Pool Table Cake

Another 3D object cake...my favorite. This pool table cake was made of strawberry cake with a cream cheese filling.
This is a cake I had known about for a while but I wasn't sure how I was going to execute it. I think I thought it would be so simple that I wouldn't have to worry about it, so when it came time to get started I realized I had a few things to figure out. I used a layer of rice cereal treats for the border of the table so that I wouldn't have to waste any cake and it would also give me sharper corners.
Thick wooden dowels were used for the legs, which I covered in tubing from some gift wrap to give them some bulk, which were then wrapped in black fondant so they matched the rest of the cake. As with most 3D cakes, there were a few more details I would have loved to have added but there just isn't always the time. Not perfect but cool cake nonetheless.

"Sex & the City" Themed Bridal Shower Cake

When I first started Cake Lab last October, one of my first cakes was a "Sex & the City" themed birthday cake. I was happy with the cake back then but I've come a long way since.
This time around, I decided to use edible disco dust for the city. I have to say...that crap is a pain! It's hard to stick on and very expensive, but it does result in a unique look when you walk by it. Nothing else reflects the light quite like it. I think from now on I will stick to using it for smaller objects.

I do like this cake but overall I feel like something isn't quite right, just can't put my finger on it. What I do love is the accessories. First time making gumpaste shoes and it wasn't too tricky. The nail polish looked exactly like I wanted. Applied a little vegetable spray on it to give the bottle a shiny appearance, something I learned from a flickr member. The bag was rice cereal treats covered in modeling chocolate then fondant. It was the easiest accessory to make but I think it looks the most impressive. Funny :/
Jello for the drink and fishing wire for the gumpaste pearls. Overall a fun cake and I look forward to upping the ante next time I am asked to do the theme again.

"Space Needs Color" Cake for Threadcakes Contest

A cake contest that is based off crazy graphic T shirt designs? Count me in!
The competition is put on by Threadless, and if you are interested in seeing all the possible design choices you can click here.
If you decided to check out the link, you will see that the options are pretty much endless. Not easy to choose just one, so I decided to start off with a simple one that caught my eye called "Space Needs Color":

My full Threadcakes entry can be viewed here.
Nothing really complicated in terms of technique. It's nice carving lumpy items like rocket exhaust and volcanoes after doing something as smooth and shapely as a car. Again, airbrush came is super handy. Don't know what I'd do without it!
The rocket and paint tubes were made of rice cereal treats covered in modeling chocolate and fondant. I used some fishing wire to suspend the paint drops. It worked out pretty well but I regret not adding more of them. Guess there's always going to be something on every cake that could be done a little differently.
There are many more deign options I want to convert to cake, but I'm probably going to just have time for one, and it's going to require lots of details. Can't wait!

Volcano Cake

Wow, I'm not sure how I've gotten so far behind on my blogging. It's a good habit for me to keep up on for numerous reasons so let's see how many I can whip out today.
When I was first asked to do a dinosaur themed cake I got really excited. Not like I'm a huge dino fan or anything, but I do really enjoy Jurassic Park and they just look...cool haha.
For this cake I invested in some molds which is something I don't normally do. I do enjoy sculpting figures from scratch, but the molds definitely make things go a LOT faster and leaves me more time to focus on other details. The palm tree mold was an excellent choice, they turned out great, were easy to make, and I'm sure I'll be using it again in the future.

The idea for the bottom tier actually came from another cake I saw online. They used the cricut to cut out dinosaur silhouettes, and I loved the contrast of the black on the light blue. Unfortunately, my silhouettes ended up being my least favorite part of the cake. I see now how I could have made them better, but it was the final push in a really busy week. At least I won't make the same mistake again. Still, a fun colorful cake!

Yellow Maserati Car Cake

I've made a decent number of 3D cakes in the past 6 months, but most of them are fairly simple in terms of carving. Not since my batmobile cake have I carved something so complex (that was only my second time carving cake and was on a much smaller scale). I forgot how long the carving process can take! Even though I had previously prepared a scaled and elevated cake board for the cake to sit on, and a stencil to get the proportions correct, it still took me about 2.5 hours to do all the carving. Honestly I'm not sure how the time can fly by so quickly! I just kept on carving it away little by little because I had to factor in for the extra bulk that would be added by the buttercream and double layer of fondant. In the end the shape of the car isn't quite as slender as I wanted, but I'll accept it for now! Next time though...gotta be better.

The wheels were pretty time consuming, made of rice cereal treats covered in fondant with a gumpaste center. If I didn't make them the week before I'm not sure I would've been able to finish the cake on time!!
My favorite part is the LED lights. The client wasn't expecting them but I thought it was such a cool idea and really wanted it to work. Took me a while to find them but so happy I did. They are battery powered and last about 100 hours, so it was no problem to put them in the cake switched on and covered in fondant. I painted the fondant with silver petal dust and it gave such a realistic effect, definitely something I will be using in future cakes when appropriate.

Purple Pink and Black Topsy Turvy Cake

What a busy week it was! Not often do I make three cakes in one week. Fortunately there were elements on all the cakes that were able to be done in advance so it wasn't as crazy as it could have been.

This topsy turvy cake has been planned for a while and I couldn't wait to make it as I really like the color combo. Nothing too complex going on here, and for the most part it went pretty smoothly...until I got to the topper and name. I had prepared the name a week earlier, but at that point it was just the sparkly purple text with no background. I liked the look of it, but when I placed it on the cake it got so lost in the busyness of the background. It needed something to help it stand out, so I put a base layer of white under it. I didn't love that, so painted some pink...but didn't love that so added some black. At the same time trying to figure out how to position the wires the way I wanted. Just kinda funny looking back at how much I stressed over this fairly simple cake in the final hours the night before the cake was due. Now that it's over I'm actually quite happy with it! Haha I guess the stress never ends...