McCallie Graduation Cake

Well, it's that time again... summer is just around the corner and millions of high school students across the US are closing one huge chapter in their lives and starting a new one.  Yes, it's graduation time!

This graduation celebration cake was made for a young man who went to The McCallie School in Chattanooga.  He was very into football and baseball and will begin his new chapter in life at Auburn University in the fall.

The bottom tier was all about his high school experience, his school's logo along with their team logo.  The sports memorabilia sits around and atop the first tier, as the great memories he'll carry into college.  The top tier contains the Auburn paw prints along with their battle cry "War Eagle!"  On top of the cake we made an Auburn University topper from modeling chocolate.  The graduate's favorite treat, peanut butter cups, adorn the entire cake.

The footballs, were made using chocolate molds, and I made the baseballs using a cakepop (cake and icing) mixture.  It was pretty firm and I thought it held its shape reasonably well, although after sitting for a while I got a little droopage.  The Tornado logo was printed on edible image, and that was really just because it didn't lend itself well to any other method.  All the other logos and text were cut from modeling chocolate using the cutting machine.

Lions Football Grooms Cake

Football field cakes can be a great way to showcase a groom's interests and it's much more economical than a sculpted football helmet or stadium cake.  For this cake we used a combination of edible images and Cricut cut-outs as the main decorations.  The cake stand was awesome, and was made by the grooom's mother if I remember correctly.  We delivered this groom's cake to Trevitt Hall in Dalton, GA.

But I just fell in love with these chocolate covered strawberry "footballs".  I have seen them before, but this was my first time making them.

They are your basic chocolate-dipped strawberries, but with a twist (or a spiral!).  Once the chocolate firmed up, I used royal icing to pipe the lines and the laces on the "footballs".  I think you will agree that it is a pretty convincing effect!  And the word from the wedding party was that they were very delicious!

Any of you have any other ingenious disguises for chocolate covered strawberries?

Super Bowl Cake Strategies

So most of my regular readers know I'm not here to talk about the Super Bowl, but since football has been all over the news lately so I thought it was worth discussing.  Lots of grooms are into football, and as much as I like making sculpted helmets, a lot of times our clients are looking for something more economical.  A football field cake can show the groom's love of his team while not breaking the bank.  Here are some tips I have learned through trial and error that I thought I would pass along.

It's pretty easy to figure out that you can print team logos using edible images or even using cricut cut outs, but getting the field just right can be a difficult task.  I have struggled with the field lines and in the end I have found that using small strips of edible paper.  They lay very flat and stick well to the fondant underneath.  The yard markers can be hard to get just right.  In this case, the cake was large enough that I was able to use my small number cutters and they looked good.  If this cake was any smaller though, the letters would have been too large.  What to do then?

Well, it was a problem SO many times that I finally found myself a high quality image of a field with all the lines and numbers.  That's what I used to make the cake above.  If I'm not mistaken, I had to use 2 pages and piece them together, but it makes for a good look.  With minimal skills on the computer, you should be able to print this to match whatever size cake your making.

And since this isn't the Super Bowl and we can all be winners here I wanted to provide all my friends here with my football field image to use however you see fit.  You can download the image here.

Hope you guys have a great week!

Thanksgiving Football Cake

This week is Thanksgiving week, so I thought this would be the perfect cake to showcase as many of our family members will be watching football as they fall in and out of turkey-induced slumber.

But it's also a time for self-reflection, and a time to give thanks.  I have so many things to be thankful for - I am thankful that my small business has thrived in a struggling economy.  I am thankful for the skills I have learned and the people that have supported me and my business.

When I first started, there wasn't a lot of information out there.  I bought every cookbook I could find, but there were still specific questions I had.  As far as I know, there was no CakesDecor or CakeCentral to fall back on.  Out of desperation I e-mailed a few specific questions to some well-known decorators.  Some I never heard from, but I was surprised that several answered me back with an answer.  I always responded back with a gracious "Thank You" and never pushed my luck.  I also vowed that I would "pay it forward" when my skills were more developed.

Nowadays I must get a couple of e-mails a day from aspiring decorators asking me questions, and sometimes I have to remind myself of my vow. Most people ask very pointed, specific questions and I try to answer than as quickly as possible.  Some people though ask questions like "I have never baked a cake in my life and I want to make a 4-foot tall sculpted animatronic dancing armadillo cake.  Can you please send me recipes and a step-by-step walkthrough with diagrams?"  OK, so that scenario is a little inflated, but you get the idea.  I'm never exactly sure how to answer these types of emails, and honestly more times than not, I just ignore them.

So please remember this next time you e-mail someone with a question, and they can continue to be thankful to share their information.  And don't forget to thank them if you get a response!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!  Spend some time with people you love!!

Super Bowl iVillage Feature

I was contacted a couple of days ago by iVillage about featuring one of my stadium cakes for an edible football stadium article they were running.  Of course, I said "Yes"!  It wasn't until the feature went love that I realized I was featured right next to Bakerella!  What an honor!

It got me thinking about all the football cakes we have made in the past, and even though we aren't "football people", we always have a great time making them.  In fact, I usually only watch the half-time show during the Super Bowl, if we even watch that.  Chaddy and I are much more at home watching The Puppy Bowl!

So without further ado, here's some of the more awesome football cakes we have made in the past.  Just think of it as a clip show of one of your favorite TV shows!  Just click on the caption if you want to see the original post!

 

 

 

UGA Sanford Stadium Groom's Cake

UT's Neyland Stadium

Alabama's Bryant Denny Stadium

University of Auburn Football Helmet

Have a great weekend!

UGA Bulldog Groom Cake

A whole back we delivered this groom's cake to Walnut Hill Farm.  Sports themed groom's cakes are all the rage and seeing as we are in Georgia, UGA is one of the most popular designs.

We do what we can to switch things up and do each UGA cake a little differently.  In this case, we started with a two tier square chocolate cake and alternated sides on each tier with edible images of the bulldog and the Georgia "G".

We then hand-dipped strawberries in Belgian chocolate and used them to bring a little extra splash of red (and black, I suppose) to the cake.

Have a great weekend and don't forget that you still have until Sunday (aka Chaddy's Birthday!) to register to win a tin of handcrafted marshmallows!  See this post for all the details!!

Troy University Groom's Cake

We had a really great time creating this unique groom's cake that was delivered to the Dalton Freight Depot!  Our groom here was a Troy alumni and wanted a cake that reflected the Trojan logo, while keeping things fairly simple.

We made a template and cut the cake out in the Troy "T" shape.  I gave the whole thing a good coating of buttercream.  I cut out long ribbons of fondant and used them for the outline and base of the cake.  The Cricut Cake cut out the lettering with great precision.

Now of course this picture doesn't show it, but to jazz up the cake we added chocolate footballs and soccer balls to the cake board and also the bride purchased a Troy mini helmet to place next to the cake.

Thanks for visiting and have a super awesome weekend!

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.

Are you ready for some Football Cake?

I must admit that I'm not a big football fan, but I am very proud of the way this cake turned out! I made this cake some time ago for Mitchell, who is 1/3 of a set of very sweet 8 year-old triplets.

The cake "field" is mostly buttercream, but I covered the football in fondant for a more realistic look. I made the 8 out of gumpaste and embedded wire so that it would slip into the cake very easily.

I hope you enjoy seeing birthday cakes here as well as wedding cakes.

Enjoy your weekend and don't forget... only 2 weeks until Christmas! Let's finish up those last minute gifts!!!

Football and Cheerleader Cake

I recently did a cake for a football player and a cheerleader that were both celebrating their 16th birthday. I have been working on my figure modeling skills, so I got out my Debbie Brown book, my modeling chocolate and I went to town making those little cuties! I had such a blast making this cake and was even more stoked when my customer asked me if I might possibly blog about it! I enjoy writing and I really enjoy getting comments and followers, but to have someone request that their cake be blogged about was exciting!!

Thanks to everyone for reading and I hope you all have a great weekend!