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!

Cars themed Birthday Cake

Jana wanted a fun birthday cake for Kristian's 1st birthday! She was doing a Cars themed party from the Disney movies and so we came up with this design based on a cake she had seen and loved. The top tier was Kristian's smash cake and it was all buttercream with the iconic Cars logo with Kristian's name inside of it.

The cake was Ruby Red Velvet and Strawberry Cheesecake Cake flavored. The bottom two tiers were covered in marshmallow fondant an decorated with fondant road signs. So much fun! :)

Twilight Birthday Cake

I don't know much about Twilight but I do know there are some die-heart fans out there! I've done a few Twilight themed cakes in the past and this time we went with a different idea. Geysan had some of Valeria's favorite quotes from the book and so I wrote them all around the cake. I used the iconic chess pieces, apple, flowers, and ribbon from the books too. The cake was After Dinner Mint Cake and Snow white Cake (see my whole flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com). Ah, Team Edward, Team Jacob? I don't know but love to make the cakes for them!

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.

All Draped Wedding Cake

This 3-tiered wedding cake was all draping with bunches of fresh purple and white flowers. When Monica told me what she wanted, I was a little skeptical. Okay, I was REALLY skeptical. I was afraid that the full draping wouldn't look right. I'm glad we went forward with the concept though because I ended up loving this design. This was a 6-10-14 inch round cake but it doesn't look as big as it actually was. The wedding cake was covered in all marshmallow fondant and then I placed toothpicks where the fresh flowers needed to go.

The wedding was held at the Capital Building in Salt Lake City, which was a journey in and of itself! I had to deliver 3 wedding cakes that day so I was on a time crunch. We pulled up to the back of the building and went inside to scope out the location. It was upstairs and quite a bit away from where we were parked (illegally parked, I should mention) so I knew we wouldn't be able to carry the cake that far. I searched down a caterer to ask if they had a push cart we could use... and 30 minutes later, we finally had one. We slowly rolled the cake over to the reception area (every bump in the tile flooring was exaggerated with the cake on this push card) and my hubby ran back to the car to move it since we were parked illegally... outside of the Capital Building. Haha. Ironic. Anyway, I was trying to put the flowers on as quickly as possible since I heard the music starting and all of the wedding guests were awaiting the bride's walk down the stairs (it's nerve racking finishing a cake with a crowd of people surrounding you). I finished the look, snapped off some pictures, and ran away as fast as I could to see if we had a parking ticket (luckily we didn't). Phew! The cake turned out better than I could have ever imagined.

The top was Lemon raspberry cake, the middle was Smore's Cake and the bottom was Ruby Red Velvet cake. All marshmallow fondant draping... and it was HEAVY! haha. One more thing. When making this cake, it was quite possibly one of the ugliest cakes I've ever made until the put the flowers on it. It looked naked... and sad. Once those flowers were on though, gorgeoud! :)

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)

Mini Wedding Cake

I love this little mini-wedding cake! I did Suzanne's daughters wedding cake earlier in the year and then her son was getting married as well! That's one busy mama! She wanted a much smaller wedding cake for this second wedding and we came up with this little baby. Isn't it adorable? It's covered in marshmallow fondant and I believe it was Vanilla Latte Cake. Yum!

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 :)

Red & Orange Cherry Blossom Cake

Rissa & Jasper were having a fall wedding but knew they wanted a cherry blossom flower cake so we joined the two ideas and came up with this red & orange cherry blossom wedding cake. The branches and flowers are all sugar as well! They chose Truffled Chocolate Cake and Tuxedo Cake with chocolate chips... yes, this couple loves their chocolate :) Since then, Rissa has ordered the Tuxedo cake a few times... sometimes, pregnancy cravings really need to be fed with cake! haha. Congrats on the baby, you two :)

Bring on the Damask!

Dam-mask? Da-Mask? However you pronounce it, damask was in last year for sure! I made this 5-tiered damask and quilted cake for Carolyn & Parker who had their wedding at the beautiful Castle venue in Layton. Because the venue really does feel regal, we had to make this cake a definite display piece for the wedding. They chose White Raspberry Kiss Cake, Brownie Lovers Cake, Chocolate Hazelnut Cake and Ruby Red Velvet Cake for their flavors. The whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and I use buttercream for the damask pattern.

 This beautiful 3-tiered cake was for Ann Marie's beautiful wedding. I remember it being an exceptionally hot that day and so setting the cake up outside was really nerve racking for me. The florist had created this beautiful cake topper and flowers for the cake which I loved! Brought in so much color! Ann Marie wanted a square cake but wanted rounded edges which proved to be quite interesting when trying to get the damask stencil to go around the whole bottom tier. Then, we twisted the tiers a little bit to give it a little more personality. The couple chose Rainbow Bright Cake, White Raspberry Kiss Cake, and Ruby Red Velvet Cake.

This last wedding cake was for Meri's wedding. She had seen a cake I did last year with the same design and said it was perfect so we recreated it for her wedding. The whole cake was marshmallow fondant and then I shimmered the stripes on the top tier and shimmered the middle and bottom tiers. I used buttercream again for the damask patterns on the bottom and then accented the cake with fresh roses. Meri chose Banana Nut Cake, White Almond Wedding Cake, and Lemonberry Cake. You can see my full flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com

Very Merry Unbirthday!

Breanna was throwing Londyn a very merry 1st unbirthday and wanted a fun cake to match the theme of the party. The top tier was Londyn's smash cake and it was all buttercream with a marshmallow fondant rim and card. The bottom two tiers were covered in marshmallow fondant with edible keys and watches covered edible gold shimmer. I piped on a buttercream pearl swagged border on the bottom tier and topped off the cake with a peacock feather. The cake was so much fun to make. All of the details took quite a long time to make but were totally worth it in the end. The cake was Lemonberry & Candy Bar Cake (check out my full flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com).

Mini Star Wars Birthday Cake

Amy saw the Star Wars cake I made a while back with a similar design and wanted something smaller for Summit's birthday cake. It's covered in marshmallow fondant with MMF shooting stars and light sabers on top. I hand-cut the characters and the logo from MMF. By this point, I've made Yoda, Darth Vader, Leia, Luke, and R2 so many times, I could do it in my sleep :)

Chanel No 1... in cake form

Katie was throwing an awesome 1st birthday bash for her daughter, Chloe. She had adorable pictures of Chloe in pink and black with a Chanel purse done up for the invitations so I modeled this cake after that idea. We have the perfume Chanel No. 1 bottle on the left  covered in marshmallow fondant and edible pearls. Then, I made a cute black and pink hat box with a Chanel purse on top that's covered in edible shimmer. The little pink purse in the front was little Chloe's smash cake. I had so much fun with this cake! Thank you, Katie, for always giving me such great cake designs!! :)

Tangled Inspired Birthday Cake

I did Oakley's Minnie Mouse themed birthday last year and this year, her mom wanted a Tangled themed birthday cake. Jill knew she didn't want a typical Tangled Tower cake so I came up with the idea of doing a dress-inspired cake. Since I love the movie, I knew what Repunzel's dress looked like and I wanted to incorporate the main symbolic star as well. Now, this being a Repunzel cake, I had to have some hair right? Well Oakley's smash cake was the top tier so it was all buttercream and then I added the yellow braid of marshmallow fondant hair. The cake was Rainbow Bright & Strawberry Cheesecake Cake (check out my full flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com). After i was done, I was a little worried that she looked.... like... I don't know, a headless doll! Oakley loved it so that's all that matters, right?

Grandkids Anniversary Cake

Karen wanted an anniversary cake for her parents and wanted to feature the grandkids... all 11 of them! I was wondering how in the world I could incorporate 11 different grandchildren into one fall-themed cake and this is what we cake up with. Karen sent me a picture of all the kids and I created little cartoon versions of them with marshmallow fondant and then piped their names on with buttercream. The top tier was 24-Carrot Cake and the bottom tier was Banana Cream Pie Cake (one of my favorites!) The whole cake is covered in marshmallow fondant with MMF leaves and faces. So much fun! I hope the kids got to eat their own pieces :)

Lego Birthday Cake

This Lego birthday cake was quite the labor of love! It was a 3-tiered birthday cake for Brayden, who was turning 7. Nychole wanted a birthday cake based on a Lego cake she found online... and I mean a cake made out of Legos. We took the same ideas from the cake and I recreated them in marshmallow fondant. Everything on the cake was edible, including the "candles" on top and then Lego pieces on the bottom tier. It took quite some time to finish this puppy but I loved it in the end. The cake was Almond Joy Cake, Brownie Lovers Cake & Tuxedo Cake (check out my full flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com)

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!

Mini-Minnie & Mini-Mickey Cakes

 

I love how some cakes come in waves. Last week I posted a few 3-tiered Mickey Mouse cakes that were due on the same time and this time, I had 2 mini cakes. This cute little Minnie Mouse cake was used for a fundraising event because Hilary didn't want to bake something herself... haha. I was happy to help! They raised $130 for this cake... top seller of the night! Yay! The cake on the right was a little mini- Mickey Mouse cake for Emma's second birthday. Both cakes were covered in marshmallow fondant and the ears were MMF as well. It's much easier than it looks! Take some black fondant, use a circle cutter and cut out two pretty thick round circles. Insert 2 toothpicks or flower wire into the ears and let them dry overnight. When they're ready, stick them into the sides of the top tier. Super easy! :)

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!