Morgan

Our niece, Morgan, graduated from high school this year and asked me to make the cake for her party. Morgan holds 17 World Jump Roping Titles.  We are VERY PROUD of her!!! 

I first molded the torso of gumpaste and allowed it to dry for several weeks as it would be the main support for the rest of the figure.  (I used a 20 gauge wire to insert the holes needed to attach the arms, and then into the trunk of the torso to attach the legs.)

After a few weeks I molded the legs and arms.  The arms were bent into position and dried on a block of foam rubber for a few days.  The legs were bent and attached immediately. The separation in the two pieces will be filled in when the legs are dry.

After a week of drying the legs, I then filled in around the base of the torso with gumpaste.  I also filled in any dents made while handling and attached the support arm.  The wire extending from the hand with be inserted into the cake to hold the figure in place.

                                                              One last arm to attached.

Once the whole figure is dry, I sand it using a Dremel tool to remove any seams from molding.   The face is painted and hair and clothes finish off the figure.

This cake was baked in the Fat Daddios Triangle pans.  The bottom tier was Chocolate with Fudge and the top two tiers were White with Raspberry Compote.  It was frosting in buttercream and trimmed in fondant.  The white roses were gumpaste.

This is Morgan!!! She is amazing with a jumprope, and we all had a wonderful time at her celebration.

Crab Fest 2013

  I had a request for small treats which guests could serve themselves during a crab boil.  The client choose cake pops, mini cupcakes, fondant sea shells and sugar cookies to arrange on her dessert table.   (Well I did remember to take pictures of the cake pops, cupcakes and shells but not the sugar cookies.  I was hoping to get a picture once the table was complete, however, I have not received it from the client, so I decided to post what I did have)

                                                The five cake pops included:   A sand pail

                   A starfish. (The texture is made of dried sugarveil crumbs and powdered food coloring)

                            Of course, the CRAB (his legs and claws are made of chocolate clay)

                                    A solstice sun (again the rays are made of chocolate clay)

                                       and a beach ball (the stripes are fondant which is applied
                                                    while the chocolate is still wet)

I made the shells about a week in advance to allow them to air dry slowly (this was difficult as we were having a lot of heat and humidity, so it took a full week to get them to the correct dryness)  The are generally used as decoration; however children love the idea that they can eat them :)

The mini cupcakes were five different flavors: Key Lime with Lime Curd, Devils Food Chocolate with Fudge, White with Strawberry Compote, Pina Colada with Pineapple Compote, and Chocolate Peanut Butter with Peanut Butter Mousse.  I placed a casted sugar shells or tropical fish atop the buttercream.

Summer in Paris

This is a graduation cake for a young man who was headed to Paris for vacation.

The cake is a three tier triangle shape with all tiers flush to the back.  The flavors are, bottom white with strawberry compote, the middle chocolate with chocolate hazelnut mousse, and the top is pina colada with pineapple and coconut cream.  I covered the cake in fondant and airbrushed the sky.  The day before,  I piped the Eiffel Tower in sugarveil and allowed it to air dry so that it would be a little stiffer than normal.  After airbrushing the sky I placed the Eiffel Tower in place and hand-painted the details. 

                                         The top was a blue gumpaste peony and a fondant poodle.

Around the other two sides of the triangle are all representation of France.  The top and bottom tiers were royal frosting stencil work and the cottages in the middle were hand-painted fondant for the French countryside.  I used a fondant (French) braid around the bottom of each tier to finish off the design (lol)

Variegated Ivy

 All sugar flower bouquets require foliage to give movement and realism to the final arrangement. Here I am making variegated ivy.   First I cut the ivy in several sizes and insert 26 gauge wire.  I generally dry the ivy on foam rubber with crevasses so the petals will dry in different shapes.

 Next I mix a medium and dark green gel paste, in separate containers, with a clear alcohol to paint the petals.  I start with the medium green (notice that I leave a clean edge on the petal)  Then I follow the medium with a dark green just in the center of the petal so that again the medium green has a edge of color.

                                                         I allow them to dry overnight.

Then starting with the smallest leaf working to the largest leaf, I tape a total of 6 leaf wires together to create on stem of ivy.   If the arrangement requires longer stems of ivy for movement, I will then tape several stems together.  On a side note I also wire the ivy with just small, medium or large leafs depending on the final look I require.

Cupcakes and Mimosa

Cupcakes and Mimosa...cute theme for a bridal shower.  They were all chocolate with the pink featuring gold edible pearls, the purple with silver pearls all in various sizes

Tutu

This cake design was from the shower invitation. A onesie.

 The little tutu was made of sugarveil and the spots under the sugarveil are fondant.

As I carved the cake into shape, I realized the the top of the onesie was about the width of a frosting sheet.  I scanned the original invitation so that the cake would read the same as the the invitation.

I used a 6mm pearl string mold filling it with isomalt sugar to make the little crystals for the waistband.   I also used isomalt for the center flower.  

                                The cake was finished with a shell border and pink gumpaste bow.

Jailynn's minnie birthday

This is an old school technique called buttercream transfer.   

First you will need to take a picture from a coloring book or a line drawing and tape a piece of wax paper over the picture, tape both, to a piece of cardboard so that it will be easier to work with all the movement.  It is important to note:  make sure your picture is in reverse so the finished picture is correct.

Next, use a No. 2 round tip, pipe the entire outline and fill in anything that should be black.  Place the outline in the freezer for an hour, this will give you a much easier time of filling in your colored buttercream.  Starting with the lightest color fill in the outline with a larger round tip (you may need to return the picture to the freezer from time to time to allow the colors to set up before adding another color.)

This is the finished fill in of minnie. You can freeze this until needed.

When ready, frost your cake before removing your buttercream transfer from the freezer.  Gentle place your picture in place on the cake and using your finger gently press over the picture.  The heat from your hand will soften the cold buttercream.  Leave the picture set a few minutes so that it warms up (about 5 minutes), then gentle peel off the wax paper.

Your picture frosting will be attached to the cake and you should have a clean wax paper.

Finish your cake with boarder pipping, wording and whatever touches you would like.  

Liam's Baptism

 

This little man was celebrated by his parents, family and friends. 

 The cake features a 13x9x2 of Chocolate cake and peanut butter mousse.  The frosting is white buttercream.  The top surface was airbrushed a deep sky blue (the frame is made of white fondant)  The bow and Cross were made of gumpaste so that they family could keep them   The border is sky blue buttercream in a reverse shell pattern.   

Rose apple tartlets

 I saw this on pinterest and had to give it a try.


I made a pie crust dough the night before and allowed it to rest.

 I cored an apple to remove the seeds and cut the apple in half, then into very, very thin slices (leaving the skin on the apple).  I rolled out the pie dough and cut it into 1-1/2 inch strips. Next I overlap the thin apple slices the length of each strip.   Sprinkle cinnamon over the apple slices and gently roll the slices up with the pie dough.  Place each of the  rolled roses in a mini muffin tin, and baked them at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.  They are yummy.

St. Patrick sugar cookies

Leprechauns

Shamrocks

Bookmarks

Pots of Gold

Draw Horse Assocation

Each year the New York Draw Horse Association has a Corn-beef and Cabbage dinner during the St.Patrick's Day weekend.  This year the organizers  requested a horse shape sugar cookies for each guest at the event.  I had several horse shape cookie cutters and baked several of each shape.  

I bake my cookies so that I can turn them over and frost the back of the cookie as it is a completely flat surface.  I start by using a flood sugar as the base frosting and once this is dry, I use royal frosting to hand pipe the detail

Welcome Riley Lucas

                      The excitement of a new baby brings together family and friends to celebrate.

This shower cake serves 50 guests.  The base tier is an 11" Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese and the top tier is a 7" White cake with Buttercream filling.  The cake is frosted in buttercream and features very very thin fondant pieces.  (As the two mediums do not work well together, it is important to make the weight of the fondant as thin as possible so that it will not pull off the buttercream.)  The momma and baby whale on the top are made of gumpaste and the white pearl border is made of fondant.

                                                    Congratulations to the new parents!

Clara Grace's Baptisim

                                       A second grandchild for my first customer, Clara Grace.

This is a 13x9 sheet serving 20-25 guest.  The cake was White with Strawberry filling.  The ribbon cross was made of fondant and the pale pink roses are gumpaste. I used a rose tip to add definition between the shell border.

Ashton

Ashton is the lovely daughter of a women who trains at the same gym I do.  Ashton and her family live the next town over from my home and her mom said every time they past my house she tells her mom she "wants her birthday cake done by that lady"

This is a standard 8" size birthday cake which serves 12 guest.  It is  a Chocolate cake with fudge filling.  The cake was covered in fondant zebra stripes, the bow, ribbon roses and gift tag were also made of fondant.  The bottom border was large size fondant pink beads.

( I completed this cake late into the night, therefore, the picture was taken under kitchen lights and unfortunately the picture does not have nice sharp color.)

Junior's 5

 Our little neighbor boy is celebrating his 5th birthday.  His mom said he wants a Hot Wheels cake.  

This is a 1/4 sheet cake, half White with Strawberries and half Carrot with Cream Cheese filling. The top surface was airbrushed green and a fondant racetrack was shaped into the number 5. Three hot wheel cars are also made of fondant as well and the start and finish lines.  A grass tip was used to create grass patches in buttercream and small little gumpaste flowers were added to finish the overall design.