Sunday, May 27, 2012

94 Years Young





My beautiful grandmom turned 94 this week.  She is still moving and shaking, still crocheting and still enjoying her family. I made this cake to help celebrate her special day. 

 The inspiration came from this cake on pinterest.

Here are some pictures of the assembly:














Sunday, May 20, 2012

Gone With The Wind




To celebrate a special birthday for one of my sister's friends, I attempted to make a replica of another cake artist's interpretation of a Gone with the Wind dress...  How is that for round about...  Here is a picture of the original cake, which I found on pinterest (but can't find the original artist).  Here is a picture of the GWTW dress.   Below are pictures of my process. 

My first attempt at Key Lime cake didn't go so well...  I adjusted the recipe and the rest of the cakes turned out o.k.   This one had too much oil, you can see how it didn't really cook- Kinda gross...
I bought myself a new "tool"- It is called the Mat.  It is food safe plastic that helps roll the fondant easier and helps control placement over the cake.  I don't usually use fondant,but needed to for this cake and this new tool was really helpful.
Covering the cake

 The initial assembly. Discovered that I needed more support on the bottom cakes as it started to sink about an hour of being assembled.  I added a bunch of straws and ended up putting a plastic cake seperator under the hourglass cake.  Lesson's learned...
 The dress prior to laying it over the cake.

 Didn't quite make it big enough... oops.
 Holes for the lace.
 Mostly done...  You can see it starting to cave in the bottom... Agghh.  Cake assembly is stressful.


 All finished.

 


Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day and a few birthdays...

Made these quick cakes to celebrate Mother's day and my dad and brother's May birthday...

I tried making Daffodil's similar to I am Baker, but they just didn't turn out the same... I will keep trying...
 Lawnmower Birthday cakes...



Sunday, April 22, 2012

Bonnies

The Jersey cookies above represent the fabulous ladies of the St. Bonaventure women's softball team.   You can check them out here:  http://www.gobonnies.com/sports/w-softbl/index


 After two days of doubleheaders... Here is The team enjoying their cookies and Wawa...

Had lots of fun making them... Here is the process....
Night One- Make the cookie dough
Night Two- Cut out and bake the cookies, make the royal icing
Night Three- Flood the cookies (Add the base shirt design- white, brown, yellow)
 



Night Four- Add the names and numbers to the Jersey's



Here's to more sweet success for the team!  Go Bonnies!!!! 



Saturday, April 21, 2012

1st Holy Communion


 

Today was a big day for my  niece, her 1st communion.  She was nervous but did a great job. She looked beautiful.  I'm such a sap, got a little teared up when she entered the church.  She is growing up so fast... Were has the time gone...  She and I looked for cake designs on the internet together.  We found this cake which she loved but wanted me to change the colors to dark brown and blue- no problem...
Here are some pics of the cake and the day...


 
 



What a great looking family...


 The dynamic trio...

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter



Hoppy Easter everyone!  Here are some of the goodies I made for my family... I had a few days off this week and was able to decorate. Had lots of fun playing with royal icing and chocolate....


Just before the egg hunt- Crazy Uncle Joe wanted to hunt for eggs too...
 Playing around with my new chocolate molds...

Awaiting their personalities...



 Drying bunnies and ducks...

 Had to wait while each row of the basket dried... Darn royal icing- made it a little too thin
 Duck and Bunnie Pretzels (got this idea from pinterest, love that website)
 The finished product...



Sunday, April 1, 2012

April Orange madness...


I have been victorious in my struggle with my neighborhood squirrels... This is the first time in three years I've managed to grow tulips from bulbs. Chicken wire is my new best friend... I have the most beautiful orange tulip blooming in my flower bed. That flower inspired my icing color choice for the two birthday cakes I made this weekend. 





 Happy Birthday to my sister and my boyfriend's mom!  Hope you had a great birthday!

Pop Pop is starting them out early...


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Peace and Zebra's



 Another niece is turning 8.  The trend for 8 year old's appears to be zebra print cake with peace signs...  This time I made a black and white version.  Here is the birthday girl....She had zebra print flip flops to match the cake....

The pieces of the cake drying.  I found milkshake straws and love the them.  I used them to dry the Curly cues as well as for support in the middle of the cake.  They work great.
 Getting things together...


I tried something different and it worked!  I tried the zebra stripes on the inside technique from My Cake School.  If you aren't a member, you should join- the video are great and she provides lots of helpful easy to follow tips... http://www.mycakeschool.com/blog/how-to-make-a-cake-with-zebra-stripes-on-the-inside/ .  I was so excited I forgot to take a picture of what a cut piece looked like but it definitely worked.



 

Happy Birthday!