Diamond Monogram Wedding Cake

If not for the small fondant circle and the pearl dragees, this wedding cake would be 100% buttercream.

While this is essentially a very basic, albeit elegant wedding cake, it probably took me longer than any cake I did that week.  I did begin by using an impression mat to mark my diamonds on the cake, but then it was out with the spatula and the blowtorch to cut each line into the cake.  After that was done, a small pearl dragee was placed at each intersecting line.

So far, I am loving the buttercream Fondarific.  It works well as fondant, works fabulously in my Cricut Cake machine, and matches my buttercream perfectly.  In this case, I cut a circle from that Fondarific and used a small sculpting knife to trace over the "M", creating a faint impression.  Then I piped layers of buttercream to build up the monogram.

As always, thanks for stopping by and listening to me ramble on about cake and have a great weekend!!

Super Mario Mushroom Cake

I did a groom's cake for a big Mario Bros. fan this past weekend.  When I initially met with the couple, they wanted a 3D mushroom, but finally decided that a flat cutout cake fit their budget a little better.

As I was running around getting ready to do this cake, I ran across this perfectly spherical mixing bowl that I bought at IKEA some time ago.  It just screamed "perfect mushrooms shape" so I threw some batter in it and popped it in the oven.  It came out so great that I knew I would go ahead and make the cake the way the couple REALLY wanted it.

I delivered this cake, along with their wedding cake, to the Walden Club in Chattanooga.  This place has such a beautiful view.  I hope they both were surprised!

Argyle Robot Grooms Cake

I made a groom's cake for an awesome couple last weekend.  They were both self-professed "computer geeks".  They wanted the groom's cake to match the wedding cake's colors.  They decided on retro circles and an argyle pattern.

For the argyle tier, I measured the height and width of my middle tier and then used Microsoft Powerpoint to make a custom harlequin diamond template.  I do this a lot, especially when I want a very precise fit.  For the "stripes", I wanted them to be very thin, and very unobtrusive.  I wound up cutting thin strips off of edible image paper and then painting them with silver luster dust.

But I almost forgot about the best part of this cake, and I had nothing to do with it!!  The bride and groom (the self-professed computer geeks) made their own wedding topper.  Didn't they do a great job? The french cuffs, the lacy bodice, it's all just so cute and wonderful.

Blue Paisley Wedding Cake

This was a wedding cake that I delivered to the Loose Cannon Art Gallery this weekend.  I was very very pleased with how this one turned out.

This 4 tiered wedding cake started with a thorough covering of buttercream.  Then I rolled out thicker than normal strips of blue fondant and cut out this "rolling hill" pattern and wrapped it around each tier.  I then extruded a fondant rope and let it hit on top of that fondant ledge.

I finished it up by piping some scrolls and paisley shapes on the blue fondant.

I'm going to keep this post fairly short as this is a SUPER busy week at the bakery.  I will have another post out on Friday, so check back soon and have a great week!!

Grandview Grooms Cake

While I was very disappointed in the pictures I took of this cake, I was very pleased with the cake itself.

When I took Mike McCarey's class some time ago, he said that he cut a lot of his cakes at an angle for static logos and that's what I did with this one (although you can't really tell it from the pics... grrr).  It does make it easier to see!

For the logo, I had Chad enlarge the logo onto card stock paper and then use poor man's laminate (packing tape) to seal both sides.  From that, I used the entire template to cut the light blue edging (using modeling chocolate, thank goodness).  I then cut off the light blue edging from the template and cut the dark blue parts out.  When I was done, my template was all cut up, but all my modeling chocolate pieces were exactly what I needed.  I put everything together and the different levels of the modeling chocolate made it not so flat and gave it an extra little layer of dimension to it.

Monogram Wedding at the Grandview

This past weekend, we drove this little 4 tiered wedding cake up Lookout Mountain and delivered it to the Grand View Hotel. It is such a beautiful location with the most amazing view.

This cake was fairly simple, all buttercream, with swiss dots, gumpaste calla lillies, and a ribbon border.  For the monogram, I broke out my new Cricut Cake machine and cut them out of modeling chocolate.  Technically, it was made using candy melts (so they would be bright white), so I guess you would call that candy clay.

I took a couple of shots of this cake as I was cooling off the cakemobile, but it was SO bright out that it caused some bad shadows on my pictures.  I'm still semi-happy with them though.

As always, thanks for stopping by and have a great week.  Pop back in on Friday to see the groom's cake that accompanied this cake!

Cupcake Celebration Cake

Isn't this little cake just the cutest?

While it certainly wasn't technically difficult, I had a blast making it!

The bottom tier is buttercream with fondant stripes, and the middle tier is buttercream with fondant circles.  For the top tier, I sculpted a cake into a mega cupcake shape.  I used an impression mat to make a cupcake liner out of fondant, and I topped the cupcake with fondant "icing" as well.  All tiers got a multi-colored fondant ball border.

The cake still needed a little something, so I fashioned some fondant balloons and put them into the cake with wires and finished off the sides of the cake board with some cute ribbon I picked up at Michaels recently.

Have a great weekend!

Squiggly Wedding Cake

I have to admit when the bride first showed me a photo of (the cake that inspired) this cake, I didn't like it.  I'm a very orderly person and at first glance, the the piping on this cake is anything but orderly.

But I'm a big girl and a professional decorator, so I put on my big girl professional cake decorating pants and started piping (with a #1 tip).

If there's any way to pipe this thing orderly, I sure did it.  Droplets first, then then squiggles... I found a way to make order out of the chaos.  And the more I worked on it, the more it grew on me.  By the time I was finished, I was quite proud.

Is there a lesson to be learned from all of this?  Hmmm... we don't always get to do the cakes we want (or like) but you can always choose to have fun doing it and if you're lucky, wind up liking it in the process.

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!

Cricut Cake - First Impressions

So, I got my new Cricut Cake machine on Tuesday and I have had a few days to make use of it.  There is definitely a learning curve, but once I get into the groove with this thing I think it will really save me some time!

Here are some of the things I have learned so far working with the Cricut Cake:

The material you use is key.  Gumpaste works very well, modeling chocolate works well too.  Fondant on average is just too mushy, but I had good luck using Fondarific.  Next time I will test fondant mixed with Tylose to see what happens.

Thickness (or thinness actually) is very important also.  On the blue and brown cake (below) I left the modeling chocolate too thick.  I still liked the overall effect, but I had to cut a lot of extra pieces and clean the blade several times.  On the "Chuck" cake, Chad rolled out the gumpaste so thin you could almost make out the mat under it.  They cut out very nicely.

My last finding was that no matter the material I used to cut on, popping it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before cutting always yielded better results.

I know some of my other blog friends also have the Cricut Cake machine.  What have your experiences been with it??