Simple Icing Rose Cake

 For my Grandma's 89th birthday, I wanted to create a nice cake but didn't have a lot of extra time and didn't have access to all of my cake decorating supplies and decorations. I decided to challenge myself and think of a simple design. First I baked a homemade lemon cake, filled with fresh homemade lemon curd, and whipped up some lemon cream cheese icing. I did happen to have a large star tip, so I covered the top of the cake with piped roses by making a tight clockwise circle for the center of the rose, and then looping around once or twice more. For added fanciness, I used a small straight edged spatula to drag up the sides of the cake, and sprinkled the roses on top with fresh grated lemon rind to tie everything together and add more color.

Here's my Grandma Nina. Happy 89th birthday.!!

Garden Cake

 I wanted to make a special cake to celebrate my Grandpa's 84th birthday, and so I decided to pick a subject close to his heart and make an edible vegetable garden. I've been so blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful Grandpa for so long. Amongst other things, he's a good ol' country boy at heart and an avid farmer. I've been lucky enough to directly learn and see the value in such hard work and care, and to reap the benefits of delicious produce.! I started off by baking a large chocolate cake (in a 12x12 in pan). I marked the rectangular garden portion of the cake, iced it with homemade vanilla buttercream, and then covered it with oreo crumbs and cocoa powder to create a realistic "dirt" base. Then I used a large three point star tip to cover the rest of the cake with green tinted icing.

  

I made the sunflowers ahead of time out of a variety of yellow and orange shades of gumpaste. I cut them out using two different daisy cutters, and poked a piece of green wire into each flower before it dried to serve as the stem. The black texturized gumpaste centers were attached using a bit of water, and I used curved drying racks so each flower turned out more cupped and realistic. I brushed on some edible yellow shimmer dust to the flowers when they were completely dry. The flower heads proved to be to heavy to be supported by only their wire stems, so I ended up attaching a toothpick to each, which I wrapped with green florist tape. voila.!

The cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, and crookneck squash I made ahead of time too out of colored gumpaste. I colored toasted coconut with yellow food gel to make the straw chicken nests. The eggs are gumpaste covered in cocoa powder. The hen is gumpaste as well. I piped '84' in the corner to finish the cake off.

 

We had a nice outdoor crab bash in my Grandpa's barn to celebrate his birthday with friends and family. Here I am holding my baby nephew with my Grandpa and his cake. He liked it a lot- he's containing all his excitement in the picture. :p

Engleright Wedding Cake

 July 6, 2013 was a very special exciting day- my cousin Stephanie got married.! She asked me years and years ago when I first started decorating cakes if I would make her wedding cake. It's hard to believe that that actually happened. The wedding was gorgeous and full of fun and love, and I wish Stephanie and her husband (.!!) Chris all of the happiness in the world. :)

 To be honest, I could have planned more ahead of time with this cake. I cut all of the finishing touches incredibly close, and was stressing out about everything for a hot minute, but it all ended up coming together wonderfully. Everyone loved the cake, so that was gratifying.

 I used gumpaste dyed light blue with food gel to fashion hybrid magnolia-like roses a week or so ago. I brushed edible blue glitter on the flowers for an extra shimmery pop. I covered each tier (8 in, 10 in, and 12 in) carefully with thinly rolled out fondant (O_o)...At the venue, I stacked the cake using a bit of extra icing as a glue. I arranged the flowers cascading down the left side of the cake, and then used some extra icing to "glue" blue ribbon around the bottom of each layer. Fresh baby's breath really completed the look.

 I'm so glad and honored that Stephanie and Chris wanted me to make their wedding cake, and that I could contribute and participate in their wedding in that special way. Chocolate cake with almond buttercream icing...Ooooo yeahHhhh.!

Paisley Cake

I took a free cake icing class a while back and ended up with a "professionally iced" cake...boring, all white, and full of creative possibilities. So just for fun, I piped random black designs all over the cake, drawing whatever I felt in a Paisley-esque style. I then accented the cake some aqua and bright purple fuschia icing, and then added some edible sugar pearls as well.! I liked it...and that's all I was going for. :)

Betty Boop Cake

My Mom loves Betty Boop...and carrot cake...so this is what I created to surprise her for her birthday.! First I found the image that I wanted to recreate using colorflow icing, and then decorated the rest with a little creativity, making use of the random decorating materials that I happened to have. In keeping with the Betty Boop heart theme, I baked the carrot cake in a heart shaped pan. I iced the cake with fresh cream cheese icing, covered the sides with walnuts, and then piped a light teal border around the cake to contrast all of the red, white, and black. After carefully placing the fragile Betty Boop colorflow decoration in the center, I didn't have a set plan of action. I felt like it'd be a good idea to make a giant black swoosh using gel down the entire left side of the cake...so I went with it.! I made random designs with the black gel and teal icing, and used sugar pearls and red heart shaped sprinkles as accents.

Peanuts Star Wars Cake

 I knew that I wanted to make a special, different type of cake for my cousins Mason & Shawn. I started brainstorming, and thought that it would be fun to use Earl Grey as a unique flavor, particularly since Mason & Shawn are both avid tea lovers. My friend Becca shared an awesome blog with me, and I actually found the recipe that I ended up using on it (http://www.dessertsforbreakfast.com/2012/05/announcing-sated-magazine-and-earl-grey.html). It's actually a chocolate cake with chocolate Earl Grey ganache.! Yum. :) I doubled the cake recipe to make a 9 x 13 cake and 3 cupcakes (which make up the cup of tea). I also doubled the ganache recipe, but used 9 teabags rather than 12, and ended up with a lot left over...which wasn't a problem...because it's delicious.!

 Mason & Shawn both enjoy reading, so that's when I thought to combine the concept of a book cake with a cup of tea- naturally Earl Grey tea. Mason is super into anything and everything Star Wars & Peanuts...hence the combination. I actually found a similar fan art picture of Charlie Brown and Sally through Google (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110311232523/scratchpad/images/1/1b/Peanuts_meets_Star_Wars.jpg) which I slightly modified and then recreated out of color flow icing, along with a Han Solo Woodstock, a Snoopy Chewbacca, and a Storm Trooper Woodstock.! :D

 Decorations made out of color flow icing are incredibly fragile however, and although I had never before had a problem working with them, tragedy struck this time- probably since I had a large audience watching me assemble the cake. Charlie Brown Skywalker's body crashed to the floor O_o so I ended up re-piping his body with white icing and black gel, and I think it ended up looking fine. To create the cup of tea, I stacked the three cupcakes on top of each other (with ganache in between the layers and small wooden dowels in the middle to hold them together), and covered the cup of cupcakes with thinly rolled out white gumpaste. I then attached the gumpaste handle with toothpicks. I added a thin layer of white icing on top, and then drizzled on caramel sauce to give a milky tea appearance. I artfully, purposefully chose to drip the "tea" everywhere- it seemed more visually interesting to do so. The "tea bag" is also made out of gumpaste, as are the "pages" on the sides of the book. I popped everything else on, piped everything, and added silver star sprinkles.! It was a hit.! :D

Cockatiel Cakepops

 For my friend Olivia's birthday, I decided to make something different...and came up with cockatiel cakepops.! My reasoning being that her beloved pet cockatiel (Elvis), would serve as my creative, randomized inspiration.

 These cakepops didn't photograph too well- I swear they were cuter in person.! I shaped the cakepop into a cockatiel-like shape, attached the stick, dipped in melted white chocolate candy melts, and then just the head in melted yellow candy melts. I used pumpkin sprinkles for feet, two round sprinkles for eyes, added extra melted white chocolate using a toothpick to draw wings, and used an edible marker to draw red cheeks.

Olivia loved her cockatiel cakepops.! I tried to get a pic of Elvis with a cakepop, but the best part of it all was that Elvis was terrified of his cakepop brethren.! He kept flying away :/