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.

What are All the Words a 2 Year Old Can Say?

We have many great customers, but the ones that are "in the industry" are some of my favorites.  Many times, they let you "do whatever you want" or at the very least they understand the time involved so they don't take issue when they know you give them a fair quote.

This mommy goes all out for her sweet little man.  She designs 90% of the cake and then decorates the entire party to match the cake, which I have no problem with of course!  Her idea in this design was to do each tier with something primary and familiar to a two year old.  There are several animals on the other side of the cake because it was to be displayed in the middle of the room.  My favorite is the penguins because I have been watching a lot of "Penguins of Madagascar" on Nickelodeon lately.

The cake is iced in butercream and all the decorations are fondant.  The greens on the monkey tier are very different, but it didn't show up well in this picture.  The "2" is "busting out of the top" with the fondant peeling back.  I quoted 12 hours of art on this cake and between carving the cake, mixing colors, and 14 animals, I used every bit of that time and then some.  I HAD to have all four penguins in the cartoon!

After six years of making cake, I think I'm starting to get the artwork estimates down pat.  This is what you do.....estimate how much time the cake will take you after it's all smooth and stacked THEN DOUBLE IT!  I have given a little money back when I have over estimated, but that is a rarity.  Anyone have a better idea?  Happy New Year! 

Fairyland Club Bow Wedding Cake

The design of this wedding cake was inspired by the holiday decor of the venue, the Fairyland Club on Lookout Mountain.

The bride wanted a bow motif, but wanted it to be more relaxed, or "droopy" looking.  I was using Wedding White Fondarific for the loops, and I added tylose.  Guess what?  Tylose and Fondarific doesn't get "gumpaste hard" like when you add it to regular fondant!  Worked out well for me this time, but something to keep in mind in the future.


The loops and tails also needed a gold edge.  To achieve this effect, I first tried rolling the fondant in a tight coil and painting the edges, but I had too much seepage.  I then rolled out the strips and while they were still semi-stuck to my work surface, I painted the edges gold.  Worked out very well!

Lastly, this bride wanted a "no border" border.  I used a #6 tip to pipe a small buttercream rope where the 2 cakes meet. Then, while the cake is still very cold, I run my finger along the edge sealing the gap and wiping away any excess.  Just like caulking around your sink!!

Hope you all had a happy holiday and we'll see you back here on New Year's Eve!

Santa Claus Holiday Cake

So it's Christmas Eve, and this festive fella will be popping down our chimneys in just a few hours!

This is the last Christmas cake that I donated to the "Nutcracker Sweets" charity event.  Again, I found a sweet little Santa face online and printed it out.  I then hand cut several pieces out of fondant to give ol' Saint Nick a little more dimension.  Then I got out the glitter and gave Santa's hat a nice dusting!

Again, these pics didn't turn out so great, but it looks better when it's larger (just click on the picture).

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Tree Holiday Cake

Here is another cake I donated to the "Nutcracker Sweets" charity event.

For this cake, I found a cute Christmas tree graphic online and printed it out.  I cut the entire tree out of green fondant and then painted each of the elements (trunk, star, tinsel, and ornaments) using luster and petal dusts.  Otherwise, it's just a simple buttercream cake!

Stop back in on Friday and see the last cake in the Christmas trilogy!  Maybe we'll even have some eggnog - well, I'll be having eggnog anyway!

Snowflake Holiday Cake

About a week ago, I donated a few small 9 inch holiday cakes to the Partnership for Family, Children, and Adults annual "Nutcracker Sweets" charity event.

On this snowflake cake I used my Cricut Cake to cut out this snowflake from modeling chocolate.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize until after the cake was gone that my camera was on night mode - sorry!!

Check back on Tuesday for another Christmas themed cake!  Next Friday is Christmas Eve!  Don't get on Santa's naughty list!!

Whimsical Pink Wedding Cake

Believe it or not, this is a wedding cake!  This whimsical cake was another wedding cake I delivered to Trevitt Hall in Dalton, GA.  They have a quaint little reception space and they're always ready for a party!

As you can see, my bride here wasn't afraid to think outside the box and leave "traditional" wedding cakes in the dust!  This fun little number is decorated with fun fondant swirls, fantasy flowers, and a snazzy monogram.  Notice the bling on the bows?  That's some clip-on earrings the bride provided to give the cake a little extra sparkle.  I don't think I could have created as sparkly that was still edible!

As always, thanks for stopping by!  If you haven't finished up your Christmas shopping, there's only 11 more days until Christmas!!

West Virginia Groom's Cake

Any Mountaineers in the house?  How about peanut butter fans?  If so, you are in for a real treat!

I started with a 16 inch square cake and carved away a lot of excess using a template I made by printing out the logo to the appropriate size.  Then I used that same template to cut out the the yellow and blur top from fondant.

I then cut up an entire case of Reese's Peanut Butter cups to fill the cake board.

This groom's cake was delivered to Trevitt Hall in Dalton, GA.

Lace Recreation Wedding Cake

I did this cake a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed doing it.  So much so that I am planning on doing a display cake in a similar fashion.

This bride wanted the ornate lacework on her dress recreated on her cake. She provided me with a scan of the lace pattern.  We printed it out and then traced it on copy paper.  From that black and white drawing, we could scan it in and resize it to fit the cake.

Once it was the right size, I went to work with my Sugar Veil icing tracing that lacework over and over.

My brother even made a new custom cake stand to place this cake on!  The bride liked it so much, she just decided that she would purchase it as a keepsake.  How sweet is that?