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!

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!! :)

Shopping & Make Up Sweet 16 Cake

Tonya threw a big Sweet 16 bash for her daughter Shontae and wanted a shopping & make up themed birthday cake. I know it doesn't look like it but there are three flavors here, Brownie Lovers Cake, Ruby Red Velvet, & Cookies & Cake. See, the trick it, the tall shopping bag is actually 2 full tiers of cake and then it's covered in marshmallow fondant so that it looks like one cake. The bag handles and the "tissue paper" are also made out of marshmallow fondant. I made all of the make up pieces by hand out of fondant and then added those around the two bags. I'm realizing right now that I shouldn't have put the cake and accessories on a pinkish/red-ish background because you can't see the details in the make up pieces. Dang it! So sorry! I'll work on that :)

Ladies that Luncheon (or Ladies that Cake :)

WOW! That's not me patting myself on the back, I promise :) I believe it stands for Women of Worship. Carol wanted a unique cake for her women's church group gathering. She specifically wanted "girlie" and "pink" and more "girlie." We decided that a purse, hatbox, and present box would be perfect. I accented the cake with some edible sugar pearls, sugar brooch, sugar flower, and sugar bow. The whole cake is edible, including the "tissue paper" in the present and hat box. 

I had so much fun making this zebra printed purse. First, I made the sugar flower with a pearl center and the brooch that's all sugar pearls and let those set up for a few days. I didn't want this whole cake to be black and white because Carol was pretty specific in her need for PINK! Haha. I shaped out the purse, frosted it, then covered it in marshmallow fondant. I added a flap over the top and used a quilting tool to add seams to the purse. I cut out zebra stripes freehand because it's way more fun that way. I added a purse strap, the flower, and brooch and Ta-Da!

 I used a cool stencil design I found a while back for this present box and topped it off with a fondant bow. The lid was made out of rice krispies and then I propped it up just a bit to add the edible tissue paper.

 The hatbox was extra tall (to fit a hat, of course) and topped off with a rice-krispie hatbox lid. I draped the sugar pearls around the box to give it a little more detail.

I believe the flavors were Banana Cream Pie, Mocha Java, and Brownie Lovers. Yum! I would've stayed to eat all three flavors, especially because the ladies were so much fun! They were shocked that this was their cake! They were setting up for the ladies weekend and stopped to come huddle around the cake. They took pictures of the cake and with the cake. Haha... they were awesome! Thank you ladies!!

Twins who Love Purses

Brian called to say that his wife and her twin sister were turning 30 this week and to celebrate, he wanted two really cool purse cakes. They were spending the week vacationing in Park City and so it was only fitting to do two really chic handbags. I modeled both of these cakes after actual purses but edited them just a bit while trying to keep the same feel and detail work. In addition to the cakes, Brian wanted to make sure that these were personalized for each woman. Dallas' cake was a vintage Chanel purse (Strawberry Tall Cake: Strawberry cake layered with vanilla filling and buttercream) while Danielle's purse cake was a Coach handbag (Supremely Lemon Cake: Lemon cake layered with lemon filling and buttercream). They both turned out to be life-size. The Coach bag was over 8inches tall, 9inches wide, and 4.5 inches thick. Everything in these pictures are completely edible and made out of homemade marshmallow fondant. The ladies are from Texas so we had to add that detail in here somewhere, so we thought of the key chain. There are doggy collars as well because they love their dogs, Dixie, Stella, and Miles. The Park City postcard was made out of marshmallow fondant and the trees are painted onto the "card." The necklaces were modeled after Carrie's necklace in Sex and the City.

Now for some more detail on caking. In order to give the cakes the right shimmer, I tinted the fondant just a touch and after covering the cakes, I painted the cakes with edible silver or gold shimmer. Although it's hard to see here, the shimmer made the cakes really glow. The lipsticks, necklaces, pearls, key chains, and dog collars were all hand painted as well. In order to make the pearl necklace, I rolled out small balls of white fondant. I let them dry and harden just a touch over night. They were hard on the outside but still a little squishy on the inside. Then, I took a thin wire (18 gauge florist wire) and threaded the beads onto the wire. After connecting the last ball to the first with the wire, I painted the whole necklace with white petal dust. It's pretty amazing to see how fast time can fly when you're caking! Hours and hours into the night... ahh, so fun!

Martinis and Purses

Andrea wanted a graduation cake but I had to jump on her love of purses and martinis! She wanted a teal and chocolate brown color scheme with circles. The martini glasses are very subtle around the sides of the cake. I tried a purse cake once before and wanted to try a different style. The bottom cake is a strawberry lemonade cake with lemon buttercream. The top cake is red velvet layered with cream cheese frosting. This picture isn't the best in terms of color so I'm including another picture so you can see the light brown color. (Sorry that it's a bit blurry)

I also wanted to show the back of the cake. Same design elements and I tried to restrain myself from putting too many details on the cake (I've been told I can go overboard with my designs... crazy, I know! :)

Lastly, after carving the red velvet purse, I realized that Andrea probably needed more cake to feed her guests. I made a small side cake to go with this cake to feed a few more people. I used the same design scheme to match the cake.

First Attempt at a Purse Cake

I made this purse (more of a handbag, I guess) cake for my sister-in-law's birthday. Her initials are EP and she's purse-obsessed! It was my first attempt at a purse cake and I only had a few hours to put it all together... I know, excuses, excuses, I just know it's not perfect. In any case, it was red velvet layered with buttercream covered in marshmallow fondant.