The Gibson

The cake was for a 12th birthday party.  It was a red velvet cake filled with chocolate ganache.  Everything on the cake was completely edible except for the toothpicks that held the tuning pegs in place.  I do not currently own an airbrush so I had to make do with what I had.

I started out by baking a half sheet cake and then putting it in the refrigerator over night.  This allowed the cake to be firmer before I carved it out.  The next day I carved out the body and neck of the guitar and torted it so I could add the filling.  I covered each piece in buttercream and put it back in the refrigerator to set.  Then, I covered the body of the guitar in an orange/brown fondant and used black color mist to shade the sides of the guitar.  After that was done I covered the neck of the guitar in a chocolate brown fondant and assembled the two pieces together.

To make the details on the cake I drew out stencils on a piece of paper and placed them on top of my fondant so I had a guide to cut around.  I made the guitar strings using a press.  This was actually the hardest process.  The press was difficult to use because you really had to use your entire strength to try and squeeze the fondant through the holes.  The other challenge was I had to make sure my strings were long enough and did not break while I was squeezing fondant through the press.  Even though I did get a great workout making the guitar strings I felt the extra effort was worth the outcome.

I truly enjoyed making this cake.  The best part for me about the whole process was delivering the cake to the birthday girl and seeing her reaction when she saw it for the first time.  This is why I love what I do.

Aloha Oe!

This cake was made for my parents' friend having a surprise Luau for his 60th birthday party.  This cake was a half sheet red velvet cake filled with chocolate cream cheese.

The entire cake was iced with buttercream.  I added texture to the sides of the cake and added graham cracker crumbs all around to create a sand effect.  I also added texture to the top of the cake to create waves and used blue color mist to color the water blue.

The Hibiscus was made using royal icing that I piped in a flower form.  My intent was to make about 6 or 7 Hibiscuses for this cake, but they did not dry in time.  I was only able to salvage 1 out of my whole batch and I was bummed because they came out beautifully.  As back up, I made Plumeria flowers out of fondant and some yellow flowers out of royal icing.

The palm trees where all piped using buttercream along with the leaves for the flowers.  I used a rose petal tip to make the trunk of the trees and a large leaf tip to make the branches of the palms.

2 is better than 1

Both of these cakes were made for a friend of mine.  Her son was celebrating his baptism and her daughter was celebrating her 2nd Birthday on the same day.  So she asked me if I could make two 6" squared cakes for her kids.

The baptism cake was a chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache filling.  It was iced with buttercream and decorated with fondant and royal icing.  The cross was made with fondant and cut out using a cookie cutter.  In order to accent the shape of the cross I piped royal icing stars around it.  The top and bottom border or the cake was also made with fondant using impression molds.

The birthday cake was a girly Dora the Explorer inspired cake.  Pinks and purples were the mom's request for her little girly girl.  This cake was a yellow cake filled with whipping cream mixed in with strawberries and blueberries a perfect flavor for the summer.  The cake was iced with buttercream and decorated using all fondant.  The flowers were made using different size flower cutters, and the buttons in the center of the flowers were made using impression molds.  Unfortunately for this cake I could not get the buttercream as smooth as I would like.  The consistency was a little too dry.  I adjusted the next batch for the baptism cake by adding a little more milk.  As you could see in the baptism cake picture above the buttercream came out a lot smoother.

The Deflated Rubber Ducky!

 

This was a 6" round marble cake with a chocolate ganache filling.  The rubber ducky and bubbles were made strictly out of fondant and the center border around the cake was made using a Wilton impression mold.  I used a 12mm mold to make the pearls around the base of the cake.

This cake was for my daughter's pre-school teacher who is expecting a baby boy in October.  We gave this cake to her along with a baby shower gift from her students during the end of the school year picnic.  Before the cake was presented to her however, the cake was accidentally smashed by the school director turning it into a deflated ducky.  Too bad I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the aftermath.  Nonetheless my daughter's teacher was very touched by the gesture and everything her students, parents, and school staff did for her that day.

I'm All In!

I made this cake for a friend's 40th Birthday party.  It was a poker tournament party hence the poker themed cake.  It was a marble cake with cream cheese filling.

I made the poker table by starting out with an 8" square cake and trimmed one corner to make the rounded end of the poker table. The black arm pad was made by rolling out black fondant and placing the piece directly on the cake.

The poker chips and playing cards were all made out of fondant.  I cut out the shape of the playing cards by using an actual card and cutting the fondant around it.  The chips were made using a circle cutter and edible maker to make the hash marks and 40s on the chips.

Anyone for high tea?

My cousin ask me to make this cake for a bridal shower that she was throwing for one of her friends.  The shower was at Tudor House in Santa Monica which is a British tea house.  I made this as a topper cake along with 2 dozen cupcakes for a cupcake tower.

This was a 6" round cake covered in white fondant.   I draped the flowers like a rainbow around the cake using small, medium, and large sized flowers.  The pearl boarder was made using a 14mm pearl mold. The flowers were made just using Wilton flower cutters and the leaves were formed by using an impression mold.

Shower me with Tiffany Blue

 

This cake was for my Aunt's surprise Tiffany themed bridal shower.  The cake was an 6" and 8" square red velvet cake with cream cheese filling.  Each layer was covered in fondant and then stacked.  I made the roses, pearls, and bow strictly out of fondant. I used white fondant and teal Americolor gel paste to get the Tiffany Blue color.

This was my first attempt at making fondant roses.  They came out a little thick and I did not have a wire to form the flower around so I used a thin straw so the base started out thicker than normal.  I would definitely use gum paste next time or a gum paste/fondant mix for a softer look.  I used a 14mm pearl mold to make the pearl trim around the base of each layer of the cake.  The bow was 2 1/2 inches wide and placed on all four sides of the cake.

Overall I thought the cake came out good.  It was exactly what my cousins wanted.  My cousins did such a fabulous job planning their mom's bridal shower and the cake was the perfect accent to the party.