Family Event

I was able to make another cake this month, one for my mother in law.  She has many things she likes to do, read, cook, traveling, but her favorite thing by far is to be with her children.   She loves having them all together at dinners and reunions, and really they are her pride and joy.  When deciding on what "theme" to work with for her birthday it took all of a few minutes...her family!  

I started with making a little figure of herself.  

It always make people happy to see themselves in some edible format.  

"Love Always" is her theme.  She signs every card or email with it, and is always living by the theme by loving everyone truly unconditionally.  So I wanted to incorporate that with her family, since she often speaks of this life lesson to her children.  

She has 8 children, including spouses and grandchildren there is a total of 29 family members.  This cake wins the prize of most figures, and therefore, most hours it took to make.  There are a total of 30 people on this cake.  I make them in the stick man form, using those little car stickers you see as my inspiration.  

Those living in California have a beach in their background, while those in Utah have the mountains in the back.  The background was airbrushed.  Personalities of the figures were also added such as; army clothes for our solider, hiking for her husband the backpacker, a camera around the neck of her daughter the photographer, etc.  

She loved the cake, and everyone at the party enjoyed finding themselves on it.  

The cake was white almond, with a raspberry filling and vanilla frosting.  One of my favorite flavors!

Cakes aren't just for parties.

The reason for having a cake does not have to be for a party.  Last week my family and I woke up to no running water.  My husband went to work, with a promise that he would come back as soon as he could to figure out what the problem was.  Meanwhile, I was melting snow on the stove to provide water to wash our hands and wipe down my dirty two year old's face.  Then comes a knock on the door, it was a neighbor up the street who happens to be a plumber.  He had the day off and had heard that we were without water (probably from his sweet wife).  It had been an especially cold night and evidently our pipes froze.  My neighbor spent half the day (away from his family) figuring out the problem and fixing it for me. In return, he asked for nothing.  So after he left I wondered what I could do to thank him. It didn't take long before I thought of making him a cake!  Cakes can be great gestures of a "Thank you", "Get well", and "We appreciate you".  They are not just for parties.  

So a plumbers cake it was!  I wanted to make a nice classy cake, no "plumbers crack" humor here. 

 This man had sacrificed a relaxing day with his family, and I though he deserved something nice.

  So here is what I came up for him. 

My first thought was that I wanted to have "dripping" water on the cake, 

coming out of a copper pipe, like this.  

I really had so much fun making this copper pipe.  It was a creamy orange to start with, and then I added colored dust (mushroom, cocoa, and gold)  to give the look of a worn copper metal pipe.  

For the water, I started with a sky blue fondant, dusted them with with silver petal dust, 

and touched them with a hint of royal blue petal dust.  

The darker blue really helped give the drops their dimension.  

For the wording I wanted a rounded "pipe" look and when with a silver fondant. 

It too was dusted with silver petal dust to give it some shimmer.  

This cake wasn't on my agenda to make this week, but it all came together so well, and quickly.  

It was really fun to make and even more fun to give.