Sketchy Cake Designs

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When most everything you make is a custom design, you have to make a lot of sketches.  The only thing I like about recreating an exact copy of a cake is that I don't have to draw it out.  I can decorate cakes, I can't draw :(  My art teacher in high school told me that most people that are great artists, whether drawing, painting or sculpting, don't just wake up great.  She said that for 98% of artists, it's a skill that you learn over time.  I really don't think that occurred to me until then.  Now I know that it is true in most everything we do.  Things that used to take me forever are now easier.  I'm still pretty pitiful at sketching cake designs though.

Customers have to see a sketch of what they are getting because most people can't visualize all the things they are hearing.  It helps me too!  I can see the general idea and make changes when booking the cake instead of the day I'm decorating it.  The better the sketch, the easier it is for someone to "see" it.  Also, it helps bakers to come across as professional or not so much.  It is something we have to do, so we'd better get used to it!

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Currently, I have PowerPoint templates that I've made and I "draw" on those.  If I can color them in the program, or use clip art, it does help a little, but it's still not at all realistic.  I've been trying the Tiered Caker iPad app and printing those out to draw on.  I really like the realism that they show, but I can't do "weird" things in the program, like adding a skull tier or flowers as a separators.  Also, when I'm just trying to show texture or white on white decorations, I have to pencil them in and that makes it very hard for them to visualize the final cake.

I'm including two of my current sketches so that you can "grade" me and tell what you think I could do differently.  I recently watched a CakeFu by the awesome Liz Marek about digital cake sketching.  She has lots of video's and even a Facebook page for Cake Sketching.  I really like what she does and I wish I had that kind of time just to make a sketch.  She said that it can easily take an hour per sketch.  Like I said, I want to be able to do that, but it just doesn't seem to be practical.  Am I just whining and need to get over it?  I'm clearly not going to be able to draw it free hand, so something has to give.  Keep in mind, these sketches aren't "bad" ones!  Thanks so much for your input!

Stencilled Buttercream Cake

There is a private girls school in Chattanooga, Girls Prepatory School or GPS, and we have been making the rounds there lately.  We were asked to make a cake for a "Chapel Talk" event.  A senior student is asked to give a talk, during chapel (seeing a theme?) and then host a little tea party kind of event.  We were given colors of Navy and pink and we came up with this cake.  What is funny about it to me, is that the design would have worked when I was in high school, many years ago.  Preppy has not gone out of style since the 80's.  Polo shirts, pearls, bows in your hair and monograms have always been in style in our town.  Is that just a Southern thing?   Perhaps, but I think we will check back in ten years from now and see if it's still "in".  Maybe moon boots and hoverboards will be in?

This was a very easy cake to make so I won't pretend otherwise, but I will give you a few helpful hints.  First, when you are using buttercream icing and then stenciling on top with more buttercream icing, cold is your best friend.  I made the oval plaque by applying the middle letter, chilling the plaque and repeating the process.  The boo boo here is that the top "F" is slightly thicker than the other two letters.  You "should" look at the thickness closely before removing the stencil otherwise you are stuck with the decoration or you have to start all over.  I guess my patience was short this day. :)
   

I did have a little problem with the bottom tier stencil, but this is a design that you can pipe a little to fix the blemishes.  Also, use Fondarific for your pearls.  It will chill up and hold the shape so the pearls don't get distorted when removing from the mold or applying to the cake.  Sometimes I will put the pearls on as I take them out and other times I have to wait so I will make a bunch, then chill and apply.  If you see a cake with distored pearls, the decorator either didn't use the right product or hurried the process too much.  You can use modeling chocolate also, but the Fondarific "wedding white" matches my all butter-buttercream perfectly.  I also add whitener and a drop of purple (to counter act the yellow) to the outside layer of buttercream to brighten it.  It's still not bright white.

Lastly, making the color navy is not as easy as you would think.  This is a great chart for coloring fondant, but I think it also applies to buttercream.  Please know that colored buttercream gets darker as it sits, so make it 24 hours in advance so you can see the final color.
 

Here is a coloring chart for royal icing, but again it's a good general chart

This is a good chart too, but no navy.  http://www.annaandblue.blogspot.com/2012/04/frost-by-numbers-how-to-make-frosting.html

And lastly, I found this to be so very interesting!  A chart on what happens to leftover colors when you add ivory or black.  Super good reading!  http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2012/04/my-ramblings-on-icing-color-and-some-easter-cookies/

I hope you get to make or receive a timeless cake this week! 

Items I used to create this cake: 

FMM Sugarcraft Ribbon Cutter & Stitcher
Fondarific Buttercream Wedding White Fondant
First Impressions Molds Silicone Mould - Pearls - 12 & 14 mm 

First Impressions Molds Silicone Mould - Pearls - 6, 8 & 10 mm
Designer Decorating Stencil, "Script Monogram" Size of Letters 2.25" 

1.25" Small Script Cake Stencil by Designer Stencils

Contemporary Lattice Cake Stencil Side by Designer Stencils

FULL DISCLOSURE:  As a member of the Amazon Affiliate program, I receive a small commission if you buy a product from the links on my blog.  I actually own the products I recommend and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Our 5th Blogiversary!

 

We are five years old this week! Well actually The blog is five years old this week! Our little business is more along eight years old now. Time flies by when you are baking cakes! To be honest, 2013 was not a great year for business. Our sales were almost half of 2012 and 2011. It was a challenge some weeks to bring you a cake and blog worth reading, but I hope we did. We really do wish more people that read the blog would leave comments. There is a small faithful handful of you that are there every week with sweet and encouraging words. To you guys, we want to extend our wholehearted thank you! It truly does put "fuel" in our little blogging engine. See what I did there? I know signing up for a Google account takes a few minutes, but please do it. Little blogs like us really like to know you are there and that we aren't talking to the wind. I am not the type of a girl seeking praise for cakes. I really want feedback, opinions and requests for content. We are working on some new videos for the upcoming year. If there are things you want us to show, teach, or complain about, just let me know.
 

Lastly, I wanted to thank Chad for keeping this blog going. It is only because of him that this part of our story continues. That man will not let me skip a week because we have to "be consistent". There are many times that I try to bring him to the dark (lazy) side, but the man is committed and it's one of my favorite things about him! 

Bar Mitzvah Tennis Cake

This week I want to tell you about the Bar Mitzvah cake I made to go with last weeks Bat Mitzvah cake. What a big party these twins had! Huge decorations, beautiful lighting and great food all at The Chattanoogan Hotel. They had to have wonderful cakes to match the event. When I met the clients, the birthday girl knew she wanted a giant fancy cake. On the other hand, the young man was so easy going that it made a problem. He wanted a sheet cake with a score board, that was all. I suggested some options to make it more grand to be on scale with the girl's cake, but he wasn't having it. Long story short, the parents almost didn't book the cake because they didn't want to spend so much on a "sheet cake". I had sketched out a 3 layer rectangle tennis court (not exactly a sheet cake!), with bleachers on two sides and a scoreboard on one of the long sides. When I found out about their reservations, I decided to sketch out a whole new design concentrating on what would match the size/scale of the girl's cake and not limit myself to the original instructions. Everyone was happy! Then all I had to do was make the cakes....

The cake itself was not hard, just very large. I used a half sphere of styrofoam for the bottom of the ball cake. The darned thing still wasn't perfectly round. I didn't trim enough off the cake half so the middle was too long. I'm not sure if there is a way to check the exact roundness of the cake other than just eyeballing it. Anyone have ideas? We used strips of plain edible image paper for the lines on the court. I really like the look and the flatness of these kinds of lines on a field. I've done it with thin fondant "snakes", but they aren't as pretty. The rest of the cake was pretty plain so I added a few details like tennis balls.

There are things I'm very good at and things that I'm just not. I've still got a lot to learn on a several things, but especially making fondant figures/people. The birthday boy wanted a figure to look like him and one to look like Roger Federer. I should have started those crazy things two weeks earlier, but it did not go down like that. Have you noticed yet that there are no pictures of these figures? Well, I wasn't happy with them so there is no evidence! I have two pieces of advice, because I'm soooo awesome at making people! First, use good modeling chocolate. If it's too soft or on the other end of the spectrum, to cracky, make a fresh batch! Second, watch Artisan Cake Company, AKA Liz Marek, on You Tube. Her fondant figure tutorials are the best that I found! She is awesome! But remember, she makes it looks much easier than it is, at least for me!

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.

Wraparound String Wedding Cake

Most bridal cake orders these days follow a certain formula. About six months or more from the wedding I get a contact email or call from the bride, a consultation, design and tasting, quote and contract, then finally delivery. This cake was very different. Two weeks ago, a MOB (mother of the bride) contacted me wanting to book a wedding cake. Book, not quote or meet. I booked it but didn't have any details other than servings and delivery date. I spent the following few days trying to pin them down to flavors or design. I got one picture of a floral centerpiece for inspiration. Out of desperation I sent three pictures of basic cakes. She just picked one! Done! It was a strange way to make a wedding cake. I found out the the bride and groom had already gotten married and didn't even want the reception. So that explained a lot!

As far as this cake, I can't say too much, can I?  It is super smooth buttercream, (yay me!) with some Fondarific bands. The first time I put the green bands on I used the smallest section on the ribbon cutter. It was still to thick and heavy. I went to my faithful Artway extruder. I used a small die and extruded the "snakes" onto a cookie sheet. I chilled for a few minutes and then applied them to a very cold cake. That way, when I didn't like the placement, it didn't tear up the cake. The cake matched the venue's decorations and it was clean and neat. It was kind of an easy paycheck, but I still felt "cheated" out of my experience with the bride. That's silly I know, but sometimes those experiences are the best part of the job!

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!!

Woodland Owl Birthday Cake

Sweet Kaeley is one of the only kids I still make a birthday cake for these days.  Her mom is a vendor and sends me lots of business, so it is pretty cheap pay for an unofficial outside sales person.  This year's party was at the Chattanooga Nature Center in their "Tree House" and they were having a real owl come to the party.  Birthday parties were not that cool when I was a kid.....jealous ,  I am.

I love it when  I'm given a few parameters and let to go.  A "fairy, owl, woodland, princess theme" is what I was told.  I didn't want to use "traditional" forest colors, so I went with a silver bark bottom tier, purple owls and mushrooms and bright green leaves!  That's the kind of world I want to live it!   I finally got to use a tree bark impression mat that I just love.  I 'm sorry to say, they don't make it anymore :(

My "lesson" on this cake is to tell you about over building or cake insurance.  When you have any type of heavy fondant figure or item, like my owls, put a wooden skewers up the middle with plenty of skewer to go into the cake.  All my mushrooms and letters/circles have thick floral wire in them.  For the cake support there are big straws in the 11" tree trunk to hold up the top tier.  It was only two layers. The 7" tier was four layers with a cardboard cake board under the bottom two layers and one under the top two tiers.  There are also fat straws supports in the bottom two tiers to hold up the top two.  I used four skewers through all those layer to keep the tier straight and stable.  After I stacked them, I ran a sharpened master dowel through the whole cake.  I never let  a cake out the door without a center dowel.  It's a great insurance policy in itself.  When you drive up a mountain to deliver a cake, nothing is going to move if you build yours in this way.

Unfortunately there are times when all your over building can't stop a bigger problem.  As is the norm, I was carrying the cake to the customers car.  I have four steps to go down as you leave my shop.  I was watching Kaeley and her mom and lost count of how many steps I had already taken.  As I took the last step I realized there was still another step.  I went SMACK on the concrete and so did the cake.   As stupid as I felt, I was more worried about poor Kaeley because she was looking at me with a look of horror.  The first thing she said was "Are you OK?" and then "Is my cake ruined?"  Oh, I hurt but I wasn't going to let her know that.  I said "It's OK, I can fix it.  You are just going to have to stay a little while longer".  She was happy because I have a pink kitchen and edible glitter :)  I gave her and her Mom some fondant and said "help me by making a few butterflies".  That was good because it's hard to work when everyone is looking at you and thinking "How is she going to fix that?" 

I'm truly lucky that I caught the top tier so it didn't land on the ground and because the cake was super cold.  Since my buttercream is all real butter, it's get really hard in the cooler.  That is great for traveling with any cakes.  It took me about 20 minutes to fix the cake, but it felt like two hours.  I am also grateful that the customer was a fellow vendor and she has seen a lot go wrong during wedding set ups and is cool as a cucumber.  She was much more worried about me than the cake which I so appreciate.  I was too busy being embarrassed.  At the end I told Kaeley that the fixed cake has lost all it's glitter and I needed help to get it sparkly again.  She was a big help!   I think all the after boo boo glitter really helped!  (The smaller picture is the "after".  Take my word for it, there was a lot of glitter!"

Kaeley and the "After" Photo!

Taking Care of Display Cakes

This post is a baby lesson in dummy cakes and how to repair them. I really liked this cake when I made it, but about a year later it had a little accident. I was storing/displaying it on a silver cake stand on top of a refrigerator. Next to the refrigerator was a cooling rack on wheels. One day I moved the rack and the stand was apparently being held by the rack because it the cake went flying across the room! My first hint is to put little pieces of shelf liner under each each foot or the entire stand. Every time you open the fridge, the cake stands moves a little bit so avoid the problem with shelf liner!

I use to cover cake dummies with piping gel to attach the fondant securely. My cake friend Kimberly told me to use Crisco to attach the fondant. When you are done with the display cake, you can soak it in hot water and reuse the styrofoam dummy! That is tip two! Since I had used Crisco, when the cake hit the ground, the fondant completely came off the top tier. Totally gone! Naked! There was also a big hunk out of the deer tier.

The cake was in good shape before the accident, so instead of trashing it, I decided to do some fixing! I recovered the top tier and then added the ruffles. I think I have to make an entire ruffle cake soon! I was going to leave it, but then I felt like I needed more height so I added the topper. Just some gumpaste and a bit of floral wire.

For the deer tier, I measured the thickness of the fondant still on the cake and rolled some fresh fondant. I cut a nice straight line for the bottom and then pressed it up against the cake. Basically this made an impression on the fresh fondant so I knew where to cut the patch piece. It then fit right in. I just blended it with my finger and it really wasn't noticeable. I added a few ruffles to hide some imperfections as well as some gumpaste flowers, pinecones and berries for a more wintery feel. Hide those boo boos with flowers!

Next tip, when adding flowers or something to a very hard display cake, you can add a good size piece of fresh fondant and attach it with gum glue or water. This will give you something to poke in to and hold your new additions. It this isn't feasible, because you can't hide the big piece of fondant, use a drill with a small bit to pre drill holes. You may have to use a really small bit first and work up to a bigger size. That will give you a nice hole to poke flowers into.

I am glad that I loved on the cake instead of trashing it because I think I like it better now. Maybe I was just tired of it :) My last tip is for dusting old cakes. If the cake is very dusty, take it outside and use a hair dryer on cool, an airbrush, or just a clean large paint brush and dust off the big part of the dust. If you just have a little dust left, use a clean paper towel soaked with PGA or vodka and wipe it down. If this doesn't get it clean enough, use a very clean dish rag that is wet but rung out well. Wipe off all the dirt or discoloration that you can't this way. It will make the cake gooey because of the water, but it will dry out and your display will look much better!

Quatrefoil Wedding Cake

There are not a lot of really new cakes out there these days.   Occasionally I find cake goodies and I want to purchase them all!  This was the case when I found sugarartstudion.com.  Their pictures of gumpaste flowers make me want to make a flower half as pretty!  They are unbelievable!  Gumpaste spider chrysanthemums, really?... I mean really?!?  Just let those flowers inspire you and you will soon spend way too much money, unless of course you book the cake first and then buy the tools.  That's what we should do....

This little cake was made with the Ali quatrefoil cutter to make impressions on the bottom tier.  I really wish I could find a way to use these on buttercream cakes.  We were asked to make a simple display cake for one of our favorite venues, The Grandview on Lookout Mountain, Georgia.  They have a great cake room when you first come in the door of this beautiful old house.  The display cake is going to be there for all the brides that tour the facility as well as being there for a hopefully unneeded cake emergency.  That's one of the reasons I made the cake all white.  It should fit into anyone's decor, should any baker not arrive with the bride's cake.  

We used some garden roses from Cal-Java and the rest of the flowers came from wholesalesugarflowers.com.  I hope you like it and that we inspire you to give your favorite venue an emergency cake.