Free Recipes and a NEW Free Mini Class on Craftsy!

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that Craftsy now offers a variety of free patterns and recipes!!  Take a look at the list they're offering:

• Old Fashioned Buttermilk Cake From Advanced Cake Sculpting: Bobblehead Cakes
• Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant From Clean & Simple Cake Design
• Modeling Chocolate From Modeling Chocolate: Cityscape Cakes
• Royal Icing From Modern Buttercream
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream From Modern Buttercream (you can see MY recipe here!)
• Gum Glue From Cake Topper Techniques: Figure Modeling
• Gumpaste Recipe From The Ultimate Sugar Rose
• Vegan Chocolate Cake From Intro to Cake Sculpting: Cake-osaurus Rex

A lot of these recipes are fairly basic... but who doesn't love a new cake recipe to experiment with?!  I am excited to see Nicholas Lodge's Gumpaste Recipe among those offered. I have never tried making it, but have hear wonderful things about his recipe!

The best part is, these recipes are free to members... and it's free to sign up!

I also wanted to let everyone know about a new free mini-class that should be launching tomorrow!  "Basic Fondant Techniques" with Elisa Strauss should be live tomorrow June 19th!  UPDATE 6.19.13: The class is now live!  Click the link to check it out :)

Happy Caking :)

DISCLAIMER: While all opinions are my own this post contains affiliate links for Craftsy.

Cascading Flower Cake!

It was only a matter of time before I was asked to create my vision of this beautiful cake!  It is a pretty popular design, so I'm not sure of the original designer... but the picture the bride sent and my take are inspired by one of the beautiful creations by Sweet and Saucy Shop!

As a creative person, I generally prefer to come up with my own original designs... but I've secretly been dying to have a go at this cake design!

I love the simply look of it, the only embellishment is the giant flower. 

This cake can only look best with an extra tall cake... so I made my 10" and 8" rounds 6 inches tall!  The top tier is a 6" round, my standard 4 inches tall.

 I love the delicate, slightly ruffled petals that cascade down the front of the cake, and although Sweet and Saucy Shop has a really beautiful version in blue, right now I am loving white on white designs for weddings!

This cake was delivered, once again, to the picturesque Eolia Mansion at Harkness State Park in Waterford, CT.... I'm beginning to think I'll be moving in!  The grounds and the mansion are absolutely gorgeous and I love seeing this location as a backdrop for my cakes.... and the beautiful weddings that take place there!!!

Happy Caking :)

White Satin, Pink Peony Cake!

Okay, I'm not the most creative when it comes to naming my cakes, lol!  This cake I'm calling "White Satin, Pink Peony Cake" is my latest creation that I delivered to the beautiful Eolia Mansion in Waterford, CT last weekend!

For this event I was working with event planner, Meena Lee of 5th Avenue Weddings & Events!  She created a beautiful "Sweet Love" table featuring my cakes.  Everything looked amazing.... it was further styled after I had taken my photos.  I got a sneak peak from Meena... and cannot wait to see the professional photos from this beautiful event!

I am so excited that I got to make this cake!  I really love the beautiful satin finish I've seen on cakes, like all of the jaw dropping gorgeous creations from Faye Cahill Cake Design!  I started "pinning" from her photo gallery, but had to stop because I was picking them all!  So, I was super excited when my bride loved my suggestion that we use the technique on her cake.  My cakes are not nearly as beautiful as Faye's but I still love how the finish turned out!

My bride had requested a "simple" and "elegant" cake... she wanted some "texture" on it, but not overly decorated.  That where I figured the satin finish would be a beautiful embellishment.  I left the details matte white for a contrast in texture. 

The bottom tear features the sweet and beautiful "double wedding rings" pattern.  

And the middle tier has a simple Swiss dot pattern.  

 The top tier and two single satellite tiers were left plain, with just the satin finish.

On each of the cakes I added pale pink peonies as accents.

The top of each cake had a larger open peony.  I tried to model them after Jaqueline Butler's beautiful signature flowers.  Having never had the opportunity to learn peony technique from the master herself, I hope I did justice to her style!  (You can take her Handcrafted Sugar Flowers class on Craftsy to learn Jacqueline's technique for hydrangea and filler flowers!)

I didn't want to distract from the delicate, pale color palette.  So instead of making the foliage green, I left them matte white gumpaste so they looked a lot like porcelain.  I love the effect, just a subtle detail on the overall design!

For the middle of the tiered cake, I added s smaller closed peony... I think it was perfect to bring a little more interest to the cake.  The beauty of it, it is draws your eye to the subtle detail of the patterns.

Thank you for indulging me, by looking at all of the pictures I've posted!  I had so much trouble picking my favorites!  But I am so delighted with the final product.  Hopefully they are cakes suited for the beautiful wedding, of a stunning bride at this gorgeous location!!

Happy Caking :)

 

Great Gatsby/Art Deco themed Wedding Cake!

Today, I have another favorite cake to share (every new cake I make seems to become my favorite!)...  This cake was designed and created for a beautiful Great Gatsby themed wedding!  The wedding was held at a gorgeous mansion on the Connecticut shore, I was so excited to have my cake on display in such a beautiful location!

I drew inspiration for the design from the couple's custom designed invitation and some inspirational art deco pictures they sent.

I made a custom template for the shapes from my sketch and hand cut each one!  I was very grateful that this was a square cake... the flat sides allowed me to work on the decor well in advance and not have to worry about drying anything on a curve...

...so many tiny triangles! All of the triangles were painted with silver highlighter, to add a little "bling"... it really brought the design to life!

My friend was the wedding coordinator for this event... it was her idea to use this giant mirror under the cake.  I really loved the effect and the way it bounced the natural sunlight up onto the cake.  It made all of the silver super shiny and just looked so elegant!

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my latest creation :)

Happy Caking :)

Clematis Cupcake Trellis!

I am very excited to be sharing my latest project today!

This is a cupcake display I made for a friend's baby shower over the weekend!  Her mom called me and asked me to create something for the garden themed shower.  She mentioned that she liked clematis and I ran with it!  I had actually been wanting to try making this flower for quite some time! 

Now, the challenge was figuring out how to display the cupcakes.  So naturally, I had to pick something I didn't really know if I could pull off!  But, sometimes the coolest things we do, are the ones that seem like the most difficult.  I say seem difficult, because it was actually fairly easy to put together.  I spent more time obsessing about it, than building it.... I even let my husband help me with the custom trellis construction!

The most time consuming part, to say the least was the flowers!  The trellis held a total of 42 cupcakes (21 on each side), that means 42 gumpaste clematis flowers... with 6, individually wired petals on each.  So, that's 252 individual petals... and I couldn't just leave them the flat purple color of the gumpaste I used.  Noooooo.... I had to dust each petal with a gradient of purple on the edges and give them a pinkish stripe down the center, for "dimension" and "realism." 

Lol, it was a lot of work, many late nights working on them after the kiddo was asleep.  But, in the end totally and completely worth it!  Guests at the shower didn't even realize that this was a cupcake display until the hostess made an announcement!  Then there was a lot of, "Oh!  I thought they were real!" and "Wait, you MADE these?!"  So, my mission was accomplished!  This project was definitely a few steps out of my comfort zone.  But, it ended up being much simpler than I thought.  And, if we don't challenge ourselves, how will we ever know what we are capable of?

There really are cupcakes under those flowers!  Each cupcake was sitting in a little wire hoop.  The vines and foliage were purchased artificial vines... There was NO way, i was going to have time to make a bazillion leaves n addition to all of the flowers!!

And, am patting myself on the back a little for this... I took video footage and documented the construction of my display!  So, i can put together a tutorial, materials list and measurements to share with all of you!  It is going to take me a little time, I have to find a couple of "slow" days to sit down and edit all of the clips I took... but hopefully I'll have something to post soon :)

Happy Caking :)

New Cake Decorating Product Line!!

So, I have this problem... I go to the store "just for one thing" and then I spend an hour looking around, usually purchasing way more than I intended!

Today, when I ran to Michael's, just for one thing... I moseyed on over to the cake decorating aisle.  Usually, I just poke around and check out any new products from Wilton or Duff and keep an eye out for clearance items.  Well today... I was happily surprised to see a brand new line of cake decorating supplies!

The new line is from LittleVenice Cake Company by docrafts!  I was drawn to the dramatic and elegant packaging... but the items look to be high quality.

The line features a lot of products you would expect: icing tips, spatulas, etc...  but there were also some products I hadn't seen before!

 

I'm not sure how the quality of Little Venice Cake Company icing tips compare to Wilton's, but I like the pink case!

Again, I'm not sure that disposable piping bags can be better or worse than the one's Wilton offers, but I did pick up a box to try out... I needed the anyway ;)

This "Modeling Mat" is one of the products I was really happy to see... It would be incredibly useful for making gumpaste flowers.  I use a larger white pad, and I love having the extra space so I can work on multiple petals at a time.  Up until now, all I've seen at the craft stores is the tiny Wilton square set.  And I was never all impressed by that.  I think this will be a good buy for anyone getting into sugar flowers!

The line includes two different fondant smoothers... One is rounded on the ends and is called a "Flat Smoother" and the other is squared off a the ends and also has a little "lip" at a 90° angle on one side.  I think this is a neat feature for anyone who has trouble keeping their sides perpendicular!  I'm guessing the rounded one is for working on the top of the cake...

There were a couple of other interesting items they had that I didn't photograph:

• The Non-Stick Icing Sheet- I think this would work pretty much like re-usable parchment paper.  I didn't read the package closely enough to see if it is heat/oven proof.  But there are plenty of times when I need to cut out gumpaste and/or fondant to dry on a non-stick surface.  Parchment paper can wrinkle, but I think this product would work beautifully.  I imagine there are so many different uses for it!
• Clear Work Boards- There are several different sizes of these work boards, and these might be what I'm most excited about!  Yes, they are just clear acrylic boards.  But, I can see myself using these ALL the time.  First, instead of the disposable cardboard rounds I use when working with a tier, I could use these.  Then just wash and reuse... less waste, and in the long term probably cheaper.  And second, I've been playing with a new method for smoothing my buttercream to get straight sides.  The cardboard rounds I use can give me ridges in the buttercream if I press too hard.  Because the acrylic rounds have smooth sides, I could eliminate that!
• 12" Serrated Cake Knife- I've been using a smaller bread knife to level and torte my cakes.  I was excited to see this, or a good price, so I picked it up!  I haven't used it yet, so I can't comment on the quality yet.  But, it is nice to see a good sized serrated cake knife at an accessible location and for relatively cheap.

There are so many new products that I couldn't possibly list and discuss them all here.  I'm not sure how many retailers are carrying the Little Venice Cake Company line, yet.  If you don't see them at Michael's, or want to see the full line, I know you can check everything out online at Joann Fabric and Crafts!

I am hoping that the products in the Little Venice Cake Company line are in deed good quality and gain popularity.  I love that Michael's is carrying them.  For so long Wilton has had the monopoly on cake decorating supplies.  Duff brand has some stuff, but most of his line seems gimmicky, geared towards people wanting to try making a cool cake once.  Not so much for people wanting to build a supply of quality, professional tools for cake decorating.  For me, Wilton's supplies are hit or miss... there are some useful things, and the brand is everywhere, so it is convenient to buy... but I almost never do.

I'll be sure to let you know how I like the items I bought!!

Happy Caking :)

CakeMasters: A new instruction platform!

Hello Everyone!

Okay, so I've been harping about my love for Craftsy for a while now... so you MAY be sick of hearing cake classes... BUT, I just found out about a brand new platform and feel compelled to tell you all about it!

I got a newsletter from Petalsweet... I love Jacqueline Butler and think she is such an amazing sugar artist.  I usually read her newsletter, see all the wonderful places that she will be teaching- that are not at all near me :(  I've had the pleasure of taking her Handcrafted Sugar Flowers class on Craftsy.   I really loved the class... it teaches hydrangea, filler blossoms and leaves.  You can see what I created from the class here!  Honestly, I probably only tried the class in the first place because I'm such a fan of Jacquelines's!

If you want to take Jacqueline's Craftsy class, it is still available for purchase... however it is "student led" meaning Jacqueline no longer answers questions or monitors comments.  She left Craftsy to move on to some other projects... which is why, in my Petalsweet newletter she announced her class/upcomming classes on CakeMasters!  Similar to Craftsy, CakeMasters offers an array of online cake courses taught by well-known sugar artists!

So far they don't have a ton to offer, a lot of basic classes and some figures.  But Jacqueline has a video demonstrating her beautiful gardenia, buds and leaves!  The prices are in AUD... and averages aboug $19.95 AUD but that converts to $21.00 USD, so it's still a great deal!  There are several different price points depending on the classes... but the more advanced ones seem to be about the same cost.

As much as I love Jaqueline and her flowers, I think the first class I am going to try is one by Kaysie Lackey.  You can view her demonstration of a four-point bow for free!  But, I love her famous "Klimt Cake," and guess what, she has a class demonstrating the technique here!  Kaysie is the owner of The Peoples Cake... another artist that I am a huge fan and avid follower of!

Well, I know I owe you some tutorials, recipe or pictures of my creations!  I have a few things planned in the next few weeks... keep your eyes peeled!

Happy Caking :)