The Walking Dead

Hey all!
  This Halloween I got to make a Walking Dead cake!  It was so much fun.  The cake itself is my favorite Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream filling and painted vanilla fondant on the outside.

I love the zombies behind the fence.  I wanted to take a picture while I was doing it and kept thinking about it but I was in the zone and couldn't stop.

And of course there's Rick Grimes.

Icing Smiles - Jazmyn

I have been working at the deli in the grocery store by my house for about 5 months now.  I really enjoy it, but there is not much scope for the imagination, as I have to stick to certain designs and colors, and everything is either a 9" round or a sheet cake.  Bright side is I've gotten incredibly fast (60 cakes in 8 hours anyone?) and I've reached the expert level on piping buttercream borders.
There's just a few things I've done since the last post.  The one I want to talk about in this post is the last cake I did for Icing Smiles.

When I was contacted for this cake, Jazmyn wanted an Elsa/Frozen cake.  I was so excited and I started making her this bust for the top.  I had it all worked out and I made up many different types of snowflakes, bought some mystical snow sparkle dust, you name it, I got it.  I haven't made a Frozen cake before (other than at the bakery where I was working off someone else's vision) so I was super excited.

The party was postponed because Jazmyn needed to travel to another state to get medical care.  Poor baby.  When they returned, she had decided that Monster High was much more her speed, so I ditched Elsa (alright, she sat in my closet for about a month afterward, waiting for some little kid to want her, THEN I threw her out).

I got started on Jazmyn's cake with four days to go.  It was a three tier cake, Almond, Mocha Chocolate, and Strawberry flavors.

I was so humbled delivering this cake the day before the party.  Let me tell you folks - I have a kid, and he's rough and tumble, he's hale and healthy.  Nothing makes you hold your baby tighter than coming face to face with another parent's worst nightmare.

Jazmyn loved her cake.

I emailed my contact for the family about a week later for more pictures and was informed that she had passed during her party.  She didn't get to taste the cake, but I was told she was so excited and happy, taking all her guests directly to her cake and proudly showing it off.

Her funeral was packed with people mourning and the family requested that everyone wear something hot pink in her honor.

Fly high, Jazmyn.

Another Hiatus!

And I'm back!

It's been quite a while yet again but here I am, writing another saga of the cake journey that is my life!

Here's a brief sampling from 2014.  I was working at a bakery during this time.

2015 started off like any other year, with more cakes!  I did many more than these but these are a few of my favorites!

Happy Caking!

Pastels and SpiderMan Cupcakes!

I think I'm really getting into doing cupcakes recently, which is something I always thought took more time than they were worth.


This first cake was...difficult.  I know it doesn't look like it, but for some reason everything went wrong!  I ended up finishing the cake at midnight and when I woke up in the morning at 5am, I hated everything about how it looked so I tore off all the frosting and made it all again!  Both the cakes and cupcakes were airbrushed to be pearly.

The Spiderman Cupcakes were a surprise.  We went to visit relatives down in Virginia Beach and through a series of miscommunications, I didn't make cupcakes to bring.  Then commenced a fun filled rush to the store with a packed car of family, including two teenage girls and two five year old boys :)  It really was fun!  The girls (who are my nieces) helped me pick out the design for these cupcakes and helped to decorate them.  I had more fun with these little cupcakes than I thought possible.  The picture was taken by my Niece's Instagram and I think there's some kind of filter on it but you get the general picture.

I heart my nieces!

Cascading Flowers Rush Cake

I received a call at 9:15am asking for a cake for a 21st birthday - needed before 4:30pm today!  I got to work, baking 8" rounds of Decadent Chocolate cake and putting butter out to soften to room temperature for the buttercream.  By 3:15pm, I had finished putting together this pretty little cake!

I like the cascade of flowers, but I really love the swirly numbers.  I used the same sort of technique from my last post with the striped number.  I am so very much in love with doing lettering this way!  I had been in such a rush all day with the different things I was doing (I also had previous engagements already scheduled that I had to work in) that I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake.  The customer was very kind and took a photo for me, or this one might have falled into the black hole of cakes I've made and will never see again.

Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar!

I set out to make a cake for a one year old girl for her birthday.  This book has quickly turned into a classic and it was pretty easy to figure out where to go with this cake.  On the last day before the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis, he eats 10 foods.  Those are the foods around the base of the cake.

The cake itself is only 6" round as it was for a small family gathering.  That made making those little fondant foods very meticulous!  It's pound cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling, covered with marshmallow fondant.  As a cool sidenote, I found an amazing fondant recipe on CakeCentral.com!  I am just SO in love with how it works (so smooth, so stretchy!) and how it tastes!  I am able to get it pretty stinkin thin so it's not like getting a mouthful of chewing gum, it just melts in the mouth.

Anyway, here are the shots of all the different foods:

 I used a cool little technique for the number "1" on the front that I got off this amazing lady online.  I can't find the link for the life of me!  She did stripey letters and checkered letters and even some swirly letters.  She is awesome!  EDITED:  I found her website!  It's here!

Two Birthday Cakes At Once

Two women in one family have their birthdays on the same day, so I had to make sure the cakes were both beautiful in their own right, but didn't outshine the other.  I was only given that one lady loves birds, purple, simple but pretty, and glitter.  Nothing on the other lady.  I think I did pretty well picking out cakes that were simple and equal in beauty!

The Blue Ruffles cake is Vegan Chocolate with Silky Caramel Sauce filling, coated in milk chocolate ganache, and covered and decorated in fondant.  The flower is gumpaste and is actually gold but the picture didn't pick up the colors very well.

The Purple Birds cake is Vegan Chocolate (gosh, it's just my favorite recipe!  So tasty!) with Fresh Strawberry Filling and milk chocolate ganache, covered in fondant and decorated with fondant.  I used my airbrush to color the fondant.  The silhouettes are cut out of fondant, and the balls on top are glittery fondant (again, the prettiness didn't come through on the pictures!)

Pink Ruffles Cake

I underestimated how much buttercream I would need for this 10" and 8" two tiered cake.  It was OVER FIVE POUNDS.  Let that sink in for a minute.  Because it is a LOT!
The cake itself is Vanilla cake with pink buttercream frosting and filling.

I found the best thing to do was to crumb coat the cake and let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  Then I used the biggest petal tip I had to create the ruffles.  It was tedious but overall an easy technique.  I think on the next one I'd like to add a large ruffled flower made of gumpaste, perhaps out of black, and perhaps add a black ribbon of some kind.

Cakes of Winter so far!

Since I have been posting mostly to my new Facebook page, I suppose it is fitting that I am slacking here.  Just to make sure I keep things current, here are some pictures of the cakes I've been doing since last I posted!

This cake I made for an awesome boy named Eshan who is battling Neuroblastoma.  He was so grateful and sweet and his family was amazing.  I was connected to them by Icing Smiles, an amazing organization that puts volunteer bakers and families facing major health crisis together.

This Dinosaur and Crayons cake was designed to match the invitations.  Everything is edible, including the 60 crayons I hand rolled and painted!

These next three photos are gross, but they tasted amazing!  The cake was tie dyed inside, yellow cake with vanilla buttercream, airbrushed.  The flies and corn and toilet paper are fondant.  

The cupcakes are gluten free chocolate cake (this recipe called for coconut flour and tasted OMG wonderful!), soaked in syrup, topped with ganache and melted double chocolate buttercream.  The maggots are airbrushed marshmallow fondant.  I am loving my airbrush!

The next cake is just a little smash cake I made up this morning.  I broke my tooth yesterday and I've been a little out of sorts with the pain, but somehow managed to pull this off anyway.

This is my first time trying to do flames on a cake.  I cut out a stencil from parchment paper with a razor blade.  It was pretty easy, but I am glad I tried it today because I learned a lot.  The cake itself is vegan chocolate with double chocolate buttercream, covered in ganache, with marshmallow fondant around the sides and vanilla buttercream for the "grass".

Well, I think that's all for this year so far!  I have a few cakes coming up so check back in and I'll try to have everything updated on time!

You Too Can "Like" Me on Facebook!

I have finally opened my Facebook page to the public!  If you wish, you can follow my posts and see all my latest creations there, as well as access ording information.
Thanks!

Yet Another Catch Up Post

Here are a few cakes I've done and haven't blogged about.  The Barbie Doll cake is actually a Bratz Doll Cake.  I made it for my niece MPie.  I love my airbrush kit.  The whole dress is covered in pearl and was so pretty.

She looks like she's dancing in a garden of little flowers!

The cupcakes were simple and classy.

Batman and Robin cake for a birthday party!

Pocoyo and Terminator cake for a Daddy and Daughter combo party.  If you haven't seen this show, you totally have to.  The episode I used for inspiration was a dance-off.

The back was "torn" looking to look like the cake is a robot inside.

A nautical Steampunk Octopus cake.  This was really fun to do and I used my airbrush on the whole thing.  The octopus and gears are gumpaste and the cake is wrapped in a mixture of modeling chocolate and fondant.

The gold was very shiny and the silver was standout, the copper was my favorite though.  I bought a wood grain impression mat for the sides and I didn't really like how it turned out.  I had to airbrush the "seams" of the wood to make the lines visible.

I love the gears on the side!  I made them using the daisy cutter and a round cutter.  First, cut a daisy, then use the appropriately sized round cutter to cut the tips off.

I made these cupcakes for Icing Smiles, this great organization that gathers volunteers from all over the place to make cakes for gravely ill children and their siblings.  These cupcakes went to the Ronald McDonald house and I just happened to have a Cat in the Hat movie that I was able to give them for a fun themed movie night.  I really look forward to my next cake with Icing Smiles. The staff there is awesome and I love giving a little of myself to bring a smile.