Dusting off the cobwebs and updating my blog

I took a little 10 month hiatus from my blog since finding out that I was going to have another baby. Probably the most exciting thing that has happened for my family this year is this little guy:

This is Daniel.

The second most exciting thing that happened is getting to celebrate my sweet Hawea's second birthday. I decided to take it up a notch this year and went with a mini dessert bar. I made a colored-layer white cake with vanilla frosting, cake pops to fit the bubbles and balloon theme and mini strawberry creme cupcakes. 

I will be posting more cake recaps over the next couple of days so stay tuned...

Superman Sculpture Cake for a Super Man

Recently I had the privilege of creating my very first superman cake. Oddly enough one probably pictures two things when I say "I made a superman cake"- a 7 year old birthday boy and a cake shaped like superman's logo. The cake turned out to be for a man celebrating his 65th birthday and the cake was a little more than a logo. The man, whom his family lovingly refers to as "superman" has recently lived through both a liver and heart transplant. The cake happened to be a surprise gift to him from his wife in celebrating not only his birthday but the unique feat of conquering one of life's most difficult challenges.

The cake is actually very misleading. The dinner party was only for 15, so there wasn't much cake to be made. The whole top portion of the "cake" is a mix of styrofoam, rice krispy, modeling chocolate, fondant, and gumpaste. The base of the cake is tres leches cake with an almond buttercream frosting. The design of the cake is inspired by that iconic transformation when Clark Kent tears open his shirt coat to reveal his true identity, Superman. The symbolism of the super hero within seemed so appropriate for the recipient. This was certainly an exciting adventure and I hope to conquer such a challenge sometime soon.

The wife was kind enough to snap a pic and send it to me of the birthday boy and his cake.

Cleopatra and the Blossoming Egyptologist

This week I had the privilege of creating a birthday cake inspired by Cleopatra and the Nile for a little girl aspiring to be an Egyptologist. When I was ten I remember wanting to be a veterinarian, doctor, scientist, and artist (usually in the same day). There aren't very many children who know what they want to do with the rest of their lives at age ten. I fortunately was able to meet such an inspiring little girl.

The cake was a three-tier chocolately-chocolate covered in fondant. The reed grass and papyrus was made of gumpaste and Cleopatra was carved from rice krispy and modeling chocolate and dusted in gold luster dust. The hieroglyphics were hand painted and the top of the cake was also made from rice krispy which helped to keep the top light. I copied the hieroglyphics from the internet which worked in my favor because I later found out that the budding Egyptologist dabbles in a little hieroglyphic reading. This cake was one of my hardest to date but also the most fun. 

Cheese! It's Your Birthday!

This weekend was a turning point in my very early cake career. Aside from launching my website, which you can find here, I made my first sculpture cake and absolutely loved it! I'm not sure why it took me so long to make such a cake since my background is in art and sculpture is one of my favorite mediums. I made this camera cake for a friend of mine who celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday and who happens to be a photographer. From baking to finish I completed the cake in record time, a whopping 5 1/2 hours, which is amazing fast for any sort of cake. I went with chocolate hazelnut pound cake, Nutella (the birthday boys fav), and french vanilla cream crumb coat and chocolate fondant. To assemble the cake I baked a 9 inch square and a 9 inch circle. I halved the square cake and used a tumbler to cut out smaller circles for the lens. After I spread the Nutella in between layers, I arranged the cakes together, then slathered french vanilla cream all over, and then rolled the chocolate fondant over. The rest was a piece of cake:) I notice that when creating a sculpture cake what makes it are the details. The more details, the better the cake sculpture. Stay tuned for more fun sculpture cakes in the future.