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Pooh Cake Version 2.0

Have you ever created a cake that was a hit… and were then asked to recreate it later on? Me too… often.

I was a hairstylist for 10 years and also did wedding hair for much of that time. Eventually, I gave up the wedding hair part of it for a specific reason. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the updos – I loved them! I would meet with the bride for her practice hair appointment and all would go just swell. Frustratingly, though, I would go to recreate the updo on the wedding day and struggle with it. Every. Single. Time. I felt like the wedding day hair was never as good as the practice hair… but what bride is willing to forgo the practice session? So, I eventually dropped that from my hair menu.

I find that recreating cakes can be the same level of difficulty for me at times. It’s not like I take step by step measurements and notes all along the way, so my colors might turn out slightly different or my sizes may vary. It has taken me some getting used to stepping back and re-entering the initial design mode that allowed me to create the first one.

You might remember this cake:

With it’s soft, hand-painted look and classic appeal, this cake was a blast and a favorite.

I was asked to recreate this cake and was excited to do so! My customer wanted some changes made, however… she wanted this cake turned into a two-tier and with more characters included. Begin the design process once again!

How was I going to tie the beehive at the top in with a two-tier cake, and how was I going to include the characters and the classic storybook sky without having one big open sky tier?

I decided to go with one of my favorite parts of the classic storybook… when Pooh “rides” a balloon up to the beehive in the tree.

Being that this was a birthday cake, I decided to ahead and bring the birthday balloon theme in as well, and as a way to tie the other characters in to the overall theme of the cake.

And of course I included the birthday boy’s name on top.

Overall, I was pleased with this cake!

I could definitely pick on the details… of course I have already. I could be worried that the colors are too vibrant, or that my blue sky sponge effect turned out a bit differently than last time. I could go on.

But this is where I’m going to learn that each cake IS actually a different project, with previous cakes only as inspiration.

Just as we strive to avoid copying another cake designer’s work exactly, I’m going to decide that we should do the same with our own work. I would say Pooh cake 2.0 turned out fabulously, right down to it’s tiny wafer paper bee wings!

Oh, and bonus:

A cute little coordinating smash!

Merry Christmas a few days early, my friends!

Tools used in this project:

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A “Two Wild” Birthday Cake & Wafer Paper Fan Flower Video

I could eat, sleep and breath cakes these days, and one of my very favorite aspects is the amazing and fun themes that my clients bring to me! From vintage rose first birthdays to sharks & strawberries (my adorable nephew’s choice) to pinwheels.

This week I was so thrilled to create a “Two Wild” themed cake! My incredibly fun returning customer wanted a jungle-themed cake using animal prints and black lace of some sort. She wanted it to be a bit more sophisticated than childish. This criteria was both incredibly fun and exciting, and also a little nerve-wracking! Animal prints can definitely be misused!

In continuing with my mission to discover my own style, I chose not to search online for examples (and to peek at the examples she sent me with squinty eyes). As I often do, I laid down on my back, closed my eyes and drew a picture in my head.

I still felt a bit unsure of the picture I had in my head, so I sketched it out just to make sure it was balanced.

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Thank goodness I can decorate a cake better than I can sketch, {and this particular sketch was done in haste and not meant to be seen} because the cake turned out much to my satisfaction!

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I used edible lace throughout this buttercream cake {I will link to the lace and mat below}, as well as wafer paper, fondant, edible glitter AND icing sheets.

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In order to respect my customer’s wishes for a buttercream cake, I chose to apply the fondant decorations in a way that would be easy to remove – note on the bottom tier {in the photo above} that the fondant is attached loosely, separated from the cake by the lace and only attached at the base.

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Lastly, McGreevy Cakes‘ wafer paper pom tutorial got me started on my wafer paper fan flowers, although I had to find my own way once I realized her amazing tutorial would not look so great with my one-sided printed paper.

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Below is a video of how I ended up creating my simple fan flowers!

Have a wonderful week! I would love to hear your comments!

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Tools used in this project:


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Brave Inspired Cake

Wow, I’ve been busy lately!

Between orders and family, I’ve been neglecting my blog and all of my social media! I’m hoping to become a bit more active again after this week’s trip to Texas!

I have some awesome photos to share with you. First: cake!

This week, I was able to create a Brave-inspired cake. I have been challenging myself lately to get out of the rut of creating the same old cakes that are everywhere in the cake world… you know – the Minnie/Mickey Mouse ones, the Buzz Lightyears and various buttercream ruffles. I’m listing these ones because I’ve done them. Not to insult any of those cakes (if I did them for you), as I tried to add my own touches and make them as clean as possible so that you could have a unique version and I could still feel proud, but my heart is yearning for my own style to emerge. I am just trying to figure out how to allow this to happen.

This Brave cake was a great start for me! I chose to NOT search out the internet for ideas and inspiration as I normally do. Thanks to Kara’s Couture Cakes for that bit of advice… it’s too easy to have a cake become just another cake because of the other cake images that you can never erase from your mind once you’ve seen them.

I also did not want to violate any copyrights by using logos or exact characters, so I literally closed my eyes and thought through the main details of the movie that stuck out to me. I came up with a few things… Merida’s turquoise and green dresses, hair, the wisps, tapestry and her bow and arrow (luckily, the bow and arrow were my client’s one creative request).

After brainstorming, playing the workability of ideas out in my head, considering the budget my client wanted to stay within (not that I would not want to give it my all but some of those ideas would be very time-consuming), considering the limitations of my medium (my client wanted buttercream), I settled on a design.

I put my design together, and here was the result…

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I was pleased!

I took special care with the bow and arrow, as this was the birthday girl’s one request.

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The bow and arrow are created with gumpaste. The only non-edible item was the twine used as the string. Sadly, the exposure makes it so that you can’t see in the photo that I created the feather on the end of the bow using wafer paper.

Afterwards, I decided to peek around online and discovered that the tie is not the most original idea, but I definitely gave it some beautiful detail and feel proud of it for that reason! I think little Olivia was pleased!

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And now for another exciting part of my last few weeks!

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have already seen my beautiful new kitchen that my husband surprised me with!

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Amazing, right?? I have the best, most supportive husband in the world.

So this is the new Cassie’s Confections bakery! Being in my own beautiful space has already been so inspiring!

Lastly, I read on a cake blog once that part of my online presence should include a bit of personal information, as people want to know me. I don’t usually do this, but I am taking it to heart this time and sharing a recent achievement that I am so proud of!

I have been training in Taekwondo for five years now. I started training with my dad (a black belt) and over time, three of my littles have joined me. They have so far achieved their red, blue, and white belt with yellow stripes. A couple of weeks ago, I earned my 2nd degree black belt!

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Here is one aspect of my test – I broke 3 boards at one time with a step-behind side kick.

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I love this special activity and exercise that I can do with my babies, and I truly believe that training AND cakes keep me motived for each other in a way.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your comments or questions on anything in this post! I’m hoping to get more videos up on YouTube soon, as my subscriber list is growing slowly but pretty steadily (if you have any video requests, please let me know!)! If you haven’t already subscribed, please do so here!

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Some supplies used in this project:

Classes you might enjoy:

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A Foxy Woodland Cake!

Wow, what a busy week it has been! I feel like I have barely had a moment to breathe, let alone stay on top of my social media and website. Phew!

I just wanted to share a fun woodland-themed baby shower cake that I was able to create this week!

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Although I was exhausted from the 370 cookie order I also had to complete this week, and the cake I created the day before this one, I was able to relax and enjoy almost every moment of the making of this baby shower cake!

You all know that the mention of rustic, woodsy, “messy” type cakes often sends me into a slight bit of panic, but I think I handled this one pretty well!

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The sweet little foxes gave me their share of trouble, but my wonderful husband assured me that they did, in fact, look like foxes. Now that is love, right? 😉

That beautiful birch tree tier is an image that I purchased on Etsy and printed as an edible image.

Now let me tell you something about edible images, friends… ain’t no shame in using them! I searched high. and. low. for the perfect image for this cake… I’m talking definitely more than one hour of scouring the internet using every search term I could think of to try to make Google understand my vision. That is not the easy way out, and a perfectly chosen and placed image in the perfect color can be the wow factor on your cake.

The bottom tier was my favorite!

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This tree trunk tier was a first for me also. A woodgrain impression mat, some awesome clay carving tools, and some hershey brown petal dust created this fun, slightly realistic yet slightly cute and whimsical tier.

I was pretty pleased with the final result!

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Leave me a comment with questions about any other details of this cake and I am happy to answer!

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Tools used in this project:

For some other fabulous tree trunk and bark methods, as well as many other texture tutorials, I recommend this class:

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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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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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