Black & Pink Wedding Cake

Amy wanted a totally different cake for her wedding and I was so excited when I found out what she wanted. Her wedding colors were black and bright pink and her idea was to do an all black cake with black vertical lines and very bright pink sugar flowers for the cake. I was definitely in! Then, Amy brought by this awesome cake base that her fiance made for the cake and these amazing skull cake toppers. They were hand made and worth almost as much as the cake itself so yes, it was a very scary delivery :)

The top was Ruby Red Velvet cake, the middle tier is Coconut Macaroon Cake and the bottom tier was Samoa Says Cake. The whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and the flowers were as well. The centers of the sugar flowers were rolled in crystalized sugar to give it a little extra sparkle. I wish I got a better picture of the cake because although it's definitely non traditional, the cake was pretty cool in person. Amy LOVED it, which is all that matters to me :)

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 :)

Green Guitar Cake

This guitar was kind of a last minute order. Effey wanted a lime green and purple guitar to match the guitar that Vasileos had for his birthday. This cake was huge! It barely fit in the fridge when it was all done! It was all real cake and covered in marshmallow fondant. I loved that Effey wanted a "Peace, Love, and Rock 'n' Roll" message in the cake. It was a challenge to keep the cake so thin for the neck of the cake but was so much fun in the end :)

Deep and White Cupcake Tower

 

Shauna wanted a cupcake tower for her wedding and wanted to match the colors and flowers for her wedding in the design. I had done her bridesmaid's wedding cake a few weeks earlier and so I was so excited to make Shauna's as well. We decided to do 3 cupcake flavors (Triple Chocolate, Rainbow Bright, and Strawberry) and the top cake was Rainbow Bright as well with layers of light green, dark green, and white cake.

DL Jones Construction made this awesome cupcake tower and since then, I ordered two more cupcake towers from Dennis Jones. Turns out that on the day of the wedding, I grabbed two wrong center dowels and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't get the 4-tier cupcake tower together. Ugh. It was really stressful in the moment because Shauna's guests were all waiting for the cupcake tower to be completed, along with the other tables for dinner. I had to assemble what I could of the tower and place the cupcakes as soon as possible because there were kids (and adults) running up and sneaking cupcakes away :) Haha. It's was actually pretty funny. One of the guests took a deep green cupcake and smashed it into another guests' face. Lucky it was the guest and not the bride!

Princess Tiara Birthday Cake

Jen was having a fun princess themed birthday party for Madeleine's 3rd birthday and wanted a cutesy birthday cake to go along with it. We thought it only fitting that she have a princess tiara made of sugar for the day along with a wand (Do princesses have wands? Hmm, I guess so). Everything was made out of marshmallow fondant including the roses and bow. Jen's husband, Keldon, came to pick up the cake (there's nothing more enjoyable for me than to watch men carry out adorable princess cakes from Salt Cake city :) Keldon was so excited about the cake that he insisted on taking pictures of it even before leaving. I later heard back from Jen that Madeleine and all of her 3 year old friends loved the cake. Yay! 

Here's an up close shot of the roses, wand, and pearls. :)

Snow Mobile Cake

Breanna wanted a snow mobile cake for Winston's 7th birthday since that's the hobby he loves the most right now. I wanted to reflect the mountains here in Utah along with his snow mobile on the top. I made the snow mobile out of fondant, then painted the colors on with edible food coloring. The wooden sign was made out of fondant as well. I marbleized brown and white fondant together, let it dry and then wrote "Happy 7th Birthday Winston" on it. I made a few trees in the background with coconut and crystalized sugar "snow." I had so much fun making this cake because of all of the details of the snow mobile and winter scene, especially since we were in spring :)

Piece of Cake!

Contrary to what this blog might suggest, I don't always make a cake for my classes. I did happen to make this cake for my students at Neumont University last quarter. I wanted it to be fun and festive and I've always wanted to do a slice of cake-cake. This was my opportunity!

To achieve look, I baked a full size cake. Then, before I frosted and filled the cake, I cut out the slice that I wanted to use as the top. I torted and frosted each of these two pieces separately. I did a flavor experiment with my students (free cake should always be an experiment :) It was a Peach Cobbler Cake, peach flavored spice cake layered with peach filling and granola. Wasn't my favorite experiment but from it, I revamped my peach flavor and now have the Just Peachy Cake (cinnamon vanilla cake layered with peach filing, peach slices and cinnamon buttercream). Anyway, back to this cake!

I covered the whole cake in white marshmallow fondant, then, I used a yellow fondant and made the sides of the cake lined with purple filling (I'm not quite sure what purple filling would be but I loved the color combination). I added stripes to the outside of the cake, then covered the top of the cake with teal "frosting." In order to the get that ruffle look, I simple didn't push the sides of the fondant onto the cake itself, I lifted the sides of the fondant to give it some volume. Lastly, I added marshmallow fondant "sprinkles." Yum!

Thank you, ladies & gents for a great class! It's always a fun time at Neumont :)

Peek a boo! I see you!

Erin & Brian wanted a really unique wedding cake for their reception in March. Originally, Erin said she wanted something pretty traditional with swirled piping on a white cake. Then as we talked, I could see she wanted a little something different. Since her colors were white and blue, we decided to incorporate those colors into a cake that had some personality. This was the end result:

The cake was Chocolate Hazelnut cake (chocolate cake layered with hazelnut cream filling and buttercream) and Strawberry Cheesecake cake (strawberry cake layered with cheesecake cream filling and buttercream). They were covered in marshmallow fondant. Here's how this Peek-a-boo look done.

I covered each tier in blue first. Then, I rolled out a much thicker piece of white fondant and gently layered it over the blue. I took my tiny fondant cutter and slowly, softly, tenderly, gently, pushed the pattern into white fondant, being careful to not dig into the blue. I used a toothpick to pull the white fondant out of the cutter before removing the cutter from the fondant. I did that a hundred more times and then I had achieved the pattern she was going for. As the pattern got bigger and bigger, the fondant wanted to move around a bit more. I then took a paintbrush and a dab of water to "glue" the white fondant to the blue fondant. I added a blue border to each tier and then used a separated covered in the same blue fondant to give the top tier a little extra height. Finally, I added a top blue circle on the very top of the cake to give it some more color. Phew! It was quite the journey :)

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

It's the Mickey Mouse, Clubhouse! Come inside it's fun inside! (sing along if you know it :) Jennifer wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed cake for her three year old son's birthday. Because she didn't need to serve a ton of people, we decided to go with a MMC representation, rather than the full clubhouse (because that's puppy's pretty big!). The green part was cake, Tuxedo flavor, and the red part was rice krispies. Mickey's head, the candles, and the sign with "Chase" on it were all marshmallow fondant. It's amazing how much smaller this cake is in the picture than in person!

I've had a few people ask me how to make Mickey heads in fondant. All you need are two circle cutters (you can use biscuit cutters if you have those). When I'm doing small Mickey heads, I use a round piping tip and use the small end for the ears and the bigger side for the head. The trick it getting the dimensions right so that Mickey doesn't look like he has an oversized head or super tiny ears :)  Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse Inspired Cupcakes

Honey wanted to surprise her new boyfriend with a set of Mickey Mouse cupcakes. I was so happy to make them because I LOVE Mickey :) I decided to do a deconstructed Mickey and Minnie set of cupcakes and here's how they turned out. Half of the cupcakes were vanilla with vanilla buttercream and the other half were chocolate with chocolate buttercream (I've only pictured the vanilla ones here). All of the toppers were made out of marshmallow fondant and I hand-sculpted all of the Mickey and Minnie parts.

I delivered them to Brian's office and his receptionists went nuts over them. It was so sweet of Honey to surprise him like that. She said he blushed all day long over them.

Just to update you..... they are now engaged and will be married in a few months. That's right, I like to think my cupcakes had magic love in them :) Congratulations you two!! I can't wait to make your wedding cake!

Dual Sports Birthday

Dominique was having a joint birthday party for Nick and Nico again this year. Last year, I made the boys a sports themed cake that was three tiers and had a baseball, basketball and football for each tier. This year, I went a different route because I wanted to keep it unique and fun for them. The basketball and baseball were made out of rice krispies covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. The basketball net and the baseball field were the cakes. The cakes were Cookies & Cake (vanilla cake layered with crushed Oreos and buttercream). The cake doesn't look as big here but it was pretty big and heavy. I get such a work out with some of these cakes :) haha

Jungle Animal Birthday Cake

Shannon was having a Jungle themed birthday for Gabe this year and wanted a cake to match. I've done a few jungle animal cakes before but none that were 2-dimensional to match an invitation so I was super excited. I've attached the invitation below for you to see what I was going for. One of the tiers was Ruby Red Velvet with buttercream and one tier was Boston Cream Pie Cake (yellow cake layered with vanilla cream filling and chocolate buttercream). The cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and the animals were also all fondant. Happy Birthday, Gabe!

Rosa's Kitty Cake

Danielle's babygirl was turning one and she wanted a fun cake for her party. She wanted to incorporate Rosa's cats with the cake and since the cake was such bright and vibrant colors, the cats really stood out as well. I loved the contrast here. The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and the cats were also made of fondant.

You might be looking at these cats and saying "I could never do that" but I promise, it's super easy and fun... as long as you have some patience and time. Fondant cats are really just a mixture of different circles (head and stomach) with some thin tubes (arms and legs) mixed with small dots for the whites of their hands, feet, and stomach.

Danielle ordered Orange Creamsicle for this cake (orange flavored cake layered with orange cream filling and buttercream). Yum! I got to see some pictures of Rosa enjoying the cake... soooo cute :) I love when babies are covered in sugar... haha

Grandpa Fishing Cake

Patty wanted a special cake to celebrate her dad's 50th birthday. She thought it would be cute to have grandpa fishing off of a dock with his four grandkids. As you can tell, Grandpa's a huge dodgers fan so I added that to his shirt as well. :) The whole cake and all of the decorations were edible except the wires hooking the fishing poles to the fish. Behind grandpa and the kids were a bucket full of worms and a tackle box with hooks in it.

The cake was a Tuxedo cake (chocolate and vanilla cake layered with chocolate and vanilla buttercream) and White Raspberry Kiss Cake (white chocolate cake layered with raspberry cream filling and white chocolate ganache). It was covered in marshmallow fondant and the kids and grandpa were also fondant. Thank you for looking :)

Tiffany Blue Wedding Cake

Jennica & Braden were having a very traditional and elegant wedding and at the tasting, Jennica said she wanted a fun and colorful cake to offset the traditional. This is what she had in mind. This cake was based on a cake from Creative Cakes & Cookies and incorporated Jennica's beautiful wedding colors (black, white, and Tiffany blue). The whole cake is covered in marshmallow fondant and decorated with MMF as well.

Jennica & Braden chose three flavors for their cake. The first was Brownie Lovers (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache and a layer of chewy brownies), the second was Ruby Red Velvet Cake (moist red velvet cake layered with cream cheese frosting), and the last was White Raspberry Kiss (white chocolate cake layered with white chocolate ganache and raspberry cream filling).

When I got to the venue to deliver the cake, they had a BEAUTIFUL room set up. I came in just as the wedding party was taking their photos together and wow, they looked wonderful. Everyone was dressed in black, white and Tiffany blue and room matched. Have I mentioned that this was a picture perfect couple? :) I have to give a special shout out to Penny, mother of the bride. She was amazing to work with to make sure all of the details were correct on the cake and also for the set up. Thank you all for being so easy to work with!

Red Bows & Pearls Cake

Jesse, a former student of mine, emailed me saying he was getting married. You can imagine how shocked I was considering how young he is but then again, I do live in Utah :) He asked if I was able to make his wedding cake and I said, "Absolutely!" He was a great student and so I knew his fiancee was a lucky lady. Tori emailed me later and said they both trusted my judgement and to make whatever cake I wanted to make for them. Well, as fun as that may sound to some of you, it's MUCH harder than just doing whatever I want to do. I think a wedding cake should reflect the bride and groom, or at least the feel of the wedding itself. If your wedding is a very traditional and formal wedding, a bright colored topsy turvy cake probably wouldn't be the best. On the flip side, if you're having a fun wedding to reflect your outgoing personalities, a plain white wedding cake wouldn't do either. So this means I had to go on the hunt for more details. I asked about her dress, her venue, her invitations, etc. I soon found that they were having quite the wedding at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake. A wedding at the Grand America for a beautiful couple should be grand itself, don't you agree?

This was the wedding cake for my adorable former student and his new blushing bride. We decided to do alternating borders of overlapping fondant and pearl beaded fondant. On the tiers with the pearls, I did 6 layers of the beads so that it created a very thick border on the cake but still an elegant touch. The large bows are also made out of fondant and I added a few edible white pearls around the cake (you can't see it very well in this picture but they're there). The only thing not edible are the crystal brooches in the centers of the bows because Tori wanted some bling on the cake. Finally, I painted the red bows and borders with edible shimmer to give it more sparkle.

The couple chose After Dinner Mint (Minty chocolate cake layered with mint chocolate ganache and mini-chocolate chips) & Southern Butter Pecan Cake (Butter pecan cake layered with caramel, pecans, and cream cheese frosting)

Congratulations, Tori and Jesse. You are a beautiful couple and I was thrilled to make the cake for you :)

Baby Blue Animal Print Cupcakes

Shandell wanted cute cupcakes for a baby shower she was throwing. Since it was a baby boy's shower, we matched the shower invitations by doing baby blue animal print designs on the tops of the cupcakes. Here's the invitation:

For the cupcakes, she chose two flavors. The first is After Dinner Mint cupcakes which are minty chocolate cupcakes topped with mint chocolate ganache. Here's a shot of the cupcakes before the toppers:

The second flavor was Carnival Caramel Apple cupcakes which are spice cake with baked apples topped with cinnamon buttercream and caramel. YUM!
Shandell's been one of my clients for a few years now and I was so happy to make these cute little cupcakes for her. She later wrote me and said they were delicious and quite the hit at the party. Thanks, Shandell! :)

Soccer Birthday

Carol wanted to get Matthew a unique birthday cake for his 16th birthday (not sweet 16, but rather a soccer 16 birthday). I remember telling her that it's not as easy as it sounds to make a soccer themed cake that doesn't look like a child's party cake. I came up with this design to incorporate Matthew's school colors, red and gold, along with his soccer jersey. Making a completely edible soccer net was quite the challenge. Fondant likes to lay flat to I had to dry it against a curved object that it wouldn't stick to. Four nets later, this one worked :) It's hard to see in this picture but it's on the top there with the fondant 16.

The cake was an Orange Dreamsicle Cake (orange cake layered with orange cream filling and buttercream) covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. Carol and Matthew were so excited when I delivered the cake while I apologized the whole time about it still looking childish to me. Haha... I'm such a perfectionist. They both loved it and so I just have to get over it. :)

Bright Zebra Birthday

Whitney wanted a bright & fun birthday cake with a zebra print theme somewhere in there so we came up with this design for her 13th birthday party. To make it a little more whimsical, I tapered in the sides and made it slightly topsy so that it almost looks like it's falling over. The cake was Cookies & Cake (vanilla cake layerd with crushed Oreo cookies) and white cake with raspberry filling (the birthday girl's choices, of course). The balls and the number "13" are all made out of fondant and the whole cake was covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. I had a ton of fun with this cake because it was just bright and colorful. Hmm... I don't think there's much else to it! :)

Hippo Birthday Luau

Easter wanted a really unique birthday cake for Lili's first birthday. In fact, it was so unique that her husband drew a sketch of exactly what they wanted... Safari Lili sitting on top of a giant purple hippo with a friendly alligator and lion inside of a little jungle scene. Yup. That's right! Here's what I came up with. The hippo is all edible. The body and legs are all Ruby Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting and the head is all rice-crispies. The whole cake is covered in homemade marshmallow fondant.

Here is an upclose shot of Lili and her little lion and alligator friend. They are all made out of fondant and so are the palm trees. I thought it was so cool that Easter's husband drew out a sketch and I'll tell you, when I first saw the sketch, I had NO idea how I was going to do it. As Bronwen Weber once said, always say yes and then figure out how to do it later. That's exactly what I did and I'm so glad I took on the challenge.

In order to get the cake this big, there were two full tiers of cake inside of the hippo herself and they were separated by a piece of cardboard and supported with straws so that the cake didn't collapse on itself. I shaped the head out of rice crispies and then covered the head in buttercream. I let that firm up in the fridge for a while, then I sculpted it down to make sure it was cute and in proportion. I covered it again in buttercream and then in marshmallow fondant. I added the eyes, lashes, nose and ears. Then, I used a few skewers to skewer the head in tightly to the main cake, and boy was this head heavy. It was HUGE (like an orange on a toothpick... or a rice crispie hippo head on a skewer, I suppose). Once I got the hippo's body and head put together, I added the legs out of cake and then placed Lili and her animal friends on the top of the hippo.

When I got to the party, Easter had gone all out! There were musicians, dancers, decorations, tons of food and it just looked like an awesome party. She went nuts over the cake and so I was proud to have been a part of Lili's first birthday. As a surprise, I made a matching smash cake with just a little hippo's face on it for Lili to get into and Lili loved it. Well, technically, I don't think Lili cared too much but Easter loved it :) haha