mohawk and tattoos..

Steak House

A new steak house is opening in a neighboring community and the new owner was being celebrated the night before the public opening.

This is a 1/2 sheet cake of Almond with Vanilla Custard.  the steak and prawns are cake covered in fondant and painted.  The baked potato is a large cake pop covered in fondant and the white part of the potato is  soften buttercream.  The butter pat is fondant.  The little carrots are only fondant.

"Surprise Patty"

                         A Surprise Birthday party for Patty was planned by a long time client.

The cake is a 12" round with a slightly carved side.  The side panels were made a week in advance to allow the fondant to dry, for easy of handling.

These flowers are from a number of fall flowers made in advance for the upcoming season.  On this cake I included fall flowers listed in the two cakes below plus the addition of pine cones, acorns and a large tiger lilly.

The Cake is Carrot with Cream Cheese filling.  It was frosted in buttercream and the panels were overlapped around the sides.  The next step was to add the fondant ribbons around the basket and a braided in two layers and a wreath around the top creating a finished edge.  Finally the message is pipped on and the flowers added.

Josh and Jess

A fall wedding showers is the celebration for this cake.  It is a  1/4 sheet cake of Red Velvet with Cream Cheese filling.  The buttercream frosting is white with a plain shell border on the bottom and reverse shell border on the top.

The gumpaste flowers are mums, lotus pods, wheat,  heather, poppies, hypercium berries, ivy and colored fall leaves.

Mom

A little birthday cake for mom featuring fall flowers of mums and poppies in gumpaste is frosted buttercream.  You can see some of the side, it features green cornelli lace.  The 6" cake is Chocolate with Fudge filling.  

Fantasy flowers

 

A fellow baker had a request for a 60's inspired baby shower cake.  A gentlemen ordered the cake with instructions for two tiers, "mod" flowers and colors of deep purple, teal and orange.

My friend bakes as a paying hobby and works a full time job as a Psychologist in a mental health facility.  She has been baking for clients since the mid 80's after taking a number of Wilton classes at a local craft store.  She comes to visit, ask questions about orders and learn whats new in the cake world.  I love having her as a friend.

As this was for a baby shower, she felt the finished cake would look nothing like a baby themed designed with the requests from the client, so I suggested putting baby items as the center of the mod flowers.

Each items was inserted on a wire and using a small daisy cutter to create the center.  I then used a large 5 petal cutter and thinned the edges with a ball tool to give them a ruffle.  The background of the finished cake was t o be deep purple and the mod flowers in teal were the main accent with the orange flowers as contrast.

Tina's 60th Birthday

This dear lady is a friend and her daughters' contacted me for a cake as her family was getting together for the celebration.  I "tried" to tell the girls that this idea may not be received as funny!  Well, all in good fun the women sent me a message and expressed how "yummy" the cake was.

I baked a 15 x 17 cake, 1/2 turtle and 1/2 white.  I carved the shape and covered the cake in fondant.  Using the JEM alphabet cutters I embossed the letters in the fondant before it crusted over.  I also used the Wilton baroque molds for the ornamentation at the top and bottom of the head-stone.  I then airbrushed the entire design with a dark gray color to "age" the fondant.  Using royal frosting, vines and flowers were added to the sides and message.

Happy Birthday Lady!

Stacey

This is a 13x9 sheet cake, 1/2 white cake with strawberry compote and 1/2 chocolate with fudge.  

The base buttercream is airbrushed with clouds and grass.  I outlined a vague shape for the horse.  

Using a very soft buttercream I piped the head in first and with a hot plate knife created the detail.  I then piped in the hind leg, and again, used a hot knife.  I followed with the mid section, then the neck and front legs.  The tail and mane where piped on and a comb tool used to make long strands of hair.  The horse was finished by airbrushing the detail.  The eye and nose where done in piping gel.

A reverse shell boarder was added and a grass tip was used to give the ground movement with very small deep-purple flowers (made of gumpaste) finished off the design.    

Summer time cookies

Sugar cookie order for office staff as school resumes.  

Hawaiian shirt and Solstice sun

Surfboards

 I just love the sunglasses

Cool lobster!

Mini polk-a-dot bikini

Pink Rose

 Love can be found at any age!  This couple are in their 80's and the only request the bride had was Pink Roses.

The cake was to serve 25 friends of the couple.  

The base tier was Strawberry cake with Strawberry cream filling, the top tier was White cake with coconut filling. 

I first frosted the cake in buttercream and then took stripes of fondant and wrapped it in layers starting at the bottom of each tier and working up.  I chose to add buttons up the seam to give a clean edge to the design.

This rose was the size of a dessert plate with many layers of petals.  I used an apple shipping liner for support while the flower dried (courtesy of Wegmans supermarket.)  

Alex's Graduation

Alex played basketball for Mercyhurst Prep so his grandmother requested a cake to represent his high school career.  The jersey was cut from a 17x22 Chocolate cake with Vanilla Custard filling. It is covered in a deep green fondant and trimmed in white.  The basket ball is half of the ball pan with the lettering and emblem hand painted on.

Alex will be attending Daemen College in the fall for pre-med. Therefore, the second sheet cake was cut from a White cake with Chocolate Custard to represent a lab coat. Again it is covered in fondant with fondant embellishments.

Congratulations Alex!

Tom and Barb's 50 Anniversary

50 YEARS

The cake features a 10' Chocolate cake with Fudge filling and a 7" White cake with Raspberry compote.   The cake is frosted with Buttercream.  

On the base cake, is a scallop cut fondant ribbon painted with Gold Luster Dust and trimmed out with buttercream shells tip.  The top tier is decorated with piped cornelli lace.  

The arches are made of fondant painted gold and the top border is piped shell. 

The roses were made of white gumpaste and dusted with gold.

Dad's Dog Food

Jim retired as the Pilot of Dad's Dog Food.  His cake is White with Strawberry Compote.  A week in advance of the celebration I cut and dried the plane wings and tale of mexican paste.  The logo is from the internet and printed as an edible image.  The cake is covered in fondant.

Ireland's First Birthday

That all important FIRST birthday....Little Ireland is the daughter of a couple who's wedding cake can be seen at Heidi in August 2011 of this blog.

 Ireland's cake consists of two tiers, the bottom is Chocolate Peanut Butter cake with Peanut Butter mousse and the top tier is Italian Cream cake with Raspberry Compote.  It is covered in Buttercream and the embellishments are fondant.

This is her little "smash cake"  It is a 3" white cake.

Ashley and Tony

Several weeks in prior to the wedding date, I started the flowers for this cake. 

 This is a filler flower (these are not always based on a real flower, for this cake, it allows the brides apple green color to be incorporated into the finished bouquet)

                 Seven of the flowers are wired together to create a cluster once they have dried. Fourteen groups were needed.

                          

  

These are the steps to make baby's breath.  The JEM cutter cuts 6 blooms at once.  I then insert one stamen into the center of each bloom and then tape the 6 blooms together on a 26 gauge wire.

I chose to make the centers for the white Peonies.  First, white silk thread wrapped around my fingers 50-60 times.  I then attach a 26 gauge wire with floral tape.  Then I dampen the ends of the silk thread with gum glue and insert it into a dish of sugar tex to create pollen.  If you do not have access to sugar tex you may also create this by using grits.

Once the centers have dried overnight you are ready to attach the first row of petals.  I cut the petal from gumpaste and using the ball tool create a cup shape with the clay and attached 5 of them to the center.  Again allow this to dry several hours before adding the next row of petals.   I generally dry the first two rows of petals 24 hours each to insure that it has good support.

This is the flower spray being put togethers (I am using a cake pan the size of the tier for measurement).

The whole cake was White cake with Raspberry Compote.  It was frosted in buttercream with fondant ribbons at the base of each tier.  The filigree was done in a free-hand style of  black buttercream.