Hot Pink & Damask Wedding

Lisa wanted an elegant but still fun and girlie wedding cake. Her wedding colors were hot pink, black, and white and she wanted to add some bling in there too. After getting a better idea of what she wanted, we came up with this design together. We used a full black damask pattern on the bottom tier to match her damask wedding scheme as well. The middle tier had pink and white pinstripes with an edible black border. We added some jewels around the monogram for extra bling and then used pink dragees in the corners of the diamond pattern on the top tier. I created small pink, hot pink, and white sugar flowers to make up a flower bunch on the top of the cake.

The wedding was held at a relative's beautiful home. The whole backyard was set up beautifully to match the color and damask scheme. It was stunning! I was so happy that the cake fit in perfectly to the wedding landscape. Congratulations, Lisa & Jared!!

Oh, her flavors were White Raspberry Kiss and Turtle Power Cake (you can check out the flavor descriptions at www.SaltCakeCity.com).

Mini Mario Cake

Recently, I've been making a lot more mini-cakes, which I think are ADORABLE! Look how tiny and cute this is!!! It's a 4-inch round top with a 6-inch round bottom. It's all covered in marshmallow fondant and all of the Mario bits and pieces are MMF as well. It was a Chocolate Chip No-Cookie Cake (vanilla cake layered with chocolate chips and buttercream). I loved making each little detail for Leo's birthday because it took me back to my childhood as well. Enjoy the throwback and the mini! :)

P.S. I'd like to add this to my nerd cake collection... Ah, I have to represent!

White & Black Separated Cake

Chanelle wanted a really unique but also traditional wedding cake. We spent a lot of time figuring out which details to include and exclude for this wedding cake in order to get it perfect for her. We kept it traditional by using the columns to separate the cakes but threw in a more modern design with the floral designs and using a black and white color theme. The top two tiers were hand-piped designs, the third tier down was a floral designer stencil and the bottom tier was quilted with black dragees at the corners. The whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant. Half of the cake was Chocolate cake with strawberry filling and the other half was White Chocolate Dipped Strawberry cake.

I have to admit a major fault here. Chanelle wanted the whole cake to be shimmered, which I think is so lovely because it shines beautifully. So I completed each tier, then sprayed the whole cake with edible pearl shimmer. I had a total panic attack when I realized that the shimmer on the black piping turned the black into silver. AH! I spent the next few hours hand painting all of the piping back into black. I felt so silly afterward!

So I try to assemble most of my cakes, if possible, before I get to the venue. There's really nothing more nerve racking than assembling a cake with a crowd of wedding guests surrounding me. Makes my hands shake!! Haha. This cake, however had to be assembled on site. I brought all of the back up supplies just in case I had a cake-tastrophy on the way over. Luckily, it was smooth sailing all the way. I loved the lighting behind the cake table as well. I placed the bride and groom on the top, added the cute purple flowers and took off just in time for the wedding to start. Yay!

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! Come inside!

It's fun inside! (Yes, I'm singing the song!) Shona has the BEST parties! She threw her best friend a birthday party last year and went big with it (It was the double sided cake, half-death, half-Hawaiian themed... all hilarious). So when her grand-baby turned 1, she wanted to do it in style. Payton loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so we did the whole Clubhouse in cake form.

Although the picture doesn't make it look very big, this cake was quite the feat, . The cake was Samoa Says Cake and Chunky Monkey cake (You can see descriptions and pictures of cake flavors on my website, www.SaltCakeCity.com). The hand, tower to the hand, and shoe were sculpted out of rice krispies. The Mickey Mouse head was styrofoam painted black. I know, I know. That should've been edible too. The issue was that mickey's head was just too darn heavy! My practice Mickey head split in half due to the sheer weight so could you imagine if that would've happened at the party. The babies would've cried for hours! Haha...

Anyway, the whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and all of the accents, were marshmallow fondant as well. I made a matching smash cake for Payton to destroy at the party as well. So much fun!!

Red Anemone Wedding Cake

Airin's wedding cake was inspired by a cake she had seen and fell in love with. We tweaked the cake a bit to make sure it reflected her wedding feel and style. I made large red sugar anemone flowers to put on the sides of the cake as well as the top. She wanted the black swirls to cascade down the sides of the cake rather than be all over the cake. 

 The whole cake is covered in marshmallow fondant and I made the flowers and swirls out of fondant as well. The cake was Mint Chocolate Chip, Samoa Says Cake, and Raspberry Cheesecake flavored.

Aaron Despain Photography took these beautiful shots of the cake. You can find more of his amazing work at www.aarondespainphotography.com.
 Here is an up close shot of the flowers. Enjoy! :)

Sassy Hippo Cake

Aimee wanted a cutesy hippo cake for Laci's birthday. Aimee basically said, "I want a hippo, I want purple, now do whatever you want." It was great! I had made a 3-D hippo cake not too long ago but wanted to take a different route with this one. The cake was Brownie Lovers Cake with a rice krispie head covered in marshmallow fondant (because carving chewy brownies can be quite difficult). For the head, I shaped it out of rice krispies, covered that in buttercream, then in fondant. I indented the nostrils using a fondant ball tool and then added the exaggerated eyes, eye lids, lashes, ears, and teeth. I dyed buttercream different shades of blue and piped it around the hippo (I should have named her!). Finally, I used an angled spatula to make the buttercream look a little messier so that it looked more like water.

I really did love this cake. My parents were in town visiting when I made this cake and I rarely get a chance to show them what I do. My mom gave her input on the eyes, ears, waves, etc. which made this order so memorable. Thanks, Aimee for all of your trust!

Construction Graduation Cake

Nicolette wanted a unique graduation cake for Charley. Because he was graduating in Construction Management, we wanted to incorporate that design element into the cake. We did the cake in Colorado Rockies colors, since that's his favorite team, and then added little construction signs all around the cake. I drew the construction signs by hand with edible marker and I love how they look. They are playful but were very clear to Nicolette and Charley :) The graduation hat was made out of rice krispies and the whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant. The cake was Cookies & Cake and Lemon Supreme. I wish I had more pictures of the signs because they were adorable! haha. Thanks for reading :)

Repunzel's Tangled Tower Cake

I made this cake for my bonus daughter's 8th birthday. We watched Tangled in theaters and we all loved it so much that Echo had to have the party be Tangled themed as well. This cake took HOURS upon HOURS to complete but I loved it in the end. I actually forgot what cake flavor this was because the tower took me so much time... haha.

The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant. I'm proud to say that everything on this cake is edible! I made the tower by covering a pipe with rice krispies and then covered them in buttercream and then covered that in marshmallow fondant. Lastly, I piped buttercream grass and placed little marshmallow fondant flowers on the tower. The house on the other hand, took some work. The whole house is rice krispies covered in buttercream and fondant. I shaped out the house and added an upside down ice cream cone on top to make the point. Then, I cut little purple, pink, and blue "tiles" out of fondant and placed them by hand on roof to make it look like shingles. I accented the house with windows, and fondant made to look like Repunzel's house in the movie. The trickiest part was to get the house to balance on the rice krispie tower. Wait, I take that back. The hardest part was driving 45 minutes to get the cake to the party all assembled in the car. It made it in one piece (YAY!).

Echo absolutely loved the cake and her friends loved it even more. It was so cute to see how proud she was of this fun cake! After the party, Echo gave the tower to Rosie (my best friend, originator of my business name, and official fondant maker) and I think Rosie still has it in her kitchen. Haha....

Texas Longhorn Cupcakes

Camille works for Brian, who received Mickey Mouse Cupcakes from Honey a while back, and she got to try a few of the cupcakes since Brian couldn't eat that many cupcakes himself :) So then Camille ordered cupcakes for Jacob with his favorite team's colors. Can you guess it? Yup! Texas Longhorns! Half of the cupcakes were chocolate and half were vanilla all topped with buttercream. I topped some of the cupcakes with marshmallow fondant toppers with "Texas," "T," and the longhorn logo on them. I printed out the longhorns logo and then hand cut the fondant to make sure they looked right. So simple but so fun! :)

Super Sweet 2nd

Laura was having a Super Sweet 2nd Birthday party for Gigi and wanted a super princess cake to match. She sent me over the party invitation and it was so cute that we decided to incorporate the design into the cake. It's hard to see here but the little blue design on the middle tier are two "S"s (for Super Sweet) and then the diamond design on that tier along with the princess crown. The flavors were Strawberry Not So Short Cake and Chocolate Truffle Cake. The whole thing was covered in marshmallow fondant.

I made the crown by cutting fondant in the right shape. Then, I laid the soft fondant around a small 4-inch round fake cake made of styrofoam. I added the yellow trim design and the purple diamonds in the center. I waited a few days and then slid the styrofoam out from the hardened crown. Lastly, I added a few golden dots on the top of the crown. So much fun! Laura went nuts when she saw the cake and I was so happy that she loved it!

Swirls & Quilted Ute Red

Here in Utah, there are lots of University of Utah fans and Isabelle wanted to use Ute Red in her wedding cake. The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and then I used buttercream for the swirls and dots. The middle tier is quilted with red dragees in the corners of the diamonds. Hmm.... I think that's all there is to explain :)

The top and bottom tiers were Tuxedo Cake and the middle tier was Strawberry Not So Short Cake. Yum!

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!