Armadillo Groom's Cake

Now I must have seen Steel Magnolias at least a dozen times, but I have never been asked to do an armadillo cake... until now!

I carved the cake and covered it with fondant, and used my clay tools to make the lines and the armadillo plates.  Then I used oval cutters to make the scales.  I dry brushed the whole thing with dove gray petal dust to give it a more natural look.

When we delivered this to the Grand View Hotel, we ran into the bride and groom and they were both super psyched about their cute little armadillo cake.

Thanks for stopping by and everyone have an excellent week!!

UGA Sanford Stadium

I always love a good challenge, especially when it comes to cakes.  When I had clients ask for a quasi-replica of UGA's Sanford Stadium, I knew that I had my work cut out for me.  I visited all my favorite web sites and really couldn't find any good blueprints of the stadium, only seating charts (which were still helpful).  Finally I ordered a scale model off the Internet.  I used the model to take measurements and transfer them on to graph paper.  Then I used the graph paper to make my full-size patterns.

I know it's hard to tell, but this cake is actually mostly cake.  There are a few rice crispy treats, and it has its fair share of modeling chocolate, fondant, and edible images, but 95% is just pure delicious cake.

I delivered this groom's cake to the Dalton Golf and Country Club.  None of the guests were there yet, but I think all of the staff came out and took pictures with their phones.

Rock City Daisy Wedding Cake

This little buttercream number took a drive up Lookout Mountain recently and settled in at the Rock City Pavilion.  It was out first trip there and it is a very nice venue.  Cheryl Hyland with Blissful Moments was the wedding coordinator and she had everything setup perfectly when we arrived.  That was a very good thing - it was hot as blazes and it was an outdoor wedding so we showed up moments before the guests arrived.

With the exception of quite a bit of piping, this was a simple but elegant wedding cake.  The florist left some Gerber daisies for me to place on the cake.  Once I had them on there, I thought that little splash of color really made the cake pop!

Everyone have a great week now, OK?  Let's meet back here on Friday for another installment!!

Cutout Panel Wedding Cake

Happy Friday!  For the longest time I have had this cake in my "inspiration book", and I finally had a bride that picked it as her wedding cake.

Once she had picked it, then came the task of figuring out how to do it.  Well, I finally decided to use modeling chocolate panels, and I was very pleased with the results.  One tip:  initially cut the panels larger than you need - no matter how hard you try, cake will never be truly square.

I think this was also the first cake where I used smaller separators for the tiers.  I used styrofoam, coated with piping gel and covered in the same modeling chocolate I used for the panels,

Lastly, for the blue behind the cut-outs, I took a sheet of edible image paper, colored it with blue luster dusts and stuck it to the back side of the panel.  It kept me from making a big batch of blue icing and it kept icing from coming through the cutout, keeping that nice clean design the bride was looking for.

Peanut Butter Paradise

This weekend we were tasked to make a HUGE package of Reese's Peanut Butter Butter Cups.  And when I say huge, I mean almost 2 feet long!  Since it was a Reese's Cup cake, it only makes sense that it was chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, right?

Nothing terribly fancy going on here - the sides of the package were made from rice crispy treats and the whole thing was covered in fondant.  The one cool thing we did on this cake was to use our Cricut Cake to cut out the logo.  Chad took the logo and somehow got into this new software we bought (called Sure Cuts a Lot) and used it to cut the logo out of modeling chocolate.  It was very cool, and if we ever do another one, we can use the same file to make it as large or small as we need!

Once it was finished I had some extra space left on my cake board so I covered most of the exposed areas of the board with ganache and then topped it with quartered peanut butter cups and Reese's Pieces!  Peanut Butter Paradise!!!

Indian Sari Wedding Cake

A couple of weekends ago I did a wedding at the Dalton Trade Center for a wonderful couple.  The bride brought in a fabric swatch from her sari and wanted it represented as a major design element of her cake.

It was a fairly complicated design (see the gold diamond patterns) so we accomplished this by taking a picture of the fabric swatch and tracing the image on tracing paper with an ultra-fine Sharpie.  I then colored in the tracing with a thicker Sharpie and scanned it on the computer.  My hubby worked his computer magic and took the black and white image and made it a faint yellow.  We then printed these patterns out on edible image paper.  After that, I cut out each diamond and hand painted over the yellow with gold luster dust.  Now normally I mix my dusts with Pure Grain Alcohol (PGA) but in this instance I needed some more working time so I used vodka instead.

Wow!  So much going on!!  And I haven't even got to the isomalt sugar gems we made for the centers!  Oh well, this week's cakes aren't going to finish themselves, so that may have to be another story for another time!  Thanks for stopping by!

Grooms, Start Your Engines!

We live in the South, and people here really love their NASCAR racing, but it's odd that until now, I have never been asked to do a NASCAR groom's cake.

This groom is a big Jeff Gordon fan, and wanted his signature "24" number to adorn the top of his groom's cake.  We printed the checkered flags out on card stock, and cut the numbers out of black and yellow modeling chocolate.

To get a little more chocolate on the cake, the groom opted for the "chocolate drippy" look and a few tuxedo and chocolate-covered strawberries.

As we were setting up the cake, a lady approached us and was telling us what a huge Jeff Gordon fan the groom was.  So big, in fact that the couple invited Jeff Gordon to their wedding!  She said that Jeff had declined their invitation, but did send the couple a wedding present... how cool is that?

Auburn Helmet Cake

This is not the first helmet cake I have done, but it was the first with a free standing face guard.  The couple specifically asked for it.  I accomplished the task by rolling out gumpaste logs and inserting wire through them before they dried.  They did get a little more wrinkly than I would have liked, but overall it turned out well.

Carving this one took me forever; that stack of cakes just DID NOT want to become a helmet!  Once I had it in the shape I wanted, I carved a small section of the inside of the helmet out; just enough for me to cover with black fondant and it still be inset.  I thought it add a lot to the realism of the cake.

Overall, I thought it turned out very good!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!!

Simply Elegant Wedding Cake

I think this wedding cake is a perfect example of how a cake that isn't too technically difficult can still be beautiful and elegant.

Now, don't get me wrong, I spent a lot of time getting that buttercream as smooth as glass, and placing all of those dragees on the cake didn't happen by itself.  But other than that, it's just some simple ribbon that bride brought to me and a plastic monogram that they bought.

I will give you my secret tips regarding ribbon and those pre-purchased monogram toppers though, but you can't tell anyone, OK?  LOL!!

When I use "real" ribbon on a cake, I always make 2 (or sometimes 3) passes around the cake with it.  A single layer of ribbon will begin to show the buttercream through it and look messy or even greasy.  The second layer of ribbon makes all the difference!

And for those monograms, the little legs they provide for you to stick in the cake are never long enough for me, especially if you are sticking them into a small floral bouquet sitting on top of the cake.  So in my traveling cake kit I keep skewers and floral tape so that I can extend them out enough to suit me.