Spring Flowers Anniversary Cake

It's not uncommon for someone to order an anniversary cake that resembles their wedding cake. In fact, we just got an order like that a couple of weeks ago. What IS uncommon is that the groom that's ordering the cake as a surprise for his wife is a cake decorator himself!

It's a little nerve racking to make a cake for a cake decorator! I just kept thinking..."He's going to tear the cake apart and find all the flaws I've worked so hard to hide. He's going to think he can make the gum paste flowers better than I can. He's going to hate it!"

But I was wrong, so wrong. When Jerry saw the cake, he almost cried! I just hope his wife was equally impressed and reminded of their wedding day.


The cake was iced in buttercream and piped with a buttercream swirl pattern. And a royal blue ribbon was wrapped around the base of each tier.


All the flowers you see were hand-made from gum paste. We topped the cake with a bunch of the flowers and 2 sweet butterflies.


The top tier was supported above the bottom tier using push-in pillars, and we hid the pillars with lots and lots of gum paste flowers.

Ivory Gift Packages Cake

If you've ever been to the bakery, you've seen our show cake that looks like a bunch of gift packages. It's a stunning cake - very elegant and sophisticated! It would be perfect for so many occasions - a holiday party, wedding, anniversary party, etc. It's huge and really makes a statement.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, a bride specifically requested that we replicate that show cake for her wedding.


It took a full day just to decorate this beast, and two full-grown men to carry it into the reception hall.

This cake is great if you need an idea for how to decorate a gift box cake. Each box was decorated in a different manner and 5 different bow styles!


This was an 8-inch round cake sitting on top of a 10-inch square cake...which was sitting on a 12-inch square cake...which was sitting on a large rectangular cake...phew! Also notice bow #1 with wide bow loops.


And here, you have a 6-inch round cake with bow #2 (extremely thin bow loops) on a 8-inch square cake with bow #3. The square cake is actually twice as tall as a normal cake!


I love this little pouch. There's a cupcake hidden inside!


This is an aerial view of the cake, and you can see bow #4 on the mini package to the left and bow #5 front and center!

A Woodsy Wedding Cake

Not too long ago, we created a very woodsy wedding cake. The cake itself was covered with mocha-colored fondant, and it was decorated with vines, wildflowers, mushrooms, leaves, acorns, and butterflies.

We loved the cake so much that we decided to recreate it in dummy form for the show room.


This time, we covered the cake in ivory fondant.


But we still covered the cake with acorns, vines, mushrooms, lots of wild flowers, and a few butterflies!

Just to Brighten Your Day

I saw this posted on Aarti Party. I'm a nerd for the Food Network, and I love The Next Food Network Star. Aarti is this year's winner! So, of course, I now follow her blog. Anyway, she just posted this and I had to forward it on to all of you.

Enjoy!



Wouldn't you love to see the blooper's reel???

TV Remote Control Groom's Cake

This weekend, the very talented lady behind Photography by Lela got married! Shortly after I began working with Debbie, she asked me to do her wedding cake. Of course, I referred her to Debbie so she requested that I be her decorator!

Her fiance just LOVES his television (sounds familiar...) so her groom's cake was a giant TV remote control. She sent us a photo of his remote so we could create a sugar replica!


This baby was at least 18 inches long!


The cake was hand-carved and covered in black fondant. I took great care in cutting out all the fondant buttons. This really appealed to my Type A personality...straight lines, perfectly round circles....*sigh*...right up my alley.


The toughest part was writing those tiny words. I used a tip 1 with royal icing, and I felt like the words should have been smaller still!

Pillow Cake for a First Birthday Party!

Maybe you should sit down before I show you this cake. The order was placed only TWO weeks ago by a woman for her granddaughter's first birthday party. Big deal, right?

Well, the party was for 120 people! And she wanted a 3-tier pillow cake. Actually, she specifically wanted this cake from Elegant Cheesecakes, but we changed it a little to incorporate her colors and "feel" for the party. The party colors were dusty rose, ivory, and pink! And the party had sort of a girly vintage feel to it.


The cakes were carved, covered in fondant, and decorated with fondant accents.


The pillows were topped with a gum paste princess crown, which was wrapped around the smash cake! See it peeping from behind the crown in the picture below? At the party, they were able to lift the crown and smash cake and set it in front of the birthday girl.


I knew this would be a fun delivery. I love it when the rooms are at least partially set up so I can see how the cake fits into the rest of the party.


I'm proud to say we perfectly matched the party colors! Yay!


Just look at this room!


Again, there's the girly vintage feel...an elegant, mature centerpiece with a pink & silver crown sticking out of it!


And how many 1st birthday parties have you been to where there is a favor bar. What's the favor? GOLDFISH! Yup, each party attendee took home a new pet!

Hollywood Sweet 16 Birthday Cake

Ok, I decorated this cake for Ms. Debbie's Sugar Art back in June, but I've been saving it. I wanted to show it to you right before the Oscar Awards or something like that. But, did you know that's in March?! I just can't wait anymore!

So here is a huge cake we made for a Hollywood-themed Sweet 16 birthday party. The party was held at the Hippodrome Theater in Gainesville so the setting was perfect!

For the cake, they requested large film reels topped with a director's clapboard:


Around each of the film reels, we attached edible photos of the birthday girl from the first 16 years of her life. Her mom gave us school photos, prom photos, dance photos, simple everyday photos, etc. They were great!


The clapboard was made of cardboard and completely covered with fondant. Then, I hand-piped the letters using yellow royal icing.


I love this cake. It would have been better to wait until the Oscars, right? Hm, Oh well. I'm just not that patient...

Let's Eat Cake Fundraiser Updates!

It's been over a year since I competed in the Let's Eat Cake Fundraiser in Gainesville. It benefited the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and it was a really fun night!

My favorite photo of the night is this one, surrounded by the people who came specifically to support me. Hubby was out of town on business so I felt so special to have a great group of people there with me!


And the reason I'm bringing all this up again, is I JUST ran across some blog posts that the creator of the competition, Melissa, wrote after the competition.

Click here to see her post with a few of the night's entries.

Click here to see her post thanking the people who helped out...but definitely check out Steamy Kitchen's blog post about the event here. She has great pictures of Debbie's and my cakes! Ok, I'll just show you the photos she has of me and my cake:


So she forgot my name in her post...oh well! With such great photos, I can forgive that little detail!

Here is the Tampa Tribune's article about the event. I'm not mentioned in it, but it's still a great article.

Ok, now I'm getting giddy again! Here's Melissa's blog post about the WINNERS!!!

And here's Melissa's funny post about discovering she was featured in Gainesville Today, a local magazine. I had a very similar experience when people started telling me, "I saw you in the magazine!" Huh??? "Yea, there's a great photo of you!" So I immediately rushed out a grabbed a whole stack of the magazines. I gave a bunch to family and friends, but I still have 3 that I will - one day - display in my very own bakery!




Man, I'm so excited now! Competition really gets me going! But I'm also really excited about the Florida ICED Cake Competition because now I'm the one planning it! It's gonna be huge, people! I've already spoken to WCJB about being there for the event. You can bet I'll be talking to the Tampa Tribune, Gainesville Sun, Gainesville Today, etc! This is going to be THE place to be on March 27, 2011! Don't miss it!

Butterfly Swarm Cakes

Today is the Gainesville Bridal Expo at the UF Hilton. We're unveiling two new dummy cakes for our booth! Here's one of them:


This dummy cake is 5 tiers, covered in white fondant.


The butterflies were made out of gum paste and "glued' to the side of the cake with royal icing.


This cake was actually inspired by a wedding cake we did last week! The wedding was held at the Florida Museum of Natural History. This is the same museum that has a fabulous butterfly exhibit and for which we decorated the Butterfly Rainforest Cake.


The cake was covered in white fondant and placed on a cake pedestal purchased at TJ Max Home Goods (I love their cake stands!).


The butterflies were all provided by the bride and groom.


And this is a shot of the cake set up in front of the butterfly exhibit. I love the idea of having a wedding here! The wedding attendants ate the reception dinner with a mammoth's fossil! How cool is that?!

Cake Overload - Part 2!

Here's 3 more cakes for you!


This cake was iced in white buttercream. We lined the sides with a collage of photos the bride provided us using PhotoFrost's edible printing.



And the top had an edible image monogram to match the couple's wedding invitation.


This zebra print cake was iced in buttercream and decorated with fondant accents. I remember when Kenzie's Mom came to pick up the cake. She was so excited because her daughter had asked her to join them when they went "clubbing" that night. She felt so young and hip!


And this is a cake I made for the show room. It's supposed to look like a woman's blouse or jacket. Do you see it?



It was iced in pink buttercream and decorated with fondant buttons. The brooch was piped with buttercream and accented with sugar pearls.


And the Damask print is another edible image from Luck's.

Cake Overload!

I'm trying really hard to get caught up with all my cake posts! Right now, I'm still posting cakes that are sometimes weeks old. I'd like to get to the point where I'm posting cakes no later than 1 week after they are created. It's more fun that way!

So, in an effort to catch up even more, here are a few fun cakes I haven't posted yet.


This cake was iced in lime green and hot pink buttercream for a Sweet 16 birthday party. The cake was topped with gum paste numbers and decorated with fondant polka dots and buttercream scrolls.


Here's a sheet cake covered in fondant and decorated with fondant polka dots in 3 shades of pink. The cake celebrated 2 events for Brittany - her graduation and her birthday!


And this was a cake iced in green buttercream and decorated with fondant stripes and polka dots.

Red & Black Zebra Cake

We made this birthday cake for a young girl celebrating her 31st birthday. She'd spent her 30th birthday taking care of sick family members so she really wanted to go big this year!

She came in, sat down with Debbie, and picked out her own cake. She really liked the Pink & Black Zebra Cake we'd made for a 1st birthday party, and she wanted it to look elegant, mature, and glamorous.


Her party colors were red and black so we changed all the pink to red:


We topped the cake with red ribbon roses and pulled the zebra print pattern all the way over the top of the cake, rather than stopping at the top edge.


And we gave her a giant red bow on the second tier.


Isn't it funny how just a couple of simple changes can take a fun 1st birthday cake and make it into a mature, elegant 31st birthday cake?!