I can make that!

Warning.. long post about cakes.

So, this past week I've been busy creating theatre props and my art table is covered in paper mache leaving me no space to scrap (as if I'd have time for that anyway). Once those items start to complete, which will all happen by this weekend,  I'll post some pics and details. In the meantime I have my "How I came to decorating cakes" story to share while I have my morning coffee. I started making cakes after watching an episode of Cake Boss and my sweet husband, Gord (he never knows what he is going to start) said "That's a cool cake!" Of course I come back with "I can make that!" The reply that slipped between his lips and consequently set everything into motion "Yeah, righhhhhtttt."

And so it begins..

Never having worked with fondant I scoured the internet and found this  Fondant Recipe and made this cake to try a few different things.. I even cut the flower layers on my Cricut. We didn't eat the flower so no worries about germs. Gord was amused.

Practice cake using stripes, harlequin, dots, bead trim and a Cricut flower.

My husband retired a few years ago, but found himself bored silly. He had tried some new careers but missed his very long career as a TV news anchor. Keeping the news idea in the forefront, but claiming to no longer have a face for TV,  he jumped into news / talk radio. One of the young news anchor / reporters in his station was moving on to Vancouver and we decided to have a send off party for her.. So, I made a cake with her on it, sitting by a little pink retro radio, holding her mic. Gord was impressed.

This time I tried making molding chocolate and used it for the girl and her radio

That very same week, a friend asked for a Pokemon cake... uh oh, two cakes!

Poliwhirl cut on Cricut Expression

 Working on the two cakes together...

Two weeks later it was my friends Birthday and she jokingly begged for a cake, but I was busy fretting about making a huge cake for another friend that required the Birthday girls golden retriever dog and a cat!! Yikes!

Anyhooo.. once the mess is out why not make more cake? 

I made my begging friend a small, personal cake and delivered it to her office, she loves Disneyland so I added a Hidden Mickey for her (can you see it?) Gord wanted to eat it up!

Not being able to make fondant black enough,  I gave in on this challenge and use Duff's black.

Now the biggest challenge and first cake someone is paying for. So, I can't screw up but I want to try so many things. I scoured the net and combined a couple of ideas from some different cakes to add with my own ideas and tried them all out on this baby to see what I was capable of. (I would credit the designers of the tree and snail but I can no longer find their cakes.) The tree is built using rice treat, the bark on it was a happy accident. This cake was definitely a challenge and took me 14 hours to complete. I may be able to do that in less  time now, but I'm not sure, it is very detailed. There is no Cricut used here, so they could eat everything. Gord was amazed! 

Without further ado... Cake #5 

Fondant Kitty! Idea from "Icing on the cake"

Fondant Retriever! I had to make this guy up on my own.

Fondant Snail, complete with slime trail..

This cake pictured on facebook has garnered me a lot of request, most of which I have to turn down as I'm not in the cake business. In the nine months since that first practice cake I have made a few more, but this is the cake that really pushed it over the edge and now the bar has been set. I can no longer make a simple cake. That my dear blogger friends is how I got my start using the artist medium know as fondant. 

Hugs and sweet sugar kisses,  Patricia 

Happy Mother's Day!!

Yay! I finally get a morning to myself.. of course it's only a couple of hours than I have to start working on some specialty theatre props for a local dinner theatre I occasionally work for.

I wanted to share the Mother's Day card I made for my Mother-in-law. She is a lovely, beautiful, Italian Woman who is a joy to sit and chat with. She loves her time in the garden and always has perfectly manicured flowers and veggies. So, I wanted to reflect that.

The torn piece of Polka Dot paper is by K&Company.. the ruffled flower is two sided paper (Ducks in a Row: Pat a Cake) by October Afternoon. I had a piece of wired ribbon in a scrap heap and bunched it up.  Lot's of edge inking going on..

 The butterflies were punched, glittered and layered.

I cut the tag on my Cricut using Fabulous Finds and popped it up on a couple of foam dots.

I decided at the last minute (ok, 20 minutes ago) I wanted a small flower on the inside and didn't want to turn on the Cricut.

So, I was going through my punches when a light bulb went on!

My small Hidden Mickey was to be reborn as a flower. I punched out 4 and overlapped them into this cute little flower. 

Magnifico!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms in the world!

I'm submitting this design to the Make it Monday linky party, drop over and join the fun!