Sugared Productions Blog

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

The Surfing Skeleton

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When my niece in law asked me to make my nephew’s 30th birthday cake, I said of course! He is not only a wonderful guy, but my godson too. Nothing is too much for my Adam. So I asked her what she wanted, or if she had a theme, and she said, “Since Adam loves surfing and his BD falls near Halloween, how about a surfing skeleton?” “Sure!”, I said. “Sounds great!”
Then I hung up and thought: How the heck am I going to pull this one off?

 

My dear friend Kim linked me to a cake by another artist that was the perfect inspiration for the wave scene. Thank you Kim! You saved my booty!

 

 

Then I had to figure out how to make the skeleton.
I knew I needed an armature of some kind to mold white modeling chocolate over. PVC pipe was too thick. I tried Tinker Toys but they were too thick and bulky as well. Double thickness 18 gauge wire wrapped in floral tape did the trick. (You see two in this picture because I did not like the first rib cage I made and started over.)

It was sturdy enough to hold the weight of the modeling chocolate. When I formed him out of the wire, I left about 5 inches of extra wire below the feet, which went down into the dummy while I made him. That extra wire later went thru the surf board and down into the wave to anchor him in place.

I then molded the modeling chocolate around the wires to form his body parts. After he was firm, I used petal dusts to give him some creepy color.

 

 

 

The surf board was cut from thin Styrofoam. I printed out a paper template of the board using clip art. You see the reject skeleton lying there because I used him to help determine the size of the surfboard.

 

 

After I cut out the styro, I rounded the sides of the boards with another piece of styro , using it as sanding paper. (Learned that in a Colette Peters demo.)
Then it was time to form the wave out of modeling chocolate. I used both white and dark chocolate paste, because I had both on hand. It weighed a ton too! Again I used the reject surf board and skele to help me determine the size and shape of the wave. I made the wave on top of a thin piece of foam core board.
Another view of the wave. It didn’t look like much of anything at this point and I was a tad worried if I would get the wave to come out looking right.
The sheet cake was then covered in white fondant, doweled well, and the wave put on top.
To make the palm trees, I used plastic hidden pillars and wrapped them in brown fondant with tylose added.
I scored the sides with a skewer to make the palm bark look, and threaded them over another skewer to let them dry firm.
I airbrushed them to give them depth of color. They were not as dark as they are showing up in these photos. The palm leaves were made from fondant using a generic leaf cutter. Each was individually wired, then wired together in a bunch, and then that was threaded down into the hole of the pillar.
I rough iced the wave in blue buttercream, and then came back with very thin white buttercream and brushed it on with a small fan brush to create the foam of the crashing wave. Processed graham crackers were glued to the white fondant with piping gel. The skewers are marking the holes I dug down into the modeling chocolate. Once I arrived at the party, I put the surf board on the wave, and threaded the skeleton’s leg wires down thru the board and into the wave.
It was a big hit at the party; everybody loved it, including Adam. Mission accomplished! YAY!
I love these kinds of cakes. The ones that are different and challenging and fun. And I especially love the ones for family cuz there is not so much pressure. If I screw it up, I know they will go easy on me! LOL
Hope you all had a great Halloween! Now it is time to start thinking about all the great Thanksgiving treats we are gong to make. What do you guys have planned?
Happy Caking,
Sharon

 

 

Ultimate Cake Off

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AIR DATE!

 

The episode where I am one of 3 assistants to Rebecca Sutterby will air on October 5, 2009 at 10 PM EST on the TLC network.

Be sure to tune in for an exciting episode! We had such a blast while we were there. Of course, being with 3 of my great friends guaranteed that!
I am just an assistant, Rebecca is the star. And that is a good thing. It decreases the chances of any of the stupid things I said actually making it on TV.
Set your DVR now!
Sharon

Oreo The Dog

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Last night I made a cake for one of my favorite little clients. Her request was “Make Oreo like you did Remy, and lots of white icing.
” How cute is that?
I know that Eva loves pink and all things girly, so I added some of that to the cake was well.
Oreo is her dog. I snapped a few in progress photos. Once again, I am living proof that owning a good camera does not a good photographer make:

I printed out several pictures of dog figurines too help me do mine. First I did the basic body shape with indentations where the legs and arms will attach. I scored it up with a metal tool to give it some fur texture.

 

 

Then I added the hind legs and one front leg. Every piece starts as either a ball or a sausage, and then you refine the shape from there.

 

 

Then I realized that Oreo had white front legs, so I had to change that. I added a thin piece of white to the back paws and his chest and scored that up too. Looks like a roasted turkey to me. Or maybe I am just tired. Or hungry. (Trying to lose a few pounds before the next DVD shoot.)
Then I got so absorbed in making him and I forgot to snap pics of the making of the head. That took a little trial and error. I suck. Sorry.
He looks surprised, or scared, or maybe he had too much doggie botox.
Figure modeling is not one my strengths by any means. I was hoping he would just come out decent. If you can guess what breed of dog he is, that would make me even happier.
Oreo with his kibble. I hope Eva likes it.
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And here is how I spent my Sunday:

 

Helping two little friends make a cake for one little sister’s birthday.
I think they did a great job.
(Thanks to hubby for hanging with us and squeezing the 679 clay gun strings for us.)
Happy caking all!
Sharon

Swamp Thing Class Photos

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Hi all!
This post would have been up a few days ago, but after about 2 hours of work, and near the very end of the entry, my hand had some kind of demonic spasm and wiped the whole thing out. After staring at the screen in disbelief, banging all kinds of keys to no avail, then dropping a few choice words, I had to just walk away from it for a couple of days to get over my pissed off-ed-ness. I am over it now. Mostly. Maybe.

This past weekend Dena Bryngelson and I taught our Swamp Thing class here in New Orleans. And boy did we have fun!

 

 

I mean we had a ball.

No seriously, I am not kidding. It was that fun.

Dena is crazy talented and a natural born teacher. Here she is carving her gator cake. I call her Edward Scissorhands. That knife just a goes a-flying and in what seems like a few seconds she has a 3 D masterpiece in front of her.

All of the students did amazingly good jobs on their cakes. Honestly there was not one cake in the bunch that was not excellent. We had some really talented gals in our class. And I would tell you if they sucked, trust me 🙂
What was really fun for us was to watch each swamp scene come to life over the 2 day period. Each student had the same instructions, used the same tools and colors, but each gator, stump and turtle had its own unique personality.
This is my buddy Pat. This is her third class with me. She is just a doll and quite the character too. I call her the walking Let’s Make A Dealgal. You need anything, anytime, she has it. Really…..anything. It’s amazing.
Here is Pat’s gator in the early stages. It was kinda cool having a whole room of gator cake fetuses at one time. Once they got legs and eyes they really started to come to life.
Here is Pat’s full grown gator. Isn’t he just adorable? He looks like he is laughing.
And here is her turtle. Oh my gosh he is cute! I wanna just pinch his little cheeks and take him home with me.
This is Pat’s completed scene. Isn’t it just awesome? The gator sure is eyeing up that turtle! HAHA!

This is Kim D, another home grown gal. Doesn’t she just look like a nice person? Well, she’s not.

 

 

JUST KIDDING! Kim is a sweetheart, and her cake came out great too!
This is Erin. She is a hoot. Great sense of humor. We hit it off just fine. She flashes a beautiful smile as she wields one big a$$ knife. Look out!

 

This is Chae, another loyal student. She has the cutest Cajun accent. Here her gator has his crumb coat and awaits his skin.

 

 

Chae’s swamp scene. Fantastic!
This is Patti. She works at LSU where my son goes to college. I told her she was responsible for keeping and eye on him and making sure he stays on the straight and narrow. That should be easy to do with a student body of about 25,000 don’t you think? I just love her smile.
This is Heather, Patti’s daughter in law. She does cakes as a hobby and is going to nursing school. YAY for nurses! You go girl!
This is Ramona. She is Patti’s sister in law and best friend. They have been buds since childhood. So I guess that makes her Heather’s aunt in law? I bet if we kept at it we could find Kevin Bacon in the mix somewhere too with these three gals.
This is sweet Scarlett. She is very quiet. Just stayed in her little back corner and worked as quiet as a mouse. We had her out of her shell by the end though! She came all the way from Tennessee!
Scarlett’s beautiful cake.
This is Kristy, another Cajun gal. This was the first time she had ever done any cake carving or airbrushing.
And she did an amazing job! Bravo Kristy!
This is Sharon. She has been a student of mine in Austin. She is very talented at all kinds of art, not just caking. She is very much a perfectionist. She was worried her gator would not come out looking good.
And she worried for nothing! Look at that masterpiece!
This is Natasha. She was very serious when she was working, but always up for a good laugh. She has a beautiful little girl too.
Perfect swamp scene. I love how the gator splashed mud onto himself while he was romping around.
This is Becky. My dear friend helped me out at my ICES booth his year. She is a very talented caker and just the sweetest gal you will ever meet.
Kim, another local bud. She helped me out at ICES too. What great friends I have. Kim works at Shell Oil, same place my sister Barbara does. Small world. I wonder if Kevin Bacon works there too?
This is April working on her little turtle. Mom to a sweet little girl also.
April’s kick butt Swamp Thing.
This is Carolyn. We were in culinary school together for 3 weeks. (I dropped out cuz my dad got sick and I never went back). But we stayed friends. She graduated with a 4.0 at the top of her class. Carolyn has been doing cakes for a very long time and is extremely talented. Super sweet too.
Here I am carving out the stump cake.
One student stump.
And here is another. See what I mean about how they all look different, but all look great?
Here is foliage drying that was airbrushed.
And the turtle that Dena and I made drying for a bit.

Here is a little video of some of the class action. This video proves that I certainly need to keep my day job.

 

                         

Video link is HERE.
 
2 days and 23 hours of class time later, each student left with a truly wonderful swamp scene. We worked really hard , but we had a lot of fun and laughs along the way.
Here are Dena and I with our completed cake.
What?
What?
What do you mean that last picture looks funny?
I have no idea what you are talking about.

Ok,Ok, I confess I doctored the photo.

 

Here is the real photo. OMG the hair! Please let me explain the hair. I must explain the hair.

Saturday night after class Dena and I slept at my mother in law’s house because she lives very close to the classroom. (My house is an hour away.) After class a large group of us went out for a nice leisurely dinner. By the time we got back to the house it was after 10 PM and we were really pooped.

Dena had overslept just a tad on Saturday morning and asked me to check on her Sunday morning to make sure her alarm went off this time. Sure, no problem. I set my alarm and take a wonderful hot shower and plop into bed, exhausted. My mother in law’s bed is the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in in my life. Period. I think it has magical sleep fairy dust in it or something. I slept long and hard; best night sleep I have had in months, no kidding.

So my alarm goes off, and I get up to check on Dena. She is in the shower already. Check.

That is the last thing I remember, up until the point that Dena comes into my room . “Sharon , Sharon? Didn’t you want to leave at 8:30?” I hear her saying thru my slumber.

I sit bolt up in the bed. “What? What? What time is it?”

“8:45”

“What? really? OMG how did that happen? I must have fallen back asleep! Shit! Class starts at 9 am! The students are probably already there! Crap!”

So I jump up still half asleep and started grabbing clothes and toothbrush and God knows what else out of my bag, and run around in circles in the room getting nothing accomplished. I cannot think. I am panicked. I cannot believe I did this. I am never late for my classes. Ever. I am very punctual and responsible. OMG. OMG.

It was the bed’s fault! That damned evil magical power sleep fairy dust bed! It must have cast a spell on me and sucked me back into its vortex via a transcendent gravitational force field. Dang mother in law and her perfect bed.

Dena, being the voice of reason, as well as being perfectly made up, cute and perky (I coulda decked her), suggested that she go ahead on to the classroom and get the students started while waiting for me to come. (We did have 2 cars, thank goodness.) So she went on ahead and I went into overdrive. In less than 15 minutes I was dressed, hair pulled up, slapped some make up on, brushed my teeth and threw on my wrinkled clothes and was out the door, blowing MIL a kiss goodbye as the wind I created rushing past her nearly knocked her 4 foot 6 inch body down onto the sofa. Driving well over the speed limit and taking turns on 2 wheels (not really), I made it to class just 18 minutes past 9. I got a round of applause when I walked in. Funny ladies.

And that is why I look like I do in that picture. As you can see, it was by no fault of my own. It was that evil magical bed. Yep.

 

 


It’s a Swamp Thing 2009 was a huge success! It was my honor and pleasure to teach with Dena, and we are making plans to do it again. Thank you to all the wonderful ladies who took our class. You all were great fun and did a great job on your cakes to boot.
Thanks for reading!
Happy Caking,
Sharon

 

ICES Eye Candy

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Hi Dudes and Dudettes!

While I am working on my blog post about our trip, feast your eyes on some of these incredible creations. These are all cakes made by attendees, in the cake display room. They come from all over the world, and the work there is just astounding! This is just a tiny sampling of what was there. Enjoy!

 

My absolute favorite! Not only cuz I adore junk food, but because this cake was perfectly executed. The little guy looked like a ceramic doll.

By the same artist as hamburger cake; she was from Argentina.

Wendy loved these puffy hearts.
Love the side treatments on this one and the beautiful colors.

I am so gunna steal, er….borrow, that applique and lace motif.

This was a dinner plate full of teeny tiny pastries! They were so cute! The little donuts were about the size of my thumbnail.
Incredible detail.

 

 

Love this.

Simply stunning.
I love the upside down string work. I want to learn how to do that.
Beautiful color combo and piping.
Adore it. Period.
This cake was amazing. It looked like the real game. Notice how all the words are confection related. Brilliant!
Drop dead amazing.
I will post more soon!
Sharon

 

Swamp Class Cake

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IT’S A SWAMP THANG!
 
 
 
Dena and I got together this weekend to put together the cake will be teaching in our Swamp Thing class next month. We had a lot of fun together. I can tell you that lady is wicked talented! She excels at 3D cakes and airbrushing.
 
Our 2 day class will cover making the above cake and all its details. There will be lots of cake scraps flying for sure!
 
The class is full at this time, but if you have signed up already, you will be getting an email this week with all of the final details and the supply lists.
 
 
 
 

Mr. Turtles sits on his stump, safely away from the jaws of the gator.
 
 
 
 
 
We are very much looking forward to this class; it is going to be a ball!
 
 
 
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I am frantically preparing for the ICES convention next week, and probably will not be able to blog again until we come back. But then I will post pictures and video of all the goings-on! Hope to see some of you there!
 
 
Happy caking,
Sharon
 
 
 
 

Owen and The Gipper

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My brother-in-law, Owen, has a 4th of July birthday. But not only is his birthday patriotic, so is he. He is a 100% pure blooded, flag waving patriot, Republican and Reagan lover. Serious Reagan fan. No really, I mean he worships the guy. His major in college was political science, so you can always count on an intense discussion about politics if you so wish to engage in one. Almost every year I make him a patriotic cake. Always something red white and blue to celebrate the day.

 

Owen and his wife, Cathy, are two of our very best friends in the entire world. We are in-laws (twice removed), but our kids think they are cousins. We have been “family” for over 20 years, and celebrate every major holiday and life event together. Our families are very close, and I cannot imagine my life without them in it.

 

Well, Owen turned 50 this year, and Cathy planned a huge surprise party for him. (Why I had to keep the cake secret because he might read here from time to time.) So when Cathy asked me to make the cake, I said of course! At first I thought I might just do a huge flat cake in a more simple design. But that didn’t last too long. The idea came to me late one night while I was sleeping, I think. I don’t remember exactly when it came to me, but as soon as it did, I knew I was in trouble. I knew it would be a challenge. Going places I had not gone in cake before. But just like all the other crazy ideas I get, I knew I had to try. I could not talk myself out of it. It became an obsession. It consumed my every waking thought for the better part of 2 weeks.

 

My idea was to incorporate a picture of Owen and Reagan side by side that I photo shopped into the cake. But not just a boring ole picture on the cake. No, not on my cake. It has to move! It has to pop up and down! It has to pop up and down on the lid of an Uncle Sam hat! Yes, that’s it! Perfect! Awesome!

 

 

 

 

Now how in the heck was I going to do that? I didn’t have one iota of an idea how to go about doing that. But I know someone who does! There was only one person to call in for back-up on this one…. my brother Michael. Michael is a genius (literally), an engineer, and he is a guru at all things mechanical, electrical and technological. He started taking things apart and rebuilding them when he was a little kid. He had a “lab” under our house growing up with all kinds of gadgets and goodies down there. ( He set boobie traps so my sisters and I could not get into it and mess it up, LOL.)

 

But Mike has always been my hero. When my other siblings were torturing me and making my life a living hell, he was always sweet and nice to me. If I had a broken toy or mechanical doll, I would go crying to him, and I knew he could always make it work again. And he always did. He always made it work. He is a friggin’ genius. And my hero. And the nicest, sweetest guy on earth. So of course, he was happy to help me with my ambitious project.

 

 

 

 

So I tell Mike what I am trying to accomplish, and while he thought about what we needed to get to make this work, I got started on the cylinder of the hat so it would have ample time to dry:

 

  Mike and I decided that we needed about an 8 inch diameter cylinder to make sure a motor would fit on the inside (to create the popping lid). So I took 2 eight inch cake dummies and stacked them together. Then I gave them a crumb coat of white chocolate and smoothed that out with my bench scraper as best as I could. After that dried, I literally sanded it with my sanding block to get the surface as smooth as possible. The dummy surfaces were rather irregular, and I needed the seem between them to be smoothed out too. It did not have to be perfect, just reasonably smooth. Much to my delight, this process worked quite well.
 
 
 

Then I covered the dummy with parchment paper, and wrapped it with gumpaste to form the hat cylinder. I used the exact same process I use when I make my gumpaste crowns. I let that sit for 2 or 3 days to firm up before I slid the gumpaste off the dummy. After I slid it off, I let it dry about a week before I touched it again.

 

 

When I was ready to start working with it, I spackled the seem (and some wrinkles) with more white chocolate.
 
 
 
At this point, everything is still nerve wracking. We were making this up as we went along, neither one of us being really sure if any of this was going to work. Poor Mike got a lot of nervous emails from me stressing over this and that. Worried if it would all work out or not. Because I wanted it to work so badly! No, I needed it to work! I was invested, obsessed, possessed…
 
 
 
 
The base of the cylinder was a 12 inch cake drum that I covered in red fondant. I knew it was going to need to be strong, in order to support all the weight of the finished hat (gumpaste, motor, supports, fondant, lid). I covered it on one side, let that dry firm a few days, and then flipped it over and covered the other side and sides with one smooth piece.
 
 
 
 

The top of the hat was one single cake cardboard covered on one side with red fondant. I needed to keep the lid as light as possible, because we did not know how much weight the motor would be able to handle.

 

The cylinder was glued to the hat brim with some chocolate on the inside.

 

You can also see in these photos that the gumpaste cylinder did wrinkle some over the 1.5 weeks it was drying. I assume it was from the sheer height and weight of it. Gravity just taking its toll. It was purely cosmetic, and did not affect its stability. I felt confident I would be able to cover all that when I decorated it. (Well, I hoped, anyway…)

 

 

We needed a very sturdy way to hinge the lid to the cylinder, so Mike put a strip of fomecore down the back of the hat. We glued it on with chocolate, and cut a hole in the bottom so the electrical wire for the motor could come out the back, later to be attached to the power supply. The hinge was attached to the fomecore with epoxy glue. (Really strong stuff!)

 

So what were we going to use to motorize this thing? I of course did not have a flipping clue. I had explained to Mike what I wanted to do, and he found two hobby motors on Amazon that he thought might work. He wasn’t sure though, as there was not enough info in the product description for him to really know. We would not know until they came in: their size, if they were strong enough, would the gears have the proper height rotation, and their speed. Would they be too weak? Too fast? Too slow? I ordered them right away, and it was an absolutely excruciating week waiting for them to come in. Not knowing the fate of my idea! It was torture! I really wanted this cake to work, not just for myself and meeting the challenge, but I really wanted it to be special for Owen.

 

 

So the motors finally come in, and I open the boxes to find about 800 little plastic pieces in a bag. Ack! Obviously it was a model kit, and needed to be assembled. I rushed over to Mike’s to deliver them so he could get started on assembly, and we made a date for him to cover over the next day to see how this was all going to work (or not.) Needless to say, I did not sleep that night. (again.)

 

 

So Mike came over the next day (and the next 2 days after that) to get this hat working. We glued fomecore to the hat brim to prop the motor up to the right height. Everything was glued down with melted chocolate and masking tape to get it as secure as possible. The wire ran from the motor, out the back of the hat, to the power source.

 

 

 

Mike attached an eye hook to the underside of the lid. Then I was able to glue on the photo. A thick copper wire went from the motor gear to the lid. As the motor ran, the gear would turn, making the wire go up and down. (We hoped!) The electrical thing on the left is his power supply unit he brought over to give it juice. Did it work? Did we fail? You will have to wait to find out….

 
 
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In the midst of all of this I had even another idea. (Yes, a dangerous thing.) Wouldn’t it be cool if I could incorporate some audio into the cake of Reagan wishing Owen a happy birthday? Oh yeah, that would be awesome! Surely there has to be a way to do that! Some hidden speakers or something. But the bigger problem was getting audio of Reagan’s voice saying happy birthday. No way would I find that anywhere. Maybe I knew someone who could do an impersonation and record that. I really didn’t have much hope that this would come to fruition, but it was a cool idea anyway.

 

So one evening, on a whim, I decided to do an internet search. Just to see what was out there. So I googled “Reagan audio saying happy birthday”……. and to my utter amazement, within 5 minutes I found it! An audio file from 1968 of Ronald Reagan wishing a newspaper mogul a happy 90th birthday. I jumped out my chair and howled with excitement! This was just what I needed! I could not believe I found it! It was surely a sign from God. This cake had to be made. I had to press on. I hadto make it work!

 
I immediately emailed the link to my other hero, Todd, my video guy. I gave him a script of the words I wanted cut out from the clip. He edited it down to an appropriate message, and sent it back to me as an mp3 file. I then loaded it to a small stick mp3 player that had detached speakers on wires. Well, the speakers were not loud enough, so off Mike and I went on a mission to find amplified speakers that would fit into the mp3 adaptor. Two stops later we found just what we needed at Office Depot. Speakers with amplified volume control that could play nice and loud. YAY! One problem solved!

 

 

 I did not want the mp3 player justhanging out on the cake board, so I built a little box to cover it out of fondant with tylose added. I made a hole in the cake board, and threaded the speaker wires under the cake board so they could not be seen. I made a small hole in the box right over the “play” button of the mp3 player. I put a large silver dragee into that hole, so when you pressed it, the “play” button was activated, and the audio played. It was too stinkin’ cool! I listened to it over and over, and got a huge chuckle each time. (Lordy, I have no life.)

 
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So then it was time to decorate the cake. The bottom layer was a 16 inch double layer round covered in white fondant. I put a very thin red overlay on the top. I did not worry about the cut being neat and clean, because I knew the blue swags would cover the seem.
 
 
 
 

The 50 was made from fondant with tylose added, and dried super firm. I made another disc of fondant with a hole cut out the center to let the light shine through from the rotating stand. The 50 was super-glued onto the white disc. The rotating, light up cake topper is made by Wilton, and battery operated. It was perfect for this use!

 

 

To support the hat, I used a stress free ring support with long legs. The legs went down into the blue tier (which was a single layer 13 inch round, filled), and extended above the cake to the desired height. Wilton plastic columns slipped right over the stress free legs to give the perfect presidential look to the cake!

 

Here is the cake set up at the party. Did everything work? Was it a success? Did Owen like it?

 

Watch this to find out:
 
(Now the cat is out of the bag. You are going to see how really messy I am.)

 

                                

You can also view the video here.


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So as you can see, much to my amazement and sheer jubilation, it all worked out and Owen loved it! He just went on and on about how incredible it was, and how much he loved it. It was also a huge hit with all the guests at the party. They could not believe it was a real cake. Everyone that knows Owen got a huge laugh out of it, because it was such a funny and appropriate theme for him.

I am tickled pink that my idea came to life, even though it was very nerve wracking! I could not have done it without my incredible brother Mike. The motor and all the electrical stuff was done by him. I felt bad that he got sucked into my black hole of craziness, but he said he enjoyed the project. And I believe him; he lives for this kind stuff!

 

The cake was fun, the party was fun, working with Mike was fun. I have such a great life. I am truly blessed.

 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!
GOD BLESS AMERICA
 
 
 
 
 
Sharon
 
 
PS. Tomorrow I will post about the saga of trying to get this entry up. I am too traumatized right now. It is now 2:43 AM. I was not going to bed until I go this thing done! 🙂
 
 
 

Southern Magnolias

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Hello Sugar Friends!
 
 
Ah, summertime in the deep south. Warm sun, cool breezes, the magnolias are in bloom….
 
 
 
Wait. Who am I kidding? It’s hot as friggin’ Hades down here. There sure ain’t no cool breezes, and there ain’t no magnolias right now either. I don’t even know when they bloom. It just sounded like a good opening. 🙂
 
 
 

Anyway, I did this little wedding cake a few weeks ago. Ivory buttercream with white buttercream stenciling and gumpaste magnolias.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
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I used this Designer Stencil for the cake sides. Notice that I taped a piece of card stock to the bottom of the stencil to boost it up to the exact height I needed it to be. That way I did not have to try to hold it in place freehand while stenciling, and run the risk of the stencil moving while I worked.
 
 
 
 
 
Showing 2 sides. Perty huh?
 
 
 
 
 
This photo was taken with a flash at the venue, so it it is not so flattering, but I wanted you to see the full effect of the stencils. The 8mm bead maker was used for the pearl borders.

 

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I had not made magnolias before, so I bought Nic Lodge’s video on it. His videos are very good, step by step instruction on flowers, and a great value. I did not follow his instructions exactly, as I wanted my flower to be a bit more frilly than his was.
 
 
 
I taped three 18 gauge wires together with floral tape for the stem. I made a large cone of gumpaste and cut V’s into it with a tiny scissors. I folded back the tips a bit with my finger.
 
 
 
 
 
These are wired petals so I rolled out my paste onto the Cel Board.
 
 
 
 
 

Turn the paste over so the center vein is up, and cut out the petal.

 

 

Thread a 24 gauge wire into the vein.
 
 
 
 
 

Thin the edges with a ball tool.

 

 

Dry them over large soup spoons for shape.
 
 
 
After they are all dry, dust everything for color, assemble and steam.
 
 
 
 
 
Who cares if the magnolias are in bloom when you can make your own?
 
 
 
 
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So now I am going to disappear until next week. I am in the final days of working on my secret special cake for this weekend. I am so excited about it! I am hoping that it all works out as I have planned. God willing I will be back next week to share with you all the juicy details!
 
 
 
 
Happy caking everyone!
 
 
Sharon
 
 
 
 

Holy Cake!

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First Holy Communion season has just ended down here in the deep south. Maybe where you live too. So I had the opportunity to do a few religious cakes over the last few weeks I thought I would share with you. I like doing religious cakes. They make me feel good. All religousy and stuff.

I remember my own first communion very well. It was such a big milestone in our young lives. I think we were in the first grade. I was so excited to finally be able to receive the Host. The pretty white dress and veil was such a treat to have in our modest lifestyle. I remember we practiced as a class in the church several times for the ceremony. Where to sit, how to file up to the front, when to approach the kneeler, when to kneel, when to stand. On the very last practice day they even served us unconsecrated hosts, so we could practice accepting it on our tongues (there was no hand communion back then), and to get a feel for its taste and consistency. That day I was SO excited. I mean SUPER excited that we were getting a real host. Of course, as per the curse of those whose last names start with a Z (yes, my maiden name started with a Z too), I was the last one. Last pew, last seat, last in line. I was so very worried that they would run out of hosts before I got up there. As the line moved forward I was just praying… please don’t run out… please don’t run out. Of course they ran out. Story of my life. Another emotional scar I have had to overcome. To this day I practically run out of my pew, knocking people over, to get in line at communion time cuz I am afraid they are going to run out.

But I digress. Let me share with you some of the cakes I made this year:

This one was for a male, and the mom wanted it to be classic, elegant, simple, but no way feminine. No flowers, no colors. This one I iced in white buttercream. I used the diamond impression mat on the sides and put small candy pearls at the intersections.

 

 

I used a stencil to apply the pattern to the ivory stripes. I first rolled out the ivory fondant, stenciled the pattern on with buttercream, then cut the strips with my ribbon cutter. I then gently lifted them, applied water to the back with a brush, and attached them to the cake carefully with the aid of the end of a dowel rod so as not to smear the stencil. A 6 mm bead maker was used for the pearl border. (I show how to use these in Boxes and Bows.)

The same stencil was used with luster dust on the drape and knot. The cross was cut out from fondant with gumpaste, and allowed to dry firm. Later, 4mm pearls were attached to the edge, and the whole thing was airbrushed with super pearl dust after I applied the monogram initial.

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This cake was made for sweet little Elizabeth, a close family friend. Lizzy designed her entire cake from start to finish. This was the first custom cake she had ever had, and she was super excited. I did exactly as she instructed me to.

The cake was iced in white buttercream. 8 mm pearls were used for the borders. Satin ribbon was applied around the tiers, and the monogram was printed on an edible icing sheet and backed with fondant.

The cross was cut from fondant, piped with royal, and airbrushed with super pearl. All the flowers were made from gumpaste using this set.

My hubby delivered the cake, and said she was absolutely thrilled and overjoyed with her cake. She and her cousins and sisters were oogling over it, and they even ate the flowers!

Look at this sweet note she wrote me the next week. Just melts my heart:

 

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Here is another one for a young man. He also specified “very simple and nothing girly”. Those boys are very concerned that their cakes be masculine! LOL

Also iced in white buttercream. The lighting makes the cake look as if it is two tone, but it was not. The shaped plaque was molded white chocolate. The chalice and Host were made with a chocolate mold from fondant with tylose, dried and then painted.

 

 

I used this Patchwork impression tool on the stripes; then piped crosses in royal and painted them gold too.
The cookies were flooded with royal icing and sprayed with pearl spray. The letters were made ahead with this cutter, dried, painted, and then applied.
Beau came with his mom to pick up his cake and his face lit up. Yesssssss! Score Sharon!
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This one was for Beau’s first cousin Eva. Hers was actually a kindergarten graduation cake but she wanted a cross too. “A big pink cross with pink icing inside and out, lots of flowers, and sparkly.” All my kids that I have been doing cakes for since they were babes are now getting very specific with their cake requests! Gone are the days of me having free reign!
I saw this design on a google search and loved it. I do not know who the original artist was to give credit. If you know, please let me know.

Mine did not do the original justice, but Eva was happy. Here are some progress photos:

 

 

I baked a single layer sheet cake and cut large pieces to fit under my cross template, made from card stock.

 

 

I cut out the cross shape, then torted and filled the cake with lots of pink icing per Eva’s request!
Crumbcoat applied.
Then I put the template back on top and gave it another coat of icing on the sides to refine the shape.
(Note : I do not know if card stock is considered food safe; so do some research before you use it. Wax or parchment paper would be good alternatives to use.)
Final icing base coat done.
I then wrapped a strip of pink fondant around the sides of the cake using the same technique as on my Oz cake.
I used the template to cut the top piece and applied it.
I used my fondant crimpers to seal the seams.
I also used impression stamps to make scrolls on the top piece before I laid it on top of the cake.
I made another template for the white inner cross and cut that from fondant. I used scrap booking stamps to impress her name. (Again: PLEASE make sure all stamps you use are food safe before using them. Not all plastic is safe for food.)
 
I made a frill border using this cutter set. The pink bead border was piped buttercream. The gumpaste orchids were purchased and I dusted them for color. Plunger flowers were made with this. And some sparkle dust to finish it off. Voila!
Eva seemed very please when she picked it up. Yessssssssss! Another score!!
And here are Eva’s cookies to go with the cake. The grad hats were made with these tappit cutters. The cookies were flooded with royal and dry dusted with super pearl.
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So what do you think of my religious cakes this year? Leave me a comment and you will be entered into a drawing to win the script alphabet Tappit cutters used on Beau’s cookies and the cross topper above!
WOOOHOOOO. Another give-a-way! I love give-aways!
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My wonderful Wendy came over and helped me package Topsy orders and the first batch went to the post office today. I will keep working on that all week until they are all out. Please drop me a note and let me know what you guys think of it. I am really proud of this one and excited to get it to you!
Me tired now. Must go rest.
Happy Caking!
Sharon

 

 

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