Rice Krispie Sushi Treats

Sushi anyone?  I love sushi and I'm was so glad that we got to eat real sushi after making these - got my sushi craving satisfied...at least for the moment!

It was the night before my father-in-laws birthday and my husband and I were talking about what I should make.  For the past 3 years, I had created a tennis themed cake (Tennis Racket, Tennis Court, and last year, a Tennis Shoe) and although I had originally planned on making another tennis themed cake, I really didn't feel like it.  We were going to a sushi restaurant the following evening to celebrate his birthday and my husband thought it would be really nice to surprise him with a sushi cake or cupcakes instead.  It was late in the evening and we just had one of the hottest days of the year and baking, was not one of those things I wanted to do in the midst of the heat.  And I thought (a light bulb moment), why not make them out of rice krispie treats (RKT), they're his favorite anyways.

I quickly gathered up all the stuff and stayed up late making these.  Big pat on the back for creating such a neat treat at a short notice in the middle of the night with no planning, baking or prepping for - whoo hoo - SCORE!  And dishes...aside from the bowl and spatula used to make the rice krispie treats, my sink was empty and not an aftermath of a mess in the kitchen to clean up (well, a tiny mess on the dinning table where I worked on these) - I LOVED it!  I am one of those that really hates the clean up part of cake-ing and would rather decorate more than anything.  And when each cake averages 15 hours to make plus weeks upon hours worth of design and planning, it was such a nice change to be able to make something that didn't take much thought and planning for.

RKT and Fondant:  Candy Sushi Cut Rolls

(ooo, bad lighting with this one - used my cell phone)

The first thing I made were the cut rolls.  I made them like your would normally make a regular roll of sushi but instead of using rice, I used rice krispie treats and stuffed the inside with red vines, marshmallow ropes and some homemade mango fruit rollups (pretty much I grabbed what I had on hand that would work).  Rolled it up tightly using a sushi mat then cup them up into 1 inch circles.

Making Nori (seaweed)

To make the Nori (seaweed wrapper), I took a crumbled piece of foil and stamped it along a thinly rolled out piece of dark green fondant (the little square at the top of the photo is an actual piece of nori that I used for reference and later ate up...umm umm good).

I've made some sushi before at home and there are a couple websites that show you how. I used the same technique to make these:  It works just the same as if making them with rice.  Be sure to keep your hands greased up with a little bit of shortening to keep the RKT from sticking to them.

Here are the Ikura (Salmon Egg) Sushi.  I rolled out little balls of orange fondant and painted them with piping gel thinned out with vodka.  I layered on colors of yellow, orange, red and white to give them a shinny, almost transparent, appearance.

RKT and Fondant:  Ikura Sushi (Salmon Eggs)

One naked shrimp and one dressed up with the 1st few layers of coloring

For the shrimp, I hand sculpted them out of white fondant, scored it a bit then painted it over with a mixture of piping gel thinned out with vodka in layers of yellow, white, orange, and red.  I kept going over it in layers and layers of colored piping gel to build up the texture found on shrimp.  They were then laid over the RKT (I used a little bit of piping gel under the pieces to help them stick a little to the RKT).

RKT and Fondant:  Shrimp Sushi

I did the same thing with each of the other sushi pieces:  hand molding them, scoring them, painting them over in a variation of gel colors and piping gel thinned out with vodka.

RKT and Fondant: Salmon Sushi

RKT and Fondant: Tuna Sushi

RKT and Fondant:  Tamago Sushi

To make the Tamago Sushi (egg custard), I rolled out the fondant just like you would make the real thing then painted in some highlights with egg yellow and white gel colors.

Once I had everything made, I didn't know what to use to display it on.  It would have been really nice to make a bento box but there was no time.  As I dug around the house, I spotted a bamboo steamer basket - it worked!  It also had a nice lid to hide the sweet goodies from everyone =D

And again, I'm craving for some sushi...

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.

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!

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.