Disney Inspired Princess Wedding

Have you tried stenciling on cakes?  What about on buttercream cakes?  Now, I'm talking about real-butter buttercream that firms up in the fridge.  I will sometimes put the cake in the freezer for a few minutes, but not too long or it will get condensation and that's a whole other problem. 

I have tried different systems for "attaching" the stencil, but they all seem to make bigger mark than if I just hold them gently with one had and apply some icing with the other.  Once you've got a little icing on, it pretty much holds the stencil in place.  Just be prepared to do some "clean up" with paint brush for bleed overs and such.  If you have a lot to stencil, you may need to put it back in the cooler  in between.  Also, plan to wash and dry your stencil each time.  I think stenciling is pretty and uniform looking and is relatively quick.  This stencil came from Designer Stencils.


There was a cake by Jim Smeal that my bride found this stencil/pattern on and fell in love.  I wish they let me recreate all the patterns he used  because I'm really over my buttercream diamond patterns! The couple was very into Disney and this has a  kind of glass carriage / tiara feel to it.  They also had me add several "hidden Mickey's" all over the cake and that was pretty fun.  The bride wanted a big border on the two blue tiers and since they were assorted size dots, it too ended up looking like a bunch of Mickey heads.  The couple also had a sweet Lenox China Minnie and Mickey topper that we added at the reception.  It was a little "cream" and I like the look of the white cake not mixed with a cream topper.  I SO wanted to put some flowers on this cake but it is pretty as is.  I'm just really just proud that I got to make a colored wedding cake this week!  Go daring brides, GO! 

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!
 

Ruffled Wedding Cake

Most of the cakes we do are formulaic these days, at least it feels that way.  Do I sound bored?  Well, when most bridal cakes are white and include a monogram, diamond pattern, dots, and/or swirls it can get a little mundane.  I am grateful for those cakes, don't get me wrong.  They are my "bread and butter" and I don't have to stress or learn a new technique every week. 

However, I was super glad to add a new design element to a couple of old standards, RUFFLES!  Yes, fondant ruffles!  I really was surprised how easy they are to do, just a little time consuming.  Once you get a standard width and length, make a little template out of a cake box lid and cut away!  The most important piece of advice I can give you for these is to use Fondarific brand fondant.  It is just perfect for this application!  It won't crack or dry out while you are working on it.  I pinched a few pleats in each strip and then applied directly on a butter cream cake.  Keeping the slant the same all the way around was a little challenging, but next time I'll just make a little triangle template to double check myself as I go.  It shouldn't look uniform, so no worries :)

When all the ruffles where complete I airbrushed them with ultra silver/PGA mixture. The bride was very fashion oriented and a little flashy, but in a good way!  The other accents are all dark purple, which like brown, you have to be very careful with because the dark colored accents end up photographing more black than anything.  We delivered this cake to "The Mill" in Chattanooga, TN and it was a little dark there so I'm showing you pics that we took in the shop. 

As you can see we also had to include buttercream diamond pattern and scrolls piping. The original design came from some ladies in Las Vegas, but for the life of me I can't find their names.  I liked their design better because they used circles instead of diamonds but you can't have everything when it's not "your" cake.  I did get to make silver RUFFLES!  There were also luster dust stripes on the tier with the flower and on top of the bottom tier.  They just didn't show up on this picture very well.  I also had to make this butter cream cake with no borders to keep the clean look the bride wanted.

For those other cake people out there, do you try to encourage new and different designs?  The right salesman could talk a bride into a pink wedding dress, but that doesn't mean she will be happy after the when she sees the pictures. I don't want to push, but I DO try to encourage.  I have a "scrap book" that all my brides look through.  Since they have seen most of my cakes from the website by the time they meet with me, I try to show other ideas from cakes that I would really like to make or just caught my eye. 

I want to pull every cake with the regular formulaic designs out of the book so they'll stop picking them.  Is that wrong?  Cause I feel it coming :)

Lena's First Birthday Cake

Long, long ago, when I worked in the corporate world, I worked with some really great people.  I have been gone now for almost 10 years (wow!) and I am still very good friends with lots of those people.  Brandon was just a young pup when he worked for me as a visual associate, but we still stay in touch!  When I found out his baby daughter Lena would be celebrating her 1st birthday last weekend, I knew I had to do her cake.

I had complete creative freedom on this cake, unfortunately my schedule for the week did limit me somewhat.  I started with a 2-tier wonky design covered in a lavender butter cream.  I used fondant to create a harlequin pattern and then placed a green fantasy flower at each intersection.

For the top tier, I cut a heart shape and "Lena" using the Cricut.  I put a boatload of glitter on the letters.  I topped with a gumpaste bow and placed a glittery pink "1" on top.  For the borders, I used my pearl mold.

Hopefully, I'll get some pictures of the birthday girl and post them here.  She is such a cutie-pie!!

Rose Seperator Cake with Monogram

Ii set this wedding cake up at the Loose Cannon Art Gallery recently.  I love the venue, but it's always dark in there.  Their one of the reasons I invested in a bounce flash for the camera.  This is one of the pictures with the bounce and I thought it turned out pretty good.  As with all my photography skills, I still have a LOT to learn!!

This cake is mostly buttercream with some fondant accents.  And silver dragees!  Oh the dragees!!  Seriously, I really love the look of the edible pearls and the silver dragees, but I have to put them on JUST before I deliver the cake, which depending on the delivery schedule for the day, can be a real pain.

The florists were setting up as I was delivering the cake.  There is supposed to be a lot of roses below the top tier, but they were running short and had t go back to the shop.  They did let me play with the3 they had left to get a semi-decent shot.

Nothing technically new or terribly difficult going on here.  I did use my Cricut Cake on the monogram (man I LOVE that thing!!)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

Gimme a "C" !

Sometimes you can do everything JUST right and still mess up, right?  Take Caroline's birthday cake for example.  Sweet Caroline is a cheerleader for the Jackets, so she wanted a cheerleading cake for her big day.

I got her mascot's logo, made little custom flags, and even printed out a birthday sash.   I sculpted a megaphone cake topper, made gumpaste star doomies, and put a cute harlequin pattern around the cake.

I even topped it all with a modeling chocolate 3.  But Caroline was FOUR!  Now her Mom noticed it right away, and I immediately made a replacement "4" out of some modeling chocolate, but it still left me feeling off my game a bit.  It certainly left me with a new resolve and commitment to read each order several times while working on the cake.