1957 Chevy Cake

Mona wanted to get a very special birthday cake for Ken this year. I'll be honest, when she first emailed I was quite a bit scared... she wanted me to make a 1957 Chevy for the cake because it's Ken's dream car. Now, I have to apologize to Ken because he got a cake, and not a car for his birthday (sorry man!) BUT it gave me the opportunity to take on a huge challenge. Although I was hesitant, Mona was so awesome to put her trust in me and encouraged me the whole way through (this sounds so dramatic, I realize that). It took many, MANY hours to complete this cake from the multiple sketches to measuring the specs to the sculpting and "fondanting," which I know isn't a word. In the end, Mona and Ken loved the cake so that's all that matters.

The cake was a deep purple-ish/blue-ish color with silver and white trim but the pictures came out a little darker/bluer (is bluer a word?) than the cake really was. It was a Chocolate Dipped Cherry Cake (chocolate with cherries baked into the cake layered with chocolate buttercream) and covered in all homemade marshmallow fondant. For those of you just looking for the pictures (like my dad), stop reading now but if you're interested in making a similar creation, here are my reflections on the process...
First, I have to say that I sketched this cake out several times. It's very different to have pictures of a cake rather than detailed sketches with measurements and dimensions. Generally, it's very tricky to take a 2-D picture and turn it into a 3-D thing so doing it in cake was definitely going to take a lot of planning. I baked rectangle shaped cakes first and let them cool. I stacked and layered them with frosting just as I would any other cake, making sure to put a little extra in the middle for the roof. I covered it all in chocolate buttercream and let it sit in the fridge for a while. This allows the cake to firm up a bit which makes it easier to carve. The whole process really took a lot of patience because it took several pairings of carving the cake and then icing the cake just to get it to look even remotely close to a car. (Don't worry, I bounce my ideas about 3-D cakes off of my man-friend, Paul, since he's WAY more of an artist than I) After we were both satisfied with the general shape of the cake, I covered it in one last coat of buttercream and then covered it in fondant.

Now, I wanted the car to shine like a paint job so I painted over the purple fondant with a deeper purple and then made the bumpers, windshields, headlights, roof, and wheels out of fondant. It's hard to see in these pictures but I cut the windows just slightly into the cake so that they had some depth. Also, the car was actually propped up so that Mona and Ken could see underneath the car and so the car looked like it was being held up by the wheels. The last thing I did was paint on edible shimmer and silver to the trim. Phew! It was such a great challenge and I was just so happy to hear how much Ken loved it :)

New Flavors!

Hey everyone! I decided to have a few flavor brainstorming sessions and we came up with 11 new flavors. You can check them out under "Cake Flavors" here and I will try to upload them onto the website ASAP. Enjoy!

Blue and Purple Wedding Waves

Chris and Annie wanted a big and fun wedding cake that reflected the two of them. Their wedding colors were baby blue and dark purple and they saw a beautiful cake done by The Cake Girls that they wanted to model their cake after. The cake was Old Fashion PB&J flavored (peanut butter flavored cake layered with strawberry filling... and it really did taste like a PB&J sandwich). The cake was covered in homemade marshmallow with marshmallow fondant accents.

A week before the wedding, Annie called to say she had a cool idea. She said she couldn't find a "white bride and brown groom" wedding topper so we improvised :) She sent me a picture of these ADORABLE vanilla wafer cake toppers. I made these toppers out of fondant and they have mini-vanilla wafer faces. We added some blue and purple flowers to match her bouquet and Chris's flower and tie combo. Congrats, Chris & Annie! You both looked so happy and beautiful on your wedding day! :)

Fall Leaves Wedding Cake

Hillary and Scott wanted a fall themed wedding cake with marshmallow fondant leaves and branches. I had so much fun making this cake because leaves don't need to look exactly the same so I really just varied the look of them and adopted an "anything goes" attitude. I cut out leaves in yellow, dark orange, and brown. I placed them on top of crinkled seran wrap and let them dry in different shapes. Once they were dry, I hand-painted a darker shade of yellow, orange, and brown on all of them to give them some more character. FUN FUN FUN! :) I like that type of work. The whole cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and the swirls and dots on the cake were also made of MMF.

The top tier was Ruby Red Velvet cake and the middle tier was Chocolate Hazelnut Cake (chocolate cake layered with hazelnut cream filling and buttercream). Here is an inside flavor shot for you:

The bottom tier was Spices & Cake (spice cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream). Here is that flavor shot:
Hillary wrote me after the wedding and said that the cake was exactly what she was looking for. It really fit into her wedding scheme and reception area. It was beautiful with all of the leaves and deep oranges and browns. SO fall! :) Congrats, Hillary & Scott!

Quad Cake Tasting

Amber and Ben had a cake tasting a while back to decide the flavors for their wedding cake (those pictures to come). As I've mentioned in previous posts, I recently started decorating the cake tasting cakes so that the bride & groom can get a good idea of what marshmallow fondant tastes like as well as a trick for myself so that I can tell what's inside the cakes :) The left cake was an Almond Joy Cake (coconut cake layered with coconut flakes, coconut cream filling, almond slices, and chocolate buttercream). I've attached an inside flavor shot for you below.... yummmmmm.....

The second cake was a Traditional Carrot Cake layered with cream cheese frosting. The third cake was a Lemon Supreme Cake. As you can see from the picture below, this cake is lemon with lemon cream filling and buttercream. The last cake was a Turtle Cake (chocolate cake layered with caramel, chopped pecans, and chocolate ganache). All of the cakes are covered in buttercream or chocolate buttercream with marshmallow fondant accents.

The cake tasting went really well and we solidified all of the details for a 5-tiered wedding cake with different shapes and cascading flowers. Just you wait, that picture is coming :) I apologize for being so behind but I have about 25 cakes to post before I'm caught up. I'm getting there, I promise. For pictures of my most recent cakes without the descriptions, you can check out my facebook page at www.facebook.com/saltcakecity

See you there!

Rainbow Bright!

Drew's birthday was around the corner and Rosie and I didn't quite know what to make for her. She teaches 4 and 5 year olds during the day and is still capable of being energized and fun when she gets home. Because of her cheery disposition and bright personality, we decided to make the cake fun and bright as well. What better way to show happiness than with a rainbow. The cake was all buttercream and the colorful dots were made out of marshmallow fondant.

The cake was a German Chocolate Cake (chocolate cake layered with coconut, chopped pecans, and chocolate buttercream). I later heard that it was the hit of the night. Yay! Happy Happy Birthday, Drew! :)

Cowboy Cupcakes

My bonus son (step-son) turned 4 last month and for his birthday, he wanted a cowboy themed celebration. Dallen LOVES cowboys and anytime he wears a belt, he says it's his cowboy belt. When he wears a hat (any hat), it's his cowboy hat. When he wears shoes (any shoes), they are his cowboy boots :) He even says "Howdy, Ma'am" as he tilts his hat. Oh, he's SO cute! I realize I'm bias but he's just the cutest kid EVER!

For his cupcakes, I made cowboy hats, horseys, cow patterns, cacti, lassos, and sheriff stars. The toppers were all made out of marshmallow fondant sitting on top of buttercream. I hand-cut each of these shapes with the exception of stars. Half of the cupcakes were chocolate and half were vanilla. He loved them and I loved making them for him. Got me some really good hugs with these puppies :)

Orange & Crimson Wedding Cake

Jill needed a cake for her daughter's wedding and needed it pronto! We organized all of the details quickly and came up with this design based on a few different design ideas that they both loved. They wanted to alternate square and round tiers but also wanted to keep the cake very simple without too much going on. Each tier has a white-on-white pattern with just a thin orange border around each tier. I've attached a closer picture so that you can see the detail on each tier.

They chose three flavors for this cake. First, the bride and groom cut into a Ruby Red Velvet cake (red velvet cake layered with cream cheese frosting). Next, they ordered Mom's Apple Pie Cake (spice cake with apples baked into the cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream) and lastly, Lemonberry Cake (lemon cake layered with raspberry filling and buttercream). The whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and accented with MMF as well. I'm not a big fan of piping buttercream onto cakes so I simply rolled out fondant into thin ropes and curled them to make the pattern they are in on the cake. I also cut out small dots from MMF and applied those to the cake as well. The couple supplied the beautiful flowers and the monogram on the top of the cake. In the end, I thought the cake was very elegant. It's hard for me to resist putting more and more detail on cakes so I held back and loved it in the end :)

Doing it Old School in a New School Way

Marlana wanted a unique cake for Tommy's birthday. She saw a cake that I made a while back with a Mario theme and wanted something similar. I asked her which version of Mario Tommy plays and she said the Wii version so we decided to update the old school idea with the new school game. I LOVE Wii Mario Bros and so I was totally excited to make this cake. After doing some sketches, Marlana and I agreed that this was a cool design idea. If you have ever played Wii Mario, I hope you can make the connections here. In the game, there are these hills that are off in the background with giant spots on them. In order to get that look, I hand painted these hills onto the fondant. Then, I added some 2-D elements including the turtle shells, tunnels, and coins. I loved that there was some dimension in this cake with the hand-painting, 2-D shapes and then the 3-D star and cloud on top.

The bottom tier was Banana Cream Pie Cake (lightly flavored banana cake layered with banana slices, banana cream filling, and buttercream) and the top tier was a special flavor that Marlana wanted, which was a Chocolate cake layered with strawberry filling and strawberry slices. I hope Tommy loved the cake because I REALLY enjoyed making this cake and I hope my brothers are proud as well!

Tasting Trio Part 2

Hillary & Scott needed a cake tasting to narrow down the flavors for their wedding cake. In the past, I would made cakes for the tasting and not really decorate them but I thought it would be fun to make a trio of cakes again. I really didn't have an idea of what I wanted them to look like and instead just started decorating. As I tell my students in cake classes, that is generally not a good idea :) While these three cakes have some similar elements, they don't go together as well I wish they would have. Let that be a lesson to me! Sketch first, then make.

One of the cakes was Ruby Red Velvet cake (red velvet cake layered with cream cheese frosting), one was Chocolate Hazelnut (chocolate cake with a light hazelnut flavor layered with hazelnut cream and buttercream), and the last one was Spices & Cake (spice cake layered with cheesecake cream filling). I covered this first one in marshmallow fondant and then added MMF accents and also piped on some green detail.
These other two cakes were covered in buttercream and then accented with MMF with some tiny piped green dots. These cakes ended up mixing piping with fondant with molds so it was good for me to combine different techniques into one cake order.
The couple loved all three flavors. They wanted to cut into the Red Velvet and then had the middle tier as Chocolate Hazelnut and Spices & Cake for the most servings and bottom cake. You will see their wedding cake on the cake blog soon! :)