Double Birthday Cakes!

This past week, my very very good friends came into town. Their birthdays are really close to each other, so of course I wanted to make them cakes! For Joe, who's birthday was at the end of July, I made a Futurama cake. More specifically, a Bender cake.

Cutting out those letters in Futurama font was no small task, but it was worth it to see Joe's reaction. And I must say, my Beloved did most of the Bender! I was focusing so much on the letters, I told him to do his best Bender-- and he did an excellent job! In case you can't tell, I covered the cake in dark blue, light blue, and black fondant marbled together. To mimic space, I dotted it with some stars. And the cake inside? Classic yellow cake with chocolate buttercream. Yum!

The other cake I made was for his wife (and my bestie!) Ashley, whose birthday was this past Monday. I had so many awesome ideas for her, but I decided on an Alice in Wonderland cake.

This is a white cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. For the outside, I smoothed two different purple tones so they can blend into each other. I added some fondant accents like the Cheshire cat (can't forget him!), the Mad Hatter's hat, some playing cards, and some mushrooms (those are on the other side of the cake). I was so excited! However, I made a faux pas, since the unbirthday is actually the other 364 days that aren't your birthday, and I made this cake on the one day that was. She loved it anyways, though! :)

I must thank Joe and Ashley for taking pictures of my cakes! I was running around so much, I didn't get a chance to snag some progress shots or finished shots of my own!

Sushi Boat Cake

Hello, again! I am so excited to say that I am going on a mini vacation with my beloved, and it starts tomorrow afternoon! And I'm glad that I was able to finish my entry into another cake contest as well. This one was The Great Cake Contest sponsored by Disney Family Fun. I chose the "faux food" category and made a sushi boat cake! I started with yellow cake baked in a 13 x9 pan then cut it lengthwise and stacked the halves on top of each other. Then I carved the cake into a boat shape.

I carved out the middle then crumb-coated it...

Then covered in fondant...

Then I scored "boards" on the outside and inside of the boat and scratched wood-grain into it.

I mixed up some brown dye and some yellow dye into vanilla flavor (vodka works too!) and brushed it on.

It looks like wood now!

Then came the fun part-- the sushi! I mixed up some colored fondant that matched raw tuna and salmon. I also mixed up some orange and greens (carrots, cucumbers, wasabi) and made little fondant sushi rolls the way I would make regular sushi. For my "veggie roll," I rolled out logs of light green and orange. Then I bundled them together and rolled a thick layer of white over them (the "rice"). Then I rolled a thin layer of black over the whole roll (my "dried seaweed"). I cut the ends off then cut little slices with my X-acto knife. The little sashimi were easier, and I even dipped some rolls into orange nonpareil sprinkles (the "salmon "roe). Here are some details of the rolls...

A little pink petal dust for the yellowtail sashimi

I textured the outsides with crumpled foil!

My little hand rolls at the front of the boat :)

And, of course, I can't forget the pickled ginger and wasabi!

My finishing touches were a fortune cookie, chopsticks, and a little bowl of "soy sauce" (piping gel dyed brown and thinned out with a little water).

And here it is all put together. :)

I must say, I am very happy with how it came out! I won't find out the results of the contest until the end of next month-- fingers crossed til then!

And if you have any further questions about any of the rolls I made or techniques I used, feel free to comment or email! [mysweetdiversion@hotmail.com]

Cake with Gumpaste Roses

Hello, all! I've actually had this cake in my archives for a little while, and I thought I had already posted it! This was a little 6-inch cake that I had decorated with gumpaste roses and leaves. It looks like a mini-wedding cake, and since it's still wedding season, why not post it now? 

I iced and covered the little cake in white fondant, then made a little mound of fondant on top (I had some leftover yellow, so you'll see it in the side view) I started by making a large rose (for a refresher go here). I didn't have any wire or floral tape, so I stuck with toothpicks. I kept going with a few more, and stuck the roses into the mound then continued with progressively smaller roses cascading. On this particular cake, I made 4 large roses, 4 medium roses and 2 buds. I finished with leaves that I had cut out of green-tinted gumpaste. I folded them in half and let them dry on folded notecards (so they can hold their shape). I just chose little gaps to fill with leaves, then finished with a pearl border. Here are some more views...

One criticism that I would give the cake is that I am not really a fan of the leaves. Unfortunately, I only had one cutter, so they only came out to that one size. However, I went to my craft store and found this!

Courtesy Wilton.com

All those cutters! Can't wait to see what I can do with those...

My Jelly Belly Cupcake Challenge Entry!

 I've been hard at work the past couple of days making an epic entry for the Jelly Belly Cupcake Challenge. I have finally completed it with twelve hours to spare (hey, I'm a recovering procrastinator), and I am totally excited about it! I wanted to originally make a cupcake rendition of Starry Night, but it had already been submitted, so I went for my second favorite painting, Edvard Munch's The Scream. I started by drawing a 5x7 grid on a print-out of the painting, then I arranged 35 cupcakes in the same grid pattern.

Then I colored some frosting peach and black then set to frosting the cupcakes using those base colors. Then I chopped up a bunch of Jelly beans, starting with black licorice flavor.

Then, I set to work placing the chopped jelly beans onto the cupcakes, making sure to follow the grid.

I wanted to make the figure's face and hands, as well as the boardwalk and shore in the background out of fondant. It allowed me to give them a more painterly look.

Many many layers of food coloring!

A few buttercream accents and some filler jelly beans later, it all came together. And voila!

My official entry into the contest! I love how it turned out! Here's a close-up of the screaming figure.

Fourth of July Cake!

Hello, all! I have been working on a couple of things, so there will be another cake post soon. I promise! Anyhoo, my beloved and I were invited to an Independence Day shindig this evening, so I volunteered to bring the dessert! I made this little strawberry cake and covered it with regular vanilla buttercream...

Then I scored the surface with a set of star-shaped cutters...

Be careful not to pull any icing off with the cutters!

Then I outlined the stars in either blue or red. A few stripes and dots later and voila!

I really like how this turned out! It's a simple but cute pattern, and it's fondant-free (however if you want to make the stars out of fondant, it wouldn't be much of a problem either). Here are some other angles...

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Sims 3 Graduation Cake

 I've been up to my eyes in graduation and Father's Day cakes at work, so the last thing I wanted to do was to make one at home. However, my brother needed one, so I had to abide. Plus, he told me it was a Sims 3- themed cake,  and I love The Sims games! I'm a definite recovering addict, but I would relapse in a heartbeat! My cake was strawberry with my usual butter-vanilla buttercream. I cut out a green diamond and placed it on the cake. Then I made the logo out of fondant...

Trimmed it up...

I wrote "the" with buttercream!

Then placed it on the green diamond. I added some balls to the bottom and a snail trail border on top and voila!

Considering I pulled this together after 13 hours of cakes in the bakery, I'm proud of it :) Time of completion: a bit after 1am. Congrats to all those grads out there!

Gumpaste Roses

It's been so long since my last post! OK, OK, OK I will try my best to at least make new posts twice a week. We'll see how that goes...

So I decided to get back into gumpaste since I randomly found a brand new package in my cupboard.

I haven't tried to make my own yet, since I find the Wilton brand gumpaste to work pretty well for me. Eh, I'll try mixing my own someday just to compare. Anyhoo, I took the Wilton courses ages ago, so I wanted to get back into doing roses, at least. I already have the rose cutters (3 sizes), the ball and vein tool, the thick foam, and thin foam from the Wilton Course 3 kit, which is super convenient. However, all of these components are sold at your local craft store separately.

I started with breaking off and kneading my gumpaste with a light dusting of cornstarch and confectioner's sugar mixed together.Then I cut out a flower with the smallest cutter and made it into a cone shape. *At this point, you can slip the cone onto some wire wrapped in florist tape if you want to go a bouquet route. Another easy way to handle the roses is by slipping the cone onto a toothpick and working from there. This reduces handling the gumpaste and making it stickier. *

Next, I rolled out my gumpaste to 1/16 an inch then cut out a flower with the medium cutter. (Make sure to wrap up your unused gumpaste!) I used a spatula to cut notches between each petal, and I placed it on the thin foam pad. I then ruffled the edges of the petals by running the ball tool over the edges to thin them out (dip the ball into the powder mixture if you need to!)

I flipped the flower over and pressed the ball into the middle of the piece to create a cup. Then I applied a bit of piping gel (or water or flavor) into the cup and placed the cone in. 

Now for the next set of directions, I'll refer to the petals as a little man with a head, two legs, and two arms. So I applied some piping gel to the head and wrapped it around the cone. Then the same went for an arm, the opposite leg, the other arm, then that opposite leg. At this point you have a rosebud!

 If you want to continue to a medium rose, cut out another medium-sized flower, cup up two arms, then flip over and cup up the head and legs. Wrap the arms around, then the legs and head...

If you want to continue on to a large rose, use the large cutter and cup all petals, flip over and add to the rest.

Alright, this one looks a bit shabby, but it's my first rose in a couple of years, so I kept practicing then got a little playful with some pink luster dust...

Not too bad! I hope I inspired some of you to try gumpaste! It's not as scary as it seems, and all it takes is a bit of practice! Now to see how this can come together on a cake...