Thursday, May 26, 2011

Graduation Cake

I was asked to do this cake 2 days before the graduation party, which isn't a huge deal since I work very well under pressure.  The cake was made for one of the graduates of my school, Van Topping.  The theme of the cake was football, Auburn University, Navy, and guns.  The anchor proved to be somewhat difficult because I didn't have a lot of time to let it dry.  Also, creating the navy-colored fondant was also difficult.  It started out as a royal blue, I mixed a little black fondant in, and then I continued to mix more royal blue food coloring until I achieved the right color.  I didn't think it would ever turn out. The gun, which I modeled after my husband's Taurus, was added at the last minute.   I was very pleased with the finished product.  Congratulations Van!!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Dr. Seuss Baby Cake

I absolutely love doing cakes that are different.  This cake was for Heather Steele's Baby Shower.  Her nursery theme was Dr. Seuss so I decided to make a Dr. Seuss cake.  The phrase I used was " A person's a person no matter how small" (Horton Hears a Who)  The top hat was a 6" 4-layer cake and the bottom was a 12" 3 layer cake.  I had so much fun with this unique cake!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Princess Cake

Happy 2nd Birthday Sydney!!  I asked Sydney what kind of cake she wanted.  She first insisted on Buzz and Woody, but as soon as the movie "Tangled" came out she wanted a princess cake.  I worked very quickly on this cake because I had only a couple of days to get it done.  With the help of some plastic wands from Hobby Lobby this cake turned out very well and Sydney loved it!

Pink John Deere

A very sweet girl in my class - Katelyn, is a farm girl through and through!  She wanted a pink john deere cake, so I decided to try my hand at sculpting a john deere from rice crispy treats.  It turned out better than I ever thought!  She and her mom were so excited! This was such a fun cake to make.

80's Themed Birthday

I definitely forgot to take a picture of my cake before it arrived at the party.  This cake was easy to make with the exception of the paint splatters.  1st trial: liquid fondant - FAIL!  2nd trial - royal icing - SUCCESS!!  The colors were definitely neon - they almost glowed in the dark.  I was very pleased with the results!

Whimsy Birthday

Not only was this Dr. Seuss's Birthday, but it was also my friend, Jen's birthday.  I tried to make it somewhat whimsy just because of the occassion!  What a nice treat in the middle of the school day!

Paisly and Circles

I made this cake for another girl in my school, however, she wanted to help me with it.  I allowed her to watch me make most of it, but she helped me cut out the circles and ice part of it.  The paisly print was from a design I found on the internet.  The "A" once again was from a font on the computer.  This was probably one of my favorite (as far as looks) cakes!

Hot Zebra Cake

Another one of the girls in my school asked me to make a cake with zebra stripes and hot pink and orange.  She gave me a sketch of what she wanted and I definitely enjoyed making this cake.  I again used a font from Microsoft Word to do the numbers and letters on her cake.  She and I was very pleased with the results. - Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Black and Pink Polka dots

I made this cake for one of the sweetest girls in our school - Hannah Sanford.  The only specifications she gave me was black and pink polka dots, so I went with it!  For the 14, I printed off the numbers from Microsoft Word and traced them onto gumpaste.  The circles behind the 14 were challenging to get to stand up because the wire wasn't thick enough.  (Another trial and error situation!)  This was also the first time making a bow and it proved to be pretty easy - Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Church picnic

We had a church picnic and all of the women were asked to bring a dessert.  So I decided to bring a picnic table and all of the food as well!  The hardest part of this table was painting all of those tiny squares with red icing.  The hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks and condiments were relatively easy to make.  All in all, this turned out better than expected.

Froggy and Pond

This was my last cake for my fondant and gumpaste class.  The cake originally did not include the frog, but my instructor talked me into making one.  She let me borrow a clay magazine for the structure of the frog.  I was hesitant about making it at first but it turned out really well.  All of the flowers were made out of fondant and gumpaste combined.  Flowers are probably one of my favorite things to make!

It's a Boy!

This cake was made for a lady in my church.  Stacking cakes made with just buttercream has been one the most challenging things to do.  There is no possible way to stack them without messing up the bottom tier!  The letter were traced and cut out of gumpaste and I bought the baby from hobby lobby.

Happy 4th!

I made this cake for one of our church gatherings.  This was a quick job, however, I thought that making those tiny stars would never end.  I also got this idea from one of my Wilton magazines.

It's a Girl!

I found this idea in one of my Wilton Cake magazines and decided to duplicate it with a few of my own touches.  The basket weave was a first for me, but it turned out very nice.  The baby head was actually pretty challenging because I had to use a cone-shaped cake pan for this and shave it into a ball. This was the first cake I can say I was truly proud of.

Baseball Field Cake

Happy Birthday to Colby and Jeremy!  After learning a few techniques using buttercream, I tried my hand at this cake.  I used a square cake pan and a soccer ball pan for the baseball.  My husband helped me with the lines because I had no idea where they went!  With the exception of a few stress cracks in the icing, I was very pleased with the results.

Sydney's First Cake

This cake was definitely a challenge.  I had never made a cake before and using the internet, I wanted to give it a try.  I rolled out the fondant on our glass table using powdered sugar.  Boy, did I make a huge mess; and to add to all of this stress, when I put the fondant on the cake a couple of holes formed.  All in all, I learned a few things about what not to do.  The end result wasn't too bad and Sydney did enjoy her first Birthday cake - Happy 1st Sydney Pie!