Wedding Cake with Bride's Custom-Made Flowers

Here's a gorgeous and interesting cake I did a few weeks ago:


The cake was iced in buttercream. The flowers & leaves were all made of gum paste and the brown swirl piping was done in chocolate buttercream.


The bride purchased the rhinestone centers for the flowers and asked us to build the flower petals around them.


So I made hot pink 5-petal blossoms for the larger jewels and purple stephanotis-like flowers for the smaller jewels. I love how they came out! Bright with color...and just a little touch of sparkle!

Tiger Lily Wedding Cake with Buttercream Swirls

Ok I must confess...we did this cake a looooooong time ago. Maybe a couple months or so ago? I don't know why I didn't post it sooner - maybe I just thought it wasn't that spectacular. Who knows?!



It was made for a wedding at Golden Ocala, and it was iced in buttercream with hand-piped buttercream scrolls around each tier.


The flowers you see area all fresh.


And the green stem was made of green fondant.


But the best part about this delivery is that the bride and photographers walked into the room as soon as we'd set the cake down. I wasn't going to include these photos in the post, but you'd never believe me if I told you the bride was beyond excited about her partially decorated wedding cake.


I mean, I didn't even have any flowers on it yet! But there she was, squealing and giddy!


And I totally didn't think I was in the photo...I was trying to hide behind the cake while I worked on getting the flowers ready.

*These last two photos were taken by Russel Martin Photography, a super awesome husband-and-wife team! Thanks for giving me copies!

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.

Butterfly Cakes - 2 Ways

I guess we've got trucks out of our system for a while...the theme this week was butterflies! We had 2 very different butterfly cakes, but I loved the colors on both!

The first one was for a baby shower. The shower was going to be decorated with bright colors, frogs, butterflies, ladybugs, and dragonflies.


I covered the square cakes in sky blue fondant, and put a green vine-like border around the base of each tier.


The butterflies and flowers had all been made earlier in the week (out of gum paste) so they could dry. So when it came time to decorate the cake, it was a simple as "gluing" the bugs on with a little buttercream.


I had a little fun with the ladybug and butterfly trails. They remind me of little bug families - appropriate for a baby shower.


The second cake was for a bridal shower. They gave us a napkin that they were going to use at the shower so we based the cake on that.


The cake was iced in ivory buttercream, and then I piped the ferns on using tip 4.


Again, the butterflies, flowers, and dragonflies were all made earlier in the week so I could just stick them on!


Two very different cakes but both covered with cute bugs and flowers! I can't decide which one I like?

The first is fun, colorful, and very sun shine-y! The second is mature, feminine, and calming. I just don't know...

Do you have a favorite?

ICES Convention - Here I Come!

I leave tomorrow for the ICES Convention in St. Charles, IL! Like always, I'm going to try to participate in the convention in every possible way - go to as many demos as time allows, take hands-on classes, take TONS of photos of the cake gallery, volunteer, and bring a sugar display! Because I'm flying to the convention this year, it's much more difficult to bring a dummy cake. Instead, I made a bridal bouquet made of sugar! I've packed it up as tightly as I can so hopefully (a) they'll let me carry it on the plane and (b) it survives the trip!

The bouquet is made up of pink roses, white stephanotis, pink hydrangea, and yellow & pink calla lilies.

I've been working from home on my dissertation a lot lately. During the day, I write...and at night, I work on cake stuff! I usually move the dining room table into the living room so I can take TV breaks occasionally. Anyway, during the day, Nani constantly wants to sleep in my lap. One night last week, Nani jumped on this chair all by herself...she KNOWS she's not allowed up there, but she did it anyway. It was like she felt like she was entitled to it since it was empty. Please excuse the condition of the living room. If you were ever wondering what it looked like while I worked, now you know! The flowers in the background are the ones I used in the bouquet above.


The best part, though, was when Nani stood on the chair and leaned over to the banister. Check out this photo Adam caught (yes, her open eye is scary...they always turn out like that in photos...oh well!):


Is she seriously winking? She's mischievous alright! But that face is so cute...how could you do anything but laugh???