Sunflower 2

A more life-like Sunflower requires several size petal cutter.  The large six star cutter is manufactured, the three copper cutters I made.  The silicone veiner was purchased on line.

You will need a lot of these petals as the break easily when attaching to the center.   I cut and vein each petal and dry it on foam to give each a slight curve.

Let the petals dry overnight.

In this picture, the flower was dried several hours so that I could show you, I took a small ball of yellow paste and placed it in the center of the Cel-shape cup and stuck the petal points into the soft paste.

This is the top view of the first row of petals.

The center of this sunflower was done freehand.  Allow the rows of petals (as many as you would like for a fully open bloom) to completely dry.  Make a good size ball of brown gumpaste (very soft) and GENTLY push it in the center of the petals.  To create the texture I used my very first gumpaste tool, it called a Kemper Tool, and you basically stipple the brown paste just as you would when stenciling with paint.  This technique allows the center to be as large as you would like. 

These sunflowers are stored at this point for a May 2014 wedding cake.  I will add the final dusting of color at that time.

Sunflowers 1

 

This sunflower version is more of an artistic flower.  Rolled out yellow paste and cut it with a small leaf cutter.  I thinned the edges with a large ball tool.

 Using the large Cel-stick, I rolled one petal at a time around the pointed end.

I made approximately 15 petals for the first layer.  Then 12 petals for the inner layer.  The center was made by using a mold which can be purchased from Scott Clark Wolley.  The center is made in advance and dried on a wire.

At this stage the flower was dried overnight.  

This is a great close up of the detail of the center. I dust the insides of each petal with a darker yellow to give definition.  

 Use a large daisy cutter to make the calyx.

Carnation

Carnations make a great filler flower for wedding sprays.  I usually make them in white so that I can color them as needed.  First roll out the gumpaste and cut with Wilton's carnation cutter.  

I use a Cel-mat and the small Cel-stick to ruffle the edges.  This is done by taking the round end of the stick and pulling the paste to the outer edge.  Notice in the above picture that a pre-preped bud is used to insert into the petal. 

You simply pull the gumpaste ruffle up around the center.  With one row of petals on the pre-preped bud, I allow this to dry overnight.  

Depending on the size needed will determine the number of ruffle layers you will need to attach.  Once the first row of petals has dried overnight, you will be able to add all the additional petal layers making the flower as large as you would like (I sometimes use an egg carton which I cut into cups as a final support, I then allow the finished flower to dry several days)  

When the flowers are needed I can color them by airbrush or petal dust. 

Browning Camo

  The first cake of the new year was a Browning Camo theme for a 16th birthday.  The client sent me several pictures of cakes in this theme as I was unfamiliar with the term. 

A few days before the pick up date, I rolled out black gumpaste and cut the browning pattern for the top of the cake, allowing it to dry solid.  (I did not get a picture, grrr)  

Several hours before pick up, I colored about 8 oz. of fondant in several colors of green and brown to create the camo pattern.  I pinched off small pieces of fondant and began by putting the pieces in a circle on The Mat.

This is the final rollout.  I was very pleased with the pattern!

This fondant was for the bottom tier of the cake.  The top tier was done in pink fondant.  As Kendra is celebrating her 16 birthday, her name was cut in pink fondant from the funky letter cutters and the 16 was hand cut as my number cutters were not large enough.  Fondant balls were used around at the base of both tiers.

the UGLY Christmas sweater

Just for fun I made a few Ugly Christmas sweaters for the family cookie boxes this year. What a big hit they were!  The frosting is cookie frosting which allows for multi colors to be added together without bleeding into one another.

At the top of the pan I have taken the round cookies and made sweater prints on some and wreaths on others.  

Snowflake cookies

This was an exciting cookie season!! This order was for a company which sends a sweet treat to their clients each Christmas, thanking that client for a year of working together.  

The theme was snowflakes.  

First I cut all the snowflakes from blue fondant and allowed them to air dry for several day.  

I  decided to use a round cookie cutter instead of the snowflake cutter to give a larger surface of cookie which also allowed the snowflake to be the focal point.  The company name was printed on icing images and cut to fit the center of each snowflake.  

The cookies were frosted in cookie icing and while still wet the logo and snowflake were place on.

I then stacked to trays, allowing the cookies to dry.  

This ordered required 1, 086 cookies to  be baked and decorated.  (all the shipping boxes are stacked in the corner of the picture)

 Six cookies were placed into a plastic bag and tied with ribbon.  

They were then packed into boxes which were filled with a white and silver tissue paper (the blue, white and silver are company colors) to avoid damage during shipping.  Each box was addressed and shipped.  The whole process took three, fifteen hour days to complete.  

Gingerbread Houses

Each year I would bake a gingerbread house and fill two pastry bags with royal frosting. I would set our twins sons at the table with the house, candies, and the frosting and let them construct the masterpiece of the season, while I wrapped gifts.  

While they were in college I had stopped making the annual gingerbread house.  Then about 4 years ago they asked why I had not made any gingerbread with the holiday cookies.  I figured they had just plain lost interest... NOT SO,  I was told and so the tradition is once again an annual event. 

Our sons are married with families of their own, so now we get together one evening during the Christmas season and have a competition...they even try to sabotage the others house.  We have tons of laughter and their children love helping place all the candies in place.   

This is our son Anthony and his wife and daughter.

This is Randy with his wife and three children.  We met at Randy's house and the competition was on!!!

Close to finish!

 This year I a made a few miniature gingerbread houses.  This cutter can be purchase at Fancy Flours.  They hang on the side of your mug!  

                                                 

                  I love coffee and my son Anthony gave me this BIG mug a few years ago.

                                                         HOHOHO, Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Cookies

Cookie cutters are so much fun to work with.  This is an ornament cookie cutter that I decorated in a winter theme with holiday faces.  

The Sugar Plum Fairies 

These reminded me of Santa ornament I saw while attending the Weihnachtsmarkt in Koln, Germany, its an annual Christmas festival.

Scottie Dogs

Penguins (fancy wafer paper coats)

The same ornament cutter as above decorated with fondant sugar flowers in relief.

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..