Fat and Thin

Ashley's birthday was today - and three days ago, we (Erin and I) decided to make a cake - Kim's suggestion.. A fat Ashley that we could cut away into a thin Ashley! (Ashley has been losing weight lately and has an odd sense of humor - it was rather perfect)

It didn't end up exactly like that.. but quite the same idea!

I photoshopped some images to use as templates, and printed them out. Erin and I made a 16" x 16" cake, arranged the cut-outs, and used them as guides. First we cut the "fat" silhouette.

We then cut pieces away from that to make a "thin" silhouette. We saved the pieces of "fat" for later.


The thin silhouette was then frosted with butter cream.

Then, a late night of fondanting created "thin Ashley" which was left uncovered to dry overnight.

The next day, I buttercreamed and fondanted (two new verbs there) the pieces of "fat", and placed them around the thin sillouette. And finally.. did another layer of fondant over everything - with a layer of parchment paper between the two.
For realism, Ashley's photo was used.

So in the end - we were able to undress the Fat cake to reveal the thin cake underneath!




Creepy? Quite.
A strech of my creative and technical abilities? Very much so.
I'm rather pleased with the final outcome, and the fact that the reveal of the Thin cake went as planned. I wish I'd had more time to plan this cake though, there's a lot of details I'm unhappy with.

Moroccan Wedding

The finished product!

Bottom layer was chocolate with a chocolate mint ganache
Second layer was white cake with a chocolate ganache
Third layer was white with funfetti icing
Top layer was chocolate with chocolate buttercream
All layers done up in chocolate buttercream, chocolate fondant, and chocolate paint. Decorations are white and milk chocolate, ropes and pearls are fondant.

And for comparison, here's the final design I had.

Sugar sugar baby

Today was a day of sugar happiness. Brandy came over to play and we tested out blowing sugar with a copper pipe - it was fun and educational!
It's late and I am tired, I will leave you with some photos of the progress with the cake and wish you sweet dreams.

Sugar flowers

So I ventured into the world of sugar paste the other day. Made a batch, and then attempted to made a flower with it. I made my own petal template and then used shot glasses to help the pieces keep shape.



I sort of managed it, but Des found the flower and it died :(

So I did some research and found out that having the proper shape cutters, and technique was really key to getting decent flowers. I found a really awesome starter kit at Michael's chock full of cutters - and a very good instruction guide. With these new tools in hand, I tried again.


Until I can afford better cutters, and proper petal and leaf veiners (this set is very.. hmm.. novice? but that's what I am, soo..) I'm really pleased with this $20 purchase.

Another evening of flower making (these photos reflect the fruits of my labors for the evening - yes, it is that tedious, but I also have a little girl at my feet who needs attention, so I'd say a total of maybe an hour, hour and half of work - a few flowers died due to their delicacy ) I will move on to the humming bird, and then.. cake assembly!

A Tribute to Ryan's Particularly Large Head

So as of last night, I wasn't going to make this cake.

I made three yellow cakes for sampling for the wedding cake - and NONE of hem turned out particularly good, or anything like he yellow cake I know from a box :( they were very much like pound cake, and quite dense and/or flavorless. After last night's total failure, I got really mad, and told Dan to dispose of all cakes for the night. There would be no tribute cake!

After work I had 2 hours before people came over, and Dan hadn't gotten rid of the cakes. So I had two round layers of two different yellow cakes. I found a cake mix in the cupboards, and made one more layer while cleaning the house. Basically, I frosted and fondant-ed his cake in well under 30 minutes, on a warm, fresh baked cake. It's ugly as far as technical execution goes, but it really did serve it's purpose - you see.. oh it's too hard to explain, but it's supposed to represent a balloon with a sharpie drawing of Ryan's face on it - this balloon (the real one, not the cake) has represented Ryan by sitting in his chair at work for the last month or so. Anyway.. here's the cake.

The only part of it I was acually happy with was the end here.

And Ryan cutting his head.

Quilt Cake

My most recent cake was the finalized version of the quilt. I don't have as much photo documentation of that process - as I only just decided to start this blog. Oh well.

Anyway. Party for my Mom was on Saturday.

Wednesday:

I made two batches of M.M. fondant (I only used the prescribed 1/2 Crisco per batch this time - stickier in the initial kneading, but the overall texture in the end was soo much better and easier to work with).

I also made 1 1/2 batches of this fantastic (I do mean fantastic) White Chocolate Butter Cream frosting. I used Ghiridelli white baking chocolate, and I really think that added to the richness.

In both of these frosting recipes, I added some almond extract - because the final cake would be chocolate cherry - I figured the almond would add a nice hint of cherry flavour.

Thursday:

I baked the Dark Chocolate Cake in heart shaped silicon pans. I was worried they'd warp, but they didn't - my worst problem was that the cake stuck in the end - even though the pans were silicon and sprayed with Pam. Dangit.



I also started to play with the fondant colours, practicing marbling and texturing techniques and such. To help me, my friends Chris and Brandy came over to play, and learn what this cake decorating was all about we had fun.


After leveling the chocolate cake, I had some leftover pieces, and so, we made a cake with our play fondant.

Friday:

I spent the first few hours kneading colours and trying as hard as i could to match the colours from the original quilt. This took a really really long time - so many different colours - and not to mention my daughter at my feet and, you know, needing me to interact with her every once in a while :)

After the fabrics were made it was just a matter of cutting and assembling again - this time though, I had a square fondant cutter, thank god. So my shapes weren't wonky, and everything was much more uniform. That, and cutting took so much less time...

Assembling the pieces was a far more tedious job this time, however. I decided that I would lay out a large piece of fondant, rolled as thin as usable - and then lay each piece on it, after wetting the bottom and edges slightly, so that it would stick. So each piece had to be layed out precisely - since once a wet piece of fondant touched other fondant, it usually stuck pretty good and would make a big 'ol mess to repair.

Many hours later.. all of this was done. So I layered the cake with frosting and cherry pie filling - and then lightly frosted it all over. I painstakingly picked up my quilt and layed it down on top of the cake. After that it was all a matter of forming, prodding, and pinching the fondant to fit the cake. Sadly, I again over-judged how much butter cream to use - so there was some oozing - not only that, but the cherry filling caused some havoc as it squished it's way out in some places.

After I was happy with the lay of the fondant, I pulled out my little texture wheel thing and quilted the cake!

To my delight, my mom recognized it immediately as her quilt.

Second Cake - Happy Birthday Des!

Somehow, the second time I did this cake, so many lessons had been learned that I pulled off something that impressed even me.

I'll take you through the process..

The birthday party was on Saturday.
Wednesday:
I made a batch of Marshmallow Fondant, and a batch of butter creme frosting.
Thursday:
I baked the duck with pound cake - and a sheet cake with a white cake mix. I also started to play with the fondant, making a water lily and some lily pads. I coloured the fondant by kneading in gel food colours (available at your local Upermarket - it adds less moisture than traditional food colouring). While the lily pads were freehand, the flour was reliant on some great fondant cutters.




The white powder you see all over is corn starch to assist in the stickiness of the fondant (I found in later attempts that this was due to way too much Crisco). I stored these in the fridge after completion.

Friday:

I started the major assembling....

First, I frosted the duck (made the day before so that it would be cooled entirely to room temperature) with a layer of butter creme frosting. This is to help the fondant stick to the cake. They say you should frost and let it sit for a while before laying the fondant to help with he sticking.. so I then coloured the fondant by kneading in some yellow food colouring. And then rolled it out to a massive sheet. Lifting the fondant sheet was not easy, even if i rolled it back on itself - it had a tendency to crack (the recipe on the baking 101 site says cracking means it needs more moisture - I added more Crisco.. this ended up being part of my problem, I used *way too much* Crisco, so the integrity of the fondant was lessened, it was too soft) - anyway. where was I? I placed the fondant over the duck and started to push, prod and mold it into shape. After much work, I got to a point where I was happy with it. I then molded and attached wings and feathers (again, the leaf fondant cutters, perfect shape!). Fondant is cool in that if you need it to stick to itself, just wet it!

Now for finishing touches - some sprayed on colour accents, thanks to my husband, and some black eyes, and we have a duck!
Now for the sheet cake - very carefully, I leveled the top with a serrated knife. I then cut it in half, for filling. On each inside of the halves I spread a very thin layer of butter cream - this was so that the filling wouldn't seep into the cake and make it all mushy. I then spread blueberry pie filling onto one side, and put the other side back on top.

Next came frosting - but first, you'll notice round rise in the cake - that is a plastic cake board, to support the duck later. I used a white store bought Betty Crocker frosting that I had dyed a bright blue. Then, I started placing green fondant cut-outs of - yes, the leaves again all around the edge.

Finishing up - add the flour and lily pad.. some spray colour accents...
Place the bird over the cake board anddd....

tada!