Cake #14: More Fun with Fondant...and Gumpaste!

Tonight, in my latest Wilton Course (Fondant and Gumpaste), we learned several new techniques, which we could add to our cakes tonight. Among the techniques were: the draped cloth, handkerchiefs, the zig-zag swags and borders.

I chose not to add all these new elements to my cake, instead going for a more elegant look of the draped cloth and roses. I am extremely pleased with how well this cake turned out; after my last disaster with my co-worker's birthday cake, I was beginning to doubt my abilities. Fortunately, all the gumpaste and fondant things were extremely easy and provided a real boost to my esteem!

Cake #13: Happy Birthday, Stephanie

This week, one of my favorite co-workers has her birthday. When I asked her what type of cake she wanted, she requested that I make a large Starbuck's cup. Since I'm not comfortable actually sculpting a cake, I decided to make a stacked cake with a smaller Starbuck's cup of Rice Krispies covered in fondant. However, when I tried to cover the Rice Krispies in fondant, it didn't turn out exactly as planned.

Having to scrap my plans at the last minute, I had to hurriedly re-plan the design. Being slightly unhappy about this turn of events, I simply added a few quick buttercream decorations and called it quits. I'm sure my co-workers will care much more about the inside rather than what's on the exterior!

Cake #12: What's bugging you?

This summer, my library's children's reading program is "Catch the Reading Bug" so I decided to make this batch of special bug cupcakes for our staff meeting tomorrow.

I found this design in the book, Hello, Cupcake. To make the bugs, I used melted chocolate to trace the legs and antennae. Then, I added various sized M&Ms to make the bodies. It was somewhat difficult to pipe the chocolate into such thin lines...melted chocolate doesn't seem to have near the consistency of icing. I also learned that I had to allow the chocolate to solidify before I could actually add the M&Ms; when I added the M&Ms to the soft chocolate, it completely flattened the chocolate and ruined the design.

Eventually, I mastered the technique and had enough bugs for the cupcakes on hand. Hopefully my coworkers appreciate my hard work!

Cake #11: Everything's Sunny...too sunny

This weekend, I purchased the book Hello, Cupcake, one of the most original cake/cupcake books I've seen in recent times! It has so many cute ideas, and I plan on trying several of them.

These sunflowers cupcakes were one of the reasons I decided to actually buy this book. With simple cupcakes frosted in green buttercream frosting, I simply had to top with an Oreo and then use the leaf tip to make the yellow petals. Unfortunately, with the onset of summer weather (it was 106 the day I decorated these) my icing didn't stand up too well...I might have to make my buttercream a little thicker than normal these next couple months.

Cake #10: Stacks and Stacks of Cake

Tonight was the final night of my Wilton Course III: Fondant and Tiered Cakes; for my final project, I made this three-tiered stacked cake. (The top and bottom cakes are chocolate with an Oreo buttercream filling, and the middle cake is lemon with a lemon custard filling.) All three cakes are covered in the Wilton fondant, which I dyed blue.

To decorate the cake, I piped buttercream flowers along the sides and then used a paint brush to soften the edges and give the flowers an embroidered-look (hence the reason this technique is called "brushed embroidery"). To finish the cake, I added a multi-looped fondant bow atop the cake and a ribbon border around the bottom of each cake.

Although I am fairly content with the finished cake, I definitely feel there's lots of room for improvement. I again had difficulty in getting the fondant to smoothly cover the cake; however, I did find that my ability improved as I did each of the 3 cakes. Fortunately, the ribbon borders were a big help in covering some of the mistakes. I also want to comment on the great amount of time and energy I had to invest into this cake. I would say that to bake and decorate this cake took approximately 12 hours! I can understand why wedding cakes are so expensive!!!

Cake #9: Fondant Surprise

For my first fondant cake, I decided to make the classic "gift" cake. I had originally hoped to make this cake yellow with a blue bow; however, since the cake inside is chocolate with a raspberry filling, I thought the yellow/blue/pink combo would be a little too off-putting. Instead, I decided to use green and pink to coordinate with filling.

The most difficult aspect of the cake was actually getting the green icing to lay flat against the cake. Apparently, square cakes are the hardest to cover in fondant since you're trying to cover a square object with a rounded piece of icing. (It would be kinda' like trying to wrap a present without having any visible seams in the gift wrap!) Fortunately, I was able to cover many of the mistakes with the bow and circles.

The bow is constructed of 5 smaller strips of fondant which were shaped individually and then assembled on the cake once they had dried. The circles were merely cut using a set of different-sized cookie cutters. To finish the cake (and to cover all those unsightly cracks along the bottom) I added a simple dot border using white buttercream.

Overall, I am fairly happy with my first attempt with fondant. One of my friends mentioned that this cake looks very "Dr. Seuss-ish", and I have to agree with him....perhaps I'll have to serve it with ham and eggs!

A Whole New Rose!

Tonight in my Wilton Decorating Class, we finally began working with fondant. Now, while I had a great deal of difficulty in actually covering the entire cake with the fondant, the fondant rose was remarkable simple - ok, perhaps simple isn't the correct term. With numerous steps the fondant rose making process can definitely be time consuming; however, none of the steps are particularly difficult and the finished result looks pretty darn nice! I've yet to decided what I'm going to do on my final course cake, but the fondant rose is certainly looking like a contender.