What's up DOC?

I had an opportunity to make a cake for our favorite doctor, who also happens to be my cousin.  He's a Nephrologist so I wanted to make him a doctor themed cake.   This was surprisingly easy to do, I just covered half a sheetcake in fondant and cut out the lapel, collar and tie with gum paste.  The stethoscope was made out of gum paste as well.

Daisies make me SMILE

About a week ago we received some sad news.  My cousin's husband, Hector passed away.  He was too young, he was only 57 and at the prime of his life.  Hector was like a big brother to me.  He was the cool guy you always wanted to be around.  He was funny and he always had a smile on his face.  My husband and I idolized him.  He worked hard and he played hard.  He had a new luxury car every couple of years and he liked the finer things in life.  In spite of his love of luxury, he was the most down to earth and sensible guy I know.  I clearly remember some 15 odd years ago when I broke up with my first boyfriend.  Hector and my brother Alex were there to console me.  Hector came to our house and went to my room, took a framed picture of my ex and laid it on the dining room table - next to the bottle of Tequila he brought along.  That night I forgot all my worries and just remember laughing and laughing.  I also woke up next to the toilet bowl but that's a whole other story.  That was Hector though, he had the ability to make you laugh no matter what and make you feel like life is only as complicated as you make it to be. 

As is customary in my Catholic family, for 9 consecutive days after a relative passes away, friends and family gather each night to say a novena for the departed.  As fate would have it, my cousin, Aleth - Hector's wife's birthday fell on the 8th day of the novena.  I knew how devastated she was and couldn't imagine the pain she was going through.  I also didn't know what to say to her as I knew no words would console a broken heart.   I decided I would make her a cake.  A happy cake.  I knew it would not be enough to console her but I hoped it would at least bring a little joy amidst a very trying time. 

No thank you's were needed, no oohs and ahhs were expected.  I just wanted in my own little way to share with her how much I love her and how much we loved Hector. 

Silhouette Machine

While at Linda McClure's booth at NCACS, we were able to watch a demo of the Silhouette machine.  For those of you who are familiar with scrap booking, it is a cutting machine much like the Cricut and Gazelle, only it has been modified to cut through gum paste.

Initially I wanted the Cricut Cake, before I knew about the Silhouette.  As soon as I saw the demo, I was in love.  Imagine a machine that can cut any design you want onto gum paste!! The possibilities are endless! 

The basic difference I learned about the Cricut vs the Silhouette is that the Cricut uses cartridges = expensive.  The Silhouette on the other hand uses a design program where you can basically load any image you want, whether it be a drawing or a clip art design you saw online.  Imagine never having to buy any more individual cutters! Petal cutters can cost anywhere from $9 each to who knows - and that's for each type of cutter! Yes the initial investment for the Silhouette is not cheap but  I can already see the $$ going back to my pocket. 

As soon as we got home from the cake show, I watched the instructional videos and made Linda's gum paste (recipe can be found on her blog, just do a search for Linda McClure).  It does need to rest for a couple of days in order to set up properly.  I also invested in a Kitchen Aid pasta roller in order to roll out the gum paste to the proper thickness.

A couple of days later, I was excited to test the machine.  I had problems at first - the learning curve as they call it, but a few quick emails between Linda and I put me back on track.  I only needed to cut a few letters and a border that was going to go around the base of a cake I was making later in the week.  After a few adjustments, success!  You can see the letters and border I cut using the Silhouette on teh daisy cake I'll be posting about next.

The next time I "play" with the Silhouette, I'll make sure to take a video so you can see this amazing machine in action. 

The Greatest Show on Earth

No I didn't go to the circus...I went to the National Capital Area Cake Show.  All I can say is WOW! It  really was the greatest show on earth.  Imagine a whole auditorium filled with cakes...if I close my eyes I can still smell the fondant...mmmmm!  They had live cake challenges just like we see on TLC and this year they had a cupcake challenge.  Sadly we were not able to watch any of the live competitions but we were able to look at all the cakes that were entered into the competition and try out a lot of the new tools and gadgets.  My dear husband was so patient as I looked at each cake and marveled at how perfectly they were decorated.  Even my 7 year old daughter, Sophie got into the action by being my official photographer.  She must have taken about 200+ photos - what a trooper! We went from booth to booth visiting with all the vendors and playing with all their tools & gadgets.  I could have easily spent $3k buying all the cool toys I saw. 

The highlight for me was meeting Julie Bashore who is one of my idols.  She has won several of the TLC cake challenges and had a booth at the show, giving live demos.  She was super super sweet and patiently answered all my novice decorator questions.  I really wanted to have my picture taken with her but I thought it might be a bit much.  we must have spent an hour at her booth. 

I think next year I'll take some of the classes they offer...and save up to buy some tools.  They really are significantly cheaper at these shows.  

So at the end of the day, just as we were about to leave, my husband says to me "So, what are you buying?" Really???? I can buy something?? I decided on Linda McClure's Silhouette machine.  It. Is. Awesome.  I'll write a review on my next post.

Olivia's pig nosed cupcakes

My niece Olivia celebrated her 6th birthday on the same day as Noah's birthday.  Olivia's mom's request was simple, about a dozen cupcakes in black and hot pink.  Again I used my stencils to make the cupcake more interesting and I just cut out some flowers to lay on top of the cupcake with little "buttons" on the center.  They turned out to be super cute.  At the party, one of the little girls commented that the buttons looked like a pig's nose.  Too funny since the very first cake I made for Olivia years ago was Olivia the Pig!

I guess it was an indirect way of paying homage to Olivia the Pig :)

Olivia the Pig birthday cake

Captain America

My nephew Noah turned 4 a few weeks ago so his Mom, Ela asked me to make a cake for his birthday.  I was hesitant at first since I was out of practice and was afraid I would be in over my head.  On a side note, I made his sister, Julia's first birthday cake a few years ago and Ela made a picture book of Julia's birthday.  Julia loved her cake so much that she took her book to school for show and tell to brag about her amazing birthday cake.  Julia also never let Noah forget that SHE got a special cake and NOAH didn't.  Who knew toddlers could be so competitive???  WELL,  I couldn't let Noah down...I HAD to make his cake.  So in talking to his mom I asked her what he is into these days.  Without hesitation she said "Captain America!"  Uh-oh....that was going to be quite an undertaking. 

First things first, I had to come up with my design...pls note that drawing was never my forte, as proven by my sketch on the left.  My husband said Capt America looked more like a bat or a rat than a superhero....

Mind you, since I don't draw so well, my sketches are really just a guideline as to how I want the cake to look.  The final product didn't really look like my sketch, except for the "bat" jumping out of the cake.

I told myself that this time around, I would plan ahead, I'd start the chocolate mold of Capt America 4 nights before, bake the cakes 3 nights before, ice and cover 2 nights before and decorate the night before. 

Timelines and I don't see eye to eye.  The only thing I was able to follow was start molding 4 nights before and bake 3 nights before. 




This was my first time using modeling chocolate.  In hindsight I should have used gum paste or a 50/50 combination of modeling chocolate and fondant.  I discovered that I have very warm hands so even with gloves on, the chocolate kept softening and I had to stop every few minutes to let the chocolate harden again.  

The torso and face were the easiest part, this took me a couple of hours to make.  It probably would have been faster if not for my warm hands.  I thought it was pretty good though considering I had never done anything like this before and I wasn't following any "how to's" or tutorials.  Oh how easy this would have been if  there was a tutorial for me to follow!


Anyway, the hardest part for me was Capt America's arms and gloves.  They had to be proportional in size to his body and he had to have muscles! I think it took me another 3-4 hours just to do his arms and of course, I was so over it that I forgot to take a picture so you'll just have to see it on the final cake. 

Since this was my first major cake in how many years, I was a little rusty and the cake was still frozen when I iced it and covered it in fondant so as the cake was coming back to room temperature, I was getting a lot of bubbles on the fondant....there was nowhere for the air on the evaporating cake to go!  I had to poke holes in random spots thus the change in design.  I had to cover all my toothpick marks!
I had debated whether or not to put him on top of the cake as soon as the cake was done or wait until a few minutes before the party started.  In the end I decided to go ahead and place him on the cake as Noah's mom was coming in the morning to pickup the cake and since we had another birthday party to go to before Noah's, I wasn't sure if we'd make it in time for me to stick him on the cake. 
Bad idea.  I didn't consider how heavy he was so about an hour after I placed him on the cake, the cake started sagging....nothing terrible but you could definitely see that the front of the cake was getting squished from the weight of the chocolate.  I repositioned him and hoped for the best.  That little mistake was also my farewell bid to at least a couple of hours of sleep.

The day of the party, Noah's mom came to pickup the cake.  After the oohing and aahing, I gave her strict orders to not let the cake sit in direct sunlight or sit in heat as it might melt and sag more that it already was and off they went.

30minutes later, I get a frantic phone call from Noah's mom, Ela...."Captain America's arm fell off!" What in the world??? I was sure the cake was stable when they had left.  The arms were not only dowelled with toothpicks but I made sure there was enough chocolate on the seams for the arms to hold onto the body.

After talking to Ela, I had to laugh because things like this only happen to her.  Apparently she didn't realize the dual climate control on her car was on and it was blowing 70degree air directly on the cake.  Well of course it melted!  All the decorations on the side of the cake were also now on the bottom.  They were able to stick his arm back on so alls well that ends well.  I suppose I should have been upset but at the end of the day, Noah was happy and that's all that mattered.  He didn't care that his cake sagged, all he cared about was that Captain America came to his birthday party!

The village in the background is very fitting, don't you think?? Captain America has come to save the day!

P.S.
Noah and I have a funny relationship.  The kid hates me...well maybe not hate but he does like to tease me in his own funny way.  Everytime I ask him if we are friends, he says "NO!" and runs away.  After seeing his cake, it was the first time he said we were friends, and he said it with a smile!  Of course an hour later, after he's had his cake, I asked him again if we were friends and he said (with a smile) "NO!" and ran as far away from me as he could.  I love you, Noah!

Pretty cupcakes

My daughter Sophie's friend Leila turned 8 a few days after I had decided to start baking and decorating again and I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to start "practicing".  I had too much batter from my Captain America cake so I used the extra batter to whip up a dozen cupcakes and a small 4" smash cake.  The cake itself was vanilla with fondant decorations.  After rolling out the fondant, I decided to use stencils to stencil on designs on the cupcake toppers.  Once the cupcakes were decorated, I applied some luster dust for a subtle glitter effect.  Yummy...and pretty!