A Cake for Fifty Years

As someone who has a love for family history, my latest order was a special one for me. My client was the daughter of a couple who were about to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary- 50 happy years of marriage. She brought with her a photo of her parents cutting the cake at their wedding reception all those decades ago in the hopes of having a replica made. Of course I was more than happy to take on the challenge.

The photo was old and the clarity not the best for discerning details, so some artistic interpretation had to be done. In the end though, I think the cake came quite close and the happy couple were quite pleased with the results.

The cake was three tier with all buttercream frosting and decoration and some gum paste flowers for added detail. Cakes were raspberry filled chocolate and vanilla layers with raspberry almond buttercream frosting.


The biggest challenge for me with this cake was the transportation. The hall where the party was being held was an hour drive from my house and I had to transport the three layers of the cake plus two fully decorated matching sheet cakes. On top of that, the party would not be until the next day and so the cake would not be assembled until then. So I had to design it such that no additional icing would be added upon arrival (I've always done touch ups after assembly in the past). I was definitely holding my breath and saying some prayers during this drive!! Thankfully all fives cakes made it without so much as a smudge and I handed it off to the client with a happy sigh of relief!

Cakes of the Past Part II: Shower Cakes

Samples of some of the shower cakes I've done in the past-

Bridal Showers:


Three tier mini cake for my sister in law's wedding shower. Buttercream frosting with ribbon and gerbera daisies.




Dennis and Andrea's New Orleans style wedding shower cake. Three fondant covered tiers- dark chocolate cake with raspberry almond buttercream, butter pecan cake with vanilla maple buttercream and french vanilla cake with vanilla almond buttercream.

Cakes of the Past Part I: Birthdays

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I began baking cakes mostly for my children's birthdays. Below are some shots of my first birthday cakes.

2006

My son's first birthday cake and my first real foray into the world of almost 3D cakes.

Also not shown is the little monkey head smash cake. It's still one of my favorites, so I will have to hunt down a pic of it

2007

My son's second birthday was a beach theme. I decided to try my hand at something more sculptural. I baked cake inside both pans, tin cans and even ice cream cones for this one. I covered the whole thing in butter cream and coated it in dark and light brown sugar. Sea weed is buttercream. Shells are real, so don't eat them!

2008

My son loves robots, so for his third birthday, I did my most challenging cake so far. All cake is layered and cut sheet cake with buttercream frosting piped decorations. Chocolate donuts help make the arms and legs

2009

My daughter's first birthday meant my first chance to make a really girly cake. Everything on the cake is buttercream, except the large light pink flowers, which are fondant. Detail is piped in with buttercream and some luster dust is added for girly shimmer.

I also did a small coordinating "Z is for Zoey" smash cake.

Cakeasaurus Part II

Last weekend marked my son's fifth birthday party and my revisit to the world of dinosaur themed cakes.

As with my previous dino, I started with the rice krispie sculpture. Good to know I still can find time to put those art courses I took in college to good use. My former design instructor used to yell at all of us first year graphic design students in her thick German accent- "MORE SCULPTURAL!! Make your design more sculptural!!!" She was, as it turns out, a professor of sculpture. Imagine that.



Rice krispy as a medium is not the best, but it is also not the worst. If you know from the start what you want your piece to look like, working with the krispies still hot and melty is perfect. However, it sucks if you change your mind later- which I did, over and over. Poor Mr. Dino was constructed and deconstructed for hours before I was satisfied with what I ended up with- what you see above.

I covered the dino with marshmallow fondant (one of my favorite mediums to work with!) that had been rolled on a pebble texture mat. Additional details for the tummy texture, wrinkles in the legs, etc., were all textured by hand using various tools and a lot of patience.



As you can see from my pics, I was fighting the laws of physics from the start. I wanted my dino to have a head and tail that stood out from his body, but gravity said that wasn't such a bright idea. We duked it out for a while, with me giving in on the tail but remaining stubborn about the head. I'd already done a sleeping dino! This one must be awake!! In the meantime I compromised using various items to hold up the dino's head.




By the end of the day (or rather during some point in the wee hours of the morning of the party), Mr. Dino lost his head. It was a sad state of affairs, but I managed to keep my cool... for the most part. I ended up stabilizing the head and neck with marshmallows hidden underneath. They blended perfectly with the frosting, so unless I pointed it out, you wouldn't have noticed. However, if you were to look closely at the pic, you can see the tiny crack where gravity made its mark.



In the end all turned out okay and the client, my son, was quite pleased- and that's the most important part!

The dino- rice krispy covered in MMF with details etched in and piped on with buttercream and a little luster dust to add dimension to the scales.

The cake- standard sheet cake, triple chocolate with black raspberry filling, covered in almond buttercream. Most of the cake decoration is buttercream, with the exception of the pond, which is MMF, the big rock which is a krispie coated in MMF and the little rocks which are chocolate rock candy.

Moons in May

My daughter has a serious love of the moon. She gets SO excited when she gets to see it. So, for her second birthday, it was an easy call for party theme- moon and stars.

I went with a 12" round, dark chocolate with raspberry filling. The moon is carved from chocolate cake as well. All decorations are buttercream.





I gave the moon itself a light brushover with luster dust so that it would shimmer in the light of her birthday candles. The picture doesn't catch this, but it seemed to work, though I think next time a bit more luster dust would be preferable. I wanted to keep it subtle though.