LEGO Soldier Cake

I've made a few vertically daring cakes in the past year, but when I heard about a standing LEGO character I was definitely worried. All of my tall cakes have been pretty equal in terms of width and depth, but the LEGO man is much wider than he is deep. I really wasn't sure if this was something I would be able to pull off.
To increase the cakes survival during delivery, I decided to make the cake deeper than I would if I were to make it to scale. Generally I like to keep the cakes as close to scale as possible, but I feel if I did on this one it would have resulted in a unstable cake. I don't think the increased depth distracts from the look of the cake.
I also kept the head removable so it could be transported in a box separately. Arms were maded of rice cereal treats with fondant and gumpaste accents. Have to say these type of cakes sure do stress me out, but it's pretty cool to pull it off, and no collapsed cake so far! *fingers crossed*

Circles and Swirls Cake

I took some time off from making cakes because I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Being young and single I feel like the options are somewhat endless...I just have to figure out what's most important to me and still makes sense.
After spending about a year experimenting with cake techniques in Cake Lab, I wondered if maybe it would be better for me to travel elsewhere and learn from a more experienced decorator. Kill two birds with one stone! Warmer weather and less stress from doing your own thing...but after giving it some more thought, I realized I love making cakes. I love making MY cakes. While I'm sure it would be nice to have a helpful hand guiding me once in a while, I have kinda gotten use to taking responsibility for all the successes and flaws. It's also been reassuring to receive lots of positive feedback after the cake has been delivered and consumed, and I even ran into two customers in the past couple weeks who told me how much they loved the cakes I made for them and told me when their next cake will be needed. Definitely a good sign. I felt like I kinda had to continue doing my own thing, but with a new look. I decided on Cake Haven, but may actually still end up using Cake Lab (more on that later).


I had lots of freedom with the design of this cake. The only specifications were two tier format with colors like green, pink, and red. These colors reminded me of a cake I had recently seen in a book that was topsy turvy with lots of flowers. Then I remembered a circle and swirl design on a pack of Orbit gum I really liked...the ideas kinda just kept flowing around in there. Even once I started I wasn't really sure what it was going to look like (like most of my cakes!), but those are the most fun to make and the client was very pleased.

Luau Mini Cake & Cupcakes

So, I'm kinda terrible at keeping up with my blog. This cake was made over five weeks ago!
The cake/cupcake presentation was for a joint 40th birthday celebration, and was exactly what I needed to get myself out of my creative slump.
I love just about everything on this cake. It's relatively simple but so pretty to look at. The fish, shells, colors and surfboards...love how they all go together. Oh and how can I forget the buttercream waves that adorned the risers. This little project proved to myself that unless I'm making an object out of cake, I really need to let the design come from my head otherwise it just doesn't work as well.

Cookie Monster Cake

Cookie Monster was one of my first fun cakes in a while. I wanted to do something cute, fairly impressive, and not too stressful, so he seemed like the perfect choice. Cookie Monster was made out of chocolate cake and covered in blue buttercream with fondant accents. Real chocolate chip cookies were use for the cake, which I enjoyed because I'm not really such a cake person anyway.
I tried a new cookie dough filling for the inside since it seemed a little unique and appropriate for the cake. I gotta admit, it was delicious!

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.

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!