Polka Dot Baby Shower Cake

A small, baby shower cake decorated in polka dots, ribbon roses and a baby girl for a friend’s co-worker. She had given me a picture of a cake that she wanted which happened to be from the locally famous, Cinderella Cakes. She wanted it to be pretty much the same except for the baby to be sitting, with green eyes, and a side pony tail of brown hair…plus, a binky in its mouth. I modeled the sitting baby after a photo of my daughter when she was barely able to sit using her arms to help hold her body up. The face was a challenge! 3 hours and 3 faces later, I finally had one I was happy with. After trying the make the face a 2nd time, I finally pulled up in front of the computer, and looked over some of Lorraine McKay's figures and alas, I had a face…why did I not do this, 2 hours ago! Her figures are remarkably beautiful and a true inspiration.

Here is face #1, at least the start of it, by the time I got the eyes in and the hair, it didn’t go well with what I was trying to do. Face #2 (no picture) was just way too simple and cartoon-looking. Face #3, perfect!

For the roses, I used a video posted by Rouvelee Ilagan to help figure out how to make them. Although I didn’t have a pasta roller, I used my rolling pin to roll the fondant out as thin as possible, folded the top half over then rolled up the roses. I also cut up some leaves free hand, pinched in the bottom half and lay them over an empty paper towel tube covered in parchment paper to dry them with a slight curve. I then dusted them with a little bit of petal dust and steamed them to set. These roses were pretty simple, fast, and fun to do.

The cakes were small, a 6” and 4” round: Vanilla-lemon cake with lemon mousse filling and lemon buttercream. They were then covered in MMF. The white polka dot border and lettering were piped with royal icing....Welcome Baby Isabella!

1st Communion Cake with Rosary and Chalice

I really love how this cake turned out. I came up with 3 sketches for my husband’s coworker who had an 8 year old daughter that wanted me to make her 1st Communion Cake….I was so honored and with only a week’s notice and a trip to DC in the middle of it, I couldn’t resist. Luckily, she picked my 1st and favorite design so I was super excited about making it. The cake was a 9” round white almond sour cream cake filled with white chocolate mousse, covered in white chocolate Ganache then marshmallow fondant.

I made the chalice using a little plastic cup as a mold and the stem was made into 2 separate pieces. Once it was all dry, I dusted the chalice in pearl luster dust to give it some shine. I also filled the chalice with 3 Communion Bread’s made from gumpaste.

The pink and white blossoms were made wit a 5 petal cutter in 3 different sizes. I used a diamond candy mold to hold each blossom as they dried….worked perfectly. Once dried, I dusted each with luster dust in both pearl and pink.

My favorite part was the Rosary that wrapped around the entire cake. I piped each bead with royal icing then painted them with pearl luster dust. I had not done any type of swag design before and worried about the spacing of each section being even so I drew up a template to help me get everything perfectly and evenly placed around the cake (I do admittedly confessthat I am a bit OCD-ish).

The cake sat over a square baseboard covered in a very light pink fondant and adorned with a pink ribbon. I also added some blossoms to the board to dress it up a bit. I was extremely happy with how beautiful the cake turned out and hoped she enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it…couldn’t help but think back to my 1st Holy Communion and at how special that day was.

I did remember to take some step by step pictures of the cake being covered in Ganache which I’ll post later. I love working with Ganache so much better than buttercream under fondant…It also tastes divinely delicious!

Easter Birthday Cake

Just 1 year ago this month, I began my crazy and addictive cake decorating adventure. Prior to April 2009, I had made a total of 8 cakes (1 for my brother the rest for my kids) over a span of 4 years…just an average of 2 cakes per year. Over the past 12 months, I have been very busy and made 17 cakes….Wow! I have learned so much over the past year and I hope to continue learning more. Thank you, all of you, who have supported me and given me the opportunity to decorate…please keep them coming!

This year, I did not get a chance to bake an Easter cake but here is the cake I made last year…the one that started it all. I did a ton of research online about making marshmallow fondant (MMF) as well as how to do the figures (see aine2 on YouTube – How to make fondant cheeky chicks). I must say, I love MMF. It has been wonderful to work with and tastes delicious. On my Facebook Fan Page under the Notes tab, I have my hints and tips to MMF. I’ll copy it over to my blog soon (updated 09/14/10 - it is now posted on my blog). I had my brother and cousin help with this cake. We have 6 family members with birthdays around Easter and combined all our birthdays together with the Easter celebration…Hoppy Birthday!

12" Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, covered in buttercream then MMF.  Decorated all in MMF.

Wine Bottle In A Crate Cake

My 1st blog and here I go...

My dad is from Portugal, loves drinking wine and just turned 60.  He knew I was making a cake for his birthday but did not have a clue as to the cake design.  He was completely surprised and couldn't believe the bottle wasn't real!  I felt a little bad in that the cake was getting more attention and was being photographed more than the birthday boy but in the end, I was extremely happy that they all loved it.  I learned a lot along the way for this being my 1st wine bottle and alas, below is the entire process documented as best as I could.  I have also included some tips so if you were to try making one, you can avoid making the little mistakes I made.

Step 1 - Make the wine bottle out of gumpaste or fondant at least 3 days ahead:

I used a real wine bottle as a mold that I dusted with corn starch to keep the fondant from sticking to it...a lot of corn starch.  I actually used MMF (marshmallow fondant) but I'll just "call" it fondant here for ease.  Kneaded some brown fondant with Tylose (helps it dry harder and faster), rolled it out to about 1/8" thick, then lay it over the top half of the wine bottle making sure there is plenty of corn starch between the fondant and bottle.  Smoothed out the fondant over the bottle and trimmed off the excess.

Tip 1:  be sure to trim it at the half way mark down the side of the bottle so that you can just slip the fondant off the bottle once dry.  You can make 2 halves separately then glue them together with sugar glue if you want a 3D bottle.

As you can see, my bottle was not very neat and I should have made a better effort at trimming the excess off straighter.

Tip 2:  Allow at least 2-3 days for drying time to avoid the fondant from losing its shape.

Inpatient as I was and just eager to see how the bottle was working out, I pulled the fondant off the bottle after only 1 day of dry time...and couldn't put it back onto the mold without risking it cracking.  It looked great...at 1st, but a few days later, the bottle warped a little along the edges and the neck curved a little to the right...I had to disguise the curve with careful placement of the grape leaves (our little secret but you can see it here in the picture).

Step 2 - Decorate the bottle:

The bottle was painted with clear piping gel tinted burgundy (AmeriColor Gel Paste).  My attempt at trying to get it to look glossy.  The piping gel was a little thick so I thinned it out with some almond extract which helped it go on smoother but you can see some of the brush strokes...there must be a better way.  You can also use Vodka instead of the almond extract.  I've heard of spraying edible lacquer to get it to shine but I didn't try to got out and find it.  For the label, I mixed burgundy and black gel colors with almond extract and hand painted the lettering.  I used a very thin brush and it took 2 hours just to get all the lettering painted...way too long but then again, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I wanted it to look as close to perfect as possible.  Half hour of it was spent on the silver since I had to keep layering it to get it to look solid and stand out nicely.

Tip 3:  I find with using straight black gel colors, it has a green tint to it but mixing it with a little burgandy gives you a deep, true black.

Step 3 - Make the wood panels for the box and for the base board at least 2 days ahead:

For the side panels of the box, I made 2 shades of fondant, a light brown and beige mixed with a little bit of yellow and red too to give it some variance.  Rolled each color out into a thick snake them twist them together and kneaded it a little bit until it started to marble.  Then rolled it out flat to around 3/16" thick.

Tip 4:  Don't knead too much or else the marble will blend away.  Rolling it out will help it marble more anyways.

Tip 5:  You don't want to roll it out too thin or else you risk the panels from breaking apart.

I cut out 4 panels:  2 panels at 14" x 4" and 2 panels at 6" x 4".  Layed them over parchment paper, then over a cookie tray to dry.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes to dry a little then take some tools and score lines down it, poke holes into it, dent it, etc...just stress it out and get it to look like wood.

Tip 6:  Letting the fondant sit for a couple minutes before scoring and marking it, it will help the design stay.  If you start scoring it too early while the fondant is too soft and pliable, the marks will smooth away.

As for the base board, I used a 14" x 14" marble tile since I knew I was going to get it back.  I washed it thoroughly, taped 4 play dough container lids to the bottom as feet (benefits of having kids and finding ways to reuse what I had...they worked perfectly), then covered the entire tile, top and bottom, with contact paper (the stuff you use to line your drawers with).  Although heavy, it was very solid and sturdy.

I used a dark, chocolate brown and marbled in the left over from the side panels.  I rolled it out and covered the board into 4 sections leaving the middle uncovered (14" x 6").  Used piping gel to help the fondant adhere to the board then let it sit for a few minutes before scoring and marking it up to look like wood.  After you are done, let it sit for at least 2 days to harden and dry completely.

Tip 7:  I should have cut the fondant into 2.5" wide panels and lay them in alternating rows to look more like a real floor where each panel's graining is unique.

Step 4 - Make the grape leaves at least 1 day ahead.

I made my own grape leaf stencil by sketching an outline on a sheet of paper then laid it over a piece of thinly rolled out green fondant (be sure to dust the back of the paper with corn starch to keep it from sticking to the fondant).  Then used a pointed tool to trace out the outline over the fondant.  Peeled off the paper, and then cut out the design.  I then used a very small, 1/2" star shaped cutter, to roughly stamp out the edges around each leaf.  Used a ball tool to smooth and slightly curl the edges over a cell pad, then laid the leaf over crinkled foil to dry.  I rolled out thin snakes of fondant for the twigs, twisted some around some pens and lay them over the foil to dry.  After they dried overnight, I dusted them with moss green and sunflower petal dust then steamed them for the color to stick and give it a little shine.

Step 5 - Bake, torte, fill, and crumb coat the cake 1 day ahead.

The side panels of the box were cut to make a box 14" L x 6" W x 4" H.  Since I had only a 9x13 pan, I baked 2 cakes then trimmed them down to 6" wide and used the extra to add to the length.  Torte each layer to 1-1/4" tall and filled with 1/2" of Mango Mousse = 3" tall cake.  I placed the cake over a 14"x6" board that was covered in foil.  Used piping gel to help the cake and board stick together.  Wrapped the cake up tightly in cling wrap then put in the fridge overnight for the mousse to set and the cake to settle.  The following day, I covered the cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC) using the board that the cake was sitting on as a guide to getting the correct size.  Put the cake back in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour for the IMBC to harden and make it easier to work with.  IMBC does not crust; it's just like butter where it is hard while cold but soft at room temperature.  I needed the IMBC to be hard so I can set the side panels on the cake and be able to take them off to trim them to size without taking the frosting off with it.

Step 6 - Final Assembly:

Use a very sharp blade to trim each panel to size and gently press up against the IMBC.  As the IMBC comes back to room temperature, the fondant will stick to it better.  Gently place the bottle in the middle and fill the area around it with white chocolate shavings.  Place grape leaves and twigs around using piping gel where needed to help it stay all stay in place....ta-da!

I'll never forget at how happy he was with his cake...Happy Birthday, Dad!