Tribal Dragon Cake

The thing about being an aspiring cake artist is that when it comes time for your own birthday, you really can't ask someone else to make you a cake, and a store bought cake really isn't going to cut it. Fortunately, I love making cakes and making one purely for myself allowed me to do just what I wanted.
I chose the dragon design because I've always been a fan of them and used to collect various dragon statues during my travels as a child. Ever since I started making cakes I've wanted to do a dragon one, but only recently obtained the supplies needed to make it the way I wanted. Coincidentally, CakeCentral was hosting a Dragon & Fairies themed contest and the submission due date was just days after my birthday. This was clearly a sign! I entered the cake in the contest and am awaiting the results, although considering the amazing talent on that site I don't expect to place, but it is still fun to participate.

Most people might think I'm a little crazy if they knew how long I spent making the dragon decoration, but it really is the heart of the cake. Between prepping the image, cutting out the fondant/gumpaste mix, and painting, I invested at least 3-4 hours on it, but it was worth it for the finished product. The only real new technique I tried out on this cake was painting.
There are a variety of dusts (pearl, petal, lustre dusts) that can be used to decoate cakes. I've used some on past cakes to add some shading or shine, but I've never used them to paint. Making a paint out of the dust is actually quite simple. Just add a little bit of alcohol to the dust (I chose vodka) and voila, the dust is now a paint. Water can't be used as it can ruin the finish on the fondant and can't be fixed (this also means great care has to be taken that no water is acidentally dropped on a cake when it is being worked on). Alcohol is used because it evaporates quickly. Overall I was very happy with the metallic look and the cake is probably my favorite so far.

Graduation Cakes

Graduation season is upon us and I had two grad cakes due this past weekend. A bit of a challenge since the two cakes were for the same family and I only had three days to make both. Not only did this require a significant time investment, but I had to try to make sure both cakes were at the same level. Not sure if I was able to succeed 100%, but I'm pretty happy with the end results. Wish I had a bit more time for details but I did what I could given the time restraints.

The designs for the cakes were pretty much left up to me. Obviously this can be pretty difficult when making cakes for someone you don't know. Without much direction, I really clung on to the few details I was given and I think they ended up pretty neat. The cakes gave me the opportunity to try out a few new things, including decorating with buttercream for the grass on the flower cake. I've been a little hesitant decorating with buttercream as it's not as easy to redo if I mess up, but it worked out well enough, especially for my first try. The flower pattern on the top of the girl cake was actually just an imprint mat, so while it looks impressive it is actually pretty simple! I was able to achieve the yellow shading by using petal dust, another first that turned out well.
The guy's cake used some floral wire for the fishing pole and line, something that will be very useful in future cakes. The text was made with stencils, and I made my own stencils for the runner, kayaker, and names for both cakes (yes it is very time consuming!). Overall it was a very intense but good experience.

While I was busy decorating cakes, my own graduation was going on. I didn't feel like it was necessary to attend as I went to a friend's last year while I was living in Montreal and didn't feel like it was worth the time and money to have my family stay there for the weekend. Fortunately I was able to spend the weekend in NYC with my sisters and attended the "Glee" concert with Avery (definitely the best grad gift so far!).

"Music from the Movies" Cake

My mom is part of a choir group that recently put on a performance entitled "Music from the Movies". She asked me to make a cake for the party after the show and I thought it was a good idea. The cake was based off the promotional poster, which greatly influenced the color choices and font. The film strip was without a doubt the most time consuming decoration, but I feel like it was definitely worth the effort. Really enjoying working with the pre-made Satin Ice rolled fondant as it means I don't have to spend time making my own marshmallow fondant, and it also is available in many vibrant colors. As far as comparing tastes, I'd say they're both pretty similar. I don't really have a preference, but I rarely eat the fondant anyway as cakes are already sweet enough as is. It's really just a good decorating tool.

Suitcase Cake

My sister Ari spent the last semester studying abroad in Singapore. She just arrived home yesterday and I made her a cake to welcome her back. I thought a suitcase cake would be appropriate, and she actually does have a set of purple luggage. The "stamps" represent all the places she visited while she was there (Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia twice (Bit Tan & Bali), and Malaysia).

Nothing too new about this cake, but it did offer a lot of good practice. Although, now that I've made a suitcase cake I know how I would make it better second time around. The clasps on the cake allowed me to try out my edible gold spay paint which is pretty cool. Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
Welcome home Ari!

Chinese Mother's Day Cake

Been back in Maine for about a week now. Between unpacking, settling in, and keeping up on the property (a task that requires hours of daily attention), I haven't had a ton of time to work on cakes. I have, however made some recent purchases that will help take me cakes to new levels. This cake here was the first time I used pre-made fondant. It's more expensive then making it out of marshmallows, but it's really the only way to get the deep red and black colors. Definitely worth the investment in my opinion!

The Chinese symbol on the cake is the character for "Mother". Why a Chinese symbol you ask? Well my Mom is big into the culture (as you can see she even dressed to match the cake!), in part due to our time living in Asia and the online Chinese antique business she owns and operates.
Overall it was a nice simple cake with a chance to use some new colors. Currently working on two more cakes as I write this so it won't be so long till my next update!

Colored Petals Cake

It has been quite a while since my last cake...exams have been keeping me busy, but I'm almost done! I had a week long break between exams so I thought it was a great opportunity to fit in one more cake before the end of April. I really had no clue what I wanted to make, but I wanted to use up a lot of my fondant as I'm moving at the end of the month and will just end up tossing what I don't use.
The weather in Montreal has been absolutely beautiful this past week so the theme for this cake seems appropriate. Probably a bit overboard on color, but I was trying to use up my supplies. Looking back at this cake I see so many things I'd like to do, but at the time I honestly just felt like eating cake so didn't invest as much time as I normally would. At least it was tasty!
I'm heading to Maine temporarily in May where I will be able to focus on trying out lots of new cakes and I'm excited to see where the next step takes me!

Martini Birthday Cake

A birthday cake for one of Avery's friends. This was actually my favorite type of cake to make. I had the desired colors, the theme of martinis, and the fact that it was for a bday. Really allowed me to play around with things until I found what I liked. The only thing I would probably change about this cake is to do something with the text. The fondant balls behind "Cara" are kinda distracting, something I didn't notice until I was looking at pics. This one was done under time constraints anyway, so it's no surprise I missed it.
The martini glasses were made of fondant. Would have loved to use gumpaste as it dries into a much more solid product, but I was running low! The "Cara" was made out of gumpaste because strength was definitely required for that, and the letters were lightly brushed with green pearl dust.
I made the cake thinking there was going to be a martini glass cake topper with pink and green ribbons coming out, but apparently that never happened! Too bad as I think that would have looked really cool, but I hear the birthday girl really liked the cake anyway.

In the final countdown of school, so not a whole lot of time for cakes. I'll be lucky if I can make another two this month. Ah well...

'Fists & Fables' Cast Party Cake

This was my second "requested" cake, and I have to say this one was way more fun than the last one! The cake was for a cast party for a Concordia production titled "Fists and Fables". I was told it was a series of skits, and the items I made were some of the main props or themes.
The bottom cake is two layers of white cake with cookies n cream filling, and the top is a single layer of chocolate.

Yes, this is my third bear in a week! Well there was a skit about a bear, so I kinda had to! But I've been getting much better with more practice anyway so I'm glad I was able to have another try. The bear, music notes, iron, and stage lights were made of gumpaste. I used fondant for the paper cutout character and edible ink pens for the coloring. The orange and blue strips were chosen because the Ultramar logo was part of the show, but I didn't think I could make a decent representation so I just included the colors.
Overall I had a really fun time making this one. I think sculpting is turning into my favorite part of cake making. Really enjoy working with gumpaste!
And today is another Monday...which means time to take a little break from cakes. Less than two weeks of classes left!

1st B-day Animal Party Cake

This was a fun cake to make! It came about as I wanted to practice my gumpaste sculptures as they are quite popular in the cake world these days. So after some trial and error I had these cute animals, and what better cake can show off chubby creatures than a first birthday cake? I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out...they do make me smile when I look at them :) Next time I try sculpting I will try something a little less simple, but this was a good next step into the world of gumpaste.

Oh and my sister Avery suggested I add party hats. She was hanging with me while I was working on the cake and asked if she could make them so I said sure why not. Only thing is I made the rabbit's hat, so it doesn't quite match all the others. I may keep these animals for future cakes and make new accessories for them depending on the theme of the cake (ie. Halloween).

Heart Cake

This is the result of my first request of the free cakes I offered. Honestly not the best experience. The guy who asked for it said the "theme" for the cake was two people from far away reuniting, and hearts could be included. I asked for some color suggestions and sent some possible design ideas, but he said I should do whatever I want. Well, when you're designing a cake for people you don't know anything about, it can be hard to come up with an appropriate product.
So yea, I'm not happy with this one, but the lesson I learned is to never let someone give me ALL the creative freedom. Even though I don't consider this cake a success, as long as I learn something from each cake I can feel like it was worth it.