WE ARE SUPERBOWL BOUND!
GO SAINTS!
Wish Us Luck!
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
The Surfing Skeleton
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
Cake Off Behind the Scenes
Hey guys! So what did you think of our episode? Pretty fun, huh?
We had such a great time! Both of the other teams were incredibly talented and nice, and we all left the best of friends. We had a great time messing with Norm both on and off the set; he is a great sport and a really nice guy.
Here are a few more pictures I can share with you now:
Last minute shopping for supplies. I made sure we had enough snacks.
Day of arrival; setting up the kitchens.
Giving Norm a beating….
Zane eating his birthday cake.I cannot tell you guys how beautiful all 3 cakes were, each in their own right. The TV, nor photos, do any of them justice.
Norm’s beauty.
Lots of chocolate curls and ruffles and flowers.
Grooms cakes surround the main cake on a beautiful display board.
Mark’s cake was simply stunning:
The most beautiful soft green with ivory.
Gorgeous brush embroidery, bows and a custom made stand.
Incredible moving carousel. It played music too although they did not show that on TV.
And Rebecca’s masterpiece:
What a gorgeous design.
Little lights shone out through the flowers and behind the monogram plaque. The hanging pearls, the stenciling, and flowers were just stunning.
Rebecca is so utterly talented on every level. It was my honor and pleasure to be on her team. And spending 4 days with 3 of my great friends on such an adventure will be a memory I treasure forever.
Tell me what you guys thought of the show!
Sharon
ICES 2009 Convention
Hi Sugar Friends!
I bet you thought I forgot about this post! Nah, just took a while to get the photos edited and find time to sit down and get it all entered. Busy time right now! Cakes, kids, house stuff, and getting ready for our next DVD shoot in 3 weeks! (Yay!)
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Well, the ICES 2009 convention near Chicago was a huge success and a lot of fun for us. This was the first time I was a vendor at this show, and this was definitely the biggest one I have had a booth at. It was quite an undertaking to get all the inventory, office supplies, banners, and luggage up there.
Wendy, D (my son) and I drove up there. I had to rent a vehicle big enough to load all the bounty into:
Doesn’t it just wreak glamour and class? Not. Hubby took all the bench seats out and we filled that thing to the brim. We had more of a Beverly Hillbillies meets cake decorating vibe going on.
My two sisters, Barb and Janice, decided to take another vehicle:
Twerps. The probably flew first class too.Our long long journey:
When we were deciding how we were going to get there with all our stuff, we put the trip into Mapquest and it said it was a 14 hour drive. Ok, we can do that, not too too bad. Add another 60 minutes for fast food drive through and potty breaks. We can do that in one day, no problem. We can take turns driving, leave really early so as not to get to the hotel too late, and get a good night’s rest. Yeah, no biggie. We can do that fine.
D and I got up at 4 AM, picked up Wendy on the way out , and off we went. Wendy took the first shift driving while we snoozed a little. Stopped for a quick breakfast and back on the road.
About noon I get a call from the sisters:
Sisters: Hey, where are you guys?
Me: Um, somewhere between LA and Chicago. Not sure exactly. Where are you?
Sisters; Oh, we just arrived at the airport. We are about to board. We slept late, our flight is only 2.5 hours.
Me: Nice (not), we have been on the road for 8 hours already and this is getting old.
Sisters: Yeah well, we have a non stop flight. We will be there in no time. Gotta go, we are boarding.
Me: Ok,bye.. (Thinking: I hope you have turbulence.)
About 3 hours later:
Sisters: Hey, we landed. Where are you?
Me: I think we are in Illinois now, going thru corn fields. Lots of corn fields here. Kinda neat to see.
Sisters: Cool. We had a perfect flight. Smooth, snacks, drinks. We are waiting for our limo now.
Me: Limo?
Sisters: Yeah, we got a limo for the ride to the hotel. It was cheaper than a cab or shuttle.
Me: Great. Here we are riding in Sanford and Son on wheels, and you got a limo. Must be nice.
Sisters: Gotta go, limo here.
Me: Ok, later. (Thinking: Hope you get a flat tire.)
A little while later:
Sisters: Hey, where are you?
Me: Still driving thru corn fields.
Sisters: We are having a nice ride in the limo. It’s got a bar with cold drinks, stereo, TV.
Me: So happy for you. (Thinking: Not. Hope your soda is flat.)
5 minutes later we get this picture sent through the phone:
Brats.A couple of hours later:
Sisters: Hey, where are you guys?
Me: Still in the flippin cornfields. I mean, how much corn can one state grow? We have been driving thru corn for 6 hours now!
Sisters: That stinks.
Me: Yeah, we need a change of scenery. Where are you?
Sisters: Oh, we are about to have dinner. We checked into the hotel, worked out, showered, went for martinis, and now we are about to go have a nice dinner.
Me: Oh nice. We had cold burgers and soggy fries from the drive through. And my butt hurts.
Sisters: Gotta go. Our table is ready.
Me: Enjoy. (Thinking: I hope your waiter trips .)
About 20 minutes later we get this photo thru the phone:
Doody Heads.So we keep driving, for hours and hours and hours. Cornfields , and more cornfields. D says Illinois must be the world’s largest supplier of corn. I mean seriously, it was 8 hours or more of corn as far as the eye can see. We were seriously getting car sick, stir crazy, and delusional. This trip needed to end. We had been driving 14 hours already and the GPS said we had 4 more to go! What the heck? How did 14 turn into 18? We did not make that many pit stops!
A couple of torturous hours later:
Sisters: Hey, where are you guys?
Me: Still in friggin Illinois, in the friggin cornfields!
Sisters; How much longer?
Me: GPS says 2 hours.
Sisters: Well, we wanted to wait for you guys, but we are getting tired.
Me: Yeah, I bet you are tired. Sleeping late, 2 hour flight, showers, dinner and drinks can really wear you out.
Sisters: Well, we are not night owls like you. We need to get a good night’s rest to work tomorrow.
Me: Ok, I will touch base in a little bit. (Thinking: I hope your sheets are scratchy.)
2 hours later:
Sisters: Where are you guys? It is 10 PM!
Me: Guess.
Sisters: Cornfields?
Me: You got it. And we are about to go postal on some poor unsuspecting corn farmer if this does not end soon.
Sisters: Why is it taking you so much longer than expected?
Me: I have no idea. I think we drove into some kind of time warp continuum. This has to end soon.
Sisters: We are so tired.
Me: Go to bed; we will see you in the morning.
Sisters: No, we will wait a little longer.
Me: Ok, that’s nice of you. (Thinking: That really is pretty nice of you.)
About an hour later:
Me: Hey! We are off the interstate and out of the cornfields!
Sisters: Finally! How much longer?
Me: GPS says about 20 minutes. We are on some back winding roads right now. Kinda creepy. Hope the GPS is right.
Sisters: OK. (yawning). See you in a bit.
Wendy: Fireflies! Look at all the beautiful fireflies! Can we pull over and look at them?!?
Me and D: NO! Keep driving!
Finally, some time close to 11PM we pull into the hotel. I have never been so happy to see a building in all my life. Sisters come down in their comfy lounge wear to greet us. The other three of us look and feel like we were taken in the back alley and beat with a stick. We hug and kiss and chat for about 30 minutes. Too exhausted to unload, we get our luggage and head to our room. Showers and collapse into bed. Work tomorrow.
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Next day was set up day in the vendor room.
We unloaded the boxes and got to work.
I had large posters of each DVD title made to hang on the wall behind us.
They looked very impressive I think.
My booth all set up.
A dummy cake showing use of some of our tools.
Janice taking notes on the bullet points to study about the products.
The SugarEd team.
I got all of us girls these matching T shirts. Aren’t they cute??? I got them from Vista Print. (Note: I will not beheld responsible for the money you spend if go to that site.)
Opening day, and the staff is ready!
Our booth.
Barb and Janice
His dimples slay me.
Wendy doing a demo on the pearl makers.
D and his Aunt Janice
D and his Aunt Barbara
Wendy looking concerned as I have some sort of facial spasm.
My dear friends the Cake Connection gals. Their booth was right across from ours.
My other son J packed a little surprise for us three.
Cherry suckers! LOLRead here for the cherry story.
And here is a just a little video clip of our booth:
You can also see the video HERE.
Dinner one night with a big crew of cake pals.
The whole gang.So we had a wonderful 4 days, tons of fun and laughter. Can’t wait to go back next year!
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So the last morning there we load all the stuff back into the dreaded van, and get ready to hit the road. We decided to drive back home over two days. It was just too brutal to do in one day again.
As we walk out to the front of the hotel, what do we see:
You guessed it.
Barb and Janice’s ride back to the airport.We kiss and hug and say our goodbyes and we hit the road.
And about 20 minutes later we get this over the phone:
And this:
Right about the time we hit the cornfields, too.
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Later on, I will post more fabulous cakes from the ICES display room. They were truly amazing!
Until later, Happy caking!
Sharon
Ultimate Cake Off
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
De-clutter Update
The saga continues….
Well, I have made some progress. I think.
I finally got the spare room cleaned out and organized. I wanted to take a picture of it before the clean up, because it was bad. Really bad. But in his zealousness, P-Hubby gutted it before I could snap the picture.
I have now converted it into my SugarEd office. The SugarEd stuff had overtaken my cake room, and the foyer, and the dining room, and part of the den. So it was time to give it a room of its own.
Now I have all my inventory, supplies, and 2 work stations in here. Even got my recliner so that after a long day at work, I can kick back and relax while watching the Young and Restless on nightly replay on Soap Net. (My one guilty pleasure.)Ah, feels good , yes, to have this room done.
But where in the heck did all of the junk go? Oi vay:
Into my older son’s now vacant room. He took his furniture off to his apartment at college. So now it’s filled with crap I still have go through and organize and purge. I am working on it bit by bit.
Oh yeah, and there is some more in the hall.
Oh, and the dining room too.Why does it seem that when you clean out rooms, you end up with more stuff than when you started?
And looky what I found!
An 18 inch square cake pan that I bought, oh, maybe 8 years ago? Maybe more? I held onto it thinking I might one day have an oven big enough to hold it, but alas I do not. It is time to say goodbye.
Anybody want it? You can see it is unused with the label still on it. Dusty too. I have never used that brand, so I cannot really say if it is a great pan or not. But the label says right there that it is a “darn good cake pan.” So there you go! But you are welcome to it.
If you would like to have this lonely underappreciated pan, drop a comment and I will draw a random winner next week.
Don’t you just love how I turn my old junk into give-away prizes? Classy, huh? 🙂
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Well, I am about to get real busy for the next 2 months or so, so my cleaning project will have to be put on hold for a while.
I am going to Kansas City this weekend for the Missouri ICES Weekend of Sharing, and I will check in with you guys next week!
Happy caking!
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com
Let Us Not Forget
My thoughts and prayers today are with the families and all of the victims of that horrible day. Let us never forget what a noble sacrifice they made in the name of freedom, and our beloved country.
God Bless them all and God Bless America
A Crumby Day
CLUTTER UPDATE:
I just shook enough crumbs out of my computer keyboard to feed all the birds in Central Park for a week.
Maybe I should stop eating at my computer.
NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Family Photos
Hi guys!
This has nothing to do with cake, but I just wanted to share with you these proofs from our recent family photo session because I am just so thrilled with them. A client of mine introduced me to this amazing photographer’s work, and I fell in love with her style. We were well overdue for photos, so we shot these at a local state park last week. I don’t know how I will choose which ones to get! Maybe you can help me?
I swear I am just so lucky. I must have done something right in a previous life to be blessed with such a wonderful family. Gosh how I do love those 3 guys.
And check out Katharine’s site here. She is incredible. (She also shot the Topsy Turvy DVD cover.)
Thanks for looking,
Sharon
