Who doesn't need a Giant Edible Penguin!?

Hope wanted to surprise her husband-to-be with a personalized groom's cake. Apparently, it was a penguin that started their relationship (metaphorically, of course) and so she thought that giving him a penguin would be a great touch on their wedding day. Because Jonathan does a radio show, she asked to add headphones and a microphone. It's hard to tell from this picture but the penguin was HUGE. It was nearly two feet tall and the whole thing was edible. It had to weigh nearly 20-25 pounds... but what would I know? I'm a small-fry who makes someone else carry the heavy stuff. Anyway, it was made out of rice krispies and buttercream and then covered in marshmallow fondant. The eyes, beak, headphones, and microphone were made separately and then attached using skewers and buttercream to make sure it would all stay on for the hour drive north to the reception site. Wow, what a scary drive! Not for me, I sat in the back cuddled up next to my new penguin friend while my man-friend tried to ease the car over every bump and turn in the road (no, i didn't actually cuddle the penguin and yes, we made it just fine).

I wish I could give some advice or tutorial on how to make said penguin but my only advice would be .... buy LOTS of extra rice cereal and marshmallows because you will keep running out of those ingredients even though you think you have plenty. I made about 7 large batches or so.... and still needed more. I made the rice krispies and formed them into flat rectangles so that they could cool and harden. Then, I kept layering the "sheets" on top of each other with buttercream being sure to insert cardboard supports in two areas within the penguin (about 1/3 of the way up and again at 2/3 of the way up). Once it was the right height, I shaved it down to the right shape using a large serrated knife. I then covered the whole thing in buttercream and chilled it in the fridge. I shaved it down once again because when making a 3-D cake, it has to be pretty perfectly shaved, otherwise the bumps and nicks will show through in the fondant. Then I covered the whole penguin in marshmallow fondant. I added the white belly, headphones, eyes, and arms. Phew! It was so much fun and in the end, it was a pretty amazing feat! Perhaps more people will want giant edible penguins in the future... I know I do!

Music to my ears... and mouth....

Latu needed a cake for Kalatiola's 18th birthday. Because she's really musical, we decided to do a piano on the bottom tier and musical notes all around the top tier. For an added effect, I made musical notes out of fondant and attached them to 18-gauge flower wire so that when they dried and hardened, we could just place them in the top of the cake. Both tiers were Strawberry Cheesecake Cake (strawberry cake with strawberries baked into the cake layered with cheesecake filling and cream cheese frosting). The banner at the bottom was also fondant. In order to make this, simply roll out a long thin strip of fondant (I use homemade marshmallow fondant). Take a few straws and space them out on the counter. Then lay the fondant strip over the straws to make it look like it's wavy. Let it dry overnight and then it's done! You should try it sometime!

A Princess Cake and Painted Flowers

I've been doing some practice cakes for upcoming shows and thought I'd show you the work. The first is a Princess themed cake modeled after a beautiful cake done by The Pink Cake Box. I originally had a cake order for this one that fell through so I decided to make it anyway because it was just too cute. The whole cake is covered in marshmallow fondant. The butterflies and crown are also fondant. In order to make the crown, I rolled out the pink fondant and cut out the shape that I wanted. I added the diamond accents and used a fork to make the indents around the diamonds. Then, I took a fake styrofoam cake that was 4-inches around and wrapped the fondant around the fake cake. In order keep its shape, I then wrapped the whole thing with plastic wrap and let it dry for a few days. After it dried, I pulled the styrofoam cake out of the middle and the princess crown was hard and perfect!

The second cake I made was similar to the painted square cake I made a few weeks back. This was a really small cake, I think 4-5-6 inch square tiers. I hand painted the flowers onto the cake using food coloring and water. It was really easy to do! This would be really fun for a wedding with lots of color, maybe during the Spring. Pretty simple! :) More cakes to come soon, I promise.

Sports Cake

Dominique needed a cake for a sports themed birthday party. The party was a joint birthday for two boys who play baseball, basketball and football together. I knew I wanted to keep this cake simple but unique and this was the design we came up with. The top two tiers are fake cakes and the bottom is a real cake (Cookies & Cake flavor). The cakes are all covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and decorated with the MMF as well. For the final details, I added a scoreboard that had their ages and names on there and also a Happy Birthday flag (pennant? yeah, I guess it was a pennant :) In any case, it was so much fun to make and for those of you that cake, you know it's actually harder to do a simple cake than a more detailed one because you have to get it all done correctly the first time. No room for error! I was inspired by a cake I saw on cakecentral.com. Thank you!

Brown and Baby Blue Floral Wedding Cake

Lindy got married yesterday and needed a pretty big cake to celebrate the occasion with her friends and family. Originally, she wanted a cake that was very simple with zombies crawling up the side, awesome right? Then she and her future-husband realized that might not go over so well with the older generation of family members and so thoughtfully opted against the semi-bloody cake. Instead, she wanted a cake with some floral design on it but not too much so that it was overwhelmingly busy. Here is the final result.

This cake was very challenging. Four tiers tall and a 30 minute delivery time makes for a lot of planning up front. The top tier was Cookies & Cake (vanilla cake layered with crushed oreos and buttercream), second tier was Tall Vanilla Latte Cake (vanilla cake layered with coffee cream filling and coffee buttercream), third tier was Ruby Red Velvet Cake (red velvet cake layered with cream cheese frosting), and the bottom tier was Spices & Cake (spice cake layered with cheesecake filling and cream cheese frosting). That is quite a variety! :)

The cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. The floral pattern on the cake was done using brown buttercream and a few unique cake stencils. I hand-piped the blue accents on to the brown buttercream and around the design. Finally, I added a baby blue border to each tier to add just another little touch of color to match Lindy's wedding decor. In order to transport the cake safely, the bottom two tiers were together and the top two tiers were together for the drive. The wedding site was at a beautiful location up in a canyon here in Salt Lake. It rained and snowed pretty hard all the way up there but we made it and the cake made it in one piece (well, technically two pieces :) Here's an up-close picture of the top tier's design. I hope you likey!

Robot Cupcakes

Gabe was turning two and his mom wanted some cool cupcakes for the party. I had saved a set of really unique cupcakes a while back that had the robot's head on a top cupcake, body in the middle and feet on the bottom. I always wanted to try them and so it was great when Shannon asked to replicate that idea with her son's robot design. These robots here match her design as closely as possible and ended up being pretty simple, once I got the little pieces all figured out :) There were 30 cupcakes in total and two flavors, Peanut Butter No-Cup Cake (chocolate cupcakes covered in peanut butter buttercream) and Chocolate Chip No-Cookie Cake (vanilla cake with chocolate chips baked in, covered in buttercream). The designs on the cupcakes are made out of marshmallow fondant. Fun!!!

Mad Hatter Cake

Dominique needed a special cake for her daughter's Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party. The group ate the cake to celebrate and then went to watch the new movie Tim Burton film. We both thought that a topsy turvy "Mad Hatter" style cake would be perfect. The top tier was a Banana Cream Pie Cake (a light banana flavored cake layered with banana cream filling and fresh, sliced bananas and buttercream). I had a little cake left over and made some for my man-friend and best friend and they loved the new flavor. The bottom was a Cookies & Cake Cake (sweet vanilla cake layered with chopped Oreos and buttercream). The cake is covered and decorated with homemade marshmallow fondant.

I had so much fun making this cake. It was really about the colors for me because I had to make sure they were vibrant and fitting for a birthday party. The swirls on the bottom were marshmallow fondant scrolls that I rolled out and placed on the cake. The hat was made out of rice krispies covered in marshmallow fondant. So much fun! I hope you like it!

Hand Painted Flower Cake

I'm not much of a painter... especially on fondant so this was an experiment. This cake was modeled after one by Carrie's Cakes that I think is beautiful. I thought I would try it out. It took several hours to paint but was very calming and was what my man-friend would call a "flow" activity (a balance of enjoyment and challenge). It was a petite cake, I think it's a 4-5-6 inch square cake. For those of you who want to try this (and have the patience) all you need is food coloring and paint brushes to make it just simple water coloring. FUN!

Yo Gabba Gabba.... Who?

Marianne wanted a cake for her son's birthday. Since Charlie loves Yo Gabba Gabba, she wanted the characters on a simple little cake for the party centerpiece. I had never heard of these folks before (Gabba Gabba folks, that is), so I had to do some research. Turns out, the big red, cyclops dude is in a car commercial so every time I see the commercial now I think of this cake.

This was a 6-inch round, White Almond Cake (almond flavored cake layered with cream cheese frosting and sliced almonds) covered in marshmallow fondant and handmade characters. These were so fun to make because they were really unique looking characters. In order to make the characters, I cut out basic shapes in the fondant and then simply layer on other the details. I say simply but it's very time consuming to get these just right. Luckily I like doing little meticulous jobs like this (haha). The robot, in particular, was really fun because of all of his buttons and bars (I don't know what to call those... antenna? Yeah, let's go with antenna).

Marianne wrote me afterwards and said she felt bad eating the cake because it was so cute.... haha... Well, it's all sugar so I'm glad they ate it and enjoyed it :)