The Loving Dead

New favorite cake I have ever worked on. 

Queen Muskafa asked me to make a Corpse Bride cake for her cousin's wedding shower. How cool are they to throw a wedding shower with a creepy theme. I love it! I have wanted to do something based on Tim Burton's work for ages. Finally I got my chance!!! Her and her wonderful family even let me have creative licence. I had so many ideas I didn't know where to start!

I just started by making a whole bunch of fantasy flowers, and body parts. I also made the moon back drop out of fondant, and let it dry out for stability. I wasn't sure at that point how I was going to make it work, but i was starting to get a clear vision of how I wanted it to look. 

It wouldn't be Burton if there wasn't some swirly action. so lots of black curlies settin up.

 Then there was the cakes. The bottom tier was a 2 layer chocolate cake with chocolate Italian butter cream. the top was a 3 layer white cake with raspberry Italian butter cream. i offset it towards the back of the cake. then out came my old friend the airbrush. I really need to take some lessons with that thing, i made a terrible mess! but i got the effect i wanted, so I was happy in the end.

then i started adding all the little details i had made ahead of time. once the tiers had all their good stuff on them I tackled the daunting task of figuring out how to support the moon on top, which was going to support the characters. they have thin bodies and big heads, it seemed like the best option.

 

I covered wooden dowels in black fondant, and placed them in the cake on both tiers at an angle, hoping they would hold the topper in place. I wasn't sure it would work, and the first time i ever tried anything like this. When I placed the topper on I was shaking. I had spent probably at least 8 hours making the figures, and I was terrified it was going to fall. but it didn't. SIGH. Cakes are exciting sometimes. well, i think they are.... maybe i need to get out more.




So once the topper was off my stress list, it was time for celebrating. cake decorating and beer... not something i suggest all the time, but when the client is super cool, and the cake is almost done... why not! I had a beer with the always darling Queen Muskafa while I put on the finishing touches.  When I stepped back and looked at my final product, I was pretty darn pleased. By far one of the coolest cakes I have ever made. And as always I am proud to say it is all edible...OH except the wooden dowels. other than that 100% eatable 8)

Really.
Seriously.

The bride to be saved the characters and the topper. and Queen Muskafa even snagged acouple blue roses for herself. Its easier to think of someone eating the cake, if I know parts of them do survive sometimes.

So now I'm waiting for the next big order. I'm playing around, doing little projects, and experimenting. working a lot, but no big projects on the horizon. who is gonna make the next wicked sweet cake request?

Rainbow Revisited

There has been alot of talk about rainbow cakes lately. Making one is really quite easy. Lets do this...

this cake is not a rainbow inside, but its all about the bright colors on the outside!

start out with your favorite cake recipe, preferably not chocolate, for obvious reasons. some of my favorite bloggers might have some good ones to try. Hope they don't mind me linking them 8)

Bake at 350        joy the baker          i am baker 

 whatever white cake recipe you love will work....heck if you must you could even use a *shudder* box mix. I make enough batter to make two  8" cakes. I make the first batch, and separate it as evenly as possible into 3 bowls

I use gel food coloring to add the color. i start with yellow, than orange, the red. because I  have only 1 pan that is 8" I try to get the first one in the oven asap. Bake according to your recipe, just be sure to shorten the time, mine were done in about 20-30 min. once the third cake is in the oven, I make the second batch of batter, and split it evenly into 3 more bowls. these get colored, purple, blue and green. yes this is time consuming. but the  final product is worth it.

once all the layers are baked, choose your frosting. Anything white will work. Again if you are culinarily challenged you may opt for *shudder* canned frosting. I like to make mine with Italian butter cream with a hint of lemon. this will make a very tall cake, but it looks very striking when it is cut. stack the layers and frosting in order. I brush my cake with simple syrup with vanilla. (equal parts water and sugar boiled together and then cooled. ) baking the layers individually can make them come out abit dryer than i like. once the cakes are all stacked up, finish the cake with the white icing. the effect is lovely.

it is as simple as that. and then you can make a cake with a real WOW factor, without having alot of training, just abit of patience. you can make brighter or paler colors. you can really play around and make it your own. decorate simply to really let the cake shine through, or bring the rainbow to the outside of the cake and give a hint of hte treat held inside.

Take 2...

Last week was all about doing projects again, and doing them with a new twist. The rainbow cake and the dragon cake were on the menu again. I got an order for another dragon, this time sitting on top of dungeons and dragons dice. I also got an order for a rainbow cake, very similar to Thea's. Lemur's birthday fell in there somewhere and of course I had to bake him something 8)
First I did the dragon, I tried to challenge myself and make it abit more difficult. I wanted it to look different from the last one too. So I made him sitting up, and green. he still looks abit to friendly for my liking, but i think he is cool! I officially like making dragons, and i was much quicker this time too!
I start out with a rice krispie treat model

I let it dry out for a day, so it is abit more solid, and then cover it in fondant.  a strip of yellow up his belly, and then green over every thing else, just to smooth him out and get a nice blank canvas to work on.

Cutting out the scales, and putting them each on is, as I'm sure you may have guessed, the most time consuming part. I had a good time figuring out how to design his head to look different.

                


then i made a marvelous chocolate cake ( maybe 4 chocolate cakes ) and some chocolate butter cream. everything came together nicely, although I was not expecting the die to be do tricky to sculpt. I'm hoping Mr dragon distracted from any oddities in the shape. The base was supposed to look like a D&D map.

once the die was done I just had to put the dragon on top. I like that he has a different personality than the first one. I heard the birthday boy was happy, which means i did alright

Then one of my favorite clients called me for her daughters first birthday cake. This lovely lady wanted to do a rainbow theme for the party, and she wanted a Thea cake (rainbow inside). It was a fairly simple order. I baked all the layers and constructed it with vanilla bean Italian butter cream with just a hint of honey and lemon. She wanted a clean look with skittles around the edges food color. She is always a pleasure, a wonderful person i consider a friend now, not just a client. 

Speaking of my friends, if I was thinking I would have baked Lemurs cake at the same time. But it wasnt until I had all of her layers baked that I got my inspiration for his birthday cake. Lemur likes his Mac products, this is no secret, so i decided to do a Mac logo cake for him, with a lemur sitting on it. Heeheehee!

 

I also made "lemur tail" squares, every year i try to make chocolate and peanut butter a new way for him, the cake was vanilla, so the squares were the vessel for peanut buttery goodness.

I was anxious to be present for the cutting of a rainbow cake. I am seldom at the events I make treats for, and I have never seen my rainbow cake cut. Being the ever wonderful friend, the Lemur indulged me patiently, and amused me so 8) it looked amazing when it was cut, the colors were bright, and everyone seemed to enjoy. Ok to be honest, I was probably the most excited about it. I did catch acouple of the boys checking it out later and I enjoyed their praises immensely. even if it was abit heavy on the icing, it looked good.

  

So that's what I did last week. I'm so glad Lemur liked his cake. It makes me so happy to make treats for the people I love. that being said I also love baking for people I don't know, cause they don't have to be nice, so when they say the cake is good, I'm much more likey to believe it. This week everyone was happy. Old clients, new clients, and favorite mammals.