Fondant fishing cake..

Another cake is out of the oven!

These cakes are taking on a life of their own.. I find myself getting more cake request than I expected.
I have a full time job as a parental assistant to three lovely families. This keeps me hopping in the summer for a good ten to twelve hours a day.. So, I told everyone I wouldn't be able to make any cakes till September because each cake is made from scratch, including the frosting, fillings and fondant, then I stack and decorate (this cake came in at 11 hours). Yet, I keep getting cake request (they are all such good friends). After 3 cakes in two weeks it's time to take a break and am hoping to not be persuaded during the month of August as I have other art awaiting my attention.

Anyhoo.. here it is, "It's The BIG One!" For a friend's Father's 80th Birthday.

everything is edible except for a few toothpicks in the cattails and the string

Lamb's navy rum was required, a tiny bottle on dock

Around the side and back

Here fishy, fishy..

Sweet!

Wine bottle Fondant cake!

I told you there was more cake coming!

It was my father in laws 85th. So, when my husband asked if I could make a cake 4 days before the dinner I got right on thinking about it. I decided because he was born and raised in Northern Italy and to this day, still bottles his own wine, I'd have to do the wine crate cake. I love fondant and the fact that you can make it look like wood, glass.. anything!

Yes, it can look like wood, as I demonstrate in this photo.. this is the cake base. I almost hated to put the cake on it.. it started as a two toned flat sheet of fondant that I drew the lines into and then painted with a darker brown, letting it settle in the grooves. Sort of like antiquing when your faux painting.

Next, the actual cake is made from three loaf pans cut and stacked to get the shape I wanted. Surrounded by more wood fondant and topped with white buttercream, I now have a crate.

This bottle was made with rice treat I cut in circles and stacked, adding a neck. I used silver pearl dust for the neck foil.

I cut the back of the bottle on an angle and inserted a wooden skewer from the top to keep the neck from drooping. The bottle is covered in black fondant, and then painted with a mix of white corn syrup and vodka tinted green.. the green shine catches the light and looks like real glass.. Crazy!

I made the label using an edible marker on white fondant.

The top is covered in white chocolate shavings to mimic packing.

Fondant grapes get a shine from syrup and vodka as well.. the wood base is only brushed with vodka and still shines like it's been polished.

I used a round piping tip to add faux nails in two different sizes.. the base nail is smaller than the crates.

The curly vines are fondant "snakes" wrapped around a dowel and allowed to dry for an hour.

Easy Peasy.

Sweet!

This cake was added to Lil Luna's Link party.

Jungle Fondant Cake..

So.. I did make a couple of mini albums, but as always... cake interrupts my life.

Cakes make people happy, so I keep making them. This is a hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake, such a great tasting chocolate cake, so moist. Easy to stack. I filled and crumb coated with Buttercream Dream a version of buttercream that uses Dream Whip powder to cut the sweetness.. I used marshmallow fondant for a better taste, but have to say I prefer using my other fondant recipe for better handling, but taste won out this time.

This cake was ordered by my hairdresser for her little guy's 1st Birthday.  We bartered hair for cake! Woot!

She asked for monkeys and..well.. it evolved into the jungle. We couldn't stick with one idea so we used 'em all. We took things she liked from a few cakes we saw online and added some of mine and voila!

  

Sweet!

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 

Dirt Bike Cake!

So I had to make a cake..

Not just any cake, but a dirt bike cake.

I have only been making fondant cakes for about 4 months now and learned all I know through trial, error and the Internet. So, being a bit nervous about creating the actual bike (I was certain it would break apart), I bought a toy model and made the guy riding him out of fondant. Everything except that bike is edible. This cake was so much fun to make I'd do it again in a minute. I used marshmallow fondant for this one, as it didn't need to be perfect. I did use Duff's fondant in Black and brown as I had them on hand and black is almost impossible to get the black dark enough. The client wanted certain things such as "Over the Hill", "40" and "BRP" (Big Red Pig) what he calls his bike. I accidentally added an apostrophe, but didn't have another sign made up and dried to correct it. Oh well... they were very happy and "Paul" loved it so much he didn't cut the cake at the party. He saved it till the next day.