Friday, January 21, 2011

Piglet 1st birthday cake

Another round cake with stuff on it-but pretty cute!

The top tier is vanilla bean cake with strawberry buttercream filling. The bottom tier is strawberry cake with vanilla buttercream. Piglet is handmade from a combination of fondant and gumpaste (will use a higher ratio of gumpaste next time...he took FOREVER to dry!)
The flowers are gumpaste and the details are all hand-drawn.

My little sister, Deni, will love this one!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Soccer anyone?

I got an email from a woman who wants a special cake for her father's 60th birthday. He is, apparently, a big soccer fan. So, this is my first attempt at a sphere-shaped cake. No, I did not buy the cake pans and instructions from Wilton...this is all me!
I used a pyrex bowl to bake two halves of a sphere, and a single layer 8" round to fill in between them. The cakes are chocolate fudge, the filling is chocolate ganache. I stacked it, with much trepidation, and iced it with buttercream.
I found a website that had the formula for the size of the shapes based on the circumference of the circle, and got cutting! It kind of worked. Near the base I had to free-hand some of the shapes, but the grass camoflages it pretty well.
The scarf is the only way I could think to include the symbol of his fave team, so I made the little patch and stuck it on a fondant 'scarf' to lay beside the ball.

Score!

1st Birthday Barn

It is Oliver's first birthday, and the family is moving to the country....so A Barn Cake!
This is vanilla cake with buttercream. I made a 9 x 12 and cut it into 3 sections to stack it. The roof pitch is just hand cut. The roof covering is MMF and so are the animals. The grass is vanilla frosting and the pathway-graham crumbs! Finished off with some Peek Frean doors and Voila!!