The Many Adventures of a Sunflour Cake Mom

Happy Birthday to my little man!

Now on to the real reason I started taking cake decorating classes - so I could make really great birthday cakes for my kids. So when my son Lucas decided he wanted a Cars cake, I got all excited and started looking up ideas. Thing is, most of them were much more complicated than I was willing to attempt, and would have made a lot more cake than I needed.

So I opted for a cute little racetrack design. Initially, I had planned on using crushed oreo cookies for the road, with white lines down the middle. And then my son decided he wanted a lemon cake. Fine with me, since I had a box of lemon cake mix in the pantry (maybe that's where he got the idea?). However, chocolate and lemon really don't go together, so I decided on a graham cracker dirt road, complete with "tracks' that I carved out with my fingers, and grass with my favorite decorating tip.

Then, because I had to put some fondant on it, I did some stars on the sides, with inlays. My little guy loved it and he had an awesome birthday.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Flags and Fireworks!

Every year for the 4th of July, my sister-in-law Donna hosts a 4th of July party at her house. Everyone brings their own meat and beverages and a dish to pass. Originally, I was going to make a cake, but then when I got the order for the birthday cake, I decided to make cupcakes instead, and I knew exactly what design I wanted to use.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Super-Why!

After completing my fondant and gum paste class, I posted the pictures of my cake on facebook with a comment stating that now that I was done with cake classes, I was ready to take orders. Less than an hour passed and I had a message from a friend asking me to make a cake for her daughter's 4th birthday. She sent me a picture of the type of cake she wanted and I knew I was in for a challenge. An awesome challenge. Not only did she want a cake covered in fondant, but she wanted a picture on it as well. Now I know, I could have done the picture in buttercream, or royal icing, but being the overacheiver I am, I decided to do it with a fondant/gum paste blend. It took me a bit longer than I originally thought, but I just loved how it turned out. I was actually kind of sad to give the cake up, knowing that in a matter of hours, it would be cut into little peices. But it was all worth it, knowing that the birthday girl absolutely loved her super-why cake.

Happy Birthday, Olivia!!

Something old, something new, something red and white and blue!

While I was taking my flowers and cake design class, I was asked to make a cake for my cousin Rebecca's wedding shower.
Okay - so I offered. Enthusiastically. Practically begged. And my aunt accepted, of course. When I talked to my cousin to ask what the colors were for her wedding, she said they were red and aqua blue. What luck - those were the colors I was planning to use for my final cake! So I made a ton of extra flowers and decided to make a square cake since a round one wouldn't have been enough to feed everyone. Then I chose a design from my course book, that had apple blossoms on the sides of the cake, with white buttercream vines. Very elegant and very beautiful. It was a chocolate cake with amaretto filling (one of my favorite flavor combos) and everyone loved it. Congrats, Rebecca!

Course Three - Fondant and Gum Paste!

I think this was the class that I was most excited about - ever since I started watching the show "Ace of Cakes", I wanted to be able to make a cake covered with fondant. Little did I know just how frustrating fondant and gum paste could be! Of course, it didn't help that I had to wait until the final class to actually cover a cake with fondant. What a lesson in patience! The remaining classes were devoted to learning how to make a bow, and making gum paste flowers like roses, carnations, calla lilies, daisies and mums.

It took a lot of thinking for me to decide on a design for my final cake, but I think it turned out pretty well. And I went all out for this - I could have made it easier on myself and used a package of store-bought fondant, because it's so much easier to work with, but noooo. I made my own chocolate fondant! It was easier than I thought it would be, but man, did my hands hurt from kneading it! Totally worth it in though - in the end I had a gorgeous cake!

Course Two - Flowers and Cake Design

This class was a lot of fun - I learned to make flowers with royal icing.I was the most excited about learning to make the Wilton Rose, but little did I know that I'd be making lots of other fun flowers too! In addition to the roses, daisies and apple blossoms that I put on my cake, I also learned how to make daffodils, lilies, violets, rosebuds, primroses, button flowers, and pansies. And then on top of all of that, I learned how to do the basketweave technique and the rope border.