Vacation is over :(

So I just finished a week's vacation from the office, and boy was it hard to go back. Let me tell you, I can't wait until I can finally cake full time! Eventhough I was on vacation, my caking kept me busy. My first day off consisted of decorating my nephew's 1st birthday cake, featuring lightning mcqueen "babyized":

Zach's cake was chocolate and vanilla, covered in buttercream (except l.m. who was covered in fondant).

Next up was my dad's bday cake. Dad loves to golf and he loves his Guinness, so what better way than to make him happy? The golfball cake was red velvet covered in fondant and filled with Guinness buttercream - delish!

Inbetween these cakes, I made time to go to Plattsburg NY with my wife (like she had to twist my arm - it's the home of my favourite store ever - Global Sugar Art). I also took the time to try some new sugar flowers (practice makes perfect) and I started planning my sales for Halloween and (gasp!) CHRISTMAS!!!! (it's only 3 months away y'know). My last cake of the week was done at the end of my vacay - a christening cake for a good customer's goddaughter:

This crowd pleaser (so I was told) was vanilla bean covered in cream coloured buttercream. The purple and green accents were added using my new "swag" tips courtesy of Luck's Decorating company. The sugar flowers were also colored to coordinate with the color scheme and included calla lillies and some fantasy type blossoms. Lots to cake stuff to do this week, including finishing up the ad for my Halloween specials. Check back soon, with an update of the treats and maybe even a tutorial for my fellow cakers.

Glitter and Gold!

Today, I experienced my first ever delivery from hell! I had to deliver a five tiered wedding cake to a place where the reception hall was up two glights of winding stairs. The cake must of weighed 100 pounds, and there was nobody at the venue to hold the door open. Needless to say, the cake almost went splat! On the upside, I am really happy with the outcome:

The cake was alternating round and petal shaped tiers. All tiers were red velvet filled with vanilla buttercream and were covered in ivory whitechocolate fondant. Each tier was wrapped in a gold ribbon, and gold bows and ribbons were draped from each round tier. There is a trail of golden gumpaste butterflies going from the bottom towards the top tier. The monogram is royal icing that was painted gold to match the color scheme. The topper is 2 dozen or so hand made gumpaste roses that were sprayed in the same gold shimmer as the butterflies. A few butterflies also sit on the roses:

The dress that started it all.....

So, two weeks ago, I posted a pic of a bridal shower cake that I did for one of my favourite clients. Now, I must say that she's not one of favourites because she orders alot (which she does), but because she is creative and likes to think outside of the box. Now that her Wedding day has come and gone, I am free to discuss the cake! Melissa had me bound with a gag order about her cake because of her untraditional gown and the fact that some people I know are friends with her cousin. Melissa picked a stunning purple gown that shimmered and sparkled. The gown was her inspiration for the cake. The idea for her cake came from the galleries at cakecentral.com where I have sent Melissa for ideas before. When Melissa sent me the pic of the cake she wanted and the dress, I was ecstatic. It's not every day we get to stray from the regular white/off-white wedding cakes that are oh so popular. I tweaked and modified the picture of the cake she sent me and the end result was this:

The flavours were rainbowlicious/vanilla buttercream, chocolate/chocolate butter cream, and vanilla bean/vanilla butter cream. The entire cake was covered in purple white chocolate fondant sprayed with purple shimmer. The top and bottom tiers were quilted and decorated with lavender sugar pearls. The calas were handmade and colored to match the theme. The mongram was done in royal icing and matched the font from the invitation.

Here's the happy couple:

Don't they look great? Melissa loves my cake soooo much, that she wanted to take some on her honeymoon with her (I'm sure if given the chance, Glenn woulda been left behind!). I told her I loved the idea of a honeymoon cake and told her it would be my gift to them on one condition - I choose the design. They agreed and wrote me afterwards to tell me how much they loved it and how it kept them laughing:

They must have really liked it, because this is the photo they sent me of the cake on the bed in their hotel room when they checked in!

Wedding Madness

As a busy few weeks of wedding cakes is upon me, I wanted to take a quick minute to share this week's cakes. The first was for next week's bride, Melissa's, wedding shower. It was two tiered oval. Bottom tier was vanilla bean, top was chocolate. The cake was covered in pink white chocolate fondant and trimmed in sugar pearls. It was decorated with a traditional white wedding dress:

My second cake this weekend was also my first Wedding cake of the summer. It was a three tiered cake covered in white fondant. The tiers were trimmed in gold ribbon and the cake was adorned in handmade cala lillies and ivy. The flavor for this cake was chocolate with peanut butter mousse filling. I was al ittle nervous for this cake because I never did a cake supported by pillars. But I am happy with the outcome:

Well, that's it for now. A lot of prep to do for the next cake! I'll be back next week to tell you all about it!

Holy Cow!!!

Nobody can imagine how happy I get when a client tells me to run with an idea! A very good customer sent me an email last week asking if I could squeeze in a birthday cake for her "Grammie" who was turning 96. She originally wanted a 3-D cow, but I suggested she let me try my hand at a Topsy Turvy cake. I had been chomping at the bit ever since my Topsy Turvy DVD came a few weeks ago. The tutorial, by the very talented Sharon Zambito over at SugarEd Productions , walks you through making this whimsical cake. I took all of the steps she laid out and went to town. The only thing I did differently was use buttercream under the fondat instead of ganache - next time, I'm using ganache!!!

The cake was two tiered and consisted of vanilla bean cake with vanilla buttercream and chocolate with chocolate buttercream. Both cakes were covered in white fondant and then I added the black cow print. I bordered each tier in hand rolled fondant beads, keeping with the theme. Next to the greeting on top of the cake is a handmade gumpaste cow, dressed in a lavender dress and holding a bouquet of flowers.

So without further adieu, here's the finished cake:

And a close-up of the top:

Got a really busy week coming up, wedding cake to do and some cake truffles to make along with a movie premiere (won passes to see The Ugly Truth, starring the very hot Katherine Heigl), but I promise next week I'll be back and I'll fill you all in on how the Wedding cake turns out! Have a great week!

Barbershop

When most people order a cake, they want something that reflects who the recipient is. Needless to say, I was a little surprised when my mom calls me at my day job last week and says, "one of my co-workers needs a cake, but it is short notice, can you do it?". I tell her if it is a small one, it's ok. She proceeds to say, "he wants a barber pole since the birthday boy is a hairdresser". I tell her that I can do a small round cake and stick a gumpaste barber chair and pole on it. She calls me back and says, "No, he wants to know if you can shape it like a barber pole". Now this is the woman who so graciously gave birth to me 33 years ago - shouldn't she know me better than this? Shouldn't her answer have been, "of course he can". Needless to say I did it and am very happy with the way it turned out. But, I'll let you guys be the judge of that!

My Birthday Cake

Ok, so here's the story. After watching Last Cake Standing challenge on FN, I was dying to try Mary's (from Cakegirls) glow in the dark technique. What better place than my own birthday cake, right? Wrong!

I am a big fan of DC Superheros - especially Batman and the Justice League, so I came up with this design. Only the top tier was real cake (Vanilla Bean with mixed berry coulis filling). I was really happy with the outcome. Followed the ingredients from the show, applied it to anything that I wanted to glow, and waited for dark. For this to work, I needed a blacklight. The one I bought was not strong enough I guess, because this cake did not glow!

I am not giving up though! I will be on the hunt for a better black light and I will try this again. When it works, I have a funnny feeling a lot of people will want their cake to glow too!

Welcome

Welcome to my Cake Blog! I plan on using this space to highlight all of the special projects I am working on. I'm going to start with a very popular cartoon character - Spongebob Square pants!

Spongebob was made with a 9 x 13 sheet cake that was crumb coated in buttercream first. Once coated, I used the tip of a knife to lightly map out where I wanted his features to be, then I used a melon baller and tomato core remover to hollow out the indentations to make him more spongelike. Spongebob chilled in the fridge for a bit while I colored the fondant and then the fun began. I used fondant of various colors to detial him, and I'm pretty happy with the end result:

Not only am I happy with it, but so was the person who asked for this cake. Here is what she had to say:

"Everyone loved it!!! It was super delicious and I enjoyed eating the leftover cake thoroughly. You have such talent and I thank you for making Faolan's day extra special. He started to pick at the side of the cake before we cut it, he was freaking out with excitement that he had a SpongeBob cake. Thank you for making a little boy very happy "

I hope you all enjoy my blog, and I look forward to posting often since there are a lot of things I want to try, and a lot of cakes on the way!!