Fuchsia Birthday Cake

Happy mid-October!  That means Halloween is coming up... then, Christmas!  I can hear you all protesting... :)

Anyway, on to my latest cake.  It was for one-year-old Tasha, and my neighbour friend wanted something similar to the boy baby shower cake I made, but change it up for a girl's birthday.  And add a "1" block on the top (made of Rice Krispies treat).  I used hot pink a.k.a. fuchsia fondant (white chocolate and regular mixed) so it's not the traditional baby pink.

Before I covered the chocolate cakes in fondant, they were filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and had a dark chocolate ganache shell.  The block also had white modelling chocolate before the fondant treatment.

Everyone was happy with their cake... some kids had seconds, some kids asked for seconds but were denied the request by their parents (smart!), some ate part of the cake but mostly the fondant and were bouncing off the wall (William).  The birthday girl seemed to enjoy it as well, even though she was stripped down to her diaper.

 

Happy 1st Birthday, Tasha!

February Projects, Part 2

Here's the story... originally, I had a Spaceballs cake order due for yesterday. This was taken months in advance. So, I planned accordingly and took two days off work, enough time to complete it. Then, a couple of weeks ago, a colleague asked for a baby shower cake. I didn't want to say no, so I said yes, thinking I had ample time. Who could've predicted that I'd get sick on Valentine's day and did not get better until a week passed? The last couple of days were hectic, let me tell you! Staying up Friday night 'til 2am baking was not fun; I felt like keeling over from sleepiness. Unfortunately, due to my lack of time, the photos are not taken in natural light.

Spaceballs Cake

The couple: die-hard Spaceballs fans. I mean, quote-every-single-line-from-the-movie-type fans. She wanted tall cakes, so each tier (8" and 10" rounds) had 3 layers... making it over 12 inches high. It was so HEAVY! The cakes were red velvet with cream cheese icing, wrapped in black fondant. All the decorations were made from either fondant, gumpaste or modelling chocolate. The Winnebago and Princess Vespa's dress had Rice Krispies treat bases. If you've seen the film, you'll get the little details I tried to represent.

Happy Jack 'n Jill, Kristina & Gary!

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Baby Boy Shower Cake

This cake was based on an existing design, but I've switched some elements, like adding the blocks and booties. The blocks had Rice Krispies treats as the foundations. All other elements were made of gumpaste and fondant. The filling for all tiers was vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing; the top 6" tier was red velvet cake; the 8" middle tier was vanilla cake; the 10" bottom tier was marble cake. I now understand why the cakes from televised cake decorating competition shows could get so heavy!

Both were completely assembled when I put them in the trunk... and remained intact during the delivery process! It's so nice to not have to carry any caking supplies to set up the cake... but the trade off is the possibility of it falling apart along the way and lifting a product that weighs a ton.