Raspberry / Blackberry / Succulent Wedding

Sometimes a bride enjoys picking out her wedding cake so much that she does it three times.  Luckily the final choice was one that I really wanted to make.   This cake is very different and "natural".  I was given the picture and asked to make a few minor adjustments like the colors on the succulents, vanilla bean specks in the fondant, and two layer had a royal icing texture that was very subtle with a bit of gray to lightly mimic river birch.  I went very light on the gray because I didn't want it to stand out and take away from the focal point.  To keep things clean and simple, I put a little bean specks in some royal icing and "caulked" the tiers together instead of any kind of a border. 

For the "Hens and Chicks" or succulents, I really didn't have the time to make them since the bride changed the design fairly close to the wedding date and I was too busy to learn and try (or maybe just tired...).  I ordered them all from "A Cake To Remember VA".  Kara was absolutely great to work with on these!  She changed the color to just a pale grey and I used petal dust to make them match the wedding colors.  She was so helpful and VERY quick in getting them to me.  If you ever need pre-made decorations, molds, supplies or great tutorials check out her Etsy store. 

We made 80 raspberries using silicone molds that I also found on Etsy. I bought six kinds of raspberry molds but I think this is the one I used the most,

We started out by using a little tool and making the natural indentation on the top but then there wasn't enough to poke my wire into!  So no hole!  Ron Ben-Israel would not be proud of me :)
The most realistic raspberry mold that I purchased was this one. 

The reason I didn't use it is because it is impossible to get the berry out without distortion unless you use a material that will get hard in the freezer, like Fondarific or modeling chocolate.  I did not have time to do that 80 times!  If you are making five, cool, but not 80!

The "blackberries" that were "purpleberries" to match the wedding colors were much more challenging even though there was only ten!  They are not hard, just require some patience.  Make a grape size piece of gumpaste/fondant mixture, dip your wire in tylose glue and insert.  Let these sit up a few hours.  Now make a TON of tiny, varied sized, balls and let the dry.  When you are ready to make them, make a few fresh balls so they will squish and make a more natural look overall.  paint the "grape" with tylose glue and stick all the balls on it.  I tried rolling it and that will just get you a few and then fill in all the spaces.  Poof!  You have a blackberry!  I enlisted my friends to help me and it took four of us 90 minutes to roll all of the tiny balls.   That's six hours!   I was glad there was only a few!

If anyone knows the original artist for this cake, please list them in the comments.  I would love to give them credit for the beautiful design!  Now go cover a cake with summer berries! 


TIEREDCAKER GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

OK folks, we a A LOT of people register to win the Tiered Caker app giveaway.  I can tell that there's lots of interest in the product.  Special thanks to Calculated Cakes for sponsoring the prizes.  Chaddy put all the comments into the randomizer and picked out 2 names:

I have heard from Thelma already, but we are still waiting to hear back from Judith.  Once we have proper contact info from both we will get the information sent to Calculated cakes for your prize!  Congratulations!

Rough Iced Lemon Swag Cake

I found this lemon floral swag on clearance at Cal Java a while back and it was so cute and such a great deal that I bought it right away and figured that I would find something to use it for eventually.

The rustic look has been so popular here that I wanted to create a rough-iced "buttercram" dummy cake to show my clients and I immediately turned to my lemon swag.  I actually used royal icing to cover the dummy - it looks enough like buttercream, but it will hold up for a long time.

This rustic look is a great option for the budget conscious bride.  Wouldn't this little wedding cake look super cute in a small barn venue?

AND THE WINNER IS...

A couple of weeks ago I teamed up with Craftsy to offer a giveaway for a free Craftsy class.  Yesterday we chose a random winner and the lucky cake designer is... Christine from Cakes by Christine!  She informed me that she just started her business back in January so stop by her Facebook page and give her a LIKE!  Congrats Christine... I hope you enjoy your class as much as I did!!  And special thanks to Craftsy for sponsoring the giveaway - I look forward to working with them again soon!

Impression Mat Winner!

OK, I realized today's real post was going to be quite large, so I decided to make a special post just to announce the winner of the impression mat set!

15 crafty culinary combatants entered their names and only one emerged victorious.  Random.org has determined the winner to be:

And lucky number 7 is... VictoriaGrace!

 

Congratulations!  I have sent you an e-mail to get your mailing address.  To everyone else, I'm so sorry - I wished there were prizes for everyone!

New Tutorial - Smooth Square Cakes with Perfect Corrners

About a year and a half ago I recorded my first video tutorial and put it up on YouTube.  The first time I went to Food Blog Forum in Atlanta they advised us to do 2 things:  (1) Expand our experience by doing things we had not tried, and to (2) "find a need and then fill it".  My first buttercream video was my attempt of doing just that.  It was slow to be watched at first, but now after over 20,000 hits there's rarely a day that goes by that I don't get a new subscriber, comment, or "like" on my little video.  It's very satisfying, but it's also a constant reminder that I should probably do more videos.

Well, I finally bit the bullet and made a new video for you guys!  This time I am focusing on getting your square buttercream cakes silky smooth with sharp, crisp, corners.  The process I use is very similar to a round cake, but all those corners and edges really up the difficulty level!  Oh heck, why should you read my babbling when you could be listening to it?! ;-)  See my new video below!

Icing Square Buttercream Cakes Smooth with Perfect Corners

Click Here for the Post that includes my All-Butter Buttercream Recipe

AND THE WINNER IS:  If you entered our giveaway for the FMM Sugarcraft cutters, then today might be your lucky day!  We had quite a few entries, but the lucky winner today is:

Thanks Random.org!

And lucky #13 is Lydia from Ever So Sweet!  Congratulations Lydia, I'll have your cutters in the mail very soon!  And for those of you that didn't win, a 20 minute buttercream tutorial is a pretty decent consolation prize, right?  If you're interested in seeing more video tutorials, either leave us a comment here, or subscribe to our You Tube channel.  Have an awesome week!!

Blue Bow Wedding Cake

I did this wedding cake a while back at Ryman Hall in Dalton, GA.  I always feel a little weird about mixing cake shapes and especially Square-Round-Square-Round.  But I was very happy with how this cake turned out!  I really liked the blue and brown theme that the couple chose for their colors.

Not a lot of difficult cake techniques going on here, just buttercream with some piping and a bow made from gump-  What? 

Contest/giveaway what now???  Oh yeah, I remember now!  You want to know who won that autographed copy of Cake Wrecks for voting for Icing Smiles.

Well, Chad took all the names of people that posted their comments on the Pepsi Refresh page and ran them through the Ran a Dee Mizer.

And the winner is....  Jennifer Murphy Tieman!!.  Jennifer, please contact me with your address so I can ship your book out to you ASAP!

Thanks to all who voted and have a great weekend!!