Introducing Sweet Talk!

OK, so I know we've been gone for a few weeks, but we have been SO busy!  Take a look at our new logo!  What do you think of it?

And we have a brand new website to go around the new logo too!  If you haven't stopped by in a while, I welcome you drop by the new website.  The new site is still at the old address:  http://www.cupadeecakes.com

And with the new site comes a new blog!  Well, it's still the same old blog you know and love, but with a slightly different name and a brand new address!

So visit Sweet Talk to catch up on our latest tutorials and cake adventures.

We'll keep this Blogger blog online, but don't expect any updates.  And you can find all these blog post over on the new site too.

I'm still learning the blogging platform on my new site, so if things look wonky for the next couple of weeks cut me a little slack.  Join me at my new home for some SWEET TALK!

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.

Our 6th Blogiversary!

I just realized it's been six years since I started my little blog!  Time sure does fly when you're having fun, right?  It's a time I like to look back and see what's happened over the past year and what the next year might bring.

While I've consistently blogged over the past year, I will admit that I have read less blogs over the past year.  And I have seen decent stats as far as readers are concerned, but I've seen less comments over the past year.  I love hearing what you guys have to say, but if you don't comment I certainly won't hold it against you!  Are blogs going by the wayside in favor or Facebook?  Am I missing any good new blogs?  If so, please let me know in the comments.

Remember the Millennium Falcon cake we did last fall?  Well recently it sort of went viral, well at least as viral as anything we've done before.  It was featured on some really cool geek sites like BoingBoing, Wired Italy, Laughing Squid, and a bunch of other sites that I have to use Google Translate to read!  It's been fun to see all the new hits from these other sites, but going viral doesn't put coins the coffers.

As far as my outlook on 2015, I want this year to be all about rebranding.  I have started working on a new and improved website, and today I contacted a designer about creating new logos for the business.  I need something that fits my business better and can double as a watermark.  I really do dislike watermarks, but I've had my photos stolen in the past, and with photo sharing all the rage on sites like Pinterest, I've decided it's become a necessary evil.

So look forward to seeing some new branding here soon, and don't forget to post any cool new cake blogs in the comments that you think I should check out!

A Groom's Cake Collection

What happens when a bride can't decide on ONE main thing for her Groom's special cake?  This cake happens!  We had two meetings, the second one solely to nail down only what HAD TO BE included on the groom's cake.  The only item we "lost" was changing a Lakers jersey to just using logos on the sides of the stage like cake.  Here is the list of items we had to include:

Accurate pair of Air Jordon tennis shoes in black, red or white

Air Jordon box for the shoes

Beats Audio head phones in black, red or white

Panda Express box with orange chicken

Panda Express box with Lo Mein

Pokémon ball

Lakers team name and the number 24

Guatemalan flag

Blue power ranger helmet

If you are a cake decorator, take a minute and figure out how many hours it would take you to decorate this cake from crumb coated cake to finished project.  I find it's easier to figure each element and then add it all up.  I'll tell you how long it took me at the end of the post.

Due to all of these items,  I was very worried that it was going to look terrible and like a big pile of stuff.  Luckily I was able to coordinate the colors so that helped the cohesion.  I originally planned on a 12 x 18" cake, but a 16" square base cake just looked better.  It was also supposed to be buttercream, but I added the fondant over it since everything else was covered.  We used modeling chocolate on the box because it just makes a sharper looking box.  The take out boxes and head phones were rice krispies treats.  The shoes were white chocolate pound cake.  The shoe box was pumpkin spice and 16" square  was chocolate (I think...it's been a few weeks).  She had a bit of trouble deciding on one flavor too :) 

We have talked about the takeout boxes and shoes in our previous two blog posts.  There isn't much exciting to say about the rest, I guess it's more about how it all plays together and how long it took to complete.  I've said before that I charge by the serving and then charge by the hour for extra artwork and supplies.  We aren't new or particularly slow at our job.  I am better at charging the right amount of artwork for a cake, but not this time.  We spent 44 hours decorating this cake.  I was tired for a week and mad at myself for bad planning for at least as long.  It is the nature of the beast and we have to learn more and do better with our skills in cake decorating and business.

Tennis Shoe Cake

We made a pair of Air Jordon shoes and their box as part of a larger groom's cake.  We have made two other shoe cakes.  A pair of Converse All-Star's and a pair of fancy high heels with a shoe box.  Lucky for us, the bride let us pick the shoe design, it just had to be accurate as the groom was a collector.   The easiest avenue for any 3D cake is to have the item in front of you, or at least a 3D model (like a car).  I find it so helpful for all those little things, like accurate measurements!  We picked these because they looked easy compared to all the rest of the Air Jordon line.  Shoes are notoriously deceiving so keep that in mind when you're planning.  It took us eight hours to make the pair.  Some people may think that is crazy long, but I have not figured out a way to "hurry" on a project like these.

Let me tell you what I learned/did wrong with this project.

1.  Black fondant FADES!  I added extra black food coloring when I started but I truly believe that the fondant faded just in the time it was exposed to lights.  I saw these girls on "Amazing Wedding Cakes" practically working in the dark to avoid their black from fading.  I thought they were crazy!  I'm sorry ladies, you are sane and black fondant is stupid.  MAYBE if I was doing this exact same project again, I would airbrush the shoes before adding the soles and edible images.  MAYBE that would have helped.  They really didn't fade until I had the details on and at the point the air brush ship has sailed.

2. Make paper templates of sections so that all sides are exactly the same.  For example the side squares with the dots and without the dots.  I should have made all the templates and pinned them on one of the shoes before I started scoring the lines.  I wouldn't have gotten "off" had I done it that way.  Every cake has a backside!

3. CK Edible lacquer is super awesome!  The shoe had shiny parts and I sprayed some lacquer in a paint cup and used a small paint brush to apply it precisely when it was supposed to go.  Lesson here, the stuff dulls the longer it sits.  What until a couple of hours before the event to apply this if possible.  It won't go away over a day or two, it's just less shiny.

4.  Edible image paper is my friend!  Chad found a little dot pattern and printed out one page.  I used my templates to cut the pieces a tiny bit larger and then used a clad tool to bend them into the seam. 

5.  The sole is so important!  I used straight fondant for the black parts, but the red and white parts were 100% modeling chocolate.  The white part was put on as one big, thick piece and I took a ball tool and carved the lines and details in.  I should have spent much more time on the sole as the real shoe had more ridges, but I was out of time.....

6.  I have lost my ticking tool.  The one that makes it look like you have a sewn line.  I used some Wilton tool, but it just looked bad so I didn't add anymore detail with it, but once it's done you have to live with it. 

Remember to plan EIGHT hours or more and charge accordingly :)  Now I have to go and order my missing tool!

Another Bottle Cap Groom's Cake

I've blogged about bottlecap cakes on several different occasions.  They are a great option for clients that enjoy their brewskies (or any drink for that matter!)  The great part is that they're relatively easy to make and they're budget friendly.

The funny thing about these bottle cap cakes is that once the groom hears that I offer a chocolate cake with Guinness stout beer they are sold.  There's just something about a cake with beer in it that reaches out and grabs men by their tastebuds!  If you haven't tried the chocolate stout cake yet, you can get the recipe at King Arthur Flour's website.

This cake offered us a mildly different challenge.  Normally we just cut out the pieces we need.  This logo was more of a negative image; it took up all the space and the pieces we cut out were the pieces that got thrown away.  And the graphic is based on a 16-inch round, and our cutter will only cut a 12 x 24 inch graphic.  So we had to make a common cut and cut the logo in two separate pieces.  It really helped to have the graphic printed out full size when pulling out the "unwanted" pieces.

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome week!

Bottlecap Groom's Cake

We made a repeat cake last week, so there isn't a ton to say about the design.  We did so a little better job on carving the sides by making the indentations a little closer together.  I also chose not to airbrush the sides because I didn't think it needed it.  It is so much easier making a cake design for the second time!

The "big" story on this cake is the flavors!  It was an "Irish Car Bomb" cake.  The chocolate cake is made with lots of Guinness stout.  The filling was chocolate ganache flavored with Jameson whiskey.  The buttercream was flavored with Baileys Irish Cream.  Yum!  It takes a lot of these alcohols, so if you sell cakes, you should know that it is an "expensive ingredient cake".

I'm sharing the recipe I used for this cake as well as for all the cakes I carve (that need to be chocolate).   The cake tastes like a brownie and cake got married and had a yummy little baby!   I can't throw away the scraps that I carve out because it's so yummy!  We found the recipe in a King Arthur Flour catalog.  They have such awesome ingredients, gadgets and even mixes.  I've tried so many of their recipes and they always seem to be great!   I hope you try the recipe and love it like we do!

Try the recipe here:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/chocolate-stout-cake-recipe

Collaborations Can Be A Blast!

I have talked before about the importance of having cake friends.  It's nice to have someone to complain to and to bounce ideas off of, but sometimes you get to collaborate on really cool projects.

Our friends Kimberly and Andrew of Couture Cakes were asked by country music super-station US 101 to do a cake for the Heartstrings for Hope concert benefiting St. Jude.  On these types of cakes there is SO much to do, and they asked us if we would like to help out.  In return, we would be their guests at the concert.

 

They know of our (OK, Chaddy's) prowess with logos and the cutting machine, so they gave us a list of words and the US 101 logo and we started rolling out modeling chocolate.  I came up with a really cool trick while working on all these millions of letters.  I used strips of parchment paper with some vegetable shortening on it an used that to adhere the paper to the FRONT of the letters.  The spacing is kept in tact.  They were easy to apply to the cake too - just apply a little tylose glue to the back of the letters and place them against the cake.  Hold your hand over the paper and the heat from your hand will release the shortening.  Easy peasy!

We ONLY did the words & logos on this cake...

So here's the cake and it turned out amazingly, don't you think?  Andrew did an absolutely perfect job sculpting each of the artists Which included Randy Houser, Tyler Farr, Kelly Lovelace, Jared Neimann, and Sheryl Crow!  We were also treated to a backstage meet and greet - getting to meet all of those talented artists was almost as much fun as helping out our friends!

The Caped Crusader vs The Evil Cake Genius

Most of us have heard of Robin Martin and the amazing cakes she makes at Gateaux... But have you seen some of the awesome cake toys she offers over at Evil Cake Genius?

They make some of the most awesome stencils I have ever seen!  They are a little expensive, but they are really nice!  Some are standard stencils, but some are printed on a ribbon type material and works a lot like a silk screen.  I haven't tried the silk screen types yet, but I used the Skyscraper Windows stencil to make this birthday cake for a huge fan of the Caped Crusader.

Everything else on this cake is either buttercream or modeling chocolate.  Speaking of modeling chocolate, you guys know that I love the stuff, but lately I have been having some pretty fierce condensation issues with my modeling chocolate.  Anybody else experience this?  If so, let's talk through it in the comments! 

Bat Mitzvah Fashion Cake

We were so fortunate to be asked to make cake for a Bar Mitzvah and a Bat Mitzvah a little white back.  Today, I want to tell you about the Bat Mitzvah cake.  When I sat down with the family the birthday girl was the first to tell me her vision.  She had it all planned out with pictures and everything.  She brought an inspiration picture from Pink Cake Box and their great artist Ann Heap.  She wanted to remove a lot of the extra "stuff" on the cake like candy that made it more juvenile.  We were also dealing with a budget, so when I was asked to shave a few dollars off of the cake, we removed a company logo and the tissue on the bottom tier.  We were going to have the lid raised a bit with big pieces of fondant tissue coming out.  I was happy with the change because it kept the cake more streamlined.  We already had two tiers with tissue, and that was plenty.

As far as technique for this cake the overall tip is to use modeling chocolate, the kind you make, not the pre-made stuff.  The hatbox was one large cake with four tiers.  I used a grapefruit spoon (which I don't know why I own...) to make the channel for the black tissue.  As normal, make it deeper than you want it to be.  A layer of buttercream and fondant will fill it back in to some degree, so dig a little more out.  I covered that whole tier in white fondant and then added the pink modeling chocolate on top of that.  I I was doing it again today, I would have made one big band of modeling chocolate for the sides or done individual stripes all the way around without any fondant under neath.

The blue box and orange bag are really straightforward.  My tip on those would be to fill in any uneven space with buttercream so that the modeling chocolate doesn't sink in at all.  Corners are notorious for doing that.   I have a pet peeve about droopy corners on all cakes, but that's for another day.  To make the tissue, I got some fondant/gumpaste mix rolled really thin in the pasta machine and cut squares out.  I scrunched them, my technical term...trademark pending.... and fluffed them.  I let them dry a couple of days and didn't put the pieces on the cake until  the morning of the party.  That way the moisture in the fridge didn't make them droopy.  No one wants droopy tissue!

The handbag was a "cheater" handbag. We used edible images for all the print.  I made it the size to fit one full page of print for the front and one for the back.  HA!  It didn't outwit me this time!  Did you know that REAL bags have upside down print on the backside because it's all one piece of leather?  I made sure I was accurate for this birthday girl because she would have known!  For all the tan pieces, I used a stitching tool and it made a big difference in the overal look and detail of the cake.

I was happy with the cake, even though I could have added SO much more to it (makeup, jewelry, etc.) but when we got it to the venue that was decorated beautifully, it fit in just perfect!  The staff at The Chattanoogan Hotel were all coming up and taking pictures and that is a real compliment since they see cakes all the time.

Sweet Sixteen Birthday Cake

This past weekend I made the cutest sweet sixteen for a young woman in Chattanooga.  I worked closely with her Mom to get a list of all her favorite things so we could surprise her with this grand birthday cake!

Our birthday girl is on the rowing team, so I made a replica of her rowboat in her school's colors.  The rest of her cake followed a salmon and turquoise color scheme.  Does anyone besides me have a problem mentioning salmon and cake in the same sentence? ;-)

I made her favorite shopping bag, and even a set of car keys, something every s16 year-old wants, but I had the most trouble with the birthday girls' pup!  I initially starting molding the dog using Fondarific modeling chocolate, but I had to scrap it.  It was just a little too wilty and wouldn't hold its shape the way I wanted.  I made a quick batch of real modeling chocolate and that worked much better. 

Thanks to everyone that stops and reads my blog; I enjoy telling you my tales in the cake trenches.  Friday is Valentine's Day, so hug someone you love!!

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?

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!!

Smokeless Tobacco Groom's Cake

THIS CAKE AND POST HAVE BEEN REMOVED BY REQUEST

Laptop Groom's Cake

This cake is a great example of how you can give your client's a 3D "looking" cake, but not blow their entire bridal budget on the groom's cake.  Our groom here was a big PC gamer, and his favorite game was Starcraft.  He also wanted his gaming laptop represented on the cake.  Here's a couple of ideas we incorporated to minimize the complexity, and thus the price.

Keep the 3D elements on a smaller scale.  On this cake, the majority of the cake is actually just a sheet cake, the laptop has just enough cake for the couple to cut into.  And the back of the laptop is just corrugated plastic coated in black gumpaste.  Since it was so light, we were able to use a small bent metal angle bracket to hold the laptop lid open.

Simplify decorations where possible.  We have no problems making individual keyboard keys for a laptop cake, but that gets pricey fast.  Printing out a keyboard on edible image paper not only looks great, but saves you decorating time, and your client money. On this cake, we used edible images for the keyboard, the laptop screen (logo), and the side decorations.

All of these concessions gave the couple the cake they wanted, while still keeping the price at an affordable level.  We delivered this to the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga and it looked great.
 

Garden Rose Wedding with West Point Grooms

I delivered this bride and groom combo to Lindsay Street Hall a few weeks ago.  It is such a beautiful venue, and these cakes fit in just fine.

The bride wanted a very simple, elegant buttercream cake, with no borders.  Getting that nice crisp edge without any borders may have been the hardest part of this cake!  She also wanted roses, but she wanted to incorporate the green color she was using in her wedding.  I bought some of the Garden Rose Collection roses from CalJava.  I think these are some of the prettiest roses I have gotten.  I dusested them with a small hint of green, which really gave them an antique china look.  That and a few green leaves pulled in her colors nicely.

Lastly, I thought it needed a woodsy element, but I didn't have any curly willow, so I made my own!  I took 3 pieces of wire, wrapped with floral tape, and then coated in chocolate.  It made a nice "twig" and saved me a trip to the store!

Our groom's cake was for a graduate of West Point Academy.  Here we relied heavily on edible images, but I initially thought I was going to make the crest 3D.  Sometimes things just work out that way!

I used fondant in a chocolate mold to make the eagles and then painted them gold with luster dust.  I then used my extruder to make a red and blue border in keeping with the patriotic theme.

Lastly... are any of you members at CakesDecor.com?  It's a very nice place where cake decorators can come together to share cakes, ideas, and information.  I have been visiting there for a couple of months now.  It's a great resource and everyone there maintains a very positive attitude.  Well they interviewed me last week and they'll be featuring it on Thursday.  So stop by on Thursday and check it out!
   

Les Miserables Cast Party Cake

 

I have to admit that I don't normally entertain last-minute orders.  My time off is just as precious as anyone else's, and lack of planning just doesn't cut it as an excuse.  But when I got in late from a Friday night wedding and listened to Paul's message, something pulled at my heart strings.  Paul had ordered a cake from another baker over a month ago, but on Friday he found out they had lost the order and would not be able (or willing) to provide him with his cake.  This cake was for the fine young men of the McCallie School and the girls of GPS (Girls Preparatory School).  They had worked hard all year on their production of Les Miserables, and this cake was supposed to be the centerpiece of their cast party.

I had already endured a very trying week, still had 2 weddings cakes to deliver on Saturday, and was REALLY looking forward to some rest and relaxation.  But that message kept haunting me - it made me angry that another baker would let down a client like that.  I discussed it with Chaddy and we both agreed that it would be a shame to let all those kids down after they had worked so hard.  I called Paul first thing Saturday morning and told him that we had limited time, but we would love to help out.  He gave us open reign on the cake, but said he would like the iconic girl from the poster, the McCallie and GPS logos, and something signifying the "barricade scene".  Alright, that's something we can work with!!

I did some quick reading on "Les Mis" and started baking.  Chaddy started getting graphics ready.  The top of the cake is mainly edible images (4 sheets pieced together to be exact) with the logo lettering cut out using the Cricut.  On the sides we used a blue, white, and red border to keep with the French theme.  We then made lots of modeling chocolate barrels, stools, planks and pallets to build up a barricade at each corner.  We didn't finish the cake under after 1:00 am on Sunday morning, but we had a blast making it! 

I know this was a long post, so as a bonus for sticking with me, here's a top-down shot of the cake, along with a little secret:  When I was baking, I made a blue layer, a white layer, and a red layer.  When the cast and crew cuts into the cake, they'll get another little piece of the French flag!

 

Alabama Crimson Tide Grooms Cake

When I meet with couples, there's always a period of time where we discuss the groom's interest and what he would like represented in his groom's cake.

Not always, but often, his interests will lead into sports, and sometimes, just sometimes, I can see a glint of horror in the bride's eyes.  Now I can't be certain, but I think it might be her fear of a tacky sports cake bringing down her otherwise elegant wedding.

Now that was not the case with this couple, but there's always tasteful ways to bring a groom's interests into his groom's cake.

Take this cake for example.  Our groom was a big Alabama fan, so we brought in some of the colors in the banding, and I printed a houndstooth pattern on edible image sheets to bring in that element.  The logos were also printed on edible images and were kept small and understated.  And we topped it off with mini Crimson Tide helmet.

By the way, I have entered my World of Warcraft Beer Stein cake into InkEdibles Edible image contest.  They are looking for a cake that makes the best use of their edible images.  Right now, there's a Hello Kitty cake that's really kicking my butt!  I would appreciate your vote -  just click this link and then click "Like" next to my stein cake.  It uses Facebook so there's no registration or hassle.  Thanks! Y'all have a great weekend!

Baseball Hat with Home Plate Grooms Cake

It may be a little chilly to play a game of baseball outside, but the weather's always fine for some baseball cake!

We made this Boston Red Sox cake recently for a couple and delivered it to the ruins at beautiful Barnsley Gardens in Adairsville, GA.  Luckily for us, dimensions for a home plate were pretty easy to Google, although we had to scale it down a little to fit on the board!  For the cap, I used some of the lessons I learned working with Mike McCarey in my "structures" class a few weeks back.  And speaking of that class, I know I still owe all of you guys a recap plus pictures of my Big Bird cake from that class.  I may lock myself in my office over the holiday weekend to get that done... or I may go shopping instead! :)

Any way, for the cap, I carved cake into the shape of the hat and covered in fondant.  The brim was the difficult part.  I wanted it very thin, and I wanted it curved, like a real baseball hat.  I wound up cutting a brim template out of a bakery box.  I bent it to the shape I wanted and wedged it into the proper position on the cake.  I then covered the bill of the cap with fondant to match the hat.  The fondant weighed it down and really flattened the curve I had put into it.  It still has a slight curve, even if the photo above doesn't show it well.

Have a great week and I hope you all have a relaxing Thanksgiving holiday!

Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity Cake

When I met with this couple, the groom was quite certain that he wanted his fraternity featured on his groom's cake.  He showed me a picture of this fraternity pin, and my mind started churning.  Chaddy started the process by finding a graphic and blowing it up to my particular proportions.  I used that to carve out the heart shape from a square cake.  We cut the letters and the insignia using the Cricut.  I had Chaddy roll the modeling chocolate super thin because I didn't want them to stick up too much from the black.

Original Inspiration pin

The surrounding pearls are very import to the fraternity.  There must be 20 pearls surrounding the heart and my Googling skills inform me that it represents the 12 founding members of the fraternity as well as the first 8 pledges.  I carved an indention around the cake before I covered it with fondant.  This gave the gigantic pearls a nice resting place and kept them where I wanted them.  I used a cookie dough scoop to scoop out Fonderific so that each pearl would be the same size. I rolled them out and gave them a good dusting of super pearl with the airbrush.

I decided to expand the pearl motif and cover the cake board with dragees.  It gave it a nice, finished look.

I hope you had a safe and fun Halloween and I hope you have a great week!!

UPDATE: As the fates would have it, I just found out that Sigma Phi Epsilon was founded 110 years ago TODAY!  Happy Birthday guys!!  You don't look a day over 80!! ;-)