Busy as a Bee!

I have been busy lately...and loving it! I have recently made 2 cakes, but I'll post those later. This post is about an adorable little baby, a baby bee to "bee" exact!

I was lucky enough to have Jane, the president of my cake club, ask me to join her in viewing and then judging a cake challenge at our local JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store! She had asked me to bring my Nic Lodge flowers, along with anything else I may have, to display for our Sugar Arts Guild. Well, to tell the truth, I didn't really have much else than the flowers and some left over leaves from last year. Since the competition was Halloween themed, I thought I would make some Halloween-ish things to bring. I dusted my leaves, cut out some orange fondant/tylose pieces to make pumpkins, and then I made a baby and "dressed" it in a cute bee costume, which the hubs recommended (thanks honey)!

It really did come out cute, wish I could say the same for my pumpkins that broke. So I brought my baby and the leaves. I got a couple admirers, and one lady that kept coming over to the table, accompanied with a different person each time, that just "had to see this"! I was thrilled. Then I added my little bee to Cake Central and so far have 50 people that saved it as a favorite! Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think!


As for the rest of the display table, Jane had brought in a gorgeous cake with masks and roses and her own ring box cake, both of which I have seen, but am still amazed by!

The Cake Challenge was so fun to see and judge! I was a little nervous to begin with, seeing as how this was my first attempt at judging, but I ended up having a great time! All the contestants were Wilton students and they did an outstanding job on their cakes. The winners are below.

Rod, who flew in from New York to compete, won "Spookiest Cake" with his toxic graveyard.

And Marissa was the big winner of the event, taking home awards for "Best Halloween Cake", "Customer's Choice", and "Judge's Choice" with her topsy-turvy cake!

Congrats to all the contestants. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did! If you want to see the rest of the pictures, you can find them all here! Enjoy!

Fit for a Princess!

I have seen so many castle cakes done that it kind of blows my mind! I have wanted to try one for a while, but was a little hesitant since it seemed like so much work. Well, my one and only niece (until next year, that is...Congrats Cristina!) was about to turn one and my sister wanted to throw a princess party. At first I had my mind on a couple other princess style cakes, but forced myself to try the castle cake instead. I absolutely loved making it; the towers, the brick impression, the flowers, and everything else for that matter! I still wanted to do more to it and next time I think I will try for more towers, I just took it easy this time. Here is the final cake...



I followed some instructions that I found on CakeBoss for how to make the towers. The rest of it is helpful also, I just did it a little differently. The cake was strawberry, filled with a Twinkie filling recipe I found on CakeCentral.

Then I also made a little smash cake for her to dig into. I think she liked it!

Happy Birthday Princess Abigail!

P-P-P-Poker Cake

My brother and his friends are really into poker and they play a couple times a week. So, I know when any one of their birthdays rolls around, it's poker cake time! As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't get a chance to make my brother's birthday cake this year (I know, I'm a bad sister), but I did get to make one for his friend recently. He told me he wanted a poker cake (obviously) and her favorite color was bright orange.

I had already been searching for poker cake inspiration, so luckily when my brother asked me for a cake with only 2 days notice, I already had an idea in mind! I found one I liked on Cake Central, from member tinabelle722.

I started by making poker chips and playing cards from a fondant/tylose mix to let harden and dry for a day. Here's where I incorporated her fave color!



After baking a chocolate cake, I frosted it with almond buttercream, then covered it with fondant. Next, I took edible markers and drew all the suits and letters on the cards and placed them on the cake. I put my borders on, using my clay extruder for the bottom one and hand rolling the top one. Then I stuck all my chips in stacks on toothpicks and pushed them into the cake. Here's how it all turned out...

I was pretty happy with this cake, and I heard Misty and her friends and family were going gaga over it! Hehehe!

Sidney Galpern

I made a little mistake in my last post. After searching online for Sidney Malpern, I realized I was really looking for Sidney Galpern. A little mis-spelling on the ICES flier. It's okay now, I figured it out!

If you read my last post, you know that Sidney was a demonstrator at the FL ICES Day of Sharing in Daytona Beach. When we first saw Sidney up at the demonstrating table, we were a little confused, and thought she was there with her mom, who we thought would be demonstrating. We we W-R-O-N-G! Despite her age, she had the most professional demonstration of them all. She was very organised, focused, and had us mesmerized by her skills, her humor, and her easy going demeanor. To say the least, I was so very impressed!

After finding her website, I am now even more impressed by this 15 year old sugar artist!

Her cakes

Her chocolate sculptures

Her pulled sugar
*All photos courtesy of Simi Cakes

And here are some links if you want to check out her work, plus some of her adventures!

Simi Cakes and Confections

Simi Cakes Blog

How amazing is that?! Sidney, keep up the great work! You have such a wonderful future ahead of you and I wish you all the best!

It's Over...

September, that is! It's October 1st and I officially felt the first cool Autumn breeze this morning. YAY! My favorite season is upon us. I can't believe how fast this year is going by. Like my daughter keeps saying, "Christmas will be here soon". Not that that's something I want to be thinking about yet!

September is over, meaning that a month full of birthdays, anniversaries (including mine!), and holidays is past, none of which I made a cake for. Shocking, I know. But I'm excited to have a couple cakes in the works for this month. So far I am planning a first birthday cake (for my one and only niece), a bridal shower cake, and a Halloween cake (or 2).

The only cake I was planning on making in last month was a birthday cake for my brother, whose party ended up being on the same day as the FL ICES Day of Sharing in Daytona Beach. Seeing as to how I've never attended a Day of Sharing, I had to forfeit my cake plans for my brother. And don't let him know, but I'm really glad I did! I had a great time.

Here are pictures of what 3 of the 4 ladies demonstrated...

Filomena Koolman-Vos - Tropical Flowers (Ixora flower)



Sidney Galpern - Pulled sugar (casting, spun, blown)



Lisa Menz from Photo Frost - Wallpapering a Cake (frosting sheets)



and unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the last demonsration by Ximena Sempertegui with her "Fall in Love Baby" (baby carriage) but it came out looking similar to this...

(Photo courtesy of Cakes by Ximena)

All of the demonstrations were amazing! Everyone was especially impressed with Sidney Galpern...who is only 15 years old and did an outstanding job and great sugar work!

For more info and pictures from this event, I'll be posting over at my cake club's (SAGNFL) new blog!