Little Mermaid Cake

I just love how my nieces Little Mermaid Cake turned out!

Below are some photo's of the Little Mermaid Cake.  It's hard to see it but I did brush the bottom half of the cake in blue petal dust to create the illusion of depth since the ocean does get darker the deeper you go -it's like a subtle ombre effect.  I also made the splashes around the tail fin by ruffling up some circles of fondant, lightly folding it in half then brushing the tips with white royal icing (brush embroidery method).  I then dusted some white glitter along the tips of the fin and water splashes and added pearl dust around some of the decorations.  The bubbles were painted on really lightly with white gel color diluted with vodka and the cutter used on the name were FMM Upper Case Tappit Cutters.

All the decorations were made using Wilton Fondant - A few months ago, I bought two, 5lb boxes at Michaels for really cheap and now wish I had bought more (they were on sale plus I had a coupon that was good on sale items - rare find).  I can see why Lesley from the Royal Bakery uses it for her cake decorations - it dries up quickly but gives you time to work on it - kind of like a mix of fondant and gumpaste.  I'm liking this stuff.  I still like covering my cakes with Marshmallow Fondant (recipe can be found along the tab above) - it tastes better and works for me.

I must have watched, The Little Mermaid over a million times when it first came out on VHS (and how it ages me) and I loved Sebastian singing his songs.  So for Sebastian (the little red, crab), I modeled him singing to Ariel in his catchy, big, deep voice...."Under the sea, Under the sea, Darling its better down where its wetter, take it from me"....

I made the Little Mermaid child-like since I figured it would fit better on a cake for a 3 year old.  She loved it.....I do....and I hope you do too!

Japanese Beetle Bug Cake (Tutorial)

My daughter's friend had a bug themed party and when asked to make a cake, I jump for joy suggesting a giant bug for a cake and that is exactly what I made....a big, creepy, Japanese Beetle Bug Cake.

The beetle is sitting on a 16-inch round board and its body measures to about 12 x 6 inches.  He's entirely made out of cake and decorated in fondant.  Here are some of the step-by-step photos of the process in making the cake:

Baked 2, 8-inch square cakes plus a cupcake for the bugs head.  Cut out the base of the cake out of a cake board and used it as a template to carve the basic outline of the beetle

Basic outline of the bug carved out of cake

I used a paper template from a coloring page of a Japanese Beetle to get the features just right on the cake.  Further carved the sides of the cake into shape.

Remove the template and eyeballed the rest of the features and carved out the roundness of the bugs body

Cover in ganache and let it sit overnight to set

After it sits out overnight, I pop the cake into the fridge for about half an hour to get firm so that I can handle it better.  I propped it up over a container so that as I add the fondant details, I can wrap it up under the cake to give it a more 3D look rather than have it sitting flat up on the cake board.  I lightly drew out the details on the cake with a scoring tool so that I can get a better feel of what I need to make.  The cake does form a small layer on condensation as it comes back to room temperature and it works to your advantage and helps the fondant stick to the ganache without needing to add anything extra.

Keep adding the details on the bug cake section by section.  As you can see, the cake is propped up over a rectangular container that fit under the bug's body.

The wings were the most difficult to get just right.  I must have spent a good hour shaping them.  I then let the cake rest for a couple hours so that the fondant can harden up a bit before painting in the details.

I then painted the wings with piping gel that I watered way down with vodka: I used a mix of chocolate brown, bright yellow and white gel colors.  I also painted the body of the bug the same way using a little bit of yellow to give it some texture and dimension.  The piping gel dries up leaving behind a glossy shell.

I used the coloring page as a reference to sculpt the beetle's legs with - I wrapped up a straw with black fondant and sculpted the details on it.  I used the same technique to create the tentacles.

All 6 bug legs made and left to dry overnight.  The tips of the straws sticking out is what I use to insert into the cake.  I used sugar glue (Tylose powder mixed with water) to help hold the legs into the cake.

Once the cake was assembled, I used white royal icing to brush the "fuzzy hair" around the sides and back of the bug.

 And that's it.  Hope you like it and didn't get too creeped out by it.

Japanese Beetle Bug Cake

(a view all around)

Doc McStuffins Cake

Disney has a new show perfect for little ones that want to grow up to be doctors just like Elizabeth does.  So for her 6th birthday, she wanted a Doc McStuffins themed party.  Here is the cake I made for her including some photos on how I made the Doc McStuffins figurine - she's made mostly out of gumpaste and her clothing is a mix of gumpaste and fondant.

I've been playing around with different ways to make faces and this has been my favorite technique thus far - I also used it on the Strawberry Shortcake Figurines I made a few weeks ago too.  Here are some step by step photos that I was able to capture....

I was digging through out my pantry looking for something to use for the inside of Doc McStuffins head.  I've used styrofoam balls before but kids, no matter how often you tell them not to bite into the head and that it's not edible, still manage to sneak in that bite.  I've also used rice krispie treats before but it was after midnight and I really didn't want to go through the entire process of making a tiny batch just for the head.  So alas, I found this tootsie roll pop in our candy stash - it was the perfect size!  Now the head is entirely edible except for the popsicle stick inside it - ha hah!

Step #1: Cover the Tootsie Roll Pop with fondant and mold it into a round ball.  Then add the features - forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin.

Step #2:  Cover the lollipop with a piece of skin-toned fondant, smooth out the seams along the back of the head (the hair will hide it) and mold in the features of the face.

Next Steps:  Define the nose, add the eyes, lips, and hair. Use a toothpick to add the freckles and dust the cheeks and eyelids with pink luster dust.

Note:  I like to use small sewing pins to hold up the fondant while it dries.  You can see one that I used with a yellow head for the bangs.  I also used 3 sewing pins to hold up the ruffles along the skirts bottom.  They work perfectly and only leave a tiny little pin hole behind.

Since this figurine needed to be 5 inches tall, I had to add another popsicle stick to the torso section.  I twisted the Tootsie Roll Lollipop stick around a longer popsicle stick and used white floral tape to keep it all held together and secure.  I then covered the entire mid-section with a piece of white gumpaste and built the clothing up over it.

From this stage forward, I forgot to take more photos of the process but hopefully you can see what was done.

We had cupcakes that I frosted with pink buttercream and I added a dash of glitter to make them sparkle.  I also made little pink fondant hearts and added them over some wafer cookies to look like bandaids.  The birthday girls mom setup the dessert table with little cups that held pink and white licorice candies that resembled pills and a glass canister that held large marshmallows to resemble cotton balls.  It was a super cute party!

 

(photo courtesy of Tuan Le)

(photo courtesy of Tuan Le)

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A Mad Hatter Tea Party (and Mad Hatter Cake #3)

Oh dear, here is one cake that I didn't get around to share with you all from last May - A Mad Hatter Hat Cake with a modeling chocolate figurine of the birthday girl.

A chocolate cake filled with strawberry Italian Meringue Buttercream
and covered in Chocolate Ganache dusted in green, brown and gold dust

Last May we made the 6 hour drive to San Jose to spend Easter with my cousin and to also help with her daughter's 10th birthday party.  It was the most amazing Mad Hatter Tea Party.

the girls huddled in front of the cake while eating some treats =)

This was the 3rd Mad Hatter Hat Cake that I've made and if you would like to see them, check out my previous blog posts here:

Mad Hatter Cake #1

Mad Hatter Cake #2

We also made a bunch of decorations to top the cupcakes with...
- Stacked teacups which I later filled with chocolate ganache
- Mad Hatter Hats with her birthdate
- Clocks with her birth time
- Eat-Me tags
- Ribbon Roses
- Clubs, Clovers, Hearts and Spades
- and butterflies

The chocolate cupcakes were frosted with a swirl of purple and pink Italian Meringue Buttercream and topped with an assortment of decorations.


We also made cake pops and skewers of fruit and placed them in tall vases stuffed with colorful tissue paper.

My cousin did an awesome job with the table setting:  A couple unique tea pots and a different teacup for each setting - not one of them looked like another...it was perfect for the theme.  She also found some really colorful and bold plates, cups, napkins and little trinkets to make for a super colorful and perfect tea party.  I went overboard tying a bow onto anything that could hold a bow (I loved the red/black/white printed ribbon) - it's even up around the windows and wall decor too =)

She even setup a table for the little ones.

And the doily lace trimming around the cake stand is a paper border that my cousin had bought a while back.  It came precut and folded up inside a little packet by Martha Stewart.  I attached it to the side of the cake stand with some double sided tape.  I loved how it dressed up the stand - so simple too.


We had all hands were on deck from family and friends in putting this together and it turned out quite lovely.  An incredibly beautiful birthday for an incredibly beautiful girl.

Giant Cupcake Cake

This year for my nieces birthday she requested for a giant cupcake, a blue liner with hearts and sprinkles..what fun to make and I absolutely love, love, love the way it turned out!

I wanted to create something unique and different from the typical giant cupcake and found this cake created by Las Vegas Custom Cakes (www.LasVegasCustomCakes.com).  I used it as my inspiration piece and I just loved how it gave you a tiny peek at the actual cupcake like your would see on a regular cupcake.

I baked 5 cakes:
2, 8-inch rounds
2, 6-inch rounds
1, 4-inch round

Cakes stacked - imagining what the cupcake would look like

I used a 6 and 8 inch to build the bottom half of the cupcake and the remaining 8, 6, and 4 inch cakes to carve the swirl for the top of the cupcake.  The swirl could have been made shorter...something to consider if I would make another so it wouldn't look so much like an ice cream swirl.  We did get about 50 servings out of all these cakes.

Stacked and ready to be carved

Carved and Crumb Coated

The top half of the cupcake was filled and covered entirely with White Chocolate IMBC (IMBC with melted white chocolate added into it - yum!)  I had never carved a swirl before and it was a challenge trying to get the curve to work amongst the 3 tiers of cake - I must have turned the cake a couple hundred times picturing where the swirl was going and carefully carving it out - thank goodness for a turntable =)

The bottom half of the cupcake was filled with White Chocolate IMBC but the outside was covered in Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache since I wanted something more stable to hold up such a tall cake.

I carved the cake to look like a cupcake and then covered it over with ganache.

I then piped long ropes of ganache over wax paper, put them in the freezer for 5 minutes to set a little, then peeled them off and placed them evenly spaced around the cake to help create the creases of the cupcake liner.  I did try to pipe the ganache ropes directly on the cake but they turned out uneven and the angle was difficult to work with.

Once everything was set and firm, I covered the top part with chocolate brown MMF.

Boba tea straws were then inserted into the cake (they were used to support and hold up the weight of the top tier once stacked).

I then flipped the cake upside down, rolled out the blue MMF into a wide ribbon and wrapped it around the cake being sure to keep it all at the same height up off the base.  I did roll the MMF thicker than normal at about 1/4 inch thick.

Both tiers covered in White Chocolate MMF

Both tiers were covered and decorated in White Chocolate MMF.

White Chocolate MMF:  I used my recipe to making MMF with Candy Melts but replaced the Candy Melts with White Chocolate and added a 1/2 tsp of butter flavoring to it - delish!!!

Then to the fun part, adding the finishing touches.

The finished cake measured at 8 inches wide at the widest part and 12 inches tall.  It looked like a giant plastic toy rather than an edible cake =)  We all enjoyed it.  Happy Birthday Ally!