Kai-Lan Figurine Workshop

This morning I held my first workshop on creating a Kai-Lan figurine using modeling chocolate and rice krispy treats (RKT).  What fun creating sugar art together with others and teaching them my technique.

The lesson plan:
1) How to make modeling chocolate
2) How to prepare and make RKT
3) How to make a Kai-Lan figurine

Adding the little details

 A modeling chocolate figurine on the left, the toy model on the right - perfect!

SugarSweet Students (the 2nd, tiny, figurine from the left is a toy used as a model)

They all did a marvelous job and 3 hours later, I had 3 happy girls each with a Kai-Lan figurine to take home and use as a cake topper...or to just eat up.

Thank you girls!

Korean Hanbok Dol Cake

A very cute cake for such a cutie, Olivia.  My cousins best friend's daughter was turning 1 and celebrating it with a traditional Korean 1st Birthday Party.  The mom asked for a figurine of her daughter, Olivia over a 6-inch cake while my cousin baked the cupcakes to go with them.  She sent me a couple pictures of Olivia's outfit, a traditional Hanbok dress and hat in silk with flowers and butterflies.

3 inch tall Hanbok Dol Figurine (modeling Chocolate)

Olivia's Hanbok Dress, close up of details on sleeve and Hanbok Hat

I made the figurine out of modeling chocolate and she stands at 3 inches tall.  Some of the details were added in MMF and some in modeling chocolate.   The flowers on her shirt and sleeves were painted in with gel colors and the skirt was dusted in red luster dust to look like silk.

I used a 6 inch popsicle stick and stuck half of it into a 6-inch cake dummy to help with getting the sizing correct then built up the dress to look like the outfit in the photo.

Making the stripes for the sides of the cake to match the ones on the sleeves

The cake was sectioned off with 3 sets of stripes that matched the ones on her sleeves.  I made the stripes separately by color attaching them side by side with a little bit of water over a flat surface.  I then cut each set of stripes down to the height of the cake and attached them to the side of the cake - repeating the pattern 3 times around.

6 inch IMBC covered cake (upside down method)

To get the tall, straight sides with IMBC (ganache or BC), I use the upside down method and you can find more info about it here:

- Baptism Cake (square and round cake covered in IMBC including more links to other posts)

In between each set of stripes, I added butterflies, vines, and flowers to match the ones on her shirt and hat.  The butterflies were made using a PME Plunger and dusted/painted with various colors of petal dust and luster dust.  The blossoms were made using various blossom cutters.  The red/white flower was made using 3 different sized scalloped circle cutters - a larger one for the back petal, 2 medium circles for the middle, and 2 small ones for the bottom that are curling over (a left petal and a right petal).  With no professional flower making knowledge, I improvised and came up with my own interpretation of the flower and painted the petals with gel colors in white and red - they matched the ones on the dress perfectly!

photo courtesy of Stacy C.

Since my cousin was baking 3 dozen cupcakes and to have them match the cake, we got together a few days before and with their help, we made just over 5 dozen butterflies and 5 dozen blossoms.  They were used to top 3 dozen cupcakes with and displayed next to the Cake...Gluten Free Banana Cake with Cream Cheese IMBC. 

Cream Cheese IMBC:  I used my basic recipe for IMBC found here (under the Music Themed 80th Birthday Cake post) but added 1/2 dram of Cream Cheese LorAnn Oil to it.  For the filling, I beat some cream cheese until light and fluffy then mixed some IMBC into it.   I got the recipe idea from Jennifer, www.fromscratchsf.wordpress.com.  She also shared some really nice tips about making SMBC that you can also apply to making IMBC - I used her method at the very end with adding the butter in with the mixer on VERY LOW and it turned out perfect and was so much faster - I'll be doing this from now on!  See links below...

- Jennifer Bratko's SMBC Recipe and tips

- Jennifer Bratko's Cream Cheese SMBC Recipe

Workshop: How to Make a Kai-Lan Cake Topper

I'll be teaching my 1st class/workshop on how to make a Kai-Lan cake topper out of modeling chocolate.

When: 9:00-11:00 am on Sat, March 19th, 2011

Where: Aliso Viejo, CA (exact address will be provided with RSVP)

Cost: $45 includes all supplies - all you need to bring is a box to bring her home in.

How to sign up:

1) through Facebook, it's posted as an event under www.facebook.com/sugarsweetcakesandtreats

(http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188344201198610)

2) by emailing me at: sugarsweetcakesandtreats@gmail.com

Space is limited - RSVP due Thursday, March 11th.

Kai-Lan Beach Themed Cake Decorations

Decorations for a beach themed cake.  I made Kai-Lan and Yeye out of modeling chocolate and everything else is made out of MMF:  Rintoo (Tiger), Hoho (Monkey with sunglasses), Tolee (Koala bear that thinks he's a panda), a Hula Duck, Mr. Sun and his little, tickle-me Sun Fuzzies, Seashells, Starfish, and an assortment of Flowers.

Kai-Lan stands at almost 2.5 inches tall and Yeye is about 4 inches tall.

They each have 1 popsicle stick for support and to also stick into the cake with.  Their heads are made out of RKT (Rice Krispie Treats) since they were very large and needed to be light weight.  I covered the RKT directly with modeling chocolate:  Modeling chocolate is great at filling in all the groves and rivets from the cereal treats.  The tiny features such as Yeye's hair, eyeglasses, eyes and the Kai-Lan's apple printed bathing suit are made out of MMF (Marshmallow Fondant).

Each character was hand cut of of MMF and I used gel colors to paint in the white highlights in the eyes and on Hoho's (Monkey) sunglasses and the brown stripes on Rintoo (Tiger).  I have a tutorial on how to make these cutout characters here (Making Fondant Cutouts).

I loved making these - Ni Hao Kai-Lan is such a cute show and the characters are so adorable!

Xie Xie (thank you)!

Photo courtesy of Doris R.

Tifa Lockhart Cake Topper

Tifa Lockhart is a character from the Final Fantasy VII video game.  I recreated her out of modeling chocolate and she stands at about 6.5 inches tall.

The most difficult part was trying to get her to look tall, thin and curvy without being too fragile so she would survive the shipment to her destination a few states away.  I started with her legs using popsicle stick in each leg that ended at her hips for support.  I also added a 3rd popsicle stick that started in between the 2 sticks at her hips and went up through her head.  She's entirely made out of modeling chocolate.

I basically built her up 1st in the flesh tone adding the curves and angles then over that, added the clothing.  I dusted pearl dust around her gloves, tank top, and shoes and her cheeks were dusted lightly in pink pearl dust.

As much of a challenge as it was to recreate such a human looking vidoe-game figurine for the 1st time and making it entirely out of sugar, I really loved how she turned out.

Hello Kitty Cupcake Decorations (and Amazing Mold Putty)

I made these cupcake decorations for a friend and had them shipped across the country.  She was baking some cupcakes for her daughter's birthday and using these to top them with.

The sitting Hello Kitty is 2" tall and was made out of modeling chocolate and used to top the birthday girls cupcake with - loved how she turned out!  I dusted her dress and pink bow and ribbon with some luster dust to add some shimmer.

For the bows, I tried something different and for the 1st time, made my own mold.

I hand sculpted a large bow (1-inch wide) and a small bow (5/8-inches wide) using Sculpey III Polymer Clay (see photo above, clay pieces are on the left).  Baked them in the oven for a couple minutes to get rock hard then molded some Amazing Mold Putty (found at Michael's Arts & Crafts) over them to make a silicone mold.  Once the mold was cured, I popped out the clay bows and had a perfect mold to use (see photo above, yellow rectangles).  I just pressed some MMF into the mold, popped them right out and dusted them with some shimmer dust.  So much time saved over hand cutting each one out - I love this stuff and they turned out perfectly!

I used various petal cutters to cut out the flowers in an assortment of colors and sizes and made 8 cupcake toppers using a 2-inch round cutter.  To make the Hello Kitty faces, I used a 1 1/2 inch round cutter, shaped it into an oval and added some of the bows I had made using the mold and the other features with MMF.

Everything was packaged very carefully and shipped across the country arriving all in tact!  Phew!  Here's a picture she sent me with the decorations on the cupcakes - so cute!

Photo courtesy of Holly K.

Toy Story Cake and Cupcakes

I loved making this cake!  7 Toy Story characters:  Woody, Jessie, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky the Dog, Buttercup the Unicorn, Ham the Piggy Bank, and Rex the Dinosaur.  Plus, 2 dozen assorted cupcake toppers, 2 cubes with their ages on it, a wood grained board, a name banner, a bracelet, and Happy Birthday piped in the Walt Disney font...phew!

Woody's and Jessie's head and torso were modeled using RKT (Rice Krispy Treats) and the recipe I used can be found here under the Barney and Friends Cake as well as under the How to Make Modeling Chocolate post.  They were then covered in modeling chocolate and molded into shape by hand.  Modeling chocolate works wonderfully in filling in all the grooves and creveses from the RKT and at the same time, gives you a smooth surface and easy surface to mold and model.

 

The bodies were covered in modeling chocolate then decorated with MMF mixed with Tylose.  The stripes on Woody's shirt were painted with gel paste food color mixed with almond extract (you can use vodka).  I used bamboo skewers down the body and into the dummy to dry (and into the cake later) to help support them in place.

 

Woody's boots were hand molded (I made it up as I did them trying to find a way to make them light weight since they were going to be attached to the side of the cake...They turned out and worked perfectly).  Woody's legs slid right into the boots and I used clear piping gel to attach it to the legs and up against the cake.

I also made 24 Cupcake Toppers using a 1.5" round biscuit cutter.  These were done 3 days prior to allow plenty of time to dry hard.

Made Mr. Potato Head piece by piece with MMF mixed with Tylose...same thing with each of the other characters.

Covered the board with MMF.  I marbled MMF in different shades of tan and brown then cut it out into 3" wide panels and laid them side by side to look like a wooden floor.  Once it was all dried, I dusted it with Dogwood Brown Petal Dust to give it more depth which you can see in the final photo below in the assembled cake.  I also have another post about wood panels named, Wine Bottle in a Crate Cake.

 

The red tier is a RKT rather than a cake since they originally didn't need much cake (4 days before the due date, we added 2 dozen additional cupcakes and I just kept the top tier as a RKT).  The top tier is also covered in Red MMF made with candy melts.  See post called, Red Marshmallow Fondant.

I was not happy with how the blue MMF on the bottom tier turned out.  It was very humid and the pieces were rather heavy.  I had covered the cake and let it sit for about 4 hours before decorating it but it was still really soft and the decorations stretched the MMF and made it look saggy and wrinkly - I had never had this happen before and was really bummed out (the back of the cake looked perfect).  Luckily the cubes were placed on either side of Mr. Potato Head and helped to disguise it a little bit.  The cubes were made with RKT and covered also in modeling chocolate.

The cake was a 9" round Chocolate/Vanilla marbled Sour Cream Cake filled with Oreo Buttercream.  The top tier was a 6" round RKT.  Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes were topped with Oreo Buttercream.


Recipe:  Oreo Buttercream is one of my favorite.  Just take Oreo Cookies, scrape off the cream center and crumble the cookie in a food processor (the more cookies you use the stronger the flavor).  Fold into your buttercream or IMBC/SMBC, spread and enjoy!

Tip:  I also crumb coat the entire cake with the Oreo Cookie Buttercream then add a final layer of plain buttercream over it (as you can see in the photo above) so that any crumbs of the cookie won't show through the MMF - you don't have to worry about any "chunks" showing through.  For tips and photo's on how to get the tall, straight sides and really flat tops, see my post named, Covering a Cake in Ganache.  I use this same technique with buttercream, IMBC, and ganache.