Georgia Bulldogs Groom's Cake

Guys like sports, so it goes without saying that I do a lot of sports team cakes for my grooms.  And since I do a lot of wedding cakes in Georgia, Georgia Bulldog cakes are all the rage!  And since every couple has different needs, I try to offer something that can fit any couple's wedding budget.

This oval cake is a great option.  Simple buttercream cake with fondant ribbon edge on top and bottom and a "G" topper cut from black modeling chocolate.  Even a simple design can make a big impact!

Thanks for stopping by and check back in on Tuesday to see who won the Money Cake System Giveaway!  You still have until Friday 5:00pm EST to register!

Going Green with Wedding Cakes

In blog posts past, I have written about how much fresh flowers can affect the final vision of the cake.  So I decided to do a little "before and after" shot to show you what a huge impact they can have.  This could also serve as a example of how proper lighting can affect your pictures, but I digress (Grrrrr....).

The florals for this cake were provided by Helen Humphrey from Humphrey's Flowers.  She made the topper using two different types of orchids and fiddlehead ferns, which I just adore.  To put the fiddleheads in the cake, I simply snipped the ends and inserted a toothpick and then inserted the toothpick into the cake.

Our cranberry splash of color is just satin ribbon.  Remember my ribbon tip: wrap ribbon around a buttercream cake twice and it will keep the buttercream from seeping through and making the ribbon look greasy.

Swirly Sweet Sixteen Cake

I made this cake for a sweet sixteen party in Dalton, GA.  I have done this birthday girl's cakes now for several years.  Her Mom gets a local artist, Paula Gregg, to make a topper for the cake.

I then get to make a cake to accompany the cake!  It's always a fun challenge to create something that complements her artwork.

I took a picture at the venue with the topper installed, but the picture came out completely blurry :(

Have a great weekend and don't forget to register for the Money Cake giveaway.

Notre Dame Groom's Cake

 

This past weekend, I delivered this groom's cake to The Chattanoogan Hotel.  This is the mascot of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish.  I don't know if this fella has a name, but he's far too cute to be mean, right?

I made the logo by taking a graphic from the web and converting to a Cricut Cut file using my Sure Cuts a Lot software.  I broke the logo into 4 parts: navy, yellow, green, and white.  For the navy layers, I cut the entire image, one big blue Irishman (about a foot high).  Then each of the colors got cut and placed on top of the navy layer, just  like a great big jigsaw puzzle.  It made it look like the navy was outlining all the other pieces.

This was by far my largest and most elaborate Cricut project to date.  If you're attempting something like this, my advise is to put all the pieces together and get them just like you want them and then go back and "glue" them down with piping gel or tylose.

Peacock Feathers Wedding

Now that's what I call a cake!  This 5-tiered tower of butter cream went to the beautiful Read House in Chattanooga, TN.  The bride wanted to go for a "very natural, but fancy" look.

We achieved this look by using green gumpaste orchids, natural river birch branches, and real peacock feathers that the bride had brought in from India!

And the color on the cake?  That's espresso flavored buttercream - SO yummy!  And I finished the cake with some dark brown ribbon to accentuate that coffee colored buttercream!

Have a great weekend and don't forget to sign up for our Money Cake giveaway (previous post)!!

Product Review & Giveaway - The Money Cake System

Too many months ago, I had the good fortune of meeting Ellie Gallegos-Lee via e-mail.  She is the owner and creator of the Money Cake system.  I had initially asked to use one of her images on one of my postings for The Pink Book.  She was so nice and we exchanged several e-mails which resulted in her sending me one of her Money Cake systems absolutely free.  I felt honored, and I told her I would review her product and blog about it so all you decorators would know more about her product.  Again, that was too many months ago.  2011, however, is a new year!

IF you have ever wanted to surprise someone by hiding something, like money, inside a cake, then the Money Cake is the product for you.  At its simplest, The Money Cake consists of an 11.5" plastic cake stand with a hollow base, and a "feeder" tube with a roll of plastic sheeting to deliver the surprise.

The plastic sheeting makes it easy to insert dollar bills and  there are several different sizes of spouts (1.5, 2.5, and 3 inches).  Just set your cake on the cake plate and use a knife to clear out the hole for the feeding spout.  Insert the proper sized spout into the cake from the bottom of the cake plate and feed the "goodie" sheet up through the cake once it has been iced and decorated.

I don't do so many birthday cakes anymore, and when I do, they're generally larger (2 tiers or more) so I have not found an occasion to use The Money Cake.  I do like the design of the stand, it appears to be made very solidly and is quite stylish.  My cake layers are larger than the average layer (around 5 inches) and this is the only problem I can find with the Money Cake - it just wouldn't work on my cakes without me doing some reworking of the layers.

And now for the good part! I am going to pass on the Money Cake system to one of my readers!  Leave a comment on this post stating how you could use this system and a way to contact you.  One entry per person, and entries will be accepted from now until Friday, January 28th at 5:00pm EST.  From all entries a winner will be selected randomly.  Good Luck!

UPDATE: This Giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to Alev on winning the Money Cake!

Eating Lite

Alcohol is not sounding very good for some people after New Year's Eve, but cake in the shape of alcohol, YUM!  I could lie and tell you that it's supposed to look like one of those new single serve soda cans, but honestly I just made the cake too chubby.  I was focused on how many I needed to feed and not the proportions (duh!)

For you guys looking to do cakes professionally, please know now that this is a very hard thing to balance.  You can't make a 3-D carved helmet cake to feed 10 people and you have to learn to tell people the facts. We don't have a shrink ray (maybe next Christmas)!  I used 5 8" round cake layers for this cake.  The blue is all buttercream as are the bubbles.  The spilled  beer is piping gel with a little copper color.

The logo was an edible image that I found, transferred into PowerPoint and enlarged it to the size I needed. The birthday letters, plaque the image is mounted on and lid are all Fondarific.  Honestly, this was a pretty easy cake and I don't say that much, so go get to making one!

Have a great weekend!

Girly Circus Birthday Cake

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm mostly doing wedding cakes these days.  So when I get  to make a nice sized birthday cake, I seem to lose my mind! Especially when I have extra time.  This mom has being getting all of her kids birthday cakes from us for a few years now.  Those loyal customers are the ones the you want to do EXTRA for!

I was told to make a circus themed cake.  I knew it was for a girl, so I wanted to soften it a little with the pink tent and lighter blue (instead of primary colors).  I looked at some invitations on Etsy.com for inspiration.  The bottom two tiers are buttercream with fondant accents.  The tent is all fondant.  I made the roof out of cereal treats.  The the popcorn was piped with a #12 tip and dusted with yellow petal dust (flick it off of a paint brush).  The jelly beans and lollies are made of fondant with tylose powder.

If I had another day I wanted to do a circus lion, seal, clowns, etc....I left myself plenty of room on the cake board and yellow tier, but no extra time.  It's sad when you can't do all that you want, but the mommy only paid for one tier so I shouldn't feel bad.