Reptile Birthday Cake

I had less than a week to make a reptile-themed cake for a 6-year-old girl.  Yes, that's right, a GIRL!  I took the order because it was for someone I know plus I thought it was doable (it was finished 12 hours before the deadline... I am a hopeless procrastinator).

The party was being held at a reptile zoo (boy, was it busy for a Sunday!) and I delivered it using the worse roads ever, but the cake arrived intact.

The top tier was vanilla cake and bottom tier was chocolate cake, both filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  All the decorations were fondant.  I thought it would be cute to have 6 things to represent her age, since she was going to have a number 6 for her candle.  My favourite item was the lizard dusted with gold.

Apparently, the cake was devoured and not even one reptile was left.  That's when you know you have satisfied everyone's belly. :)

Happy 6th Birthday, Victoria!

50th Birthday Cake

Someone from work wanted a cake for her mom's birthday... her golden 50th birthday.  So, this was the result:

The vanilla cake was paired with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, topped with fondant and fondant decorations.  Lots of gold accents here: the numbers, letters and stars and wire were coloured with a gold spray; the pearls were gold lustre-dusted.

Earlier in the morning to early afternoon, the weather was horrible... one of the worst conditions you can get for fondant: RAIN.  Luckily, it let up by delivery time, but we still had to combat fondant's Nemesis #1: Humidity.  Good thing I put toothpicks to help keep the numbers upright for the 40-minute (very) bumpy ride because it arrived intact.

I hope the birthday lady enjoyed her surprise cake!

Happy Birthday!

Why, Hello, Tink!

First post of the new year... a little belated!  I'm sorry it took me a month!  New year resolution starting in February: weekly updates! :)

I'm going to be discussing the cake I made for this past Saturday.  A Tinkerbell doll cake for dear Solmaz's daughter's 4th birthday.  Her birthday was in December, but the party was postponed.

I finally purchased a dome pan for doll cakes.  Yes, no more stacking layers then carving them down! :)  It will help cut down the cake prepping part, especially when I have two more doll cakes for this coming weekend!

Solmaz showed me a design from Kat's Cakes, and this is my take.  I made the fondant petals more distinct in hue (light to dark, from top to bottom).  The petals, I've added lustre dust for that little sparkle that fairies have.  Of course, frilling took the majority of my time for this cake!  I added a ribbon sash which was meant to conceal a gap from a pull-string that chimed and made the wings light up.  I like the simple butterfly at Tink's waist.

The cake board was yellow fondant, embossed with butterflies; also it was my first time using corn syrup as an adhesive to the board (instead of piping gel).  It seemed to get the work done, so I guess anything sticky would suffice.

The cake was chocolate, which I cut in two and added a third base layer (it didn't seem like a lot of cake since Tink was a shorter doll than the standard).  The filling was strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream with Callebaut strawberry crispearls (yummy chocolate-coated puffed rice cereal).

Here's the pic of the cake in the venue... with Solmaz's scrumptious macarons in the background (something I haven't attempted yet, but I plan to... eventually).

All in all, everyone was happy with the cake... Solmaz, the guests, Melina, and myself! :)

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Melina!