Lavendar 80th Birthday cake

This was a birthday cake for an 80th birthday celebration.


Both tiers were raspberry cake (super yummy!!) and the buttercream was vanilla (smoothed to look like fondant).  

This was my first ever flower arrangement, but I was very happy with the end result.


The flowers are set into a small, plastic bowl.  After I took this picture, I actually carved a little bit out of the top of the cake so that it was set into the cake a little bit more.  


I also added some ribbon around the cake board.  

Urban Organic Wedding Shoot

A rare rainy day in January was the setting for this Urban Organic wedding shoot I was asked to participate in.  Taylor Proctor of Taylor Made Weddings and Events wanted to create a very modern and authentic look using the natural elements of an urban setting.  This shoot was done here in St. George and featured many talented individuals to help pull it all together.  

The design used a mixture of blacks and whites along with splashes of silver and green.  All of the elements tied in together beautifully to create a very elegant look.  The droplets of rain seemed to enhance the organic quality to the shoot, although my cake (by the end of the shoot) wasn't in agreement.  Let's just say that rain and black food coloring don't mix.

The design of my cake was intented to represent all the surrounding elements.  I copied the design on the top of the black wedding dress for the top tier.  As you can see, the bottom tier was made to look like the silver placemats.  I thought the green ribbon in between the layers tied in the organic, green color nicely.


I was honored to be a part of this shoot and it was a lot of fun to watch everything come together.


This shoot (& my cake) have currently been featured on a couple different blogs:
Inspire Smart Success
The Bride and Groom.com




A special thanks to:

Taylor Made Weddings and Events (Wedding Planner)
My Favorite Flowers (Florist)
Photo Love Stories (Photography)
Lauren James Bridal (Wedding Attire)
JK Jewelers (Jewelry)
Beauty N Brows (Hair & Makeup)
Natalie Kehl & Cole Chollet (Models)

The Minion

Months ago, my husband saw a similar cake and said that he wanted a cake just like it.  So, I decided to make him one for his 40th birthday this past week.

This cake was a total surprise for him, which created a whole new challenge...trying to make the cake while he wasn't home and in the few short hours I had available to do it.

I am proud to say I pulled it off!  He had no idea!

This cake was 4 layers of 8" chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  I used a bowl and Rice Krispie Treats to shape the head.  The legs and feet were also made from Rice Krispie Treats.

The hardest part of this cake was placing the yellow fondant over the whole thing.  If you've ever done a fondant cake before you know it's difficult to place fondant over a tall cake without getting lots of wrinkles.

Because I was pressed for time before my husband got home, I wasn't able to get it as wrinkle free as I would have liked.  I needed to clean up all the cake evidence in such a short amount of time!

I trimmed the bottom of the yellow fondant to cut off some of the wrinkles.  It was going to be covered with the blue overalls anyway.

For the eye, I just cut a small circle of white fondant and covered it with brown and black for the pupil.  I then gave it an eyelid and used part of a canning lid for the goggle.

As I was doing the hair, I thought it would be really funny to add some gray hairs since it was his 40th birthday.  I just poked a hole into the yellow fondant and then added small bits of fondant for the hair.  I added gumtex to the fondant to allow it to hold its shape.

I did the apple (bapple, if you've ever seen the Despicable Me shorts) last as a finishing touch.

He was very surprised and happy with his cake.  I'm still not sure how I pulled it off without him knowing.  I STILL have red food coloring on my hands from the apple, two days later!  Talk about almost being caught red handed!

Chocolate covered, peanut butter eggs

All week I've been staring at these chocolate covered peanut butter eggs on Pinterest.  I couldn't resist any longer and had to give them a try!

Anything I can make Gluten Free for my 3 year old, is worth trying as I always feel he gets left out.

You will need:
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups of creamy peanut butter
1/4 pound of butter
3 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2-3 tablespoons of milk
1 tablespoon of shortening

I used my mixer to combine the powdered sugar, butter and peanut butter.  I warmed up the butter and PB to help it combine easier, although the original recipe didn't say to do so.

Once those ingredients are combined, add the milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach a playdough type consistency.












Form the "dough" into egg shapes, place them on wax paper and put them in the freezer for about an hour (I only did 45 minutes because I was impatient).

In the meantime, melt the chocolate chips.  I used a double broiler method, but you can also do it in the microwave.  Add 1 tablespoon of shortening to the chocolate chips.

Coat the peanut butter eggs in the chocolate.  I tossed mine into the chocolate and then scooped them out with a fork, allowing the excess chocolate to drip back into the pan.  Place them on the wax paper and once they are all done, place them in the freezer.

I ended up with over 50 eggs about 1 inch in length.  This was a LOT of eggs, so I think next time I will only make about 1/2 the amount.

I also ended up with excess chocolate so I decided to drizzle some over the eggs for fun....can't have too much chocolate, right?  We'll pretend I'm not on a diet for now.

Here is the end result after being in the freezer.  I have so many, I'm going to keep them in the freezer for now and hand some out to friends!!

Hamburger & Fries

This "cake" was actually my son's idea for his 11th birthday.  At first we were thinking one big cake, but I thought that having individual mini cakes for each child, would be a lot more fun.


Although they weren't that tricky to make, they did take quite a bit of time considering I made a dozen of these.  They were a lot of fun though and a big hit at the party.  The kids were a bit confused eating them!

The "buns" were made from the tops that I cut off of cupcakes.  The "cheese" was made from fondant.  It was probably my favorite part because I made it the exact color and thickness of sliced cheese.  It looked EXACTLY like cheese!  The "lettuce" was also made from fondant.

The "hamburger" is brownie.  I used the bun as a guide and cut out the brownie using a fork to give it a rough edge. 


The "mayo", "ketchup" and "mustard" are just buttercream frosting, as well as the "sesame seeds".








The fries were really funny too.  They were made from white fondant and then I used my airbrush to spray them.  They turned out a little darker than I was going for, but they were still fine.

 We told the boys to come to eat and had the table set up for "dinner".  They were quite confused when they saw their plate!  I will definitely have to do these again...they were great fun!

Frosty the Snowman Cake

Today I had to teach a cake class.  I figured since I had to make a cake, that I would make a Christmas themed cake for my boys.


This cake is chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and peppermint fondant (I added a little bit more than 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract to the fondant mixture as I was making it)...quite yummy!

I made the snowman yesterday so that it could dry.  I added Gumtex to the fondant mixture to give it stability.


I then added trees, snowballs around the bottom and made a tree for the top.

I didn't have the right tool to make the tree, so I came up with my own little tree creation.  I'm quite happy with how it turned out, especially with the snow (powdered sugar) sprinkled on the top.


My boys cannot wait to eat it after dinner...ok, I admit it...me too!!

Baby Shoes

Here is my first baby shower cake!


This cake is a vanilla cake (8" and 10") with raspberry buttercream on the inside and vanilla on the outside.

I used a template to cut out the 3 main pieces of the shoe and then attached them all together.  For the laces, I used a clay extruder fitted with a small round hole.  It helped make the laces nice and even in size.  

This bow was actually my second bow.  I made a mistake with the first one by letting it dry near a window...sun is a no, no!  It bleaches the color right out of the fondant!  I guess you have to learn something new with each cake, right?!

I made the flowers before assembling the cake and let them dry on a curvy surface.  I used my ribbon cutter for the big stripes and cut the small brown stripes by hand.

I also made a small pacifier to sit on the top and decorated that with a small version of the flowers.  


In the end I think it turned out real cute!  Having 3 boys, it's always fun to make a girly cake once in a while!

Cake Class

I will be holding a cake class on December 10th at 2pm.  Please contact me if you would like to attend!

Shotgun Cake

Yes....another gun cake!  

This one's a bit different than the last one.  It was originally supposed to be just the gun, but in order to make it proportional, it would have ended up being a very small piece of cake.  I decided to make the wood base as the cake instead and just add the gun to the top as decoration.


I made the whole gun out of Rice Krispie Treats and covered it with fondant.  I then etched the design into the fondant.

I always try to do something new and different with each new cake I make.  This time I got to create wood out of fondant.  It really was a lot of fun!  I practiced first on a small piece of fondant to check out the effect.


First, I etched lines into the fondant and gently swirled them around with my hand.  Next, using a brush, I added some brown airbrush food coloring to the fondant.  It's basically like staining real wood.  The creases and imperfections pick up the darker color.

I then added small holes and made areas to look like knots in the wood.  You basically can't go wrong with it.  I'm very happy with how it turned out and I have plans to make a Thanksgiving cake with this newly discovered technique.  

This cake is 3, 8" square cakes cut to fit the size of the gun.  It is coffee flavored cake, topped with a layer of caramel and then chocolate buttercream frosting.  

Construction Cake

What little boy doesn't love trucks and dirt?!

This is a 9x13 double layer, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

The first thing I did was prepare the hat and the construction vehicle ahead of time.  They are both made out of Rice Krispie Treats.

For the lower "arm" I used a piece of cardboard covered in fondant to give it extra support.  The two top "arms" are held together with chocolate to keep them sturdy. The joint in between the two arms was held together with a tooth pick and actually moved!





The "dirt" is just crumbled up cake and all other decorations are made from fondant.

S'mores Truffles

I saw a recipe online for something called S'mores Truffles.  I figured since I love S'mores, I would give them a try.

You need: 6 Hershey Bars, Marshmallow Fluff, vanilla extract, Graham Crackers, heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar.

First, using a small circle cookie/fondant cutter, make 12 circles out of the Hershey Bars and Graham Crackers.

Then for the marshmallow filling, mix 2 cups of fluff, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tablespoons of cream with an electric mixer.  Mix this until it's well blended.  Then gradually add 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar until the mixture becomes stiff.

Roll the mixture into balls and place between the chocolate and crackers.  Place in the fridge for 1/2 an hour to chill.

Meanwhile, melt the remaining chocolate (including the chocolate pieces you cut from) using a double broiler. 




Dip the S'mores into the chocolate until coated, sprinkle with crumbled crackers and place back into the fridge to harden.

ENJOY!!!

Wedding Cake

This is an 8" square cake for the bottom tier and a 6" square tier for the top.

The bottom tier is a  Chocolate Pound Cake. It is made up of 3 layers with chocolate buttercream frosting in between each layer.  The outer layer of frosting is vanilla buttercream frosting so that it wouldn't show through the white fondant.  I used a pound cake due to the height and to give it extra stability.  I had never made a chocolate pound cake before, but I have to say....it was DELICIOUS!!

The top layer is Devil's Food Cake (3 layers) with the same frosting as the bottom tier.  

Both tiers were 4 inches tall.

This is a picture of the top tier with the cake topper.  I made this topper based on the photograph I had been given.  At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to make this, but did some research on jewelry with wire/beads.  This topper consists of 3 wire/bead "flowers" that I arranged and wired together.  I also added some wire strings with beads.

 

I learned quite a bit making this topper and it was definitely a fun experience.  I guess I can add this form of artwork to my resume as well now.

I also got to make royal icing for the first time with this cake.  This is what I made the black dots out of.  First, I made measurements and marked the cake with an edible pen writer where the dots needed to be.  Then I just went back and added the dots with the royal icing.  They turned out really well.

The cake was finished off with some turquoise ribbon around the bottom of the tiers to match the bride/groom's colors.  This is the finished result on display at the wedding reception.