Saturday, July 17, 2010

A surprise for Ang

I wanted to make a cake for Angela (my sister in Idaho) and since my mom was here, I figured she could just take it back with her. I had previously asked Angela IF (and that was a big IF) I made her a cake, what would she want. She said a Flower cake.

I didn't want to go online and look up some ideas because I think that's cheating. I "borrowed" the fish tank idea but I like to challenge myself, so I got this image of what I wanted to do.

I had fun with fondant when I made Mykael's cake, and wanted to tackle it again. This time I dyed it two different colors. I think it was fun for my mom to be here to watch how I throw my creativity around. AND it was nice with the extra helper!!!


With Mykael's cake, the flowers were fake but I had seen some out there that were edible. So, I had an idea! There are all sorts of tools out there to make petals and stuff, but I had none of them. You use what you got! I use one of my cookie cutters and a knife to get these individual petals. I had also seen at some point in time how they ruffle the edges to make them look authentic. Again, there's a tool for that and I didn't have it. SO I had another idea. The rounded end of a plastic spoon. Fondant is pretty durable so I didn't have problems with it.

I had used white fondant for the petals and wanted the flower to have more "depth", SO...I painted them using the same coloring I used to dye the two colors before. Purple and yellow.

...and left them out all night to dry and get hard. I was going to cut the sharp ends off in the morning, but it turned out later that they are IMPORTANT! You need them to poke down into the fondant securely. I had never seen how they attach flowers like this, so I was impressed it worked.

I had baked the cakes that night as well and froze them. Then cut out the FLOWER this morning. SO easy doing it that way! Warm cake crumbles and makes a mess.

Of course frost the cakes so the fondant has something to stick to.

I just couldn't wait to put this "flower" together cause I had NO idea how it was going to look! I kind of used the color scheme from some of my grandma's iris.

Again, those sharp ends were awesome! Just poked them down in.

I need to add her name and I was going to add leaves, so I figured I just write her name in green as well. THEN my mom had an idea and I went with it. I really do need to take a cake decorating class so I can learn how to use all these tips I have.

My shaking always is a hurdle when it comes to stuff like this and I was scared I would screw it up, but I went slow enough that it turned out ok. But like anyone with a familiar eye, could find all the squibbles, but it's ok. They weren't as bad as they could've been.

The finishing touch was the ribbons around the bases of the cakes. With the fondant, it kind of has an unfinished look and it bugged me with Mykael's cake. SO I used the ribbons to finish it.

Ta-Da!

My mom went and purchased this cake box so the trip back "home" would be without problems. She only paid about $3.00 for it. We put it in a cooler with ice and off she went. I can't wait to see/hear about Angela's reaction. I sure loved it!!!
Happy Birthday Lover!!!
I LOVE YOU!

Friday, July 16, 2010

I'm at it again....

...but this time it's for an extra special birthday person. Think FLOWERS!

And I should have pictures up by tomorrow.

OH! The suspense!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Friday, July 2, 2010

Bonnie's Birthday Cake

She wanted a "fish cake", so I went online and found this idea on the Womans day website.





I think it turned out rather cute! It's not shown, but in the white above the "water", I used blue frosting and spelled her name in bubbles. Turned out cute, I think.