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.

You Decide

Ok, so my next cake I want to design with a theme. I came up with a few ideas, narrowed it down, but can't quite decide on one, so I thought I'd ask you guys. I put a poll over there ---> with my ideas, so if you pick one, hopefully you will see the winner on here before too long. Thanks!

More Flowers

I started my last level of Wilton classes a little over a week ago. This level is learning how to make even more flowers. The first class we made button flowers and pansies out of gum paste and fondant, and the second class we piped the Wilton rose out of royal icing. My piping definitely needs more work.

Here are the button flowers and pansies:

These are all my attempts at piping the Wilton rose:

Like I said, my piping needs more work.

Out of all of the roses, this one is my favorite, so it gets the close up.

No, the edges aren't supposed to be jagged, I just wasn't squeezing the icing bag hard enough because I hadn't done any serious piping lately, so my hands got out of shape. I was told to squeeze tennis balls in my spare time to strengthen the muscles, so I'll work on that. 

When I got home I decided to try piping some flowers that I hadn't yet learned in class. I tried daffodils and lilies.

The lone pink one was before I decided to make a new batch of icing, and it was what I had left over from the roses. When I made a new batch of icing I fiddled around with different color combinations to see which one I liked best. I think the white petals with the yellow middle is my favorite.

Any tips and suggestions are always welcome!

Another Birthday Cake :)

This one was for my friend, Alaina. As I was making it I said, "This one's not blog worthy" but here I am putting it up anyway. It's a French Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

For the "A" I just printed off a picture and traced it with melted chocolate chips onto parchment paper and chilled it. I wanted to stand it up on the cake, but it kept flopping over, so I just had to lay it on top.

Let me know if you like it!

First Attempt at a Two Tiered Cake

This past weekend was my mom's birthday, so I decided to attempt a two tiered cake for her. With it being my first ever attempt, it was an all day project, but I was quite happy with the result.

The bottom tier is a Swiss Chocolate cake and the top tier is a Dark Chocolate Fudge cake. It is all covered with chocolate buttercream icing. :)

Happy birthday, Mom!