A few week ago, I got to make such an adorable cake for my Dad's friend. I was given a picture of the invitation and given free reign to do as I wished for the cake and cupcakes - LOVE IT! My favorites cakes are always the ones that I get to design and create and it's, for the most part, a total secret until delivery. Type A and OCD-me would go insanely crazy if you were to do this to me, but when it's the other way around, I thrive on the unknown and love the surprise factor. But, I do spend hours upon hours sketching and contemplating the design for days upon days too and usually, well, nearly always, change up something about it during the process.
The invitation design is so cute and one that you can find on Etsy by Note-able Chic. I fell in love with the invitation and was completely inspired.
 |
| Baby Shower Invitation by Note-able Chick (Etsy.com) |
I made 2 dozen cupcakes and a 6 inch round cake to match the invite. There was so much involved with making everything for the cake and with staying up late (into the wee hours of the morning) working on it, I didn't get a chance to take photos of each step but here are the few that did make it into the camera.
Making the Marshmallow Fondant (MMF):
1) To make the Yellow MMF, I used Americolor Electric Yellow Soft Gel Paste
2) To make the Black MMF, I used Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and AmeriColor Super Black Gel Paste. Follow my steps HERE on how to make MMF using Candy Melts (super easy to get dark colors with). You can use Black Candy Melts too but it also works with using any type of brown chocolate. If you really take notice, the Black Candy Melts is really a dark brown so don't fret if you can't find any. Any brown chocolate will work.
The Baby Carriage:
Cake Fixation has a lovely tutorial on how to create the carriage that you can follow HERE. So I basically followed her instructions and then made my own modifications. For starters, the piece of Styrofoam I used was very soft so I ended up taping it a couple times in shipping tape to keep in all together and since I couldn't "stab" the 18 gauge wire into it, I taped up all the wiring around the base of the stroller using lots of tape all over the place to make sure nothing moved and everything was secure and in place before covering in fondant.
Cake Fixation has a lovely tutorial on how to create the carriage that you can follow HERE. So I basically followed her instructions and then made my own modifications. For starters, the piece of Styrofoam I used was very soft so I ended up taping it a couple times in shipping tape to keep in all together and since I couldn't "stab" the 18 gauge wire into it, I taped up all the wiring around the base of the stroller using lots of tape all over the place to make sure nothing moved and everything was secure and in place before covering in fondant.
 |
| Baby Stroller structure - all taped and secure. |
 |
I covered the entire stroller with back MMF that I attached to the stucture with piping gel. I then added the stripes separately using Jessica Harris' (JessiCakes) technique found HERE. To get the perfect shape I needed for the canopy, I lay a piece of paper over the canopy and outlined the shape and used it as a template (see the polka dot piece above, it was sort of an "eye" shape).
+b.JPG)
To get the polka dots on the canopy to look smooth, I added the yellow dots onto the black fondant, then rolled it out flat before trimming it to size and attaching it to the stroller with piping gel.
 |
The flying bees are sitting inside coffee stirs inside the cake.
 |
The Wheels:
I cut out the tire ring using 2 round piping tips close in size (1 to cutout the outside, another to cutout the middle). I then added the spokes so that they fit snugly inside the tire ring and punched a hole in the middle with a #1 piping tip. Brushed it all over in a thin layer of water front and back a couple times throughout the evening to make sure the MMF melted and fused to each other so they wouldn't come apart on me once dry. You could also use gum-glue or tylose glue for this but water works fine too.
|
 |
The Finished Stroller:
I painted the legs and handle with black gel colors and then bent the bottom 1 inch of the stroller legs so that they pointed straight down into the cake and not at a 45 degree angle. Since the wires were not long enough to support the stroller securely, I pushed coffee stirs straight down into the cake and wrapped up the bottom part of the wire with an extra layer of floral tape to make them thicker and fit snugly into the coffee stirs - the stroller didn't budge and wasn't going anywhere: It was as snug as a bug!
I then attached the wheels to the sides of the stroller legs using black royal icing and added the little baby head and hands. Notice, I added lashes and a red bow to the baby to make it girlie vs. what the actual invitation had (all the little details really do make a difference).
|
 | |
Bumble Bees:
I made a couple bumble bees out of fondant (mixed the MMF with some tylose) and lay the bees with wings over various piping tips to dry so that they would have a natural curve to them. Used thin wire wrapped in floral tape for the antennas that I later painted with black gel colors.
The wings, once dried, were painted over with piping gel that I thinned out with vodka and sprinkled with Rainbow Disco Dust. I also brushed the entire body with yellow luster dust.
|
 |
Damask Toppers:
This was my very first time using a stencil and I was honestly stressed out on how I was going to do black royal icing over white fondant - it's so unforgiving and unfixable if it doesn't work. So, I Googled for help and found that Lesley from Royal Bakery wrote up the most informative tutorial on how to Damask a cake. See it HERE through her Facebook Page. The stencil I used is by Designer Stencils (link below). I did practice on a couple pieces of fondant first before attempting it on white: Roll out the fondant, rub it lightly with shortening to help the stencil stick to it (and help seal the stencil tightly against the fondant) then spread black royal icing over it, scrape off excess, carefully lift stencil off, allow to dry for about 10 minutes then use a round cutter to cutout the topper with. Phew! They turned out so lovely and I love the contrast between the black and white.
|
Here is the link to the Damask Stencil I used:
Black Royal Icing:
To get the royal icing really black, I always make it at least 1 day ahead to give it time to mature and darken. Make your Royal Icing...
1) Add a couple drops of AmeriColor Super Black Gel Paste
2) A drop of Americolor Burgundy Gel Paste
3) And a drop of Americolor Royal Blue Gel Paste
Black alone has a slight green shade to it and the burgundy helps remove the green while blue helps deepen the black. Hope that makes sense. It took some experimenting but this works for me every time without fail.
Rather than repeat what other great Cake Decorators have done already and explained so well, below are some links to some tutorials you can check out and also a quick recap on everything I did...
Cupcakes:
1) Damask pattern made with, Designer Stencils Damask Cake Tier #2 Cake Stencil
. Used Royal Bakery's Facebook tutorial to find out how to use a stencil.
. Used Royal Bakery's Facebook tutorial to find out how to use a stencil.
2) "baby" stamped lettering made with, FMM Lower Case Block Alphabet Tappit Cutters Set
3) Handmade Bees - I need to make a tutorial on this one day for you all. I tried to use my iPhone to record a tutorial but it was bad, really bad. I need to borrow my brothers camcorder one day and make you all a real video. It'll be a first for me and we'll see how that works out.
4) Yellow/Black stripes on the bows were made by following JessiCakes Striping Tutorial. The actual folding of the bows was made by using Royal Bakery's YouTube tutorial, Satin Fondant Bow.
5) Smooth Polka Dot Toppers: I rolled out the fondant, added the polka dots to it, rolled it out again so the dots are flushed with the rest of the fondant, then cutout the circles using a Double Sided Round Biscuit Cutter
.6) Lately, I've been flat-top-icing the cupcakes (not sure on the exact term used) and I'm loving this look. I fill the cupcake liners 1/2 way with batter so they don't grow taller than the actual liner. I then fill the tops of the cupcakes with buttercream and with an offset spatula, scrape off the extra frosting straight across the top of the liner. Add a small swirl of buttercream to the middle of the cupcake about 1 inch tall and top with the toppers - I just prefer to have the toppers "floating" above the top rim of the liners. The toppers should be made a couple days prior to allow plenty of time for them to dry flat and hard.
Cake:
1) Baby Carriage Topper made by using Cake Fixation's, "How to Make A Stroller Cake Topper" tutorial.
2) The white bee wings and white scalloped circle on the cake were brushed in piping gel thinned out with vodka and sprinkled with Rainbow Disco Dust. I used a Double Sided Round Biscuit Cutter
for the white, round, disk on the side of the cake. 3) The "baby" stamped lettering was made by using, FMM Lower Case Block Alphabet Tappit Cutters Set
4) Petal Ruffle along the bottom border will be a tutorial coming soon. I was trying to come up with something different rather than leaving it plain or using ribbon or piping something around it and after playing around a bit, came up with the ruffles. I think they worked perfectly on the cake - don't you think?
Well, that's it for now at least. The year's almost over and hopefully, LIFE won't have me super busy so I can do a better job keeping up my blog. I'm so sorry for being MIA for so long and thank you all for sticking by me during my absence.
Happy Holidays! Ya know, Christmas will be here before you know it.
+b.jpg)
