Character Cake

I'd never made a character cake before, so I decided to finally make one so I could add it to my repertoire.

We've had the pan for this little guy sitting away in a cabinet since my older sisters and I were toddlers and my mom made him for our birthday cakes. So, since we already had the pan, why not make it? Not to mention, he's pretty cute. 

I used Wilton tip #18 for his whole body and the bow, and for the lines of his mouth I used tip #3. For part of it I tried using tip #2010, which pipes 3 stars at a time, but I didn't feel like I had as much control as I did with tip #18 and I couldn't see exactly where the stars were going, so I switched back to #18. Yes, it took longer, but I liked it that much better.

Just look at that cute face!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, we don't normally have cake on Thanksgiving, but I really wanted to make this guy. Now we have too many leftover desserts and too many over capacitated stomachs, but what is Thanksgiving without those?

Trying to get the right colors took a little while, but I had some help and we finally got there. I had 6 colors: red, orange, yellow, black, white, and brown.

After piping all the icing on, I dragged a spatula through it to give the turkey the look of the feathers.

Well, I don't have much else to say, mostly because I'm practically in a coma from eating too much food.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Roses - Take Two

I recently whipped up some royal icing and decided to try piping roses again, since the last time I made them, I failed miserably. I was quite excited at how these roses turned out.

After my previous attempts, I took my teacher's advice and spent a little time squeezing tennis balls, and since I've been piping a lot more lately, no jagged edges on these roses!

Sorry the pictures are so dark, if I had used more light, they would've just looked like round white blobs.
Anyway, I like the white color, but next time I want to try variegated petals so the tip of the petal is a different color than the rest, or striped petals. That should be fun!

I can't wait to see these guys on a cake! 

Kit Kat Cake

I saw this cake idea on Recipe Girl and absolutely had to make it. It is such a fun looking cake and so easy to make.

There are so many different variations you could do. I think it would make a fun groom's cake or even the top tier to a wedding cake, using white chocolate kit kats and M&M's the color of the bridesmaid dresses. Or you could put something in the top besides m&ms, like crushed up pieces of your favorite candy bar or flowers. The possibilities are endless.

I wish I could dive into that pool of M&M's.

Practice, Practice, Practice...

...That's what I've been doing lately. I've been practicing working with bigger cakes, i.e. baking them, stacking them, transporting them, and eating them. I know, shame on me for that last one. 

Anyway, this past weekend I made another two tiered cake. I thought I was going to make a three tiered cake, but there is only so much time in a day. However, this cake was much bigger than the two tiered ones I've made in the past.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but this cake was 12 x 4 inches on the bottom and about 8 x 4 inches on the top, whereas the previous two tiered cakes I made were about 8 x 3 on the bottom and 6 x 3 on the top.

Another thing, I completely underestimated the amount of icing it would take to fill, ice, and decorate a cake this size, so I had to be really skimpy on the icing because we ran out of butter. And sugar. That's why you can see the layers of cake through the icing.

Oh, and don't worry, I didn't eat the whole cake, but let's just say next time I'm practicing, someone should come take the cake from me when I'm done.

The Winner

Alright, so I finally got around to decorating the cake that won the poll, which was...(drum roll, please!)...the Masquerade Ball cake! I learned several things while decorating this cake, among which are:
I'm really bad at draping fondant to make it look like a tablecloth
Fondant 1/4 inch thick takes a long time to dry. A really long time to dry. 
How not to get fondant a nice red color
And how to make fondant taste like a cherry Tootsie Pop while trying to make it red. Seriously, exactly like it.

Originally I wanted the fondant to be a deep red color, like the jewel on the mask, but it just wasn't going to happen, so I had to settle for the mauve-y color it ended up being.

 The rose is a black fondant ribbon rose.

I hope this meets everyone who voted for the Masquerade Ball cake's approval. :)

Basket Weave

The other day I finished my last class in the Wilton cake decorating courses. I learned how to do the basket weave which was something I had been wanting to learn for a while. It's so pretty and really fun to do!

The flowers are apple blossoms made out of royal icing. They're really fun to make as well!

 

I think I have a new favorite.