Baseball Wedding

I am a sole proprietor,... but sometimes it take a village to bring a concept to fruition and this was one of those cakes. 

My client is the professional photographer for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Dave was getting married to Jackie.  When they came in for a consult, Dave was giving me elements of the reception and said he had a man making baseball roses.  This gentlemen removes the cover of the ball and cuts the leather into petals to make roses.  Jackie wanted the cake to be an aqua blue/turquoise color with white filagree.  I took a few days and drew up a sketch of the cake I had in mind.  Dave loved the drawing, so I gave him a copy and I started planning.

First I ordered six 20" ball bats.  I only needed four, but just incase I cut wrong,  two extra where ordered.

First my husband cut the bats above the blue band.  He also cut the cake boards needed from 1/4" sheet of plywood.  The bats are the "legs" or separators of the cake stand, the cake plates were the "boards".
The bats then needed to be drilling 1-1/4" into the center so that I could use a dowel to hold the bat and board together.  This task was an issue as the drill press we have was not high enough to get the bats under the bit.   I took the bats to Scott, the owner of a tool and die shop, and had them drilled.

       

Everything came together nicely.  The "boards" were then covered with a small baseball print material and then a plastic doily was cut to cover the material so that the frosting would not touch the material.

The Baseball Roses were the next step in this cake.  As I needed these roses to be a larger size than normal, I used a 1/4" styrofoam egg as the center.  I also used a large rose gumpaste petal cutter.

I found this wonderful tool at a local craft store.  It is for marking clay.  The kit contained a tool handle and three impression wheels.

Sugar flowers take many hours to create and this tool was a true time saver.  I took a small piece of craft foam and painted it with the red gel color, rolled the wheel through the color and then onto the gumpaste petal.

The centers were dried for a few days so that the large additional petals would be well supported when the rest of the flower was constructed.

I was so pleased with the final flowers.

A week or so before the wedding, Dave requested an additional sheet cake.  He wanted to feature a hand carved statue of Felix the Cat.  Dave also wanted the cake to be decorated like a quilt, as the bride  has a shop that does alternation and quilting.  A few days later Dave again contacts me and inquired as to whether or not it was possible for the sheet cake to have a lace train.  LACE..... oh that is definitely possible I said and with that I was ready to put all these element together for the final presentation.

The wedding cake was 16", 10" and 7" all Almond cake with Raspberry compote.  It was decorated in teal buttercream and pipped with with a white buttercream filagree using a No. 3 round tip.  

Look closely at the middle tier.  Dave brought three little statues of the Pittsburgh Pirates Mascot.

The Home plate was made of fondant and painted with the couples names

The very top of the cake featured a "Baseball" which was baked in the half ball muffin pan.  The ball was filled and then coated with a white whipped chocolate and then fondant.  The ball stitches where hand painted as they needed to be larger than my new tool would print.

I always make additional sugar flowers as I sometimes break them in the final process.  In this case, I used the extra to add to the tablescape.  

The lace is Sugarveil and I also added a train to the "bride" of the statue.   This sheet cake was half white cake with white chocolate mousse and half chocolate cake with chocolate mousse.  Too Cute!!

CrabFest 2015

A lovely women entertains every year with CRAB as the theme.  I'm not sure how long 

she has been hosting the annual event, as I have been doing the desserts for the past four years.

In the past three years,  she has had a number of sweets, all individual servings so that the guests could eat there or take a "sweet" home.  This year was the same, yet a little different.   CUPCAKES.... only.... she wanted them to be put into a large CRAB shape.

The hostess also requested candy seaweek, ocean waves, sand and seashells.  I cut fondant into strips and dried them on the backs of cardboard egg crates.  To finish them I airbrushed in shades of greens and blues.

My shell molds where purchased from First Impressions and are molded in fondant as well. I made them about a week prior to the party so they would dry and handle easily.

The CRAB was sketched on several pieces of newspaper that were taped together.  Once I was pleased with the drawing I then transferred the newspaper pieces to cardboard.

Claws

Crab body.

Using several layers of aluminum foil I shaped the foil around the cardboard to create a "pan".  I then put the cupcake papers in the pans.

 

The pans where then ready for cake batter. 

 

This allows the cupcakes to mold into the shape needed for the final design. Your guest simply pull the cupcake paper at the bottom and the cupcake breaks free of the design.

On site the table was covered with a deep blue tablecloth and skirt, as well as a clear plastic top runner so that none of the elements would damage the cloth.  I added a band of light blue foil under the plastic at one end as it was to be the "ocean".

I put the four sections of the Crab body together.  They were Chocolate cake with fudge filling, Coconut cake with cherry filling, Pineapple cake with pineapple filling and Lemon cake with lemon curd.

Here he is frosted in red buttercream and I am ready to airbrush in his detail.  The over all design contains 175 cupcakes.

This is the finished display.  The 30 on the sides was in celebration of her sons 30 birthday.

From the back, the detail is much more apparent in this picture as the sunlight was in front.  Table was carried out to its own tent for presentation.

Two Peas in a Pod

A couple expecting their first child...Twin Girls!!!

60 guest celebrated these little girls.  12" white cake and a 7" chocolate cake both with Raspberry compote filling.  The cakes were covered in mint green fondant and the "girls" are two peas in a pod.  Little white sweet pea flowers and a pink bow finished off the design.

The girls...

I too have twins (identical boys)..I know the joy and struggle that go along with raising multiples.  At the time of this post the girls have arrived 6 weeks early and after a short stay in the hospital NICU they are now home.  Emma and Emelia are BEAUTIFUL little peanuts, 4 pounds and growing.  

  Congratulations Bri and Matt!!! 

Football

OH Yes its Training Season....

Fans are avid about their sports teams.  

This is a cake for a group of friends who celebrate the start of the new season.

Its a 10" Marble cake with Chocolate custard.  Black and Gold buttercream on the sides.  The top is a coloring page that the Steelers put on the internet for kids.  I simply printed it with the Icing Image print system and airbrushed in the colors.

Good Luck Sports Fans...whatever your team may be!

Anima Goth

Katrina is the 18 year old granddaughter of a customer from many years ago.  Her Birthday cake was baked in the large book pan, one half was White cake with buttercream filling the other half was Chocolate cake with fudge filling.

The book binder is black fondant which I cut using the pan for size, before the cake was baked.  This allowed the binding to dry out.  Fondant will dry, but is very fragile as it does not have the elements of gumpaste or pastillage that make the clay hard. 

I first frosted the book cake with buttercream and then I placed it on the fondant binding so that the edges were clean and no frosting got on the binding.  Using a comb tool, comb the outer edges to create pages.  The loose leaf pages were done on wafer paper, hand painted and dampened to stick together.

Ivy

                                    


Ivy adds a very nice element to a sugar flower bouquet.  The green makes the flower colors pop, and the vines add a draping extension to the finished bouquet.

Ivy cutters can be purchased from the web and come in different shapes which also allow for a varied texture in your finished bouquet.  As natural ivy grows in a variety of green colors, you really can't make a mistake when dusting or painting.

Today I am working on a small english (solid green) spring ivy and a painted variegated ivy.   Simply cut your ivy from rolled gumapste, insert a 32 gauge wire and allow it to dry.  Dust or paint the leaf and tape five leaves together in a straight line.  This way they are easy to store for future use.  When needed gently pull the leave out to the left and right and bend the main wire down the middle to give a natural shape.  The long extended end of wire can now be taped into the bouquet.

     

The painted ivy gives a nice deep color with a variegated leaf.  When both types of ivy are present in a sugar bouquet.

CASH Baseball

A sixteenth birthday!!!

The baseball cap was baked in half a ball pan.  

Its covered in grey fondant which was scored with a straight line, then I used a rolling dot wheel to create the stitching on the cap and bill (which is just a piece of fondant).  The C is fondant and the Eagle was printed on icing images using iprint (I scanned the real caps embroidered Eagle).

  

The jersey was baked in a 15"x 17 "sheet pan.  Both cakes were French Vanilla with vanilla custard filling.

I cut a slight indent in the sides of the shirt and took the extra cake to make the sleves.  I hallowed out the neck a bit to create the inside collar.  

The neck is the first piece of fondant applied and cut to fit.  Next the entire surface is covered in black fondant then the layering of elements completes the design.

Happy Birthday Cole

Second Marriage

A dear friend ordered this cake for her daughter.

Hunter green and shades of violet were the colors of the day.  The cake was for 10 guest.  It was an 8" White cake and seedless Raspberry compote.  Frosted in buttercream.  Shell boarders and swags.  The flowers were done with a small rose tip and string piping finished off the top edge.

The top surface was done in cornelli lace with a No.2 round tip.

Margaret

Margaret finished her studies in Theatre Arts and the family was celebrating!!

12 servings of Pina Colada cake with pineapple-coconut filling.  The 8" cake was covered in buttercream and airbrushed green, as her class colors were white and green.  The confetti was the party theme and are made of fondant.  A large star tip was used to pipe the shell boarder at the base and top edge.

Reunion Picnic Basket

This picnic basket is French vanilla cake and fresh Strawberry filling.  The basket was baked in a 10" oval pan and is frosted in buttercream that was piped on using the #48 Marpol Korean tip.  The borders are done with a medium size star tip.  

The lid, the closures, the handles and the checker tablecloth are done in fondant.  The letting is done with the Funky Alphabet. 

Relief Flowers

Silicon flower molds are sold by many vendors.   These were purchased from Esty vendors.  

They are easy to use and make a great, quick flower for your cakes.  You simple work a ball of fondant or gumpaste between your fingers until it is nicely pliable and press it into the mold, making sure all corners are filled with the medium.

Use a plate knife gently pressed against the mold to clean off any additional medium.  You will now need to place the filled mold into the refrigerator for approximately five minutes.  Remove the mold from the refrigerator and gently pull the medium while bending the edge of the mold.  At this point I leave them to dry.  

  

I general mold in white or off white so that I can then color the shade I need for the cake I need to complete.  Coloring can be accomplished with petal or luster dust.   You can paint with gel color and lemon extract (these are painted with a non-toxic dust as they will be used on a display cookies.)