The Butterfly Sweets Blog

HB 1139 and HB 2084

2011-04-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

Can you please spare a moment this morning to email the members of the Public Health Committee? The bill needs to be on the hearing schedule when it comes out tomorrow, or I'm afraid it will die on the calendar again. Emails below:

Lois.Kolkhorst@house.state.tx.us
Elliott.Naishtat@house.state.tx.us
Carol.Alvarado@house.state.tx.us
Garnet.Coleman@house.state.tx.us
Sarah.Davis@house.state.tx.us
...Veronica.Gonzales@house.state.tx.us
Susan.King@house.state.tx.us
Jodie.Laubenberg@house.state.tx.us
Charles.Schwertner@house.state.tx.us
Vicki.Truitt@house.state.tx.us
John.Zerwas@house.state.tx.us

The body of your email can include something like this: "I support the Cottage Food Bills, HB 1139 and HB 2084. Please move these bills forward for a hearing as soon as possible."

Thank you for your support!

Mosaic Cake

2011-02-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

Like any one who has a small child, I was easily coerced into seeing the movie Tangled that came out around Thanksgiving. My daughter Charlotte fell in love with the newest Disney princess as did I, but what transfixed me more was the amazing artwork and images that made the movie so prettily breathtaking.

First of all, the color purple was everywhere, in every shade. Rapunzel loved to free hand paint the walls of her tower. Mosaics were throughout the town, and the sun was an especially important theme. And who could forget those pretty lanterns? So of course what this added up to me was how to design a cake around all these images (keep scrolling to see some examples of my inspiration).

Since moving to Colorado, though, I haven't had many excuses for making cakes. Lucky for me, it was time for Sweet Time in the Rockies again. Hooray!

I've always wanted to make a mosaic cake, and that was my jumping off point. The cakes were all covered in fondant as normal, and then I hand cut. each. one. of. those. tiles. and placed them on the cake in different designs. How long did it take, you ask? Centuries. (OK, I estimate around 60 hours from beginning to finish.)

The bottom tier showcases the golden lanterns floating into the sky. I hand painted the lanterns with a mixture of Super Gold dust and vodka. The next tier was a purple, pink and yellow swirl pattern that repeats throughout the movie. The next tier features the sun which you see in the town square, Rapunzel's crib and throughout the palace. I also painted the sun with the Super Gold mixture. And the top tier is the purple, pink and yellow swirls again.

At the top of the cake is Rapunzel's magical golden flower, which gave Rapunzel her golden hair. In the movie, the flower loosely resembles a lily with swirls coming out of it. To make it I used a lily cutter, dusted it gold, and then used Isomalt (Cake Play new Isomalt sticks are awesome!) to make the swirls come out of the top.

Once that was all done the cake looked intricate but flat. So I added on the pink flowers to each tier, with isomalt swirls coming out of them too. Pretty cool cake, I have to say!

It's Here! It's Here! It's Here!

2010-04-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, I am very excited that the spring/summer 2010 issue of Bride and Bloom magazine finally made it into the stores!

I feel as though I have been waiting forever to see it, but this afternoon it was sitting on the shelves of our local Borders as I shopped with my children. They have also been anxiously looking for it with me every time we go to the bookstore and were just as happy as I was that is was there.

This is my first time to be featured in a national bridal magazine, and I was given an entire page for my Turquoise Cake with Black Scroll Work. It was one of my very first cakes, and has proven to be popular with clients with lots and lots of requests for it.

Thanks to the Account Executive Richelle Gingerich for noticing my cake and getting it in the magazine for me. I am incredibly honored!

Ni Hao Kai Lan

2010-03-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

Today I made a cake for a coworker of my husband. Her daughter was turning 4 and loves Kai Lan (just like my daughter!)

Kai Lan is one of those light hearted cartoons where everything is bright skies and sun, cute animals, lots of flowers and in general happy looking. So that's pretty much where I jumped off.

The background of the sky was made in pale blue, with a border around the bottom to look like rolling green hills. Mr. Sun is front and center, because he is a major character. His face was panted with food coloring, and I also added fluffy white clouds cut from fondant.

All of the figures were hand molded. To add some more color and whimsy, I added on bright fondant flowers to the green hills.

My husband was happy to report to me that his coworker loved the cake. I'm happy to say that I do too!

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

2010-02-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

This weekend I participated in the Colorado ICES cake show in Denver. It was fun to finally christen my new kitchen with some cakes! I have been really missing decorating, so it was also great to get back.

With my first cake, I bought some stencils that I just adored the designs of. I realized how much the large scroll design looked like Cinderella's carriage one morning when my daughter pointed it out to me. I was practicing the technique and she gasped "that's for Cinderella!" I took a step back and realized she was exactly right. This started me in a whole new direction where I wanted to center the cake around a Cinderella theme. I tried my best to color the cake Cinderella blue and thought a glass slipper for the top would be perfect, along with some gumpaste bows.

The "glass" slipper for the top is white chocolate that I poured into shoe shaped molds along with a heart mold for the accent at the toe. When it was set and I pieced the shoe together, I absolutely slathered it in disco and luster dust.

The rest of the cake was also covered in luster dust to make it glittery and luminescent.

I am thrilled and delighted to say that I received First Place in the Professional Category!

For awhile now I have wanted to make a damask cake and while perusing cake stencils on the internet, came across this set that I decided I could not live without. I had never used cake stencils before, but decided it is always good to learn new techniques.

I chose a square design and I wanted my corners to be super sharp and clean, so I used a technique where I cut out panels for the sides of each tier and their tops out of gumpaste and then allowed them to dry over several days. When they were dry, I took my stencils and used a thick royal icing for the designs. Basically you use an offset spatula to smooth the royal icing over the stencil, and after it is completely covered, you gently pull the stencil off and you have a beautiful design!

There is, of course, some trial and error involved in this. It takes both patience and time. But if you stick with it the work is well worth it.

Black and white damask is rather popular, and it is nearly

always paired with red or pink as an accent. I wanted to try something different and chose yellow anemones to contrast. I love how it looks! Anemones are imperfect flowers with large black centers, and I thought it would contrast with the prim and proper damask. I am really happy with how it turned out.

This cake earned 3rd Place in the Professional Category!

This was a great weekend for me and I had a wonderful time competing!

Announcements

2010-01-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

Now that we are settled here in Colorado, I just wanted to let everyone know what is going on with Butterfly Sweets.

Coming up on Valentines weekend, I am entering a cake show in Denver. I am so excited! I have greatly missed decorating cakes. I will be making two cakes and cannot wait to see how they turn out. I will be trying some new techniques I have never used before, and am hoping to make so unique additions to my portfolio.

Also, something I am even happier about is that I have been contacted by The Bride and Bloom magazine, and they will be featuring some of my cakes in their spring issue! This is the first time I have been featured in a bridal magazine. It should be out some time right after Valentine's Day, and I will be posting pictures as soon as I get my hands on a copy.

Lastly, to stave off some of my cake withdrawal, I've started a blog on baking. I decided to make it separate from this blog since this one seems to be focused on decorating. It is at http://butterflysweetsincolorado.blogspot.com/, so please take a look! My first post is a little long, but I plan to start baking tomorrow.

As far as Butterfly Sweets goes, I currently do not have a kitchen to rent, which means that I am not taking orders. Hopefully this will change sometime in the near future.

I know...I know

2009-10-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

So I know it's been forever since I have posted, but I have a good excuse, which I will share with you later. :)

I took most of the summer off this year, because it was the last summer I had with my little boy until he started Kindergarten! And then life in general got hectic, so I only made a few cakes for a select group of friends and family.

Earlier this summer, I made a sweet little princess cake for a friend of Nate's. They went to preschool together last year, and I just love her mom! I also made a cake for her last year, my Girly Dinosaur Cake. This year she wanted a pink cake, with some turquoise and purple on it. We decided on polka dots, with a beautiful princess on the front, and a crown on the top.

Once summer began to come to a close, I made this cake for Charlotte! It was her 4th birthday this year, and all she wanted in the world was a Little Mermaid cake. At first she wanted me to make Ariel from fondant (yes, my four year old thoroughly knows what fondant is!) but after a trip to the Disney store, she coerced me into buying a set of figurines that were of Ariel's sisters. Charlotte and I made this cake together, and I am very proud to say that she made all of the starfish. The shells and starfish were liberally doused with disco dust, and the sand is brown sugar.

Soon after that, I entered the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show again. I wanted to make a cartoon-like cake. The coffee cup on the top was from chocolate fondant mixed with Tylose. The whipped cream is royal icing, and the cherries are fondant. At the last minute I decided to add on the cute little strawberries. This was a super fun cake to make, but it did not place in my division.

Last but not least, I made my son, Nate's, 6th birthday cake. Nate is absolutely Bakugan crazy, and he wasn't too particular with the

design of the cake as long as it had lots and lots of Bakugans on it. I ordered some edible images, and then decorated the border of the cake with Bakugans instead of my regular fondant balls. He was very happy with it!

I have been receiving lots of emails asking why I am not taking orders, and would like to make an announcement regarding this. At the end of October, my family and I moved to the Denver area after my husband was relocated for a job position. We are very excited to start this new chapter

of our lives, but I am sad to leave behind all of my wonderful clients in Dallas. I am hoping to start making cakes in Denver soon!

Butterfly Sweets Featured on AOL!

2009-08-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

I am so proud to share that Butterfly Sweets has been featured on AOL's new site, Party Central! Three of my cakes were featured, including my Circus Cake, Princess Cake, and Raggedy Anne Cake. Please check them out at: http://www.holidash.com/party-central/birthday/food/bizarre-birthday-cakes

Wedding Season!

2009-07-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I love June, and all the weddings that are associated with it! The two cakes that I have recently made are both designs that I have been dying to make for quite a while.

First is this beautiful Tiffany Box inspired cake. These are 3 square tiers, 6, 9 and 12 inches. The color was achieved using Americolor Turquoise. For the bows, I wanted them to be messy and unfurled, like a present wrapped coming unfurled. The bows are all gumpaste and I painted them with white disco dust. And then lots of pretty, gumpaste cutout flowers and hand sculpted roses.

The border was made with a bead maker, and is also gumpaste.

Next, I made this really pretty purple cherry blossom and dogwood wedding cake. This one was fun, because I love making gumpaste flowers!

The cake was painted purple to achieve a nice, bright color that would be less likely to fade. It was painted using a large brush, Americolor Electric Purple food coloring and vodka.

The branch that twists its way around the cake is chocolate fondant. I detailed the branches with a gumpaste tool to impress a wood like pattern onto it.

The flowers were all made from gumpaste and cut from blossom and dogwood cutters. Once they were dry, they were dusted with Cosmo pink petal dust. I attached them onto the cake with royal icing, and then piped pretty little centers onto each one.

I really loved making both of these cakes!

Partridge Cake

2009-06-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

My wonderful repeat client Eleshia, whose family has ordered at least 5 cakes from me in the past, ordered another cake from me for this weekend.

This family loves the Pink Cake Box as much as I do, and ordered a version of one of their cakes, only in different colors. The original was done in red and blue, but since was Morgan's First Birthday, they wanted me to change the colors to pretty pinks and greens to match her nursery bedding.

The partridges were hand molded in bright pink fondant, and the details for the eyes and beak were black fondant. The butterflies were also fondant.

The ribbon around the bottom of each tier were done using my ribbon cutter so that the top of the ribbon was done in a zig zag pattern.

On the bottom tier are abstract flowers. They are layered with dark pink, light pink and black fondant discs, and then have green royal icing dots piped around the border. They also have teeny little green leaves!

I hope that Morgan had a wonderful 1st birthday!

Pink Alligators, Purple Leopard and Blue Turtles

2009-05-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

My oh my was I ever overwhelmed this week! Mostly because it was the last week of school, which meant fun parties, graduations and other ceremonies to attend. But add several cakes in the mix and I am officially swamped!

In addition to my son's Tae Kwon Do cake, I had some other orders to take care of. One for a friend of mine, and then two other high labor orders from some very, very good clients.

Last year, Audra ordered the Over The Top birthday cake http://butterflysweets.blogspot.com/2008/05/over-top-birthday.html for her beautiful 1 year old daughter. This was an extremely lucrative design, because I am constantly getting requests to replicate it. This year, she ordered from me again to help her celebrate Brynlie's 2nd birthday.

She had decided on an accessories theme-purses, shoes, cell phones and the like. We both did research and finally decided on a design first done by Cakes By Ashley. We tweaked it a little bit and added the purple leopard print to the middle tier and turquoise as an accent color.

The accessories are all gumpaste and hand painted. The leopard print is also hand painted, and I was so excited to get to do this. I normally will dilute food coloring with some kind of clear alcohol (vodka for example) to paint with, but this time painted with straight good coloring and a tiny brush, to make sure the color was strong enough. Audra also ordered 3 dozen cookies from me, but I did not get a good photograph of them.

I hope you had a great 2nd birthday Brynlie!

There is a great family who has ordered several cakes from me in the past year. They are the sweetest, nicest people and I loved working with them! This year, Eleshia ordered three cakes

from me and some cookies.

One of her friends is expecting a baby boy, and is very excited about the turtle bedding she has picked out for the nursery. Being as enamored with the Pink Cake Box as I am, she decided on a cake like this one-blue and chocolate brown-with the pretty pregnant lady made from fondant on the top. And to compliment the cute turtles, I made these turtle sugar cookies! It is all so cute together. Thank you so much, Eleshia! See you again in a couple of weeks!

Last but not least, I also made this Pink Alligator cake. Once upon a time, my husband and I were very good friends with another couple, Sam and Kate. Our two husbands have known each other since the 8th grade, and then I came into the picture in high school, then the three of us went to the same college. On the night of our rehearsal dinner, we met Sam's new girlfriend, Kate. We were very close friends for years but with school, jobs and babies, our weekly get togethers have dwindled down to about once per year. :(

Kate sent over an email about a week before their daughter Emma's party, asking me to make her birthday cake. I was already a little overwhelmed with all of the end of year festivities, but I have a soft spot for Emma and worked her in. Emma wanted a pink alligator party, and Kate picked out a repeat cake of mine-the Girlie First Birthday Cake. But to add a funny touch, I put on the adorable little pink alligator onto the front of it. Happy 3rd Birthday, Emma!

Proud Mommy! (And A Tae Kwon Do Cake)

2009-05-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Since there was a cake involved, I can officially post this. My 5 year old son had a big night tonight-testing for his orange belt in Tae Kwon Do as well as his preschool graduation ceremony. I am always looking for a reason to have a house full of people, so thought it would be a perfect excuse for a party. And more importantly, a cake!

The graduation cap is all fondant, but the top is fondant mixed with Tylose. The tassel was made by running some fondant through a pasta shredder.

Everything else is pretty standard stuff-all fondant. I used an impression mat on the orange belt fondant to replicate the fabric pattern on his belt. Also, I had to put wired stars on the cake, but had a fun time making the wires spiraled.

I also made my little boy's likeness in fondant, which he had a fun time devouring.

Nate had a great party and a full house full of family. Congratulations on all your accomplishments Nate! We love you!

Hunny

2009-05-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Last year I made a cake that some of you may remember-the very cool Indian cake that was for the police officer that was being shot at when I called to fill her order. She was so happy with that cake, that she hired me again this year to make her daughter's 2nd birthday cake.

Anya wanted Pooh and the gang on the cake, but her daughter Morgen had a hard time deciding what she wanted on the top of it. After much discussion, she settled on Pooh holding a hunny pot.

As usual, all my animals are made from pure fondant. On Eeyore, you can see that he has delicate stitching, which is really cute and makes him look more authentic. Also, all the details, for the stripes on Tigger and the bumble bees, the eyes, etc, are all hand painted with black food coloring and vodka.

The hunny pot is also made from fondant, but the honey pouring from it is yellow royal icing-perfect touch! Also perfect-the dozen honey bees swirling around the cake, hoping to get a taste of the yummy stuff inside.

I hope Morgen has a great 2nd birthday!

Parent's Pick Awards!

2009-05-11T11:56:00.001-07:00

I am so excited to announce that Butterfly Sweets was nominated for Best Birthday Cake in Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks Awards! We need your help to win! You can vote for us once a day, every day, from now until July 15 at http://www.nicksparentspicks.com! Thanks for your support!

Sugar Wonders Cake Show

2009-04-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

Exactly two years ago was when I made my first serious decorated cake, and it was for the same cake show that I entered again this weekend. The cake I made that time was the Rose and Hydrangea Cake on my website, and I love looking between the two to see how much I have progressed.

This cake was an absolute monster for me to make! I estimate that it took me about 30 hours, which honestly seems a bit excessive and ridiculous to admit, but all I know is that I had 8 hour days Monday through Thursday, and even spent more time on it on Friday and even last week some, too. Yikes!

When I first sketched this cake on paper, I was planning on only using black, pink and a little white. But it looked and seemed a little blah. I love color, and in the end decided that a great pop of color would be to use turquoise ribbon, and I am so glad I did, because it really helps with the color scheme.

So, I will start at the top. I made the same type of bow that I made for my gift box cake last weekend (good practice!) and it is absolutely drenched in White Sparkle Dust. I used the grosgrain roller again, and of course added the pretty little pearls. I also lined all the ribbons on the cake with the pearls as well. That took a ton of time!

For the box top, I wanted eyelet lace. I purchased some eyelet cutters online, and then rolled out gumpaste at a number 2 on my pasta machine. Once the panels were rolled out, I used a scalloped cutter for the edges and then used the eyelet cutters. The next step was to very carefully wrap the panel around the outside edge of the cake. The holes were then overpiped with white royal icing.

The black filgree was done with my Stephen Benison cutters. Also, the top of the box is gumpaste, and then edged with teeny tiny little pearls, that I hand painted with vodka and luster dust.

The middle tier was hand quilted with a stitching tool. At the junctions I used ribbon roses, and hand painted sugar pearls. I also did a quilted black gumpaste top and panels for the lid, and lined them in white pearls.

The bottom tier is black stripes with a Swiss Dot design, also in black. The box top to this one is also gumpaste eyelet, and also overpiped in royal icing. I also added more gumpaste pearls where the box top and lace meet.

After completing the three tiers, I changed my design a tiny bit. At first I had planned on making this into a topsy turvy cake, by placing each tier on slanted styrofoam wedges, a la Collette Peters. Instead, though, I decided to fill the bottom space of each tier with a lush amount of ribbon roses, liberally dusted with luster dust, again.

The cake board was covered in black fondant and then, loving the turquoise color, using my filigree cutter to decorate it. It is finished off in a pretty pink beaded trim.

I am happy to say that I received 2nd place in my division-not too shabby. :)

Also this week, I took on a cake for a client that I really like, Ashley. (We both have sons named Nathaniel who are approx. the same age.). She wanted my Cupcake Cake, and I changed it just a little. It looks beautiful in person!

The inside is White Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Frosting.

Happy First Birthday Ruby!!!

Gift Boxes and Giraffes

2009-04-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

I know I have been slackin' on the blog lately, but I am back! For the past couple of weeks I took off for Spring Break, and then just took some more time off.

SO, this week, I made two really lovely cakes. I'll start with my favorite, which is this beautiful box cake. I have been wanting to expand my techniques lately, and when I was hired to make a gift box cake for a bridal shower, I desperately wanted to do something more intricate than I usually do.

I am a big fan of Sharon Zambito, with Sugar Ed Productions (SugarShack to those of us in the cake world) and she produces a series of wonderful instructional DVDs. She just came out with one entitled Boxes and Bows, so I quickly snatched it up. I think the techniques are difficult, and I fudged with them a little bit, but I love the gumpaste tops to these boxes. They are dusted with a mix of Cosmos Luster Dust and Super Pearl. The bow on the top took me forEVER, but it is so beautiful in person! SugarShack used a fondant roller with a silk pattern on it. I don't have that, but I did have a grosgrain pattern one, and used that for an extra detail. If you look closely, you can see that the loops are lined with teeny tiny pearls that I used a bead maker to make. And then, I'll admit that I splurged on some Stephen Benison gumpaste cutters for the pretty scrolls on the front. I really, really like the technique, and hope that I can perfect it. Also, I stamped the cake board with "love" and "forever", just like SugarShack did. :)

Not too long ago, I made a cake for a client, Neatherly. She ordered a 3 tiered blue cake that had a modern twist, and she was happy enough to place a second order with me for a baby shower!

Neatherly has an invitation business, and so I designed the cake around her invitations. The stripes are in various widths, and then I attached gumpaste giraffes to the side, which are replicas of the cartoon giraffes on the invites. For the Baby Boy on the bottom, I use a grosgrain roller, and then cutout circles. Next I used some letter cutters to cut out the letters, and it looks really great.

I hope they both enjoy their cakes!

That Takes The Cake! Sugar Art Show

2009-02-27T18:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend I ventured down to Austin, and all my cakes miraculously made it in one piece. It was hot hot hot when we got there, even though it was near freezing when we left DFW earlier that morning. This made me nervous, because I was afraid that the cakes might melt or fade in the sun. But much to my relief, all was well when I repeatedly checked on them during the five hour journey. :)

I am so proud of these cakes that I can hardly stand it!

The wedding cake was technically challenging for me, but it is stunning and by far one of the best cakes I have made so far.

I wanted a design that was lovely and sweet, but wanted unfurled, unruly flowers for the topper. I looked through lots of photos and decided that I wanted to make pink and white peonies. The gumpaste peonies took several days. For anyone interested in learning how to make them, a wonderful place to start is with Nicholas Lodge's Gumpaste Gardenia and Peony DVD. Also, I used my pasta machine at a level 8 to roll out the gumpaste, and then dusted some of the petals with Pink Petal Dust.

The cakes were covered in fondant as usual. Next, I bought a lace silicone mold to make the lace embroidery. These molds are pretty cool-you get two pieces that fit together kind of like a puzzle would. There is the part that you press the fondant in to, and then the part you place on top of that. You press the top piece in firmly, and then pull the fondant out. For me, the pieces did not come out clean and needed to be trimmed with a knife. I applied all the lace pieces to the sides of my cakes with some water, and then did some over piping with thick royal icing.

Next, I rolled out pink gumpaste very thin for the ribbons and bows. I used my pasta machine for this at a level 4. After it was rolled out, I cut it with my ribbon cutter and dusted with White Sparkle Dust. The ribbons and bows were applied to the cake as normal.

Wow. After describing it, it sounds pretty simple! I wonder it took me so long....

The next cake was inspired by my daughter's bedding, which she got from Santa. The bedding is from the Pottery Barn Kids. I just love all the patterns and colors on her bed, and thought it could make an adorable cake!

The top tier is a replica of a pillow-robin's egg blue with white Swiss dots, and an embroidered owl. I used a stitching tool around the edges of the owl, to make it look like fabric.

The green tier I placed on stripes of fondant that I stitched with my stitching tool. I also added the bows. Next, I cut out the partridges freehand, using lots of different colors, and then added on the flowers that were cut from a daisy cutter.

The 3rd tier is a replica of a patch of fabric on her bed that has whimsical trees on a background with chocolate Swiss dots. The dots are chocolate. The trees were cut free hand, and the flowers were added using a daisy and violet cutter.

The fourth tier is the bed skirt, which has pretty, colorful leaves on it. With this, I just tried to mix and match the colors to make it as bright, fun and gorgeous as possible. And then the cake board is the pattern of her sheets.

My favorite part of the cake is the owl toppers, which are exact replicas of the stuffed animals that came with this set. I just love it. I think I love it mostly because it is so original and not something I have seen on a cake before.

Unfortunately, I did not place in the competition, but am still happy with the experience and how my cakes turned out.

First place went to this cute cake that had tons of hand sculpted mice sitting on top of drums. How great is that?

Second place was this argyle-type of cake done by Natalee Klotz. I have been a fan of her cakes for a couple of years, ever since we competed

together at a competition in McKinney. I still haven't met her in person, but really admire how perfect her cakes always are.

Last year she won best of the Intermediate Division, and this year came back to the Intermediate Division to win 2nd on this perfectly adorable cake.

I didn't get a photograph of the 3rd place cake, but wanted to share a photo of this AMAZING cake. I cannot believe it did not place in the competition, because it was simply wonderful. Can you believe that the coral on top is white chocolate? And then the gumpaste orchids? Holy cow, it's just stunning. :D (By the way, my son the aspiring photographer took these pics. He's 5!)

Congratulations to all the winners of the show, and to everyone who made such gorgeous cakes! I can't wait till next year!

Monkeys and Zebras

2009-02-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

Purple is my absolute favorite color, but unfortunately, I don't seem to get to decorate with it much. Luckily this week, I got to make a cake for a little girl who loves purple, too.

The mom wanted monkeys on the cake, because that was the theme of the party. Since she is one of four girls, she wanted 4 monkeys total on there. I wanted the cake to be cute and girly, and ended up deciding on doing them like on my Luau Cake I made a few months ago. I added the purple flowers to their heads to help with the girlishness.

After I put on the monkeys and the bow, I took a step back to look it over. The cake still seemed empty, so I piped on some sherbet-green vines, and added more flowers. Then I piped the 6 as well. It is a really sweet cake.

The next cake I made was a little bit of a repeat. They wanted the bottom tier with zebra stripes, but wider than the ones I have made before. They also wanted them horizontal. At first they wanted the top tier to be giraffe print (ack!), and I am grateful they changed their mind about that, because it would have been a tad too much. They ended up deciding on the top tier being polka dotted. I think it is perfect.

Happy Birthday to Hailey and Ciann!

Abigail Bo Peep

2009-02-13T10:18:00.001-08:00

I love this little sheep! She is so cute, I think I will sneak her off the cake to keep her, and see if Shelley (Abigail's mommy) will notice. ;)

Shelley requested that the cake be pastel colors-pinks, purples, yellows. She also adores sheep, and wanted an adorable one for the top.

The sheep is larger than most of my fondant animals, so that it would be the same size on the 1 on the top. I molded the body, arms and legs like normal, then made the head. I added some eyelashes to be extra feminine, and then being inspired by her sweetness, added some pink petal dust onto her cheeks to give her a girly blush. The wool is made with royal icing and a small star tip. She is the cutest little thing ever, and I hope that Abigail has a fabulous first birthday!

Nathaniel's Valentine

2009-02-11T18:03:00.000-08:00

I love Valentine's Day!

When I went to drop off my son at preschool this week, I was too late to pounce on bringing cupcakes or cookies for the Valentine's party. I was the third parent to drop off their kid, but, the other two moms seized the opportunity before I could. So, trying to avert "Punch" or "Snack Mix", I scribbled my name under "Other".

Tuesday after dropping him off I went to the cake store, and they had the most beautiful display of chocolates at their entrance. Lovely things that I have never seen before, like jewelry made of chocolate. And jewelry boxes. Gorgeous! But what caught my eye was the most adorable little chocolate lollipops. It didn't take me long to decide that's what I would make for the party.

Nate got to help me, and we melted the wafer chocolates, then poured it into piping bags, which was the piped into heart shaped molds. The next day we bought ribbons and bags, then assembled them together.

It's funny because my kids are so used to cakes and cookies that they don't even bat an eyelash at them. But chocolates on a stick, well, that was a novelty. Nate was super excited to take them to school on Thursday.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Takin It Easy

2009-02-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

This week I took it easy, and just did one fun cake. I love making my zoo animals, and this client wanted them ontop of my 1-tiered zebra cake. She absolutely loved it!

Next week is also an easy one for me. However, I am getting ready for a cake competition in a couple of weeks, so the two cakes I will be taking with me will be taking up quite a bit of my time. Last year I didn't get to go to this competition because my fondant wouldn't cooperate. http://butterflysweets.blogspot.com/2008/02/competition-cake-finally-done.html So I am hoping this year will go off without a hitch.

I Need A Nap .

2009-01-30T16:32:00.001-08:00

So this week was incredibly busy, so much that I am now ready to curl up and take a long, long nap.
About a month ago, I got a "last minute" (in the wedding world, anyway) order for a 4 tiered version of my very large wedding cake-the white Sparkly Cake. The only change was that they wanted red bows in place of the white ones.
The hardest part of this cake was the baking. The cake sizes are 6-9-12-15, which doesn't mean a lot until you see the sizes of the pans. When I shopped for supplies, I underestimated how much would be needed (I had only bought 6 dozen eggs, 18 cups of sour cream and 4 lbs of butter. It wasn't nearly enough). And when an ice storm hit during the week, I couldn't go out to get the rest of the supplies I sorely needed to get some of this work done! Ack!
The top tier is White Cake with Chocolate Mousse and Vanilla Buttercream. The 2nd tier is Italian Cream with Strawberry Mousse and Strawberry Buttercream. The 3rd tier is Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Mousse and Raspberry Buttercream, and the bottom tier is Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting. Phew! I would love to be able to say I took this on like superwoman and it was a breeze, but it actually took me hours upon hours upon hours, and I was beyond exhausted. Luckily, the decorating process wasn't nearly as bad!
So, as before, this cake is dusted with Super Pearl. The rhinestones are not edible, but are beautiful and stunning. There is just something about walking into a room with such a sparkling cake that catches the eye. The pipe work this time is a little more elaborate and elegant since the cake I made last year. I think it brings the cake up a notch and was done in Royal Icing.
This bride also wanted a Bleeding Armadillo Groom's Cake, ala Steel Magnolias. He is so cute! His insides are Red Velvet (for the "bleeding") with Cream Cheese Frosting. His body is cake, but his head is Rice Krispie treats. For the decor, I saw a similar cake online and followed their basic design scheme, with a few extra details. The body was covered in grey fondant, then in scales which I made with the wide part of a piping tip. I also added on some stripes. For the scales on the face, I used the small part of a #5 tip, and imprinted them all over. This is quite time consuming! His eyes were made with a leaf cutter, and the ears were free form.
The tail is a long rope of fondant, and his toes and claws are also ropes of fondant. I imprinted the scales on the toes in the same way I did the face. My husband thought that I should add a tongue hanging from the side of his mouth, but I don't know, he looks too happy for that! I think he is adorable, and I am pretty proud of it.
I also had a birthday cake this weekend, but was too tired to remember to get a photo of it. It was like my zoo animal cakes, but with monkeys only. The colors were dark brown, yellow and red. There were two smash cakes that came with it, also with monkeys. It was pretty cute, and I think the client liked it.
Well, it was a very productive cake week, and I am very proud of my work. But, I am off to bed for the rest of the weekend to catch up on all the TV I missed of my Tivo!

The Blue Period

2009-01-23T16:17:00.001-08:00

It's funny to me that cake weeks can have themes, and that this week was blue cakes. The first cake I made has been planned for quite a while. Neatherly (cool name, huh?) contacted me several months ago. She is a very organized person, someone who plans ahead very well. She is celebrating her 33rd birthday this weekend, and wanted me to design something around her invitation.The invitation is beautiful-royal blue, pale blue, black and white. Along the side on the border was a sunburst pattern which she wanted incorporated on the cake. She said that she wanted to cake elegant with a modern twist, and not too busy. So, keeping all that in mind, I came it with this design. The scroll work always looks elegant, and I piped on the sunburst pattern onto the top tier. I hope she loves it, and has a happy birthday!

The next cake I made is a repeat of one I have done before, just in a different color. I am glad that I had the opportunity to make it in blue, because I think blue and chocolate are so beautiful together. This is for a baby shower, and there are 18 petit fours decorating the cake board. I really love this cake, the coolness of the blue and the gumpaste J on the top. It's adorable!

Next week is very, very busy for me. I will be doing a 4 tiered wedding cake, a bleeding armadillo grooms cake, and a zoo animal/monkey cake.

The Backyardigan Disco

2009-01-09T15:49:00.001-08:00

This was a week for colorful cakes!

First up was this Backyardigans cake that I made for a friend of mine. It isn't often that I get to make character cakes, but since it was a friend at no charge, I was able to make this adorable cake. I just love it-it is a two tiered version of my Over The Top Birthday Cake, but with Backyardigans in place of the butterflies. She had only requested two of the animals, but I was able to fit in making the rest of them into my schedule, and surprised her with all five. I am happy to say that I think it made a big difference in the cake to have all of them on there. Too bad I can't make this for a client!

I also made this Disco Cake for a woman's 40th Birthday Party. This was a surprise party her husband was throwing her, so all the ordering had to be done covertly. This was inspired by the Pink Cake Box, and my biggest regret with it is that the background is too dark to see the outlines of the dancers. However, he really wanted it to be chocolate fondant!

On the Pink Cake Box Version, the borders were done with just plain ropes of fondant. This is what I did at first, but as I continued to look at the cake, it just looked off. Also, the only colors I had done were blue and purple, so it just seemed blah.

When I finally put the disco ball on, it still didn't seem right. I looked at the clock, saw I had an hour before my customer would be here, and decided at the last second to add on more colors, and change the borders into the signature fondant balls that I almost always use. I think it made the cake so much brighter and cuter-much more colorful, and the balls always look great!

The disco ball was made from Styrofoam covered in fondant pieces. I painted it with silver highlighter and vodka.

I received an email telling me the cake was a huge hit, which always makes my day. I am glad he loved it!

I Love My Christmas Present

2008-12-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

While I did plan on taking this week off, I quickly changed my mind after I got my Christmas present this year from my dad, and went ahead and snuck in a last minute cake. (Sorry to everyone who I turned down!)
My least favorite part of the cake making process, after cleaning of course, is leveling cakes. I hate it. I hate hate hate it. It's very difficult to level a cake perfectly, to make the top flat and beautiful. Messing with serrated knives, accidentally cutting things unevenly-yuck! And, there are crumbs everywhere. All over me, and the counter, and the floor. Gah!

Early in 08, I heard some people talking about a contraption that happened to be an automatic cake leveler, and that if their kitchen was ever on fire, that this was the one piece of equipment that they would save. Many loved it even over their Kitchen Aid Mixers! When I discovered what it was, and that it would basically make my life easier since I wouldn't have to level cakes, I wanted one terribly.
Anyways, I am horribly difficult to buy a present for, no one ever knows what to get me, because I always say "I don't know" or "nothing" when I am asked. When my husband discovered that I wanted one of these things, he covertly sent my parents an email telling them what I wanted.
Well, what I got was better than the one I had heard about before! Turns out that my dad figured out what parts I would need, and he and my grandfather spent hours making one for me! My granddad is an excellent craftsman, but needed help with making something like this, so he employed the help of a friend who happens to be a machinist. Apparently, the three of them took a couple of Saturdays out at the machinist's workshop to get this to work to perfection, and it means so much more than the store bought one would have. I basically couldn't wait to use it.

What happened when I used it was that something that normally takes me about an hour to do took me less than 2 minutes! That was for 9 layers of cake for my 3-tiered cake. It was awesome! The tops of the cakes just slid off, and there were hardly any crumbs on the floor. It was effortless, and the tops of my cakes were about as perfect as I could ever imagine getting them. I am so excited!
Thank you to my dad for coming up with such a great idea, and to my granddad and his friend for all their hard work.

Turns out that me taking this order was a bit serendipitous for the customer as well. I met the little boy's (Levi) mother early this week when she dropped of her deposit, and she told me that planning his birthday had been pushed aside because he had had extensive cranial surgery in the fall. So, by the time she helped him heal, and then being overwhelmed with Christmas in addition, there was so much on her plate that she had simply forgotten about the birthday cake! Well, I am thrilled to have been able to make them this cake, and I hope that they loved it. The cake was designed around an adorable invitation that Levi's dad designed himself-very cool.

Happy 1st Birthday to Levi!

Fabulous And 50!

2008-12-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed making this bright, vibrant cake for a 50th birthday. Again, it's just so fun to get to do something different!

The birthday girl's sister was the one who ordered the cake as a surprise, and she wanted something with right, something spirited, something fabulous! After a bit of discussion back and forth, we decided on this cute, funky cake.

Topsy turvy cakes used to be so intimidating, but after making several, they are getting easier and easier. The cake is covered in Satin Ice.

You can see that I am still experimenting with the gumpaste numbers on the top. This time I painted them with gold and vodka, and then applied little red flowers to the center.

And, of course, the bright red boa makes it even more fabulous.

This was a pretty fun cake to make, and a good one to close out the year. I am taking the rest of the year off, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you all in 2009!

It's Been Awhile!

2008-12-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

Being so busy around the holidays means not having too much time to post stuff in my blog.

A couple of weeks ago, a woman hired me to make 7 dozen cookies for her holiday party. She was having a trio of musicians come to her house, and wanted a musical theme, along with some Christmas themed cookies. Here are some of my favorite-the Christmas Trees and Snow Men!

I decorate my cookies by first making a dam with thick royal icing, and then flooding in the outline with thinner icing. Once the filling is set, I decorated the tops with more stiff icing. A trick that I have started doing is using plastic piping bags and cutting a very small hole at the end to decorate with. This eliminates having to deal with cleaning the metal tips, and as you can see, it works great!

This past weekend, I had two pretty interesting cakes. This first one I love, because it is girly, soft, and feminine, is pink and lavender. The client gave me free reign with the design, and this is what I came up with. Lots of flowers, inverted stripes on the bottom tier, and of course, one of my signature bows.

For the number, I have been enjoying experimenting making the numbers more whimsical. Lately I have been making ropes of gumpaste and twisting them into the right shapes. I attach a lollipop stick to the back with egg whites to stick into the cake. I like how they have been turning out!

The next cake is probably one of the most difficult ones I have done to date. It was for a groom's cake, and the groom wanted the cake in the shape of the Houston Astros emblem. They wanted it hollowed out, just like a real star.

I think a lot of people who don't make cakes don't understand how difficult these things are, and I had to think a LOT about how to accomplish this.

Thank goodness for Cakecentral! Those of you who are on Cakecentral probably know or know of Doug. He is awesome. He came up with a diagram from me, along with pictures for me to cut the cake and piece it together. From there, my husband blew the diagram up for me on his printer, and helped me piece the papers together for the right shape.

I baked two full sized sheet cakes, and filled and frosted, etc. I then stuck it in the freezer to firm it up to make it easier to cut the pieces out. I then laid the pieces of paper on top of the cake, and got to cutting! I arranged them on the cake board, and attached each piece to the other pieces with thick frosting. When I had figured out the puzzle, what I had was a HUGE star.

Covering it in fondant was hard. I'll leave it at that-lots of trial and error.

The cake board, of all things, was also very tricky. The ones at Cake Carousel that would fit this size cake were over $20 (whatEVER), so I headed out to Home Depot, and found a nice, sturdy piece of precut wood. I liked this idea for several reasons-the main being that the wood is incredibly strong and can support the weight of the cake. This would reduce any cracking or shifting that might happen with a cake board. But...what would I cover it in? It needed to be something that I could easily clean and wipe off, since the decorating had to be on the surface of the board.

I could not figure this out. I didn't want fondant, because I worried it would get dirty. I thought about a plastic table cloth, but that would look terrible! I wasn't sure how to do a board covering in royal icing, either. I walked up and down the aisles of many, many stores trying to figure this out, when I came across metal wrapping paper for Christmas. It looked just like the stuff they use on the cake drums, and was about 75% less expensive than the stuff Wilton sells. It worked like a charm! To make to cake board look better, I trimmed the top of the board with black and white ribbon. I wish I had a better photo of this thing, because really, it was pretty cool. But, am I glad I am done with it! ;)
I have also recently made this cute Minnie Mouse Cake for a friend. It's all fondant, and a big step up from the buttercream Mickey Mouse one I did about a year ago.

Weddings, Wedding Showers and Birthdays

2008-11-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

Those of us who live in Texas just know that the best time to have an outdoor wedding around here is early spring, or late fall. This is pretty much the only time that it isn't sweltering hot (but no guarantees) or way too cold (less frequently an issue).

I love this green hydrangea cake that I did this weekend. It's just perfect for an outdoor wedding-light blue polka dots, ornamented with fresh, green hydrangeas. I also love the monogram on the front, which I piped with royal icing. Overall, I think they cake is both whimsical and elegant.

Also this week, I made a Gift Box Wedding Shower Cake. This was kind of funny, because the person who ordered it had such a familiar name, and I just couldn't place it. It turned out that she is a neighbor of mine, whose son is also named Nathaniel! What a teeny world we live in!

I piped with scrolls in black buttercream. The bow is fondant mixed with Tylose, and I also dusted it and the peals with Super Pearl to give it an extra sheen. Also, I tried something new this week by making my own fondant. Let me tell you that it tasted amazing, and I think it is something I will continue to do.

Last week, I made a miniature, 2 tiered topsy turvy zebra print cake. It was teeny tiny, but somehow that adds to the cuteness.

I Don't Mean To Brag, But...

2008-10-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

...this cake kind of deserves it, right? I am SO in love with it!

I love the Pink Cake Box, and a couple of weeks ago, a man who was getting married on Halloween contacted me and asked for ideas for a cool wedding cake. The first thing that popped into my head was the awesome Corpse Bride cakes that they make. I sent him a photo through email and no more than thirty seconds passed until he said "Yes, let's do it!" Cool!

This is my version of the cake, with a few differences. I don't airbrush my cakes, and the Pink Cake Box had their swirls airbrushed on, so instead I used black fondant to look like vines crawling up the cake. The middle tier is different widths of black fondant stripes.

The colors were a little tricky, because I wanted them muted and not too bright. For the blue, I found a color called Wedgwood Blue, which had gray already incorporated in it. For the purple, I used Violet, and mixed in a teeny bit of black.

The topper is something I searched and searched for, and finally found on a website called Heteromorphic.com. Little did I know that it is a collector's item, and that these suckers are $$$. I had found one on amazon.com and another on eBay for about $100, but heteromorphic definitely had the best price by far.

The finishing touches are the butterflies and dragonflies. This cake is beyond gorgeous, I can't even tell you how much I love it.

The other cake I made was for a very sweet girl who ordered a cake for a friend's 21st birthday. She wanted my topsy turvy zebra cake, but didn't need that many servings, so we decided to do a one tiered version of it. Very, very cute!

Zoo Baby Shower

2008-10-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

This was a fun cake to make, because I got to make my zoo cake in a different color scheme. I also got to make a new animal!

The cake was based off a nursery bedroom set from Target, and featured khaki, green, and blue colors, along with some adorable animals. My favorite animal on the quilt was a blue and green turtle, which I put on the top. I wish the photo for him was better, because he was really cute!

The other animals were a lion, blue elephant, and giraffe.

The inside of the cake was chocolate with vanilla frosting, which together I think makes it taste like a giant Oreo cookie.

What a fun cake!

Nate's 5th Birthday

2008-10-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

Last week was my son, Nate's, 5th birthday! Since birthday parties are all consuming events, it was the only cake that I made that week.
I am so sad to not get a photo of this cake before it got damaged! After loading up the car with Nate's cake, presents, party drinks and snacks, I totally left my camera memory card at home. By the time I got a hold of a camera, the sun had melted one of the chocolate towers. Shoot!

Anyway, this was meant to be a Spiderman 3 cake, with a city scape. The buildings and cars were chocolate transfers. I got the idea from the Whimsical Bakehouse, and also from some cakes on Flickr.
In additional, I piped on some spiderwebs on the top tier with royal icing.

Despite me only being able to see its flaws, Nate loved it, and had a great birthday. He wanted to do it at the "Pirate Park" again. which was where we had it the year before, too. We ate cake, led the kids on a treasure hunt (a treasure chest filled with candy) and had a great time!It's hard to believe he is already 5! Happy Birthday Nate!!! We love you!

Nathaniel's First Birthday

2008-10-04T16:58:00.001-07:00

This weekend I made a cake for a little boy named Nathaniel, which is near and dear to my heart, because my own son's name is Nathaniel! It is not a name I come across too terribly often, and I also thought it was neat because both boys were born in October.
My client Jennifer and I shared a few "My Nathaniel" stories, and I can honestly say that she was a delight to work with!
So Jennifer's Nathaniel really loves puppies. His mom said that whenever he sees them that he can't help but laugh. She ordered a cake that was inspired by Pink Cake Box (who else?), but later added on a couple of little puppies on the top.
It was also really important to her husband that the name Nathaniel was on there, so I ended up doing the cutout letters at the bottom, to make sure that it was front and center.
It ended up being a pretty cute cake, and I really hope that everyone enjoyed it.

Doing a cake for Nathaniel's first birthday made me all nostalgic, so I had to post a photo of My Nathaniel's first birthday. This was 4 (!) years ago, before I was even thinking about making cakes. I remember staying up late slaving over this funny thing-it was a cake mix (gasp!) and even worse, canned frosting (OMG) that I tinted bright blue and then put the little sugar space ships on. We still lived in our 3 level apartment, and had it filled with family. That is in my top five favorite days ever.
Now Nathaniel's 5th birthday is coming up in 2 weeks, and he wants a Spiderman Party. Can't wait!

OSSAS!

2008-09-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

OSSAS=Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show. And it is a huge deal for anyone in the cake world! It is pretty much the biggest competition in the US, and there were SO many famous cake decorators there that my head was spinning. One of the coolest things I got to do was sit in on a class taught by Marina Sousa and her adorable assistant Dawn of Just Cake. It was a lot of fun!
My cake ended up taking a different turn from what I had expected. I had intended it to be taller-four tiers, with the bottom being a 14 inch petal shape. But, for some reason, I just could not get the bottom tier to behave. After several hours of wrestling with it, I trimmed it down to three tiers.
I waited until Thursday to cover my dummies because I was afraid of the colors fading on them. I was working late into the night (with my husband sitting at the kitchen table finishing up his work to leave early with me Friday), and took a step back to look at it. The mermaid wasn't on there yet, but with the turquoise crown, and the ocean-y colors, I turned around and told him that it looked like a mermaid princess cake. He agreed, and we felt like a good way to add an extra element to the cake, and also to help buffer the issue with the missing tier, would be to add the mermaid on to it. What a great decision that turned out to be! It's funny how differently things can turn out from what you intended!
The mermaid I think is really special. Her body and tail are all one piece of sculpted fondant. The tail I made using the end of a #5 tip for the scales, and then painted it with a mixture of Vodka, turquoise gel food coloring and white sparkle dust.

The purple flowers are whimsical dogwood blossoms made from gumpaste. I used a lilac cutter for the turquoise flowers, and then used pearl dragees for their centers.

I piped the middle tier in turquoise, and then added more pearls for some extra details.

The crown on top is from gumpaste. I used lace cutters for the top points, as well as the pretty detail around the base. The pearls on top are hand rolled pearls dusted with Super Pearl.

Then over the entire cake, I very generously brushed White Sparkle Dust all over it to make sure it would shimmer and shine. I was pretty proud of it...

And very happy to announce that I won second place in my division! Woohoo!

Now on to some of the other AWESOME cakes I saw. First, let me say that I don't know the names of the artists who created these, so if you do, please email me so I can give them credit!

There were so many there that were just amazing....I'm going to start with my favorite one.

This one was an Alice in Wonderland themed cake. It's so inspiring to me to see that a cake that is whimsical and pretty could still be entered into the main competition, because honestly, competition cakes can be so stuffy sometimes.

I love all the cute little details on it. I really like the Cheshire Cat on the top. I also really admire the tea pot shaped tier in the middle. Amazing.

My next favorite is a cake inspired by Coco Chanel. This cake is really beautiful in person, but I am sad to say that it was damaged by a spectator. Can you even imagine? Working for weeks on a cake, only to have to damaged by someone's wandering hands? The Do Not Touch signs are there for a reason!

Everything on this cake is in the theme this artist intended. From the black quilted fondant to replicate a Chanel bag, to the fabric looking roses, this cake was breath taking. And very original.

My husband loved this one. It was really cool in person. This was not in the wedding cake competition, but in the general competition. To me, it looks like something Duff would have made!

I'm guess this person made the cool things on front by layering paper thin piece of fondant, then rolling them, and then slicing them like cookie dough. I'm not sure, but that's my best guess.

Unfortunately, last night I snuck out before the competition was over because of the 5 hour drive home, but from what I understand, Rebecca Sutterby of Sugar Creations took the top prize! Her cake struck me when I saw it, because of the flawless turquoise piping. How in the world do these people get their piping so perfect? But against the white cake, it was stunning.

Congratulations to everyone!

There was so much inspiration this weekend...and so much to learn. I've always thought my cakes were pretty good, but compared to the flawless ones around me, I can't believe how much I need to learn! I better get to practicing for next year...

Polka Dots and Paw Prints

2008-09-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

Weeks like this make me LOVE making cakes.

I always get butterflies in my tummy when making cakes, anticipating how people will respond to it. But this week, it's worse because I am actually invited to the party! This is the first time that I have been invited to a client's party, and this is for a child in my son's preschool class, so I am nervous to see what the other mommies think.

I am so glad that they chose the color turquoise, because it isn't a color you see very often and when you do, it really stands out. She wanted a darker turquoise for the background with lighter blue polka dots, and then a couple of flowers and butterflies. Even I can't help but admit that it is so pretty!

The second polka dot cake I made was for a baby shower for a woman that lives in my neighborhood. I have had this cake saved in my Cake Inspiration folder on the computer for about a year now, and am thrilled to finally complete it.

The fondant is cream with chocolate fondant polka dots. The bows are made from straight fondant, which worked really well. It's a very elegant cake, just perfect for this kind of party. I hope they like it!

Last but not least is this little Puppy Cake. This idea was sent to me through an email, and I have no idea who made the original, but the design is adorable. The puppies are all fondant, as are the paw prints. The letters were done with a special cutter-let me warn you that these cutters are exceptionally difficult to use, so make sure you have plenty of time and patience if you chose to use them. There is a video on You Tube by Aine2 which helped me and made the process a little easier, but I still spent about an hour getting these suckers out of the cutters.

The overall look is perfect though, which definitely makes the whole process worth it!

Hurricanes and Luaus

2008-09-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

This week I had a bit of a luau theme going. I had a luau cake, and also an order of cookies with the same theme.
Misty was one of my first ever clients. I've always felt a bit grateful to her, because she gave me one of my first "breaks" when she ordered the first ever cupcake cake exactly one year ago. I hadn't had much experience yet, but she took a chance on me, and since then, business has been booming!
This year, her son is turning two and she wanted a Luau type of cake. Her invites and party decor had monkeys on banana surf boards, palm trees, things like that. I scratched my head on this one, trying to figure out how to make it cute. This is what I came up with.
The top tier has the palm trees, each one with 6 leaves and hand sculpted coconuts. The bottom tier was pretty time consuming, as it features 8 fondant monkeys in various types of beach wear. Some sport swim suits while others wear grass skirts. Some are drifting across the waves on their surfboards and the others are hanging upside down from the tier below.
On the top of the cake, two fat monkeys sit below a palm tree in the "sand". The sand is Vanilla Wafers that I pulverized in my food processor.
On the cake board I wanted something a little different, so I tried to make the name look like an SOS sign you might see on the beach. Very cute! I am really happy with this cake.
The next cake is a repeat-a three tiered version of my Ducky Cake. These are always fun to do because of the bright, girly colors. With the hurricane rolling through tomorrow, I had to convince my client to let me deliver it tonight to Amazing Jakes. It is a huge place, and heaving that cake through there turned my arms into noodles! But all the nice compliments and people goggling the gorgeous cake made it worth while.
I also made two dozen matching ducky cookies, which I didn't get a pic of.
To finish off the week, I did some really cute flip flop cookies for a little girl's birthday party. That client was a bit dismayed that for her fun luau party they would all be stuck inside to avoid the nasty weather. Hopefully they will have a great time anyway!

Wall-E Cake

2008-09-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend is my gorgeous daughter, Charlotte's, birthday. Charlotte is obsessed with Wall-E. I think this summer we ended up seeing it 7 times-and we are planning on seeing it again tomorrow afternoon after the party!

Charlotte has been talking about her Wall-E birthday since the movie came out in June. When I did a Google search on Wall-E cakes, one similar to this popped up on Flickr, and was the main source of my inspiration and direction. The orignial was produced by http://www.donbuciak.com/, and his Wall-E cake far surpasses my own!

Wall-E was a tough one to build. He is an 8 inch cube of cake, covered in bright yellowy-orange fondant, and then piped with royal icing for the details.

He has two wheels which are tough to see in the photo, complete with tire treads.

His head was sculpted out of rice krispy treats, and then attached to a peice of PVC for the neck, which was also covered in rice krispy treats and fondant.

His little arms are from cardboard wrapped with fondant and decorated like black and white hazard tape.

The cake board is covered in "dirt" and "mud", which is really cake crumbs and brown sugar mixed together.

All in all, Wall-E is pretty cute in person, and Charlotte loves him. I hope he tastes great, too!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

New Techniques

2008-08-22T07:53:00.001-07:00

I was super busy this week-3 Cakes, 2 dozen Cupcakes and 4 dozen cookies. At some point I need to realize that there is only one of me! I did a couple of things that I haven't done before-edible image plaques and chocolate transfers.

Cindy contacted me all the way back in April, wanting a girly dinosaur cake. This sounded so much like my own daughter-someone who loves dinosaurs which are typically "boyish" things but, she is still girly. Cindy basically wanted her cake to have the dinos on it, but look like a girlish sweet cake. Sometime combining things like that can be tough, but this time it all came together perfectly.

At first I had wanted to make the dinosaurs out of chocolate using chocolate transfers. I got about 4 good ones, but the lines just weren't clear enough due to how complex these particular drawings actually are. I looked around and found an article on Cake Central about edible image plaques. You can print out photographs from a food dedicated printed filled with food colorings onto edible paper. You then cut out the images and attach them to gumpaste with some piping gel. Well...looks pretty cute!Cindy and her husband loved the cake, and thought it was perfect! They also ordered 2 dozen pink and green dinosaur cookies.

Next was this Pony cake that was originally designed by Cakes By Ashley, who is no longer making cakes. Kristen was a former client of hers, and wanted me to recreate one of her designs.

The horse on top was done with the same technique as the dinosaurs above. This is such a cute technique, and I am so glad I found it! The top tier is meant to look like denim, with a little pocket and piped stitching on the front. The bottom tier is piped with the bandanna print using royal icing. There is a fondant rope around the bottom of each tier. The animals are fondant. Kristen also ordered 2 dozen cookies, but I forgot to take a photograph! I really like getting to do new variations on cakes, and even though I've done several barnyard cakes, this one is different and sooo cute!

I also made these Scooby Doo cupcakes. They were iced in lime green and dark blue, and then topped with chocolate transfers made in the shapes of dog prints and doggy bones. If you would like to have more information on how to make chocolate transfers, the Whimsical Bakehouse has some wonderful instructions! http://www.amazon.com/Whimsical-Bakehouse-Fun-Make-Cakes/dp/0609608967/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219438299&sr=8-1

For the last part of this entry, I wanted to tell you all about the SPS system. Since I share all of my wonderful cakes, it's only fair to share the struggles and mistakes I have made as well.The SPS system stands for Single Plate System, and is one of the sturdiest was to support tiered cakes. It consists of four legs that fit very snugly onto a plate where the tier will rest on. What happens is that all the weight from the top tier is put onto the legs, and not onto the cake. Wooden dowels are not quite as reliable, case in point:

I have been using wooden dowels for the majority of my cakes, but in the past several months have had 2 issues with my cakes because of doweling within them. This morning, I took a peek at the Pony Cake, and saw that the top tier was leaning forward. When I went to investigate and correct the problem, the fondant on the bottom tier cracked open pretty severely, and even separated from the sides of the cake. I disassembled the cake, took a look at it, and realized that the wooden dowels inside had shifted from the weight of the top tier. After several hard hours of hard work, the cake was reassembled, but this time with the SPS in place. The fact is that wooden dowels have a propensity for slipping, and it just isn't worth the risk! As I said, I was incredibly busy this week, and having to completely re decorate a cake was not something I was up for. The SPS system is inexpensive (not to be confused the SFS, which costs hundreds of dollars), and pretty much ensures that your cake will be delivered in flawless condition.

Off the soap box now-have a great weekend!

Lots of Girly Cakes

2008-08-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

The cake to your left is super cute. And teeny tiny! I am just so in love with it I can hardly stand it. It's my favorite cake of the week!
A repeat client, who I made the original Butterfly Cake for, is turning 30 this weekend. Her sister in law, who is also a client (Graduation Cake) gave me a call and requested an adorable cake from the Pink Cake Box. Yes!!! Of course I will make anything inspired by that bakery!
The cake is three tiers, but Stacy wanted it as small as possible. So, the tiers are 4, 6 and 8 inch rounds. It's a miniature version of a gigantic cake, and it is adorable. I actually think its smallness greatly increases its appeal to me-dainty and petite and gorgeous.

Next up is another girly cake for another repeat client, who had ordered the Circus Cake a while back. This is for her daughter's 2nd birthday.
She had sent me the invite, which was of a pink and green lady bug with orange antennas. She wanted it to just be a cute, girly cake, and that's what she got!
Even though it is only two tiers, is actually feeds more people than the 3-tiered cake above.
The bows and number 2 are gumpaste, and the hand sculpted lady bugs are made out of fondant. For the large pink bow in the center, as well as on some of the loopy bows and stripes on the cake, I used a special wavy cutter to make it look like ric rac ribbon. This cake is covered in whimsical fondant flowers and the cake board is set off with a feather boa.
In great contrast to the dainty cake is this gigantic zebra cake. It was for a 1st birthday and was requested by a local photographer who loved my topsy turvy zebra cake I did a few weeks ago. After lots and lots of deliberation, we tweaked the design and went with something that I had seen another decorator do. I also added the wired decorations.
The cake board is decorated with a black and white tulle tutu that I made myself. Let me tell you that I did not charge enough for this, as I spent about two hours putting it together this morning! There was also a smash cake with a light-able fondant candle that I made to go along with the whole ensemble.

People's Cakes from Every State

2008-08-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this site which displays cakes from all 50 states! This green one here is the one chosen to represent Texas, and was made by Romano's Bakery in Dallas.

I am surprised that of all the gorgeous intricate cakes out there that something so simple was chosen, but hey, it's still a pretty cake.

The site can be found here, and is fun to look through! http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20041107_1,00.html

Baby Shower Week

2008-08-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

So this week, I am back making cakes! It feels so good to be in the kitchen again, with bright food coloring-stained hands.

My first cake was for a woman that was at the shower where I made Sophie's Cake. Another one of their friends is having a baby, and they wanted a lovely cake.

Pink and brown is so fashionable right now, and she wanted one tier brown with pink scrolls, and the other pink, with brown polka dots. I experimented a bit with the scroll work-I wanted something that was whimsical and elegant at the same time. I did some research and found this pattern that I liked in ACD on another cake, and replicated it. The piping is done in royal icing over Satin Ice Dark Chocolate Fondant.

I ended up piping a border on the chocolate bows because I needed them to stand out. The one on the bottom tier was blending in too much, so I just added tiny little dots of pink royal icing along the borders. This was my first time to do this, and I was really happy with it!

The inside of the cake is a very decadent White Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Curd and Italian Meringue Buttercream.

The other cake is one that I have been dying to make for about a year. I am a huge fan of Sugar Creations, and this is one of their designs.

This is for a baby shower for a baby boy. Apparently, the parents to be are huge soccer fans, because the invitation said that they were expecting a new team mate! How cute! When they started talking about wanting a soccer cake, I sent them a photo of the original version of this one, and they were thrilled with the idea of doing something so whimsical, cute and soccer oriented.

For the soccer ball, I decided to make it out of Styrofoam covered in fondant. It turns out that soccer balls are a little tricky to master, since they are made from perfect geometric shapes (hexagons and pentagons). At first I thought about cutting all the pieces out and putting them together like a puzzle. That actually turned out too complicated, so I cut out the black pentagons and then etched in the lines for the hexagons with a knife.

The inside of this cake is Chocolate Butter and Fluffy Vanilla frosting. The two of them together tastes like a giant Oreo cookie.

What a fun cake week.

Precious Car-Go

2008-07-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

A fellow mom from a nearby city, Angie, has started up a new business! These clothes are just too adorable. I wonder if I could get my picky little Charlotte to wear one of these beautiful tutu inspired skirts? The pink and green one reminds me of my Rose and Hydrangea Wedding Cake. Take a look at her wonderful site, located at http://www.preciouscar-go.net/servlet/StoreFront

Oh No! No Photos!

2008-07-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that I did not get one single photo of the one single cake I did this week? Funnily enough, Charlotte (a woman who shares a name with my lovely tenacious daughter) arrived quite early this morning, before I could snap any photos. This was much to my dismay. I did ask her to send me some pics when she got a chance, so hopefully she will! The cake was a 1 tiered zoo animal cake. Since Charlotte was going to have a balloon theme, I made fondant balloons on wires for all the animals to hold. It was too cute!

So, this week being as slow as it was, I Googled Butterfly Sweets. I'll admit, it is a LITTLE silly to Google yourself, but I got curious as to what people out there are saying about the bakery! And do you know what I found? All sorts of awesome blogs that I have been a part of! I just wanted to share a couple of cool ones. Forgive me, I just thought it was flattering to be mentioned. ;)

My Turquoise Cake with Scroll Work must be pretty popular, because it was featured in two blogs-The Planner Pages and Bliss Wedding Market.

This one I have always found amusing. The man's name is Adam, and he posted a first birthday cake I did for a little boy named Adam to be his first birthday cake. http://blogs.menupages.com/chicago/category/menupages_news/

This cake used me for inspiration on Topsy-Turvy Cakes, and fondant. http://www.squidoo.com/decorate-with-fondant

This one called Dreamers Events is a really beautiful website that featured my Rose and Hydrangea Cake. http://dreamersevents.wordpress.com/ Favor Ideas also featured the same cake: http://www.favorideas.com/learn-about/wedding-planning/choosing-your-wedding-colors/

One of my favorite is written by a woman who was born under a Magnolia Tree, and is currently planning her wedding in Manhattan. She liked my Girlie First Birthday Cake. http://magnoliasmarriageandmanhattan.blogspot.com/

http://www.eagerlittlemind.com/ also posted two of my photos, but I am not sure if they liked my cakes or not! They weren't too complimentary-they don't like fondant and think my cakes are too busy! lol!

A really fun one is a site that compares lamps to cakes: http://lampsandcakes.blogspot.com/ They loved my Cupcake Cakes!

I am one of http://thecakekid.blogspot.com/ favorite Cake Sites.

http://sassy-designs.blogspot.com/ Also likes my cakes.

http://snazzy-cakes.blogspot.com/ Has some references as well.

http://simplysweetsaz.blogspot.com/

Anyways, I hope this wasn't too painfully boring to read! I love discovering new cake blogs, and was hoping some of you would enjoy it as well.

Have a great weekend!

Super Sweet 16

2008-07-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

I am not a zebra print kind of girl. I love bright colors, but animal prints just aren't me. However, this cake does have me changing my mind!

The girl who I made it for had fallen head over heels in love with a cake from the Pink Cake Box, and wanted it recreated (only in pink, instead of the dark blue as the original). I told her of course I would make it for her-I love doing topsy-turvy cakes. And I really love making something new!

For the topsy turvy cake, I followed the instructions from Cake Central. For supports, I used the SPS system. The SPS system is something that I just recently got into. And the sturdiness it gives a cake is just amazing.

The zebra stripes are strips of black fondant that I cut out and applied to the cake with water. The bow is shiny (like the original), which I accomplished by spritzing it with vodka. The number on the front is fondant mixed with a bit of Tylose. And then the wired stars set it all off.

This cake was a joy to make. I love the pink and black together!

Here is a photo of the original, done by Pink Cake Box.

Born On The 4th Of July

2008-07-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Back in February, I began planning a cake for a woman who would be celebrating her 30th birthday on July 4th. I have been so excited for so long to make this cake!

This was my first battle with a loopy bow. She really wanted the bow and the number 30 on top, so I tried my darnedest to put them both on there. Loopy bows, it turns out, are tricky. I bought a Kitchen Aid Pasta Attachment with the sole purpose of making these bows. It rolls the gumpaste out impossibly thin, which supposedly makes the bow look more like ribbon. What I discovered was that it also makes the loops incredibly brittle. I cannot tell you how many pieces broke while trying to assemble it!

Bygones be bygones, it still turned out cute. I love the color theme.

For the wired stars, I really have to give a big THANKYOU to my friend Christi, who told me that if I heated the wire with a flame (like with a candle), that the fondant would melt to the wire and make it stick. OMG-it worked perfectly and I will never have to deal with sliding fondant decorations again!

I also painted the stars with Silver Highlighter and Vodka to make them shiny. I hope she likes it!

For fun, I also did a 1 tiered version of the over the top birthday cake. Pretty cute!

Something Blue

2008-06-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

This is my new cake, entitled Turquoise Swirl Wedding Cake. It was done Christine, who was having a lovely lakeside wedding.

I consulted several of my cake friends to find out how to get the streaked, water effect on this cake. What I ended up doing was taking a stiff bristled painting brush, just like you would get at Home Depot. To make the streaks, I took scissors to the brush, and snipped away the bristles until it was a bit jagged.

For the color, I mixed Americolor Sky Blue with Teal. I poured vodka in with it too, to make a "water color". Vodka dries much faster than water, so it is usually what cake decorators use anytime they need to paint something.

I put each individual cake on my turn table, and spun it while dragging the brush on the surface.

When I was done, the color was a bit too garish. To mute it, I took a wet paper towel and wiped off the excess paint. What was left was a lovely essence of streaks, but nothing too obvious or flashy.

I made dozens of white gumpaste flowers to cascade down. Then, with a giant fluffy brush, I dusted the entire cake with White Sparkle Luster Dust. To finish it off, I piped centers in the flowers, and painted them with the White Sparkle mixed with vodka. Just lovely!

Rose Tower

2008-06-22T15:06:00.001-07:00

I really really wish that the photo was better for this cake. I have been dying to make this particular cake for a year now, and this weekend, finally had the chance.
This was for a 50th anniversary party at Maggiano's. Ruth and Larry are my Great Aunt and Uncle, and I was honored to make their cake.
I bought 6 dozen roses for it, and used all but 3! It was really a stunning centerpiece for the party. How it is constructed takes a bit of work. It is three tiers of cake, and then two tiers of roses, that make it look like the cake is floating on top of a sea of flowers. I got the idea of construction from Martha Stewart Wedding Cakes, a book that came out in January. If you are interested in knowing how it was assembled, it goes like this, from the bottom up:
1. Cake (with dowels)
2. Masonite Board
3. Floral drip pan
4. Floral foam and roses
5. Wilton cake plate
6. Next tier of cake.

For the topper, I just carefully placed the roses on the top.
I was scared to death that the construction wouldn't be stable, but once it was assembled, it stood perfectly. And I loved working with fresh flowers!
Congratulations Ruth and Larry on 50 wonderful years together!

Katrina's Wedding

2008-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Katrina is one of the sweetest brides that I have met to date. Several months ago, she had to start her wedding planning over again, due to the venue she had booked for everything (cakes, reception food, flowers, etc) went bankrupt overnight. Without contacting their clients, the owners simply snuck off, and dozens of brides in the area were left without wedding plans, and were also out their money! Katrina told me her story over the phone, and later that same night, the local news broadcasted the story as well. That venue's loss was certainly my gain, since I was able to work with Katrina and make a lovely cake.
The wedding cake was a repeat, but done in Katrina's colors of pale green and dark pink. Instead of royal icing, I piped the scroll work in tempered chocolate, which was tinted dark pink with oil food colorings. The monogram on the top was from gumpaste, and the bottom of the tiers were wrapped with a satin ribbon.
The Groom's cake was made for an ex Marine. He wanted the Marine Corps symbol on the cake, along with some piping in chocolate. The Marine Corps emblem is an edible image. I have never worked with this technique before, but it turned out great. I then piped swags and beads around the outside of the cake. To finish it off, I surrounded the cake with 2 dozen chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!

Les Dames D'Escoffier

2008-06-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend there was an event called Let Them Eat Cake put on by Les Dames D'Escoffier Dallas at North Park Centre. They had several local bakeries make amazing cakes that were put on display, along with table settings. Guests could purchases raffle tickets to vote for their favorite cake, and if you bought enough tickets, you could even taste some. (I did not get to taste.) With husband and two cranky kids in tow, I dragged the family out to the mall this past Saturday evening to check them out.

The first cake I came to was created by Kristen Rahal of Tart Bakery (http://www.tartbakerydallas.com/). Admittedly, I am a bit smitten with this bakery, and vehemently wish to be in her shoes one day! This cake was adorable-5 square tiers, all iced in buttercream. The tiers alternated colors-green and then chocolate. The green tiers had a large chocolate flower embedded into them, with a gumpaste flower on top of that. The chocolate tiers had something that I have seen a lot of lately and think it may be a new trend-rustic frosting. Instead of buttercream smoothed so perfectly that you almost can't tell that it isn't fondant, this buttercream is purposely unsmooth. Another recent example of this was Jenna Bush's wedding cake (see earlier post).

Another cool cake was one done by Nina Hunter of the Art Institute of Dallas. She did an upside down Asian Inspired cake balanced on top of drinking glasses. Just as you think that this sounds like a circus act, take a look at the cake-pretty cool, and defiantly different.

Morgan Wilson of the Ritz-Carlton created a 5 tiered pink cake, with floating tiers. Between the tiers, the cake was "floating" on hundreds of gumpaste blooms. There was lovely piping on each tier in white royal icing. I am actually making a cake in a similar style in about two weeks!

The most original cake was by David Collier of the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. You could possibly never even know it was a cake-it was an exact replica of a Chinese paper lantern. Just beautiful, and an amazing piece of art.

Over The Top Birthday

2008-05-31T07:25:00.000-07:00

Audra contacted me several weeks ago to order a first birthday cake for her daughter. At first, she ordered my Butterfly Cake, but then kept adding "I want more decoration that on my cake" and "I really want it to be over the top."

I did a bit of research for her, and found an amazing cake by Pink Cake Box. Their cake was full of color, and was definitely what you would call over the top. I emailed it to her and within seconds, she replied "Yes! Let's do that!" (The Pink Cake Box cake is at the bottom of the post).

The only changes she added to the Pink Cake Box cake was that she wanted turquoise, and butterflies. And she wanted it at least two feet tall!

I tried to keep as true to the design as possible, but of course, different cake designer means different results, and I really love how this cake turned out. The bottom tier is neon green, but orange, pink and turquoise stripes. I did hot pink beading around the bottom. There are also hot pink flower cutouts with gumpaste daisies on them.

The second tier is orange, with pink diamond cutouts and turquoise and green flowers at the junctions. The beading was in orange. The 3rd tier is neon green again, with orange, pink and turquoise polka dots. The beads were green. And the top is orange again, with leaf shaped cutouts in pink, and turquoise beading.
All over this cake, there are gumpaste daisies cascading down, in various sizes and with different colored centers-either in hot pink or orange. There are also a few butterflies resting on the cake.

On the wires, I did hot pink daisies with orange centers, and butterflies in pink, orange, turquoise and green. Soooooo cute.

The number I made myself, trying to emulate the number on top of the Pink Cake Box creation. The exact number they used cost about $130, which is just craziness, so I attempted to make it to save my client $$$. I bought Topaz crystals, and glued them onto thick floral wire, and got it into the right shape. Some how, miraculously, it stood straight and didn't fall over!

Since Audra wanted over the top, I added the feather boa again, for extra drama and color. When I was done, I was in love (again).

But, as much as I love these massive, extravagant cakes, I am so burnt out that my hands are cramping from rolling fondant. So, I am taking a much needed week off, starting with the beach! Hopefully my neon pink hands will return to normal in the ocean!

Ducky Birthday

2008-05-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

I have a soft spot for my cousin Jessy. Even though she is only 10, she has an incredible amount of patience with my two children, and plays with them and treats them with so much love that they just can't help but adore her! Jessy's birthday was back in December, but she was sick for a several weeks with a nasty bout of pneumonia. So, they decided to celebrate her birthday this weekend. Since she is so wonderfully sweet, and also since she had to delay her birthday for so long (and really, how torturous would that be as a kid???), I wanted to make her birthday cake as over the top as possible.

Jessy requested that I make her a rubber ducky cake in pink and yellow. Instead of rubber ducks, she wanted fondant.

She was only having 20 people at her party, but I wanted her cake to be big and ostentatious, so I made it a whopping 4 tiers tall. The top 3 are just dummies, and the bottom tier should have fed about 40, if I hadn't doled out monstrous sized portions to all the kids. :)

The bottom tier is a yellow background with hot pink diamond cutouts. Instead of the beads I usually do at the junctions, I did little flowers. The next tier was pale pink, with hot pink and yellow stripes. The 3rd tier was hot pink, and I made her name from gumpaste letters. And the top tier was yellow, which I tied with a hot pink bow. I stuck wired flowers everywhere I could, in hot pink and yellow, for an extra fun element. And to make it over the top, I trimmed the cake board with a hot pink feather boa, instead of the usual ribbon.

And what other flavor would be more perfect than strawberry? It was delish, and sent a couple of the workers at the party into a cake coma. Needless to say, everyone loved it!

Class with Bronwen

2008-05-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

For those of you not in the "cake" world, Bronwen Weber is an amazing pastry chef. She is known for winning the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show, but I think she is most famous for appearing on the Food Network Challenge. If you remember, she made Ursala from The Little Mermaid in one, and Popeye in another, and has done several others that I just can't remember right now.

Bronwen taught a class this past weekend at Cake Carousel in Richardson. The subject was Raggedy Ann. I'm not a huge Raggedy Ann fan, but what I was interested in was learning how to make a sculpted cake. My interest sparked in this area when on one Food Network Challenge, The Cake Girls created a death defying Cat in the Hat cake. They some how balancing a ginormous cake on a tiny little ball. Not that this is anywhere near that, but it is the first step towards learning how they did it. (That picture is at the bottom of the page.)

How the Raggedy Ann cake is put together is too cool! She is cake, and mostly edible, except for her PVC pipe frame. When you see something like this, and know that it is cake, you just start to wonder "HOW did they do THAT?" What was interesting was that when broken down into pieces, it doesn't seem too impossible. The engineering and construction behind it are what make her stand, and then your cake sculpting skills give her her form. On top of that it's the fun stuff-making details out of fondant. I loved giving her apron and dress stitches, and adding her loops and loops of hair. What a fun class! I can't wait to see what else I can make with this technique.

Cowboys and Indians

2008-05-16T13:12:00.001-07:00

Wow, how lucky am I this week? I looove making new designs, and this week, the cakes I did were both originals.
The first cake I did was an "Indian" themed cake. Indian as in India, not American Indian. I think this is the most decadent cake that I have done for a 1 year old yet, seeing as it is painted with real gold on every tier. Every time I look at it, the more I adore it.
Anya is one cool mama. She called me months ago to order her daughter's 1st birthday cake. The first time she called, I was unavailable and returned her call ASAP. Which, of course, I got her voice mail. Arrrgh. I hate phone tag! Later that same evening, she called me back and said something like "I'm sorry I missed your call earlier, but I am a police officer in Dallas, and when you called, I was being shot at. So I couldn't really talk about cake." I thought that was the funniest thing-can you imagine being shot at, and then your cake lady happens to call?
Anyway, Anya said that her daughter's room was done in an Indian theme, and she wanted the cake to reflect that. We decided on a 3 tiered cake. The bottom is a hexagon, done in a dark red fondant. It is actually Super Red and Regal Purple mixed together. There are 6 elephants, each with hats (which I trimmed in gold) and blankets (also trimmed in gold). If you look closely, you will see that the eyes are slanted, and the toes are painted. Around the bottom of the tier is braided fondant, also painted in gold.
The middle tier is a petal shape. I chose a mango orange color to fit in with the theme. I piped tiny stars in royal icing, and then after they dried, painted them with the gold. Where each petal indents, I made swirls from gumpaste, which I painted gold.
The top tier is pink. Around the base, I used a lace cutter, painted it gold, and then went over the seam with beads of royal icing which where, you guessed it, painted gold.
The Indian Girl on top was done in gumpaste. She is holding golden coins, some which she dropped, and has on some gorgeous gold chains and a hat/crown.

My other cake this weekend was for a little boy named Asa. Being curious about his name, I looked it up and discovered that it is Japanese and means "Born At Dawn". I love it!
This weekend is Asa's 3rd birthday. His mom wanted a cowboy themed cake, and wanted both tiers to be done in a bandanna print. She also wanted a little cowboy on the top riding a horse.
All the piping on the cake was done in royal icing. Around each tier, I twisted some brown fondant together to make a rope. The cowboy and horse on top are both gumpaste. The cutout letters for the name are also gumpaste.

Repeats and Jenna's Wedding

2008-05-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

This week, although eventful, was full of repeat cakes, so I won't be posting them here. My husband's coworker ordered the Butterfly Cake, as well as the Monkey Cake and Cupcakes for her children's birthdays this weekend. Thank you Kari! It was so great meeting you and your children! My other order was from a new client, who requested the Pirate Cake and matching smash cake for her son's first birthday.

This weekend, Jenna Bush married in my home state of Texas. Check out her cake-elegant and simple, and full of gorgeous fresh flowers. This cake was produced by Houston caterer Jackson Hicks and the cake is lovely. Here is his website of his other amazing cakes: ttp://www.jacksonandcompany.com/cuisine/weddings.htm

The top tier does have some people talking-is it crooked and unlevel? Or did the baker mean it to be topsy-turvy on just the top? It does seem a bit unusual for only one tier to be topsy-turvy, which has had many wondering if it was an accident! Regardless, it was a lovely centerpiece for her wedding.

Jenna was stunning, looking natural and beautiful just like a true Texas Bride. Congratulations, and many wishes for a happy lifetime together!

Barney, Elmo and Camping

2008-05-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

This week I did a cake for a new client. Her daughter is obsessed with Barney and Elmo, so she wanted a cake in those colors with lots and lots of pink. I ended up doing 2 fondant figures of the characters, and then added pink accents, like bows and beading. Barney's head had to be done twice-the first time I did it, I asked my own kids who it looked like, and they said "I don't know, a hippo?" Since Barney is one of the most recognizable characters, I decided that I should probably make him over. The second time, I gave him a gaping grin with white teeth, and then made his eyes more expressive. I asked my kids again "Who is this?" And they happily exclaimed "Barney!" Elmo was made with red fondant, and his fur was piped on with bright red frosting, using a small star tip. The interior of the cake was vanilla, with my super popular cream cheese frosting.

For the weekend, my husband and I are trying to enjoy every second we can outside before it gets too hot! So, it was off again, this time to camp in Tyler. We love going to Tyler on the weekends. They have a great zoo there, where you can get very close to the animals. Our favorite activity is feeding time, when you get to watch the workers toss sweet potatoes and watermelons to the elephants, and watch them eat. We also frequent the rose gardens. This time of year is the perfect time to go. They have thousands upon thousands of rose bushes, and they were all in bloom. After climbing up to a balcony, it is breathtaking to look out over the see of flowers, and to breath in their sweet scent.Camping was just about perfect. It was slightly chilly, which is great for sleeping. We snagged a prime spot by the lake, which we could see from our tent, and enjoyed a nice long hike on Sunday morning. We also rented a paddle boat, which by some miracle, Charlotte did not tip over with her tenacious excitement. At night, we roasted hot dogs, and then marshmallows for dessert (both kids repeatedly caught theirs on fire), and told "ghost" stories, which was more like funny stories about dinosaurs. Ahhh. If they would only stay this little forever!

Another Mini-Vacation

2008-04-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

My husband's new obsession with offroading has taken us to a lot of fun, new places. This weekend, it was Hot Springs, Arkansas (or Are-Kansas, as we jokingly call it). After rolling into town at midnight during a fierce thunderstorm and slippery, twisting roads, we resurfaced the next morning and hit the trails as soon as possible. This time, it was at Super Lift Arkansas.

Oh. My. God. OMG. These trails were the toughest we have seen yet. They were made of something that looked like slate or shale-sharp, ragged, colorful rocks that would be either paper thin, or in huge chunks. At one point, we tried to scale a particularly tough climb, but lost control of the vehicle, slid down the hill and right into a tree. Ouch! After about an hour, we got lost at the top of a "mountain", and were beginning to debate if we would ever make it out of the woods before sunset. I know when I see my usually calm husband worrying that there is trouble! But not to fear, his excellent sense of direction eventually found our way out, where we immediately left for concrete paved roads, picked up a pizza, and hid in the hotel for the rest of the night. (Which, as a side note, the hotel actually ended up losing power and the entire town was bathed in darkness.) I like offroading, I really do, but when it comes to body damage and getting lost in backwoods Arkansas, not so much!

On our way into the offroading park, we came across a super cool dude ranch called Panther Valley Ranch. Knowing my son's love of horses, we stopped by and asked when the next trail ride would be. All the horses were out except for two, one of then named Haas, an unbelievably gigantic horse that was also very gentle. Two boys were working when we showed up, and told us that the kids were too little to go on the trail rides, but they would be happy to put a saddle on Haas and let them ride around the pasture for free. How sweet! Both kids had their first official horse rides this weekend. Thank you! Next time we are in town, we will definitely be staying there!

Saturday lunch was spent exploring the magnolia-lined streets of downtown. My daughter looked more like a Parisienne, walking her little white dog. We strolled along the allees together, munched on sandwiches, and window shopped the art galleries.
I had no idea that Hot Springs would be such a gorgeous place. There were ornate fountains everywhere, bubbling with steaming water from underground. Also, the architecture was amazing. I am an architecture freak, and one of my favorite things in the world is looking at old buildings. This is a mosaic from the outside of one of the bathhouses.

Lastly, here is my husband's newest desire that we saw on the way home, right on the Texas border. It is a vintage Toyota FJ, and all he can think about.

Addison's Butterfly Birthday

2008-04-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

This is one of my most favorite cakes that I have done to date. I feel like this pretty much every week, where I fall in love with one of the cakes, but this time I really mean it!

This photo is not the best, but the background of the fondant is actually very pale green. In person, this cake is exuberant and cheerful, and girly. Adorable!

I should probably give props to its original creator, the amazing artists at Pink Cake Box. I aspire to be as skilled as they are!

So, for the cake techies out there: The cake is 3 tiers of pale green fondant, with watermelon pink, sherbet green, pale pink and orange polka dots. The flowers were made from the same cutter as the polka dots, and I assembled the petals around a circle and placed a different color disk on the top for the flowers' centers. The butterflies are plain fondant-no tylose or gumpaste. I used different cookie cutters for the different sizes, and then "painted" the wings.

The interior of the cake is Perfect White, Lemon Pound and the Chocolate Butter. The frosting is Fluffy Vanilla frosting.
I had really wanted to take the week off this week, BUT, an existing client of mine referred her sister in law to me, requested this amazing cake, and I just had to say yes! Happy Birthday Miss Addison-I hope you loved the cake!

Speaking of gorgeous butterfly cakes, check out the cake that was done for Suri Cruise's second birthday. Four tiers of white fondant with yellow polka dots and lots of little yellow butterflies. The price tag? $5000.00! Wow! I just love getting little peaks into celebrity parties and cakes. Great inspiration, and cute too.

Cakes for Tish

2008-04-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

My new client Tish is a cake decorators dream. Not only has she preordered 12 cakes for the next year, but she has also given me a bit of artistic freedom to create what I want! After giving me the "themes" for each cake, she sweetly told me "I like to be surprised", and then allowed me to come up with the design on my own. What a rare opportunity, and how exciting!

This week she needed two cakes, and the themes were "Harry Potter" and "First Communion". Hmmmm. Those are pretty opposite from one another.

I don't know much about Harry Potter, except the basics from the first movie. Like, I know they went to Hogwarts and that Harry was in Dumbledore and that he was the captain for when they played the game with the Snitch. Beyond that, not so much. I ended up doing a bit of research on the web and found a great idea-First Year textbooks that students of Hogwarts would have studied. On the "reading list", there were the titles and the authors listed. Cool! So, as that as my jumping off point, I sculpted two text books, and then painted them with food coloring. When they were dry, I used something called Gold Highlighter-which is real edible gold-and dry dusted it on. I painted the book titles so that they appeared to be gold plated. I then sculpted the "Snitch" for the top-again with the gold highlighter and then added feathers for the wings. For the final touch, I made a bag for Bertie Bott's Beans, and then filled it with Jelly Belly Jelly Beans.

For her second cake, I wanted something almost porcelain looking. I settled on doing mixed shape tiers-the bottom square, then the top two round. To add texture, I used a special rolling pin to imprint swirls on the fondant that is draped over the top. I also wanted to make the cross stand out a bit, so I used tiny dots of royal icing to make a Swiss Dot design. The letters were done with specialty letter cutters that I bought at Cake Carousel. And then roses are ivory gumpaste, dusted with Cosmo luster dust.

I can't wait to see how her other cakes will turn out!

Why I LOVE Texas!

2008-04-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

After dropping off my Circus Cake and wedding cake, we decided to get away this weekend and took a family vacation to Marble Falls. I haven't been there before (or remember it, anyway), and it was such a beautiful, beautiful place to be this time of year! We stayed in a hotel right off the river, and enjoyed an amazing sunset on Saturday evening. While shopping, we accidentally came across a little rodeo where my son got to watch some cows being roped and corralled.

On Sunday morning, my husband and I went off roading (again). This off roading park was awesome-miles and miles of hilly, rocky roads infused with natural creeks winding through. It was so relaxing to be out in the natural beauty of our state.

Later Sunday, we took a detour to Wildseed Farms near Fredericksburg. At Wildseed farms they had acres stuffed with bright red poppies. You couldn't help but just sit and watch the waves of them in the wind. We then headed into Fredericksburg where we dined outside under colorful umbrellas and chowed down on German food. I perused some local cathedrals, took photos, and then it was back home. The trip was far too fast!

Fun Cakes!

2008-04-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite clients ordered the very first of my most popular cakes-the Cupcake Cake. This was back in September, and since she placed that first order, people have gone crazy for it! Well, this client referred one of her good friends to me, and she ordered an amazing cake she wanted me to reproduce that was first done by the wonderful artists at Sugar Creations. I loved how it turned out! The top popcorn bag is actually made from Styrofoam, which I had specially carved by the great people at Dallas Foam. The rest is all cake. The bottom tier stood at over 7 inches tall, and was carved to look like an elephant drum. The second tier was topsy turvy, to give the whole thing an unbalanced-it's-going-to-fall look. Since this was for a four year old, I piped number "4's" all over the wired stars that are sticking out all over the place. The popcorn in the bag is hand sculpted from yellow sugar, and then dusted with a bright yellow petal dust to make it look like butter. This thing was so heavy that I could hardly lift it! We estimated the weight to be about 50lbs-looks like the birthday boy got more than his weight in cake for his party!

The other cake I did this weekend was a gorgeous periwinkle blue hydrangea cake. The bride wanted the cake ivory, with ivory spray roses. The roses and hydrangeas were hand sculpted. I dry dusted the hydrangeas with blue luster dust, and then attached all the flowers with royal icing. It took 5 different trips to the store the find the perfect colored ribbon. Soooo pretty!

New Cakes

2008-04-04T13:20:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, because most of the cakes I have done have been repeats! Here are two new designer cakes. Both are twists on some old cakes I have done, but I really enjoyed them, and am happy with how they turned out.

Next week will be one of my busiest yet-I am doing a huge recreation of a Sugar Creations cake (one of my cake decorating idols), which I just can't wait to do! I am also making a lovely blue hydrangea wedding cake.

Sparkly Cake

2008-03-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to make something a bit over the top for a while now. I make lots and lots of birthday cakes, but wanted to design a decadent, fantasy type of all white wedding cake. My cakes so far usually have a fair amount of color to them, and also tend to be very whimsical, so I wanted something purely white, elegant, and totally different.

While perusing the Internet, I can across a photo the Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes did for Swarovski a few years ago. It is a photo of a piece of cake absolutely covered in crystals, but it was also absolutely inedible.

After thinking about it, I decided to add my own crystals to the cake, but in a much smaller dose, just to give it a bit of glamour. I also added Super Pearl Dust to all the sugar bows, for a glittery glow when hit by low candle light. Not quite a Swarovski covered indulgence, but close!

The photo below is Elisa Strauss's gorgeous creation, and my inspiration.

Girly Cake Week

2008-03-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

This was the week for two girly cakes. I LOVE it when people will ask for one of my "classic" cakes, but will put a twist on it to fit their own needs. Such was the case for both cakes this weekend.

The first was my cupcake cake, which I have made dozens of. The party planner wanted to integrate more of the invite, though, so asked that the cupcake "wrapper" have polka dots on it, and that instead of the "1" and giant fondant cherry, that there would be a fondant candle instead, that looked just like the invite. For her individual smash cake, I made the giant cupcake again, but this time on the candle, made it where it would light! How cool is that? I felt like I was channeling Duff by adding fire to one of my cakes!

The other cake was for a baby shower. They liked my pink and brown monogrammed cake, but wanted it to look like that baby's quilt. So, I made really cute pink polka dots on the bottom tier, with diagonal stripes on the top tier. I topped it off with a chocolate "A" for Addison, and then added a sweet pink gumpaste bow. Gorgeous!

Busy Busy!

2008-03-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

The maximum amount of cakes I will take in a week is 4. I am a one man shop, and do all the baking, cake leveling, decorating, accessory making, shopping, delivering and worse of all CLEANING myself. And all that time really adds up!

This week I was booked, but when a girl named Summer called, (which happens to be my name as well), I couldn't help but work her in. Plus, she wanted a butterfly cake. How could I say no?

The first cake of my favorite cakes this week was another zoo animal cake, which I changed up by adding a bright red bow onto it, to make it girly. The second one was the girly birthday cake with a gumpaste crown, and the third was Summer's butterfly cake.

Somehow, though, it became one of those hectic weeks where I ended up putting in more hours than normal. Those 3 cakes seemed more like 6! But, I love each and every one of them.

For the weekend, we decided to get away. We stayed the night in Tyler, took another off roading adventure, and then let the kids explore the Caldwell Zoo. It was a gorgeous weekend after the every other day of snow we had last week.

Competition Cake Finally Done!

2008-02-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

After a terribly tough week last week of dealing with an unusable batch of fondant, I have finally finished my competition cake that was meant to be for the Capital Confectioners Sugar Art Show last weekend. Better late than never! I hand made the sugar pearls and the candied jewels. The bows and tiara are gumpaste, and everything else is Satin Ice. I just wish I could know how it would have done at the competition!

The top tier was done with an impression mat, and then adorned with tiny little flowers with pearl centers. The second tier has stripes that were cut with a special ribbon cutter. The 3rd was dusted with Super Pearl Violet Dust, and then I added flowers, again with the pearl centers. The bottom tier has scroll work done in royal icing.

All the bows were made from gumpaste with the special ribbon cutter, and then I used a stitching tool to create an extra "seam" to make the look more real. I hand cut the tiara on top, and then made the jewels from hard candy that I dyed pink before pouring it into molds. Around the jewels are more sugar pearls. Lots of work, and I love it!

Anaya Nathalie's Cake

2008-02-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

What a gorgeous name for a little baby! This week I had a rerun of my girlie birthday cake, but tried to add some more details, like the name banner with the roses at the corner. Little Anaya is turning one, and her mom also ordered a dozen pink cupcake cookies to go with, along with a cupcake smash cake tied with a bright pink ribbon.
I also had a 60th anniversary cake as well. This cake was 2 tiers and dusted with real gold! The cake was adorned with ivory gumpaste roses. and then topped with a gold painted 60 in gumpaste.

Off Roading?

2008-02-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

A lot of people would think this a bit of a stretch for me, but we took the weekend for off roading! Our two year old LOVED her daddy splashing through giant mud pits and almost getting stuck. Our manly little boy took to it after a while, and especially like climing big rock covered hills. Afterwards we were pretty worn out, but the car was nice and happy being used for its true purpose, instead of just city communting :) .

Barnyard Cakes

2008-02-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first post in my blog!

This was a great week for me. I had a client call about 2 weeks ago to tell me that her cake lady had canceled on her, and that she needed to find someone-quickly! She wanted a version of my zoo cake (which I have done dozens of), but she wanted it in a barnyard theme, with pigs, sheep, cows, etc. I was thrilled! I am always looking for fun new designs!

After searching the internet and collaborating together, we came up with her design where the bottom tier would be cow print, and the top a red bandana. I made brown "ropes" for the bottom of each tier, and she borrowed the design idea for the letters in her son's name from the cupcake cake. The letters were all handcut from gumpaste and decorated with black dots of frosting.

Since I hadn't made the farm animals before, it was a bit of experimentating involved for the sheep. I ended up having the pipe his wool with a small star tip, using royal icing.

Then on Monday, I had another client call who also needed a cake quickly, and she wanted the barnyard theme as well! So, for the first time I ever made this design, I got to do it twice in a weekend-how fun!