Chocolate cake with penuche filling, it was a large cake for 210 guests. I loved this cake when it was done, it was a clean design and the best part it was all delicious buttercream.
To do it yourself grab a large star tip, start in the center of the flower and circle outward. Continue with your flowers around the cake.
Move over Naomi Cambell, there is a new Naomi in town. Seriously, when they talk about a smile that lights up a room I think this is it.
The reason I love making cakes is just that, making someone smile, thank you birthday girl you made my day.
The cake was Madagascar vanilla filled with as many strawberries as I could fit and made with heavy whipping cream buttercream. The birthday girl is a fan of strawberry shortcake so this cake was just right.
The makeup bag I made from chocolate rice krispy cereal treats using the same recipe and cake topper making technique that I explain with detail in my previous blog. This particular makeup bag however, I covered with two colors of fondant, a strip of black across the top then turning the makeup bag over I applied a single piece of light brown starting at the bottom working my way back up toward the top of the bag. I cut a clean edge where the brown met the black with an x-acto blade. To finish with the fondant I cut seams on both sides of the bag so it looked like sown seams of an actual bag.
The next step was to cover the cake board with the same light brown and let it dry overnight. Then with a paint brush reserved for cake work I thinned down the brown gel food coloring with vodka so the food coloring would dry quickly and painted the first coat of odd circular shapes to cover both the bag and cake base. Then with another smaller brush I painted the black gel food coloring undiluted to make the accent lines around the spots I had just painted. The black line work inevitably looked washed out if it was not used directly from the jar.
I added the lipstick, eye shadow and nail polish in simple shapes made from fondant, flowers from a daisy cutter and her intial and birthday year in pink.
If you have questions about making this cake please let me know, I would love to help.
Again, thank you for the great photo Naomi you look fabulous!
Lisa a Chef for the A Thyme to Cook Catering company and a dear friend asked me to make a cake for her son’s Eagle Scout celebration. It could not have been worse timing, in the throws of the wedding cake season. Her offering to buy the cake topper on line was a huge time saver, and she was cool with getting her cake days before the party. Which is not always easy when you are throwing the party yourself and fridge space has suddenly become prime real estate. She did not want fondant to cover the cake, so I had nightmares of the fondant flag, ropes and fleur de lis that I rested on the buttercream in the heat of the summer and with the extra waiting time pulling away and or sliding right down the sides of the cake.
God, luck, Buddah, or the love of this particularly proud mother prevailed and the cake made it to the party, looked fantastic and was a wonderful hit. She said every bit of the vanilla butter and chocolate marble cake with a nutella filling was finished before the party had wrapped up for the evening.
Some helpful hints for attempting this cake or one like it: The fleur de lis on the side of the cake were made with candy molds that Lisa also found online, Amazon.com has a huge selection of these. I pushed the fondant into the molds after a sprinkling of corn starch to keep it from sticking. If you decide to do a flag on a cake apply the stars after the draping is attached to the cake and the draped colors of the flag were easier applied in strips. If you decide on rope for your cake edible copper lustre dust adds just the right amount of sparkle.
I used an eight inch square of chocolate cake and an eight inch of the same size vanilla cake back to back to make just the right amount for a Sabrina Little Witch birthday celebration. The house was a Wilton gingerbread house I decorated and the little witch is a Polly Pocket doll with a fondant witch hat that I added and sparkled with edible disco dust. I felt like she needed a friend so the frog was a donation from a collection of small toys my daughter won at Chuck E. Cheese. The broom was a cinnamon stick with fondant bristols painted with a bronze lustre dust. The grass is piped on with a hair Wilton tip and the pumpkins were made with the help of my daughter. I would have never finished the cake without her help because I under estimated the time I would need to get the house done drastically. Crushed Oreos with a blackberry border for the walkway which were actually jelly candies I bought at Marshalls and they worked out perfectly in the mad rush to finish. Another thing I found helpful was using poppy seeds on the roof of the house which I learned from watching, Buddy, The Cake Boss on The Learning Channel.
It is so much fun using dolls on the cakes I make for little girls, besides saving money for the person buying the cake. Like the five year old in this case she will get a doll to keep, play with and it is also a gift that can hold wonderful memories. If you can get a doll that looks like the birthday girl, even better. 
I made this cake for a friend, so excited to be having her first baby, a boy. She collects rubber ducks, all different styles and sizes, so it was only natural for her to have a rubber duck cake for her shower.
When I was making the duck I thought I should share some of the things that I have learned over the years when making rice krispy covered with fondant cake toppers.
First, the rice krispy treat recipe I use which is quick and easy.
Grease a pan to put your molded cake topper in and another for the leftovers.
1/4 cup butter
4 cups mini marshmallows
5 cups crisp rice cereal
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat while slowly adding marshmallows until melted.
2. Add cereal and stir until evenly coated.
Coat your hands with cooking spray then take your rice krispy treats from the pan as soon as possible and mold and press the treats you just made into the shape or shapes you desire. Keep pressing and molding until the treats start to hold their shape for you.
When you have your desired shape or shapes put them into the freezer in one of the pans you sprayed with oil earlier. It will not take long for your krispy shapes to harden keep checking after 15 minutes of freezing. Meanwhile melt some white chocolate candy melts, the chocolate candy melts are easier and a time saver being that you do not have to temper candy melts like you would regular chocolates. I melt the chocolate in the microwave in twenty second intervals, but I also have a weak microwave, so go slow, white chocolate can be quicker to overheat and render unusable than the darker chocolates.
When your krispy topper has hardened remove it from the freezer and immediately using clean hands rub the chocolate onto the surface of the shape you made. With your hands you can make sure all of the surface is covered with the melted white chocolate and you try to keep it as evenly coated as possible.
I made extra bodies and heads for the duck in case I wanted more than one finished duck on the cake. Let your chocolate harden on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet on your counter, it will actually start hardening while you are applying it because the krispies are so cold. When it has dryed in a matter of moments you can apply another coat if you missed spots or want to even up your previous layer of chocolate. Or you can proceed to the next step which is to smooth your chocolate coating with your kitchen zester tool, before you cover your chocolate krispy creation with fondant.
Save your leftover chocolate shavings in a zip lock bag for another project. Or use it as a decorative accent for a cake or cupcakes, just don’t use your hands to handle the zested chocolate, only a spoon, the heat from you hands can melt your shavings.
After you have your object as smooth as possible I cover it with a slightly thicker than the 1/4″ fondant suggested for covering your cakes. I have also covered a topper with two layers of thinner fondant, that can work to make a smooth surface also, whatever works best for you.
To make the tail on the duck I added a pinch of moistened fondant to the krispy body. Then I covered it with a layer of fondant that I tinted with gel food coloring a yellow using the Satin Ice brand of fondant. I think it is one of the best brands of fondant to work with and the taste is much better than others I have tried. You can find it online, just google search Satin Ice fondant to find the best price.
I used a tooth pick and a little water to attach the fondant covered head to the body of the duck. Then added the eyes, the hat, wings and beak, making sure to support the beak and visor overnight to dry with pins and toothpicks stuck in a small amount on fondant on the plate. Be warned every time I was sure the toothpicks and pins where not needed to support my drying creations were the times I awoke in the morning to one of those unexpected creative disasters.
The best cake topper making advice I have would be for you to give the chocolate a try as an undercoating for your fondant covered topper. In the beginning of my cake career I used royal icing and it took forever to dry and was too hard to smooth onto irregular surfaces, it would run and drip everywhere, pure agony for me. I hope if you are having similar problems that you find this an easier way to work with krispies and fondant. Write me and let me know what you think.
The first wedding cake of the season, a yummy dark chocolate with an Italian penuche filling. A modern design made to accent the gold and silver themed reception.
To make the design I pressed fondant onto a large ornate button for the circular designs. The strips were fondant again pressed onto a grater box, the smallest grate side, cut to shape then painted with gold and silver luster dusts. I then applied them with royal icing and added the dragees for a little bling when the lights hit the cake. It was a beautiful small evening wedding.
The castle I made like a giant rice krispies treat, covered with white chocolate and Satin Ice fondant. The cake was vanilla with buttercream grass and the steps were chocolate again. I made it with the thought that the castle could be eaten or saved. So I crumbled some Nilla wafers to keep the bottom of the castle from getting moist in the buttercream. I found the design for the castle in the book “Enchanted Cakes” by Debbie Brown and loved it. If you want to give it a try yourself she gives you directions. The small figures I bought and put a gold fondant crown on one to make her the princess.
Fall flavors filled this vanilla cake with delicious swirls of the aromatic combination of cinnamon, molasses, ginger, nutmeg and cloves though each layer. A light creamy caramel mousse for the filling and my Swiss buttercream to finish.
I hand made the buttons with fondant in shades to match the wonderful blue and brown ribbons I found at the store, which was what started the whole thought process on what to do for a cute boy cake. I used my pastry tip tops and bottoms to cut the circles and a few little flower cutters I had added a little something different to my button collection. This was a 10″ bottom tier with an 8″ top. I made way too many buttons thinking I would need them all. The buttons looked better spaced farther apart when I was finishing the cake than when I originally designed the cake in my head. Half of a smaller size sheet pan full of your fondant buttons would make plenty for a cake this size front and back. Don’t you think cupcakes with brown wrappers and a blue ribbon around the base and a button or two on top would be great with this cake or on their own?
I was inspired to make this Van Gogh cake from a wonderful book named “Hello, Cupcake!” by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. If you are considering making a Starry Night of your own this book is extremely helpful. They make their design on 24 cupcakes instead of a single layer cake as I did, but it was such a wonderful idea I could not wait to give it a try myself.
A few helpful hints I would suggest before attempting this project is buying the plastic throwaway pastry bags. I used the Wilton brand. There is no need for pastry tips in the bags so when you are done with your cake clean up is easy. Another suggestion would be to mix the nine colors used to make this particular cake in paper bowls with plastic spoons again you can throw away the mess when you are done. To serve the cake I bought an inexpensive eleven by fourteen inch frame and the cake I baked in a nine by twelve inch pan and it worked out perfectly. Read More→
Halloween cupcakes
I searched for fun and maybe something a little different in the way of cupcake ideas for Halloween. I was doing cupcakes for a friends dance class, tween age girls so I was not going for the super adult gore. I did not see one thing where I said, that is it perfect, just the usual constant reoccurring themes. So I decided to latch on to one idea and see what I could do to make it fun. My muse? The expressive, spooky eyeball with its limitless creepy possibilities. Read More→
