Dress Form Birthday Cake

My favorite vintage wedding dress maker, Betsy from Modest Couture by Elizabeth (http://modestcouturebyelizabeth.com/) was having a birthday and her daughter wanted to me to make her a special cake. I have to say that this family is one of my most favorite clients to make cakes for because they always come to me first with great ideas, second with such faith, and third with so much enthusiasm! (The Ice Age cake I just posted and the Gold and white Princess Jasmine wedding cake were for this family... many more to come!)

The idea we had for this cake was to make it a dress-maker friendly cake. My thought was to do a dress form on top of a cute-sy little cake. Who knew it's ridiculously hard to sculpt a dress form out of rice krispies and then somehow get it to stay up there on a pole? Yeah... learned that the hard way. Haha. Anyway I added a few little marshmallow fondant rosettes and then said a prayer that the dress form would stand... luckily it did :) Thank you, ladies, for always challenging me and trusting me!

Thomas the Train Birthday Cake

I wanted to make a train cake for a friend of mine and so I modeled the train after Thomas. On the cake, Thomas is made out of rice krispies covered in marshmallow fondant. I covered the cake in all blue fondant, then did a light lime green color for the background of the hills. Then I added large "blobs" of deeper green fondant to make it look like bushes and finally added piped buttercream grass. The clouds were made the same way as the last one, with white buttercream blobs (wow, I used blobs twice in this post.... weird!). I added the brown railroad slabs and then the gray tracks and ta-da! The cake was ready to go :)

Spring Garden Themed Flower Cake

 

I know it's winter but let's dream of warmer days :) This is a spring themed garden cake I made for Leah's birthday. Colleen had a set of spring themed decor for the party and I matched the cake to those design ideas. Everything on the cake is edible, made of marshmallow fondant including the bees, ladybugs, and sign on top. So much fun to make! The cake was chocolate on top and the bottom was Turtle Power Cake (Check out my flavor list at SaltCakeCity.com).

I made the clouds by piping really thick circles of buttercream on the cake. Once it set for a bit, I pushed in the tiny little point that comes when you pipe frosting. I made the flowers by layering different flower shapes on top of each other. Enjoy!

Black & White Damask Wedding Cake

So last year, I made quite a few black and white damask wedding cakes. This one was definitely different and it was REALLY heavy! The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and then I used a designer stencil and buttercream to essentially "paint" the design onto the side of the cake. I know that sounds easy but if it doesn't come out perfect, I have to take down all the fondant and then re-fondant the whole tier (is re-fondant a word??). The tiers were separated by styrofoam blocks and then the florist provided the flowers. I always tell people who want to have a tier of flowers in between that however many they think they need for the design, double it! This cake was a perfect example! The florist gave me a full bucket of flowers and if you could see the back of the cake, you would see where we ran out! Yikes! Luckily I used some extra filler flowers that the florist had left over to fill in the gaps in the back. Even more lucky, the cake was against a wall :) haha.

Red, White, & Purple Wedding Cake!

Okay, so I know the color looks blue here... but I promise, it was much more purple. It's weird how my purple never shows up correctly. Anywho... The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and then I piped the swirl design in the middle tier (wow, I just said that in my last post!). It was English Toffee Cake & Rainbow Bright Cake. Yum! :)

Swirls & Quilting Wedding Cake

 I ended up really loving this simple white wedding cake once I put the beautiful red roses on there. It's funny to me how sometimes I think some cakes look naked without flowers on them! Anyway, the cake was Samoa Says Cake and Southern Butter Pecan Cake (check out my website for more flavors and descriptions, www.SaltCakeCity.com). It's all covered in marshmallow fondant and then I piped the swirl design on the middle tier.

Pink Cowgirl Birthday Cake

Adison's cowgirl birthday party needed a sweet cowgirl cake to match her theme. We went with brown cow print for the bottom and then I made the paisley design on the top tier using leaf cutters and piping. There were marshmallow fondant sunflower/daisies and a MMF star. So fun! It was Strawberry Cheesecake Cake on the inside so even that matched the theme :)

Ice Age Cake

Maren wanted a unique cake for her sister who is obsessed with Ice Age. Turns out, making an Ice Age inspired cake is not as easy as it sounds :) I knew I wanted it to look "ice" like and I wanted to use the acorn so this is what I came up with. Due to copyright laws, I didn't want to make any of characters but I wanted to incorporate the squirrel's idea somehow. Anyway, it's all buttercream and then I made ice from sugar and blue food coloring. I shattered it and then placed it into the buttercream. Enjoy!

Modern Pink Ruffle Flower Wedding Cake

 Vy wanted a unique wedding cake and had a very modern cake idea in mind. It was modeled after a cake she saw and loved. When I got to the wedding venue, she had a beautiful cake table set up complete with this adorable sign and a list of the cake flavors! Genius! The cake had Chocolate Hazelnut, White Raspberry Kiss and Double Chocolate Raspberry. The trick to the middle tier is to have 2 full tiers of cake inside one. I made 2 separate 8 inch round tiers and then put one on top of the other. I covered the whole thing in marshmallow fondant and then added this pink ruffled flower. Enjoy!

Police Car Groom's Cake

This groom's cake went with the yellow square wedding cake below. The groom is a police officer so they wanted a cool groom's cake to reflect that. It's all cake and then covered in marshmallow fondant. I actually cut out wheel holes in the side of the cake and then make full sized (to scale) tires to fit in the holes. That way, it looks like a real wheel on a car. So here's the process: Bake the cakes, let them cool. Stack and torte the cake by adding frostings and fillings (Yes, I do this to all my cakes so that my shaped cakes taste just as good as my tiered cakes). Chill in the fridge. Carve the cake. Frost the cake again. Chill in the fridge. Carve the cake again. Frost it yet again. Chill in the fridge. Cover in marshmallow fondant. Chill in the fridge. Add grooves in the cake, paint the front and back of the car.... chill in the fridge. Make the tires, mirrors, front and back lights, and lights on the top. Add those details. Take a step back and fix anything that's missing or wrong on the cake. Adhere it to a base of some sort. Now back into the fridge. It's amazing just how long cars take to make out of cake! :)

Yellow & Gray Square Wedding Cake

This 4-tiered square cake was a twist (literally) on a Tiffany blue & black wedding cake I made a while back. The bride wanted something fun but still elegant. It was all covered in marshmallow fondant and then I added the white swirl pattern by piping it on there (painstakingly!). Yup, that takes a long time and kinda hurts! haha. Here's an up close photo of the piping.

The bride, Toni, chose Brownie Lovers cake, Just Peachy Cake, and Truffled Chocolate Cake. Yum! Here's a weird thought. I made this cake over a year ago but by just looking at it, I remembered the bride's name. Is that weird? I guess that's good, right? 

Yellow Flowers & Branch Cake

This wedding cake went with the Tardis groom's cake below. This was an all buttercream cake with a marshmallow fondant branch and sugar flowers going up the front (well, that's obvious, isn't it?). Let's see, what to tell.... This type of cake is just a matter of free-forming branches and placing them so that they don't look too bulky or too cluttered. Then, I added a few little sugar flowers with an edible pearl in the center of each. 

Katherine ordered Ruby Red Velvet, Vanilla Latte, and Lemon Supreme for this cake. Oh, for messy buttercream, it's actually hard to walk away from the design. I'm kind of a perfectionist so I always try to make it look "right" but messy buttercream is supposed to look wrong. It's about moving your wrist back and forth while rotating your cake and then taking a step back. Hard to explain, hard to walk away from :)

Doctor Who Tardis Groom's Cake

I can't tell you how many people see this cake in my portfolio and say "Oh my gosh! Doctor Who!" Yes, this is a Dr. Who Tardis which is his time machine. I had seen a few pictures of Tardis cakes before but I wanted to be as exact as possible. I researched this thing for weeks before the wedding because the one thing the groom asked for at the cake tasting was that the groom's cake be awesome. He was quite serious about it too! Haha. It was half Emerald City Cake and half Brownie Lovers cake covered in marshmallow fondant. I painted the wording on the top with edible food coloring and the sign on the front was written with edible food coloring markers. You can check out the real Tardis to see what it says because I wrote it word for word.

When I delivered the cake, I set this puppy down and started taking pictures of the wedding cake. Then I heard the groomsmen come in and start ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the cake. The groom walked in very slowly and walked around the table before saying. "It's perfect." Haha. That's all I wanted!

Lemon Buttercream Wedding Cake

This cake fit perfectly at Millcreek Inn! It was up the canyon and deep into the valley with greenery everywhere. It was beautiful! The cake was all vanilla cake but 2 layers had lemon curd and raspberry filling and 1 layer had strawberry cream filling. It was all buttercream and then I used real lemon rinds around the tiers and 4 real lemons on the top. The whole cake smelled like lemon! It would've been weird if it were all chocolate on the inside :)

Round & Hexagon Wedding Cake

Have you ever made a cake and stepped back and thought "Oh no... that's not good." That's how I felt about this cake when I first made it. It was REALLY tall and I wasn't sure that I liked the combination of shapes... but then... I delivered the cake and helped the florist add the flowers and BAM! It was GORGEOUS! The off-white color with the edible pearl shimmer worked beautifully with the deep purple flowers. The whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and I used a few edible pearls here and there in the design. Here's a close up shot:

The flavors were Banana Cream Pie, Coconut Cream Pie, Strawberry Cheesecake Cake, and Emerald City Cake. Quite the variety! Yum!

Mary Kay Cupcakes

 One of my favorite clients is a Mary Kay rep and she always comes to me with the best cake ideas! This time, she needed cupcakes for a Mary Kay event she was throwing and so we did make up themed cupcake toppers. I think they were Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes and Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes. :) For the toppers, I hand cut them and just try to make them cute. How'd I do?

Sushi & Starbucks Meet at Last!

Laila wanted a REALLY unique cake for a co-worker... turns out, she wanted a sushi themed cake with a Starbucks cup.... yup. That's what we did :) The cake was Caramel Macchiato Cake (made with real Starbucks coffee, don't worry, I called Starbucks and asked if I could use their product in the cake and their logo on the cake. They were SO cool to say yes!). It was covered in buttercream and then I did a wood grain pattern on the cake using modeling tools and food coloring. I painted on darker spots of brown, lighter streaks of brown, and a few really dark spots in black. It was so much fun!

The sushi are all marshmallow fondant and so are the chop sticks, soy sauce, and cup. I hand-painted the Starbucks logo with white food coloring. Let's see, what else. I think that's it :) Haha. LOVED IT!

Hawaiian Themed Anniversary Cake

 This cake actually went with Pika's birthday cake that I describe below... it was his parents' 9th anniversary cake! Sarah wanted something Hawaiian to match the decor of the party but also because she loves Cake Lava and so do I!!! I modeled this cake after one of Cake Lava's beautiful creations. It was Emerald City Cake covered in marshmallow fondant, Yum! :)

2 Mickey Mouse Birthday Cakes

I had 2 3-tiered Mickey Mouse themed birthday cakes in the same weekend. It was pretty weird how that came together! Anyway, one was for a little boy and the other was for a woman who loves Mickey so they were a little different :) It was definitely hard for me to keep these two straight and keep the right flavors with the right cakes since they looked pretty much the same... haha. It all worked out in the end though. The cakes were covered in marshmallow fondant and the ears were fondant as well. Turns out, making the border with the white dots above is pretty time consuming! I love the detail it gave to the cake though.

Rainbow Birthday Cake

I make a cake for little Sheridan every year and this time, it was a fun rainbow themed birthday cake. There was a song that went along with it and so I used the details from the song to decorate the cake. Everything was made of fondant but my favorite little details were the little cupcakes! I wanted to eat them! Lisa, Sheridan's mom, had a little cupcake station at the party so that all of the little kids could make their own cupcakes and add the sprinkles they wanted. She dyed the inside of the cupcakes to be rainbow as well. How cute is that idea??

Superhero & Spiderman Cupcakes

 This is one way to please both of your kids but only throw 1 party! Hellen has two boys who have birthdays so close to each other that they always celebrate together. The trick is getting them each something special and not blowing the bank :) We did half of the cupcakes as superheros and half of them as Star Wars. Haha. Hilarious. Both of the boys wanted chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and then they were topped with marshmallow fondant toppers. I hand cut each of the designs but they really are just a combination of round circles and straight cuts (I know that sounds simplistic but that's really what it is... :)

Pika's Underwater 1st Birthday Cake

Sarah wanted a show-stopping cake for Pika's first birthday party. They rented out a huge event hall and had the place decorated so beautifully for the party! You can see some of the underwater decorations behind the cake. For this cake, I covered the bottom 3 tiers in marshmallow fondant and left the top tier all buttercream so that Pika could get all messy with his smash cake. I then used edible food coloring and watered it down so it was more like water color painting. I painted the color variation onto the cake and then added all of the marshmallow fondant underwater details. I made all of them in advance so that they would dry in shape and then adhered them to the cake with water or buttercream. Sarah had a little toy Pikachu that we put on the cake as well because that's her little boy's nickname. How cute is that! We agreed to keep that Pikachu and put it on every cake from here on out :)

Two of the tiers were Banana Cream Pie and 2 tiers were Chunky Monkey cake (check out my website for more detail on the flavors, www.SaltCakeCity.com)

Optimus Prime Transformer Birthday Cake

I LOVED making this throw-back Transformers cake. I added the details to make it look like Optimus Prime and used all marshmallow fondant details. I cut out all of the details beforehand and let them dry overnight so that they stood upright. The cake was Mint Brownie Cake (a hybrid of Brownie Lovers and After Dinner Mint... yum!)

Spiderman Groom's Cake

This Groom's cake went with the topsy turvy wedding cake below (Yes, this couple is awesome!). I didn't want the cake to look childish so I went with something that was more obviously Spiderman but not too cartoony. Yeah, I hope that made sense :) The spider on top was all fondant as well. The cake was Cookies & Cake flavor.

Lime Green & Pink Topsy Wedding Cake

This bride wanted some REALLY bright and fun for her wedding cake. This 3-tiered topsy turvy cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and then I added the swirls at the bottom by rolling long thin ropes of MMF and cutting them in half (so that there was a flat side to stick well to the cake). I free-handed the design which created way more variety in the design. I added white pearl swags and multi-colored ball border. For the sugar flowers, I used daisy cutters and sunflower cutters and dried them in small bowls to give them some shape. I love that we used the extra flowers on the table!

The flavors were Banana Cream Pie, Emerald City Cake, and Coconut Cream Pie Cake. For more info on the flavors, check out my website and the full list of flavors (www.SaltCakeCity.com).

Pink & Orange Cluster Wedding Cake

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted any cakes! I know, I'm a slacker! Now that the wedding season has calmed down, I wanted to start posting more cakes. This 4-tiered wedding cake was covered in marshmallow fondant. Turns out, horizontal stripes are 500 times harder to do that vertical ones. In this case, I did horizontal stripes painted with edible shimmer so that they popped off of the cake more. I then added a cluster of pink and orange sugar flowers with edible pearls in the center. 

These simple flowers were made by using a 5-petal cutter and then letting the flowers dry in an empty egg tray. I always make way more flowers than I think I will so that I don't run out but also so that I can use them later if I need some quick flowers :) I hope you like it!