Blue-Green Wedding Cake

Good friends of mine, Tim and Karen Ansilio, renewed their vows today. Karen asked me to do a small wedding cake for the reception they were having after the church service. Since this isn't the traditional white cake type of affair, I was looking for something a little out of the ordinary. Their daughters Maria and Katryna were part of the ceremony and they were wearing sapphire blue and seafoam green respectively, so I thought I would incorporate that into the cake design. Karen also requested fresh flowers on the cake and these orchids lent themselves well to the design. I'm not sure who created the original cake design that I found a picture of on the internet. I've made a few changes to the cake I did, but I do want everyone to be aware that someone else did the original design.

The first two tiers, 8" and 10" squares, were covered in white fondant and the top 6" tier was covered in blue fondant. The bottom two tiers got stipes of blue the same width as the top tier on all four sides and then a seafoam green fondant ribbon ran from the top of the cake to the bottom over the top of the blue stripe. The blue was brushed with sapphire luster dust and the green was brushed with light green luster dust. The pearls at the base of each tier were made with a First Impression silicone mold dusted with super pearl dust. The cake was placed on a 14" square white cake drum. The double heart topper is a ceramic piece that I carry in the store.

The first tier is vanilla cake with Irish Cream mousse, the second tier is lemon cake with raspberry syrup and lemon curd and the top tier is chocolate with chocolate mousse filling.

Congratulations Tim and Karen. All the best to you both!

Cove Country Cake Show

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I know I did. Now it's time to get busy planning for the rest of the year. I love meeting other cake decorators and sharing information. You learn so much. It's one of the reasons I love taking classes with other decorators. Not only do you learn some great techniques from the instructor, but you meet some great people.

On August 20, 2011 the annual Cove Country Cake Show & Challenge is taking place in Bedford, PA. This year's theme is "Children's Movies" and all the proceeds from the show go to The American Cancer Society. In addition to the show, they have some great classes scheduled. I'm taking names of anyone who would like to attend. There are still seats left in all the classes but Tammie Holsinger, the show director, tells me there has been a lot of interest and expects the available seats to go fast. Since it is approximately a 3 1/2 hr. drive to Bedford, this will have to be an overnight trip. Please let me know as soon as possible if you're interested. I would hate to see anyone miss out if they really want to attend.

Here is a list of the classes being offered:                                         

Burton Farnsworth, The Troll Bride
Linda Milea, Carved Cake, Carving Cake Made Easy                 
Beth Parvu, Star Gazer Lilies / Rose Fairy
Jay Qualls, Petals and Pearls Cake
Diane Shavkin, A Variety of Bows & Designs
Ruth Rickey, Dimensional Brush Embroidery
Anna Weisend, Mosaics In Fondant, Gum Paste, & Chocolate

While it isn't on the list yet, Tammie tells me one of the decorators from Swank Cake Design will be doing a high heel shoe class as well. I'm actually heading to Burlington, NJ on the 25th of this month to take this class and an isomalt class taught by Wayne Steinkopf from Swank Cake Design. One of my customers will be joining me and it should be a fun filled day!

You can get more information about the Cove Country Cake Show & Challenge at http://www.covecountrycakeshow.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Cove-Country-Cake-Show-Challenge/115485521827768.

Fourth of July

It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly the year flies by. The Fourth of July is upon us and the year is already half over. Before you know it the kids will be heading back to school and then the baking will really begin in earnest. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.....   But for today, I just want to wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July. I hope you all have something special planned with your family and friends because that's what makes the holidays special. Some of my favorite memories are of holidays spent with the special people in my life. So, take some time this weekend to make some wonderful memories. Enjoy your hot dogs and potato salad, jump in the pool, crack open a cold one and just relax and enjoy.

Father's Day

Father's Day is right aound the corner. There are some great Dads out there and they deserve something special on their day. These are two awesome cakes you can try that will make a big splash!

If you're looking for a quick project, cake decorator and owner of The Cake Cottage in Murrieta, CA Susan Carberry designs some great cakes for Father's Day. Susan is a fantastic designer and does instructional videos for YummyArts.com as well as running classes at The Cake Cottage and around the country. These are just two of the great cakes Susan has designed. If you would like to try them, membership at YummyArts.com is very reasonable and the instructional videos are great.

Molding Figures

I had an email from a woman in Stockholm, Sweden a couple of weeks ago. I thought she had contacted me for a cake in error. It wouldn't have been the first time I've had someone from another country surf the web, find my website and contact me for a cake. I usually explain that they aren't in my "delivery area". lol  But, as it happens Marija has a sister who lives in the Clark Summit area and is a veterinarian at the Justus Veterinary Clinic. Marija's sister Jelena is celebrating her 30th birthday today and Marija wanted to do something special for her. She wanted me to do a two tier cake in red & yellow with five hand molded figures on the cake. Each of the figures represented someone in the family doing something they love to do. Marija wanted a figure of her mom with a camera and her dad holding a fishing pole and wearing a cap. She wanted one representing her that sat on the edge of the cake eating a burger and one of her husband sitting on a motorbike. The fifth figure was Jelena's husband and she wanted him taking a bite out of the cake.

Marija emailed me pictures of the family to use as a guide. While I don't have the talent molding figures to make them look realistic, I did want to make sure, eye color, hair color and styles were correct. When I delivered the cake this morning at the veterinary clinic, Jelena had no idea it was coming. One of her co-workers let me and my husband in the back way to set up the cake and we were able to stay and take photographs of Jelena when she saw the cake to email to her sister. It always makes the stress of working a under a deadline disappear when you get to see a happy customer. And...Jelena was thrilled. She got the biggest kick out of her husband's curly hair and was very definite that him taking a bite out of the cake was exactly his personality.



All of the figures bodies and legs were made with rice krispie treats. Their heads started with one inch styrofoam balls covered in gumpaste. The motorbike was a block of rice krispie treats that I cut with a motorcycle cookie cutter and covered in gumpaste. The cake itself was vanilla chocolate chip with bavarian cream filling and covered in Satin Ice Fondant.

Making Hard Candy

Well, nothing like learning the hard way. lol I had a cake to make looking like a bucket filled with ice and beer bottles for a 21st birthday. I made molded chocolate beer bottles and brushed them with green luster dust which worked out great.

The problem was the ice cubes. I made them out of Isomalt & water with a little vanilla flavoring. After boiling it on the stove, I poured it on crumpled up tin foil spread on a cookie sheet. That all worked great and the candy was clear like glass. The first mistake was waiting until the night I needed the ice cubes to make the candy. It really needed to sit undisturbed overnight to get hard. My second mistake was thinking I could hasten the process by putting it in the refrigerator. It looked great when I took it out and it was nice and hard, but after I started peeling it off the tin foil and breaking it into pieces it started getting soft. Mistake number three was thinking putting it in the freezer would help....uhm, no not really. It got hard again but, I had the same problem with it getting soft as I handled it. The fourth mistake was thinking I should just leave it on top of the cake and hope it would get hard. Oh boy...it got hard. Unfortunately, it was after it had gotten cloudy, softened considerably and all stuck together. I'm sure at this point you are beginning to get the picture. The entire top of the cake was a hard piece of candy with chocolate beer bottles stuck in it. It looked ok but where would you stick a candle and how do you cut the cake.

Fortunately for me, the woman who placed the order loved it and wasn't concerned with those problems so crisis averted. I will eventually try again. I would love to try making some colored gems using the First Impression gem mold that we have here in the store. I have and idea in mind for a treasure chest filled with gems and gold dubloons...but that's for another day!

New Arrivals!

Several new items arrived in the store this week. If you are getting ready for a graduation party and need some ideas stop in and check out the following items:
                Graduate Lollipop Molds (boy or girl)            
                Cap & Diploma Lollipop Molds
                Graduation Pretzel Molds
                Graduation Cupcake Baking Cups (regular & mini)
                Graduation Cupcake Baking Cup & Pick sets
And, of course we have chocolate wafers, lollipop sticks and cupcake stands for your display.

Also, new in the store:
                2"x2" & 3"x2" round pans
                9", 10", 12" pie plates
                4 different styles of silicone chocolate molds
                chocolate melting ceramic cup sets
                14" cake knives
                lily and color stamen assortments
                calla lily cutter & former sets
                cake sparkles in white, black & pink
                sparkling sugars in white, blue, pink & yellow
                25th & 50th Anniversary Pick toppers
                Brush sets


Stop by & check out the new items!