Princess Birthday Cake

I didn't start out thinking I would LOVE this cake, and as things went together, I was suspect, but when everything was in place and I stepped back and checked it out, GOODNESS I really like this cake.  It's chocolate fudge cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and filling.  The crown and flowers are gumpaste and the draping is fondant.  I made the crown by rolling out the gumpaste and using a hand drawn template to cut out the shape, then rolling it around an empty and cleaned Crisco container to dry, then setting that in a bowl filled with flour (so that the points curved just the right amount of outward).  I learned to do this after much trial and error on the last crown I made.  I made the crown larger (last time I used an oatmeal container, which was smaller in girth).  The crown was pearlized using my airbrush machine.  I love that thing.

The flowers have inedible gem centers.  I just liked the look so much more than piped centers, it gave a certain pizzazz.

I think I like the back better than the front!

I have a lot of cake stuff coming up and I'm feeling the pressure!  Tomorrow is a Barney cake, then a Lightning McQueen cake for Dollbaby's birthday, and next weekend is busy busy busy too!  Everyone is having a birthday in February!

Ah yes.  I made this little smash cake for Stinkie's friend last weekend.  I also made another cake, but I lost my iPod so I didn't get a picture of it :(.  That's okay, everything was SO frustrating about those two cakes, so I'm not incredibly happy with how they came out.  It's okay.  Both cakes were loved by their owners, and this princess cake made up for it!

Sesame Street!

I have always loved Sesame Street.  Always.  Even now that they've changed the opening jingle and added such magical creatures as Abby and her flying faerie school, Rosita, and...yes, you guessed it, Elmo, among others.  Though I'm still in love with what was, I can absolutely appreciate what Sesame Street is still doing in helping little ones (like my 3 year old) and their parents have some quality time together talking about the letter Q and the number 17.

My client sent me an inspiration photo for this cake and I was beyond excited.  What a cute cake, what a great show, what a perfect 1st birthday party theme.
I used Americolor Super Red and Wilton Rose to get the red tint.  The yellow is a mix of Wilton's golden yellow and lemon yellow.  The cake itself is yellow cake, 2-10" layers and 2-6" layers with buttercream filling and frosting and fondant and gumpaste decor.  The smash cake is yellow cake with buttercream frosting.

Cookie Monster, Elmo, Oscar, and Big Bird are made out of fondant, and it was SO much fun making them.  The bow loops, spirals, and balloons are made out of gumpaste so they would dry nice and hard.  The little border balls are fondant rolled to (approximately) the same size and randomly stuck on.  The blue "ribbons" on the bottom tier are fondant rolled thin.  The street sign is fondant rolled thin and cut to shape.\ with buttercream lettering and border.
I would love to explain in more detail what I did with this cake because I did truly have the best time making it, but I am just now overcoming bronchitis (hence the long wait on posting this cake I made two weeks ago!) so this will just be brief.

Happy Birthday to you, Avery!

Ribbon Cake

Stinkie is napping, and I am rejoicing!  I have four cakes due tomorrow morning, and I was starting to stress, but I finished ALL of them!  Granted, one was done already, and two were little 6" smashcakes, but the ribbon cake looked like it was going to be REALLY hard.  I had made all the ribbon pieces out of gumpaste last night and the night before, so they had time to dry really well.  I draped them over a cardboard tin foil roll (cut in half) to keep their shape.  When I wanted the smaller loops of ribbon, I used string to tie the cardboard roll very tightly.  I made sure to leave a little wiggle room to get the ribbons off.  The spirals were 1/4" strips of gumpaste wrapped around wooden dowels.  So without further ado, here are a few pictures!

I also thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of the cake before I added the name.

I learned that making ruffles is something I need to work harder on!  I just went for folds.  Also, I should have placed the ruffle before putting the fondant on...or something.  I just know it was hard as heck to put the ruffle under without flubbing the fondant!
I also made two little smashcakes to go with the two cakes.

The little cake is a toddler friendly carrot cake (I got the recipe from RecipeZaar) with just whipped cream cheese frosting.  I neglected to remember that cream cheese hardens by itself...OOPS!  So I covered it with plastic wrap, and hopefully it will last in the fridge until they have the party!  I don't have a picture of the ribbon smashcake, but it just looks like a little pink package tied up with dark pink ribbon, with a little bow on top.
I need to get along with making my Mother-In-Law's cake.  It's going to be a carrot cake with a glaze AND frosting.  Yum.  I still have no idea what I'm going to do with it.  Hubby said he'd come up with an idea but he's been working so hard and going to school nights, so he hasn't had the time lately.  I suppose I can just google stuff she's into and find something fitting!
Another thing I've learned using fondant is that the buttercream layer needs to be thin, or it will flow underneath your fondant and make your surfaces bunchy looking.  I tried using more frosting under the fondant on these cakes so that people can just scrape off the nasty tasting stuff and have frosting underneath, but I think I'm going to start sticking with a minimal amount from now on, like 1/4" or something like that.
I do hope to learn more about decorating with buttercream.  There's this fabulous woman on YouTube named SeriousCakes (okay, probably not her name, but it's her channel name!) who can do ANYTHING with buttercream.  Watching her is amazing!
Peace out, and have long days and pleasant nights!