A Cake Tasting with Three Cakes

I did a cake tasting for a wonderful couple and decided to actually decorate the cakes for the tasting. This first cake was a Banana Cream Pie cake, which is banana cake layered with banana cream filling and banana slices. Originally, the couple wanted all buttercream and no fondant so I left this cake bare, with no fondant. It's covered in buttercream and the yellow dots are marshmallow fondant. This was their favorite cake, despite the fact that the groom never eats cake. Yes! I sold another one! :)

This second cake was Ruby Red Velvet cake and I covered this one in homemade marshmallow fondant so that they could see and taste the difference. Then, they both agreed that they wanted marshmallow fondant for their cakes. Double score!
This last cake was a Caramel Macchiato Cake, which is coffee flavored cake layered with caramel cream filling, caramel, and buttercream. This cake was also just covered in buttercream with marshmallow fondant accents. In the end, I had fun decorating with buttercream, I sold the groom on cake, AND I sold the bride on using marshmallow fondant! Woo-hoo! It was a great day! :) Thank you, Caisxa, Capryl & Rob! I had a fun time tasting some cake and talking about barbwire and shotgun shells (don't worry, this will all make sense in a few weeks when I post the Barbwire wedding cake... oh, it's awesome... you just wait!)

Hawaiian Luau Cake

Amber needed a "girlie, princess, hawaiian" themed birthday cake for Madeline's 3rd birthday. She saw a beautiful cake done by The Pink Cake Box and wanted something similar for the party. She decided on a Rainbow Bright Cake (multicolored vanilla cake layered with sprinkles and buttercream) for the top and the bottom and Brownie Lovers Cake (chocolate cake layered with real brownies and chocolate ganache) for the middle tier. The whole cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the accents were also marshmallow fondant.

To make the shells, I cut out large round circles and then shaped them into shells. I used an exacto knife to make the indents in the shells and then painted the shells with a light blue color and shimmer dust. I waited till they dried a bit and then added the green.... string? I'm not sure what to call those. :)

The grass skirt was a bit tricky. First, I rolled out the green fondant into one long and wide strip. Then, I used a pizza cutter to cut the grass strips into large pieces. I ended up putting two or three layers of "grass" all around the cake to make sure there were no open areas. Ah, the trouble with the weight of fondant :)

Although I'm not even in the same ballpark as the Pink Cake Box, I ended up loving this cake because of its bright and vibrant colors. Thank you for inspiration and I hope Madeline loved the cake as much as I did!

Wasabi Border Cake

Cindee wanted a very simple wedding cake for her daughter, Jordan, with a very interesting color choice. She sent me a color swatch of "wasabi" which I LOVED! She wanted a taller cake but didn't need to feed too many people so she opted for the bottom tier of real cake with two fake tiers on top. The bottom cake was Carrot Cake layered with cream cheese frosting. I matched the wasabi color on the border of the cake and for added detail, I placed dots all around the cake and painted them with shimmer dust. When I put them all together, I loved how simple yet playful the cake was. I delivered the cake to the reception at a beautiful house in Sandy. I remember thinking, "Wow, now this is a wedding reception!" It was a beautiful home with a great reception going on in the backyard complete with a trampoline and playground for the kiddies and a beautiful patio area for the adults. It looked beautiful! This order was so much fun and easy to complete due to Cindee's constant faith and support in my abilities. Thank you, Cindee, and congratulations, Jordan!

Turquoise & Lime Wedding

Rebecca wanted a very colorful and fun themed wedding cake but didn't need to feed too many people. So, we made two bottom tiers from fake cakes and then had the top tier real, which was Chocolately Chocolate Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate buttercream). Her colors were turquoise and lime green and so we incorporated those as best as possible. I love how vibrant the colors ended up being on the cake. Congratulations, Rebecca!

Congratulation Cupcakes

Jenny emailed me from California asking if I could make a set of congratulation cupcakes for a company out here in Utah. She had very few demands and was so great to just say, "Do what you think is best." Half were chocolate cupcakes and half were vanilla and both had buttercream. There were marshmallow fondant decorations on the top of the cupcakes and she requested "Twitter blue" as the main color. I loved these cupcakes because some of them reminded me of blue Pokemon balls. What, is that weird? :) Gotta catch em all.

Green, Brown, and Yellow Stripes

Holly wanted a wedding cake that was based on one I made a while back. We altered the cake to match her wedding colors and added the beautiful letter toppers. This was a 6-9-12 inch square cake which just means it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO heavy! The top tier was Brownie Lovers Cake, the middle tier was Caramel Macchiato Cake, and the bottom tier was Turtle Cake. Those are some rich and decadent cake choices! The cakes were covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and then decorated with marshmallow fondant as well. It's amazing how something so simple can take so long to make :) I ended up seeing Holly and her now-husband at the reception and although it was a crazy day, I think they liked it.

Connect2Utah on 2News This Morning

On August 3rd, I was invited to be a part of Connect2Utah on KUTV's 2News This Morning in Utah. First, you need the back story. I received an email from Tom, KUTV's photojournalist pictured above in the blue shirt, a while back asking if Salt Cake City would be interested in being on the news. Then, I noticed that Tom's name sounded familiar... turns out, I was his public speaking instructor three years ago. It was quite a coincidence since he didn't realize it was me either. After putting this off for quite a bit, Tom and I finally found a date that worked. I made a few fake cakes for the occasion and since our topic was Groom's cakes, I made a poker themed cake and a Dallas Cowboy's cake. The poker cake was a nod to my brother who loves poker and the Cowboy's cake was a nod to my dad. Since I technically have never made them a cake, this was a way for me to kill two birds with one stone :) haha. I hope they realized that... probably not, huh.

Anyway, on the day of the live shoot, I met with Casey (the host holding the cake in the picture above) and Tom at 5:15am to start the set up. I came prepared with several fake cakes including a Twilight themed cake and a few wedding cakes to set a little background while Casey and I went to work on discussing fondant and making a cake. I made a tuxedo themed cake (since I had just had someone order this as a groom's cake) and the flavor was Tuxedo Cake (layered chocolate and vanilla cake with buttercream and chocolate ganache. Then, I threw in some dark and white chocolate chips into the mix for funsies). You can see the finished product here after Casey cut into it and ate a slice. This cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and decorated with fondant accents (that Casey put on while we were on air).
Here are the two shots of the groom's cakes I made. Again, the cakes are covered in fondant and even the football was made out of fondant. You can't see it well here but the silver parts of this cake were sprayed with edible silver shimmer.
This was the poker cake and everything on here is edible from the chips to the cards to the playing table. I loved making this cake because it was so colorful and vibrant.
Now to the video footage. We shot four segments between 6:15 and 7:45am but it's okay, it ended in eating CAKE! :) hehe. I was definitely nervous before the shoot but I was really relaxed while shooting, which is ironic since my former public speaking student was watching me basically do a live impromptu speech. Tom was really awesome though to help me feel comfortable with bright lights, mics, and all the energy that Casey had to offer at 6 in the morning. :) Thank you so much to Tom and Casey and Skippy (the intern who had to eat gross tasting fondant on air) for allowing Salt Cake City to be showcased.

Here are the links to three of the four segments for those of you who either live outside of Utah or who aren't usually awake at 6am. Enjoy!

The first segment is the opening introduction from Casey:

http://connect2utah.com/2news-this-morning-story/?nxd_id=102145

This next segment is about fondant and the different types of fondant:

http://connect2utah.com/libraries/nxd/media/?data=media_player&v=161905

The last segment is Casey making a fondant bow, or at least a semi-descent fondant bow :)

http://connect2utah.com/libraries/nxd/media/?data=media_player&v=161915

Safari Animal Cake

As I was thinking of a title for this cake, I realized that I don't know if this is a jungle cake or a safari cake. Hmm, any thoughts on that? In any case, it's a cake with wild animals on it :) Jennifer wanted a cake for Caden's 4th birthday and she said that once he saw the animal cake, he was sold. While we were in the planning and designing phase, Jennifer emailed to say that Caden has been drawing sketches of his own. I was SO impressed! Caden suggested adding a snake crawling up the tree and I thought that was a genius idea. Perhaps more kids should draw their own cake sketches more often. So I decided to make a monkey, giraffe, lion, zebra, tiger, and elephant for little Caden. All of the animals were made out of fondant as were the leaves for the palm tree.

For those of you that are curious, I made the palm trees by wrapping fondant around a thick straw and then adding the palm leaves after they dried into shape. Easy, right? :) haha. The top tier was actually a fake tier and the bottom was a Chocolately Chocolate Cake (chocolate cake layered with rich chocolate buttercream). I know Jennifer loved the cake and I just hope Caden was impressed by the cake. I wonder if it matched his sketch...

Pink Polka Mouse

Lupe wanted a Pink mouse cake for Giselle's first birthday. She saw a beautiful pink, white, and black cake online and so we modeled this cake after that design. The bottom two tiers of the cake are covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the decorations (including the bow and ears) are also fondant. The top tier is actually all buttercream because it was the smash cake for Giselle to rip into and destroy. It took a lot of work to get it to look crisp and as though it was covered in fondant but it was totally worth it. The top tier was Rainbow Bright (vanilla cake dyed in matching colors of the design, layered with buttercream and sprinkles), the middle tier was Strawberry-Not-So-Short Cake (Strawberry cake with strawberries baked in, layered with vanilla cream filling and buttercream), and the bottom tier was Banana Cream Pie Cake (lightly flavored banana cake layered with banana cream filling and sliced bananas).

I have to say, I'm a sucker for all cakes with polka dots. Why are they so darn cute?? :)

White on White Wedding Cake

Marissa wanted a very traditional and elegant cake for her wedding. We went through many ideas and ended on this very classic looking cake. The whole cake is made out of marshmallow fondant as were the pearls and swags. The flower matched the flower on her wedding dress and was made out of fondant. It took a few days to assemble so that it was just right since flowers are made by cutting out each leaf individually and then fusing them together with sugar and water (Yum!).

The top tier was Brownie Lovers Cake (chocolate cake layered with brownies and chocolate ganache), the middle tier was Chocolate Chip No Cookie Cake (vanilla cake with chocolate chips baked in, layered with buttercream and more chocolate chips), and the bottom tier was Strawberry Not So Short Cake (strawberry cake with strawberries baked in, layered with vanilla cream filling and buttercream).

So here's the tragic almost-incident that occurred with this cake. You see the initials? Beautiful? Yes. Correct? No. It was about 30 minutes before I was leaving to deliver the cake when someone here joked, "Oh, Micheal Jordan's getting married?" I laughed and then realized that those were NOT their initials! I took a look at the contract and realized that the initials were supposed to be M and S. I took a deep breath (after freaking out for a few minutes, of course) and went to work. I fixed the J so that it looked like an S. I took a step back and felt better about it. Then, someone made a comment about how there's usually an ampersand (&) between initials, otherwise it just looks like one person's initials. Again, I freaked out for a moment and went back to the drawing board. I added a plus sign (+) just as Marissa requested. I took another step back and had finally finished the cake, just in time.

Could you imagine if I had brought the cake with the wrong initials? The groom probably would've had some questions for Marissa :) I'm glad it right and I'm glad Marissa loved it. When I brought the cake in, the mother of the bride said "WOW! That flower looks exactly like the one on her dress!" Phew! That means I did a pretty good job, I suppose.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

I recently took a special order for a couple coming out from San Francisco to celebrate a birthday in style. Debby wanted something really unique and nostalgic for Ari's birthday and decided to get a Chocolate Tunnel of Fudge cake. The only problem (besides no one else in Salt Lake doing special orders) was that this particular recipe had been discontinued by Pillsbury. Let me explain...

The Tunnel of Fudge cake took second place in the famous Pillsbury bake off in 1966. Since then, Pillsbury stopped making the main essential ingredient to the recipe that creates a chocolate tunnel that seems to ooze out of the cake when you cut into it. In its place, multiple recipes have come about that say that are the same cake... they are not! (No, I'm not bitter! :) In any case, I tried a few recipes and chose the one that tasted the best, knowing full and well that the "tunnel of fudge" doesn't exist anymore. Sad.

Luckily, Ari and Debby loved the cake. Debby said it was the sentiment of his childhood that she wanted and that I succeeded in that. (Don't worry, I warned her that the oozing chocolate wouldn't exist. She was awesome about it!)

Fuchsia Lily Cake

Melissa wanted a very simple cake for her wedding and then we worked her way up to something with a design on it. We decided to match the color of the fuchsia flowers on the cake border. The whole cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondants and the accents were fondant as well. The top tier was Spices & Cake (delicious spiced cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream), the middle tier was Cookies & Cake (vanilla cake layered with crushed Oreos and buttercream), and the bottom tier was Lemonberry Cake (lemon cake layered with raspberry cream filling and raspberry buttercream).

Originally, Melissa gave me these beautiful silk fuchsia lilies to be put on the cake but they ended up being larger than the top tier itself. So, we went out in search of smaller fuchsia flowers, found a few and bought those. When I got them home, it turned out that they were a different color than the originals. Then, Melissa's relative brought over another fuchsia lily, which also turned out to be a different shade of fuchsia. Who knew there could be so many shades! Well, we did but we had to try. While we had a few issues with the size and color of the flowers, in the end, it turned out nicely.

The Crimson Twins

I did a cake tasting for a local venue here in Salt Lake City and made these two cakes that I'd like to call the Crimson Twins. The dark cake was a Brownie Lovers Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache and a layer of brownies). The white cake was a White Almond Cake (lightly flavored almond cake layered with sliced almonds and cream cheese frosting). Both of the cakes are covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and the decorations were as well. I'm attaching two pictures that I made that I'm going to post on my website as "inside flavor shots." Because most of you don't live in Utah and can't order a cake from me, you can do a visual cake tasting :) The first is Brownie Lovers. Yuummmm.....

The next flavor shot is the White Almond Cake. Enjoy!

Forgotten Sea Treasure

A while back, I made this cake for Marianne and her daughter but somehow I completely forgot to post it here! It was a really tall cake because she wanted it to be a centerpiece for the party. Her daughter wanted a Little Mermaid themed cake but really just wanted Flounder on the cake and an undersea theme. The top two tiers were rice krispies and the bottom tier was Chocolate Chip No-Cookie Cake (vanilla cake with chocolate chips baked in layered with buttercream and more chocolate chips). The whole cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the decorations were also marshmallow fondant.

I wanted to show a closer picture of Flounder. I made him by first cutting yellow marshmallow fondant into his shape. Then, I layered on the light and dark shades of blue for his fins and stripes. Lastly, I hand painted the black details to make him come alive. It took forever but I loved him in the end.