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!

Valentine Cupcakes

My bonus daughter was having a Valentine's party in class (Yes, I am THAT far behind in posting pictures... I'm Sorry!). The rules on snacks in classrooms have become way more strict than when I was in school so now they can only bring in store-bought snacks. Luckily, I own a bakery so I can make special little treats like this. Yay! These were mini chocolate cupcakes topped with red dyed buttercream and really big candy conversation hearts. They were so adorable and she loved them. Happy late Valentine's Day (yes, I know, that was A LONG time ago :)

Light Pink Mouse Cake

Sireesha and Sunil wanted a special birthday cake for their daughter, Ananya's, first birthday. They were throwing a big party and even renting out a special venue to get the friends and family together and celebrate. The party was Minnie Mouse themed so we came up with this cute design to match the decor of the room.

They chose a really soft pink rather than the vibrant pinks I've done in the past for other "pink mouse cakes." It's hard to see in this picture but I love how the soft pink contrasts with the black because it still pops off the cake. The whole cake is covered in marshmallow fondant and the hat on top is made out of rice krispies. Everything on the cake is edible. They chose strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting and Emerald City cake (pistachio flavored cake layered with pistachio cream filling and pistachio nut). Yum!

When I got to the venue, the space was beautiful! They had a ton of balloons and decorations which gave the room a fun feeling. I had to chose you a picture of it here... not the best picture of the cake but the space is awesome! :) I love the mouse ears made out of balloons!

Maroon & Brown Shimmer Cake

I was asked to make a display cake for an awesome venue that I partner with (The Gathering Place at Gardner Village) because they were doing a wedding show. I've been to their main reception hall and it's warm and rustic so I wanted to bring in those tones with this display cake. The whole cake is covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. This top tier is quilted and I placed little impressions in the corners so that it looks more like a cushion or pillow or fabric. Then, I placed little edible dragees in the center of the corners. I added a beaded border made out of MMF to top off this tier. The second tier has an edible brown ribbon with a brooch studded with more dragees. I layered fondant around the tier a few times to give it the look of fabric as well. The third tier is a hexagon and I covered it in white fondant. Then, I used a sponge and food coloring to sponge on a brown tone. I let it dry and then sponged on another layer of brown dye.

Lastly for this tier, I used a damask stencil up against the dried fondant and essentially spray painted edible shimmer onto the cake so that it only showed up in the light. It's such a soft pattern that's barely noticeable but it's one of my favorite touches on the cake. I added a very small pearl border around this tier as well. The fourth tier repeated the design of the second tier with a maroon background and the "fabric" fondant border and a larger edible bow & brooch. The last tier was similar to the top tier. For this one though, I did a little something different.

I have done the quilted pattern on many cakes but I wanted to make it unique for this display. Rather than quilting the whole base, I centered the pattern on each side and only quilted a triangle shape onto the cake. Again, this was such a subtle touch but I love it. This final tier had a pearl border as well. I sprayed the whole cake down with the same edible shimmer that the damask pattern was sprayed with and made the whole cake pop a little more.

The ladies at the Gathering Place said it was a big hit and it looked like it belonged in their wedding set up at the wedding expo. It was home :)

Make Up Cake

Breanna wanted a "girlie" cake for Brylan and thought she would love a make up themed cake. I have to say that I LOVED making this cake. I spent hours and hours making little make up pieces out of fondant and after every piece, I was more and more happy. I made several lipsticks, nail-polish, eye shadow, mascara, tweezers, brushes, and blush. Ah, it really was fun. All of the pieces on this cake were edible and there really is nothing that makes me happier than that... okay, maybe a few things but I was very pleased. The cake was vanilla with strawberry cream filling and covered in homemade marshmallow fondant.

Here's an up close shot of the pieces. I wish I could explain how I made these pieces but really, it's just a lot of circles and squares squished together until it looks right.

JP Display Cupcakes

In January, I was a vendor at a kid's show called "Winter Palooza." While there, I met Rick & Jodie Peters, owners of JP Display. They are the behind the scenes people that set up trade shows, helps business promote products and services, and make everything run smoothly at these shows and events. You can check out their work at http://jpdisplay.com/

They were wonderful to help me with my first booth ever and then they asked me to make a set of 100 cupcakes for one of their clients. I was happy to do it. We thought it would be great to have cupcakes topped with their logo so I made their exact logo out of marshmallow fondant. There were chocolate cupcakes with buttercream, lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream, vanilla on vanilla, and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (YUM!).

Missionary Badge Cake

Easter's brother was coming home from his LDS mission and she wanted to do a unique cake for the party. She thought a cool idea would be to make his missionary badge in cake form. It was also going to be fun because the badge was in Samoan. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and it was covered in marshmallow fondant. For the lettering, I had to use a few different techniques and cutters because LDS missionary badges are pretty distinctive and I wanted to get it right (I did a lot of google searches to get the size and fonts as close as I could to the real thing). In the end, it was a simple cake by design but took a lot of work to get it right. :)

Chocolate Truffle Box

Mona wanted a unique birthday cake for her mother-in-law and she thought a chocolate truffle box would be great since she loves chocolates so much. For this cake, I wanted to make cake truffles in the place of chocolate truffles and they are peaking through the lid there. The whole box is edible including the lid and bow. The cake was Chocolate Dipped Cherry Cake (chocolate cake with baked cherries layered with chocolate buttercream) and it was covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. I love how simple this cake looks while being very elegant and realistic as well. Enjoy!

Rock Star 1-Year Old

Nia wanted a memorable and fun 1st birthday cake for her daughter, Sela Malaysia. She knew off the bat it needed to be rock star but wanted to keep a pink and brown color scheme. We came up with this design with fun stars shooting out of the cake along with an edible guitar and microphone.

Two tiers are Brownie Lovers (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache and real brownies) and one tier is Rainbow Bright Cake (vanilla cake dyed to match the color of the cake with sprinkles layered with buttercream and rainbow sprinkles) The whole cake is covered in homemade marshmallow fondant.

For those of you interested in caking, making shooting stars is so easy to make and gives the cake a little extra pop. Roll out your fondant (I use MMF) pretty thick. Use any cookie cutters you have laying around but remember that if your shooting star is too big, it'll make the wire bend and fall over so you want something not too big, not too small. Cut out your shapes with your cookie cutters. Now use flower wire (or really any thin wire you can find) and twist the very top of the wire into a little loop. Shove the loop into the fondant and twist the wire just gently. The idea here is that the loop will catch onto the sides of the fondant and not let the star slide off of the wire. Then set the shape aside for a day or two. It'll dry and harden, then you can just pop into the cake. Yay!

5-Tier Black and White Damask Cake

Brittany had always dreamed of having a large wedding cake even though she technically didn't need that many servings of cake. She also thought a black and white damask pattern would be a beautiful design for the cake along with some fresh, deep red roses to top it all off. The cake was massive, especially with the 6 or 7 inch tall base on which it sits and so I think Brittany and I both agreed that we needed to keep the design heavy on some tiers and not on others.

I get a lot of questions about how to do stenciling. In order to do the stenciling on this cake, I did a lot of praying :) That's the key! haha. Actually, I had the cakes covered in homemade marshmallow fondant, then I used black buttercream as my "paint." I held the stencil up against one side. I used a paint brush to "paint" the black buttercream all over the stencil, being extra careful to not let the buttercream seep out of the edges of the stencil. I used a straightedge to scrape the side of the stencil in order to gather the excess and to give it a smooth look. This is when the praying comes in. I gently pulled the stencil away from the cake and hoped for the best. I have to say, I was VERY anxious when I applied the first stencil but wouldn't you know it, it came off beautiful, no smudges, no errors, no problems to fix. Yay! One down, 26 stencil jobs to go (there were four sides for four tiers and then the middle tier had three separate stencils for each side). Phew! In the end, I was so happy with the outcome that I actually carried the cake to my man-friend for him to see if (yes, I usually just ask him to come see it but I was OVERLY excited that I wanted to carry it to him!).

Now on to the flavors. The couple chose Ruby Red Velvet Cake (Red velvet cake layered with cream cheese frosting) and White Raspberry Kiss Cake (white chocolate cake layered with raspberry cream filling and rich white chocolate ganache). I love how The Gathering Place at Gardner Village set up the cake table against this beautiful backdrop with the great lighting here making the cake a focal point at the reception.

I wrote this next part for the last post I made about Brittany and Spencer's golf groom's cake and wanted to add it here because I was so pleased with the venue...

"I have a take a second and talk about Brittany & Spencer's venue, The Gathering Place at Gardner Village in West Jordan. I have visited the location several times in the past but never at night when it was set up for a wedding. Oh my gosh. I walked in with the wedding cake and it was absolutely magical! As you walk in the giant doors, you see a breathtaking fire place that sets up the feel of rustic and warm venue. The ceremony was held right next door to the reception site which was so convenient for the wedding guests. I walked into the main reception area that was decorated with the bride and groom's wedding colors and I was totally wowed. I've delivered quite a few wedding cakes in my time and this venue was one that I left saying, "wow, I would totally get married there!" The room was large but not overly large so that guests would feel lost. It had a cozy and warm feel, especially with the white, black, and deep red color scheme. I wanted to stick around after delivering the cake because it was so inviting! I just have to say, well done, Charlotte & Shauna! The Gathering Place is truly amazing!"

Golfing Groom's Cake

Brittany wanted to get Spencer a fun groom's cake for their wedding and wanted to incorporate his love of golf. She had seen a cake online that had a golfer with a golf cart and thought that would be fun. The cake was Brownie Lovers which is chocolate cake layered with a rich chocolate ganache and a layer of chewy brownies. It was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the cake was edible, including the golfer, the cart, and the bag.

In order to make the golf cart, I had to make the wheels, seating area, and roof in separate pieces. I let them dry and harden and then assembled them a few days before the wedding (this way, if it fell apart, I still had a few days to make another). Luckily, it went together beautifully and even made the delivery drive. I tried to keep the side pattern elegant and simple considering how much detail there was on top. Plus, the main wedding cake is coming in my next blog and you will see that the main cake was quite a cake and so I didn't want to take away from that one too much.

So when we got there, my best friend, Rosie (who I call my "cake muscle") brought in the cake. We set everything up and as we about to leave she said ,"Where's the golf ball?" I looked at the groom's cake and there was no golf ball! Fondant Spencer was holding a club and looking down at the grass but there was no ball! I freaked out for a second (especially since I literally saw the bride walk passed me in her beautiful gown as she entered the main ceremony next door). Then I remember that I put three extra golf balls in the fondant golf bag behind Spencer. I have to thank my dad for that. Every time we go golfing, he always stresses to bring many extra golf balls... thank you for the tip, Dad! It saved me here! :) I pulled one off of the golf bag, set it in front of the club and called it a day.

I have a take a second and talk about Brittany & Spencer's venue, The Gathering Place at Gardner Village in West Jordan. I have visited the location several times in the past but never at night when it was set up for a wedding. Oh my gosh. I walked in with the wedding cake and it was absolutely magical! As you walk in the giant doors, you see a breathtaking fire place that sets up the feel of rustic and warm venue. The ceremony was held right next door to the reception site which was so convenient for the wedding guests. I walked into the main reception area that was decorated with the bride and groom's wedding colors and I was totally wowed. I've delivered quite a few wedding cakes in my time and this venue was one that I left saying, "wow, I would totally get married there!" The room was large but not overly large so that guests would feel lost. It had a cozy and warm feel, especially with the white, black, and deep red color scheme. I wanted to stick around after delivering the cake because it was so inviting! I just have to say, well done, Charlotte & Shauna! The Gathering Place is truly amazing!

To visit their website, check out www.gardnervillage.com.

More to come on Brittany and Spencer's wedding! :)

Blue & Silver Stripes Cake

Heather & Craig needed a simple but elegant cake for their marriage at The Castle in Layton. When I met them at the tasting, I thought they were SO kind and just an all around fun couple so I was thrilled to make this cake from them. Heather had seen a similar cake I made for a previous wedding and wanted to incorporate her wedding colors. They were having a winter wedding but were firmly against having a Christmas theme or a snowflake theme so we kept it simple with silver and blue.

The cake tiers were 6-inches tall a piece so it was a very heavy and very tall cake. The top tier was Strawberry Cheesecake Cake (strawberry cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream), the middle tier was Rocky Mountain Road Cake (chocolate cake layered with mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, and chocolate buttercream... we left the chopped almonds out) and the bottom tier was White Raspberry Kiss Cake (white chocolate cake layered with raspberry filling and white chocolate ganache). Wow, that was a mouthful!

Now for the details. The cake was covered in marshmallow fondant. I used the paneling method in which I roll out fondant in the size of each side of the tiers. Then, I essentially put the MMF on the cake just like a contractor would with drywall except I use buttercream :) I then cut out stripes of gray and blue and placed them on the cake so that they overlap. Lastly, I painted the gray stripes with edible silver luster dust to give it more shine. Ah, so much fun!!!

I ran into Heather last week at the "What a Woman Wants Expo" and she said she loved the cake :) From that order, I actually became one of the preferred vendors at The Castle and she was so happy that her wedding cake was the catalyst for the connection (I was thrilled too :) Thank you both for the trust and support in making your wedding cake!

Cake in the Hat?

Reena needed a small but fun cake for Sawyer's second birthday. She wanted to do a themed birthday cake and was thinking the Cat in the Hat would be fun. We came up with this design together and I actually think the real cake came out better than the sketch! The whole cake was Truffled Chocolate Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate cream filling and mini chocolate chips along with chocolate buttercream) and it was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. The bow and the #2 at the top were also MMF so that Sawyer could really eat the whole thing.

To make the top cake, I layered stripes of white and red fondant over each other to make it look like fabric. Then, I used black food coloring and a paintbrush to paint on the infamous black lines from the book. When I delivered the cake, Reena loved it! It was just such a cute, whimsical cake :)

Brown & Burgundy Wedding Cake

Elise was getting married and wanted a brown, burgundy, and white wedding cake to match her decor. She wanted something elegant but still fun at the same time. The top tier was Brownie Lovers (chocolate cake layered with actual brownies and chocolate ganache), the middle tier was English Toffee Cake (sweet yellow cake layered with chocolate buttercream and toffee chunks) and the bottom tier was Spices & Cake (spice cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream).

The whole cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and the bow on the top was also MMF. The floral pattern was stenciled on using a designer stencil and buttercream. I've recently had many people ask how I do stenciling on a cake. It's been a learning process and I have to say, I've learned a lot in making mistakes first. The first time I did a stencil, it worked beautiful so I thought to myself, "Yay! That's so easy!" Then I went through a rough patch where I would stencil, it wouldn't come out to my liking. For example, if the cake is white and I'm using brown buttercream to stencil, the brown can bleed or get smudged and unfortunately, it's not like I can just "erase" the errors. Essentially, I had to take the fondant off, recover the whole cake, and try the stencil again. With this technique, it's quite noticeable when there's an error and on my cakes, that's not okay for me. On this cake, I took my time to make sure my buttercream job was perfect, then made sure my fondant job was good to go before attempting the stencil. If the buttercream or fondant aren't done correctly, the stenciling will just not work right. I really think that's half the battle (G.I. Joe... knowing is half the battle.... :)

Anyway, when I went to deliver the cake, they had this amazing cake table set up under a gazebo with a great table and lighting. I thought it was such a beautiful set up and the bride and groom were there taking pictures (they looked beautiful). Thank you both for allowing me to make such a fun cake! Congratulations!

Small Road of Life Birthday Cake

Jennifer wanted a special birthday cake for her dad this year. She was actually at a surprise retirement party for Dr. Edna Rogers a while back and loved the idea of doing a road of life cake. Because this cake wasn't too big, we wanted to put different milestones and special personalized details of his life onto the cake. Bob served a mission in Germany, "collects" and rescues cats, vacations in Palm Springs, loves his cabin, enjoys photography, and is a member of a Duck club (not shooting but rather watching ducks).

The cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and I used a number of techniques for the decorations. The ducks were hand cut out of white fondant and then I painted on the green and brown colors. The cats were also a combination of fondant shapes and hand-painting to get the right details on the cats. For the Palm Springs post card, I first cut the postcard. I added a layer of gray-ish colored mountains made of fondant and then painted a blue sky behind it. I added lettering on top of the colors and mountain as well as palm trees and coconuts cut from fondant. Although you can't see all of the details here, I had a lot of fun making each piece to personalize the cake even further.

The top tier was Mom's Apple Pie Cake ( Moist apple spice cake with baked apples layered with cheesecake cream filling) and the bottom tier was After Dinner Mint Cake (Minty chocolate cake layered with mint chocolate ganache and mini-chocolate chips). I love making this type of design because it really doesn't mean much to the passer by but those that attended the party and who know Bob really enjoy seeing all of the details of his life. Jennifer and her family loved the cake (YAY!) and Bob's 80th birthday bash was a hit!

Quilted Shimmer Cake

Sylvia wanted a simple and elegant cake for Krystal's birthday. She wanted to incorporate gold and shimmer into the cake with a quilted design. This woman knew exactly what she wanted and I love that! I added a bow to give it a little more detail and then added edible pearls for the corners of the diamonds.

The cake was Lemonberry (lemon cake layered with raspberry cream filling and buttercream) and then it was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant with a MMF bow as well. I sprayed the cake with edible pearl shimmer and then the bow and sign with edible gold shimmer. I actually don't use a quilting mat or a diamond cutter to make the pattern but instead, I measure the circumference of the cake and then use a needle to poke the spots where the lines should meet. Then I take a straightedge and carefully press it into the side of the soft fondant. The hard part about this method is that if I miss it by even a fraction of an inch, I have to take it off and start again. On the other hand, this way, I'm able to adjust the size of the diamonds to fit each cake. Ah, so much fun! :)

Mini Grasshopper Cakes

Kari needed two cakes for her friends' birthdays. One of her inside jokes is little grasshoppers so we went with this idea and made mini-cakes for them. This first one is a female grasshopper (can't you tell? She has pouty pink lips and eye shadow) made out of fondant on top of Vanilla Latte Cake (vanilla cake layered with coffee flavored buttercream). The blades of grass and bow are also marshmallow fondant and then I placed silver dragees on the cake for a little extra touch.

As you can see, these are pretty small cakes. They were around 4 inches in diameter, which is pretty small to work with when covering a cake in buttercream and fondant. This cake has a little boy grasshopper (why I had to make a girl and a boy grasshopper is beyond me. She said grasshoppers, I assigned them a sex). In any case, this one has a hershey kiss made out of fondant along with a puddle of chocolate underneath the grasshopper. Again, the mini-cake is covered in home made marshmallow fondant. This cake was a chocolate cake layered with chocolate chips and chocolate buttercream. YUM!

I later heard that the second cake never made it to Kari's friend because when she unveiled the first cake to her friend, they ended up eating both cakes together :) haha. Happy to do it!

Happy Bunny Send Off

Karen wanted to give Martin a proper send off since he was leaving his position at the University of Utah and wanted to play off of his happy bunniness (not a word, I know). We went back and forth on designs and it proved challenging to incorporate bunnies into a cake for someone who's not turning 6 years old. In an effort to keep it more mature, I went with the school colors and a rather simple design so that you can focus on the happy little bunnies.

The bunnies were hand cut from circles and stripes and were surprising more easy to make than I anticipated. Circle for the head, circle for the body, strips for the hands, feet and ears. Okay, it's not THAT easy but you get the idea.

Because Martin likes things that are simple, Karen decided on Yellow cake with chocolate buttercream for the top tier, After Dinner Mint cake for the middle tier (chocolate cake layered with mint chocolate ganache), and 24-Carrot Cake for the bottom tier (carrot cake layered with cream cheese frosting).

Salt Cake City Logo Cake

I made this cake as a display for an upcoming convention to match my logo. The whole cake is covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. There's not much else to say about the cake. Oh, I know, I can explain how to make fondant candles. Roll out fondant so that it tapers near the bottom. Stick a piece of spaghetti noodle through it so that it peaks out of the top just a bit and sticks out the bottom about two inches. Then, with a piece of yellow fondant, shape a ball and then pinch a tip from the ball so that it resembles a flame. Place that onto the tip of the spaghetti noodle (I like to put a dab of water where the fondant touches fondant, this will help it glue faster). Now, if you lay it down flat to dry, there will be a flat surface on your candle. Instead stick the remaining exposed spaghetti into a piece of styrofoam so it stands tall. Now, get caking!

Religion in Cake Form

First an explanation. Sarah was taking a Religion and Conflict class and for her final project, she wanted something unique. What's more unique that religion in cake form? :) I was so happy to see her idea. She sketched out the idea she had in mind and explained it above. This was my interpretation of her interpretation of religion.
The book was made out of rice krispies covered in marshmallow fondant. The column was mostly styrofoam but I added the lined detail by layering marshmallow fondant "tubes" onto the styrofoam before covering the whole thing in more marshmallow fondant. Lastly, I made the Southern Butter Pecan Cake (butter pecan cake layered with caramel, chopped pecans, and cream cheese frosting) for the base and covered it in MMF. I painted on edible shimmery silver & gold to make it look like a galaxy and accented it with tiny dragees (fancy mini-jawbreaker type things).
It was a little tricky to assemble because I delivered to school so she could take it to her class. The book was a little heavier than the expected so the whole drive, I was afraid it would tip over. Don't worry, I drove a dowel straight through the whole cake to make sure it wouldn't. I still get nervous though :)

So I got it to my office where Sarah was coming to meet me. I had just got out of teaching and I had my students in my office asking for help with their homework when she came to get the cake. It was a strange moment with my students seeing the cake and thinking, "Wait, I thought she was a teacher." haha.

In the end, Sarah loved it AND I have to mention that she earned an A in the class. I like to think it was because of the cake but it's probably because she's a brilliant student. :)