Taking a break from my break

So a coworker of Kevin's contacted me and requested a Fall themed cake for her parents anniversary party the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I was excited about the project so I agreed to do it. It was a pumpkin cake with vanilla buttercream. The leaves were fun to do. They were gumpaste that I cut out with leaf cutters and used a leaf viener to get the impressions and then dusted them with petal dust to get the colors. I was very happy with how they turned out.

Taking a cake break

fyi... I am taking a little cake break... so just to let you know it might be a while before there are any new posts. I'll keep you "posted".

Green Wedding Cake

No its not a "green" cake but it was for the Green's (a family in our ward) whose daughter was marrying a guy who served his mission in this area and whom Kevin got to know quite well in his ward missionary efforts. As for the cake, she said she wanted 3 round tiers and she gave me the ribbon but left any other design up to me. I was watching the Ultimate Cake Off on TLC early this week and wanted to try stenciling after watching them do it on tv. I think it worked well and was a pretty easy technique. The only critique of this cake is that the flowers at the reception that were put together specifically for the cake and couldn't be adjusted, were just too big for the cake- it made it a bit out of proportion- but Kevin said it looked good that way... so even though I knew better I was somewhat consoled. I stayed for the reception and cut and served the cake. It was a fun night. As always, Kevin was a great help and made the whole experience much more fun!

At home in its simplistic state.

The Purple Cake

I got to learn a new technique for this cake (the "quilted" look) and I was really happy with how it turned out. The hard part was getting the color. It still wasnt as dark as I would have liked but the more color you add, the harder the fondant gets to work with so I just had to settle. Though with these pictures you really can't tell the true color because there was a purple light in the room casting a weird color on everything so I just couldn't get a picture that seemed true to life. Its most close to the third picture's color. I hope the bride was okay with the color since it wasnt as dark a purple as she probably had in mind- but who knows. I included a black and white picture just for fun. In case you couldn't tell those were real flowers- provided at the site- I just never know what I am going to have to work with but I do like the way it ended up- quite a bit actually. Definitely not a traditional wedding cake- which is much more fun to make!

Sadie's Blessing Cake

This was a fun one to make because I got to make it surrounded by my Calgary family and with help from my mom. The only challenge was not having my "stuff"- but it turned out just cute as a button- to celebrate my new niece who is also cute as a button- well even cuter than a button.

A Funky Wedding Cake and a first-ever Grooms Cake

I thought this was really cool when all was said and done. It was definitely better than I thought it would turn out- I was pretty skeptical when the bride described it- but now I think it is pretty darn cool. The grooms cake was cool too but I wouldn't say I love it- what I would say is I feel good about having followed the direction I was given. On the wedding cake I was really proud of the fondant job. I knew it had to be good at the bottom since there would be no border to cover up the mistakes- the circles could could cover up many a side bulge, bubble, or crack but the bottoms of each tier had to be neat.

Before leaving the basement.
At the reception with the topper.

On it's table beside the grooms cake.

The Grooms cake.
The scoreboard thing was made of gumpaste and fondant and I orginally piped the lettering in royal icing. However, much of the royal icing dried and flaked off of the sign because I had to move it so then I re-piped a lot of it with buttercream. I really just prefer fondant cakes because they look so much more professional. The baseball on top was my favorite part and it was cake covered in fondant and the red lines are fondant too. My son told me he wants the exact same cake for his birthday... we'll see!

50th Birthday Cake

So it was hard for me to follow instructions with this cake because I would have liked to do the bow in fondant and then added some piping or something on the base but I followed the order which asked for real ribbon on top and a plain bottom. So I struggle to know exactly how much artistic license I have when I make cakes for other people. I think it is something I need to always ask about when I take an order. Anyways, this pink fondant gave me big trouble. It was so dry and broke really easily. My recipe got messed up because Walmart decided to stop carrying the larger size of marshmallow bags so I had to buys small ones and guesstimate how much would equal a larger bag and well it didn't work out as it should have. Lesson here: if the fondant is not quite right- its faster to make another batch then wrestle for hours with the bad batch you've got only to produce disappointing results.

Birthday Cake

This cake was a lot of firsts for me- first time being paid for a birthday cake, first sheet cake, and first time using fondant decorations on buttercream. I was given some paper plates that I was supposed to match to the cakes. It was fun and went fairly smoothly. I didn't put enough meringue powder in the icing so it didn't crust as well as I would have liked- I need to look at the recipe and measure things every once in a while. Other than that, it turned out well. I changed the color of the #1 on top at the very last- hence the two pics...

Tiered with Daisies

This was my first three tiered with pillars but the dots, ribbon, and daisies were nothing new. I did something different for the base this time. Usually I just cut some foam board and cover it in fondant but this time I hot glued six cake circles together and put ribbon around the edge. I thought that was good because it was easier to handle without ruining the cake but it showed a contrast between the true white of the cake circle and the off white of the fondant. Overall this cake was fun and definitely getting easier and less time consuming. I hope the bride liked it. This bride sent me an email a month ago asking for a cake but I told her I was busy this weekend (we are hosting some youth for youth conference and I thought it would be too crazy to try to do a cake too) but she emailed me back and schmoozed me with her flattering words - so I caved... It all worked out though because I had the cake done Thursday and Kevin took care of all the youth stuff. What I like about this cake is the square tier- I think its fun to mix it up like that. You can't see the topper very well in the pictures but the bride provided that and it's quite nice.

Another one

I don't have much to say about this cake. It gets a lot easier and faster, the more you do and there wasn't really anything other than just covering the cakes. Plain and Simple but afterward the Bride sent me this in an email...
"Melissa,
I want to THANK YOU for the wedding cake... it was PERFECT!!! ABSOLUTELY IDEAL!!! I had a trillion compliments.... it is the most beautiful cake I have ever seen!! Thank you soo much!!! I will recommend you to everyone I know!"

This one I like

I did this cake for a wedding (Jodi's wedding). She had a picture of what she wanted and I just replicated it so I can't really take any design credit. However, I think I am getting better at the decorating thing. One thing I have learned from watching a lot of cake challenges on the food network recently is that the really good decorators are never satisfied with mediocrity. If the fondant doesn't look quite right they don't just say "oh well"- they tear it off and start again. I am not naturally a perfectionist so I have to force myself to not just say "oh well." But it pays off because in the end I have no regrets.
I also got better this time with time management. Instead of trying to do things durring the day I just didn't touch it until the kids were in bed (with a few exceptions here and there). That definitely helped me to be a better mom and be less frustrated with the whole process. It did keep me up later at night but I seem to be fine :) That is a good lesson for me to learn.
Another thing I did differently which worked to my benefit is that I altered my fondant recipe to use some corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and vanilla. I also found that making it only the night before is better because it has less chance to dry out. The trick is to make it on the softer side then crisco it and wrap it then the next day knead in excess shortening and then use cornstarch and icing sugar on the table and rolling pin. So these top pics are how she wanted it. I know it would have been better if the roses were real and more to scale but she provided them at the site so what could I do?

I actually liked it with only the flowers on top- so I took a couple pics of it that way too. I think sometimes less is more.

Ellis Wedding Cake

This is the cake table with the cake and cupcake tower. I was happy with how it all came together. The cupcakes were especially cute.

Here's a bad sideview picture of the cupcake tower. I wish I took better pictures but you definitely get the gist of things.

And here is the cake being used for it's intended purpose and that made me happy to see.

I included this picture so you could see the tables were decorated with the brown and teal- so you could see how the cake fit in with the decor.
The direction I was given for the cake was to make flowers to match the ones on the invitation and have them sporadically placed on the cake. If you saw my previous post, you know all about my flower debate. They also asked for a bead border and the ribbons around the center of the middle layer. She said she wanted it to be very simple. That was what they wanted and that is what they got!
For the most part, the cake came together pretty smoothly. My one big "moment of stress" was about 9pm on Friday night when I was putting the flowers on and it just wasn't clear to me, how they should go. I didn't feel like it was working. Luckily, I got some great advice from my oh-so-patient mother which settled my stress and then in a moment of pure inspiration I changed the flower centers from dots to smaller flowers and voila suddenly I was back to loving the cake again. It worked. It was exactly what they asked for and I was happy. The bride seemed to love it too- though she was on cloud nine so I am pretty sure she would have loved anything... but my mission was accomplished.
So many people asked me how long that cake and cupcakes took me- so here is my long answer (and yes it is long, skip it if you like).

Last Saturday- made fondant- 3 batches.
Monday -baked ALL day- it shouldn't have taken ALL day- just most of the day- but it took all day because my first couple batches of cupcakes didn't right come out so I redid (plus I am also a mother of 3 and wife of 1 so nothing I do is ever without interruption- wonderful interruptions, but interruptions nonetheless). Apparently my tried and true chocolate fudge cake recipe doesn't double well. I have no idea why- oh well- lesson learned. I wrapped up all the cakes and stuck them in the freezer. While things were baking at night when the kids were down, I got started on the cupcake flowers- these little cutouts should have been quick and easy but they didn't cut so cleanly around the center so I had to fix each one with a knife---very time consuming. Plus I did shape them all with the fondant tool so they would have some shape and dimension.
Tuesday- Most of this morning was spent making and coloring icing for my class that night but I also spent my spare time finishing up the flowers for the cupcakes. When I got home at night I took a cake break. As a sidenote, I was very annoyed that Obama was delaying my beloved "American Idol"- come on Mr. President these are tough times for people- we need our American Idol and we need it now! :)
Wednesday- I mass produced icing- 36 cups of buttercream (only 3 quadruple batches)- some raspberry, some lemon, and some vanilla- all yummy! This wasn't all for the wedding cake- I was doing a YW activity on cake decorating and providing the decorating icing for that so about 1/3 went to that. That night when Kevin was out to special sneak preview of "Monsters and Aliens" with the kids, I made a few different daisy samples to figure out what I would put on the cake.
Thursday- I got nervous that my cake layers were not going to be tall enough so I baked another 10" layer and 14" layer. I also got nervous 3 fondant batches wouldn't be enough so I did another one of those. I also colored icing and filled bags for YW's and filled and frosted the 14" cake layer. As another sidenote- I couldn't believe the bottom three on American Idol- seriously Megan so needs to go- she may be cute and quirky but she can't sing- come on people! Don't get me wrong though- it was indeed time for that Michael Sarver to go home too.
Friday- I woke up excited to put it all together today. I started by frosting and filling the remaining two layers. That went smooth as silk. Then I got to the fondant which was a bit of a hiccup. It was really dry so I had to work it and knead in moisture for hours!!! It should have only taken maybe an hour or so to cover all three cakes but the fondant needed so much TLC it took more like 4 hours -remember of course I had many kid interruptions (much welcome interruptions though) so it's not like it was torturous. I definitely underestimated the task of covering the big 14-incher. It is the largest cake I have ever covered and just working with a piece of fondant that large was way more difficult than I expected. I got it done though and by the time I covered that last 6 inch layer I felt like the fondant queen. Oh and I covered some foam board that I had cut for the cake base with fondant. I will admit I got a bit sloppy on this part but I don't think anyone noticed. Also I should mention - during this time Brielle was soooooo good. I brought up a big box of basement toys that's been packed away for a while and she just happily played and watched her shows all afternoon. Occasionally she wandered over to scavenge for fondant scraps- which she LOVED and then she just went back to playing. It was great.
After school, the kids played with some neighbors across the street so I was able to dowel and stack the layers. Then when Kevin came home I got the bead border on, and when the kids were in bed, I added the ribbon and made the flowers to use, had my previously-mentioned "moment of stress", made chocolate buttercream- 2 double batches and frosted the cupcakes. Got to bed at 11:30- not to bad at all.
Saturday- Enjoyed a relaxing morning with the family- knowing everything was done and the cake had not toppled durring the night (fewf). After a bit of stress about being late since I had cake class until 4pm and a half hour drive home, we made it to the reception right on time at 5pm and the cake was completely intact. It was rewarding to be there for the whole reception and a lot of fun to cut and serve that cake. Kevin and I really enjoyed being at the reception and reminiscing about our own wedding, eating some delicious food, and visiting with some good friends.
Throughout my whole undertaking Kevin was my super supporter and I could not have done it without him. I am so blessed to have such a great husband who puts up with me and all I take on.

All in all- it was a great cake making week!

I need your opinion

For the wedding saturday I am supposed to cover the cake sporatically with flowers that match the invitation. The mother of the bride told me they were daisies on the invitation so I need opinions on which of the flowers I made last night I should reproduce on the cake?

And just so you can all get the big picture...along with the cake I am doing cupcakes. This is my practice cupcake tower. I decided to do all the medium flowers with brown centers- they are all done and ready to go so if you have a different opinion about them- don't tell me :)

Here is the invitation that is supposed to coordinate with the cake. Which flower or combination of flowers should I use on the cake?