Friday, June 29, 2012

Summer is Here!

June was so busy for me... I also took an insurance course on liability.  Interesting stuff.  While doing that, I was working on various projects.

Baby Shower Cupcakes


This was for a lady who had a traditional baby shower... when she herself is not traditional.  The cupcakes were chocolate, vanilla, and lemon, all topped with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  I also made red velvet with cream cheese icing.  All the toppers were made from fondant/gumpaste.
Congratulations!

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Summer Sprinkle Cookies


The end of the school year is here... so, these are cookies made to thank teachers and co-op placement staff.  I made it summer themed and chose to have simple shapes (only the beach ball was used with a circle cutter, the rest were handcut from templates).  The sugar cookies were brushed with corn syrup before having the sanding sugar coating.  The flip flop straps and watermelon seeds were royal icing dots.
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Princess Ruffle Cake


I had altered a previous fondant design that was requested, and made a buttercream version instead.  The upside down ruffles were piped in gradated shades of pink.  The crown was fondant/gumpaste mix and sprayed with gold.  The cake board, I used marshmallow fondant and stamped a blossom cutter along the edge.  This cake was red velvet with cream cheese filling.  I wonder if the crown was eaten...
Happy Birthday!

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Flower Cake Pops and Flower Pot Cake


This was made for my step-mother-in-law's birthday.  She loves gardening and such, so I thought it would be neat to make cake pop flowers stuck into a flower pot cake.  The pops had flourless chocolate cake (my step-brother-in-law is allergic to gluten and he was going to this shindig).  After baking, it was still very wet, but I guess that's normal if there was no flour to absorb the moisure.  I definitely didn't have to add any icing when I formed the cake balls.  Then I just cut circles of yellow fondant to form petals around it.

The terracotta colour... I got it right in one shot! :) One drop of red, brown and yellow to the white fondant was all it took.  I had to carve down the cake to a flower pot shape before it was covered with the fondant.

The "dirt" was just crumbled chocolate cake.  I rubbed green petal dust on the cookie sticks so it wouldn't be just plain white.  I wasn't sure if painting it with gel paste would soften the stick, so I didn't attempt it.

Here's the sad story... the day of delivery, it was so hot... humidity is not a friend of fondant.  We also had to travel to Brampton, which was about 1.5 hour drive away.  I also had errands to do before, so let's add another 40 minutes to the trip.  It was at this point, I saw that the flowers were skewered through!  I was so upset; I should have realized that the flowers would not survive the ride inside the pot.  Next time, all cake pops will be lying flat or upside down!  The cake tasted good (lemon with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream), which was its saving grace.

Happy Birthday, Lynne!

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Baptism Cake


Solmaz, from Dress It Up Inc., ordered this cake (top tier vanilla, bottom tier chocolate; both with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream filling) for a little girl's baptism.  She had a specific design in mind, and it had to have pink and white gerbera daisies, sparkly pink crosses, pearls, a banner, and matching gerbera daisy cupcakes (not pictured).  All the white daisies have pearl lustre dust on them.

The flowers took a long time to stiffen (due to hot weather).  The crosses were all hand-cut, because I could not find any small cross cutters that were less than 1 inch!  I had to combine 4 thin 11-inch round cake boards because I couldn't find an 11-inch drum cake board.  I also added a 6" thin board to the bottom so it would be easier to move around.  I hope Kira liked the final results!

Congratulations, Kira!