A Very Modern Wedding Cake!

Ashley was a very brave bride who wanted something a little more modern than most wedding cakes I've done. Okay... a lot more modern than most of my wedding cakes :) This square cake was different heights for each tier and the cakes were not centered (on purpose, of course!). She showed me a pattern that she was using in the wedding of these black and white flowers and so I came up with a few sketches. I mimicked those black and white flowers in the design and then brought in 2 much larger flowers for pops of color.

The couple ordered Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Cup Cake, Tuxedo Cake, and Almond Joy Cake. It's all covered in marshmallow fondant and then I hand painted the black and white flowers. For the larger flowers, I used different sized round cutters, created petals by carving out pieces of the flower and then used a pattern tracing wheel to create the lines in each petal. When I painted the flowers (one in teal and one in red), the grooves of the pattern tracing wheel created deeper colors than the flower itself, which I loved! I made a rounded yellow center and then used round piping tips to create a pattern on the centers as well.

Thank you, Ashley, for trusting me with your vision!! :) I loved making this cake!

Animal Print Birthday Cake!

Zeth wanted a "super girlie" birthday cake for his wife. He knew it should be about shopping, purses, shoes and knew she wanted animal print, pink, and black. We came up with this design together. There are 4 separate cakes here and everything else is made out of sugar.

I made this high heel out of gumpaste and waited till it dried before painting on the leopard print. The box underneath was also cake with a hand-painted leopard design. The zebra print shopping bag in the back was so much fun because making tissue paper out of sugar is actually super easy! Roll out your fondant (marshmallow fondant in this cake) very thin. Cut into different size squares and rectangles. Bunch up some plastic wrap and place on a cookie sheet. Now, lay the squares and rectangles over the plastic wrap so that they are taking on the shape of the valleys and hills of the plastic. Let them dry over night and then you'll have  sugar tissue paper :)

This purse cake was covered in white marshmallow fondant and then I painted it black so that it would keep its shine. I dried the purse strap over a round piece of styrofoam until it was hardened and then it stood up on its own. I made the bow and flowers out of marshmallow fondant as well. I used a pattern tracing wheel to create the stitched look on the purse itself. So simple but gives it a really nice detail. The square cake behind it has a sugar bow and a stenciled buttercream design on the sides.

The cakes were 24-Carrot Cake, Brownie Lovers, Cookies & Cake, and White Raspberry Kiss Cake. Yum!

Skateboard Cake

Stephanie wanted a unique cake for Kamrin's 12th birthday cake. He's a skater and she had a specific skateboard design she wanted replicated in cake form. The skateboard and wheels are all made of fondant and then the cake underneath is Cookies & Cake flavored... yum! I cut the design out of marshmallow fondant and hand painted the shading to give it more details. Here's the design of the actual skateboard.  I loved how the cake turned out!

Purple Zebra and Flowers!

Here comes an adorable story! Wendy emailed me and said her birthday was coming up and wanted to get a cake from me since she had some of her friend's wedding cake a while back and loved the flavor (Tuxedo cake, one layer of chocolate and 2 layers of vanilla cake layered with chocolate and vanilla buttercream and mini chocolate chips). Her request was to have a purple cake, maybe zebra stripes with colorful flowers on it. We planned it all out and came up with this design:

 That same week, I got a request from Sean for a purple cake with a black design on it and pretty flowers on it. He requested Tuxedo cake too, same specifications of 1 layer of chocolate, 2 vanilla, and mini chocolate chips! I thought it was strange but made it anyway and we came up with this design:

Turns out, Sean is Wendy's boyfriend who wanted to surprise her with a cake for her birthday! Wendy ended up with 2 Tuxedo cakes both in purple with flowers on it. I was pretty impressed at how well Sean did with describing what Wendy wanted. When Wendy came to get the surprise cake that Sean ordered, I asked if she still wanted it since she had just picked up the other one. She laughed and said of course, more cake for her! :) haha.

Wood Grain Wedding Cake

Elaine wanted a wood grain wedding cake to match her beautiful venue up in Millcreek Inn. At this point, I had done a few wood grain cakes but I wanted to try a new technique. This cake is all buttercream with a marshmallow fondant border, bows, and pine cones. I frosted the cake a few times and let the buttercream set up. Then, I went over the cake with a modeling tool to create the grooves to look like wood grain. Then, I took brown food coloring and traced over the grooves with the color. I used a much wider brush and a bit of water to smooth out the color to give a much lighter wood grain color throughout the tiers. I darkened the tops of each tier, then added the forest green marshmallow fondant border and pine cones. I wish I could take credit for the base but that was provided by the wonderful bride and groom. That piece of real wood weighed A TON! I wasn't strong enough to put it into the car or carry it up to the venue myself! But it was so beautiful with the cake, and therefore totally worth it. :) Oh, and the whole cake was Can I Have Smore's Cake (You can check out my full flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com)

Let's Talk Groom's Cakes!

 I love when brides surprise their new hubbies with groom's cakes totally tailored to their likings. It's SO much fun to match a very elegant wedding cake with a much less elegant, and oftentimes explanation-less cake that even I don't understand! haha... don't worry, we'll get there. 

First up is this golf groom's cake. There was a very long discussion at the cake tasting on making a unique groom's cake rather than the same-ol-golfer on top of an argyle cake. I LOVED making this cake because it really was just one giant brainstorming session on making this cake totally different. Maren & her lovely mother, Betsy, helped come up great ideas, sketch ideas, colors, design, etc. for this lil' guy (actually, it was a huge cake :) The cake had red rocks on the backside along with a sand trap (made of brown sugar and graham crackers) and a water hazard. Oh, so much fun!

Next up we have a Minnesota Vikings Football groom's cake. ShiAnne wanted another unique groom's cake idea, not just the normal football shaped cake. We went with a topsy turvy design covered in marshmallow fondant with edible sugar balls coming out of the cake. Again...So... Much... Fun!

 Now we have a cake that needs some explanation. Do I know what this is? Not really... haha. If you're a Star Wars mega-fan you might recognize this as a Slave One. Yup, otherwise to the rest of you, google Slave One and you'll see what I was going for :) This really was quite a challenge because the whole thing was edible so I had to structure it correctly to have the top part hanging out of the top but not sag or fall over. I hand painted the colors on here to get them as close as possible to the Slave One I was going after. Ah... this was a challenge indeed but I do appreciate the challenge... thank you, KiElys!

Next up is a snowmobile. Katie wanted to display her hubby's favorite snowmobile all out of cake. This cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and again, hand-painted to get the right colors for the exact snowmobile I was going for. The windshield was exceptionally difficult to get to stand up correctly but worked out in the end :)

Lastly, we have an Adidas shoe groom's cake. The bride wanted to surprise the groom (and we went to great lengths to hide this puppy until after the wedding) with this all cake shoe covered in marshmallow fondant. Yup, I hand painted the stripes and logo on here after putting the right grooves in the front of the shoe and after adding the laces. It's funny to recreate something real because I want it to be as exact as possible while still looking edible. Loved making this shoe! Thank you, Danielle, for allowing me to make such a fun groom's cake for your hubby!

Princess Jasmine's Wedding Cake

Yes... this is actually Princess Jasmine's Wedding Cake! So it turns out that Disney created wedding cakes for some of their princess including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Jasmine. My bride was also Princess Jasmine (like... really... Princess Jasmine) at Disney World so she thought it fitting that she have Princess Jasmine's wedding cake too! Being a huge Disney fan, I was thrilled to make this cake!

This cake was really a labor of love. It was SO heavy that I had to transport it in two pieces and assemble on site.... down a hill... in a light rain.... in front of the guests. It was all covered in marshmallow fondant and then I used edible gold shimmer for the middle tier and all of the gold accents. It's hard to see in this picture but I hand rolled and placed the white fondant scroll details on the top, 4th, and bottom tiers. Took forever and ever to get the designs spaced correctly around each tiers.

Honestly, the best part of making this cake was working with the bride and her mother. Her mother, Betsy, makes the most beautiful vintage dresses (http://modestcouturebyelizabeth.com/) and even made the bride's wedding dress. They were just as excited about this cake as I was... which always helps the process. It turned out exactly how I hoped it would... even in the rain :)

Penguin Wedding Cake

Norman is from the east coast and wanted to surprise his fiance with a penguin wedding cake for their wedding out here in Utah. She loves this penguin stuffed animal she has and so he sent me pictures of it and I modeled this cake as closely as possible to the stuffed animal. The whole thing is cake and covered in marshmallow fondant and then I hand-painted the coloring to match the toy. The cake had three flavors inside of the little guy, Mom's Apple Pie Cake, Southern Butter Pecan Cake, and Ruby Red Velvet Cake. He was surprisingly heavy! haha

Rock On Baby Shower Cake!

I loved making this baby shower cake! It was so much fun to recreate the Rock'n'Roll design based on the baby shower invitation. The cake was Mocha Java Cake (YUUUUUUUM!) and was all buttercream with marshmallow fondant decorations (the blue and skull parts). I used edible food coloring to create the shading on the top of the cake and then hand-piped the little designs all over the sides. Soooo cute!

Painter's Topsy Turvy Birthday Cake

Effey wanted a unique birthday cake for YiaYia's 80th birthday cake! She wanted to incorporate her painting and the color scheme from their birthday invitations. To make it even more interesting, we did a topsy turvy cake. The whole cake is covered in marshmallow fondant and it was Caramel Crunch Cake (check out my full flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com). The paint on the top of the cake was all buttercream and the painting was done using food coloring as water color. The paintbrushes are marshmallow fondant as well. Yum!

Steampunk Gramophone Cake

So Steph & Stacy, the twins, were turning 30 and wanted a very interesting cake for their birthday. I love their sister, Corrinne, and so when they were referred to me, I was down for the challenge. A Steampunk Gramophone Cake? I don't even know what half of those words mean! So I did quite a bit of research and then freaked out a little bit... and then designed this cake. This is an all edible sugar & cake creation. It was Ruby Red Velvet & Boston Cream Pie Cake all covered in marshmallow fondant and then decorated with more marshmallow fondant.

The gears on the bottom tier were hand cut and then I sprayed with edible silver & gold shimmer. I added a border around each side of the bottom box and then painted it with edible bronze shimmer. The brown background was hand painted with a mixture of brown edible food coloring and bronze shimmer.

For the gramophone, I created the shape of the top and then dried it around a cone. I made an extra cone just in case, because after all, this is all sugar! Lucky I did because on that day, I had two deliveries, a wedding cake and this one. I delivered the wedding cake first and on my first bump into that neighborhood, I heard a crack. Now, a little background, I usually crank the music when I deliver cakes so that I can't hear anything in the back (the slightest noise from a cake freaks me out). For this cake though, I knew the weight of that cone would be a problem so I kept the music down and sure enough, that first bump killed the gramophone. So the wedding cake was all delivered and set up and I was driving to the twin's house thinking "Well NOW what am I going to do?" Luckily, I brought my back up cone and my cake-emergency kit (It looks like a tackle box filled with all sorts of goodies in case of emergencies like this!). Parked outside of their house, I popped open the trunk and started fixing this cake. The weight of the cone was hard to prop up correctly but I made it work. The girls loved the cake and after the immense amount of stress & pressure it gave me, I loved it too :)

A Distinguished Gentleman's Birthday Cake

Joshlin was throwing a mustache themed distinguished gentleman's surprise birthday party for her hubby and wanted a very unique cake for the shindig. Everything in this picture is made of cake or sugar. We did a bottle of Brandy, a bowler hat, a folded shirt with his favorite "relax" logo and cuff links, a replica of his favorite watch, a bow tie and a gentleman's loafer shoe. Oh, and there's a mustache in front of the shirt box that you can barely see.

The cakes were Lemon Supreme Cake, Banana Cream Pie Cake, and Caramel Macchiato Cake (check out all of my flavors at www.SaltCakeCity.com). Everything was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and the box, Brandy, and shoe were all hand-painted. This cake was so cool to make because each piece was very different. Joshlin has since moved out of Utah and I was so sad to see her go! She came up with such fun cake ideas and challenges! More cakes for Joshlin to come on the blog :)

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! :)

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!

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!

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)

New York Rangers Hat Cake

Hillary wanted to surprise Jarom, her new hubby, with a groom's cake at the wedding. Suzanne, the bride's mom, knew it should be hockey related and even Rangers related but at first, we weren't sure what to do. We toiled around with a few ideas, like doing a rink or a jersey but then it hit them both. He loves his New York Rangers hat and wears it everyday. They knew it would be the perfect groom's cake. The cake was Emerald City flavored (pistachio flavored cake with pistachio cream filling and buttercream) and covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. I hand-painted all of the patches that were on the hat (the NHL logo, and the two Rangers logos). I shaped the bill of the hat with a real hat bill and then added the grooves to make it look more realistic.

 When I delivered the cake, both Hillary and Suzanne LOVED it! They couldn't get over how realistic it was and therefore, I was very happy. I didn't get to see Jarom's reaction but Suzanne said that he didn't even want to cut into it. The happy couple took it home, stuck it in the fridge, went on a honeymoon, came back, and ate it then! She said it was still so moist and delicious! It's the magic of fondant :) Congrats to both of you! (Wedding cake picture to come next)

Buzz Lightyear Themed Cake

Nikki wanted a Buzz Lightyear themed birthday cake for Kaiden's 2nd birthday. Due to copyright laws, I can't recreate Buzz so we decided that I'd create a cake around Buzz's theme and then she could place a little Buzz toy on the cake (I know, the laws are silly!). The Brownie Lovers cake was topped with a rice krispie planet. The whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and accented with edible shimmer, pearls, and dragees.

Shark Head (hoo-ha-ha!)

Ah, this cake was SO MUCH FUN! Laura wanted a REALLY unique birthday cake for Graham's birthday and she knew he wanted a shark cake. We decided to do a shark head coming out of the water. The cake was chocolate cake layered with chocolate buttercream and covered in marshmallow fondant. The whole thing looked like a white lump at first.... which was really sad for me. Then, I got to work!

I first carved out the mouth of the shark, angled the slope of the snout (do sharks have snouts?? I don't know), and then added more cake for the lips (well, I guess sharks don't have lips but you get the point). I then hand-painted the color gradation for the shark's skin (skin? Ah, this is a hard post!). I painted the mouth  and nostrils and indented some black eyes into the cake itself. I added a few rows of shark teeth (hoo-ha-ha!). Lastly, I piped on some thick white and blue buttercream and then used an angled spatula to make it look more like waves.

Now if you're asking yourself what hoo-ha-ha is, watch Finding Nemo again :)

Call of Duty Birthday Cake

This cake reminded me of my dad (he was an Army man for nearly 30 years) but it was for a 13th birthday. It was modeled after a video game and a cake that Minda had seen. Everything on the cake is edible and that made me so happy :) The gun and grenades were rice krispies covered in marshmallow fondant and then the helmet and camouflage base were cake.
The bottom tier was After Dinner Mint flavor (minty chocolate cake layered with mint chocolate ganache and mini chocolate chips) while the helmet was Tuxedo Cake (vanilla and chocolate layered with buttercream & chocolate buttercream). I hand painted the camo onto the cake using food coloring and water (like watercolor painting). For the gun and grenades , I shaped it out of rice krispies and then covered in it fondant. Afterward, I used a sculpting tool to create grooves, indents, and patterns into the fondant so that it had shape and looked more realistic.
After the party, I got this email from Minda: "Bday cake was AWESOME!!!!! Thank you so much for all your hard work! My son, Dakota loved it! Not to mention it was so yummy! You are so awesome! We will definetly be using you in the future and recomend you to others! Thanks again! We look forward in working with you in the future!!!" Yay!