Mario Question Block Cake

Video games area always a popular cake theme for boys, and Mario is still as popular as ever.  I was pleasantly surprised that the current Mario games still have the question mark box.  That was always the best part of the old school one I think.  Never knowing what you were going to get?  Coins, 1 Up, Fire Power, the Mushroom that make you grow.  

Happy Birthday Jake!  And may your 1 Up be a great one! Get it another year?  Ok, so that was cheesy.  

Baby Shower Block Cakes

What do you make if you are throwing a baby shower for a Baby Boy and Baby Girl?  I only had 1 1/2 days to make them so I chose blocks since they are simple (yet found out doing all the edges can be a little time consuming) and cute and work for both a boy and a girl.  I also used my Cricut Cake Cutter for some of the decorations on the sides of the blocks.  I cut out the Onesies (boys and girls, although the flower I used a mold to make), an airplane, and the elephant.

Here is a close up of the Baby Girls Onesie.  I love how the Cricut could cut so cleanly and make the cute ruffles and such. 

I also love the Elephant and the Airplane.  Here is a close up of the Elephant.  With the Cricut you can also cut out some of the pieces in different colors, but I was sticking with all baby blue on the block. 

For the cupacakes I used various baby silicone molds that I have  to make little fondant accents.  And the words were used with my letter cutters, but could have used the Cricut Cake.  

Spring Cupcake Bouquet

I love cupcake bouquets!  They can be made year round and easily changed by the colors or the holders for any occasion.  They also are quick but, look great, and a fun way to give special treats to those you care about.   If you are interested in how to make them see my tutorial on the Christmas Cupcake Table Centerpiece .

I should have pulled the tissue paper a little higher, but now you can see how well the cupcakes sit in the cup. 

Happy Spring!

Do you make your own gumpaste flowers or buy them?

Another question for you.  Do you make your own gumpaste flowers or buy them.  I (up until this time) had made my own gumpaste flowers.  It is very time consuming, but they turn out beautifully.  But, a couple weeks ago I was watching some YouTube videos by famous cake decorators that we have all seen on TV and a bunch of them mentioned that they buy their gumpaste flowers, unless they are putting them in a competition. So I looked up one of the companies that they had mentioned Caljava Online (Caljava didn't ask me to make a review or compensate me at all) .  I love the Anemone flower and wanted to put it on my birthday cake so I thought that I would order some.  They are a great price especially for all the time it would take to make them, but there were a couple things I didn't like. So there is a good and a bad to buying your own flowers, especially if you are a perfectionist like me. 

1. As you can see they packed them extremely well.  This is a box that is covered in padding as well as padding weaving around each petal!  I was very impressed.  

2.  After taking off the padding it looks kind of funky, but since each petal is wired you can then move the petals to where they should be.

3.  Make sure the flower you are buying is exactly what you are looking for.  I saw a picture of the flower before I bought it, but I didn't think to count the petals or about the center and things like that. It is a beautiful flower, but there were a few things that I didn't like( but it is totally my fault if I had looked at the picture more carefully).  If you look at a real Anemone they have more than 9 petals.  And no matter which way I arranged the petals it always looked a little off like a couple were missing (see how there is an open gap in this picture).  Also the threads that are supposed to be the stamens were all glued together at the ends.  When I tried to get the glue off some ripped out.  I also couldn't get them to be around the center they kind of stayed clumped.  And I needed to dye them black for my flower and I was really worried about that because I didn't want to get any on the petals.

In the end I took off the threads and just dyed the center black and called it a fantasy flower instead of an Anemone.  

So here is my final thoughts on the subject.  Many of the flowers on Caljava's site are absolutely beautiful and exactly like they should be.  So if you are going to order a specific flower for a client and they want it to look exactly like the real flower then check and double check with the online picture before ordering it that it is really what you want.  Or, just make some of your own. It just depends on how exact you want to be.  Would I order gumpaste flowers in the future?  Possibly.  If I had a cake that needed a ton of flowers, and I didn't have any spare time, and they either looked correct or the person the cake was for wasn't super specific on the exact flowers then yes I would.  But, I enjoy making gumpaste flowers even though they are time consuming, and you can always make them ahead of time.  

What do you think?  Do you make them or buy them?

Old School Piping

 I have a question for you.  Do you make your own birthday cakes?  Do you buy one?  Or does someone else make it for you?  Now my husband would tease me and say we should get a Carvel cake, a Costco cake ,or something like that just so that I have more time, but I don't think I will ever do that. 

 The day I do that I think I will just cry.  Number one, unless they get it from a cake shop then it probably is not going to taste good.  Number two this is the fun time to design a cake any way I want.  

Now this is always a battle for me and it always takes me a while to figure out what cake I want to do. I narrowed it down to three totally different styles, but ended up going with some old school piping since I don't get to do it too often.  I was talking to a friend about her daughter that really likes the piping instead of the fondant look.  And that got me thinking. And after searching through a bunch of pictures of cakes that I have made I would say I mostly work with fondant and fondant designs. So this was my challenge!  After piping away I decided that I would love to make more cakes with piping!!!  

This is the cake that I made for my birthday party. 

Cadbury Egg Easter Cake

For Easter this year I wanted to make a cake that was different and unique, but kind of funny.  My husband loves to eat Cadbury Creme Eggs (which don't do anything for me), and my boys like chocolate, but not really the creme filling.  So in my house around Easter my boys sometimes take a bite, realize it has filling that they don't like, and leave it somewhere.  And then I hear from my husband, "Hey, who took a bite of my Cadbury Creme Egg?"    So I thought it would be funny to make a cake of "Hey, who took a bite of my Cadbury Creme Egg?!"  

Now this is a really simple cake to make even if you aren't experienced with fondant.  Here is how you do it.
Take your round cakes and stack and torte them. (The size of the cake rounds depends on how many people you want to feed.  If you only need to feed a few people then use 6 inch round cakes up to 12 in rounds for tons of people.)  I used 4 layers of cake.  Just stack them like you would a regular cake.  Then take your serrated carving knife and cut in at an angle on the bottom to make it look rounded like the bottom of the egg. You don't have to do anything to the top but frost it.  Then crumb coat the whole thing making sure you have more white frosting at the top so it looks like the creme.  Then take your chocolate fondant and roll out a long strip and can go around the entire cake, but a little taller and wrap it around  the cake.  Or your can use two pieces since Cadbury Creme Eggs have seams on each side so it would look authentic.   Now really since you are going to cover it you wouldn't have to make the chocolate fondant look perfect or smooth, but me being the perfectionist that I am, it has to look right even underneath. hehehe  Then tint some piping gel with yellow food paste and drop in the middle and smooth slightly.  Then take some cake board paper (either gold or silver and cut to the circumfrence of the cake.  Put a light layer of piping gel on the chocolate fondant to make the cake foil stick to it to look like a wrapper.  Lastly play with the wrapper to shape it so it looks like someone peeled it back to take a bite.

Now go eat/make some Cadbury Creme Eggs!  Happy Easter!

St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes Tutorial

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 I hope you all enjoyed your St. Patrick's Day, today.  I just wanted to show you some cute cupcakes I made today.  This technique can be used for any theme so enjoy all the new ways you can use your chocolate molds.
What I did was take a St. Patricks Day chocolate mold that I got from Cake Cottage and used it as a mold for my fondant.  Now make sure you either dust it well or use a tiny bit of baking spray in the mold so that it will release from the mold. Then use a color similar to your item (doesn't have to be the exact color, but it helps to be close since you will dust or paint it.) and press it into the mold.  Use a pairing knife to scrape off the excess so it fits flat in the mold.  And you can use two colors as well (see the rainbow with the shamrocks at the bottom of the mold.  It makes it so you don't have to paint quite so much).

After releasing them from the mold let them sit to harden a bit and then dust and/or paint (I did both on the leprechaun, his face was dusted and the other parts were painted).   For the pain use either your food coloring or petal dust mixed with a little clear vanilla.

For the leprechaun since he was too big for the cupcake you can frost it and lay it on its side and then add the leprechaun so it looks like he is standing up.  Or dry the leprechaun completely so it is rigid on top of the cupcake.  I just made these quickly for my kids so I went with the standing up version (oh and put a little frosting behind his hat to help it stay up. )

 

Now go and look in your cupboards to find all the wonderful chocolate molds that you can now use to create wonderful yummy cupcake/cake toppers with.  Enjoy!

Star Wars Cake

One of the popular themes that I have seen over and over is Star Wars.   Star Wars is a great them for any age, and any gender really.  The party that this cake was for had half boys and half girl guests and they all had a blast.  With Star Wars the cake ideas are endless and can vary in their difficulty.  

Here is a simple Star Wars Cake that I made for Matthew.  

Cover the board with a thin layer of shortening and then cover the board with fondant and set aside to dry for at least 6 hours or more before placing the cake on top.  Cover the cake with fondant and make some light sabers, the words, and the death star and stars.  To make the words you can either print out the Star Wars logo and use as a template to cut out the fondant letters or use a cutter machine (cricut or Silhoutte) to cut them out.  The R2D2 is the top of a Star Wars pez dispenser.

"May the Force Be With You" as you make your next Star Wars Cake!

Tutorial on how make a Zombie Hand.

 I just recently made a Zombie cake and wanted to quickly put out a post on how to make a Zombie hand or any hand in general really.  

Here are some tools that you will need:

• Petal Dusts (not luster dust unless you want your hand sparkly and shiny--not really a zombie feature, but I guess if you are doing a fairy or something girly that would work.) The petal dust colors I used were Daffodil (a light yellow), Sage (green), Cocoa (brown), and a little bit of Charcoal (black).  You don't have to have these exact colors but you want something similar to those colors to get the zombie effect.  
• White and Red food coloring.  White for painting the nails--so they are a different color than the hand.  The red to add into the wounds to look like blood.  
• Paint brushes in various sizes.  A nice puffy one to spread color over the general area and small ones to get in cracks and creases.  And some in between to add detail.  
• Bottle opener (to open the petal dust with out hurting your hand). 

•  Some powdered sugar or corn starch to keep the hands from sticking to the counter when drying.
• Some tylose powder (which you mix into your fondant which helps it to harden quicker.  You can use gumpaste instead of fondant that is mixed with tylose, but I like fondant better.  
• Some flesh colored fondant ( I used some ivory that I added a tiny bit of terracotta coloring (by Americolor)
• And some foam pads and flower formers (or what ever you have that can help give the hands a curve.  You can also scrunch up Saran Wrap and paper towels as well.   I use the foam pads so the hands stay curved and don't flatten.  

Ok lets get started.  You start off with a ball of your colored fondant. (The size depends on how big you want the hand to be, remember you need part of it to be the wrist so make it bigger than you think.)  

Roll the ball into a tear drop shape. (It is on the pink pad so it is easier for you to see. 

Then flatten the tear drop shape with your fondant smoother or the palm of your hand (Do not flatten on the pad, it is just on the pad to be seen better.).

Then use a knife, or exacto blade to cut the thumb about 1/4 of the way across the top, which is the wider side.   Make sure if you are making multiple hands that the thumb is on the other side of some of the hands.  You don't want to only have right hands on your cake. 

Then make three more cuts for the other fingers.  

Then start to individually elongate and smooth the fingers.  (If you are making a zombie then they don't have to be perfect.  Cracks look great.  And if you have a finger that really doesn't look good just cut it off and make it a bloody stump!  hehehe

Make an indentation at the base of the thumb for where your hand curves into your wrist.  I looked at my own hand before doing this to give me an idea where to do it. 

Use a piping tip 12 to make the finger nails at the tip of each finger. 

Here is what the finger nail looks like. Make sure the tip 12 partially hangs off the finger so you don't just get a circle on top.  

Then pinch the top tip of the nail to make some pointy scary zombie nails.  

Add some wounds to the hand.  

Lay it down in what ever position you want the hand to dry in.  After it has dried for an 1/2 hour or so pick it up and gently move it around and it will make those wrinkles that you can see!!!!  Isn't that awesome!  You never thought you would want that elephant skin/wrinkles in your fondant, but now you do!

I also used the tip 12 on some of the hands to accent the knuckles.  See the picture below. 

 finish letting it dry for at least a day before you color it so it doesn't come out of position while you are coloring it. And make sure you handle them very carefully.  Work with the lighter colors to the darker ones.  First thing I did was use the Daffodil petal dust with the big puffy brush to get it all over.  Then I used the big brush with the Sage petal dust.  You want to make sure the sage gets in some of the wrinkles to add more accent to the hands.  Then I used the Cocoa and the Charcoal only in the wrinkles and the wounds, well maybe a little here and there as well to make the hand look a little dirty.  Then I painted the fingernails white and immediately put some Cocoa or Charcoal on the tops of the nails so it would make the nails look dirty.  And on some of the hands I put a little bit of red coloring to make them look bloody. And after I put the blood in the wounds I also added some Cocoa and Charcoal in the wounds as well. 

Then on some of the hands I put sleeves once I was putting them on the cake.  Make sure you use some Cocoa or Charcoal petal dust on the sleeves so they look a little worn and dirty.  

See the difference a little petal dust can make???  I love how real they look when you just add a little color. 

 

Have fun making some Zombie hands!

Zombie Cake

It seems that Zombies are the latest trend for teenage boys right now.  And with the new movie Warm Bodies I am sure it is only going to get bigger.  This is my first Zombie cake.  It was funny for me to make this cake because, normally I am trying to make everything look perfect.  No marks or nicks in the fondant and have everything fit perfectly, but with this cake it was the total opposite.  My boys stood with their mouths draping open as I marked up the fondant with my gumpaste tools and made cuts and gouges in the hands.  And while my boys said ewe gross mom, my husband was in the background saying more blood and goo.  It was really neat to see it all take shape and see the wonders that petal dust can do to make the hands and boards look life like, or zombie like hehehe.  I will have to post before and after pictures of the hands to show you the difference. 

I don't know if you can tell, but I love the effects of the words.  I used a font that is called drippy blood which was cut with red fondant.  Then I painted on top of that red a really deep red.  Then to make it even more gruesome I tinted some piping gel red and painted that on and it made them look wet and drippy as if they were painted on with real blood!  Cool! 

I also used that same tinted piping gel to add extra goo and blood to the wounds.  

Even though it was kind of gross it was fun to make something so different. 

Happy 18th Birthday Tanner!

Here are some close ups of the cake.  I did last minute add some tendons and more blood to the bottom left hand, but you get the idea. 

Do any of you remember that really old 1960's movie called Night of the living dead?  That is what this cake reminded me of.   Have any of you gotten into zombies again?  That was the last zombie anything that I have seen and that was probably at least 20 years ago.