Monday, August 23, 2010

THE CAKE!!!!

The cake made it to Connecticut in three pieces, fondant and flowers intact. After painting the cake Friday evening, and arranging the flowers for four hours on Saturday, they were finally finished. Okay, you have all listened to me long enough. So without further ado, the final cake pictures . . .







Thanks for listening about this cake! It was by far the most difficult I have attempted and I am THRILLED with the way it came out. Props to my husband who was instrumental in packing, transporting, and consulting on the arranging of the cakes. I think we had a lot of fun together. Now on to the next bakery challenge . . .



Thursday, August 19, 2010

In Between Photos


Okay, so I sat down to do the cakes and had never worked with the Satin Ice Fondant before. I was told to roll it thicker than Wilton (which is totally correct) but knew nothing else about it. I found a few things.

1. It tastes infinitely better than Wilton's.
2. It has a hard time supporting its own weight because of how soft it is. Translation - the basket-weave imprinter did not work because it continually broke.

So, with the imprinter not working, I went to plan two, cut strips individually and weave my own basket. I actually LOVE the results.

This is the ten inch cake, followed by the eight inch, and then a photo of my hysterically filled refridgerator:








It took longer but I really love them. They are not yet painted (that will happen in CT) so the color will be much darker. Today I food process the oreo's for "potting soil", and pack tools for Connecticut. Then I spend most of the day praying that all three cakes successfully make the trip. :)

The next pictures you should get will be cakes that are completed!! :)

Monday, August 16, 2010

The Final Tally

Okay, so my daughter fell asleep at 5:30 for the night and my husband fell asleep at 8:30. So I went a little crazy and finished the remaining flowers / leaves for the cake.

These are the remaining 4 carnations, and then 16 "drop" flowers . . .






































Then came the leaves, all 120 of them . . .
























The fantasy flowers were already done in pieces and needed assembled. There are 12 of them . .































And then there were the roses. My husband hung up these wonderful organizational shelves in June to give us a little more room. He had no idea that they were PERFECT for hanging flowers or that most of my cake stuff was going to take up the shelves. He is such a wonderful man for putting up with me and my obsessions. :) Either way, I laugh every time I see them so I took some pictures of them hanging and then one with the details.















































The end tally for flowers/decorations:

17 - white mums
15 - pink roses
12 - purple fantasy flowers
15 - yellow daisies
12 - drop flowers (orange, purple, pink)
8 - white carnations (ready for tinting)
120 - leaves (moss green and leaf green)

The remainder of the week will be spent baking and positioning the cakes (one 6", one 8", and one 10"), covering them in fondant basketweave, and transporting them to Connecticut for the final decorations. I will try to take an in between picture of just the fondant, and then the final picture before we set up the cake in Connecticut. I'm so psyched.....


Sunday, August 15, 2010

Flower week / month


So, flower week was rudely interrupted by an illness . . . please forgive me for my lack of a post! However, rather than only spanning a week, flower-making has decided to span several days / almost a month! I am finishing up with all of my gum paste decorations this week in preparation for the cake which will be created next week.

Let me interrupt cake talk for one moment though. I have been searching the globe (via internet of course) for a satisfactory cinnamon muffin recipe . . . and I have found one! Now, normally I don't share recipes (proprietary bakery information . . . lol) but this one, well this one I cannot lay any claim to because it is fantastic, and needs no tweaking. Give them a try . . . they are super easy and taste fantastic . . . sort of like those home made donuts that you get from a cider mill, only less fattening and in muffin form!




Ok, back to caking. Yesterday was the day of the rose. I am still working on getting my pictures uploaded, so all I have for you is a picture of the adorable lace butterflies that I made . . . better pictures of those on the camera as well, but these will work for now. They were a little heavy on the shimmer dust, but what can I say, I'm a work in progress. I also painted the bodies with silver pearl dust, so I will take more pictures of the finished product. For instructions on making these go to . . .



Tonight, carnations, drop flowers, and lots of leaves . . . pictures to follow.

Oh and I learned a few things about gum paste:

1. Tylose gum paste ruffles beautifully for flowers and is easy to work with once you work it in. However there are some downfalls. It doesn't seem to take well to being rolled out over and over again for cut outs. It actually gets grainier and grainier, even with mixing in crisco. Also, its a bit whiter than the Wilton Brand, but not ridiculously noticeable.

2. Wilton Gum Paste (the already made container) is much easier to roll out over and over, however does not ruffle as well. That can be modified by the thickness of the gum paste . . .

of course this is just my experience, I would give it a try yourself . . .