Sugared Productions Blog

Fleur de Lis Candy Baskets

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HELLO DEAR SUGAR FRIENDS!
I have missed you all so much, and I am sorry I have been MIA on the blog. Preparing for the Ultimate Cake Off show, during the Christmas holidays, trying to get both the new DVD and website launched, and the chores of daily life took over for a while. It has been a crazy few months for sure. But things are settling down now, and I will be back to posting regularly.
The new Sheet Cake Secrets and Bonus Lagniappe DVDs are ready to ship. Sadly, the new website launched Wednesday for all of 30 minutes before we had to pull it due to a technical problem. I am frustrated and regretful about the delay; but I assure you that the web techies are working on it as we speak. My gut tells me it is going to be a few more days before it is fixed. Please hang tight because I promise the new DVDs will be worth the wait!
AND we are shooting our next DVD this coming Monday! You ask for ’em, we make ’em!
In fact, we are looking for suggestions for topics for our next 2 DVDs. So if you post a suggestion in the comment section here, you will be entered into a drawing for a free gift! I will give away one of the new tools featured in the sheet cake DVDs! Yay! I love give-aways!
So post your ideas and good luck!
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In honor of the Saints big Superbowl win (WHO DAT!), and it just ending Mardi Gras season here, I want to share with you these fabulous fleur de lis candies that my talented and awesome sister Barbara made. She made these beautiful baskets as Christmas gifts this year. But fleur de lis are always in style, and always in season!
My beautiful sister with her baskets.
These are made with the Spinning Leaf Oreo cookie molds. They have all kinds of molds for different shaped cookies, in many fun designs. The molds are very easy to use as well, and they work great.

 

These were made with molded white chocolate. The molds can be found here. The gold color was achieved by using the PME gold luster spray in the can.

 

 

Each cookie was put into an individual bag and tied with a ribbon.
Beautiful.
Just a gorgeous gift basket.
Get yourself some of those molds and give it a try.
It really is a lot of fun!
I hope to be back this next week with the announcement that our new DVDs are ready to order. Stay tuned!
Sharon

 

 

Classes by Rebecca Sutterby

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Rebecca Sutterby is a world renowned and award winning cake artist. She has been featured in countless magazines, and has won first place at the Oklahoma Sugar Arts Show National Wedding Cake Competition. She will be offering beginner and advanced classes in her home state of Kansas. This is truly an incredible opportunity to learn from one of the best cake artists in the nation.

 

 

 

 

 
Please visit her website to see her incredible work at Sugar Creations.

      If you have the opportunity to take one of her classes, do not miss it!

 

 

Back from Ultimate Cake Off!

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Well, we made it back in one piece! What a wild ride that was! My awesome team and I just got back from filming our episode of TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off show.

 

I have to admit that the whole experience was more involved and harder than I expected. From planning and preparing, to the actual contest itself, it was all consuming for a while. But we made it through, and it was an experience I will never forget. I am not allowed to say anything about our episode until it airs on March 8 at 10 PM eastern. I promise you it will be a great show, so be sure to tune it.

 

Here are a few behind the scenes pics from our trip that I can share with you now:

 

 

Thawing the cakes in our hotel room the night before the show.

 

 

It rained the whole time we were in LA and was rather chilly. Very unusual weather for that area. It was very humid in our hotel room the whole time we were there. You can see how much condensation we had on the inside of our room window. Later on I can share with you how this had an impact on our contest day.

 

 

Me, my wonderful Wendy, and Becky discussing last minute strategy right before we started.

 

 

My incredible team! Wendy, Adele and Becky. There is no possible way I could have pulled this off without them. This was truly a team effort. I hope that this season they feature the assistants more and give them proper credit for all they do.
 
 
 
 
 
We were SO happy to be done! It was a wild ride for sure. And look at how dirty we are! Yes, our pants too. There was some serious floor to leg contact going on for sure! You gotta do what you gotta do!
 
 
 
 
 
I was so tired at the end of the day, the girls had to wheel me up to the hotel room on a baggage cart.
 
 
 
 
 
On the way back to the airport. Very tired gals.
 
 
 
 
Be sure to tune in on March 8th at 10PM eastern on TLC. It will be a very entertaining episode for sure!
 
 
 
After it airs I can post more pictures and fill you in on all the juicy details!
 
 
 
Now that I am back to my real life, I am working full force on getting the sheet cake DVD ready for sale within the next few weeks. We hope to launch the new website at the same time too.
 
 
Thank you all for your patience, support and encouragement during my many adventures. You guys are the best! Now I am off to take down my Christmas tree…. yes, it really is still up. 🙂
 
 
Sharon
 
 
 
 

 

Wish Us Luck!

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Hello Sugar Friends!
 

I am so very sorry I have been MIA as of late. Preparing for the Ultimate Cake Off show has been all consuming; even more so than I anticipated. So much to do in a relatively short period of time. While I am excited to be going and have enjoyed the crazy ride so far, I will be happy to get back to my normal life. I promise that my blog posts will return to normal starting in February.

 

My amazing team and I will be leaving to compete very soon, and I promise to post some pictures when we get back. I am not allowed to give any details until the show airs on TV (in the spring, no exact date yet). But I will tell you what I can: We are making a cake. It is a big cake. It has a theme. Sorry, but that is all I am allowed to say at this time. 🙂

 

Wish us luck! I hope for safe travels for my gals and I, and to build our cake with no major catastrophes. Then I will leave Los Angeles a happy lady, win or lose.

 

Talk to you guys soon!

Sharon

 

 

Contest Winners!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
 
 
I hope you had a blessed and wonderful holiday season with your family and friends. Our was low-keyed but very nice.
 
I am still just buried under work: working on the new website, final editing of the new DVD, and practicing my skills and testing recipes for the Ultimate Cake Off coming soon. I barely have time to shower and brush my teeth these days!

I will come up for air at the end of January, and promise my blog posts will get back to normal then. Thank you for being patient and waiting for my life to return to its normal chaotic self! LOL

We had a great response to our name the DVD contest, and by random drawing, here are the winners:

Nancy said…
Sassy Sheets
 
 

                                                                Kelly said…

                                    It’s All In The Details for Borders, Transfers and Flowers.

                                                               

                                                                Nicole said…

                           How about “Superior Sheet Cakes: Special touches for basic cakes”

 
 
          Janel Waters said…
 
             “Fantastic Finishes”Techniques for Borders, Transfers and Flowers.
 
 
 
 
 
Congratulations to you all! Please email sugaredinfo@aol.com to claim your prize!
 
 
So back to work for me; I will check in again with you guys soon. Wish me luck!
 
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com
 
 
 

Pulling from the Archives

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
I hope your season is going great and you guys are having lots of fun. What a busy time of year this is! I am so buried in work that I am not making any Christmas goodies this year. So I thought I would pull from the archives and give you guys the links to some older blog posts relating to holiday yummies. Maybe these will refresh your memory and spark some creative ideas you can try out this year.

I wish you all the very happiest of holidays, a blessed time with family and friends, and hope all of your wishes for the new year come true.

 

Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

 

 

Name the DVD Contest!

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WE NEED A NAME!
 
We are in the final editing phase of our next DVD and we really need a name for it! So let’s have a contest!
 
 

 
 
Hint about what the theme of the DVD is:
 
You can sleep on it, write on it, or decorate it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Some of the topics it will teach include:
 
Run Sugar
Buttercream Transfers
Royal Icing Transfers
Chocolate Transfers
 
 
 
 

 
 
Buttercream borders
Fondant borders
Two tone icing
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic airbrushing techniques
Fondant flowers
And more!
 
 
 
So put those thinking caps on and come up with a great name for our new DVD and post it in the comment section below.
 
If we choose your entry, you will win a free copy of the DVD when it is released in early 2010.
 
In addition, we will include all entries into a randwom drawing for more winners.
 
 
 
Have fun!
 
 
READY
SET
GO!!!
 
 
 

Fondant Camo Hat

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Camouflage: No easy way out.
Raise your hand if your arms and wrists start to ache the minute you get a camouflage cake order.
Yep, I am seeing quite a few hands going up. Doing camo in buttercream is a rather tedious process. Piping blobs of icing in alternating colors, smoothing, repeat, repeat, repeat…. till either you finish your cake or your arm falls off. Whichever comes first.
A while back I got an order for a camo fishing hat for a little boy’s birthday. I wanted it to look very realistic; like a real hat. I did not think buttercream camo would give me the look I wanted. So I started to brainstorm about a way to do it in fondant. An easier and less painful way than buttercream.
Guess what. It wast not easier nor less painful. It was more so. It took for-ev-er. My children had birthdays that I missed in the time it took to do this hat. It was very tedious and labor intensive.
BUT….. it looked friggin’ awesome man! It looked like a real fabric hat! People were amazed that it was cake. The press came to my house to report about it. The President called to congratulate me. They put up a plaque in my honor at the Wildlife and Fisheries Museum here in New Orleans. Yes folks, it looked just that good.
Oh wait, none of that happened. That was the exhaustion induced dream I had that night.
Anyway, let me show you guys how to do this technique if you ever lose your mind enough to give it a try:
First I carved 2 layers of round cake to have a slight taper up the sides. I also carved some small indentations into the sides to give the look of rumpled fabric, like a truly worn hat. That was crumb coated and covered with a very thin layer of white fondant.
The camouflage layer was made by putting “puzzle pieces” of the colored fondant together side by side. First I penciled the camo pattern onto a piece of paper, marked them the color I wanted each to be, and then cut those pieces out. Each piece was used as a template to cut out the corresponding color of fondant.
Each piece of colored fondant was stuck to a thin layer of white fondant underneath with a little water. This under layer of fondant was there to ensure that the pieces stayed together and did not fall apart when I picked up the larger finished piece. I kept the whole piece under plastic while I was working on it to prevent it from drying out.
When I got one piece big enough to cover the top of the hat, I used a slightly fabric textured mat on it to give a little bit more of a fabric look. That piece was then glued to the top of the hat with water. And the excess hanging over the sides of the top of the hat was cut off with an exacto knife.
The same process was followed to make a piece to apply to the sides. I used two pieces to wrap around the sides, and covered the side seems later.

Here is one side piece in place and the top edge trimmed flush with the top of the cake.

 

 

Here is the 2nd side piece in place, about to be trimmed on top.
The same process was done to cover a cardboard cake circle, which served as the brim of the hat. The cake part was put on top of this cake circle.
Then I used strips of green fondant, and some strings from the clay gun to finish off the cake and hide all of the seems. My stitching tool was used to put a stitching effect on the wider strips of green fondant.
The fishing lures and dog tags were made of gumpaste and painted silver.
I doweled the base cake and put the camo hat on top.

 

 

And here is the finished product:

 

Ta dah! Pretty cool huh? It really did come out great and had a very realistic and clean look. My client and I were both very happy.
Give it a try if you have a chance. If you are like me, you will do it once because the cake artist in you must conquer it. Then you will never do it again. LOL
Seriously, I hope you guys try this. It was time consuming, but very fun to watch it all come together. Be sure to send me pics if you do!
Happy caking,
Sharon

Winner and News!

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Hello Sugar friends!
 

Thank you all for the wonderful testimonials. They are going to be a great addition to our new SugarEd Website.

Along with working on the new site, and editing the new DVD (for early 2010 release), we are also cooking up some new exciting projects to offer you in 2010 and 2011. We have a lot of things simmering on the burners, so stay tuned for more info to come!

 

                                          The winner of the testimonial drawing is:

                Morsels By Mark said…
                   I have all of the SugarEd Dvd’s. Sharon is an informative teacher and very                                          fun to watch. I look forward to purchasing each an every dvd she puts out! Her customer service is bar none and she is one of the fastest shippers! Other cake instructors should follow her lead!

 

 

Congratulations! Please email me to claim your prize!

 

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I also have exciting news to share with you guys! I have been invited to return to TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off for season two! I cannot disclose any of the details yet, or the Cake Off Police will come arrest me and throw away the key. And that would not be good. So for now I must be quiet.

I will be spending a large portion of the upcoming weeks in work mode, so please bear with me if my blog posts are a little bit more infrequent than usual. I am very excited, and more than a little bit nervous! I do know, no matter what happens, it will be a great experience and a lot of fun to spend time with my teammates, who I will introduce you to later on.

OK kids, be back tomorrow with a tutorial!

Happy caking,
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

 

 

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