CAKEAPOTAMUS

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Big Oh-5

My baby is turning 5, y'all. Really? Already?

Of course, we've been talking about what kind of cake he wanted for a while. After much discussion, we decided on a candy cake.

I've been buying candy for this cake for weeks. And, when it came time to decorate this cake I had no plan. But I did have this:
And this:


Did you notice the boring white cake to the left of the candy pile in the first picture? BORING!

I had no idea what to do, so I just started sticking candy on the cake. It was late at night. What can I say?

I made a huge mess. Oh, the Nerds. P.S. if you walk through my house in the next... year... or so, don't be surprised if you step on a Nerd.

By midnight, it looked like this:

Colorful, right?

When we got to the party place, I added the lollipops with his name and age:

Some detail pics:


Boo liked it:

And a good time was had by all. 

Wanna see the carnage of the inside?

That's it. The story of Boo's candy cake.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A wedding full of pretty

I had the privilege of making the cake for Friend Paige's wedding. Here's how it went down:

First, I ordered a bunch of roses. Actually five bunches of roses. It was pretty cool... they came from Ecuador, and they cleared customs, got to Fed Ex, and were delivered to me all in the same day

125 roses hydrating after their long trip to Alabama 

Next, I baked. Assemble the tools!


I didn't take any pictures of the cakes before I iced and stacked them. I thought about it, but then... see, this wasn't just any old wedding cake. This wedding cake was supposed to have a secret inside. Thus, it had two crumb coats and then the texture coat of icing. So here it is, iced and stacked:


I love this icing technique. The cake is actually off-white... a pretty ivory color. I'm not sure how well this picture shows the color.

Meanwhile, in the dining room...


The kids were doing "science projects".


Good times. Anyway, remember those roses? I removed the guard petals and trimmed the stems. You know how, on The Addams Family, Morticia would cut the roses and leave the thorny stems in the vase? I felt like Morticia. Huge stems going into the trash... After they hydrated, they were looking pretty:


Pretty dangerous! You know that little pouch of flower elixer of life powder attached to the stems? In my research for this cake (this being the first time I've used fresh flowers on a cake), I found out that those pouches can contain formaldehyde! Ew. Not to mention the who-knows-whats that you'd find on the stems from their upbringing in Ecuador. Decidedly unhealthy. So I used the age-old cake decorator method of dipping the stems in chocolate to make them safe to stick into the cake:


There were a lot of stems.


Happily, when I went to deliver the cake, it was only 91 degrees outside. (By the time the wedding started, my car thermometer said 98 degrees. I swear, summer in the south is The Hardest Thing.) Then it was time to set it up and add the flowers:


I think there are around 115 roses on this cake.


Check out that pretty stand the bride found!


The room.


The flowers up close.


Check out that beautiful bride in the background! 

Moving on... before I knew it, it was time to cut the cake.


Told 'ya she was beautiful.

OK, here's the secret part: This wedding wasn't just about creating a marriage... it was about creating a family. The bride and groom asked me to color their cake so they could announce to the wedding guests all at once whether they are expecting a boy or a girl.

When the first piece was cut and everyone saw the color, there was a very loud, happy sound. 


As you can see, the bride was tickled pink.


And now they get to start their happily ever after. <3

Wait, I forgot two funny stories!

#1: When we were in the planning phase, I asked Paige if I could "accidentally" leave a smudge of blue food coloring on the cake drum to throw people off. She said yes :) I think only one person saw it- a kid at the wedding who tried to convince her mom that the cake was blue inside.

#2: When Paige and Shawn cut the cake and everybody saw it was pink, it's a girl!, not everyone was happy. Two little boys behind me were extremely disappointed. But, they consoled themselves with the knowledge that "a cake can't know what baby you'll have".

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Most Awesome Cake In The World

I haven't blogged since January? M'I bad.

Here's a story that I wasn't planning on blogging so I didn't take any progress shots:

Today is Easter. I have a big family and we all got together today for the traditional Easter Feaster and hunting of the eggs. I, of course, brought a cake. But not an Easter cake... no, I brought a birthday cake for my brother (who officially turned old on Wednesday).

We're talking about my brother's birthday cake. I wanted it to be cool. No, not just cool... awesome. The Most Awesome Cake In The World! But what does that mean?

My brother was little help:
"What kind of cake do you want?"
"I don't know... round?"
"..."
"With... like... something cool on it?"
"Such as?"
"...Yoda?"

Yoda is pretty awesome.

A Yoda cake then... and since we were going to serve it at Easter, it needed to be big. And also because big is awesome.

You know what else is awesome? Airbrushing. That's purple, light blue, royal blue, and black airbrushing on there.



And Yoda. "A happy birthday must you have"

Note: When my brother saw this Yoda, he asked me, "Did you do that by yourself?"
I'm not sure how to take that.

Moving on.

A big Yoda cake is awesome. But is it The Most Awesome Cake In The World?
No. No, it is not.

How can I make this cake more awesome?


There it is.

I mean, come on! How often do you get to taste the rainbow? Literally?


Huh. Skittles, you say? Who knew?

*Special thanks to my brother for getting older.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Making it up as I go

My kids see a lot of cakes. I can usually tell how many comments a cake will get on Facebook by what my kids say about it. If they really like a cake, they'll ask if it's for them. That's when I know I got something right.

So, my daughter (who is fourteen kinds of awesome) is turning three tomorrow. Her birthday party was this weekend and I had an awesome cake planned for her. We went to Disney World over Christmas, so I thought a Minnie Mouse cake would be perfect. Picture it: two tiers, pink with white polka dots, chocolate mouse ears on top. Perfect, right?

Alas, it was not to be. She didn't want a Minnie Mouse cake. She went through a few cake requests- my favorite was the Max and Ruby, Caillou, Minnie Mouse, Belle, Booty the Beast, Daisy Duck, Brobee combo. In the end, though, she asked for a Wizard of Oz cake. Actually, she asked for a "Lizard de Boz" cake.

I had no ideas. None. I knew she wanted a chocolate cake. I can do that. But what the heck do I put on it? I googled "Wizard of Oz" cake... no help. I have a few cake pans, but nothing Ozian.

Then, I had an idea. Remember that Sorting Hat cake?



I could remake this shape and cover it in black icing and make the witch after she melted! Awesome! Fun! I pitched the idea to the girl and was shot down. I mean, I was completely shot down. No green witch. Got it.

So, I showed her my cake pans hanging on the wall and asked her which one was a Wizard of Oz cake.
"The bunny rabbit. And the rabbit can be Dorothy."
"What?"
"I want the rabbit cake and you make the rabbit Dorothy."
"But Dorothy's not a rabbit."
"Yes, she can be."
...

Now, normally, I'm all about lateral thinking and creativity. But I just couldn't see this happening. So I gave her two choices: heart or circle. She reluctantly chose a heart-shaped cake.

Great, a heart-shaped chocolate cake. What on Earth do I put on it? With absolutely no plan or ideas, I went into the kitchen.



Wizard of Oz... What to do? Here's some green, I can make green icing:


Wonder what it would look like smoothed?


Well, that's OK. Oh! I could pipe on a yellow brick road!



OK. Ummm... huh. Wonder if I could make some ruby slippers?




Well, there we go.