These past couple of weeks have been crazy with cake baking! While exhausting I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is quite a long re-cap of the cakes I have missed posting and some ideas/tips.
Happy Birthday Andres!
Double-yay for couponing and new cakes pans! I found a coupon in the paper this week for 50% off a full-priced item at Michaels (these coupons circulate almost every week). I haven't bought many shaped pans (I usually carve the shapes), so I thought this would be a good opportunity to add to the collection for less than $7. My friend Andres is a soccer fan and perfect circles are very difficult to carve so I thought the soccer ball pan would be perfect for several projects.
... and Happy Birthday Kietya!
This week I was asked to make another cheerleader cake for a girl's 13th birthday. I remade this little girls head several times but I am happy with the way that it finally turned out. I use star, heart, letter and square cutouts all the time. They are inexpensive and super helpful in cake decorating and can be found here.
...and Happy Birthday Nikki!
This cake was for another 13-year-old's birthday that happened to be the daughter of a dear friend I work with. She had the party at the Brentwood Skate Center (so fun!) complete with pizza and cake. I will be double that age next year but would it still be cool to have a party there? I would require 80s themed attire and music, of course ;o)
Again, I used the awesome star and letter cutouts, but I also used pearly dust to create the gold effects (it is edible, as always). I have found the easiest way to create cutouts like the dancer is to print the shape out, cut out of wax paper and trace with an exacto-knife into the fondant. Is this the technical way to do it, you ask? No idea--most of what I do is trial and error until I find something that works for me. Often I find that when I try to do it "by-the-book" I either don't get it or it just doesn't work out. On the other hand, sometime when I do it "by-the-book" I think "OH! That is a whooooole lot easier and prettier." In sum, if it doesn't work for you, just find another way to do it. I honestly can't telly ou how many things I have redone or thrown out.
...and Happy Birthday Chloe!
Then there was a Sweet 16 Cake for Miss Chloe who loves make-up. I researched some of her favorite products and made the decorations accordingly. I tried a new trick with this cake as well--after I made the cake, assembled and dirty-iced it, I froze it. When I was ready to decorate, I removed it from the freezer, gave the dirty ice another coat and then decorated while still frozen. Well--don't do that. Because the cake is so cold it causes the fondant to condensate and get really hard. It all worked out OK in the end but I wouldn't do it again.
...and another Baby Shower!
The baby cake was a repeat request from an earlier week, but fun to try again. The "box lid" is made out of rice crispies covered in buttercream and fondant. I don't make a lit of things out of rice crispies; however, there are times when logistically you need something like this lid to hold it's shape with little support and it is perfect to use rice crispie treats! the baby and all other decorations are made of fondant.
Phew....Happy Baking!
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