GO GAMECOCKS!!!

This cake was a LOT of fun to make largely because...well, I'm a South Carolina Gamecocks fan!

This cake was actually a birthday cake, made for a guy that loves Gamecocks and Ralph Lauren Polo.
His daughter requested that I find a way to mix the two.
At first I thought it might be a bit of a challenge, but I was actually very pleased with how it turned out!

Here's a little peek into the "before" process of a cake:

Cocky (the Gamecocks mascot) was hand sculpted out of RK's, fondant and gum paste.

Cocky is always holding up the #1 sign! So this mini replica was no exception.

The polo images were actually hand painted on gum paste discs that I cut out and then allowed to air dry before drawing the images on. I actually looked at the image on a polo shirt that I own and just free handed it with edible markers (a very cool tool by the way!).

I used a toothpick to hand carve each of the feathers.

Birthday Bugs!

The birthday boy that received this cake is a bug fanatic!
He loves his insects (knows them all too).
So what better cake to make than one covered in bugs?
The bottom layer was yellow cake and actually my first attempt at a square cake! (Shocking, I know).
The tree stump layer was chocolate cake.
All of the bugs were made out of fondant.
The "ant hill" was crushed vanilla wafers and the spider web was gum paste.

My Little Pony Birthday Cake

I do not typically use any plastic toys on any of my cakes, in fact, this was the first time.

However, this cake was for my goddaughter and I wanted her to have the ability to keep the ponies after her cake was gone. Kind of a way to have her cake and her birthday present too.

The cake was chocolate and all decorations were fondant, royal icing and disco dust (besides the ponies of course).

Cake Wreck!!!!

I'm getting ready to post pictures of the latest cakes that I've made...and was going to just stick to posting the pictures and adding a little briefing about what materials were involved. You know, basically just do what I've been doing.
Then I remembered why I started this whole blog.
It really wasn't to showcase my cakes, nope. It was to showcase what I've learned, the trials and errors, the masterpieces and the epic failures, it was to blog about the journey this messy hobby takes me!
I've got to get back to my blog roots....therefore....
I've got to blog about a cake wreck I had over the weekend.

I took on the challenge of making two cakes and twenty four cupcakes last weekend, mistake number one (please remember, this is my hobby, I also have a full time job, a dog, a husband, and household chores!). I thought I had a pretty good head start come Wednesday. I had the fondant colored and ready. I had the cakes drawn out and designed on paper. I had all of my baking and decorating materials laid out. Thursday was looking good, I got started on the fondant decorations and had all of the cakes baked and in the freezer (one day I'll explain that whole process). Then Friday came around, my plan was to run to the supply store on my lunch break and get the boxes for the cakes and cupcakes, I also needed a color I did not have in disco dust. However, Friday was the day my work decided to treat us to lunch and I was unable to run my errand. This left me rushing to the cake supply story after work, rushing home to start the decorating process and packing my bags to drive over an hour to the upstate. Did I mention the cakes were for individuals that lived over an hour away?

I completed the cakes at...midnight! Packed the car, secured the cakes, and took off up the road. I did NOT pack any emergency cake fixing materials, mistake number two. When we arrived at my in-laws it was close to 2am. I was exhausted. I placed the cakes in a secure spot, high on a shelf, in a cool area, and went to bed.
We woke early Saturday morning to deliver the first cake. As I walked upstairs, groggy and sleep deprived, my sweet husband met me with a smile and then said the words I DREAD hearing "Uhmmm, a huge chunk of your cake fell".

"WHAT!!"
I ran over to survey the damage and he was correct. On one of the cakes, a my little pony cake, I had piped huge, white, fluffy clouds, out of butter cream icing. Apparently the icing, the drive and maybe the temperature were enough to cause the butter cream to actually slide right off of the cake. The cloud and all of the icing it took along with it were in a pile on the bottom of the cake box. I think I cried, I can't remember.
I also DID NOT take pictures...sorry.

We went to deliver the first cake, the whole time my mind was racing on how to fix my cake disaster, and on our way back it hit me. I had my husband run me to Michael's and I made my way to the cake section. I grabbed up a decorating bag, a coupler, and two different kinds of white icing (Wilton butter cream and duff's decorating icing in a bag). We rushed back to the cake and I did what I could to repair and save the cake. Thankfully, the cake that bit the dust was my best friends, little girls, cake. Therefore I was able to admit to my epic fail and then warn her that one cloud was not going to taste exactly like the others...because of course the rest of the clouds were made out of my homemade butter cream icing and the repaired cloud ended up being a mix of both icings I purchased at Michael's.

I learned a few lessons from this and I've actually started supporting my cakes a little differently now. I'll post about my new support structure later...until then, it's back to the kitchen for me! I have a cake due next week. I'll post pictures of both of the cakes I made last weekend asap.

Pink and Purple Dancing Monkey

The girly monkey was sculpted entirely out of fondant and gum paste. The cake was chocolate with homemade buttercream icing. The #1 was gum paste and disco dust. I also used disco dust on the crown and around the edges of the skirt.

The Cat in The Hat

I finally got the chance to make a cake that I have been wanting to create for quite some time. The recipient was turning one and her mother was throwing a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party! This cake was so fun. I drew the design on paper and then started sculpting. The top piece of cake and hat were RK's covered in fondant. The piece of cake had disco and luster dust on it to make it sparkle. The cake itself was golden butter with buttercream icing.

I made thing 1 and thing 2 out of gum paste. I rolled the gum paste out and hand drew the design onto it. Then I cut around the edges, I wanted to leave a white boarder so the "things" would appear to have jumped straight out of the pages of "The Cat in The Hat" book. Everything was hand drawn and painted with lemon flavoring and coloring gel.

The candle was fondant/gum paste and disco dust made the flame shine.

I loved every minute of making this cake!

The tea cup and fish were carved from cake, one of my first attempts at cake carving. I iced the entire cake before putting on a layer of fondant. I was fairly happy with how the cup turned out. I tried to keep everything as whimsical as possible. I hope I would have made Dr. Seuss proud =)

***You have no idea how many poems I have come up with to go along with this cake...but I decided to spare you all....after all, I decorate cakes I don't really do poems....but if you can come up with a really good poem to go along with this cake, I would LOVE to hear it!!!!!***

Beach Ball Birthday Bash

This cake was made for a little guy that turned two this past weekend. He celebrated his birthday with a pool party.
His mom gave me the go ahead to design whatever kind of cake I wanted. We decided on a beach ball themed cake, to match his birthday balloons.
The cake and cupcakes were yellow cake.
The beach ball was RK's, fondant and gum paste.
I used disco dust on the "water" curls, but I still haven't mastered the art of taking pictures that show that small detail.

Baby Bambino's Baby Shower

My sister in law is expecting her first baby this fall.
She refuses to find out the sex of said baby, therefore, being the good sister in law that I am, I've dubbed the baby "baby bambino".
A baby shower was thrown for baby bambino and not knowing the sex of the baby proved to be difficult for cupcake designing. I pondered the design for awhile and then thought "We may not know the sex, but we know what it is!"

A baby!! (contrary to her brothers popular belief that his sister (my sister in law) herself arrived from another planet) She will, in fact, be having a baby! So that is what I designed the cupcakes around. Ha!

The cupcakes were made to be given as party favors. Each cupcake was placed in a box and tied with a simple ribbon.

Simple and chic, just like the mother-to-be!

I'm one of "those" people now!

I may be crazy for doing this, but I created a facebook page for "The Love Of Cake".

I'm still going to post cake pictures here. I've just been asked by numerous people if I had a place where you could just see pictures and not have to scroll through pages on a blog. I hope this makes viewing my cake photos easier.

I also wanted a place where people could comment, show support or even give constructive criticism (I can take it, haha). So feel free to "like" my page, become a fan, and let me know what you think!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/fOr-thE-lOvE-oF-CakE/131674686843718

Thank you for supporting this crazy hobby of mine!!

Dora The Explorer

I have a confession to make, I'm not too fond of making cartoon/character cakes.
They make me nervous. I can be such a perfectionist and trying to make something look just like someone else's creation...just about drives me mad, lol. However, it's a challenge and for some reason I have a hard time turning any challenge down.
For this reason, I agreed to make a Dora the Explorer cake.
I will say, Dora was probably one of the hardest characters I've had to recreate.
Dora and Boots are made out of fondant.
The cake is yellow butter cake, buttercream icing, fondant stripes and pearls. I sprinkled each pink pearl with some disco dust. It was hard to capture the sparkle with my camera, sorry.

Here are Dora and Boots during the sculpting process:

All in all I was pretty pleased with Boots. I was not as happy with Dora as I would have liked, but I did the best I could and I'm pretty proud of the cake as a whole.

I received word that the birthday girl loved the cake and really, that's all that matters to me!!

Side note: I made this cake for a sweet friend that was stationed in Hawaii while my husband and I were there. She and her husband are now stationed in GA. She drove from GA to SC to get the cake and then drove it to NC where her niece was celebrating her birthday. How honored I was that she wanted to go out of her way just to have a cake of mine!!

1st Birthday-Sports Theme Style

A friend of mine recently celebrated her baby boys 1st birthday.
I made this cake to match the invitation that was sent out for the little guys 1st birthday.
He had a sports themed party.
The cake was chocolate.
Buttercream icing and fondant decorations.