a {colorful} little finish

As of this Wednesday evening, I am "Wilton certified".  That's right, I COMPLETED my fourth course and am done (phew!) for now with my cake-u-cation.  Wilton is revamping it's classes, though, and rolls out new product in June, so I have a few more things to learn.  Top of my list are gum paste calla lilies and mums.  Gorgeous.

Here's my "class final" cake, which is a colorful whimsical birthday cake for the "June birthdays" for a friend.  It's got some delightfully colorful gerber daisies, which, I must say, are probably one of my favorite flowers thus far.  Too fun.

Boxed up and ready to go!

"On deck" for next week are two wedding showers... both with some delightful little daisies, I believe.  One will have a cake and the other opted for a cupcake tower.  Stay tuned.

congrats grad

A friend of mine's daughter graduated from high school last week.  We got together to discuss ideas for her grad party cakes.  The grad party had a black/white/red accent color scheme.  She wanted a vintage/elegant feel to the event and her fondant cakes and absolutely LOVES music.  She has a heart "logo" she draws using the trebel and base clefs that she loves so we decided to feature it on her cakes.  Here's the results!

carnations and daisies

Gumpaste is such a fun medium to work with.  Not as tasty as butter cream or even fondant, but it allows for some wonderful technique.  This week I learned two new flowers, both of which are gorgeous.  I'm especially excited about the daisies.

First are the carnations.  They look SO real which is a lot of fun!

The other flowers are some adorable daisies.  They'd be fun cake or cupcake toppers and gorgeous as gerber daisies too, which I hope to be able to showcase here soon!

a couple lil cakes

Just a few things that have been keeping me busy lately.  First, a quick cake for a friend's birthday after we learned some techniques in class.  I wouldn't use the "draping" technique like this typically, but we were just practicing.  Draping is absolutely gorgeous on tiered cakes, especially for weddings.

Next, I made up a batch of frosting and some little 6" cakes to decorate with my little sister after dinner one evening before she left for the summer.  Here's our fun little spring creation.

Pretty cute, huh?

a happy little {wedding} cake

FINALLY it's done!  My first wedding cake!  And I'm beginning to understand why these things cost so much.  It was a lot of work, but I love it.  And I learned a LOT doing it.

Here's the work in progress:

1.  2 layered cakes.  9" and 6".  French Vanilla and Devil's Food with butter cream frosting.

2.  Cakes + more butter cream for a crumb coat.

3.  And... marshmallow fondant!  My batch incorporated too much air, so it had some bubbles.  :(

4.  But I'm becoming more and more of a firm believer in the cake decorator's motto:  "Butter cream will fix anything."  SOOO due to the fondant bubbles I picked a cornelli lace design that turned out beautifully after a few hours of decorating!  Here's the final product!  Fun!

an indoor rose garden

These little guys have dominated my evenings over the past week and a half... but as of last night, they are DONE and just waiting to decorate the wedding cake I'll make for class on Wednesday!

The roses are fondant and are in three blooming "stages".  I used the colors from a friend's wedding last year and think they turned out so fun!

The green brings them to life:

And some leaves:

Tonight I whipped up a batch of homemade marshmallow fondant (yum) and four cakes: two 6" and two 9".  It's all coming together for a gorgeous blooming wedding cake and should be done late Wednesday evening!

New beautiful blooms!

I learned a few more flowers last night.  These flowers are a lot more detailed and time consuming, but it's time will spent.  Once finished, they {almost} look REAL!

I just made them for practice purposes.  They're beautiful flowers for seasonal cakes and would be gorgeous for spring weddings (or Christmas if you like the poinsettias, which are my favorite!).  They'd also be fun cupcake toppers.  I would probably not combine them with other flowers, but do an entire cake in just one of them.  They're about the size of an egg, which is why they're currently drying in an egg carton!

Here they are.  Pretty pink poinsettias:

Petunias:

Easter lilies and morning glories:

 And the whole beautiful bunch!  Fun!