Gators Graduation Cake

Here is a high school graduation cake we made for a girl planning to attend UF next year. You heard me right - high school graduation. What will her parents do when she graduates college?!


It was a four-tier cake covered in fondant.


The cake was topped with blue ribbon roses. The top tier was quilted and accented with blue & orange dots at the intersection points. The second tier was decorated with random polka dots.


The third tier had orange & blue stripes, and the bottom tier had cute little daisies.

This cake was a perfect example of teamwork. I set the cake up and covered it with fondant, quilted the top tier, put the polka dots on the second tier, and made the ribbon roses. Debbie did the stripes, daisies, and bow on the bottom. And pretty much the whole thing was done at the same time - with Debbie working on one side of the cake and me working on the other.


Must have been a great graduation party, huh?!

Gator Football Helmet Cake

One of the groom's cakes we've recently done was a 3-D carved cake that looked like a Gators football helmet.


Doing a 3-D carved cake always adds quite a bit of difficulty to the whole process, but the hardest part of this cake wasn't the carving. In fact, I achieved a new personal record and carved the whole thing in 25 minutes! It's basically just a block of cake that you round to a sphere - not too complicated.


Nope, the hardest part was covering it with the orange fondant. Fondant just doesn't like to cover spheres nicely.

Once the orange fondant was in place, the rest of the decorations were pretty simple: blue and white stripes down the middle, an edible image Gators log slapped on the sides, and gum paste snakes rolled for the face mask.

For a finishing touch, I spread some sugar "sand" around the base of the helmet and put little random patches of grass.


I'll post another Gators-themed cake tomorrow...but to help balance things out, I'll leave you with this:


Ah, I feel better now.

New Staff Page at Ms Debbie's Sugar Art

Ms Debbie has finally updated her website to include a Staff page so everyone knows who is making all the goodies in the bakery. I'm super excited about it. :) In fact, between this and the announcement of the Florida I.C.E.D. Cake Competition, it's been a pretty exciting day so far!

Check out the staff page. Some of my cakes should look familiar. *wink*

Announcing the Florida I.C.E.D. Cake Competition

I'm so excited to finally officially announce that I am helping organize a cake decorating competition in North Central Florida! It's called the Florida I.C.E.D. Cake Competition (I.C.E.D. = Impressive and Creative Edible Delights) and will be in Ocala, FL on Sunday March 27, 2011.

It's gonna be huge!

The theme is Romantic Wedding Dresses so all the entries will reflect that. Of course, the main competition is the wedding cake. Then, we have side competitions for wedding accessories and cupcakes!

The competition has different skill categories so the amateurs won't have to compete against the professionals. Even if you just decorate as a hobby, you should enter!

I just launched the website yesterday so I'm so excited to finally be getting the word out there! The logo pictured here is the one I made (it's no awesome but it's my first try!), but my friend Allison is making an even better one for us! I'll be posting updates to the competition (prizes, judges' bios, new logo, etc) as we go so stay tuned!

Fun Dinosaur Cake

We love it when people give us "creative license" on their cakes. For this cake, they told us they wanted a dinosaur. Everything else was left up to us!


So I molded a dinosaur out of Rice Krispies Treats and covered it with fondant. I covered him with teal polka dots and gave him a yellow collar. Green fondant spikes lined his back, from the top of his head to the end of his tail.


The cake itself was iced in blue buttercream and accented with green buttercream grass.


Wyatt was thrilled with his dinosaur cake, and I found out today that he just finished off the last piece of the dinosaur - the head. Yummy!

Friday's Stuff for Free, Fun, Father's Day, and a Flippin' Cake

As the title of this post suggests, it's Friday (almost, I'm posting this Thurs night, but it counts)! Congrats to all of us for making it there! In this post, I'll be sharing something you can get for FREE, something FUN you can do, a great FATHER'S DAY gift idea, and a FLIPPIN' cake! So let's get started!

FREE:
Friday, June 4th is National Doughnut Day! Check your favorite doughnut shop to see if they're giving away free doughnuts to celebrate.


Krispy Kreme is giving away one free doughnut per person! To find a participating store in your area, check the list here.
And Dunkin' Donuts is giving away a free donut with any beverage purchase.

FUN:
Enter to win a super cool 4th of July Backyard BBQ gift basket sponsored by Skin MD here! Remember my review of Skin MD?


The giveaway includes:

• 5 Bottles Skin MD Natural SPF+15
• 5 Bottles Skin MD Natural Original
• 6 Red Hotdog & Fry Serving Baskets
• 16 Piece Blue Cutlery Set
• 4 Pack Insulated Fish Tumblers
• 4 Pack Fish Party Spreaders
• 6 Pack Fish Wine Charms

• Ultimate Barbeque Cook Book
  with over 300 Recipes
• All Natural CaribbeanBurger Blend Seasoning
• Hickory Wood Smoking Chips
• Non Stick Grill Basket
• Decorative Patriotic
  Candle Holder

FATHER'S DAY:
The most unique and fun gift idea I've found so far this year is the Pillow Tie. It looks like a normal tie so Daddy can wear it to work, church, on a plane, etc. But when he gets sleepy, he can inflate it using the "inconspicuous valve." It quickly goes from a fashionable tie to an amazingly convenient pillow!


What Dad wouldn't want one?!

FLIPPIN' CAKE:
This is a cake Debbie & I made for 6-year-old Logan's birthday. The skate boarder was hand-molded out of gum paste and is probably the most challenging figure I've ever made. The cake was iced in buttercream and then Debbie airbrushed the graffiti. Doesn't it look like real graffiti!?



So have yourself a FREE, FUN, FLIPPIN' Friday!

Pink & Orange Birthday Cake with Ribbon Roses

Sometimes, if I'm lucky and we get our cakes done early, I get to be creative and decorate more dummy cakes for the show room! A couple of weeks ago, I created this one:



The whole cake was decorated in hot pink and bright orange. However, if you come to the bakery now, the colors will look very faded. Has anyone come up with a good way to protect dummy cakes from fading due to light and sun exposure? If so, please share!


I really enjoy decorating dummy cakes because I get to do whatever I want. I choose the colors. I choose the design. I can even choose the name I put on the cake! The day I made this cake, Emma was my favorite.


I am also a huge fan of ribbon roses. They're easy and fast to make, they're a little whimsical, and they're sweet. I'll post a ribbon rose tutorial on here soon. If you've never made them before, you'll love them!


This is my kind of cake. Just looking at it makes me smile.


What does your kind of cake look like?*

*Everyone who comments on this post and answers this question is entered to win a surprise gift! Trust me, it's yummy! I'm not advertising this giveaway so it's just for you, loyal readers. (There's at least one person reading this blog, right???) The giveaway will end Friday, June 11th at midnight EST.

An Elegant Gold & Ivory Wedding Cake

Take a look at this wedding cake:


Different, huh?

The bride wanted a gold 3-tier cake and 2 smaller gold satellite cakes. So we covered them in fondant and airbrushed them gold.


Then, she wanted an ivory royal icing pattern piped up the sides - something to resemble willow branches. Strings of pearls were glued to the cake board, and each cake was topped with a string of gum paste pearls.


Pretty fancy, don't you think? Imagine what the rest of the wedding looked like!

Gift Box Cakes

High school graduation ceremonies are quickly approaching for the class of 2010! A few of the little kiddos I've known almost my whole life are now all grown up. *Sigh* You really start to feel old when you think back and remember when the person now graduating high school was born and then called herself "Toot" for the first few years of her life (Tracie, the one in pink).


Or when you used to play soccer with her in the backyard and she was a little tomboy (Jennifer).


What gorgeous girls! I wish I could make them both amazing graduation cakes...but it's just not meant to be.

In honor of all the 2010 graduates, here is a cake we made recently for a girl soon to be attending the University of Florida:


The cake was iced in buttercream and trimmed with fondant ribbons.


The topper was a hand-modeled gum paste gator and bow.

And for those preferring a more girly gift cake:


This cake was covered with white fondant and topped with a pink gum paste bow. Then, pearl dragees were randomly attached to the package for some extra "bling."


Congrats, Class of 2010!

Incredible Beat Box Girl!

I saw the link to this video on the Fail Blog (funny blog, but not kiddo friendly) and had to share it. Don't worry, the video is totally kiddo friendly...and it'll blow your mind!