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The Cake That Was Airborn

There was once a cake created for no real purpose. Well – ok, it had a purpose: it was for a colorful cake competition (which I ended up not winning).

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Anyway, I find myself so pained when having to create and decorate a cake with absolutely no event planned for consuming it at the end… so if I must create a cake for decorating purposes only, I find a person to gift it to.

(Bonus: this makes me an often well-liked person!)

In the case of this cake, the competion happened to fall on the week before a quick visit to my brother in Dallas. With no real risk involved (my brother didn’t even know I was bringing it until right before) I decided to attempt to bring the cake as a carry-on on my flight.

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Friends, you are looking at a double-barrel (7-8 inch double-stacked) cake that survived the drive to the airport, being carried through the entire airport, riding through the security x-Ray machine on the conveyer belt (the security staff only stopped it once, looked confused, asked me what it was and then chuckled, letting it pass), riding the airport train while in my arms, and then – get this – the entire flight to Dallas in the overhead compartment. 

Are you laughing? I still am.

But that wasn’t it! Upon arrival, the cake then survived the Dallas airport and a one-hour trek through Dallas rush hour traffic in the back of my brother’s old 4Runner (with his crazy Dallas driving ;))

When we arrived at his home, I opened the box and…

Perfect!

Enjoy one last photo of my littlest angel wondering why I was planning to go to all that trouble when I could have just left it at home with her and Daddy…

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Rest assured that I have incredible faith in the durability of my cakes these days!

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Learn how to create a double-barrel cake here:

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An Elegant Iris & White Wedding Cake

This week a lovely couple celebrated their union in a gorgeous setting in Golden, Colorado, and I was so amazingly lucky to create their wedding cake!

As I walked into the venue, the gorgeous and romantic setting took my breath away for a moment. With stunning iris details everywhere and an atmosphere of pure excitement and happiness, I had the cake decorator moment… the one that is a perfect mix of relief and excitement – the one where I knew my cake was a success and would fit right in to this beautiful setting.

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This buttercream cake started with a design that the couple loved by Cake My Day, and evolved from there with some color and detail changes, as well as an added tier.

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It contained four tiers, each sized at 12 inches, 9 inches, 6 inches and a 4 inch anniversary/honeymoon tier, and stood over 22 inches tall with the gumpaste peony-style fantasy flower on top. The silver leaf edges on the flower added that special something.

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The lone iris tier was an eye catcher for sure, with it’s gorgeous color, edible diamonds and piped scroll design.

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The bottom tier was a labor of love… nearly 38 inches around of handmade fondant ruffles.

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I enjoyed every moment of this cake! Wishing the very best and many years of true love to Erik & Allie!

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Tools used in this project:

Online classes that I found useful for this project:

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A Vintage Airplane Cake Topper

A couple of weeks ago, I had the most wonderful opportunity to create a vintage airplane birthday cake for an incredibly loved little boy. From the moment his mom sent me a copy of the party invitation, I knew I was going to love this project! And I did… from start to finish.

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The airplanes on the side of the cake are hand-painted with food coloring. I just love painting on cakes… it is so relaxing and creates such a wonderful look! I especially loved the dreamy clouds on this cake. Every once in a while, there is a project that reminds me of the magic of childhood, and this one did just that!

But of course the element that I enjoyed the most was the adorable airplane cake topper!

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This sweet topper was created from gum paste and was nearly all edible (minus the toothpicks). It traveled straight from my imagination to the top of this cake, and I adore it.

So much, in fact, that I created a video of the making of this topper!

Enjoy!

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A few fabulous tools used in this project:

Craftsy Cake Decorating Class

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A Tiffany & Co. Inspired Cake

The gorgeous “Tiffany blue” box. The delicate satin ribbon. Those tiny black inscribed letters that mean so much.

The Tiffany & Co. box is a long-standing symbol of elegance and class. For this reason, Tiffany & Co. inspired cakes are a popular and often-requested theme, especially for bridal showers and the like.

I was approached to create a small Tiffany box cake to be central on a bridal shower dessert table. The excitement of a first-time theme drew my interest immediately, as it always does… especially with it being one so prominent on Pinterest and other online communities.

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One thing that most excited me in planning this cake was my client’s request for size – this cake was to be 4″. I really enjoy when cakes are ordered in the size best suited for their design and, as a Tiffany box is often small and square, this was perfect.

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In order for the ribbon to catch your eye, I used super pearl dust to give it some shine and a satin-like appearance.

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The beautiful lace-like look of the cake board happened by complete accident. That will have to be a story for another day. 😉 The inside of this cake was delicious dark chocolate with creamy dark chocolate ganache filling.

My hope is that I was successful in providing the bride-to-be and her special ladies with a beautiful and decadent centerpiece for their memorable event.

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Used in the creation of this cake:

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Let’s Talk Sketching

We see beautiful and artfully created cakes in magazines and online all the time. Even if you are not into designing or creating desserts of any kind, you may be one of those people who loves flipping through photos of them.

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Have you ever wondered how these masterpieces came to be? I’m not talking about the oven or the kitchen counter. I mean from the very beginning – the concept.

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While some cake decorators prefer not to bother with sketching their cakes in any form, some (like me) prefer to have a visual to create from.

imageWhen I first began decorating cakes, I was strongly against (or maybe afraid of?) having to sketch out my cake designs beforehand. I insisted that the visual was only in my head.

It took one wedding cake that was too confusing for me to explain to the bride and groom and forced me to sketch out my first cake. In that sketch, I learned that a) maybe I was not, in fact, the worst sketch artist on the planet (as I had previously thought), and b) putting my mental images on to paper was not as difficult as I had expected, and actually somewhat relaxing.

Since that time, I have also learned that having a visual to “copy” allows me the most success! Turns out I am a really great copier! Ha! Sketching out my own designs and then copying them works wonderfully for me. I now sketch out pretty much all of my more-than-basic designs.

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I use Adobe Sketch and my Apple Pencil for my images, although there are some earlier ones that were done with paper and pencil.

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At this point, I find that drawing out my cake designs (or even ideas for possible cake designs) is a calming activity in itself.

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And I always find it fun afterward to compare the two! Of course there are usually small details that change, but I am able to see just how closely I come to my original idea. It’s refreshing and it reminds me that the idea I created in my head really did have potential!

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Used in this post:

 

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A Hot Air Balloon Birthday

If you have followed me much at all, you know that I have a love for fondant cakes. I love their gorgeous, smooth appearance. I love the decorating possibilities that a fondant covering allows. I love the ease of creating color, without the use of tons of food coloring.  Most of all, I love the challenge of creating a perfectly smooth, sharp edged fondant cake.

So when I have a client that comes to me requesting a multiple-tiered fondant cake, I am in my true element. Don’t get me wrong, I love a delicious, amazing smelling, smooth buttercream cake just like the rest of you, but fondant and I have found a special place together in my kitchen.

When this sweet lady sent me a photo of a gorgeous hot air balloon cake by the amazingly talented Smash Cakery and asked me to recreate it, I may have started to hyperventilate with excitement just a bit.  Fondant. Pink. Pastels. Buntings. Ruffles. Fluffy white clouds. Oh my.

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I created the hot air balloon base and balloon out of Rice Krispies Treats. I masked them with chocolate ganache and covered them with fondant. Boy, that last two sentences made it sound way easier than it actually was! Luckily, I expected this to be the case and finished it early in the week. Hardest part: done.  For a special touch, I created the lace look around the top and bottom of the balloon basket by using a clearance craft puncher (that I had picked up a couple of weeks before) on wafer paper. Simple and beautiful! You may notice that I even used some of the leftover cutouts as detail on the balloon.

For the ruffles on the bottom tier, I cut out 1″ strips of fondant and then used my scalpel to cut wavy lines off the top of each strip. I then attached the strips with piping gel. Easy peasy!

If you thought this order couldn’t have gotten any more fun, my client requested coordinating cookies as well!

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In future posts on this blog, I hope to provide some tutorials on the details of my cakes. I love talking cake!

But for now, enjoy the photos of this cheerful set and let them take you away!

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