Woodworker's Cake

My dad's birthday was this week.  He is really talented at building things out of wood like food trays, cutting boards, chairs...houses.  For his birthday I wanted to make a cake stump of wood, and add different wood making tools around it.  

Every builder has plans, his plans were to have a Happy Birthday.  

I used tools to spell out "Dad".

A clamp (I've been told you can never have too many of these), nails, & a tape measure.   

 My dad loves his chocolate, so I used chocolate frosting, in a star tip to cover the sides of the cake.  Then I added the individual pieces of bark.  The "bark" was made out of modeling chocolate, each one hand made and textured to look like bark. I dusted them with a dark brown petal dust to add depth.  

I added a saw blade, and bits of chocolate shavings, and brown sugar saw dust.  The stumps ring piece was made several days in advance so it could be stiff and hard (like wood :).  I hand painted the rings with different shades of brown petal dust.  

It is always so fun to make birthday cakes, and to make them personal for the individual!

Country Wedding

Last week I was able to make a wedding cake for my sister in law. 

 She wanted a country style cake that had a rustic, simple feel to it.  

 I also made cupcakes for the dessert buffet.  

After piping 350 cupcakes, my right hand was shaking.  

I have a new appreciation for bakers who pipe all day long. 

Vanilla, Pumpkin and Chocolate cupcakes on dessert buffet. 

Pumpkin cupcakes with a frilled cinnamon frosting.  

Chocolate cupcakes with handmade chocolate roses.  

Vanilla cupcakes topped with fondant daisies

It was so much fun to take on this project.  I am so glad the bride loved it. 

Hulk and Spiderman: Trial and Error

This cake was a learning cake.  I made this for my nephew.  He wanted Hulk and Spiderman to be incorporated into his cake.  I came up with this crazy idea...

Hulk is below and has one large skewer going through him, below and above him to connect the two cakes.  

I used a large straw filled with white chocolate to hold the bottom of Hulks skewer.  Once the chocolate hardened he should be  secure.  I made the top Spiderman cake using a Cake dummie so that it would be lighter and easier to deal with the weight of the cake. I didn't factor in the weight of my fondant made Spiderman.  

Hulk looks like he has a lot of muscles, but really they are just fake.  

He was not ready to support this cake.  I made him about a week before the cake, so he was completely hardened.  Then I hot glued his hands and head to the bottom of the Spiderman cake (which the cake was also skewered onto Hulk also). The weigh of the Spiderman figure was too much for one side of the cake though.  The cake lasted about 4 hours, after delivery I found out that it gave way to gravity and started tilting too much for comfort.  

The birthday boy got to see his cake, and enjoy it, but then to save the cake for the party later on the day, extra support had to be added to keep it together.  That really is just so sad, I wish I never made mistakes, but I do.  The idea seemed like a good idea in my mind, but realistically just didn't last.  Spiderman should have been made out of modeling chocolate which weighs lighter, and given the Hulk, two skewers, one in both feet, not just the one.