Princely Baby Shower Cake and Disney Princesses!

Hello there! As promised, I'd like to share a cake that I think leveled me up in Caking XP. It was definitely a challenge, but it was fun to make. I had to dust off my gumpaste skills. I don't work with it often at work, so it took some getting used to again.

I started with the booties and crown. I made those out of gumpaste quite a few days in advance. I didn't have a baby booties cutter, so I printed out a template and made it work.

Beginning stages: sole attached to front flap

Back flap added and left to dry

As far as the crown went, I hand-drew my own template and used that to cut the gumpaste out.

I thought I had photos of the next step, but I don't. Sorry! I wrapped a can of dried oats with wax paper, then wrapped the gumpaste crown around it. I added another layer of wax paper on top of that to retain the round shape (and to keep the fleur-de-lis shaped bits from flopping forward). I waited a day, then added the little embellishments onto the front of the crown.


After they were fully dried, I made a mixture of vodka and gold dust **make sure this is quality gold dust. Wilton dust did not cut it for me** The dust I used was from CK Products, and it came in a small 2 gram container.

 While everything was drying, I covered the board in fondant (clear piping gel works great) and hot glued the sparkly ribbon onto the edges.

As far as getting the quilting pattern onto the cake, I ended cup covering the cakes in fondant then trying to press the impression mats onto the surface. It worked...ish. I ended up going over the grooves with the back of a knife. The next time I do a fondant cake (which is this weekend, actually), I'll see how it works if I press the pattern in first and then cover.

I used more hand-drawn and cut out templates for the plaques that went onto the front of the cake. I used gumpaste for the letters (make sure you have a SHARP Xacto knife to clean up your letters) and painted that as well. Here is the finished product at the party with the decorations. Lovely!

I also had a Disney princess themed cake for an adorable 5-year-old that gave me her specific cake parameters: 2 Ariels, a Mulan, a Tiana, a Pocahontas, and a Tinker Bell; all with crowns except Tinker Bell.  And of course, I had to oblige!

 
The hardest part, honestly, was mixing all of the colors. Thank goodness for parchment pouches!

I have quite a few cakes this weekend. I am currently between my mother's birthday which was this past Sunday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!)  and my brother's birthday, which is tomorrow. Eek! Cake chaos, but I love it!

As Promised: Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cake

I've been on a bit of a break lately. As I had mentioned in my last post-- celebration season is upon me.

I would love to share the chocolate cake I made my husband for his birthday last month. We brought it to a restaurant, and one of the waiters said that it was one of the best cakes he's ever had! Right on! I'll start with the chocolate cake recipe. This was a recipe I had found on Foodess and it was magical!

The batter came out thin-- but that's what makes it fudgy and delicous!

Next, I made the buttercream from Two Sisters Crafting.

In both the cake and the buttercream, I used Hershey's Special Dark, which made the chocolate flavor much more rich.

Then I made the chocolate ganache for coating the cake pre-fondant. This recipe came from McGreevy Cakes. I used dark chocolate chips for this as well.

With all three components made (the ganache sat overnight in the refrigerator then heated up a bit in the microwave to achieve a thick peanut butter consistency), it was time to assemble!

I applied a thin layer of piping gel then covered it with black fondant marbled with a bit of blue. I used white, pink, and purple luster dusts to make elliptical patterns for galaxies.

 And of course a galaxy cake wouldn't be complete without some glitter!

He was very happy with it!

Next post: Disney princesses and a baby shower cake fit for a king!

October Cakes!

Holy wow! It's been a while, folks! It all started with the hurricane that unexpectedly threw us off track for a bit there.

The month of October is usually gone in a flash because it begins birthday season-- or really, a celebration season. We have our godson's birthday, my father-in-law's birthday, our wedding anniversary, my husband's birthday, my grandma-in-law's birthday, Halloween, and so much more. It's a little crazy. Luckily, there's a bit of a break between Halloween and the end of November with my mom and brother's birthdays and Thanksgiving thrown in.

So I've been running around making lots of cakes both at home and at work (because it's also baby shower and wedding season). Here are some cakes (and cupcakes) of note:

 Two dozen Marvel/ Avengers cupcakes

 Alabama football theme cake:

Deer themed baby shower

Rum barrel cake with rum flavored cake and buttercream (with some real rum as well)

My next entry will highlight the best cake I've ever made my hubs. There's chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate! Yum!