The flowers make the cake...

Whether you are using silk, fresh, or gumpaste flowers... the right flowers can make a simple cake beautiful and elegant. This cake was designed for a lady air force officer. I never spoke directly with her. All correspondence was done through email... not the first time. This cake design was very simple... four tiers with simple scrollwork. The flowers were placed on the cake by the florist, and as she worked, I could see this cake turn into a beautiful masterpiece. I also think that purple flowers are beautiful on a wedding cake... very dramatic. The decorations at this reception were perfect... all done by the mother of the groom. 

Scrolls...2 wedding cakes, 2 different icings, 2 different kinds of scrollwork, and 2 different kinds of roses...

The design of the week for this week's wedding cakes was scrolls... 2 wedding cakes, both with scrollwork, but completely different.

Cake #1...

Buttercream icing

Piped scrolls

Fresh flowers

Cake #2

Fondant

Fondant/gumpaste scrolls cut from Cricut Cake

Gumpaste flowers

Arizona Wedding

Last week I went to my friend LaDelle's wedding in Glendale, AZ. She requested that I come and do her wedding cake, so... because I had very limited time, I prepared everything except the cake itself before hand, and packed it into 2 check-in bags, and off I went to the airport. I made sure everything was labelled ... icings, fillings, fondants, flour, crisco, etc. ... along with cake pans and business card in each bag. Yes, both bags were inspected, but at least everything arrived intact. I got to AZ about 8 PM on Tuesday night, baked the cake, went to bed around 1:30 AM, got up at 8 AM on Wednesday to start decorating, and finished the cake about 10 minutes before time to deliver the cake... with a little help from my new friend Sara, who wanted to observe me as I decorated. I had an enjoyable time at the wedding, visiting with old friends while cutting the cake and giving best wishes and congratulations to my dear friend. Thursday morning I got up a little after 4 AM, and off we went to the airport for my trip back home to CO. Thanks bunches to my friend Denise, for letting me take over her kitchen to decorate, and for cleaning up my decorating mess and cake pans that I left because I ran out of time. A quick trip, but glad I could be a part of LaDelle's special day.

The happy bride and groom... LaDelle and Phil

Cake was chocolate with fudge nut filling and chocolate buttercream, and yellow with cream cheese and raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream, all covered in chocolate fondant.

Satin ribbon with antique gold embellishment, quilted pattern with ivory dots, and fondant rope border

Peacock feathers included in fresh flower arrangement on cake top. Sahuaro Ranch Park (where the wedding was held), is known for its peacocks which roam freely throughout the park and roost on the roofs of the building at night.

If you believe in prayer...

If you pray, you know that sometimes prayers aren't answered in exactly the way you plan. Such was the case last weekend when I was finishing up on a wedding cake. This was a 3-tier 6, 10, and 14 inch cake. The top tier and the bottom tier were done. The only decorations on the middle tier were a swagged ribbon and large bow. I had originally planned to use SugarVeil to make these with, but for some reason (probably because it was so cold in the kitchen), the SugarVeil was not setting up as quickly as I hoped. Finally, I said a prayer that basically asked that the SugarVeil set up quickly so that I could finish the cake. I waited as long as I could, tried finishing up on the decorations, and I was just not happy with the way they were turning out as the SugarVeil was still not set up as well as it should have been. Next idea... make the ribbon and bow from fondant... too limp. Last resort, make the ribbon and bow with part gumpaste and part fondant for added stiffness. I rolled the ribbon out and placed it on the cake with a little water, then cut out the bow and tails and put them in a plastic container to put on the cake after the tiers were set up. Final result... so much nicer than I would have ever expected. So you see, the answer to the prayer was that the SugarVeil did not set up, but I was forced to use my creativity for something that turned out much better. I later said a prayer of gratitude for the help I had received.

Whipped cream and fresh flowers...a great combination

I love fresh flowers on wedding cakes. I also love purple on wedding cakes...it's a very bold, beautiful, and striking color. So I designed this wedding cake for a bride yesterday...the flowers were beautiful. Lilies were a bit large, so I had to put on a few more flowers than I believe she wanted to balance out the size, but overall, I think the finished product was quite stunning. The cake flavors were lemon with cream cheese and lemon fillings, fudge marble with Bavarian Creme filling, and yellow with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Used the Chantilly whipped cream stabilizer to whip up the cream to ice the cake.

Making an abstract design for a wedding cake...

The bride and groom sent me a picture of this wedding cake with an abstract design. They wanted this design with fresh yellow daisies in place of the butterflies (which I thought made more sense), and yellow in place of the turquoise on white fondant.

So, I got out my styrofoam cake dummy, some paper, and some pins, and began drawing patterns. 

Here is the final product...the black is made from Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, and the dots are done with Sugar Veil...which gives you a perfectly rounded dot without a point. The beaded borders are done with a blue silicone fondant mold.

The mother of the groom owns a glass blowing store in Manitou and she made the perfect cake top for this abstract design.

Thank you, Liz and Eric, for letting me be a part of your special day.

Cute pink and white wedding cake...

This cute little cake was for a bride that loves pink. The wedding reception was on Sunday, so I delivered it Saturday night to the groom's parents' home, and they transported it to the reception site on Sunday, and arranged the flowers on top.   I made sure that I stabilized it with a wooden dowel going down the center of all 3 tiers. The cake was lemon with raspberry filling. Because it was decorated with fondant, and had a filling that did not need to be refrigerated, I knew they would be fine in transporting it, even though they were a little nervous. As you can see, it arrived safely. I airbrushed the fondant pieces with pink and pearl airbrush colors, which made the pieces glisten. My new airbrush works great with the thicker colors like the pearl and the metallics.

Mini wedding cake for special couple...

Our friends, Sheila and Kim Cope were celebrating their 35th anniversary today. When they got married, Sheila flew out to Germany to meet Kim without any family. They first got married in Germany, which was required by the German government, and then were sealed in the Swiss LDS temple the following day. They never had much of a reception, and definitely no wedding cake. So, when I heard their story, I felt that they needed a wedding cake, even though small, for their 35th. So here is the cake, along with a picture of the cute couple. Sheila's favorite color is red, and since I don't like to use red icing decorations on my wedding cakes, I added red ribbon and fresh red roses from my garden. Happy Anniversary, Sheila and Kim! May you have many more.

Cake Top Ornaments

What you decide to put on the top of your wedding cake can make a huge difference in the finished look.  The thing that you need to ask yourself when deciding on a cake topper is "Will this distract or complete the look of the rest of the cake?" Even though an ornament may be "cute," you don't want it to distract from the cake. If you are sold on using something cutesy, you may want to consider just putting it on the table and use something like fresh flowers or a monogram or simple pick on the top. I really like the look of the monograms and there are lots out there to choose from now...research them on the internet. If you do decide to use a figurine of some sort, make sure it is not too large for the cake, and make sure it is something simple and elegant. If you think fresh flowers will complete the look of the cake, go with that option. 

Here are a few examples of good and not so good choices...

First, examples of appropriate fresh flower arrangements on top of cakes. Just make sure the flower size is appropriate for the size of the cake. Sometimes, even a simple floral spray can be elegant.

Here are some examples of monograms and picks...

I love the way the jeweled monogram sparkes

The floral arrangement is a bit large for the first cake, but the heart pick added with the flowers was a nice touch

Examples of some simple figurines...

Simple and appropriate size

Cinderella and Prince Charming...appropriate for theme of cake along with glass slipper on largest tier. Also, notice how the square mirror under the figurine coordinates with the cake shapes

Examples of inappropriate cake toppers...

Figurine simple and nice, but a bit too large for this cake

Definitely inappropriate...distracts from overall look of the cake...simply more pansies or a pick would have completed the look

Flowers too large for cake, also not enough color contrast...a simple fondant bow or pick would have been ideal

In this cake, the bride decided to put the ornament under the cake and have fresh flowers on top...perfect for this design...

New Toys...

Yes, cake decorators get excited about new toys too...they are just different than what the average person may get excited about. My newest toy is my new Cricut Cake machine. For those of you familiar with the scrapbooking Cricut machines, this is the same except you use it to cut food products with. Instead of using a self-adhesive cutting mat like you would use with paper products, you use shortening to adhere your material to the mat. I'm still learning how to use it...experimenting with different materials and settings to get the results I want. I get a little frustrated sometimes when I can't get it to cut the way I want, but that's usually when I'm working on only a couple of hours or so of sleep after doing a wedding cake the night before. I've only had the machine for a couple of weeks...so far the things that I've been able to cut really well are Cricut frosting sheets, gumpaste, chocolate fondant with Tylose (if I can get it to the proper consistency after freezing it), and cheese slices...yes, cheddar cheese slices. It's really too bad that I can't decorate cakes with cheese, because that actually worked out better than anything thus far...unfortunately most customers don't want cheese on their cakes. I've done quite a bit of on-line research to see what seems to work. I ordered one product called Sugarveil that I will be experimenting with this week. If I can get it to work like I want, I will be posting the results with the instructions...a somewhat lengthy process, but worth the time if I can get it to work. 

I have decorated two cakes so far using the Cricut Cake...the first with gumpaste and the second with the frosting sheets. I've been pretty happy with both results, but don't care much for the taste of the frosting sheets...and they are very pricey, so hope to use other products.

I am persistent, so I will keep working until I get the desired results, and then share my knowledge on my blog.

Outside of Cricut Cake...pretty red

Inside...all completely food safe

Two cartridges that I have used so far...any of the Cricut cartridges work on the Cricut Cake.

Wedding cake using gumpaste scroll cutouts

Closeup of scroll work

Mini wedding cake using frosting sheet cutouts

Closeup of heart design

Two weddings...one tiny and one big!

Yesterday I delivered two wedding cakes. One was for a very small intimate wedding. I designed an 8 inch round cake for a couple from Austin, TX that were coming to the Springs to get married. They wanted a cake just for them and their kids. So anyway, the flavor was German chocolate with two layers of coconut pecan filling and one layer of fudge filling, all covered in a white chocolate ganache. This is the first time that I have made a white chocolate ganache. I really like the way it turned out...set up well, but didn't get too hard, so it was easy to cut, and tasted great! Just added a little ribbon and fresh flowers. I delivered the cake to the Pineview Grille at the Colorado Country Club.

The other cake I designed was delivered to the Falcon Officer's Club at the AF Academy. It was a very large cake...8, 12, and 16 inch square tiers...all done in black and white with a beautiful fresh floral cake top  in hot pink roses. I was very happy with the finished product, and so was my customer. The cake was done in 3 flavors...fudge marble with bavarian cream, yellow with strawberry mousse, and chocolate with raspberry and fudge. Again, the black portions were all done with Hershey's special dark chocolate fondant. The people at the Falcon Club were so wonderful to work with. When I got there, they let us use one of their carts, and helped to roll the cake in. The cake table was loaded with plates and a white table linen (two of my pet peeves...see older post), but they were so kind as to get another small table to put the plates on, and also put a black tablecloth overlay on top of the white linen. I also set this cake up on my new 22 inch square silver cake plateau...it made the cake look even prettier.