Blue Waves Wedding Cake

This is only my second wedding cake, and a little more traditional than my first (although far from lace and flowers!). I did not come up with the design, it was based off something I had seen online, and I think that was my biggest mistake in this challenge.
The original cake was beautiful. I loved looking at it. My version is nice enough, but clearly it was not executed as smoothly. I do believe that with more time and practice I would be able to make this cake the way I really want to, as even the version I produced this time around couldn't have been made by myself a year ago.
In the end I think this cake ended up being "perfectly nice", but definitely nothing special. I think that even if I was able to make an exact replica...would I really be pleased? I felt no connection to this cake in the end. Creating the design is probably one of my favorite aspects of cake decorating, but it is also quite time consuming. I think I took the lazy man's way out this time. MY cake should have been topsy turvy, and used those waves as inspiration for my design.

The timing of this cake was quite interesting. Just as I'm deciding if I should continue my bushiness or if I should move to a city and work for someone else...
Will I be satisfied producing a cake designed by someone else? I guess it is a job, and it would be a pretty nice job as far as jobs go. Then again, maybe I would someday be in a position to make calls on the design of the cake. Ahhhh decisions, decisions!

ARAI "Warfare" Dirtbike Helmet

When I first saw the design for this cake I was pretty intimidated for some obvious reasons. I had no idea if I could do it, but all I knew was that it looked really cool. I decided to accept the challenge and test out my painting skills.
I was actually really pleased with the way the tribal design turned out, which was the result of about 7 hours of painting with small brushes and toothpicks. Although I really wish I only had to do the one side...I planned on doing the left side first and having it be the "practice" side, but the left side ended up looking nicer, probably because I was feeling fresher, so it ended up being the presentation side.
While I'm fairly happy with the end result, there is definitely something wrong that keeps this from being a great cake. I think the shape is kinda off (and not just the lumpiness on the top...). I didn't expect this to be a difficult shape to carve, but when I was working with just a 2D image I wasn't really sure how the shape was supposed to be. Kinda heartbreaking...next time I'll need to buy and return a real helmet so I'll have something to compare to.

Beach Themed Birthday Cake

A couple of months ago I ran a cake raffle and donated all the proceeds to the Make-a-Wish foundation. The winner decided they wanted a beach themed cake for their birthday, and decided to share it with a friend who whose birthday is on the same day.
I poured melted white chocolate into silicone molds and then airbrushed them to simulate the real things. Umbrella and chair were sculpted out of gumpaste. A little difficult to assemble the chair but fortunately I had enough time to let it dry. The sand was crushed up gram crackers mixed with a few types of sugar.
Starting to become more of a fan of royal icing. I used it for the rope on the fence and it was actually much easier to use than I expected. Definitely something I will be using more of in the future.