Wedding Bride faux cake

I was practicing making brides and cakes that look wedding like. This is what I came up with.

The cake is not real - just a piece of styrafoam. Primarily because I was going to use this as an "example" of what I could create in person form for any brides who might ask when doing a tasting.

And then I was asked by a friend, who owns the Wedding Gallery here in town, to do a tasting for a few of her brides and it was nice to have to take with me.

Her eyes are a little googly and strikingly blue, but it is a cartoon figure so it goes. What I want to do is keep working on this and turn them a little less googly eyed and maybe a bit more realistic eyed (if that doesn't make sense then just don't worry about it - it is Pattispeak).

Draping fondant is fun too - I thought the train would be the easiest part of making the brides gown, but it is funny how dang picky you can get trying to drape the train right and not split the fodant. Still FUN!!

A Wedding!!!

A Wedding! A Wedding! A Wedding! Yes, I finally was asked to do a wedding ............. I have been waiting uh....well like my whole life (as my kids would say - that always cracks me up that they are 5, 9 & 12 and will say "my whole life".........sigh - if they only knew).

Anyway - I have a wonderful neighbor who lives down the main road from me that has started a business as a wedding creator extroadinaire. She really knows her stuff and can make events fun - and or elegant. Simple Elegance is the name of her business. A few months back she asked me if I would be interested in doing wedding cakes for her wedding if the couple chose me. While I tried to remain calm about the whole thing I think it came out in my eyes that I was boggled with excitement!!

and then as we talked about the wedding cake they wanted they started with saying that they really wanted SHEET CAKES!! Many Many of them!!! Pink.......

Purple........

Green...........and there was a Blue one too. Ack!! That was too easy.......4 Sheet Cakes!! Granted they were each in a different flavor.....but still - TOO EASY!! So I asked if they didn't also want at least a small stacked cake with some flourish - and YEA they did!!

A nice simple white cake with some fondant Gerber Daisies because that was what the Bride and her attendants would be carrying.

It was so much fun to create the flowers for the cake - and even more fun to deliver it....

Although - at the time of the wedding there was a monsoon happening. Poor Wedding - it rained and rained and rained and rained. I sat in my van for a few moments waiting for the rain to let us so that the cake didn't get too wet - but it never did let us. I am pretty certain that after I finished setting up it started raining even harder!

There was so much moisture in the air that I noticed my cake started to wilt a little. Heheehee.

2 Brides and a Cake

This was a VERY FUN cake to make!! Interestingly the week that this cake was requested by my friend I had been gearing up to create a Bride & Groom in fondant, but I was being a bit lazy about it because I figured it would be difficult and I had enough kinda big tasks sitting in front of me at the time anyway. So I was doing what many folks do best.........Avoiding!

I searched 2 Brides on a cake and 2 Fondant Brides, etc.......and I found nothing on the internet that matched. So while I am SURE there are wedding toppers of same sex unions - I couldn't find any made in fondant. That led me to just start creating it myself. I thought leaning in toward one another and holding hands would be a nice touch - and making them sit would make my first attempt easier then trying to make them stand.

However, once I began to put the brides together (which I did several days before I made the cake).......I realized that it wasn't nearly as hard as I was thinking. I wish I had taken pics of the pieces going together, but as I said it was a busy week. So "End Results" were all that were photographed.

The cake itself was totally simple - traditional wedding cake - White Cake - White Buttercream icing.......easey peasey.

The dresses were surprisingly simple. Fondant draping with a synching at the waist. Then I added some seed beads and little pearls and a tiny bit of icing work. I was a bit afraid to make it more then simple for fear of overdoing it. First time out I think not too frilly.

My understanding through my friend who suprised the Brides with the cake was that the cake was a True Hit of the dinner. And that was the goal.......to make something totally Fun and Cool that was the Icing of the Day.....pun intended. Plus - now if someone searches 2 Brides on a cake or 2 Fondant Brides - they might find something to look at!

Bachelorette Cake

This was a fun cake. A friend of mine - and my FAVORITE Girl Scout at the main office - asked me if I would do a "fun" cake for her friends bachelorette party. We joked around about the different theme's they might have.........I sent her some pictures of things that they could do I found on line.......she didn't even trust me enough to look at them without sending a note back that said something along the lines of "are these appropriate enough to look at here at work?"

They were. Mostly. There weren't any totally rude body part type cakes like I did happen to find. I mean let's be honest - who wants to eat a cut into body part? Ewww.

So what we decided was that "yes" I would get to do a fun cake for her party - but she would consider what she might want it to look like. And she did..........she did another search and came up wit this design. Very cute - Very fun. Time consuming to make all the little detail pieces, but easy enough to actually do (does that make sense?).

In fact, the more challenging part was that the Bride To Be was asked what flavor she would like the cake. I believe that Amanda sent her my blog - which lists flavors I have tackled on the side - and the answer that returned was ...........White with White Chocolate Chip cake (okay done that) and a White Chocolate icing.......ahhhhhhh.......my response was, "Ah does that exist?"

Of course it exists - but I have never done it. What we are finding is that EVERY flavor in the world has already been done. The challenge is generally NOT creating a new flavor, but more tweaking the flavor to be what you and those you are serving it to will enjoy. So after a quick search I found several several several recipes for White Chocolate Icing. Certainly not hard - it only included 1 double boiler adventure.........but also not as easy as a Vanilla Buttercream. Totally yummy though. I have already found 2 more cakes that it matches up nicely with.

So once finished this is what the cake looked like - and my understanding was the party group really enjoyed the flavor of the whole thing. It was the hit of the party (so Amanda said) - although cakes are fun, what I find is if you think something like the above cake up - most likely YOU are the hit of the party because you have spunk and a creative and fun energy about ya.

As you know - this cake was a White Chocolate Chip cake with a White Chocolate Icing. Vanilla fondant was used for the cake and Gumpaste was used for the Personal Items.

Taking a Tractor to a Wedding

Okay I should have posted this AGES ago!! That comment was primarily for my friend, Pennie. She was talking to another friend the other day saying how my website is updated so often and then I pointed out how almost all my posts start with - "I made this cake MONTHS ago".......because really I have a million no posted cakes. Okay not a million (don't have that many friends - close though)........but I have been super busy this spring working in the various committee's I am on and doing things for the kids now that they are home.


But......this cake was SO MUCH FUN to make!! It stretched some of my thinking a bit - kinda like the Rapunzel cake did. The whole "how do I get that to stay put" and "what shape would I need to cut this into to reflect what it is supposed to be" thing was a bit exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Primarily because - while this person heard of me through another person I know from our elementary school - I didn't really know this person - and more scary - this was for her wedding as a SURPRISE gift to her Brand Spanking New Hubby!! Technically I know she was under way way way way way more pressure for perfection then I was........but somehow I was able to create enough pressure for myself that I could live enough stress to exhaust myself for a day too.


More so then the stress though - This Was So Much Fun To Make!!


What is it? Oh......well the title kinda gives it away, but the two shapes above are the start of a Kubato tractor. You don't see it? Oh.........well the big hunk of cake is the base and the little hunk of cake is the cab on top. You still don't see it? Oh.......well let's keep going then.


Here are the dowel rods that I cut down BY MYSELF with the high tech tools my hubby keeps in the garage that I have not ever touched due to wanting to keep my fingers. However, Dave wasn't home so I had to risk my fingers to get this done.


These keep the cake in place so that they don't slide around a bunch.

Okay NOW do you see the tractor? NO? Well the dowel rods are in place. The short ones went into the Base of the cake and then the 2 longer ones went through the cab piece & base piece. Now (hopefully) this won't slide. And I promised myself I would NOT obsess over this and NOT invite my friend Sheri over to confirm that it wasn't sliding because she totally tells the truth too much. Here is a twist. Rice Krispy Treats!! Yea something new to try. See I may never have lived on a farm OR be a farmer (which makes sense since I have never lived on a farm - although maybe you can BE a farmer without LIVING on the farm.....but that would seem difficult) - however, I do know that tractors have GIANT wheels - especially in the rear of the vehicle. I was not at first certain how I would make such big wheels and then I flashed to every cake show I had ever seen and realized - they generally use Rice Krispy Treats.

So I searched something similar to "using Rice Krispy Treats in cake decorating" and found nothing really. This shock shock shocked me. I kept finding references to this RKT stuff and how great it was for molding shapes and when set it was lightweight and didn't hang on the cake much. So I did a search for RKT finally - hoping that the cake stores near me sold it so I could mold the tires - without some direction I was worried about using Rice Krispy Treats - I mean this was a gift to a brand new husband AT the wedding reception - no way did I want to mess this up!!

As I watched a video of a caker (my word - caker - definition: person who makes cakes for fun and decorates them and is so dedicated to the fun they do something weird like a blog of informative videos or start a business) using RKT to see if I wanted to find some for the tractor. Now - since you all are not blinded by the fear of goofing up the tractor cake I am sure you have already figured out what RKT is - yes, Rice Krispy Treats. As I watched the beginning of the video I couldn't help but laugh at me. Geez O.

Then I went and mixed some RKT up.

Here is the beginning of a tire. I have to say - molding stuff with RKT was quite fun. And in the end I had enough left over from the tires to do the arms and legs of a Sponge Bob cake too!

The big square thing is the roof for the cab of the tractor. You will never see that in another picture. It wouldn't set enough to not be at least a smidge floppy on the edges - and since I have never seen a tractor with a rounded roof I figured I needed to let it go.

Back to the tractor. Stacked - Dowel roded - and not Iced. Kinda looks like a shoe right?

Still kinda looks like a shoe. Insert the beginning of Cake Worry here. See there is a point with every cake that I look at it and say ............"ugh what am I doing?"......well almost every cake. Some really are just fine through the whole process - some cause me to freak through all of it - and some just get a moment of doubt.

So then I began putting on the "touches". The dark trim at the bottom is to give the cake the illusion of standing off the ground and having a hollow area where the wheel would be. I considered making a cake stand that would elevate the cake, but I didn't want to lose the servings.......and since Dave was busy wasn't sure how I would craft it and have it be sturdy.

The green around the edge of the board is - well grass. It will look more normal in the next shot.

Aerial.....cool right? Can you picture me on a giant crane looking down taking the photo? Yeah, I know - just a step stool.

See now the grass is filled in a bit more - there is ground up Vanilla Wafers and Graham crackers for "dirt" and I made a few fondant hearts & wedding rings for the scoop. The K&J are initials of the bride & groom. I tried to write them in a font Kubato uses on their tractors.

The scoop. The scoop was a bit easier to make then I would have imagined. Honestly most of this was easier to make then I imagined - I mean certainly not easy, but I envisioned fearful moments with tears and

The tires........cool right? Once the RKT was set and dried enough that it didn't more around I covered it in black fondant. The cut strips to place on the edge to look like treads. After that was set I added the rims......the orange part is a rim right? I need to brush on up car lingo - tractor lingo - vehicle lingo. I thought they turned out really cute. And the fact that you can just bite into them is fun too!

Final picture! When I went to deliver it to the banquet center they had almost everything set and ready to go. The Bride looked like I would have imagined - scanning the room - excited - more focused then I remember myself being. However, I had Dawson with me. Couldn't find a play date for him and not a single person in the family was home. Ironically the cake was at the golf house banquet center here in our neighborhood - so it was not far away at all - but you can't leave a 5 year old at home alone even for 15 minutes.........too many possible adventures they could get into that might end poorly. So he came on delivery - and flopped all over the floor doing Super Hero Ninja type moves. I tried to be In & Out of there fast enough that nothing would be damaged. Given our stealth delivery - I am pretty sure that the Bride loved the cake - and the Grooms Mom..........so Success.

I know I loved the cake - because I can now say that I built a 3D Tractor out of Cake!!

This cake was one of my personal favorites - Pumpkin Cake with a Cinnamon Buttercream icing and Vanilla Fondant. Yummm!!!

Wedding Shower Cookie + Cupcake = YUM

Short, but sweet. I think I posted these cookies on facebook. In fact I am pretty certain I did. Funny how things work...........I had a rash of sugar cookie requests for awhile and then - nothing. After the original request for Palm Trees I bought a few fun cookie cutters that I thought might come in handy. Then I was looking for things to do with the cookies - so I started sticking them on things I was giving to people.

These went on a little box of cupcakes I gave to a friend who had just gotten engaged. Sweet!

Cupcakes were White cake and Chocolate cake with a pretty Vanilla Buttercream swirl on top.

Wedding Show Cupcakes

More Wedding Cupcakes!! Only these I tweaked a little from the first ones I did last year. See a friend of mine owns a photography business (this is actually a different friend then bought the Zebra cake) and she was doing a Wedding Show and wanted some cupcakes for her booth to give customers something to do while she talked to them. She said that the food vendors have potential customers mill around longer because they are eating food samples - and thought some cute cupcakes to eat would keep them longer then usual and also promote me.

I would have made her the cupcakes just because she asked - but promoting the chance to do a wedding cake sounded like a great idea!! This time around I made the groom a little simpler since I was making 25 of him. I did the shirt in a buttercream and a bow tie in buttercream also. The last groom had all those pieces done in fondant. Made for a quicker process doing them in buttercream. The flowers are done in fondant though.

The brides are almost the same - although I did the design on their dresses in a vanilla buttercream instead of creamy icing tints or pearl dust. And the necklace is not done in tiny candy pearls. But the biggest difference in these brides are that I painted the neckline in skin tone. I also did some cupcakes in a skin tone for African American brides, but they turned out looking a little more Hispanic. So in the future for a true order for a wedding (if I get one - cross your fingers) I would do the fondant colored in the skin tone desired and not paint. What I noticed was if there was the slightest crack in the fondant - that you couldn't see with your eye - when it was painted the tint highlighted the crack.



Still - SUPER CUTE and a lot of FUN!!



These cupcakes were 2 flavors. The Grooms were Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cake (yum!) with a Vanilla Buttercream icing and a Vanilla Fondant. The Brides were Almond Cake (new recipe - super good and moist!) with a Vanilla Buttercream and a Vanilla fondant.

Wedded Bliss Cupcakes

Yeah Fondant!! No really.....I am becoming much more familiar with Fondant. Fondant loves me and I am begining to actually love Fondant too. This was totally fun because I was getting to try new things and create.

What I was doing was creating cupcakes for a 30th Wedding Anniversary party. Friends of Dave at work had asked me if I could do it. See Dave often takes in things that I bake, but don't want to eat, and shares. His friend knew I could bake and Dave had shown him pics of things I had decorated. Their "cake lady" was unavailable (hey maybe I can become someone's "cake lady") and they asked if I could help in the pinch. And his wife said I could do whatever I wanted - but she kinda wanted cupcakes - hmmmm........ahhhh Yeah Totally!!

So I searched some ideas. Again - I figure someone has already been there before me so might as well learn from some of their ideas. Found some really cute flower ideas and started rolling out some fondant I made. Cutting them into 3 sizes of flowers.

Then I pulled out some Vodka and some Luster Dust in the shades of Silver and Pearl. The theme items were all being purchased in those shades - apparently 30th Anniversary is Pearl. So I mixed the vodka and luster dust and began painting the flowers.

Once done they looked like this. I have to say that although it was a smidge time consuming - it was really fun!! and simple.

The cupcakes were all simple. Yellow and Chocolate. Easy........the icing was by request a Cream Cheese. Yummy!! So I topped each cupcake with a simple swirl of icing.

Then took the individual flowers and stacked them - using a smidge of icing in between each flower as glue and a small candy pearl in the center.

I have mentioned before that I don't always like to Reinvent the Wheel.....and this flower is not much different. The first flower I saw that sparked this idea was on the Bakeface blog that I love to follow. She has brilliant things that you might see me copy and these flowers are the start. You can see her creation that sparked my plan here.


Popped a completed flower on top of each of the cupcakes and Viola!! A completely cute cupcake that looks elegant and fun all at the same time. Of course, as cute as these were......they weren't exactly the whole party theme......we were missing 2 characters......

One of those characters was the Groom. Here he is with his box of chocolate cupcakes. How cute is that right?

And then there was also a box with the Bride and her yellow cucpakes.

I have to say that these two cupcakes were much easier to create then all the flowers - and they turned out really cute. Basic fondant layered over the cream cheese icing - then adding a few elements - the flower on the lapel - the buttons from fondant - the dress texture is thicker pearl luster dust painted on with a small amount of edible pearl colored glitter - and then a necklace of candy pearls. TahDah!!

Here Comes the Bride

This was soooooo much fun to make. Yet at the same time it just about drove me to tears when I was actually creating it.

The event was a Bridal shower. The bridesmaid throwing the party gave me a swatch of fabric and said "make something cute - I totally trust you". Since she is a friend I figured that it needed to be something SUPER CREATIVE because it is a goal to impress all friends with wonderful things that they are deserving of. And then I found a picture of a cake with dresses like these on a cake.

Of course figuring I could do it I picked that as my pattern. And Good Gravy was I mildly regretting it when I realized I had little clue as to what to do with fondant when working with intricate surfaces and not simple flat lines.

In the end - after much self cursing - I won the battle and this super cute cake was completed!!

Marble cake - dresses are yellow and chocolate - Vanilla Buttercream icing under the fondant and on the half sheet cake. All yum!!