Alyssa

Lady bug....This cake is carved from 3-10" cakes and one half small ball cake. The bug is covered in fondant and air brushed bright red. (When deep colors are needed in a large piece of fondant. The color make the fondant hard to work with, it is always better to cover the cake and then airbrush the color on.) The antler were made of mexican paste and dried a few days. The spots, eyes, split, and mouth were all fondant. The grass is buttercream piped through a grass tip.

Carley

This young women graduated from a local high school and is going on to WMU on an ice skating scholarship. This is a full sheet cake serving 100 guests. The graduation cap is molded chocolate and the skates are pastillage. The banner on the front face of the cake was printed with edible ink on a frosting sheet.

Judy's mom

The client ordered a two tier cake for the 80th birthday of her mother. Mom's favorite flower is the Gardenia and her occupation was as a nurse. The nursing items were made of mexican paste and the flowers were gumpaste.

Lexi

This was for a very intimate wedding. The cake, a 10" and 6" was for 35 guest and features Lilly of the Valley. The ribbons on around the tiers and the bow are fondant dusted in champagne luster dust.

Buttercream

These cupcakes were for a bridal shower. They are hummingbird cake and cream cheese filling.

The bride requested spring colors and flowers. The top of each cupcake (75 in all) featured a piped buttercream flower, rose, daisy or daffodil. The shower was held at a golf course (guess what the men were doing :) The room had a wall of windows and the cupcakes were displayed on a tall tower in front of the window which over looked the course.

Moth Orchid

The moth orchid begins with a very small ball of gumpaste attached to a 32 gauge wire which is cured for 24 hours.

Then using the cutter in the photo, cut one throat of the orchid. I then thin out the ears, split the tongue and curl the tails. The dried center is inserted and the whole piece is then placed in the white styrofoam tube pictured and let it dry overnight.

When dry, I dust the throat with yellow petal dust and add the stamen (which is a small ball of gumpaste that is indented. While these are still most, I paint all the features of the throat. Allow this to set while cutting two large round petals.

Thin and vein the petals with a ball tool. Insert a 32 gauge wire and wrap to the throat with floral tape. I let the flower dry at this stage overnight so as to not cause damage while adding the last three petals.


The final step the this flower is cutting the three petal back, again thinning and veining as with the previous two large petals. Add some gum-glue and attach to the finished center, making sure the petals are set in the PEACE symbol so that they fall between the finished center petals.

Gardenia

Like roses, the gardenia starts out with the same bud. A small piece of gumpaste pinched on one side and wrapped around itself. A 32 gauge wire is inserted for the stem and this bud will cure for 48 hours before adding the petals.

Three petals are wrapped around the bud then five petals are added to the base. I then place the flower on an open air rack, the five petals will fall open. I generally dry the flower 3 days before adding the calyx and wrapping the wire in floral tape.

Vintage Cake Plate

Weddings are unique to each couple. I met with this bride's mother on several occasion as the bride lived out of state.

It was very important that the cake be presented on a Great-Grandmother's cake plate. The overall design was petit as the bride wanted the cake to be clean and simple.

She chose buttercream with a swiss dot pattern and fondant ribbon at the base of each cake. The cake featured, 9" dark chocolate cake with coconut mounds filling, the 7" layer was devils food chocolate with Bailey Irish Cream filling and the 4" top tier was carrot without filling. Six gumpaste petit Calla Lilies were used to accent the design. It served 75 guest.

Petit Sweets

These are chocolate cake pops dipped in lavender ganache and piped with royal frosting with an edible pearl.

Strawberry cookies are a flavored cookie dough. Each half is scooped out while still warm. They are then filled with a strawberry buttercream and a almond. Two halfs are then pressed together. The cookie is then sprayed with Strawberry extract and water to wet the cookie, then rolled in sugar. A plastic leaf is added for final presentation.

The strawberry cookies added to the overall package which was being giving as a sweet treat gift.

Sailing

Chad enjoys sailing.

The water was carved of a 6" white cake and a 3"x 5" mini sheet cake the boat was carved from a 13 x 9 x 2.

First I covered the water in blue fondant and airbrushed various shades of blue and added royal frosting for the waves.

The boat was also covered in fondant and trimmed out with black. The sail is pastillage and the birthday wishes were painted on.

Tara and Adam

Love is in the air and at the beach.

Today was a bridal shower for a young couple. The groom-to-be was on vacation and drew a message of "Tara will you marry me" in the sand. He then took a picture of his art work and framed the picture. While out with friend one night, he gave her the gift wrapped framed picture. When she opened the pictured he was holding the ring.

Therefore, the inspiration for this cake. The sand is made of ameritti cookies, dried lady finger cookies and brown sugar. The board was covered in royal frosting to give the cookies something to stick to. All the sea shells are gumpaste dusted in various luster dust. The sea fence is pastillage. The cake is covered in fondant, airbrushed and then hand painted. The beach chairs are pastillage, uncooked spaghetti and mexican paste was used to make the fabric for the seat. The heart in the sand was airbrushed on after the royal frosting holding the sand had dried. Congratulations to the happy couple!

Jim

A round of golf is great enjoyment to a group of friends and the men were having steaks on the grill and a birthday cake to celebrate an 80+ birthday of one of the men.

This is a 10" Almond cake with raspberry compote. The buttercream is airbrushed on the sides and a grass tip was used for the borders. The water hazard is piping gel. The sand trap is ground amaretti cookies. The golf bag is mexican paste and the clubs are uncooked spaghetti with mexican paste club heads. The clubs shafts were then painted with silver luster dust. The golf ball is an edible pearl.

Black and White

This wedding cake was very emotional for me. As I met this young women mother 25 years ago while working in an environmental laboratory. I was the office manager and her mother was the human resource director. While eating lunch one day we were talking about my growing up in the catering industry and she asked me to make a cake for an upcoming birthday. Well here we are 25 years later. I bake full time and her little girl who is now 23 is getting married.

The first picture shows the plastic gumpaste flower and leaf cutters as well as three filagree cutters and a number of shapes that I made from cookie cutter tin, all to create the shapes needed. The second picture is a number of the pieces cut from mexican paste. I let them dry approximately one hour to make them easier to apply to the buttercream.

The last picture is the finished cake at the reception. It featured chocolate cake with fresh raspberry compote, white cake with strawberry mousse and chocolate peanut butter cake with peanut butter mousse. The flowers are gumpaste white poppies with a black eye.

On a personal note: This reception was one of my top 5 favorites. I cannot express just how breath taking the room was. The flowers that filled this room were nothing short of amazing. The food was excellent and everyone truly enjoyed the day.

25 years ago that very first cake, made me realize my purpose, my joy, my passion to create. I left the work force and remolded my kitchen into an industrial kitchen (you will see parts of the kitchen in the background of other pictures).

This family has three daughters, the oldest daughter was married 2 years ago (I did her cake as well. ) The youngest daughter is in her Masters program. This wedding was the middle daughter.

I have done almost all of the birthday, graduation and special event cakes for this family. My art is a GIFT and I express my thanks by creating cakes.

I am truly thankful to my first customers.

Joe's Paw

This is the grooms cake from the above wedding cake. It features a pina colada cake with pineapple compote and toasted coconut.

The bride explains: "Now I am told that the way to tell a Clemson paw print from any other paw print is that the Clemson one has the little indent in the bottom right of the biggest part of the paw. SO... that would be something that would be important. I learned that early on in our relationship and was told to never forget it!"

I was very glad she pointed this out as I took the mark as a copier flaw, oops!! I hope we did the paw proud.

Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh. I made this little guy out of mexican paste and then the order was cancelled. He technically is not finished. I will add honey to his pot and a few bees. The cake design was to have Pooh leaning against a tree (the cake) eating honey. I will store him away for another time.

Buttercream Roses

Its graduation. A small celebration for a college graduate. 13x9 Almond cake with raspberry compote.

I recently had client who said "I didn't know you knew how to make flower in frosting". I had to giggle as every baker learns to make the buttercream flowers first. The gumpaste flowers are much more difficult to create and take years to perfect; therefore I thought I feature a cake with buttercream flowers

Pretty in Pink

18"- White cake/Raspberry compote filling. 14" - Red Velvet cake/cheesecake filling. 11" - White cake/ Bailey Irish Cream filling. 7" Atomic cake (a layer of banana cake with banana custard, a layer of white cake with fresh strawberry compote and a layer of chocolate cake with fudge. I call it atomic as this flavor will blow your mind ) This cake will serve 225 guests, and features buttercream filagree in pink and black, as well as gumpaste roses.

Texting

No the spelling is not wrong!!!

I met a group of five women several years ago when they were planning a bridal shower. They have all become repeat clients.

One of the ladies ordered a birthday cake for another and said the other women was always on her phone texting so could we write Happy Birthday Sue as you see pictured. They all had a good laugh, and a great evening out with Sue.

At the Movies

Several months ago I did a circus cake for this family and now another child was celebrating a birthday. It was being held at our local movie theatre. The cake is a 13x9 and the popcorn, movie reel, tickets and action board were all made of mexican paste. I airbrushed the edges for dramatic effect.

Petit Sweets

These little gems where for a 50 Birthday party. The client was throwing her own birthday celebration all around the theme of "Ding Dong this Witch is not DEAD". She requested sweets that party goers could grab and go (instead of the traditional piece of cake) So I made witches hats of mexican paste to set atop a mini dark chocolate cupcake filled with fudge. The hat was held on by green buttercream. The witches fingers are almond cookies with an almond fingernail. After the cookies were baked I used a very thin flesh colored almond sugar wash to represent the skin and a tint of red for the finger nail.
The spiders were sugar cookies with a black crystal sugar and a red chocolate diamond on their back.

I also had two other petit sweets (my computer deleted them as I tried to upload.. there was an error with the file???)

Well they were very cute if I say so myself. One was a cake ball shaped as the witches broom and the other was a mini cheesecake which featured a black sugarveil spider-web. All 250 mini treats were placed in a coffin at the party.