Butterfly Rainforest Cake

Like I said earlier this week, realistic sugar butterflies are "in" right now! It seems like at least one cake per week has butterflies on it lately.

Here's one we did for a girl who worked at the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History on UF's campus. She was celebrating her last day at work before she left town and began another chapter in her life with a new, exciting job!


The cake was covered with green fondant. Then we laid hand-rolled vines around the base and up one side of the cake. And then we covered the whole thing with sugar flowers and butterflies!


Of course, the museum is all about science, facts, and learning so the butterflies had to be as realistic as possible.


I love the butterflies! And I love this cake - so earthy! It almost makes me feel like it would be healthy to eat it! ...almost...

Cake Walk Featured on Cake Mom!

This month, Cake Mom is featuring various readers' cakes as part of her Birthday Month! I submitted a few cakes for consideration and the first one has been featured today! Be sure to check out the post and her blog! Lot's of great ideas and giveaways there!

Also, I want to take a second to comment about my last post regarding flowers on a wedding cake. By no means did I intend to implicate either the florist or the bride for providing too few flowers on the first cake. Sometimes it is difficult to estimate the number of flowers needed to complete the cake design. If it were my choice, I would always order way more than I think I need...just in case. But, alas, it's not my dollar that's being spent! So therein lies the problem. Everyone involved (florist, cake decorator, bride, etc) wants enough flowers for the cake but also wants to spend the least amount of money on the flowers so extra money can be spent on other little details for the wedding.

Of course, we at Ms. Debbie's do not make ugly wedding cakes. *wink* We will adjust the cake design if we need to in order to accommodate the flowers that are left for us. In fact, the second cake in yesterday's post was also supposed to have flowers under the bottom tier. We did not have enough for that so we put some extra fabric to good use. You didn't miss that extra layer of flowers, did you? And had I not pointed out the lack of TONS of flowers on the first cake, you would have loved just as it was, right?

The whole point of yesterday's post was merely to educate you on a common issue. As a bride, this is something you may want to take into consideration and discuss with your cake decorator. As a cake decorator, you'll need to be prepared to improvise. Everybody on the same page now? *smile*

Wedding Cakes With Fresh Flowers

Flowers on a wedding cake look very fresh & elegant. Flowers often represent new beginnings so they're perfect for weddings!

When brides choose to add flowers to their wedding cakes, the florist just leaves them at the reception so we can add them when we deliver the cake. Usually, that works out just fine...unless, of course, there aren't enough flowers.

For example, here's a simple white and ivory wedding cake covered with fondant. According to the cake design, we were supposed to add flowers under the cake, under the top tier, and on the top of the cake.


Overall, it's not a bad cake by any means. But just image how much more lush and elegant it would have looked it there were more flowers! There were gaping holes between the yellow roses under the cake, and the topper is simply meager.


Now, look at a buttercream cake we did last week where we were provided plenty of flowers to complete the cake design:


The blossoms were all relatively small so it took a greater number of them to create the full effect. But, I think you'll agree that the flower layer under the top tier looks full, vibrant, and fresh!


And the bride requested two realistic sugar butterflies on the bottom tier. These butterflies are really "in" right now - very earthy and "free." I've got a few more butterfly cakes to show you soon...you'll like them!

White Buttercream Wedding Cake with Dots and Cornelli Lace

This was the very first wedding cake I decorated for Debbie. The cake was iced in buttercream and decorated with buttercream Swiss dots and cornelli lace. What's cornelli lace? Check out this tutorial by Wilton.


I have to admit, I excel at these Swiss dots. If the dots need to be evenly spaced in straight lines, I'm all over it! But...random? Not so much...that one's a real struggle for me.

I could say it's due to my type-A personality or my perfectionist spirit...but it could also be due to my scientific background! We all learned about the Scientific Method in school - Ask a Question, Form an Hypothesis, Perform an Experiment, Collect & Analyze the Data, Draw Conclusions. A well-designed scientific experiment has precise, preplanned steps. For the last 8 years of my life (undergraduate degree in biochemistry and graduate degree in biomedical research), I've lived by the Scientific Method...so maybe that's why these perfectly aligned dots come so easy for me...hm...maybe...


This wedding was at the Sweetwater Branch Inn in Gainesville. The room is so pretty in the morning or afternoon light!

A Cake with a Story

This is a fun cake we created for a retiring teacher a few weeks ago, but the story behind this cake starts way, way, way before that...

Shortly after I started working for Debbie, I discovered that she was from Stuart, FL. It's where she discovered her knack for cake decorating and first got into the business. She even opened a cake shop there. Well, cakes must not have been on my family's radar because we lived in the area for 11 years and never knew of her shop...

Fast forward about 11 more years...now Debbie has established her cake business in Newberry, FL and I am in the midst of getting my Ph.D. at the University of Florida. Still, we are completely unaware of each other until I finally email her asking for a job.

Now, here we are in July 2010, and I've worked for her for 4 whole months! Then, we get a cake order from someone who lives in Stuart. They'd had some of Debbie's cakes when she lived there, and one more of "Ms Debbie's" cakes was all she requested when she retired. So, her daughter drove up from Stuart to pick the cake up - that's dedication and love!

Well, as soon as the daughter saw me, she said, "You look familiar." Turns out we went to high school together but we never really knew each other! I took choir my freshman year and she was in Opus. For those of you who don't know, choir is for all those people who either think they can sing or just hope to learn. Opus is for those serious folks with real singing talent. Needless to say, I never made it to Opus...

But isn't it crazy how life's paths can run unknowingly parallel and then intersect when you least expect it??? Just makes you think...


This cake was iced in buttercream and decorated with wavy fondant stripes on the top tier and fondant polka dots on the bottom tier. Then we added bunches of red ribbon roses on the top and sides of the cake.


Pink, orange, and red is one of those color combinations that I used to cringe at. But, now I think it definitely works!

World Cup Soccer Cleat Cake

Last week, for fun and for part of my audition tape to the new Cake Boss show on TLC, I made a soccer cleat cake! Nothing fancy...just a shoe with some Adidas stripes down the side.


But instead of writing "Adidas" on the back, I wanted to write a country's name. At this point, we were down to 4 teams in the finals...and I picked Spain! Why? Because "Netherlands," "Germany," and "Uruguay" were too long to write...


So I'm rooting for Spain today in the finals match! I guess I made a pretty good choice because Paul the Oracle Octopus agrees:



But back to the cake...Our friend Mike was visiting last weekend. He's a big guy. He's 6'8" to my 5'1"...to give you an idea of the size difference, I once wore my sneakers INSIDE his and walked around the house. Mmhm. So the boy needs food, and he was eying the cake all night. I finally realized that he was not eating it only because he didn't want to make the first cut. But as soon as I said, "Mike, please eat some cake." He stopped what he was doing and said, "Really? How do I cut it?"

It's always fun to watch people cut a cake for the first time so here are the pictures of Mike cutting it:


Notice how he put the let into it...for added emphasis.


Oooo, scary face! Is that the face you make when you play video games???


So who will win the world cup today? Oranje or Roja? Viva la Roja!

Cake-y Opportunities and Cake Walk in the Media!

I recently got wind of the new cake show TLC is doing with Buddy Valastro (The Cake Boss). Doesn't the network's description of the show make you want to apply RIGHT NOW?!

"Are you a natural born baker or artist? Can you make amazing masterpieces, crazy confections or over-the-top cakes? Could you be the next pastry guru?

If so, the producers of "Cake Boss" are currently casting outgoing and competitive up-and-coming bakers who want their big break with the help of the "Cake Boss" himself!

TLC and Buddy Valastro (The Cake Boss) are looking to launch the career of a promising cake decorator and baker on a new baking competition series. Break into this highly competitive culinary world with the help of Buddy and his team! Do you believe you have the skills and drive to graduate top of your class?

This new baking competition series, hosted by Buddy and team will feature weekly lessons, challenges, and eliminations. 10 hopeful contenders will vie for cash and prizes. No culinary experience required!"

I can seriously feel my adrenaline start pumping when I think about the competition. I SO want to be one of the chosen 10 contenders! I've already entered...just waiting to hear back! You should enter too! Go here to get more info.

And if you've ever baked anything in your life, you know how important good vanilla is. My friend Julie is giving away TWO bottles of her favorite Sonoma Syrup Co. Vanilla Bean Extract "Crush." At $20 a pop, that's a great giveaway! Head on over to her blog to enter (giveaway ends this Monday so hurry)!

Ok, now on to the more selfish part of my post. Back in November, I made the wedding cake for my good friends Shelby and Ben. Shelby designed such a beautiful cake so I was honored to be the one to make it reality for their wedding at the Golf Club of Amelia Island. Anyway, she recently discovered that a photo of their wedding cake is featured on their website! Here's what it looks like and you can go to their site to see for yourself.

Exciting!

And, in May, I hosted a Drop In and Decorate party to create some fun cookies for the local Ronald McDonald House. Our cookies have now appeared on the Drop In and Decorate blog! Great work, girls!

Finally, just because tomorrow is FRIDAY, here's a video to make you laugh:

Navy & White Gardenia Wedding Cake

Some of the most difficult cakes to complete successfully are the ones with minimal decorations. I know you're probably thinking, "Huh? That doesn't make any sense! If there's no decorations, it should be easy."

Nope! The fewer the decorations, the fewer opportunities you have to cover "mistakes."

For example, this cake was simply covered in white fondant and had a navy blue ribbon wrapped around the base of each tier:


Even the tiniest wrinkle, dimple, or tear in the fondant would have been really evident. We put 4 hand-made gardenias on the cake, but that's it!


If you're out hiring a cake decorator for your wedding and you want to see what he/she is really capable of, ask to see a cake with little to no decorations. It'll showcase his/her skill with buttercream/fondant alone, which is important because it's one of the building blocks of a gorgeous cake!

And if you are a decorator trying to perfect your own buttercream/fondant skills, get a set of Styrofoam dummies and practice on them. That way, you won't have to eat tons and tons of cake. You can practice, peel it off, practice again, etc. Of course, you'll have to use more gentle hands with a real cake, but practicing on a dummy will at least give you the right techniques and get you more comfortable with the sugary medium.


While the cake itself didn't take a whole lot of time, the gardenias definitely did! They were created petal by petal, allowed to dry, and then assembled.


(The gardenias really are white but they look a little dingy due to the shadows that are sometimes cast in the bakery.)

Rock On! Guitar Graduation Cake

Graduation season is finally over, but I'm still getting caught up with posting all the graduation cakes we made this year. Here's one of my favorites:


The cake was iced in chocolate ganache (yum!) and then decorated with fondant accents. The guitar was pre-made out of gum paste to replicate Oliver's real guitar.


The graduation cap was also a cake with a fondant-covered cardboard mortar board.

I like this cake because it's fun, simple, and definitely masculine. Rock on, Oliver!

Thomas the Tank Engine Birthday Cake

If you've ever watched the Ace of Cakes, you know that they often say "It's the week of [insert theme of choice]." You may think that's just a gimmick for television, but it's not! Cake orders come in trends for us too!

Two weeks ago, we did a cake for Thomas the Tank Engine. And, another - totally unrelated, I might add - customer requested the SAME cake last week! The only major difference was that the first customer wanted to put one of her child's toys on the cake instead of having us make Thomas out of sugar. So...here's Lucas' cake without Thomas (he was added when they got the cake home):


And here's Wyatt's cake with the sugar Thomas:


Wyatt's cake was made of 6- and 10-inch tiers so the ledge for Thomas to sit on was only about 2 inches. That means Thomas had to be even smaller because no one wants a train hanging precariously over the edge!


That tiny face and those chubby cheeks were tricky to hand-mold! But I'm happy with the finished product, and I love how the fence around the bottom tier came out!


What other themes have we had in our bakery? Polka dots (as evidenced by my last post), woodsy/garden cakes, butterflies, zebra print, etc! I'm sure you've seen a few of each of these on here already!