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.

Thomas the Train Cake

Choo choo, here comes Thomas!  An 8 inch cake covered and decorated in Marshmallow Fondant (MMF).  Stevie turned 3 so I used the "3" theme randomly around the cake:  3 pieces of wood for the train track, 3 yellow stripes on Thomas, 3 rocks/boulders, 3 bushy trees, and 3 tiny flowers on each bush.

Although this was the 2nd time making a 3D model of Thomas, he was still a challenge...so many parts to add on to such a little guy - he barely stood at 2 inches.  The inside of his body is RKT covered over with modeling chocolate and I used dry spaghetti painted with black gel colors for the 4 rods that are in the front.  Dry spaghetti and piping gel was also used to secure the puff of steam to the funnel and into the body.

Note:  When making edible treats for kids, try to use dry spaghetti over toothpicks - they will bite into anything...and everything.

I kneaded and marbled 3 shades of brown together to create the mountain and rocks with then scored it all over the place with a ball tool to give it some ridges and cracks.  I also made the mountain stick up over the top of the cake a bit.  Finished off the cake by adding the rolling hills in 2 shades of green, white clouds and trees.

A view around the cake....

I left room on the top for Stevie to add a No. 3 candle

Giraffe Themed First Birthday Cake

I love how Aiden's cake turned out.  As soon as I saw the invitation for his birthday, I fell in love with the theme...I just love giraffe's!

The cake was a 9 inch White Almond Cake filled with fresh strawberries and Strawberry Italian Meringue Buttercream and the top tier was a 6 inch Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream.  The entire cake was covered and decorated in Marshmallow Fondant, the giraffe was made out of modeling chocolate.

Modeling Chocolate Giraffe

Ain't he cute?  I made the bottom half of the giraffe's body out of rice crispy treats that was shaped into a rounded pyramid then covered it over with modeling chocolate.  l made the modeling chocolate using the Merkens Yellow Candy Coatings (recipe for modeling chocolate found here) and added a little bit of Egg Yellow AmeriColor to it to get the right shade.  All the little details on him is Marshmallow Fondant (MMF).

The leaves were made a few day prior out of MMF mixed with Tylose (helps it dry faster and harder) and placed over wrinkled foil to give the leaves some random and natural curves to it as they dried.  I later painted the darker green leaves with white gel colors to match the ones on the invitation and trimmed the bottom of each leaf to fit flushed up against the giraffe.  I attached the leaves to the cake with a little bit of clear piping gel.

The bottom tier was designed to match the border on the invitation.  His name and the #1 on the front of the cake were made in black MMF then dusted over with blue pearl dust - I love the effect.  The white round piece behind the #1 was dusted in edible glitter.

Photo of the invitation and some of the 3 dozen Cupcake Toppers

I also made 3 dozen assorted cupcake toppers for the mommy to add to their own cupcakes.

Photo courtesy of Saira B.

"Justice for Girls" Monkey Themed Cake

My little niece turned 8 and loves the monkey from the Justice for Girls clothing store and with a sleep over party, I wanted to create the perfect little cake incorporating the Monkey, the bright and funky store themed style and a bed. Her father said she was always laying on her bed listening to her iTouch so I just had to add that too =)

The cake is an 8 x 5 x 3 inch Dark Chocolate Cake covered in Chocolate IMBC - here's a picture of it in the middle of being crumb coated.

Once I covered the cake over with the IMBC, I let it sit in the fridge to firm up while I prepared the bed spread to lay over it.

I rolled the MMF out into a rectangle (11 x 11 inch - 5x8 inch top with 3 inches down 3 of the sides), I used a diamond impression mat to lightly mark the pattern over it.  With a sewing tracing wheel, I marked the lines then lightly pressed in the creases at each intersection with a gumpaste veining tool.

I then lay it over the cake and smoothed it into place.  The headboard was made 2 days prior to allow time to dry out of MMF mixed with Tylose and it sits flat up against the back of the cake.

I then added a small round "button" into each intersection and dusted the creases of the bed spread with pink petal dust.

The texture on the little rug was made by using the tip of the star piping tip then dusted over with lilac petal dust.  I topped them with a pair of slippers =) for the little monkey.

The monkey is made out of modeling chocolate (the head is a RKT covered in modeling chocolate).  I loved how she turned out - Laying on the bed, listening to her iTouch.

another view of the monkey....  I made the bow and the letters of her name out of MMF (mixed with Tylose) then dusted them with edible Glitter.

I just had to add the banana peel beside the bed =)

I also made a bunch of mini banana's to top the cupcakes with (1 to 1.5 inches).  Here they're being dusted in sunflower and dogwood brown petal dust.

The 4 steps to creating a gumpaste banana (left to right):

1) Model the banana out of yellow gumpaste (here I used MMF mixed with Tylose)

2) Dust them over with a yellow or sunflower petal dust

3) Lightly and randomly, dust them with brown or dogwood petal dust

4) Steam them lightly to set the color = perfect, little, ripe bananas.  It would have been nice to have added some banana extract to them but I didn't think about it until they were done.

Some of the cupcake toppers.  We had 4 dozen Red Velvet cupcakes to top with decorations so I did an assortment of hearts, stars, flower blossoms, peace signs, banana's, the Monkey and #8.

My sister-in-law baked her Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and I topped then off with the decorations and finished off the dessert table with some Chocolate Peppermint Cake Balls.  It all came together perfectly and I love the theme and colors - so Kayla!

Kai-Lan and Thomas Cake Toppers

Modeling Chocolate Cake toppers ordered for a joint birthday for a little boy and a girl.

Kai-Lan is approximately 3.5 inches tall and made out of modeling chocolate.  I used RKT to shape her head and help with not making it too heavy for her tiny body and she has a 6 inch popsicle stick that runs from the middle of her head and down 3 inches past her feet to stick into the cake.  The birthday girl's favorite episode was the one about a trip to China so I made Kai-Lan in a red and yellow Chinese outfit dusted in red luster dust to look silky.  I love the little yellow knots on the front of her shirt....she turned out so cute!

I've made Kai-Lan a few times before and you can see them here with some additional instructions:  Kai-Lan

Thomas the Train was 5 inches long and about 3 inches tall.  He turned out about an inch bigger than what I had originally planned and it was also the very first time I have ever made a train like this.  I started his body out with a RKT rectangle and built up the modeling chocolate layer by layer by layer until I got his shape down perfectly.

He got a dusting of blue luster dust around his body and pearl luster dust around his face to give him a little more pop!  I loved how he turned out....beep beep!

The mother used these to top a sheet cake with.  She said that one of the kids tried to grab Kai-Lan as soon as they saw the cake and got the side of the frosting smashed - it's so nice to hear or see how the children react but what a scare to have one of them actually reach out for it!

Photo courtesy of Tania L.

How to Make Modeling Chocolate

Modeling Chocolate (Candy Clay)

I have started to work with modeling chocolate quite a bit recently and I'm loving the texture and workability it has.  It's great for covering rice crispy treats up with and filling in all the grooves giving you a smooth surface to work with and perfect to making modeled figures with - seams are easily blended away and it dries instantly so no down time in building up a sculptured piece.  Here are photo's of the step by step to making modeling chocolate using Wilton White Candy Melts (I know, it's not really chocolate but the candy melts works marvelously - no worrying about tempering the chocolate correctly)....

Recipe Ratio:
16 oz Candy Melts (weighed)
3 oz Light Corn Syrup (4.5 oz weighed)

Line a tray with wax paper

Measure or weigh out the ingredients
(I used about 6 oz of candy melts to a little over 1oz syrup here)

Melt the chocolate
(In the microwave in 30 sec increments stirring in between until melted) 

Add the Light Corn Syrup

Note:  Once the corn syrup is added, do not stir too much.  It should only take about 4-5 stirs around the bowl before it comes together.  I usually stir once around folding the candy melts over the corn syrup.  Wait for about 4-5 seconds and give it one more stir folding the chocolate over.  Repeat for about 1-2 more times before it all comes together and that's it.  Don't worry about completely blending it all in, you will be kneading the whole thing together later and can blend everything in then.

The corn syrup reacts with the chocolate and siezes it a little - give it time, be patient and avoid overstirring or else the cocoa butter (when using real chocolate) separates and you get a very greasy ball of modeling chocolate.

Fold #1:  Fold the Chocolate over the corn syrup going around the bowl once

Fold #2:  Wait 4-5 seconds and go around the bowl a 2nd time folding the chocolate over

Fold #4-5:  Now it's ready.  It looks and feels like thick batter or like soft dough

Scrape the bowl clean and place the modeling chocolate over a piece of wax paper

Note:  I've noticed that with using wax paper, it helps absorb any grease and dries out the modeling chocolate perfectly.

Using the spatula, spread the modeling chocolate over the wax paper.

Add another layer of wax paper over it and smooth out flat & let it sit overnight
(I throw a dish cloth over this and let it sit on the kitchen counter  to set)

Peel the wax paper off, break off small pieces and knead it all together.

Your modeling chocolate is now ready to use.  If you want to color it, you can add it now and knead it in or use colored candy melts.  I've used Chef Master, Wilton and AmeriColors to color the modeling chocolate with and they all work well.  If you work the chocolate too much, it will get really soft and melt a bit so just put it down for a minute to cool and set before working it some more.

PS - You can also do a 50/50 mix of modeling chocolate with MMF to do figures or flowers with.  The fondant makes the modeling chocolate a little bit stiffer - the possibilities are endless.

Here are some of the things I've made with modeling chocolate:

Barney, Baby Bop, BJ, Standing #1

Woody and Jessie from Toy Story

Korean Hanbok Dol Cake Topper

Kai-Lan and Yeye Cake Topper

Head Cakes:  Toothless (left), Harry Potter (middle), Pokemon Haunter (right)