I'm getting bizzz-aaay...

But not like that...Get your mind out of the gutter! JK! Okay, so I have 4 cakes coming up! My cousin's bachelorette party, my sister's birthday, easter, and my aunt's birthday. 4 cakes, 3 days...this should be fun! But you're going to have to wait to see what they're all about! And speaking about your mind being in the gutter, I will not be making another cake like I made for my sister's bachelorette. If you don't know what I mean, you can scroll down and see...just make sure there are no kiddies around before you do so!
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Are they gone?
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Just making sure...
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Here you go, but don't say I didn't warn you...




It's not that I didn't have fun making that one! But my sister is so easily embarrassed, I knew she'd be the perfect recipient! She was a good sport though, and everyone else thought it was great! The cake was delicious...Chocolate cherry cake with almond buttercream. I carved the "top" part and covered it with fondant...which no one would eat! LOL! I then made fingers out of fondant and used watered down food gel to paint the fingernails. And the "finishing" touch was just watered down powdered sugar. Yummmy!

But I would like to try something new for my cousin...we'll have to wait and see what I come up with (since I really don't know what I want to do yet). Hehehe! I do have ideas for the other three, but you'll still have to wait for those too!

Until next time...

C.F.F. - Take 2

There were so many awesome entries at the Central Florida Fair!

Here is my favorite cake at the competition, made by Melanie (find her blog here)...

A Shrek and Fiona wedding cake! Such a cute idea! And perfectly executed! Just look at the details...
Snail borders, worm "c" scrolls, and swampy colored fondant for the Shrek side...
Beautiful draping, string work, and pearls for the Fiona side! I just loved the whole thing! I think she got 2nd place for this, but she was definitely tops in my book!


Some of the other amazing cakes at the show (not sure who made the rest of them, so if you know, let me know and I'll update the post)...



So much fun at the fair!!!

By the way...

Central Florida Fair

The Central Florida Fair was a couple weeks ago (I know, I'm a little late!). It ran from February 25 through March 7. My family and I went to the fair on the last day and we had a blast! Plus, I entered in the cake decorating competition! It was my first time ever entering a cake in a competition (unless you count Cakewrecks World Tour, which will be featured in a future post)!

I've been to the fair numerous times, and not once do I remember seeing cakes there. But I usually went for the rides and snacks...candy apples, funnel cakes, and cotton candy, oh my! Not to say I still won't go for those things! Hehehe! But since I've been playing with cakes for about 2 years now, I figured I would try this out. I have been a little obsessed with peacocks lately, so I thought I'd try to use a mild peacock reference, mainly the colors.

So, without further ado, here is my entry...



I know...nobody really sees the peacock reference, but that's okay! Since this was my first time entering any sort of competition, I thought I would try a few new things. Actually, I tried too many new things and didn't have time to finish the cake, but I entered it anyway! Some of my firsts were covering cake dummies, making pleats, making rope borders, making bead/pearl borders, making drapery, making jewels (which were supposed to be hard candy, but that didn't turn out so well), and using my clay extruder and molds. I will not try so many things out at once again, especially not for a competition! Some of the things I didn't get done because I ran out of time. There was supposed to be a bigger flower on the bottom tier, but it broke, there was supposed to be piped scrolls above the bottom tiers rope border and around an initial plaque on the first tier (which didn't make it on either, but that was by choice). There was also supposed to be borders around each "jewel", even more on the ones on the hearts, as they were supposed to represent peacock feathers. Overall, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out though. Plus I had a lot of fun making it!

A few things I learned this time that will hopefully help out next time:

1. Start extra early (I'm talking months in advance if possible)
2. Don't try too many new techniques
3. For this competition at least, do not get bold, the winners all seemed to stick with traditional wedding colors and flowers, and modern, popular choices
4. Also for this competition, judging didn't seem to be based on technique, as much as what "looked pretty" (in my own opinion, I'll show examples later)
5. I didn't get ANY feedback from judges like I thought and had heard I would, which was really disappointing

I'm looking forward to entering next year!

The next post will feature some of the other entries, including my favorites!

Cake Central, Baby!

I just finished reading my first edition Cake Central magazine, from the website of the same name! Loved this issue...beautiful pictures, great interviews, and new ideas.


The next issue is (if I can remember correctly) for April/May and is a wedding special since it's almost wedding season. So excited for the next issue! Now, I haven't yet ordered a subscription, 'cause the $60 price tag is a little much for my hubby to handle at once...even though it cost me $15 for the first issue (after $5 shipping). I'll have to see if I can change his mind...'cause he should already know that I'm probably going to buy each issue anyway! Hehehe!

No Cake For You!

So today is another non-cake post, but I'm so excited so I have to do it! I got a new phone! I had a (actually 2) Motorola RAZRs. I got them less than a year ago and they have seen better days. Usually my phones last a looong time...but not these (one was actually supposed to be my hubby's, but he decided against it after he bought it). So, I used my pink one for a while until the screen would no longer show up at all, the front glass was shattered and the battery door wouldn't stay on. Then I switched to my hubby's blue one, and the same things happened in a very short time, minus the shattered glass. I decided it was time for a new phone! Our contract was up last december, but around Christmas we couldn't afford a $100 phone (which is how much the phone I had my eye on cost). But we happened into the Walmart phone section yesterday and saw my phone for...get this, $0.00 (with the new contract which we would've gotten anyhow)! So now I have my new Sony Ericsson Equinox! It's a pretty little thing with too many features to name!

Here's what it looks like...

I'll try to name a couple features, but you can read about everything else here. I actually have the 717 version, but most of the features are the same.

3.2 Megapixel camera with video capture
FM radio
Different colored pulsating lights to let you know who's calling
Video, Camera, and Music editing software
Gesture control, lets you mute an incoming call or alarm
And so much more!

Now if only I can figure out how to use all these features...

Nan's Non-Birthday

So, my grandmother's (a.k.a. Nan) birthday was over the weekend, if you can call it that. See, she was born on leap year, so her actual birthday/date is February 29th, which only comes around every four years...and this was not one of those years. Not that it means that we can't celebrate! And we did with some delicious food and of course cake, provided by myself. Now, she loves cardinals...seriously everywhere you look in her house, you'll see one. It's like watching a movie again and noticing something you didn't before. Look around her house and you'll see more cardinals every time! Not that that's a bad thing, really Nan.

Okay, so this is where my cake inspiration came from. Searching for cardinals online, almost all the pictures have them sitting in pine trees, hence the rest of the cake. I had fun making this one, and even more fun eating it!

I started with 3 layers of marble cake, filled with ganache. Then I added a ganache crumb coat. As I'm crumb-coating, my daughter was telling me she wants to make her own cake with orange buttercream. What a little genius I have! So, I made orange flavored buttercream and covered the cake in that. YUMMY! What better combo is there than chocolate and orange, I ask you? Hmmm...can't think of one right now! Then I decorated with buttercream cardinals, tree branches, and snow (sprinkled with sanding sugar for some sparkle). I had made pine cones out of fondant and royal icing, also sprinkled with sanding sugar. I thought they came out fairly well.



And a close up of the pine cones...



With left over cake batter (yellow cake) I made mini cupcakes and iced some with the remaining ganache and others with the orange buttercream and topped them all with maraschino cherries. I can't believe (well, really I can...they were delicious!) how fast these got gobbled up!




Hope you had a great birthday Nan!

Chocolate and Strawberries...Mmmmm!

So, to add to my busyness last weekend, I also had to make a cake for my sister's co worker's birthday. I made her birthday cake last year too, and she decided she wanted the same thing this year. I gladly obliged! She had a vanilla cake with sliced strawberries and glaze filling, buttercream icing, strawberry glaze on top, then fresh whole strawberries, all drizzled with ganache. It's hard making these cakes sometimes, you know, like when all I want to do is grab a fork and dive in!

Here's the yumminess...





Hope you had a great birthday Susan!

I've been a busy bee...

I've actually been doing some caking! YAY! I know it's a little late, but I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! I was a little busy seeing that my daughter's birthday is the day before V-day. We had a fun fiesta for her this year, which she has been asking for one for a while now. The whole family made it as well as some of her friends. And on friday we sent her a special treat to share with her classmates for her birthday/Valentine's Day. I figured I didn't want to send in anything too big, knowing that the kids would already have their fill of sweets! So, I decided to go the route of cake pops! I've never tried them before but have wanted to for a while. Heard they were quite easy and yummy! Here's the actual cake balls...



And here's mid process, some with sprinkles, some without, but all pretty! (Just don't pay attention to how un-circular some of them look. Heehee.)



And here they are...all wrapped up and ready to go!



You can google cake balls or cake pops and find a bunch of sites, but I think Bakerella's is best! She has a ton of different ideas that are oh-so-cute! If you would like to try them, here's how I made them...

1. Depending on how many you want to make and what size you make them you can either bake a cake using your favorite cake mix or just use cake scraps from another cake. I only used 2/3 of my cake and ended up with about 50 balls, using a 9x13 pan.

2. Let the cake cool, then crumble it all up in a big bowl.

3. Mix in a store bought frosting, such as Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. The recipe calls for a whole can if you use a whole cake, but I only used 1/3 of the can with 2/3 of cake (from a 9x13 pan). So even if I had used a whole cake, I wouldn't have used all the frosting.

4. Time to get your hands dirty! Roll some balls (you can make them as big or little as you want, but the norm seems to be 1" to 1 1/2"). Place them on a wax/parchment paper lined baking sheet. Then add some lollipop sticks, about half way in.

5. Pop those babies in the fridge for about a couple hours, or in the freezer for 15-30 minutes.

6. Melt some chocolate, almond bark, or candy melts as the package describes.

7. Take the cake pops out of the fridge and dip them in your coating. You may also have to spoon some of your chocolate/candy over the pop to thoroughly coat. Tap the pop over the bowl to reduce drippage. Then I stood them up in a styrofoam block and poured some sprinkles over the top, then let them stand to dry. From here they are good to go! For a little added decoration, I just wrapped them in lollipop bags and tied with a little bow. Cute and delicious!

Now watch for more caking experiences to come....

They say it's your birthday!

Well, maybe not your's. But it was mine yesterday! I had a blast with the girls to celebrate last night! And of course I made myself a cake. Now, it wasn't what I had planned, but it worked out okay. I wanted a two tiered cake (one being a dummy, just to practice with one!), with the top matching the ribbon I had picked out for my cake plate. But I ran out of time, so I ended up with only my one tier. :(

Plus I didn't have time to practice my perfect buttercream skills I learned via Sharon Zambito from SugarEd Productions, whose videos are just ingenius! And hopefully one day I will actually have the time to watch the WHOLE video and take LOTS of notes, and then practice, practice, practice!

Here's what my little cake looked like, with the help of my "assistant" (my sis-in-law...heehee!) who decided a "J" would make the top! I think she was right...great job, Heather!



The cake was a chocolate fudge cake, with Nutella filling (had to try it out since I've heard it tastes amazing), and buttercream icing. I wasn't the biggest fan of the Nutella, but most nutty things aren't for me, so don't take my word for it! I also got to try out my diamond impression mat for the first time, and boy do I need more practice with that! For the intersecting diamonds, I used Wilton sugar pearls. And I used my new tweezer thingy (technical term) from Nicholas Lodge!