Fantasy flowers

 

A fellow baker had a request for a 60's inspired baby shower cake.  A gentlemen ordered the cake with instructions for two tiers, "mod" flowers and colors of deep purple, teal and orange.

My friend bakes as a paying hobby and works a full time job as a Psychologist in a mental health facility.  She has been baking for clients since the mid 80's after taking a number of Wilton classes at a local craft store.  She comes to visit, ask questions about orders and learn whats new in the cake world.  I love having her as a friend.

As this was for a baby shower, she felt the finished cake would look nothing like a baby themed designed with the requests from the client, so I suggested putting baby items as the center of the mod flowers.

Each items was inserted on a wire and using a small daisy cutter to create the center.  I then used a large 5 petal cutter and thinned the edges with a ball tool to give them a ruffle.  The background of the finished cake was t o be deep purple and the mod flowers in teal were the main accent with the orange flowers as contrast.

Tina's 60th Birthday

This dear lady is a friend and her daughters' contacted me for a cake as her family was getting together for the celebration.  I "tried" to tell the girls that this idea may not be received as funny!  Well, all in good fun the women sent me a message and expressed how "yummy" the cake was.

I baked a 15 x 17 cake, 1/2 turtle and 1/2 white.  I carved the shape and covered the cake in fondant.  Using the JEM alphabet cutters I embossed the letters in the fondant before it crusted over.  I also used the Wilton baroque molds for the ornamentation at the top and bottom of the head-stone.  I then airbrushed the entire design with a dark gray color to "age" the fondant.  Using royal frosting, vines and flowers were added to the sides and message.

Happy Birthday Lady!

Stacey

This is a 13x9 sheet cake, 1/2 white cake with strawberry compote and 1/2 chocolate with fudge.  

The base buttercream is airbrushed with clouds and grass.  I outlined a vague shape for the horse.  

Using a very soft buttercream I piped the head in first and with a hot plate knife created the detail.  I then piped in the hind leg, and again, used a hot knife.  I followed with the mid section, then the neck and front legs.  The tail and mane where piped on and a comb tool used to make long strands of hair.  The horse was finished by airbrushing the detail.  The eye and nose where done in piping gel.

A reverse shell boarder was added and a grass tip was used to give the ground movement with very small deep-purple flowers (made of gumpaste) finished off the design.    

Summer time cookies

Sugar cookie order for office staff as school resumes.  

Hawaiian shirt and Solstice sun

Surfboards

 I just love the sunglasses

Cool lobster!

Mini polk-a-dot bikini

Pink Rose

 Love can be found at any age!  This couple are in their 80's and the only request the bride had was Pink Roses.

The cake was to serve 25 friends of the couple.  

The base tier was Strawberry cake with Strawberry cream filling, the top tier was White cake with coconut filling. 

I first frosted the cake in buttercream and then took stripes of fondant and wrapped it in layers starting at the bottom of each tier and working up.  I chose to add buttons up the seam to give a clean edge to the design.

This rose was the size of a dessert plate with many layers of petals.  I used an apple shipping liner for support while the flower dried (courtesy of Wegmans supermarket.)  

Alex's Graduation

Alex played basketball for Mercyhurst Prep so his grandmother requested a cake to represent his high school career.  The jersey was cut from a 17x22 Chocolate cake with Vanilla Custard filling. It is covered in a deep green fondant and trimmed in white.  The basket ball is half of the ball pan with the lettering and emblem hand painted on.

Alex will be attending Daemen College in the fall for pre-med. Therefore, the second sheet cake was cut from a White cake with Chocolate Custard to represent a lab coat. Again it is covered in fondant with fondant embellishments.

Congratulations Alex!

Tom and Barb's 50 Anniversary

50 YEARS

The cake features a 10' Chocolate cake with Fudge filling and a 7" White cake with Raspberry compote.   The cake is frosted with Buttercream.  

On the base cake, is a scallop cut fondant ribbon painted with Gold Luster Dust and trimmed out with buttercream shells tip.  The top tier is decorated with piped cornelli lace.  

The arches are made of fondant painted gold and the top border is piped shell. 

The roses were made of white gumpaste and dusted with gold.

Dad's Dog Food

Jim retired as the Pilot of Dad's Dog Food.  His cake is White with Strawberry Compote.  A week in advance of the celebration I cut and dried the plane wings and tale of mexican paste.  The logo is from the internet and printed as an edible image.  The cake is covered in fondant.

Ireland's First Birthday

That all important FIRST birthday....Little Ireland is the daughter of a couple who's wedding cake can be seen at Heidi in August 2011 of this blog.

 Ireland's cake consists of two tiers, the bottom is Chocolate Peanut Butter cake with Peanut Butter mousse and the top tier is Italian Cream cake with Raspberry Compote.  It is covered in Buttercream and the embellishments are fondant.

This is her little "smash cake"  It is a 3" white cake.

Ashley and Tony

Several weeks in prior to the wedding date, I started the flowers for this cake. 

 This is a filler flower (these are not always based on a real flower, for this cake, it allows the brides apple green color to be incorporated into the finished bouquet)

                 Seven of the flowers are wired together to create a cluster once they have dried. Fourteen groups were needed.

                          

  

These are the steps to make baby's breath.  The JEM cutter cuts 6 blooms at once.  I then insert one stamen into the center of each bloom and then tape the 6 blooms together on a 26 gauge wire.

I chose to make the centers for the white Peonies.  First, white silk thread wrapped around my fingers 50-60 times.  I then attach a 26 gauge wire with floral tape.  Then I dampen the ends of the silk thread with gum glue and insert it into a dish of sugar tex to create pollen.  If you do not have access to sugar tex you may also create this by using grits.

Once the centers have dried overnight you are ready to attach the first row of petals.  I cut the petal from gumpaste and using the ball tool create a cup shape with the clay and attached 5 of them to the center.  Again allow this to dry several hours before adding the next row of petals.   I generally dry the first two rows of petals 24 hours each to insure that it has good support.

This is the flower spray being put togethers (I am using a cake pan the size of the tier for measurement).

The whole cake was White cake with Raspberry Compote.  It was frosted in buttercream with fondant ribbons at the base of each tier.  The filigree was done in a free-hand style of  black buttercream.

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.