WHAT A CRAZY HOBBY!!

2012-01-03T15:35:00.000-08:00

Fun in Florida!

My tiny little grand daughter and I made flowers to go on a store bought ice cream cake for new born little Jane as we celebrated her special blessing day!

2012-01-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

What a Winter Wonderland Wedding!!

6, 9,12 and an 12x18 sheet cake gumpaste cut snowflakes in different sizes and shades of blue and silver. The topper was created with clear Christmas tree ornaments, by the bride's mom! Beautiful touch!

Then of course they needed a grooms cake!

(Check the next post for the Grooms cake!!)

Winter Wedding Groom's Cake

2012-01-03T14:22:00.001-08:00

Nintendo Grooms Cake!

This was so much fun, it is a 2 layer 9" square carrot cake with cream cheese filling. Covered with Fondant to look like the

ORIGINAL NINTENDO!

Mario depicts the feels of the groom!

"YES, I WIN"

Controllers are made from crispy rice cereal, and fondant!

Now the cords... they were going to be piped, but I didn't want black buttercream on a white cloth, then the thought was black rope licorice, so sad I couldn't find it anywhere!

so the only things NOT edible in this cake

are the black SHOE LACES!

2012-01-03T14:21:00.000-08:00

Leilah, enjoying my first ever baked ganache covered cheesecake!

I guess I did okay, she seemed to love it!!

Thanks Leilah, Nana loves you!!

Classy Cake

2011-08-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be difficult to create a wedding cake that looks elegant and not country, using SUNFLOWERS!

Knowing this beautiful bride as well as I do made it a bit easier to find the perfect combination.

She showed me pictures of designs she liked and here is the end result!

This is a 3 tier 6,9,12 there was also a GPS grooms cake and 3 half sheet cakes.

The monogram was picked up at Hobby Lobby and I added different size tiny pearls to add another elegant touch.

The flowers and leaves are all gumpaste.

Oh how I enjoy creating cakes for a family that is so dear to me!

Sometimes I think the love I put into creating a cake makes it taste that much better!! It is the most important ingredient!

I think often of the term,

you have to 'FEEL THE LOVE'

GPS Groom's Cake

2011-08-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

GPS Groom's Cake

This cake was a surprise from the brides mom! They were surprised and really loved it! The couple has a special GPS story between them. Garmen is replaced by Gebs, which is their last name

This was sculpted from a 9x12 cake. I took one of the cut away sides

and added it to the bottom end to make it about an inch or so longer to give it correct shape.

This is a chocolate cake, with chocolate raspberry filling.

Covered with bright yellow fondant. The black is Fondex! OOHH i love that stuff!

Of course the date and time of their wedding day was done with black food color pen.

Another Princess Cake!

2011-07-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

Princess And The Frog

Princess Tiana, from Princess and the Frog

She is made entirely of gumpaste, with a dowel in the center to create a cake topper.

Prince Naveen is also made from gumpaste.

He is sitting on the second cake, out if front of the upper cake, (because I made him a little to large to fit underneath)I have done this twice now! You would think I would learn to plan my cakes better!

This cake was completed from beginning to end in 24 hours!

Cakes are white and chocolate and filled with chocolate buttercream, covered with fondant. Her flower is gumpaste on her dress, but the vine on her dress is hand painted on! I always push to see how many techniques I can do on one cake without over doing it!

Hawaii / Rock Climbers Wedding Cake

2011-07-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Two cakes in one weekend! So different from each other!!

This was a 6", 9" and 12"

Some sculpting done, adding and taking away to make it look like a mountain.

Bride & Groom, sea shells, flowers, and sign are all made of gumpaaste,

This couple actual rocked climbed up to the top of a beautiful "mountain" by the ocean in their wedding attire and sandals, to be married when they reached the top!

This cake was delivered to Golden Colorado....

My husband and I drove about 80 miles to deliver it. In 96 degrees!

We have A/C in the car thank goodness! The only problem was that our engine got so hot we began feeling VAPOR LOCK starting! Steve drove amazingly! Milking it and never stalled out!!

The only problem is that the cake was in the back seat and the A/C had to go off !!

We made it and everything went INCREDIBLY well!

I love this CRAZY hobby!!

I am so grateful that I have friends that let me practice my hobby and those even willing to pay me for what I love to do!! How lucky is that!

Thanks to all of you who follow and enjoy my blog! I hope you get ideas to add to your own creations!

OLD SCHOOL BUTTERCREAM WEDDING CAKE

2011-07-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

THIS WAS THE OLD SCHOOL BUTTERCREAM WEDDING CAKE!

I did make my flowers out of Gumpaste but the rest was a yummy buttercream.

She wanted all kinds of flavors:

Top 6" vanilla cake w/lemon crunch filling

9" chocolate cake w/ ganache and Baverian Cream

12" Vanilla Cake w/ Raspberry whipped filling

We also did 3 1/4 sheet cakes:

1) Chocolate cake w/ ganache and cherry filling

2) Vanilla w/ raspberry whipped filling

3) Vanilla w/ lemon crunch filling

All three sheet cakes were iced with a yummy whipped cream frosting.

We are in the middle of a major heat wave here in Colorado Springs, so I did have a bit of delivery issues!

All went well in the end!

Baby Shower!

2011-07-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

This CAKE was for a baby shower

that gave my daughter, my grand daughter and I

time to visit with dear friends!

I always get a little more nervous when I am doing a cake for friends and family!

The heat really got me on this cake!

I had to work fast & furious!

In the end it came out just fine!

The beautiful, expectant mommy loves yellow cake and chocolate filling!!

I haven't made this combination in so long I now want to make it just for us to eat!

This cake was a 10" on the bottom and the top was a two layer 8" topped with a 6" and a 4", one layer each. "

The fish are all made of gumpaste,

the waves were a cut on a whim and hand painted to look kind "whimsical"

The bubbles were piped on with buttercream using 3 different size tips, #3, #5, #12.

Love ya, Chelsea!!

My daughter Becca once made her ADORABLE creation

a "Bundle of Joy"

as a gift for Chels!

I have to show off her business!

Let us know when you are looking for a sweet baby gift,

and a baby shower cake!!

Dinosaurs!

2011-07-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

This is similar to my last dinosaur cake except for this one is made for a boy, and the dinosaur is eating and tearing up the #8 that is now laying by his feet,

The water is painted piping gel.

the dinosaurs and lettering are all gumpaste. I used to make rocks out of fondant, but I now see the reasoning to using candy rocks!

World Travel Wedding!!

2011-07-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, what an amazing and fun project!

This cake was for sweet family friends.

They have spent the last few years traveling all over the world!

Even though they traveled for work they were able to see

so many incredible places!

I begin with the cake that was actually made as their wedding cake for the reception!

They had a BBQ with many many friends.

This cake is a "3 tier cake" made to look like 3 stacked suitcases.

Bottom tier (12 x 18) was chocolate cake with choc ganache, & raspberry filling.

Center cake (12 x 18) was vanilla cake with strawberry whipped cream filling.

Small top bag (9 x 12) was a vanilla cake with butter cream it was cut in half and layered.

This bag was designed to look like it was a quilted fabric.

The Bride and Groom (AKA Jessie & Kevin)

I made them from gumpaste.

The only non edible item is her little flower in her hands.

I used a garlic press to make their hair.

Passports and postcards, patches, and luggage tag, I hand painted and loved doing!!

The "back pack" is a giant rice krispie treat I covered in fondant!

Along with this cake came what follows, 8"rounds decorated for each table center piece,

representing 9 of their favorite spots in the world!

They traveled the world!!

2011-07-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

The Sweetheart cake!

The globe was made by using 1/2 of a styrofoam ball and lapcing half a round cake on top!

Iced and covered with fondant!

My sweet husband knows that I am not great at geography so he was great to help with cutting out all the countries for me!

NO DAY BUT TODAY! this was their theme.

This cake was at their sweet heart table and was cut by the couple on the wedding day!

The tiny red hearts were placed at every spot this couple has been and a fondant airplane was put at the top with a banner reading just married!

Venice!

2011-07-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Venice!

This wonderful couple are quoted as saying they were "stuck" in Venice!

Due to the eruption of the volcano back when planes were grounded they got lucky enough to be stuck for a few extra days in Venice!! DARN!

The the brick pattern is to represent the sidewalks they sat on while

enjoying watching the gondolas and having their favorite "meals" each day.

The wine bottle is hand painted gumpaste. the lower part of the back of the bottle is cut out to look as if it is half in and half out of the cake.

Lots of time was pent playing cards, eating cheese and crackers and drinking wine, by the water!

All pieces are made of gumpaste and hand painted.

2011-07-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

BARCELONA!

The couples two favorite things about Barcelona were the Sagrada Família

and the Long and winding (My name for it:) bench.

Both were creations of Gaudi.

All I really new how to do on this one was try to represent the Sagrada Familia cathedral with the little cake topper that had "stained Glass" or Fondant cut outs backed with fruit leather! I really liked this look after trying many different ways to make stained glass. The bench was represented by a round cake that I sculpted bit to give a different look like rolling hills with tiles weaving back and forth to represent Gaudi's 'type' of art.

Pretty simple but "HEY, I am only one woman!!"

Rome!

2011-06-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

~Rome~

This cake is very simple, but it says all it needs to say!

You look at it and you know it represents the Roman Colliseum

This is another one of 10 8" round cakes that became a centerpiece for a wedding dinner!

The colliseum and grapes are made of gumpaste.

London Cake!

2011-06-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

~ LONDON~

tea cup & saucer,

lettering, bus,

phone booth

Big Ben

(Clock Tower)

All created with gumpaste

Vanilla cake / lemon filling

Hong Kong Cake!

2011-06-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong

Please know that I did not make this Buddha!

I found it online and it was exactly the size I needed. I was very concerned that I never wanted to try to insult anyone by trying to create this important part of the cake, so needless to say I was thrilled to find this one!

This cake was made from a doll pan

sitting on an 8" round (one layer)

The cake is iced with butter cream and sprayed green and brown. The trees, again, are pretzel sticks and butter cream.

The steps are there to represent the 268 steps to the top.

I made those ahead using gum paste.

The funny part of this cake was that while in

Hong Kong they went to Disneyland and it was Halloween!

They saw the characters from Nightmare Before Christmas!

So adding this part made me remember that I was doing every little piece of this wedding for the bride and groom and this is what they want! Such an important thing to always remember as a cake decorator!

New Orleans!

2011-06-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

New Orleans!

This was a fun city to do!

Basically a collage of things that represent

their FAVORITE parts of the city!
Cake was covered with fondant
and all pieces were made from gum paste.

Sydney Austrailia Cake!

2011-06-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

The Sydney Opera House & The Harbor Bridge

My design of this cake was a bit cartoonish, I did this in many of the cakes because they were not to be the correct proportions and I wanted to be sure to add as many items the bride mentioned to me as I could to each cake.

All items were made with gum paste.

The lower portions of the opera house are covered rice krispies. The cake was covered with fondant and then I used a palette knife and butter cream to create waves.

Vancouver Cake

2011-06-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

Stanley Park,

Vancouver Canada!

Totem Poles

and a bike ride through the park

I created the totem poles, bike, maple leaves, and welcome sign with gumpaste . Hand painted and sculpted the totem poles and sprayed using airbrush onto the fondant. The trees in the back were butter cream icing on pretzel rods.

The dry grass in the fore ground is

Shredded Wheat cereal.

Have you been to Singapore?

2011-06-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well I feel like I have been there!!

While Kevin & Jessie were there they had a woman make them their own family stamp, so I replicated it out of gumpaste and hand painted it as she made it for them.

Lion you see on top of this cake is the MERLION fountain, that is found in the center of Singapore.

My merlion is made of sculpted rice krispie treats and covered with fondant.

The "water" is poured sugar that was very difficult to make look like water, I hope in the end I got it!

2011-03-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

Bryce & Tami wanted a cake for the family the night before they were married!
I decided that it would be fun to have this cake celebrate their love for baseball and all the games teams they would see play while on their honeymoon!

Oakland A's

San Francisco Giants

& the Colorado Rockies!

These are 18"souvenir bats that were cut to the appropriate length and glued to the cake plates.

Topper, pennants and postcards and tiny baseballs are all hand painted and made from gum paste

Cakes are covered with fondant and the stitches are made using edible ink!

Love ya, Tami!

GUMPASTE RED ROSES!

2011-03-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at gumpaste roses!

Most of what I didn't do well was easy to hide as they were put on the cake, thank goodness! I have lots to learn about the finer techniques.

When is there ever time to practice??

This cake was for a 25th wedding anniversary.

The wedding cake 25 years ago was white and light blue with red roses., so this is how I was asked to decorate this one.

We have vanilla cake, with buttercream, covered in fondant.

6" & 9" cakes

The roses are gumpaste with Luster Dust.

I also used a clothing steamer to put a shine on the roses. I do like that effect!

Gumpaste roses are so very fragile! Each petal has to be placed and left alone or it will break!

Believe me I know!!

Girls Like Dinosaurs Too!!!

2011-03-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

This cake was for a 5 year old little girl that loves and knows her

DINOSAURS!!

This made it fun to try to make the dinosaurs look more real than cute!

The cake is marble, yellow/chocolate, covered with buttercream.

Decorated with Pretzel Rod trees, fondant leaves and rocks, the water is blue colored piping gel!

Another Baby's 1st Birthday!!!

2011-03-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Baby Eisley

Buttercream iced, vanilla sheet cake with whipped strawberry filling.

Decorated with fondant bow and dots!

A tiny 6" was added just for Eisley, to take off the cake and enjoy all by herself!

2011-03-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

BAby bLocKs

This is a 12" square chocolate cake with whipped chocolate filling.

It is butter cream iced and fondant decorated

The 4" square blocks are white cake with whipped cream/strawberry filling.

The blocks are butter cream iced, covered with fondant.

The blanket and the bow are also fondant.

Square cakes are very difficult for me! I don't seem to make them sharp enough for my liking!
So much still to learn!

A Family Party for Leilah's Special Day!

2011-03-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

The following weekend Leilah celebrated her1st birthday with her family!Her Uncle Daniel entered the MTC to serve his mission on Leilah's actual birthday and Papa Steve got called into work, but the rest of the family was there to celebrate with LEILAH! This cake was found online along with ideas that created the entire theme for Leilah's family "Milk & Cookies" birthday party! To see the adorable birthday party Becca (Leilah's Mommy) took her ideas from! http://www.thecakeblog.com/page/2?s=milk+and+cookies Leilah loved the puffs that mommy hung from the light!
This cake is a 3 layer (choc,white,choc) 10" filled and iced with choc ganache!
Leilah may not be to into sweets but her family loves CHOCOLATE!

Leilahs 1st birthday!

2011-03-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sweet Leilah is now

ONE YEAR OLD!

This is a tiny 6" white cake with buttercream for Leilah and her mommy and daddy to celebrate on her actual birthday! Just the 3 of them together got to share in that wonderful day!

It did have a giant fondant 1 on top but that came off right away!

trouble uploading a picture of her enjoying this cake...COMING SOON!

The following weekend Leilah celebrated her 1st birthday with her family!

Her Uncle Daniel entered the MTC to serve his mission on Leilah's actual birthday and Papa Steve got called into work, but the rest of the family was there to celebrate with LEILAH!

It's A Girl!!

2011-01-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

~~~it's a GiRL!!!~~~

What a joy this CaKe this was to do!

You must know the story behind these cakes!

A young friend of my kids and her husband (Kimberly & Jonny) live in England. They are expecting their FiRsTbaby and are living very far from their families who live here in Colorado Springs,
so Kimberly came up with an amazing way to to have both sides of their family find out if this baby is a
BOY or a giRL!

She emailed me and asked if I could help her with her surprise. She worked so hard to plan how this was going to happen!
mY joB?? As soon as they got the news she let me know and I began work on 3 cakes that were to be exactly the same! With no evidence on the outside if the inside was piNk or bLuE!
The cake was a vanilla cake and vanilla butter cream, both tinted a VERY BRIGHT PINK!
Kimberly set up for all 3 homes to have Skype going so that she and Jonny could share in the families excitement as they cut into their own cake!
What a sweet way for a daughter and son to share incredible news with their families!

Thanks to you all for letting me be a part of such a SWEeT experience!

I understand that there was a poem read before cutting the cakes! I need to get a copy of that!!

80th Birthday Cake, Oh The Places They've Been!!

2010-12-31T07:44:00.000-08:00

This is a cake that covers all the places this family has lived! This forst photo shows a IDAHO. focusing on the families military time spent at Mountain Home.
Chocolate cake, fondant covered, jets and stars put on spring wires all made of gumpaste!

The Rocky Mountains begin there, they are made of rice krispie treats and covered with buttercream,

Wyoming and Colorado: filled with everything from Aspen leaves, to college pennants, and elk and antelope to Bride and Groom!
choc, and strawberry cake.

Nebraska and Montana: Nebraska was my favorite, this is where she was

born, they asked for sheep, tractor, sunflowers, corn. German chocolate cake.

Montana was filled with trees, maple leaves, college, and camping.

Scotland and Africa: A small gumpaste house for the young couple, a tartan made with folded and hand painted fondant. Africa shows a family story about a monkey trying to get into the back window of the family car!

All gumpaste items were hand made put into the cakes with toothpicks/wires, and I painted most of them with food color and paint brushes!

This was a fun cake. took a lot of figuring due to the fact the man that asked me to do it explained what he wanted by sending me a 5 page letter in the mail! CRAZY FUN! I think I got it all in!

Funky Sweet Sixteen

2010-12-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

Andi turned 16!

A party filled with games, that were all played with candy,

helped us decide that the cake also needed to be filled with candy!

So, what i came up with is a three tier (6, 8, 10)

the chocolate tiers had Snickers filling

and the vanilla tiers with pink candy buttercream!

The cake was embellished with

Fondant spirals, shoes (cuz every girls loves her shoes)

flowers, and lollipops,

as well as 'real' candy (Kisses, Jelly Bellys, and Gum Balls)

Oh yes, and a big fat 16 with a hot pink feather stuck right in the top!

Happy Birthday Andi!

Thanks for letting me create for you

and your "sweet" family once again!

2010-07-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled to tell all of you who follow my blog

that I have just WON my 1st cake contest!!

I took 1st place (not grand prize, but 1st place) in baby shower cakes @

http://www.creative-baby-shower-ideas.com/cake-contest.html

This is the cake that won!

It was made for my daughter's baby shower!

Thanks for all the encouragement you all give to me!

NO MORE TRAVELING CAKES!!

2010-06-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

So, this was my final traveling cake!

No more by plane, train, or automobile!!
This was a fun cake for a young man that graduated high school.

The family came to pick it up and drove for days with it in the car
(dry ice used to keep it cool) but the graduation party never really
saw the cake as it was meant to be!

I sure hope someone got to eat some of this cake!

THANK YOU CAKE

2010-06-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

So if you have the chance to thank someone

with more than a Thank you card...how about a thank you CAKE?

That's what I got to do!

Sara was a great friend, teaching my kids for many weeks while I wasn't able!

This is a 6" chocolate cake fun little crazy cutouts taken from an actual thank you card!

Fondant covered, fondant decorations, and piped border and lettering