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! 

Koi Wedding Cake

Growing up, some of my Mother's most favorite jewelry was the Elizabeth Taylor sets put out by Avon (in the mid-80's I guess).  The earrings and brooch to the left have always been one of her favorite sets.

Sometimes, when I'm looking for inspiration, especially for my dummy or show cakes, I turn towards treasures like these.  Some time ago, I bought some silicone molding compound and used her earrings and brooch to make molds so that I could use them on a Styrofoam showcake.

At the last bridal show I had a bride that just went bonkers over that "fish" cake.  She loved everything about it.  We booked a consultation, went through the whole design process and in the end she still wanted that as her wedding cake.  Professionally I took it as a real compliment that she liked it just the way it was.  I love it when I can have that type of connection with a client.

So I recreated that dummy cake for her.  I molded and painted, the fish, applied the sugar pearls to make "bubbles" and even added some "crystal doomies" to the top to give a water spray effect.  We even placed it on our aquarium cake stand to add to the aquatic effect.  The venue we took it to was very dark and our pictures didn't turn out very well at all, so I know you're missing out on all the effects.

Diver Dan the Scuba Cake Man

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have used marbled fondant on a cake.  It's not that I dislike the effect or anything, I just don't get a lot of cakes that call for that look.

But this SCUBA cake, now that's a different story!  I thought the blue marbled fondant really gave off that ocean look that this cake needed.  I didn't get a lot of direction on this cake, only that the birthday boy really liked diving.

I piped some seaweed and molded some fish, turtles, and starfish out of a chocolate mold.  I also hand molded some coral and the legs and flippers.

I thought it came out really cute!

Have a great weekend!

A Groom's Interests

This weekend I did a couple of cakes at The Chattanoogan hotel in Chattanooga, TN. This was a groom's cake and in it, the couple wanted to really showcase the groom's interests.

This groom was really into reading, fly fishing, and the Carson Newman Eagles football (his alma mater). We decided to incorporate each of these items into the design.

This was my first "stacked book" cake. I was SO glad that I didn't attempt this BEFORE finding out about modeling chocolate. It made it SO much easier to make the book covers and the pages.

This was also my first helmet cake. I actually went out and bought a helmet for reference. And I was glad I did! It really helped me capture the shape and the spirit of the helmet where I think a picture just wouldn't have cut it.

Merry Christmas to all the readers of my blog. I have discovered so many wonderful friends and ideas through my blogging and I feel really good when I do share with you, so expect more in the future!

UPDATE: I just heard back from the event manager at the Chattanoogan and he said that the photographer couldn't find the groom's cake to take photos of it. Not because it was missing, but because he didn't think it was cake!! Event staff kept telling him it was the books and helmet and he kept yelling back "There's no cake around the books and helmet!" AWESOME!

Extreme Groom's Cake!

OK, I want to confess that originally I wanted to blog tonight with some shots of cakes I have coming up this weekend. As luck would have it I'm running terribly behind schedule and I didn't want some of my new followers to wait another day so I pulled a cake from our archives.

Several months ago I met with a couple and the groom was a big fisherman. He had a real passion for deep sea fishing and on one such trip had reeled in a 4 foot mahi mahi (dolphin fish). He wanted his trophy fish immortalized in cake for his big wedding day.

We started out with a reference photo from Wikipedia and then enlarged it on the computer. Once it was printed on 20-30 sheets of paper, we arranged them and taped them all together and cut out the shape of the fish. We used this template to carve the cake and make the fins and tail (out of gumpaste). The body was then covered in fondant and airbrushed to match the reference photo.

When it was all said and done, we delivered this extreme groom's cake to the Fairyland Club on Lookout Mountain. I have never been SO swarmed by the fellas in all my life! They all wanted their picture taken with the trophy fish! It was a blast to make and we learned a really cool technique. So now, without further ado, here's the resulting 2 foot by 4 foot mahi mahi cake... Enjoy!