Cake Ahoy!

I am back from my short vacation! I must say, it felt good to be with family, enjoying the cool weather, good food and lots of sleep! While it was a nice break from “cake-ing”, I still had cake/s on my mind! For example, this last cake that I made before I left for my trip. I can’t NOT blog about this one! Even before she got pregnant, I had promised my friend, Gina, that I will be making her baby shower cake, christening cake and first birthday cake. So when she announced she was expecting, I was beyond excited for her and to be doing her cake! Drawing inspiration from the bedding set they picked, we threw her a nautical theme shower, with lots of red, navy blue and white colors!

I made her a 2-tier fondant cake, decorated with fondant accessories or cutouts. I made the bear topper from gumpaste, as well as the boat and flag. Her husband wanted to incorporate a pirate theme, so I added on the pirate hat and patch on the bear. Top tier is a 6-inch round yellow cake with pineapple filling; bottom tier is a 10-inch round white almond sour cream cake with raspberry cream cheese filling.

nautical theme cake with a hint of pirate

 

the dessert spread

 

close up of the pirate bear

 

driftwood sign

 

Stay tuned for more cakes! Coming up in the next couple of months is a rehearsal dinner cake and first birthday cake.

Will you be my Valentine?

This Valentine’s Day, I did not have any time to make any yummy treats as I’m gearing for another cake project due this weekend. But I would like to share these delicious cupcakes that I made for a pre-Valentine  bake sale/dinner fundraiser. They are amaretto cupcakes with raspberry frosting.

It’s a purse…no, it’s a cake!

No, really, it’s a cake. When my friend and former co-worker asked me to make a cake for her daughter’s 26th birthday, I instantly came up with the purse cake idea. Because women love purses, right? I know I do! So I did some research on how to make this 3D cake and I came across this tutorial on Cake Central. http://cakecentral.com/a/purse-cake.

I used an 8-inch round pan, trimmed 1 side to make a level surface to allow the cake to rest on the cake board. The birthday girl loves raspberries, so I made a white cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting, covered in MMF. Then I added the quilting detail using the Wilton quilting tool. The zipper was made with a cake comb. And to complete the look, I made a lady shoe out of gumpaste. I found this tutorial on here: http://rosesen.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/gumpaste-shoe-tips-and-template/

This is definitely one cake I can cross off of my “to-do” list for cakes.

Baby shower cakes

When my friend, Jessica, was expecting her sweet baby girl, we threw her an owl-themed baby shower. I naturally volunteered to make her cake as I wanted to get as much practice as I can get. At that time, I had just started Wilton course 3 and had just learned how to work with fondant. So this was my first fondant cake. I searched on etsy for an owl cake topper…and I can’t believe how much fondant toppers cost! The one that I liked was $28. There was no way I was gonna spend more money on a topper than I would on the ingredients of the cake. So I decided to make my own, with inspiration from etsy. The topper is made of 1/2 fondant, 1/2 gumpaste mix. The cake is chocolate with chocolate filling and buttercream frosting covered in MMF.

 

 

Another opportunity to make a baby shower cake came up when my friend, Anna, was expecting her baby boy. During the countless hours I spend on the net browsing for cake designs and techniques, I’ve seen many cakes that have cute bear toppers on them. I have watched and learned from this video tutorial on how to make one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWIgExfSegU. So I decided to go with a bear theme. I also added the quilt to make the top of the cake more interesting.

 

First birthday cakes

I have had 2 opportunities to make a 1st birthday cake for 2 special girls. The first one is a button cake, inspired by the party theme, “Cute as a button”. Her mom, Sara, wanted an 8-inch cake with buttercream frosting and fondant buttons. the cake is chocolate with chocolate filling.

My friend, Anna, asked me to make a cake for her niece and told me I had free rein with the design. I have always wanted to do bows and stripes on cakes. I haven’t done a gumpaste bow since I did my Wilton course 3 class. I used 1/2 fondant and 1/2 gumpaste mixture to make the bow and let it air dry for a week. I decided to make a fondant candle to go in the center of the bow. Here is the final product:

chocolate cake with peanut butter filling

A castle fit for a princess

Bottom- 12 inch square marble cake with choc filling
Top-8 inch round yellow cake with pineapple filling

 

So for her 3rd birthday, my daughter wanted a blue “house cake”. I have been wanting to do a castle cake ever since I came across this tutorial: http://cakeboss.com/CastleTutorial.aspx. So I excitedly jumped on this opportunity! This was definitely a labor of love. I can’t remember how many hours I spent on this cake. I made the turrets as they showed it in the tutorial. I just modified the cone parts a bit. Instead of wrapping it with a sheet of fondant, I decided to go with the fish scale design by cutting fondant circles and laying it on the cone so that each piece slightly overlapped the other. I was inspired by this cake:

http://www.uniquecreationsbymel.com

I made a 2-tier cake, a 12-inch square cake for the bottom  and 8-inch round cake for the top. The whole cake is covered in MMF and used buttercream icing for the grass.

Superhero cake

A mom approached me about making her 4-year old twins’ birthday cake. The theme? A Batman/Spiderman cake. I was definitely feeling up for the challenge. She sent me a couple of different pictures, and the  final cake is a combination of both designs. She wanted a 2-tier cake covered with buttercream with fondant accents/decorations. I would say the trickiest part of this project was stacking the top tier on the bottom tier. Since it’s frosted in buttercream, you have to be really careful not to mess up the frosting. And the other tricky part is laying the spider web fondant strips.

Not shown in the pic, but this was topped with Batman and Spiderman figurines to complete the look

 

Meeska…Mooska…Mickey Mouse!

Of all the cakes that I made, this is one of my favorites. My friend’s son turned 2 years old last October, so as a gift, I made him this 2-tier cake. He loves Mickey Mouse, and I came across this design which was perfect for him! The Mickey hat was made of styrofoam ball, cut in half, and covered with black fondant. The ears were made of fondant/gumpaste mixture, secured into the hat with skewers. Mickey’s feet were rice krispies covered with yellow fondant.

Middle layer is yellow cake with pineapple filling, bottom layer is chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse filling.

My love for shoes…

Baby shoes, that is. Ever since I saw these cakes decorated with baby booties, I’ve been obsessed with them. I’ve watched video tutorials online and just waited for the perfect opportunity to make them. So when one of my friends had her daughter’s christening, I offered to make her cake. The booties are made of 1/2 fondant, 1/2 gumpaste and were fairly easy to make. Here’s the template that I used:

So the cake is chocolate with chocolate filling, covered with marshmallow fondant (MMF).

The second cake that I made with baby booties (converse shoes) is for a co-worker’s baby shower. Once again, it’s made of 1/2 fondant, 1/2 gumpaste (to give it some structure). Here’s a tutorial that I found very helpful:

http://bronniebakes.com/2012/05/14/how-to-make-baby-converse-shoes-from-fondant/

Fish-themed cake

 

After a few months of doing the Wilton classes, one of my co-worker’s wife approached me about making a cake to celebrate various family members’ August birthdays. Her grandson picked out the theme…fish! She wanted a sheet cake in buttercream that reflects the chosen theme. At first, I was stumped! I immediately started doing my research online for designs, hoping to get some inspiration. After a few hours of scouring the web, I gave up. Most cakes that I found were 3D Nemo cakes, which at that time, I was not prepared for! I didn’t have the skills to make 3D cakes. As I was about to call it a night, I puttered around the house for a little bit, cleaning up after my kids’ mess…and there it was! I found the design for my fish cake…in my kids’ sealife jigsaw puzzle!

This cake is yellow cake with 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 raspberry filling, frosted in buttercream with fondant decorations.