What's Coming Up?

I have a few orders coming up! I have Texas Longhorns cake to make next week. It will be shaped like the UT Longhorn emblem and covered with orange butter cream. This one will be pretty easy, I hope!

I also have a birthday cake for a fan of True Blood to make. I could get really creative here. I don't want to do a gory vampire cake though. I've never watched True Blood. I can't find any fan cakes on the web. (Google fail!) Even though I've never read or seen any of the Twilight series I like how there is easy imagery to adapt into a cake. I've been trying to figure out some imagery for a True Blood cake. I may have to try to watch it so I can be truly inspired.

I do have an idea to do something with a Southern Gothic theme. I've been researching that genre tonight and still don't have any good ideas. When I think Southern Gothic I think of mossy trees and foggy bogs, not anything that I can translate into a pretty cake.

It will be fun to try something creative here.

Blog Roll

I'm adding a blog roll. Now, these aren't all baking/cake blogs but they are the blogs I look at for inspiration. I love all aspects of design and love looking at pretty pictures no matter if they are of cakes, bathrooms or stationary. As long as it is pretty I can get lost looking at the pictures for hours!

I've always been this way, too. When I was younger I had a serious magazine addiction. Even though magazines cost about $2 back then, I would by about 20 a month. Or, really, my parents would. That is almost equivalent to an internet subscription nowadays. So, I have almost completely given up my magazines. I only buy the September Vogue and the January Texas Monthly anymore and then I don't get those every year. I still have tear sheets from my pre-Anna Vogue magazines. Around the time I graduated high school I began to detest Vogue. Looking back I realize that was the start of the Anna Wintour reign. Before Anna, Vogue was full of art. After she took over the magazine became all about being skinny and not so much about art. So sad.

Anyway, I love looking at pretty pictures. These days I like to look at pictures of parties and catered events which of course includes weddings. If you are looking for inspiration for your celebration check out my links. There are some great ideas here and a lot of inspiration boards, as well.

Zebra Cake with Picture!

Oh, wow! This cake took forever to make! I learned so much from making it, though. I'm not happy about the way the fondant came out as far as 1) the top layer is all pleated on the bottom and 2) the bottom layer tore. I'll have to get more practice with the fondant.

All in all it looks pretty cute! I think the customer will be pretty happy. At least, I hope so!

This cake is chocolate devil's food with butter cream layers. It is covered in fondant with fondant decorations.

Marshmallow Fondant

I did it! I made my first batch of marshmallow fondant today. I just Googled "mmf" and got a ton of recipes. Beware though...if you Google "mmf" you will also get links to some unsavory sites! LOL...(male/male/female). I didn't think about that because my mind does not reside in the gutter. I bet I'd get a lot more undesirable links if I Googled "mff", cuz, ya know...

Anyway, it was not hard to make and was much cheaper than buying the Wilton stuff. I did buy some Wilton fondant for the black I will need for my zebra cake because I've read that you have to mix a ton of food color in to make it black. The only time I tried was for the Xbox cake and I got the gray color for the controls.

Basically you just microwave a bag of marshmallows with some water and mix it up with some powdered sugar. I used this recipe. It was a sticky mess but it made a TON of fondant.

I think from now on I will make my own fondant unless I need a color like black. And who knows? I'll probably try mixing my own black fondant sometime soon.

Zebra Cake!

I got a new cake order today. I'm so excited because it is precisely the cake I've been wanting to make: round, two-tier with pink, white and black fondant with zebra stripes! I think these are so cute. If my niece wasn't already dreaming of her princess cake for her birthday this summer I'd be begging my SIL to throw her a zebra party. Well, now I at least get to make the cake! And who knows, by this summer my niece my decide on a different cake for her party. (She'll be five! Five going on 15.)

At night, I read blogs. Tons and tons of cake blogs, party blogs, wedding blogs...I love looking at the pictures and the inspiration boards. When I get the chance I need to create a blog roll for my site so you can see my favorite sites and be inspired!

Anyway, I'll post pictures when the cake is done!

X-Box Controller Cake

I really didn't think the frosting on this cake looked so rough! I think that maybe my eye was tired or something. I also think that the flash made the shadows deeper thereby highlighting all the mistakes. Oh, well...I was actually pretty proud of this cake despite the problems. In fact, I had a lot of successes here. The fondant controls were made out of white Wilton fondant that I dyed with Wilton gel colors. I'm at least happy with the way the colors turned out!

I'm actually thinking this cake should be covered with fondant. To fondant or not to fondant...that is the question. Most people tell me they do not like the taste of fondant and just want butter cream frosting on their cake. Butter cream is sooooo decadant! Of course, you can have butter cream covered with fondant and just peel off the fondant. But then you are paying a lot extra for something that is just for looks and that most people won't eat. Soon, like this week, I'm going to make a marshmallow fondant, known in baking circles as MMF and see if it really makes a difference. Everyone says it does, that it tastes better than the Wilton stuff. We'll see!

Anyway, this is my first carved cake and I think it is pretty cute although I see many ways for it to be better!

This is the Xbox controller cake I made today. It turned out pretty cute. I was nervous because it is my first carved cake. It is made out of chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream and fondant controls. I'll post some better pictures later. I took this one with my phone.