Sugared Productions Blog

Grapesicle Buttercream and Red Ranunculus

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Hello Sugar Babies!
Wow, it seems like forever since I have done a wedding cake, or posted a tutorial for you guys here. Life is finally getting back to normal (whatever that is) after that Cake Off fiasco, LOL.
This past weekend I had a really fun and challenging wedding cake. Those of you that follow me on Facebook lived through some of the mishaps with me this last week. I had some bumps in the road, but luckily it all turned out fine in the end.
The bride wanted me to do a version of the cake found here. But she wanted 4 tiers, buttercream icing, and the lavender color instead of pale pink. (Actually the color swatch she gave me was called Grapesicle. Love that name.) Sure I said, no problemo! But I should have thought about the fact that lavender BC fades terribly, and I was going to be traveling with a tower of a cake over 70 minutes into the city over terrible, horrible roads. Doing this cake in fondant would have been much less stressful. But hey, I live for stress! I eat stress for breakfast!
I believe the flowers are ranunculus, but most pictures I found have them pretty closed and you do not see much of the centers. But the cake photo she provided had them very open, with the centers very prominent.

 So I did not worry so much if they looked like true ranunculus, as much as trying to get them to look as close to the flowers in the photo she provided as possible. I did not find ranunculus cutters anywhere, so my dear friend Rebbecca Sutterby shared her method with me of using rose cutters.
I spent the better part of two days trying different centers and petal formations. I struggled to get the overall shape and petal movement right. When my son told me that the centers looked like giant olives, I knew it was time to call in reinforcements. The big guns. The Wendy.
The Wendy came over in a flash and looked at them with a fresh eye. In fact, she said my centers looked like eyeballs. Olives. Eyeballs. Oliballs. Whatever you call them, they were wrong. And way too huge. So Wendy and I played with centers and petals until we got a formation we were happy with .
Start by putting a ball of green gumpaste onto the end of a wire. The size of the ball depends upon how big you want to go with the flowers. We made a variety of sizes, because we wanted a variety of flowers in different stages of bloom on the cake.
Next you make an indentation on the end of the ball with the flat side of an exacto knife. Then make a little hole inside that circle with the pointy tip of a small paintbrush. ( I forgot to photograph those two steps, my bad.) Then score the sides all around the ball with a veining or dresden tool to make the lines.
Here is a whole bunch of centers that Wendy rolled for me. You can see the indentations in the centers.
Here you see one that I had dusted with green dust. I used a combo of chartreuse and a lime green dusts. Just play with whatever colors you have till you find a look that you like.
Here are some dusted centers. The 2 dark ones were rejects. I tried a darker dust and that was a no go.
Now time to add the petals. I colored my Wilton premade gumpaste (love that stuff) with super red gel color. I rolled it out to number 5 on the pasta roller and used the JEM all in one rose cutter to cut out the petals. I used the 50mmsize for the first 2 rows of petals.
Cut the petals apart.
Use the large ball in the center of the petal only to make it cup shaped, and let them dry out for about 5 minutes.
Then you can attach 3 or 4 around the centers. I did one here in a more closed, tight wrap, and one more open and frilly. I did not want all of the flowers to look exactly the same. If you vary them up a bit, and shape some of the petals differently, you will get a much more realistic look on your finished cake.
Then I cut out more of the same sized petals. This time I used the ball tool to thin them out along the edges, but did not press so hard and to make them very ruffly. Yet. Make the very outer petals more ruffly.

Yes, I use a lot of cornstarch. I love cornstarch. Do not fear the cornstarch, for it is your friend.

 

Here is one flower with the second row of petals in place. I used 5 petals for the second row. Notice that this bud has 4 petals in the inner row. There are no set rules with this flower. Vary the number or petals and configurations throughout the flowers.
Notice how the tips of the petals bend in toward the center. That is a distinct characteristic of the ranunculus. Originally I kept pinching mine in the other direction, and was wondering why they all looked like roses! Inward, not outward!
A couple of buds an another with a 2nd row in place.
After 2 rows with that size petal, then do one or two rows with the next size 60mm all in one rose cutter. I did not take any photos of that cutter, so just imagine we did one or 2 more rows with that one. 🙂

 

Then the outermost petals were done with a larger single rose petal cutter. This set is an FMM rose cutter set. You can just make it work with whatever cutters you have. I used 6 or 7 petals for the outer rows. It is not an exact science. In fact, I was winging this all the way through!

Here are some flowers in varying stages, some tighter and more clustered, some with less rows and more open and loose.

 

 

Here are some drying upside down so the petals do not fall off. You wet the end of the petals, hold your flower upside down, and apply the petals in an overlapping fashion till you make it all the way around the flower. Tweak and bend the ends of the petals with your fingers, and then hang it upside down to dry for a while till it is good and set. You have to do this after every row or all the stuff will just slide right off the flower.
Don’t you like my fancy drying rack? No expense is spared in this operation, I tell you!

 

 

After they are able to hold their own shape, I stick them in styro to finish drying fully, overnight.

 

 

drying, drying….
More drying…. they were everywhere! Invasion of the gumpaste ranunculus!

This was a test one. Dusted it with poinsettia petal dust, with a tad of impatient pink in the center petals. Then I wiped the center with a small brush with a tad of shortening to give it some shine and take the dusty look off. Then I sprayed edible lacquer over the whole flower. (Got that tip from Rebecca also). The lacquer spray will darken the color so keep that in mind. This center had a bit too much red dust on it for my liking, so I was more careful to keep red dust off of them after this one. (Although just a little bit of red here and there looked pretty good on them!)

 

 

All dusted! See how well they matched the color swatch she gave me? Score! Love it when that happens!
This was my favorite flower out of all 60 of them.
WAIT! I am so embarrassed by how funky that dummy is! I promise you it was washed and clean, just stained. But seriously, I think I need to spring for a new dummy. Sheesh.

Now how in the world are we going to get 60 flowers to stay on a BC cake?

 

 

Welcome to my dipping station. I left the wires on the flowers nice and long. But we know we can’t stick nasty wires into the cake, so I coated them in white chocolate. I filled a tall cup with melted chocolate, dipped the wires in, shook off the excess, then threaded them down into the cooling rack to dry fully. When it came time to arrange them on the cake, I just stuck them right in, and they went so far into the cake, they held up beautifully. I did not even need any melted chocolate to glue the flowers onto the sides. Which made things much easier and cleaner for the cake server.
Naked as a jay bird, LOL.
Here is the cake all iced. Next to it you see the color swatch the bride gave me to match, and her topper. I wanted to make sure the cake, the swatch, and the groom bird’s tie all matched.
To get this color I used regal purple, violet and a touch of pink. I got a beautiful match, but within 2 hours of icing a dummy cake, it turned horribly pink. I added some more purple to the batch. Same thing happened again, but it was also too dark. So I made equal batches of white BC, and combined them. Now I had the perfect shade, but it changed to pink again! My friend Heather realized that the lavender in the icing was fading out (as purples notoriously do), leaving the pink to be predominant. I was a bit panicked at this point; I could not set up a pepto bismol puky pink cake! Well Adele came to my rescue and gave me the brilliant idea of airbrushing the whole cake with lavender airbrush sheen. It worked! It stayed! It did not fade! Thank God for cake friends who save our butts!
So we load the cake up and head out on the long treacherous ride to the venue. New Orleans has notoriously bad streets. So bad in fact, I thought I had sworn off taking cake orders for the city. Obviosuly I forgot I did that, cuz I took this one. Well, the dear beloved husband drove way too fast for my liking, despite my pleas for him to slow down. I was very nervous the whole way cuz we were hitting some rough stuff. Well low and behold, when we got there and opened the back of the vehicle, my poor cake was battered. It had surface cracks all over the sides, and my beautiful borderless seems had all cracked open. I refrained from bleeping the hubby out, and just proceeded to do my thing. We got it inside, I repaired all the borders, and placed the flowers on. Oh so luckily, once they dimmed the venue lights, the cracks were barely visible at all. I lucked out on that one!
Here it is at the venue. The photo is dark and out of focus, but this one portrays the color of the icing more accurately than the one at the beginning of this post. I love how they dressed the cake table too, very elegant.
The Love Birds.
They lived happily ever after.

And that is the story of the Grapesicle Red Rannancuclus Cake.

 

 

 

Sheet Cake DVDs on Sale Now!

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The new DVDs are ready!
 
 

 

Sheet Cake Secrets takes you through three cakes from start to finish.

 

Learn run sugar, two tone icing, fondant and buttercream borders.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Airbrushed frame, chocolate transfer, fondant grass and accents.
 
 
 
 
 
Airbrushed hills and clouds, royal icing plaques, frozen buttercream transfer, and more buttercream borders.
 
Each cake has its own lagniappe section. Almost five hours of instruction on two discs!
 
 
 
 
AND EVEN MORE……..
 
 
 
The Sheet Cake Bonus DVD teaches you even more techniques!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drop shell border, airbrush highlights, royal icing message.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bottom buttercream borders.

 
 
 
New Tools too:
 
fence cutter
rope twist cutter
daisy cutters
 
 
Come see at SugarEd Productions!
 
 
 
 

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

 

 

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

 

 

Poured Fondant Pumpkin Cookies

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Fall is here! Fall is here!
 
Don’t you just love fall? It is my favorite time of year. More than Spring, more than Summer vacation, more than the Christmas holidays. I love the cooler temps and lower humidity (what little of that we get where I live, LOL.) I love fall colors , pumpkins and turning leaves. I love the promise of the time to be spent with family and friends during the upcoming months.
 
I especially love fall baking. I adore fall themed cakes, cookies and cupcakes. Just love everything about it!
 
 
 

Recently I used the pumpkin cutter set we featured in a SugarEd free gift promotion to make some cookies using poured fondant and rolled fondant. I cannot locate this exact set anywhere retail, but set 1872 here looks to be very similar.

 

After baking the cookies, I made poured fondant:

 

6 cups confectioners’ sugar (I often add 1-2 cups more sugar to make it a bit thicker, optional)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon almond extract ,optional
1 teaspoon vanilla, optional

 

DIRECTIONS:
In a saucepan, combine confectioner’s sugar, water and corn syrup. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches a temperature of 92 degrees F (33 degrees C.) Mixture should be thin enough to pour, but thick enough to coat cookie. Add food coloring to desired color and stir thoroughly.

 

 

Make sure not to overheat. Overheating will cause the mixture to crystallize and show sugar crystals once dried. It may also become too thick to flow well.

 

 

I take it off the heat to pour over the cookies. It will thicken up as it cools. If it gets too thick to flow well, gently heat it back up until it is thin enough again. Again, be careful not to overheat it at any time. If you do it will give you trouble. You will get mad. You will say bad words. You might throw cookies across the room. …..Just sayin’.

 

 

I hold the cookie in one hand over the pot and spoon the icing over it, allowing the excess to flow back into the pot.

 

 

Coat entire cookie. (I do normally wear gloves for this but was so excited to do this tutorial it slipped my mind.)

 

 

Let all the excess drip off and then slide your spoon under the cookie.
 
 
 
 
 
Slide the bottom of the cookie across the edge of the pot to scrape the excess off.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Lay it on wax paper or parchment. I do not like to put my cookies on cooling/cookie racks because the icing hardens and sticks to the rack. Then when you release the cookie from the rack it messes up your pretty cookie edge.
 
 
 
 
 
 
See that pool of icing? No worries. When it is all dry and hardened, you scrape that excess off with a palette or exacto knife and you end up with a perfectly clean edged cookie.
 
 
 
 
 
 
For the big kahuna cookies, the process is close to the same.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Use several spoonfuls to get the entire cookie coated well.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Let the excess drip back into the pot.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hold the large cookie with both hands and tap the sides of your hands on the edge of the pot to get all the excess icing flowing off the cookie.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Slide the bottom of the cookie along the edge of the pot as you take it out to scrape off any more excess.
 
 
 
 
 
 
This is where you get so excited because you have this adorable Jack o’ lantern cookie looking back at you! Place him on the parchment too and leave them alone for a while till fully hardened. I leave them for at least a few hours before I clean them up.
 

                                               Rolled fondant covered:

 

Roll out your orange fondant and cut out the shape with the cookie cutter you used to make the cookie. Smear a little thinned buttercream onto the cookie to make it stick.
 
 
 
 
 
                          I used a large oval cutter to make indentations into the fondant.
 
 
 
 
 
I did this four times to make the indent lines that pumpkins have.
 
 

                                                                  Airbrushing:

Airbrushing adds more depth and dimension and interest to your cookies. It is not necessary to do this, but I like what it adds to the look. I gave it a light overall coating of orange color.
 
 
 
 
 
Then I did more pinpoint lines in the grooves with orange.
 
 
 
 
 
I did the same thing on the poured fondant cookies.
 
 
 
 
 
 
You can vary the colors if you like. You can add some yellow to give it bright highlights or add some brown to make it more rustic.
 
 
                        Let that dry fully and then add your fondant leaves and arrange!

 

A beautiful bounty of fall pumpkins!
 
 
 
 
 
I love fall stuff!
 
 
 
 
 
Here is the fondant one. I even dusted just a tad of pearl dust on this one. Not too much or it will be ugly; trust me on this one.
 
 
 
 
 
Punkies, punkies everywhere!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mr. and Mrs. Happy Patch
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mr. Grouchy Gourd
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cuteness factor overload!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now go make some of these.
 
Now.
 
Hurry.
 
Then send me some.
 
Please.
 
 
 
 
Happy Fall!
 
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

NOLA Photography http://bentzphotography.com/

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.
——————————————–

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

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

by 27 Comments

 
 
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!

by 74 Comments

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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