Book Club

Our book club meets from September through April.  I hosted our October meeting and of course Halloween was my theme.  The wine was an apple cider reduction with heavy spices and a dry wine (fill each glass with equal parts of both.  This is from the Food Network October Magazine)

I made a savory pumpkin dip (Food Network October Magazine)  served with blue tortilla chips. The sweet, was a  cupcake of cinnamon crunch  cake and a pumpkin buttercream,  the little skeleton was made from small pretzels dipped in white chocolate and hung on a lollipop stick to dry.  The head is half a large marshmallow with the face painted on.  

I used small plastic vampire teeth as a napkin ring.

My centerpiece is a small tree skeleton with sugar cookies hung on the branches.  The cookies are stamped with black food coloring.  (I did this a lot when my sons were small for all the holidays.  When I was a child my father use to make a jelly bean tree at Easter for me and my sisters.  Thanks for the concept Dad, the tradition cares on!)

Kaylee and Sean

The wedding budget must be considered when choosing a cake. A top of the line cake can run into the thousands of dollars.   Each bride has elements that are very important to her big day. For some is the over the top cake and dress for others its the band and food.  Whatever your decision, it is correct for your wedding.   

This cake is faux with one real tier for the cutting picture.  The second tier from the bottom is edible, it was a 13" Carrot cake with cream cheese filling, all the others are styrofoam (can you even tell).   All the tiers were buttercream coated and then wrapped in fondant to recreate birch wood.  The leaves were gumpaste. 

I love the heart, it sweetly represents the couples initials.

"Are you ready for some football"

Yes its football season in the USA and this bride and groom are serious fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  

The cake served 250 guest.  It consisted of an 18"Chocolate- peanut butter cake with peanut-butter mousse, a 14" Marble cake with buttercream filling, a 10" White cake with strawberry compote and a 6" Marble with peanut-butter mousse.  The cake was unique in that the tiers were alternating round and square shape.

The flowers were deep yellow and deep orange Gerber daisies as well as Alstromeria (didn't get a close picture of them)  Keeping in line with Steeler colors, the cake was white background buttercream with black piping and gold fondant ribbon at the base of each tier.  The reception room was full on Steeler Nation with a Terrible Towel at each place setting!

The couple also had requested sugar cookies helmets for their cookie table.

The NFL is having a bit of a rough patch in this early season with the replacement referees while the professional Referees are locked-out over contract issues, but this couple sure did bring the fun back on their special Day!!!

For the love of hunting

30th birthday milestone for Colt, an avid hunter.  

This is a half sheet cake with 1/2 White cake and strawberry filling and 1/2 Chocolate with fudge filling.  The frosting is buttercream and the top picture was hand-cut fondant appliqués for a three dimensional effect.  I did not get a picture of the the sides of the cake which were camouflage frosting images.

John and Joy's Wedding

The big day has arrived!!  

The cake was Red Velvet with Raspberry compote and Banana with Banana buttercream. 

The cake was covered in a pistachio green fondant with a brown tree growing up the front.  Crystals were added to give the design a little bling.  The blue birds represent the members of this new family. The lovely cake stand was purchased by the bride at Home Goods and she trimmed it with crystals. 

The overall design is a representation of the brides favorite designer, Vera Bradley.

(I apologize for the poor quality of the picture.  Again I forgot the camera so I took this with my phone and as the sun was shining brightly,  it washed-out the delicate colors.)  

Soccer

In the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of creating cakes for all the events building up to John and Joy's wedding.  This soccer cake was for the rehearsal dinner.  It was baked in the full size ball pan.  It is Hummingbird cake, a very dense banana cake with coconut, pineapple and pecans.  It was filled with Cinnamon buttercream and covered in fondant.   I scored the cake with a seam marker and painted the black diamonds on.  The grass is royal frosting done with the grass tip.

Ladies Golf

 Grove City Country Club hosts an annual Ladies Golf outing.  I have done event cakes for them 4 or 5 times.  They are 8" cakes the serve as a centerpieces at each of the luncheon tables.  

This year I choose argyle prints for the sides of the cake and each top was a different scene of golf,   from the driving range to golf shoes.   All the items are made of fondant or gumpaste. 

I understand the ladies really look forward to lunch and these cakes.  As all ten cakes were a different flavor, the ladies rome from table to table with their forks to sample the cake on their neighbors table.

Baby O'Hara

This was unique for a baby shower.  The parents decorated the new arrivals room in vintage trucks.  

The cake was a 15 x 17 sheet cake for 50 guest, half  Banana with Chocolate custard and half Almond with Raspberry compote.  

All the vintage trucks around the sides were printed on frosting photo paper.  The frosting was buttercream in a stucco pattern on the top.  I then airbrushed several layers of yellow and browns, while the color was wet, I used a wet paper towel to lay over the color and lift off some of the color off to give a vintage look.   The truck on the top o the cake was done in fondant and again airbrushed to give the antique look.

 On a personal note:  when I was a small girl my father had a truck just like this one.  We called her... Tin Lizzy.  My sisters and I had great fun riding in the back (it was allowed back then, does that mean I'm considered vintage now ;)

Elvis has entered the building!!!

ah Thank ya, Thank ya very much!!!

While a bride and her parents were looking over ideas for her wedding cake, the father asked if she would be willing to put Elvis on the top of her cake.  ...No... 

Well... the brides mom called a few weeks later and said her husband was retiring and she wanted to do the Elvis theme for his cake for his surprise celebration.

The bottom tier was Chocolate peanut butter cake with peanut butter mousse.  It was covered in buttercream and the palm trees and Vegas signs were fondant. 

The middle tier was marble cake with raspberry compote. On this tier I covered the board with fondant and airbrushed a roulette wheel. The numbers were cut out of white fondant.  The cake was covered in buttercream and the card suites were fondant.  

The top tier board was covered in a printed fondant to represent Elvis's scarf.  The cake was baked in the english pans (giving the curved top edge), it is covered in buttercream and is hand beaded.  The Elvis figure was sculpted from mexican paste (I love the curled lip) and the feathers behind him were hot-glued onto the base.  The dice  used as the separators were 5" blocks of styrofoam covered in fondant.

I finished the overall design with fondant money and poker chips.  

Bridal Shower 2

The cake is a 10" square serving 25 guest.  It was Raspberry cake with Raspberry Compote.  It is covered in sage green buttercream with the bridal silhouette in sage colored fondant. The roses in her hand are gumpaste and the veil is made of sugarveil.  The bright poppys' are made of gumpaste.  I really love this color combination.  Simply elegant.

Hot Stuff

A bride from last year requested a cake to look like a Tabasco bottle.  She said it was an inside joke.  

I made a cake pan out of a wine bottle by folding aluminum foil around the bottle.  The cake was Chocolate with Raspberry Compote.  It is covered in red fondant and the label was made with a food color printer.  The small chilies around the cake were also fondant.  

Story book baby shower

Story books have been a poplar theme for baby shower cakes the past few months.

After several discussions the book chosen for this shower "Where the Wild Things Are"  a classic children's book written by Maurice Sendak, where Max, a disobedient little boy is sent to bed without his supper.  He creates his own world in a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max their ruler. 

The client was holding the shower at a private boat club and wanted to incorporate a boat so I used the wild things image as the boat in this piece.

First I created the "wild thing" in Mexican paste.  I then rolled out the book cover and the page and let each dry for 48 hours.

I then airbrushed the top page a mixture of blue shades with an overlay of black for a nite-sky.  While this was drying I cut the planks for the boat and assembled then on the side of a strainer to give me a bough shape.  The stars and moon were very thin fondant and the strings holding them in the sky were painted on by hand.  

The heroin and waves were added last and again I airbrushed an overall light black for depth

The cake was Almond and Raspberry Compote baked in the large book pan.  The story was created in Mexican Paste so that it would be stronger than fondant but not as strong as gumpaste.  The pages on the side of the book are fondant as well as the book mark and the book cover under the cake.  I made the top so that the new mom could keep it if she wished.

Jean's retirement

This lovely lady  has recently retired.

The cake was two tiers of the petal shaped pans.  The 15" layer was Almond with Raspberry Compote and the 8" layer was Chocolate with Raspberry Compote.

The peony is pale pink with darker pink ribbons (all made out of gumpaste. )  The banner is fondant and I used dried sugarveil to texturize the edges.  Sugarveil was used to create the lace on the sides of each tier.  A simple shell border finished off the top and bottom edges.

Enjoy the sweet life Jean!!!

Bridal Shower #1

This brides mother has scheduled two bridal showers with the first being held for all the bridesmaids and friends.    

I used two heart shaped cakes.   One having the point cut off and placed at the point of the full heart.  I then cut off the top of the same cake to create the legs.  The "cut off legs" where then add to the top of the full heart to create the bust.  

The cake is Almond with Raspberry Compote.   A sage-green buttercream covered the cake with a poppy red color used as the trim.  The poppy flowers were made of gumpaste

The Best of Friends

A lovely women who has ordered a number of cakes from me made an appointment several months back to discuss a cake.

She told me of 4 other girlfriends from high school who take an annual trip together and that this year their 45 high school reunion was being celebrated and it was  her  turn to host the group and their husbands.  

She was very excited to have the ladies and remise about their trips.  So we decided to make a cake of suitcases.

As she wanted dessert for two days, we decided to make two suitcases stacked so that she could serve one and still have a nice designed cake for the next day.  

I asked for a list of places the ladies had visited on their trips and found each location chamber of commerce logo to create language tags.  I also made a mexican hat and hot-air ballon and the five ladies.  I added flowers from each of the locations to finish off the design.

Baby shower Nursery rhymes

This baby shower cake is baked in the large book pan.  

I scanned two nursery rhymes I found off the web for the pages and printed them on photo-frost paper.  The book binding is brown fondant and I used a decorators comb to create pages on the sides of the cake.  

Owen's 2nd Birthday

This is a 13x9x2 White and Chocolate cake with Raspberry Compote.  The overall design is a representation of the child's party paper plates.

First I frosted the cake in buttercream and then airbrushed the stripes which were from the edge of the plate.  

I baked sugar cookies in the shapes of the truck and then painted the trucks on rice paper to attach to the fresh frosted cookies.  

Each truck has cookie crumbs and chocolate candy rocks to create a work area.

The car carrier is on a stripe of black fondant with yellow stripes to represent a passing roadway to the worksite.

Bulldozer

Dump truck

Overall work location