Quilted Shimmer Cake

Sylvia wanted a simple and elegant cake for Krystal's birthday. She wanted to incorporate gold and shimmer into the cake with a quilted design. This woman knew exactly what she wanted and I love that! I added a bow to give it a little more detail and then added edible pearls for the corners of the diamonds.

The cake was Lemonberry (lemon cake layered with raspberry cream filling and buttercream) and then it was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant with a MMF bow as well. I sprayed the cake with edible pearl shimmer and then the bow and sign with edible gold shimmer. I actually don't use a quilting mat or a diamond cutter to make the pattern but instead, I measure the circumference of the cake and then use a needle to poke the spots where the lines should meet. Then I take a straightedge and carefully press it into the side of the soft fondant. The hard part about this method is that if I miss it by even a fraction of an inch, I have to take it off and start again. On the other hand, this way, I'm able to adjust the size of the diamonds to fit each cake. Ah, so much fun! :)

Mini Grasshopper Cakes

Kari needed two cakes for her friends' birthdays. One of her inside jokes is little grasshoppers so we went with this idea and made mini-cakes for them. This first one is a female grasshopper (can't you tell? She has pouty pink lips and eye shadow) made out of fondant on top of Vanilla Latte Cake (vanilla cake layered with coffee flavored buttercream). The blades of grass and bow are also marshmallow fondant and then I placed silver dragees on the cake for a little extra touch.

As you can see, these are pretty small cakes. They were around 4 inches in diameter, which is pretty small to work with when covering a cake in buttercream and fondant. This cake has a little boy grasshopper (why I had to make a girl and a boy grasshopper is beyond me. She said grasshoppers, I assigned them a sex). In any case, this one has a hershey kiss made out of fondant along with a puddle of chocolate underneath the grasshopper. Again, the mini-cake is covered in home made marshmallow fondant. This cake was a chocolate cake layered with chocolate chips and chocolate buttercream. YUM!

I later heard that the second cake never made it to Kari's friend because when she unveiled the first cake to her friend, they ended up eating both cakes together :) haha. Happy to do it!

Happy Bunny Send Off

Karen wanted to give Martin a proper send off since he was leaving his position at the University of Utah and wanted to play off of his happy bunniness (not a word, I know). We went back and forth on designs and it proved challenging to incorporate bunnies into a cake for someone who's not turning 6 years old. In an effort to keep it more mature, I went with the school colors and a rather simple design so that you can focus on the happy little bunnies.

The bunnies were hand cut from circles and stripes and were surprising more easy to make than I anticipated. Circle for the head, circle for the body, strips for the hands, feet and ears. Okay, it's not THAT easy but you get the idea.

Because Martin likes things that are simple, Karen decided on Yellow cake with chocolate buttercream for the top tier, After Dinner Mint cake for the middle tier (chocolate cake layered with mint chocolate ganache), and 24-Carrot Cake for the bottom tier (carrot cake layered with cream cheese frosting).

Salt Cake City Logo Cake

I made this cake as a display for an upcoming convention to match my logo. The whole cake is covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. There's not much else to say about the cake. Oh, I know, I can explain how to make fondant candles. Roll out fondant so that it tapers near the bottom. Stick a piece of spaghetti noodle through it so that it peaks out of the top just a bit and sticks out the bottom about two inches. Then, with a piece of yellow fondant, shape a ball and then pinch a tip from the ball so that it resembles a flame. Place that onto the tip of the spaghetti noodle (I like to put a dab of water where the fondant touches fondant, this will help it glue faster). Now, if you lay it down flat to dry, there will be a flat surface on your candle. Instead stick the remaining exposed spaghetti into a piece of styrofoam so it stands tall. Now, get caking!

Religion in Cake Form

First an explanation. Sarah was taking a Religion and Conflict class and for her final project, she wanted something unique. What's more unique that religion in cake form? :) I was so happy to see her idea. She sketched out the idea she had in mind and explained it above. This was my interpretation of her interpretation of religion.
The book was made out of rice krispies covered in marshmallow fondant. The column was mostly styrofoam but I added the lined detail by layering marshmallow fondant "tubes" onto the styrofoam before covering the whole thing in more marshmallow fondant. Lastly, I made the Southern Butter Pecan Cake (butter pecan cake layered with caramel, chopped pecans, and cream cheese frosting) for the base and covered it in MMF. I painted on edible shimmery silver & gold to make it look like a galaxy and accented it with tiny dragees (fancy mini-jawbreaker type things).
It was a little tricky to assemble because I delivered to school so she could take it to her class. The book was a little heavier than the expected so the whole drive, I was afraid it would tip over. Don't worry, I drove a dowel straight through the whole cake to make sure it wouldn't. I still get nervous though :)

So I got it to my office where Sarah was coming to meet me. I had just got out of teaching and I had my students in my office asking for help with their homework when she came to get the cake. It was a strange moment with my students seeing the cake and thinking, "Wait, I thought she was a teacher." haha.

In the end, Sarah loved it AND I have to mention that she earned an A in the class. I like to think it was because of the cake but it's probably because she's a brilliant student. :)

Star Wars Cake & Cupcakes

Will was having a birthday party and his mom, Holly, wanted a Star Wars themed cupcake set for him. Rather than doing people-like pictures, I decided to do a more cartoony-version of the main characters and here were the results. They were all topped with marshmallow fondant accents and each of them were hand-cut. So much fun! She ordered three flavors, White Chip (sweet yellow cake with white chocolate chips baked in and topped with buttercream), Chocolatey Chocolate (chocolate cupcakes with mini chips topped with chocolate buttercream), and Cookies & Cake (vanilla cake with Oreos baked in and topped with Oreo buttercream). Yum!

A few weeks later, I made my bonus son a Star Wars themed cake and thought I'd put them here together since they matched. He's completely obsessed with Star Wars although he can't watch them all yet. The cakes were covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the designs and accents were also marshmallow fondant. Although I don't remember which flavors I made for his birthday, the kids ate it all up pretty fast at the party :) The characters were the real prize though because before we even sang Happy Birthday, each kid called a character. Hyrum got the light sabers. They were pretty energetic by the end of the pool party!

I have to thank Lucas Films for allowing me to recreate these images for this cake and cupcakes. Most of the time, when I email a company for permission, I never hear back from them. Thank you so much!