Whirlwind couple of weeks!

I know I resolved to post regularly, but it has been a crazy few weeks! Let's start off with my grandmother's birthday.

A little back story - my dad's sister has been decorating cakes for as long as I can remember. She is old school - even though she's a sweetheart, she only decorates using the Wilton method - buttercream stars, no fondant, whatsoever. She has made every cake for every big family occassion, and I have never said anything to outshine her. Well, New Year's day, we're all at her house to celebrate Christmas with my other aunt who was in from out of town. We were discussing Nanny's birthday party which was coming up, and my Nanny leans over and says to me in front of people, "I want you to make my birthday cake". To which I replied I'd love to, but didn't want to step on any toes. My grandmother then added, "It is my birthday, I want one of your beautiful cakes, and that's all there is to it". I spoke with my aunt who agreed that my grandmother should get what she wants. I did compromise and offered to let my aunt help me, because I know she likes watching me work with fondant. Unfortunately, my uncle landed in the hospital (he's fine now) and she couldn't make it to help.

The original design was supposed to be a two tiered topsy turvy. I got a little too pre-occupied with another guitar cake, didn't pay attention to how I was carving Nanny's cake, and totally botched the top tier causing it to tip over. I switched the design up a little to make it appealing as just one tier, but we still had plenty of cake, even with huge servings. Here is the final product:

The cake was lemon with white chocolate buttercream. The lettering was done using the cricut (my new favourite toy), and the daisies were all made using gumpaste.

Last week was a rough one. We were getting ready to celebrate my wife's 30th birthday. Early in the week my mom called to tell me her uncle (who along with my great-aunt were a third set of grandparents) was in the hospital. The last time I saw him, he wasn't looking well, but refused to ever see a doctor. I didn't expect him to make it to Christmas, but he did. We learned that he had advanced lung cancer, and on the day they were to set him up for home care, he passed away. He lived a good life, and touched many people with his infectious sense of humor and wisdom.

On the bright side, last week also marked an advancement in my cake career - I booked 2 more corporate jobs. This week, I also struck a deal to possibly start teaching at the shop where I buy many of my supplies. Keep your fingers crossed. This weekend is crazy busy - not only am I working on Valentine items to sell, one of my corporate orders, and baking for a Haiti relief bake sale (Lobster tails and eclairs), I had a very good friend and customer order 3 cakes on Thursday for a Saturday pickup. The easiest was the Princess and the frog photocake. I also did these:

This cake was two tiered red velevet with vanilla buttercream, and the fondant was airbrushed in antique gold. Lettering was done using the cricut again. The letters were then dusted with black disco dust. The billiard balls were also made with fondant.

This cake was definitely a first! My customer said here cousin was requestuing this type of cake because she was turning "Dirty-One". By no means am I a shy person, but this request did make me blush a little. I am just wondering how she liked it!

That is all for now - I'm off to the store to get some Rice Krispies to make an edible 3D Elmo for a cake next week. I'll post all about it next week.

It's been forever!

Wow 4 months since my last post! I've been so busy with my day job and cakes and the holidays - it's insane! My resolution wasn't to get in shape (already working on it), but instead to blog more often! So here is what has been going on in my world of cake:

Website Change

My webmaster has informed me that his service provider has gone belly up due to the bad economy. I was in the midst of re-doing it anyway, so decided to go with a free site host instead. The crappy thing is that I just had 200 dollars worth of t-shirts made up. Oh well, c'est la vie! My new site (which took surprisingly less time than I thought) can be found at http://morselsbymark.weebly.com/

First cake of the New Year

A co-worker of my wife's had asked about having me replicate her husband's Les Paul guitar. I am quite happy with the outcome! The cake was chocolate with chocolate buttercream and covered in fondant. All accents were done in gumpaste and hand painted accordingly. The cake was a pickup order, so I had to wait til Monday to find out that they were blown away by the cake and never in her wildest dreams did she imagine her husband's cake to be so detailed. I always love the reaction more than anything. Check out the pics of the cake:

Potential Class:

I am trying to decide if I should make the 7 hour drive in May to take a 3 day sugar flower class with James Roselle. It's $825, but I could stay with my aunt who lives nearby. I'm really thinking it would be beneficial, but it is just alot of money! What do you guys think?

My First Competition:

Wish me luck everyone! I have entered 3 winter themed cakes into a contest at CakesCanada.com. It is my first contest and I'm nervous, even though I don't think I'll place. There are 9 other cakes competing and they are really nice! I'm sitting on pins and needles until voting ends on Sunday!

My next post is going to talk about a couple of cakes on the pipeline. I am eagerly looking forward to this weekend, since I am going to Plattsburgh (to read, "Global Sugar Art"). It's like everytime I go, I'm like a kid in a candy store! Alan and his staff are always great, and they are making an exception to open for me on a Saturday to pickup my order - and they are at a new location - can't wait to see it!

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!