A Bow and a Baby Shower

This is the first time I've done two cakes for an event, and it was pretty fun coordinating them without having them be too matchy-matchy.

This was also the first time I made a large loop bow for a cake, so it was a learning experience.  I mixed some GumTex into my pretty blue fondant and got going.  I wrapped a brand new (and clean) broom handle in wax paper and set it up near my work area and rolled my fondant, then cut strips just the right size and looped them and glued them on the broomstick.  Then I set the broom out of the way for the strips to dry for a few days.  When they were fully dried, I took them off carefully and arranged them into a bow pattern, and allowed that to dry for a few days.
  The letters are the same fast-drying fondant that I used for the bow, cut to shape and dried on the curled wires.  I put small straws in around the wires in the cake for stability during transport.  When I delivered this cake, the springs (of course) were bouncing around.  This was a fun cake but also stressful at times.

The baby and blanket were fun to do.  The fondant is chocolate fondant and SOOOOO yummy!  I broke off a piece at the beginning of shaping to set aside to nibble on later!  I just LOVE chocolate marshmallow fondant.

The most challenging part of these cakes (aside from the new experience with the bow) was trying to match fondant and buttercream colors perfectly.  I think I did pretty good!  The day before delivery, I baked up the cakes and clean frosted them (the coat of buttercream) and piped the little designs, let the frosting harden in the fridge for a few minutes, and wrapped them in Saran wrap.  The next day I put the fondant toppers on and sealed them up in their special boxes.  The box for the 10" round was a whopping 13"x13"x13"!  The smaller cake is a 6" round.  Both cakes are my super awesome yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling.

Crown and Draping

I should have posted this days ago!  I am a slacker :)

  This cake is a 2-layer 10" round, yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling.  The accents are fondant.  The crown is fondant with a smidge of GumTex mixed in to help it harden.
  The crown was a hassle to make, but I figured it out. I wrapped it around an oatmeal container after cutting out the basic shape and sealed the back edge.  I wanted the tips to point outward but without support they would just flop down, so I decided to place the fondant wrapped oatmeal container into a large salad bowl and fill it with flour, then mound up the flour where necessary.  I left it to dry for a whole day then carefully removed it and brushed off the flour.  I painted it with a thick mixture of vodka and gold luster dust (the alcohol evaporates completely).
  The quilting was much faster this time, as I'd done it on the previous cake.  It's time consuming but simple once you get the distances marked.

  This was my first time making a drape, and it was fun and informative.  I love the way it looks.
  I made the rosettes by rolling a thin strip of fondant, shaping and rolling it up, then forming the frills.
  It still needed a little something, so I cut out about 40 little flowers, shaped them, and dusted the centers with red and pink petal dust.  I attached them using a smidge of buttercream.
  This was a fun cake and I had a blast making it.  It still surprises me that I love doing this so much.  What a blessing!
  I took a bunch of time off to concentrate on family stuff, but now I have quite a few cakes coming up and I'm really looking forward to them.  This is a blast.

New Years Birthday Rush!

7:30pm:  I get a call from a great client and friend, asking if I can make a cake for 16 people at a little girl's 1st birthday party, the next day at 3pm.  I'm in the car on the way home from my In-law's house, it's my anniversary, and I have a bottle of Mango Rum that is calling hubster's and my name...but I LOVE CAKES!
8:15pm:  We arrive home, and I preheat the oven, get the ingredients together, put the cakes in and set the timer.  Then Hubby pours me a drink and we watch Psych.  We're wild party animals, I tell you!
8:50(ish):  The cakes come out of the oven, and just in time!  I'm about to start my third drink.  I wrap up the cakes and set them in the fridge.
The rest of the evening is filled with more Mango Rum and Louis C.K. standup comedy.  I was in stitches the rest of the night.  Midnight comes, we kiss, I flick the porch light on and off a few times, then the gunshots start and we scramble into our house as we hear a ricochet.  *Two more years until we buy a house!* I tell myself!  Up to bed!
6:00am:  Stinkie is up.  It's Hubby's day to wake up with him, so I lay in bed for a few minutes... then realize I have to go to the Walmartz for frosting ingredients!
7:30-8:00am:  Getting hit on by a weird guy in the Walmart parking lot...before AND after buying the things I need.

8:15am:  Make the fondant bow and the gumpaste curly ribbons so they have time to dry a little.  Make the cake board, mix the frosting, color the frosting, make frosting plugs, fill and stack layers, base coat the cake.
10:00am: Try to figure out how to do the quilted look and have it come out straight lines.  I marked 1" intervals around the bottom of the cake, then used a straight edge to copy the intervals on the top ridge.  After trial and error (this is my first quilted cake) I used a straight cake scraper to make the quilted lines, then painstakingly put in pearl non-pariels at each meeting point.  The bottom border went in about here.  Then I made the nameplate.  Side note...I love the name Lauren.
11:30ish:  I make the "1" on the top, fill, and outline.  Pipe the top border, then place the ribbon and the nameplate.

12:15pm:  I want to put my child down for a nap and he insists on Daddy.  I haven't seen the little guy all day and I MISS HIM!  Hubby has been entertaining and loving on him all day so much he hasn't hardly bothered with me.  I'm relieved...but a little sad too :(  He's getting so big now!  Daddy takes off afterward and...I realize I don't have tape to make the cake box.  I look everywhere.  All I have is blue and red electrical tape.  All my tape got eaten up with the Christmas wrapping.  EEK!  Since I don't have a car to use, that awesome client I mentioned earlier agrees to pick one up on the way over.  She is awesome.  I think I said that though!
1pm:  The kitchen is mostly cleaned and the cake is pretty much done.  All I have to do is take pictures.  I do that and wait for the pickup time (2pm-ish).  Then I rest for a few minutes.  My head is swimming and I realize I have the worst hangover I've ever had.  We have no Tylenol here and I'm stuck here!
The rest of the day is a blur.  We went to Outback and I got sick.  Hubby drove me home and took care of Stinkie.  What a great guy!  I took a bath and went to bed at 7:45.  Slept ALL night, and I feel much better now!