My coworker has always said, "I'm going to find an event to have you make a cake!".  Well, she finally found an event, and approached me almost a month and a half ahead of time.  Her niece, Bridget, was graduating from junior high and she wanted a cake for her party.  At first, we were thinking about designing a cake around Bridget's passion for competitive cheer leading.  However, the color combination and uniform pattern made me think of bad 80's memories.  After steering away from that concept, we designed a cake around her other passion...Coach!




The cake consisted of a 10" of yellow cake filled with Nutella, and a 6" of chocolate filled with Nutella.  The bottom level was covered in a light brown fondant and embellished with the signature Coach monogram pattern in a dark chocolate fondant.  The top layer was covered in a light pink vanilla fondant and embellished with a more modern take on the Coach monogram.  All the monograms were created in Illustrator and cut out on an electronic cutter, which has been a great investment so far!  Contrasting ribbons of fondant were wrapped around the bottom of each layer, and finished off with a bow or placket with gold dragee detailing.  To complete the cake and add a personalized touch,  I created a logo plate out of dark chocolate fondant and spelled out Bridget's name out of gold dragees!  Enjoy!

 Not all cakes have to be over the top to be special.  Take this cake for instance.  This cake is for a little boy named, Oscar, and his Godmother had ask me to make a yellow cake with chocolate whipped cream.  And of course, the theme was all about semi-trucks.  Little boys just become interested in the most random things.  The question was how to incorporate a semi-truck... should I use a transfer, edible image, etc.  I love working with gumpaste, but I was worried about the truck just becoming a soft mush on the whipped cream, or the colors bleeding into it.  Then I thought about chocolate, but the rising heat worried me.  After about an hour of talking to myself in the kitchen, I finally figured it out... good ol' candy melts!



I baked two 8 inch rounds and torted them after cooling for several hours.  I made some chocolate whipped cream and filled in between each layer.  I placed the cake back in the cooler for few minutes to settle and covered the entire cake with a Wilton icing tip.  I smoothed out the top with a large spatula, and ran a bench scraper along the sides for a super smooth finish.  I piped on the border using a star tip and added rosettes to the side of the cake.  Now for the fun part!  I melted candy melts in the microwave and used a squeeze bottle to fill the cavities of a silicone mold.  I filled in the tires first and then the rest to prevent the colors from bleeding into each other.  The mold was then placed in the cooler for 15 minutes to set.  Now,  I have to admit, this is the nerve wrecking part... getting the candy out of the mold.  The wheels are so small and delicate that one wrong move and my wheels will break off.  I slowly pulled away at all the edges until I had loosen up the truck and then popped it out of the mold in one piece.  This colorful ( and yummy ) element was then placed on the cake.  I finished off the cake with a message and piped Oscar's name on the semi-truck's trailer.

Remember, simple doesn't have to boring.  Candy making tools are a great way to turn any cake into awesome!  Enjoy!

Last month, my friend called me about her cousin who had an emergency... a cake emergency!  Ada needed a cake for her client, and time was fast approaching.  Ada works for fashion icon Burberry, and this could not be less than that.  Her client was celebrating her birthday, and they wanted to surprise her with a delicious purse cake.  Ada sent me a couple pictures of purses, and we weighed out our options to figure which one had a better shape and size for the cake.  After a few messages, we were able to narrow it down to her client's fave purse, the Prorsum Knight!

The cake begun as a 1/4 sheet vanilla cake that was cut into 4ths, and stacked between layers of vanilla buttercream.  Using a template that I created on the computer, I marked the areas that I would carve with toothpicks, tracing the outside edge of my paper template.  I slowly carved away thin sections for a smooth tapered shape.  I've learned that the trick to carving a cake is a good serrated knife, and a chilled cake.  This prevents the cake from just falling apart, and I'm not left with a pile of crumbs.  The entire cake was then crumb coated with buttercream for a smoother finish.

The next two steps were a bit tricky, and took some patience.  I had to recreate the pleating in the leather to resemble the real purse.  I rolled out the black fondant and cut out a piece slightly larger than the front and back of the purse.  I draped the fondant down the side, and created a pleated fold with my fingers just before adhering it to cake.  Then the hardest part was to create the zipper and the zipper opening.  I was lucky to find a zipper mold, but that didn't solve the problem I faced about incorporating it to the top of the purse cake.  I didn't want to just plop it on top... I wanted a nice clean finished look as if it was stitched under the leather.  I realized that I would have to work fast in order to get my plan to work.  I formed two fondant zippers with help of the silicone mold, and brushed on silver luster dust for a metallic sheen.  I then quickly rolled out a strip of black fondant and slit in two openings the size of the zippers.  I positioned the strip over the top of the zipper and adhered it with a touch of gum glue.  This gave the appearance that the zippers were set into the purse and behind the leather.  The result was perfect!  I then carefully drapped this over the top of the purse cake and smoothed it down to follow the curvy top.  Using an exacto knife, I carefully trimmed off the excess.  A rope of black fondant finished off the seams, and a quilting wheel helped to add the details of the stitching.

Next up was the handles, and I didn't want handles that just laid on top.  I wanted to add some structure so I opted for 30 gauge wrapped floral wire that I shaped according to my template.  I rolled out a skinny strip of black fondant and folded it over the wire and attached it with some gum glue.  Then I traced along the edges with the quilting wheel for a stitching affect.  The ends were then inserted into the cake and trimmed with a triangular piece with more stitching.  The Prorsum Knight could not be complete without the studs that ran along the bottom.  I created the studs from small balls of grey fondant, flattening the sides with a knife, and covered them with more silver luster dust.  Positioning them on the cake took a bit of planning and a ruler.  It would be awful to have studs that were crooked.  Each one was attached with a dot of piping gel.  For final details, I added the distinct key lock, and a silver Burberry tag.  A contrasting blue gift tag personalized the purse cake.  A cake this fabulous needed a matching base, so I covered a half inch foil drum with black fondant and imprinted a weaving pattern.  I then painted on a their signature black on black plaid pattern with clear piping gel.  And voila!  No girl should ever live without a Burberry....cake!

Being the eldest out of three girls, it was especially emotional for me to see my kid sister all grown up and exchanging vows.  In my eyes, she'll always be the little girl that loved to shine in front of the cameras (not like that has changed much), and whose giddiness was contagious after the clock struck midnight.  In early March, our families witnessed the marriage of Jennie to Steven, whose dorkiness is awesome.  I really wanted to make a wedding cake then, but living out of a suitcase in San Francisco for a week didn't really make that possible.  Luckily, with family and friends everywhere, the two newlyweds had to plan two extra wedding receptions... one in L.A., and the last one in our hometown Chicago.  Woot Woot!

Since it's my sister, the cake had to be amazing and delicious.  The design of the cake was left entirely to me.  Creative freedom is always a plus in my book.  Starting with the color palette, I chose her default color from childhood, Pink! Mine was blue, Jennie's was pink, and Linda's was purple (and still is).  I decided to use different shades of pink and in different values.  I wanted the cake to look monochromatic elegant, and not Barbie childish.  After selecting the colors, I created the design by taking notes from their two wedding invites.  The first invite was from their actual wedding, whose contemporary graphics consisted of light pink swagging strings of beads.  The invite for the Chicago event was a modern take on the traditional Chinese invitation, whose embossed peonies became my main decorative element.

I began with the gumpaste peonies and researched for tutorials.  I have never made a peony prior to this, so this was going to a challenge.  It could go either way, I could totally breeze through these or get frustrated out of my mind.  Luckily, It didn't quite get to the latter.  It does take some practice though.  Using peony cutters, I started wrapping the smaller petals around a small ball of gumpaste attached to a 20 gauge floral wire.  After my first two layers, I noticed that my peony was looking more like a small cabbage.  It also felt really heavy.  I did not like how it looked or felt.  I knew this was not going to work on my cake.  I started all over and used CelBuds instead.  These are bud shaped styrofoam that I could insert a wire through it and twist the wire to secure in place.  There was no way that my peony would fall off the wire when I hang it upside down.  I began on the petals differently too.  I started with the largest petals and attached them to wires, and ruffled the petals with a ball tool on a thin foam pad.  I then allowed these to dry in shallow flower formers.  The smaller petals were cut out and I ruffled them the same way, but attached them to the CelBuds.  I used a skinny veining tool to open up the petals more and hung them upside down to dry.  After the first layer was dried, the second layer of petals were attached, opening up slightly more than the last.  Once these were dried, the largest petals on the wires were attached by wrapping the wires around the center wire.  These were then covered with floral tape for a clean look.  Each petal was then accented with a blush of deep rose petal dust for life-like and subtle color.  Notice that some were left as closed buds for variation.

Now that the challenging part was over ( or so I thought), it was time to bake the yummy goodness that everyone will enjoy!  Green tea with raspberry whip filling! Yes, this was my first attempt at this recipe and I never thought that finding cooking grade green tea matcha would be so hard.  I think it took me about three days to find some, and some that didn't cost me an arm and a leg.  I eventually found some and it was definitely worth it.  It had a subtle sweetness that I really liked.  The cake consisted of three levels of stacked cake, with a 14" bottom, 12" middle, and a 10" top.  It was a lot of cake.  I was really worried about how level the cake would rise, and how evenly baked they would be.  Good thing I had my Even Bake strips, and that I found a neat trick that uses a flower nail to help the baking process.  A flower nail is placed head down in the center of the pan and the cake batter is poured around it.  It acts like a heating core, but there no huge hole to fill later.  My cake baked so even that I didn't have to level my cake!  Amazing!  Each one was then torted after cooling, filled with a non-dairy raspberry whip, and stacked accordingly.  I crumb-coated each one after allowing them to settle.  This helps eliminate the side bulges.  White vanilla fondant covered each cake, and then smooth to perfection.  To carry on my color theme with out over doing it, I airbrushed on a pink sheen on each one prior to assembling the cake.

Construction is very important when dealing with a cake of this size and weight, I think it was total of 50 lbs.  I inserted 8 cake dowels in the bottom cake, and 6 in the middle level.  The cake was then stacked and held in place by a long dowel down the center.  I did not want this cake to move during my 45 minutes drive.  A pale pink ribbon of fondant was rolled out with the help of a pasta roller, and trimmed each cake level.  A brighter pink was then used in a 9mm beading mold and trimmed the ribbon.  To continue on the look of their first invite, random lengths of beads were attached to the cake for a modern flair.  The gumpaste peonies were attached to the cake onsite, and I couldn't be happier with result.  I hope she loved it as much as I wanted to make something special for her.

Congrats again sis, and welcome to our crazy family, Steven!