Rose Stencil Wedding Cake

This weekend we delivered another wedding cake to The Grandview on Lookout Mountain.  And this wedding cake was all about roses.  It's hard to tell in this photo (I have a better picture below), but I used my rose petal stencil on the sides of this cake.  And then each tier had a layer of roses in between with a nice little bouquet on top.  It seems like most of the cakes I take to the Grandview are all cakes I have to put together at the venue!

I'm not sure how other decorators carry cakes that have to be assembled at the venue, but it has always been a problem for me.  I decorate the cakes on the column plates, but I'm always a little afraid of traveling with them on these plates.  The day before the delivery it came to me!  I could just put the separator plates on a styrofoam dummy and carry it that way.

As you can see above, I used an extra plate to make the indentations on my foam dummy. I actually had to use a small knife to dig out some of the extra foam, but I still wanted the separator plate to fit tightly.  Then I just sat my cake into the foam block and popped it into a bakery box.  It was super stable and traveled very well.  If you click on the picture you can also see the detail on the rose stencil.

Diamond Buttercream Quilting Tutorial

Back in April when I Chaddy and I took the day to tape our Smooth Buttercream on Square Cakes Tutorial, we finished quicker than we expected.  There we had this perfectly square cake, and I made it just for the video, so I didn't have anything to do with it.  We had all the equipment out, so I started thinking of what else we could film.  By the way, it's hard for me to use the word "film" in reference to my videos.  It sounds SO "professional" and my videos are SO not!  Anyhoo, I remembered some people asking me about doing a quilting effect on buttercream and thought I could show that pretty easily.

This time, we tried a new vantage point with the camera that we liked that we referred to as the "Over the Shoulder Cam:"  It allowed to me to show the technique better AND I didn't have to decorate the cake "backwards"!  Well, enough of me squawking, you have to spend the next 10 minutes learning how to do your own quilted buttercream cake!

If you're new here and need my all-butter buttercream icing recipe, it can be found on this post!
 

Grandview Wedge Wedding & Oklahoma Sooners Groom's Cake

A couple of weekends ago I delivered these cakes to The Grandview on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga.

I think this wonky wedding cake thing must be a trend and this has been my second in a month or so.  I do like the look and the challenge of getting it just right.  This time I used small styrofoam wedges to raise the tiers into the proper position.  You just have to make sure that you make the wedges small enough to allow for the placement of the roses (which were provided by the florist). 

The rest of the cake went together rather easily; some buttercream quilting, fondant stripes and ribbon, and some initials cut out using the Cricut finished it up.

When I was setting up the cake, one of the family matriarchs commented that she didn't think it was a real cake, just stacked boxes, which I really considered a compliment! :)

This was the groom's cake that accompanied the bridal cake.  The helmet was provided by the groom's family.  We cut out the Oklahoma State logo using the Cricut and also also printed out some smaller ones for the chocolate-dipped strawberries.  The edible image sheets blend in very nicely with the white chocolate we used to dip them in.

One thing worth noting, if you place one of these mini helmets on a buttercream cake, you should consider placing a couple of supports under the helmet.  I always place the helmet on the cake, and then remove it, noting the small indentations it leaves.  I'll then put a straw at each indentation to help support it.

As always, thanks for visiting, and pop back in next week to see what we've been up to!

Copper Flower Wedding at the Hunter Museum

I have done quite a lot of wedding cakes in my career, but this is the first time I have had a request for metallic flowers.  But I must admit, If this is a new trend, I could really get on board with it!

This four tiered wedding cake is covered in buttercream with several small piped band going around each tier.  The bride wanted orchids with fat petals, so we worked together and finally settled on Vanda orchids, which the bride really loved.

I airbrushed each of the orchids with copper luster dust and then painted them with chocolate brown centers and white petal highlights.I then cascaded the flowers down the front of the cake.

We delivered this cake to the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga, TN.  It was our first trip to the venue and it was absolutely lovely.  Those artsy copper orchids fit in so well with the venue and the bride's decor.

Thanks to all of you that stop by and read my little old blog.  As always, I appreciate your comments!
   

Montana Cowgirl Cake + Mini Tutorial

A few weeks ago I was lying in bed trying to get sleepy while looking through Pinterest when I saw the cutest Cowgirl Cake by Ana Beatriz Carrard.  I repinned it immediately tn my "Cake Inspiration" board, even though I don't do very many birthday cakes these days.  Wouldn't you know, the VERY next day, I got a call from a former client looking for a cowgirl cake.  I sent her a link to Ana's cake.

Of course, she loved it, so we took several elements from it and created our own cake.  The bandana tier went together much easier than I thought.  I covered the tier with fondant like I normally would and just left a little excess fondant for the folds.  The knot I made separate and just tacked it on to the front.  I made the belt buckle out of modeling chocolate and cut the the birthday girls' name using the Cricut. I searched the web over for a how-to on a fondant cowboy hat, but never found a good one.  In the end it as pretty easy.  I rolled out a gumpaste circle and then just gave it another roll with my rolling pin to "oval" it a little.  For the hat, I sorta made a wide taco shaped piece and molded it from there.  The rhinestone "hatband" ad the crystal heart were pieces left from past projects.  Yes, I have a flotsam bin... don't judge!! ;-)

The horse head is what I really dreaded making.  I'm just not someone that can draw a horse, or even horsey features on a horse-shaped cut out.  But Chaddy and I did something pretty awesome to get the look on those horses.  If you want to find out how, click the link below to finish reading and see the full tutorial!

Birch Wood Grain Wedding Cake

I think this may be the most photogenic cake I have ever made.  Usually I take picture after picture, and struggle to find one I truly like.  But this cake, it seemed like almost every snap I took was a real keeper.

I really enjoyed making this cake.  I took inspiration from 3 different wood type cakes that the couple brought in to make this cake.  The wood is supposed to resemble a birch tree.  I used Fondarific to wrap each tier, leaving a little excess over the top of the cake.  The Fondarific worked well because I could blend it together nicely in the back.  There was still a visible seam, but it blended together WAY better than regular fondant.

From there I hand painted the birch stripes, some knot holes, and the carved heart with the bride and groom's initials.  I then painted several various varieties of  gumpaste flowers in various shades of peach and cascaded them down the front of the cake from tier to tier.  I added a little gumpaste greenery; I thought it added a lot to the nature theme and I thought it really made those peach flowers pop!

This wedding was held in Dalton GA, the groom's family have been long time customers of mine.  I was proud to make it for them and had a great time doing it!!

So now that you've seen the 3 different photos I took, which one is your favorite?  Top (grassy background), Middle (bright sunny background), or Bottom (burlap "studio" background)?  Let me know in the comments, and pop back here on Friday and I'll feature another awesome cake AND a mini tutorial!!