Sunday, August 21, 2011

Little Prince Baby Shower Cake


This weekend I made a baby shower cake along with 30 cupcakes.  The theme was 'A New Little Prince' and I was shown a plate and napkin so that I could get the color scheme down pat.

Now, all cakes take longer than I think they're going to.  It seems like every time I do a cake I think to myself 'oh, I have plenty of time, no way I'll end up staying up till all hours this time' and every time I end up rediscovering what it's like to be awake at 3 AM.

So what takes me so long?  I'm not really sure.  Sometimes I get a slow start early on in the day. I don't have a ton of experience nor do I do this as a full time job, so I'm naturally a little slower.  Other times I'm just foolish, like yesterday when I decided I needed to let the buttercream set up for a bit and took a short nap by the pool.  And often I run into unforeseen setbacks, like these crowns:


These crowns are patchwork cutters (as is the crown on the top of the cake).  Patchwork cutters get the best of me fairly often-- it takes me longer than I care to admit to find the best approach to using any given cutter.  And then rather than knocking out 30 crowns in 10 mins like I thought I was going to... Yeah... not sure how long it took but over an hour.


This picture was probably taken around 2 AM. One new tool I tried was using a smocking rolling pin on the stripes to give them some ribbon-like textures.


Also, buttercream cakes...  They technically take less time than fondant, but not really because getting buttercream to be truly smooth is a frustrating endeavor.  Also, there is a definite trade-off between the taste of the buttercream and how cooperative it is.  This cake was cream cheese buttercream which was softer and took longer to crust.  It also had a fair bit of air bubbles and was a bit translucent so it took a few coats until I was satisfied.

The cupcakes (in spite of my general hatred of cupcakes, but I won't get started on that right now) came out really cute too.


I colored the buttercream a very light cornflower blue and piped it in a rosette pattern.  I finished them with the crowns (that turned out to be so labor-intensive) and some blue hologram glitter that made them very festive.

Here's everything set up for the party:




As I was setting up, a little boy yelled out, 'Mommy!  That cake looks like a Cake Boss cake!'  I was pretty excited to receive such a compliment in my sleep deprived state.  Everyone who was there early while I was setting up seemed really excited, which made me happy.  Hopefully they like the taste too!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Sexy Stiletto Gum Paste Workshop-- Austin, TX!


I was super excited to be able to teach my 2 day class in Austin.  I had a full house-- 15 students!!  The most I've ever had. :) Above are the 2 shoes I completed while teaching the class, which now live at All in One Bake Shop in Austin.

By the way, I've learned that demoing/ teaching and doing are completely different!  When I'm trying to assemble things so that people can see, or so that I'm in a mirror or in camera, I end up doing things at awkward angles... It's a different art from when I'm sitting in my living room completely focused on the task at hand, and one that I'm still working on mastering!

Anyway, here are the photos from class!


Keeping everybody busy!  


I was very impressed with my students in Austin.  At least one had an enviable shoe collection. :)  I saw some great cakes and some beautiful craftsmanship.  I learned from them too!

I owe so much thanks to the amazing Kyla Meyers for organizing this class.  If you know her, you know she's amazing at what she does and a super nice person.

I hope everyone had a blast and I'm looking forward to teaching again at the end of September at Mother of Cakes Sugar Art Academy in Allentown, PA!