Stuff I Make

Lego Cako

Not just the little blocks this time...

Gabe, Lego-Lover-Extraordinaire, got 5 cakes! OK, really it was a 7 inch square cake cut into blocks, but still, very cool for a seven year old. 

My own seven year old was very "helpful" in critiquing every little part of the cake. Apparently I screwed up the lego guy's neck. Sigh.

The cake was chocolate, filled with cookies and cream. Instead of buttercream between the fondant and cake, I used chocolate ganache. THAT was yummy and something I'll probably recommend to you next time you order from me. 

ALSO... I tried a new fondant recipe, not that there was anything wrong with the old one. Why fix something that isn't broken? Well, I was getting bored. That's why. And I really really liked it. It costs me twice as much in ingredients, but it was so much easier to work with and tasted SO good. And the good thing is that my Kitchen Aid gets to do the kneading with this recipe, NOT me. That's worth the price right there.

(Notice my son's finger pointing out errors?! SO helpful!!)

This cake was a HIT with the seven year olds. It was even reported that one of them was so excited upon seeing it, that he literally fell over. On the ground.

 

Beautiful (and nimble!) Dancer

I've been making a lot of gumpaste figures lately and I still haven't cracked the code on making it easy. I always end up ripping off the head, throwing it against the wall, and starting over. Usually because I try and add lip color, cheek color, eyelashes, and all of a sudden SHIZAM... Tammy Faye is adorning my cake. This time I took it a step further. After throwing the head against the wall, I stuck a whole bunch of wires in it then put it on my husband's pillow. When he came to bed I made the really creepy "mama" voice from the beheaded doll in Toy Story 1. Then I laughed so hard I fell out of bed.

This is take two and I'm slowly realizing that simple is better. Cover Girl fresh, really.

The little dancer was modeled on a picture of the really dancer... beautiful Issy with the longest most graceful legs in the world.

 

pink, Pink, PINK!

There are a million reasons I love this cake:

1. It's pink! 

2. It's zebra print!

3. It's red velvet and chocolate raspberry

4. I got to raid the feather and jewell section at JoAnns (NOT just the cake section!)

5. BEST REASON - it was a cake made to celebrate the end of my client's (and her friends) chemotherapy

I'm telling you, clowns think they have it made because they have such a happy job making others happy (or scared), but REALLY, I have the best job. I smiled the entire time I worked on this.

My first attempt at quilting:

My wedding cake had a quilted pattern and I loved it. I think it looks classy. But children, listen to what I tell you. Do your geometry and calculus, because you'll need it! How many perfectly proportioned diamonds fit around a 6 inch round cake? Hmm??? Also, when I was buying ribbon I had to use diameter, radius,and pi and stuff. And I still screwed it up. Thank goodness cakes have "backs."

I bought a few containers of disco dust and have found that next time I'm going to need to buy a few gallons of the stuff. I wuv it. Except that after using it, I find that it ends up in very strange places. All over the house. Such is the collateral damage of cake decorating I suppose.

So here's to Candice, Barb, and April! Congratulations to you very strong ladies!
 

 

Abracadabra...

For Andrew the Great who's turning eight.

Sparkly eight courtesy of disco dust. I love.

Mr. Rabbit and his CUTER THAN ANYTHING rice noodle whiskers. I usually stew on aspects of my cakes for days and I knew I wanted to give him real whiskers - as opposed to painting them on. It was only when I was stirring up a Pad Thai that it dawned on me... rice noodles! (Those also came in handy with my fondant jellyfish.)

The wand, dice, scarves, stars, number, and name ARE edible, I'll have you know. The cards are not.

Sometimes I like to think that I create pure magic in the kitchen. Now I can actually hold to such a claim!

Ballerina

For a little girl who loves to dance, loves pink, and has beautiful curly brown hair.

The little dancer was requested after seeing a cake by Sam and Olga, cakers from Athens, Greece. It looked so much like Sienna! I had the pleasure of designing the rest of the cake:

My goal was to acheive graduated pink colors. I almost succeeded, forgetting how finicky pink coloring is. Seriously, don't leave it in any kind of light. Ever. I did succeed, however, at getting my bottom edgings clean enough so that they didn't need any extra decoration - you know, to hide flaws.

I got to use a lot of new goodies and techniques that I acquired at a recent cake show.

And I got to practice a new skill...

Fondant ruffles!!

Everything is edible. And delicious.

Happy Birthday Sienna!

 

 

From Flying Them to Eating Them...

It's been years since I've heard jet-noise, sat in a squadron bar, or listened to fighter pilots sing songs about that poor Sammy Small with only one ball. So, you can imagine how excited I was to get a cake order with an F16 theme! I almost bought a bottle of Weed to celebrate. Almost.

The cake was for a little boy turning 3, who's daddy is an F16 pilot, ex-Thunderbird, and friend of my hubby, K. As I was designing the cake, I was honored to have K's technical assistance... although it was noted that "this was the closest I've been to a jet in over 3 years and here I am, helping you make one out of sugar." It was also noted (audibly, in front of my 7 year old son) that "isn't it cool that the little boy wants an F16 cake?! That's what daddy used to fly and wouldn't you rather have me come into your class and talk about THAT rather than mommy coming in and talking about cakes?"

Somebody's been a little bent out of shape after getting snubbed out of the Star of the Week's Highlight Your Mommy or Daddy event. Apparently making cakes trumps flying fighter jets.

But how beautiful to be able to combine both of our talents... even if K's most significant comment was "wow, that jet smells good."

I decided to make the Viper's out of royal icing (ri). This is risky business - much akin to bulls in china shops. Things are APT to break. But I discovered that if I let the design dry, then cover the back with an additional layer of icing, not only will it look neater but will be less likely to break. EUREKA!

Some still broke.

Thank heavens I made extras.

I have also learned a few other things about royal icing transfers:

1. Pipe onto clear transparencies coated lightly in shortening. This way you can see your printed design (the one you're tracing) much easier and the shapes come out flatter. For some annoying reason, piping onto parchment seems to warp everything. Then it won't lay flat on your cookie or cake, meaning that half will break off and you'll start saying bad words, then your kids will repeat those words while you're standing in line at Costco and people will stare and tsk tsk.

Royal icing and I have had a rocky past.

2. Do not touch your design for at least 24 hours. Even gazing at it too intently could cause an atmospheric shift that could crack the icing. Just leave it be. 

3. Don't store your royal icing in the bags you piped with. It'll end up separating, you'll forget that, and when you go to pipe the next day a big blob of gooey albumic water will spew out. Store it in glass containers and re-stir every time. I KNOW it's tempting to just keep it in the bag - no one on earth likes cleaning out piping bags - but don't do it. 

OK, sometimes I still do it. I really LOATHE the bag cleaning! I also drink OJ after brushing my teeth. Psychological issues at play here.

So that's some royal icing tidbits for you.

In addition to the big F16 transfers, I also made little mini F16s do adorn some sugar cookies:

Oh wait, one more tidbit:

When you put a RI transfer onto a flooded cookie, do it when it's just barely starting to dry... like 5 minutes after flooding. That way it won't sink too deep, but also will settle nicely with no warped bits or thicker bits sticking up. That makes no sense. You are all dumber now.

 

Of course I made some toppers for the cookie favors:

I know Airlines and Fighter Jets aren't the same thing - but I thought my idea was cute. So keep you comments to yourself.

Unless they're nice comments, and if so, please feel free to leave some below.

 

Color-Palooza

Be prepared for color, dots, and stripes...

Bam! A very lively cake!

This was made for a baby shower and the design was taken from the invitation. 

My bows, by the way, are getting MUCH better:

I had quite the steep learning curve with bows. But I've arrived.

The bottom tier was iced in buttercream and decorated with these fondant dots.

A happy cake!

 

The Anatomy of a Fire Truck

I was asked to make a fire truck cake for a little boy turning 4. He had his party at an actual fire station with actual firefighters... so I felt it important to make a realistic, totally awesome cake.

To start off, I had to find a cake inspiration and a real life inspiration:

I liked this one because I could break it down into three sections.

I started off by making a sketch (I call them schematics to sound more official). I then cut a board that would be the exact size as the bottom of the truck. I then made a paper cutout that would fit on the cake board. This way I could measure exactly how much cake I would need - 2 slightly overfilled 10 inch squares. BTW, a 10 inch square cake (4 in high) serves about 30 people. 

You'll see that I end up shaving off a lot of extra cake. And if you're really curious, I charge on the amount of servings that I end up handing you... in this case about 23. (It almost killed me figuring out that number.) And in the case of a carved cake, my price per serving is elevated. Obviously. 

My plan was to have the fire truck elevated on it's wheels like in real life, so I made four rectangular cutouts in the cake board for the wheels. After scouring the house, I found that Max's blocks were the perfect height to hold the whole thing up, so I stole 4 of them and glued them to the cake board that will be the base of the cake. Thanks Max!

Next up is the base cake board (the one the tires will rest on):

Black for a road. Or street. Or parking lot. Whatever your fancy.

Now for heart attack number one. Cutting, carving, and assembling. Did I make enough cake?!

Whew. Front part done.

Yes! Back part done, with scraps to spare.

Due to weight and not wanting another heart attack, the center section is styrofoam.

But WHOOPS! Ms. Elephant Hands can't measure. You can clearly see in my cardboard cutout that the middle section is supposed to be much shorter. Gah.

That's better.

After letting the cake settle for a while, it's time for the next heart attack. 

 

Covering two large squarish objects in fondant. Tall cakes: Hard to cover. Square cakes: Also hard to cover. Tall AND Square? Coronary I'm telling you.

(P.S. I buy my red fondant. Coloring things red irritates me. I was permanently scarred by the pink Elmo incident of 2008.)

Gotta work fast. Store bought fondant dries out quickly. It also cracks and often has to have a quick rub down with shortening. Lucky fondant.

YES!

Double YES! My middle piece even fit. Well, it did take a little persuasion.

Now I've got to move the fondanted cake to the black board and glue the blocks down. I do not want this cake to move. Ever. 

Ta Da! And look, the wheels (previously made and now rock hard) fit perfectly too. When I say perfectly, I mean I shoved them in with brute force. And conveniently, they're hiding the blocks. 

Now for the details. 

This is going to take a while... think I need some music.

Ahhhh.... singing AND decorating. 

Lots and lots of details. I made most of these the earlier in the week in order to give them time to dry.

I glue all this stuff on with:

Edible glue. And here you probably thought I used super glue. Duh.

Working on my handwriting:

My life is fuller and more glorious with edible markers:

Can't forget the doggie!

Piping the birthday message:

Transferring the dried letters.

The final step is the glaze:

Whereas I'd never advocate drinking and decorating, I do like using a mixture of 50/50 vodka and corn syrup for a nice non-sticky glaze. You can unbunch your britches, because the vodka evaporates.

And now... I present to you...

Personally, my favorite part of the cake is that it looks like it's really on wheels. Otherwise it'd look like a cake!

Four more heart attacks later and the cake was safely delivered to the Falls Church Fire Station. 

And I'm happy to report that the firefighters were impressed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marissa's Cake and Stuff About Owls

When the order came through for an owl cake... I was like "Wah-WHOOOOO!"

 

Owls are my favorite! It's the wise eyes, I think. And they're just about the coolest bird ever. You never see an owl being goofy or weird or falling out of trees. One time I had to dissect owl poop. But that's for another non-food post.

I was googling for words associated with owl (you know, to enhance my writing) and came upon a site called The Macrame Owl: Ensuring the longevity of the macrame owl species and to inadvertently increase the sales of bladder control products worldwide. This has nothing to do with cakes, I'm aware. But I was unaware of the plight of the macrame owl. Thank God for Google!

On their owl symbolism page it states that:

If you are drawn to owls or owl symbolism, you may have an ability to uncover secrets. People may feel uneasy around you, as if you are able to see through pretence. The owl also teaches us to acknowledge the dark side of our personality, and in that darkness we may find food for growth.

I don't know about you, but in the dark side of my personality lurks episodes of the Bachelor, Cheeto residue and a hatred of Al Roker. 

Oh wise owl, help me be a better person.

Or at least stand guard on a cake and look really cute. 

I got to have some fun with the sides of the cake. It was a hoot.

I'm stopping now with the wise foolish owl talk.

Did I mention that the owl is made out of cake too? He's three layers of vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. 

Along with the owl cake, Marissa got her own smash cake:

I'm all about the ruffling right now. Ruffled owl feathers, ruffled icing, Ruffle Crowe...

Thanks for swooping by and taking a look. If you're interested in the plight of the macrame owl, you can be a hero by clicking here.

 

Bowling for Cake

For a nine year old boy who loves bowling:

The bowling pin shape isn't the easiest thing in the world to replicate:

And reportedly, the boys ate them like lollipops! (They were attached to the cake with drinking straws)

Festive and fun!

 

(design credit goes to Cakeboxsoc)