Sweet Swags

Here are some photos of my first attempt at making fondant swags.  My friend e-mailed me a while back with a photo of a cake that her daughter loved and wanted me to make for her 4th birthday party.  It LOOKS impressive, but I was not discouraged at all when I watched the YouTube video about how to accomplish this fairly simple technique.

The "cake-tastrophe" happened when I attempted to use some fondant that I had made a couple of weeks ago.  It should have been fine, really.  I colored it and covered the sides of the cake with it; then I added more color to it to cover the top of the cake, and it worked OK there too.  But, it was NOT cooperating AT ALL when I tried to make swags with it.  No matter how much I worked it, nuked it, added Crisco to it, it was doing nothing but cracking and tearing apart.  Still not sure why.  So, I reluctantly made a fresh batch.  And, it gave me the exact same problem.  Then, since it was nearly 9pm on Friday night (day before the party),  I resorted to sending my hubby to Wal-Mart to pick up some pre-made fondant while I took a much-needed break.  Fortunately, he had the foresight to pick up SEVERAL different kinds for me to choose from, including some that was pre-colored pink.  I was skeptical, but lucky for me, it matched perfectly, and the swags came out much smoother and easier than before.

The next challenge came when trying to attach the swags to the cake.  The photo that I was copying showed the swags hanging from the SIDE of the cake, not the top.  The swags I had made were too heavy to do that, so I had to move them up.  Not sure how they did that without the swags sliding off of the cake.  

Lastly, I added the star medallions, the bottom border, the shooting stars, and the pearl accents.  Then, I still had a little time left before the cake was to be picked up, so I got out my Cricut Cake machine and cut Lila's name out of some leftover gumpaste.  

All in all, it was harder than I thought it would be, but I was pleased with how the cake turned out.  I definitely could use some more practice with swags & fondant draping, though.  The best part was hearing that when I texted a photo of the cake to Lila's mom, Lila grabbed the phone and ran around showing everyone her cake... I guess that means she loved it!

Strawberry Sweetness

My friend (and hairstylist) recently asked me if I would consider making a trade... a cool birthday cake for her daughter in exchange for hair services.  I jumped at the chance to do this fun project and was totally satisfied with getting my hair done rather than getting paid cash for it.  I would totally do it again.

She was throwing a Strawberry Shortcake party for Sophie, and this design is similar to one that we found on Pinterest.com.  It was a fun design to make, and I was really happy with the way it turned out.  I hear it was a big hit at the party too!

Golden Anniversary cake

My friend approached me several months ago about making a cake, and I was already booked on the weekend she needed it, so it didn't work out for me to help her out that time.  She recently called me again about making a cake for her in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary. I couldn't very well tell her "no" twice, so we got together to talk about cake designs.

The couple of honor is German, and Germans LOVE their desserts, so this cake will be the centerpiece among many desserts at the reception.  My friend decided she didn't want anything too fancy or flowery, and she quickly fell in love with this quilted fondant pattern. Only the one in the magazine was white and had colorful flowers on it, so we looked for other options to decorate the top of the cake and came up with a bow. She was fine with the cake being white, but wanted to incorporate gold in the design somehow.

The cake inside was white chocolate with raspberry preserve filling.  I have never had good luck with fruit fillings, and this time was no exception.   I put a few rows of icing around the outside border of the bottom layer before spreading the raspberry preserves.  Then I stacked the layers of the bottom cake (9" round) and put a crumb coat of icing on it. When I tried to put the second coat of buttercream on the cake, it seemed unstable, and the filling was trying to escape and leak out.  The icing between the layers kept bulging out and making the cake look slumpy.  I was so worried that I was going to have to re-do the bottom tier, especially after adding more weight by putting a layer of fondant AND a second tier on top of it.

But, as you can see, the fondant ended up holding the cake together after all.  I used a roller to make the criss-cross pattern in the sides of the fondant. Then, I stacked the tiers, sprayed them with edible gold paint, and piped the white border around the bottom of each tier. Hayden helped me attach all of the sugar pearls. I assembled the gumpaste strips into the bow on top and attached the gold "50" to the gumpaste heart and outlined it with pearls too.  After it was dry, I flipped it over and attached a flat stick to the back with candy melts.

I was really pleased with the way this cake design came together.  My friend was thrilled with it too!  Can't wait to hear how much the Germans enjoyed it!

Masquerade Cake

My friend's daughter was turning 13 and having a fancy masquerade party with all of her girlfriends this weekend.  They all got dolled up in dresses and masks with feathers and sequins.  The birthday girl picked out this gorgeous mask as the theme of her cake. I will admit that I was a little intimidated by the color scheme of black and gold, especially since they didn't originally request fondant. When I said that I wasn't sure that I could accomplish the design they wanted in the colors they wanted with buttercream, my friend wanted to be sure she wouldn't be missing out on my icing.  Once I assured her that there would be plenty of buttercream icing under the fondant (and agreed to bring her a bowl of icing), she said that I could use fondant.

Of course (just keepin' it real...), it wasn't all smooth sailing, especially since this was the weekend that I took on TWO cake projects, and procrastinated on both of them all week because I wasn't feeling well and had no energy.  I finished the bridal shower cake late Friday night, and began making the fondant for this one on Saturday morning. For some still-unknown reason, the powdered sugar would NOT incorporate into the melted marshmallows, and my KitchenAid stand mixer was proving to be inadequately small for the job. So, I ended up running to Michael's and using a 50% off coupon to buy fondant as a last resort. Ugh.

The cake was white chocolate with buttercream filling, and I covered the cake in white fondant, sprayed it with edible gold paint, and added black fondant stripes and border. There is a dome-shaped cake underneath the mask, which is covered in black fondant. I added the feathers for a little extra flair. I wanted to be a little fancier, but was running short on time, so I had to call this the finished product this time.  The good news is that the cake was a big hit and the birthday girl loved it! That makes me happy.

Wedding Dress Cake

It can be really fun when clients have a photo of the exact cake that they want, and want me to re-create it! The photo that my friend Joanna sent me had a pink background, and a plain-er dress, but the bride-to-be's color scheme is black & pink, so I had to find a way to incorporate the black into this very feminine design.  I added sugar crystals to the bodice for some sparkle, and some edible pearls to the skirt for some elegance.  The cake itself was white chocolate with pink buttercream filling between the layers (to match the flowers, of course)!

Girly cake

This birthday girl LOVES anything pink, so I tried my best to imitate the colors on her party invitation. I hear it was a BIG hit!

Photo cake

For my son's 16th birthday, he wanted a cake that represented his swimming.  I found a photo that my dad had taken at one of his swim meets last year, a profile of Nate in his swim cap and goggles.  We took it to Publix (grocery store) on a USB drive, and they printed it on edible paper with edible ink for $8. All I had to do was ice the cake and put the sheet on top and pipe a border around the edge.

I made some edible goggles by pressing some black fondant into a pair of his goggles and painting the front with silver luster dust (mixed with clear vanilla).  Voila!