Shrek Castle for Jilly

I had the honor of delivering my first cake for a family as a member of the Icing Smiles organization.  Icing Smiles is an organization that provides custom celebration cakes and other treats to families impacted by the  critical illness of a child.   To learn more about them click here.
I was SOOOO excited when I got the e-mail from my cake coordinator, Rose, that I was being asked to make a custom cake for a little girl named Jillian.  I had submitted my name to Icing Smiles but wasn't sure I would be called to make a custom cake because I'm not a professional baker...    I was connected to Joy, Jilly's mom, and we exchanged e-mails about idea's of what she would like for her cake. Jilly is a huge Shrek fan and they call Jilly "princess" so we came up with a Shrek castle cake for her 4th birthday.  Jilly's had heart issues since her birth and has been in and out of the hospital over her short life. She's never been home (away from the hospital)  to celebrate her birthday so this year we made it a special one with a special cake.  Jilly's older brother has also missed out on a few birthdays, most recently this year, and Joy wrote into Icing smiles requesting a cake for her son to help make him feel special.  It is important for him to know how much the family appreciates him and he deserves special recognition for being a great big brother to Jilly.  His cake is being delivered tomorrow by another baker.  I can't wait to see pictures of it.
For Jilly's cake I incorporated hearts where ever I could think of them.  I made the top two layers of the castle in a heart shape, added heart windows, and added heart shingles to the torants.   Below you will find some pictures of the cake coming together. 

Covered the ice cream cones in chocolate.

Added the stone effect to the buttercream icing.

A test run of my ideas...

Adding some of the trim and decorations...

 Almost done...



 Ready to be moved to the car...




 Jilly was checking me out...  She was a little rambunctious today and didn't want to look at the camera... I feel honored to have made her 4th Birthday cake and had a chance to meet Jilly and her amazing mom!  Heart Hugs!

Jackie and Steve's Wedding

I did it... Made my first wedding cake. I was so honored when my cousin Jackie and her fiance Steve asked me to make their cake. It was in the summer on the day we had a picnic for my Grandmom's 92 birthday.  That day was my very first cake wreck... The cake fell over when I rounded the off ramp of the turnpike.  Despite seeing the cake wreckage Jackie and Steve had confidence in my abilities... We discussed a few different designs but settled on the snowflake theme a few weeks before. A really touching detail of the wedding was that Grandmom crocheted snowflake ornaments that were hung on a Christmas tree outside the reception hall that served as our table cards. It was a really unique way to deliver the seating assignments and the wedding favor.

Below are details of the cake assembly. 

The secret is out... Well I never have kept it a secret... I use box cake mixes!! I add applesauce and egg whites to make them a little healthier and to change the taste a little bit.  I admit it. I like to decorate and not bake so this gets me to the point that I have something to decorate...

 Used lots of eggs...

Made 11 cakes...

 7 batches of icing...

Here are the various snowflake cutters I ordered and decorations I used on the cake. I wasn't sure how big I was going to make the snowflakes so I bought a bunch of different ones to try out. I ended up liking one of the sets most and used it for the majority of the snowflakes.

 I used a Styrofoam dummy at the bottom of the cake. My oven can't bake a cake this large... I had to glue it to the base... Apparently certain glues eat away Styrofoam- Who knew? I ended up using double sided tape and white Elmer's glue. It totally worked... Here is the evidence of the eating away of the Styrofoam...

 The base of the cake with wooden dowels to hold up the cake...

 A test run of what it would look like... Yup- it is leaning...

 

Onto making Snowflakes... Used fondant and different colored sprinkles and accents to make each snowflake unique... I had fun cutting each snowflake in different way and adding the decorations. This was the most relaxing part of making the cake. 

Snowflakes drying

 

 

O.K.  the cake is ready for transport... These are all of the tools I took with me to the venue...

 The top of the cake

 The bottom of the cake... I transported the cake in three pieces and assembled it on site.

Here it is all finished.  It took about an hour on site to assemble and decorate.  It was leaning a little bit but other then that I was really really pleased with the way it turned out.  Jackie cried when she saw the cake and that was reward enough for me!  I had a great time making this cake.  I'm not sure I'll be making many more wedding cakes- it is a little stressful- but I really wanted to do something special for Jackie and her family. They mean the world to me and it was an honor to make their cake. 

One of my favorite snowflakes...

The beautiful Bride and Handsome Groom...

 

 

An Early Christmas Celebration

Had the Christmas gathering of my Dad's side of the family on the 11th. It is always good to see everyone and get into the Christmas spirit early. My sister came over to help me decorate the cupcakes for the party.  We went with wreath's, Christmas tree's and my favorite- Santa stuck in the snow... Hilarious!  Happy Holidays!

 Michelle working hard...

 The star cut outs are stacked to make the tree's

 Bought myself a new cupcake carrier for Christmas... It worked great.  The cupcakes didn't fall over in transport...

 


 Cody discovering the truth about Santa's leg...

Lillie's for Sharon

Made my first gumpaste Lillie's for a dear friends bridal shower cake. She sent me a picture of the wedding cake she ordered so I made my version of the cake for a work wedding party.  Instead of a round shape I used a square pan and I changed the colors from black to more fall tones. The lillies were easier to make then I anticipated.  I watched a video by edna from designmeacake.com.  It only really required a heart cookie cutter, a pointy cup and some powder food coloring. Enjoy the cake!

Here are some shots of the flowers coming together...

I needed cone shaped cups, so I cut up bathroom cups and taped them to form a point. They worked nicely because they were wax coated and the gum paste released nicely when it was dry.   I used 20 guage floral wire and formed yellow stamen's for center of the flowers.

 Measuring up the stamens to make sure they were the right size.  The calla lilies were made with the heart shaped cookie cutter, then wrapped them around the cone cups and frilled the edges.

 The supplied needed to add the coloring and shading.
 

  Making the bows...

Added the stamen and hung the flowers to dry on a pitcher...

 The finished flowers ready to be moved to the cake.






The finished cake