Too busy making cookies

December was such a busy month!

I haven't had time to bake many cakes, though my mind has been dreaming of more things to make.  

 I did get just a few pictures of some of the many cookies made this season. 

On to the next Adventure

This week I was able to make a cake for a couple who retired from their mechanic shop.  They aren't taking any time to rest, but are on their way to Little Rock Arkansas to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  They are giving up two years of time with their family for the people of Little Rock.  This cake commemorates their retirement, as well as their new Adventure to be missionaries.  

The couple is standing on a suitcase tagged with Arkansas flag, and a little I <heart> Little Rock sticker.  The wife is holding her scriptures and both are wearing little name tags, something very famous with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint missionaries.

The suitcase is sitting on top of the shop.  The cake was made to look just like Max's repair shop, including the garage doors, the wrap around bricks, down to the three little flower pots. 

Max likes cars, and it was requested that a Model T, a Lincoln Navigator (parked on the side), and a light blue truck (based on their logo) be made.  All are out of gumpaste and edible (besides the cardboard support on the bottom).  

Max wore one hat every day, and so I made a replica of that hat.  I wanted it to look just like Max's and not just a company hat, so I added his specific grease stains to it.  The logo was hand painted with food coloring and a steady hand.   It too is completely edible, made out of gumpaste.

Mountain Cake

My husband recently hiked Huyana Pitosi, which is a 20,000+ mountain in Bolivia.  He went with two other hikers and after they all returned we had a party for them.  I made this cake for the three of them.  I ventured on a topsy cake again, this time making all the layers lean the same way, giving it a defining gravity feel.   

 Along the cake I made trail posts with name of the mountain peaks they hiked during their training for Huyana Pitosi.  On the side of the base I made a suitcase, with a passport book, money, and an airplane ticket.  

The bottom of the cake resembled the local peaks they trained on, very woodsy feeling.  It gravitated to the rocky yet snow covered peak they ended up on.  I make the three figures of the hikers out of gumpast.  

This is the set up with all the hiking gear around it.  

The three crazy men that hiked this incredibly tall mountain!

 

Lake Powell Cake

My husband wanted a Lake Powell cake.  

I dare you to google "Lake Powell Cake"- nothing comes up but a few random people eating cake at lake powell.  I like google when I have a cake, it gets my mind going with ideas, things I like or don't like, pictures of the subject.  This cake was kind of difficult for me to imagine the layout, because Lake Powell has so much to capture.  

 I created slick rock formations for the background, with windows and arches, 

with the familiar sandstone layers.  These were made from fondant and painted with food colors, and dusted with petal dust.  I painted the top of the cake with food coloring, to mimic the lake and a the reflection of the slick rock mountains.  

My husband's favorite water sport is the slalom, so I created a mini Chris on the waves of a boat.  I put edible glue on him to make him look like he is dripping wet.  I am driving the boat of course.  

Piping gel was added to the lake to give a wave texture.  

I made a marbled fondant for the sides of the cake, and added it to the cake that was previously sculpted so that it wasn't perfectly rectangle.  

Happy Birthday Sweetie!  

DIY'er cake

My little sister was having a birthday this week and I wanted to make her a fun cake.  She is very talented, and I wanted to make a cake the shows that side of her.  I make a tote bag filled with tools that a DIY'er (Do It Yourself'er) would have.  She has refinished dressers, sewn costumes, made many calendars, and organizational items for her home, and countless crafts and she is also a really gifted writer. 

So here is her cake...

It is filled with fondant tools, everything is edible!

The top of the bag has some "fabric" poking out.  The back of the tote has blue and purple paint bottles, a yellow handled screwdriver, markers, ruler, and foam brushes for painting.  

The front of the bag had a spool of blue ribbon, glue- almost all projects include some adhesive-, scissors, pencils (for our writer), a rotary cutter, a level, and a jar of pink glitter.  

 Every cake needs the person's name on it, so I put Emma's name on the front "pocket" of the tote.  

Happy Birthday to my little sister Emma!

Backyard Picnic

This cake I made for my Grandma.  Our family used to gather in her backyard and have a traditional BBQ, with hamburgers, hot dogs, rootbeer, and of course watermelon.  My Grandma loves these gatherings, and so for her 85th Birthday I was asked to re-create a backyard picnic.  I made the layout of the cake exactly how my grandma's backyard is.   

Of course you need an uncle at the BBQ's.  

I made a garden right where Grandma's garden is.  

A few people chilling on a blanket...

...more people were chatting at a table, eating by some trees, etc.  

I added balloons and a mini cake to the scene to make it feel like us fondant figures, were celebrating Grandma's Birthday.  Of  course the swing set is not edible, it was made out of wood to look like or original set, that is still there to this day, I think the swing set is 50 years old.  

Here is my grandma, the lady of honor, wearing a Y sweatshirt, 

for her favorite college team BYU.  She went to school there and worked there several years herself, and was married to a professor there as well, so she has a lot of pride for the school.  

Grandpa, who passed away a few years ago is sitting on the willow stump, wearing his blue coveralls.  

 The food was fun to make. 

Little ketchup, mustard bottles, plates, a bowl of chips, a bag of chips, 

watermelon, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. 

This cake took so much time.  I  forgot to keep count but I am sure it was close to 16 hours.  I am so glad she liked it, and so glad I am on to the next cake. 

Box of 'Arnie' Donuts

My son is in love with donuts.  He received a book about Arnie, a small donut who isn't really excited about getting eaten.  It is his favorite, so for his birthday I thought I would make him a cake that looks like a box of donut characters.  

The book is like a comic book in that the donuts say silly things in bubble thoughts so I added one on the box that said "Happy Birthday"

Here is a front view.  The top is fondant/gumpaste, on top of a cardboard box.  I added little support dowels on each side, to support the top.  It was really heavy, I'm not sure how to make it lighter.  

 I made his name so that the letters look like donuts.  

Food with eyes, are so much fun to make.   

Pink Minnie Mouse

Happy Birthday to Coco!

This cake was for my niece, who loves Minnie Mouse and pink. Her mom wanted the cake to look like a Minnie Mouse dress, with ears on top.  Simple enough, here you go!

The Minnie Mouse hat was styrofoam covered fondant. 

 The bow of course had to be poke a dot, and large!

The dress had a white ruffle on the bottom 10" layer. The skirt of the dress formed to lay out like any cute girls dress would be.  It was a fun cake to make!  

Swimmer Cake

I made this cake for our neighbor who was turning 16.  She has been our family babysitter for three years and has helped me out so much!  I wanted to give her a fun cake for her sweet 16th birthday.  She is a great swimmer, so I knew I wanted to make it a swimming cake.  She loves light blue and lime green, no sparkles or pink please!  Here is the cake I gave her.  

People love to see themselves in an edible form, so I made a figure in the swimming pool.  The figurine and accessories are all made from fondant.  

The Birthday Banner is the only thing not edible.

  I printed the letters on scrapbook paper, then cut them out and sewed them together to make the banner.  

I used the towel to tie in the two colors together.  On the duffel bag I wrote her name, as well as on the cake.  Having a unique name, I know how fun it is to actually see your name, spelled correctly, on something.  Never in all my traveling as a child did I see a mug in the gift shop with "Genevre", although it didn't stop me from checking every time "just in case."   When I make a cake for someone with a unique name, I make sure their name is on the cake!  

Now I know...

This is my six year old Logan's birthday cake.  He wanted a Ninjago cake!  

I wanted to make legos stacked on each other with the four main Ninjagos around the cake. Each Ninjago had "their" weapon the they use.  Each Ninjago was made of gumpaste mixed with fondant.  I was happy how my "Lego green" board turned out.  I covered a thin wood board with fondant and made little lego nubs  out of fondant as well.  

The details to each Ninja were painted on with food coloring and a tiny paintbrush.  

  I wanted to achieve crisp "Lego" like edges, so I opted to give modeling chocolate a try.  It hardens unlike fondant, so if you get crisp edges they shouldn't soften like fondant can. I know I hated using modeling chocolate for figures, but I thought I would try it as a covering on this cake. 

And now I know that is is NOT good to cover a cake with the chocolate.  It was so annoying to work with, it just wasn't doing what I wanted it to do.  The modeling chocolate was cut into side and top pieces that were measured to cover each cake block correctly.  But behold...cracking!   

The modeling chocolate was very brittle and began flaking off at edges as well.  Luckily I have a great son who could not have cared less.   Inside the cake (forgot to take a picture, I was too excited to chop up the cake and be done with it) was bubblegum flavored cake.  I used a basic white cake recipe, and added a drum of Loranne Oil, bubblegum flavoring.  This gave the cake a "hint" of bubblegum flavoring, the real flavoring was in the frosting.  I used Duncan Hines new "Flavor packets".  I made my own frosting and added one packet to 6 cups of frosting..plenty of flavoring!  It tasted just like pink bubblegum!  Those of us tasters were saying how our mouths wanted to keep chewing the cake, as if it was gum.  It was pretty fun for a kid cake.  So now I know, that I hate modeling chocolate  yes hate.  I don't like it at all and have sworn it off.  Fondant the only one for me!

On the Beach with my horse

I have a niece how loves horses, she has been riding since she was four, and her horse is her best friend.  Her birthday came up and she asked to have a cake with her horse on it, but she also wanted to have a beach cake, since she also loves the beach.  

Knowing this girl had a sense of humor, 

I came up with this literal image of her and her horse hanging out on the beach .  

The beach tier of the cake is styrofoam, the bottom ocean is two layers of 8" cake. 

 Emmalee loves to bogey board at the beach, 

and on the yellow one is where I added the year, 2013 

This was my first time doing the ruffled fondant edge. It didn't take as long as I thought, and was pretty easy to do, although it did use a lot of fondant.   

I added edible sand as a border and on top of the beach tier as well, I was so happy to achieve a realistic "sand" look.  

 

This is her horse, chilling at the beach, eating some chips.  

She is content next to him with a book.  I made the beach chairs out of gumpaste and let them harden several days before I made the figures.  

Chillin' with friends

Happy Birthday Emmalee!