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.   

Top TEN Cakes of 2012

Top TEN

Cakes 

of 2012

Here is a look back at my favorite cakes I made this last year.  It truly is a wonderful rush to make something that makes others so happy.  

#10  "Air" Jordan
This was a fun cake to make for a boy who's name was Jordan, and loved basketball.  I thought it would be fun to play on the "Air Jordan" logo.  Turns out that was a good decision, Jordan loved it.  

#9 "Grandma's Flower"

This cake was a simple cake, it made the top ten because of the reaction I got from giving it.
 I made it for my Grandma's Birthday, she lives alone and was so happy to be thought of.
 She was so grateful to have the cake.
She gave me the kindest "thank you" that I will always remember this purple flowered cake.

#8 "Painted Flowers"

I loved making this cake, because it involved trying something new.  I really love learning, and trying new techniques.  Painting with frosting sounded so fun, I really enjoyed making this cake.

#7 "DJ cake"

I don't get a chance to make many cakes for men, usually my clients are children.  This cake was fun to branch out and do something new.  The headphones were my favorite part, they don't actually work, but they are life size, and completely edible.  

#6 

This cake was for my one and only daughter. She turned one, and has a nick name as my little cupcake.  I decided to make her a tower of cupcakes.  In all the hurry of making the cake, I didn't take one photo of it,  I am so glad I was able to get this copy from my Mother in Law.

#5 "Father's Day BBQ"

This cake was for a BBQ Father's day party, with three generations in attendance.  

All the men loved the cake, and I enjoyed making it. What kid doesn't like making food out of playdoh?  I did, and I felt like that as I used fondant to make the patties, and hot dogs.  It was so much fun.

#4 "Fancy Olivia"

This cake made the list based on it's subject.  I love Olivia books, what a personality!  And making 5 pairs of mini shoes was just so much fun.  

#3 "Tangled" 

I planned out this cake months in advance.  I love when I have plenty of time to prepare a cake, I go through several sketches and plans, and the more time I have the more fine tuned it becomes.  This cake turned out exactly as I had imagined it. I loved making the little Rapunzel, and her hair was just the right shade of blonde, with sparkle of course. 

 #2 "Campfire"

I LOVED this cake!  This was such an unusual cake.  My little boy loves outdoors, camping, and hiking and requested for his birthday a cake in the shape of a campfire.  His name was placed on a fondant Hot dog, and "toasted" marshmallows were placed on the sides.  Flames were made of both fondant and buttercream frosting, which gave it a good mix of texture.  I really enjoyed the challenge of this design. 

#1

"Harry Potter"

I love the Harry Potter books, and making fondant figures.  This cake involved a lot of both of those things, and of course this cake made Number One.  This cake took the most time of any this past year, close to 12 hours.  Edible figures included: 7 books, Ron, falling asleep after eating chocolate frogs, Hermonie brewing a potion, Harry searching for the snitch, A sorting hat (which also doubled as the candle to blow out), the womping willow tree, the castle, boulders, and bushes to complete the Hogwart grounds.  

I'm excited to make more cakes this new year. 

No time for Cake

My cake obession has taken a back seat this month.  Now that Christmas is near I have been in the kitchen making a different kind of treat.  This past week I have made 6 lbs of fudge, 4 lbs of golden carmels, and dozens of homemade chocolates.

My Mom started the tradition of making chocolates at Christmas time. One year she wanted to make them, so she took and class and has over the years become an expert on the subject.  Every year as a child I loved watching the process, and enjoyed eating the mistakes.  There aren't very many mistakes now, my Mom is a master at it.  Now that I am older I enjoy the work of making them, just as much as eating them, to me it means that it really is Christmas time.  Making chocolates is not for the faint of heart. There is no easy melting of chocolate chips, no quick pre-made dough to work with.  It takes hours of prep work, and hours of dipping.  The results are absolutely heavenly though.  

Days before the big dipping day centers are made.  Our families traditional center flavors are peanut butter, orange, and raspberry.  They are made, rolled, and kept cool until the day of dipping. 

My sons were able to help me this year which added to the fun of this tradition.  

  Early in the morning of the dipping day you start to shave chocolate.  High quality baking chocolate, sold only at candy stores.  Some years we have made up to 1500 chocolates, using 20 lbs of chocolate, other years we have only made a few hundred, using only 5 or so pounds.  The shavings will then be melted in a crockpot, on the LOWEST setting, otherwise you end up with burnt chocolate.  

It takes several hours for the chocolate to melt this way, but it really is the only way to get a nice consistancy.  

Next you need to turn on Christmas music.  I don't think it is even possible to make these without the music to set the mood. Then you open all your windows!  Cold tempatures help the chocolate set up properly,  we dress warm with several layers and open our home to 40 degree weather.  

Once the chocolate is melted we place about two cups into a mixer.  The chocolate has to be tempered now, moved around a bit.  This insures the chocolate will set up beautifully, without any air bubbles or cloudiness.  Cups and cups of chocolate are added during the process of dipping.  The fun part of making these with family is that we use the same crockpot, same mixer, trays, etc every year.  Now, these pieces of equipment carry so many memories.  

Centers go into the mixer one at a time, get covered in chocolate.

 Using a nifty tool we place the centers on a wax lined tray.  Quickly toppings are added, if any, to identify different flavors.  For example, chopped peanuts are placed on peanut butter centers, orange sprinkles on orange centers, etc.  

Once centers are dipped, we may my favorite chocolates, haystacks!  We pour a few cups of toasted unsweetened coconut straight into the mixer and mix it with more tempered chocolate.  Then using spoons, we fill paper cups full of this mixture.  

They are so good, you can never eat just one of these.  

The centers are then finished (once they are set up and hardened) by putting them in lovely little cups. 

 The children are happy to help with the clean up.  

They lick clean all the utensils used during the day.  

Now that our chocolates are made, it really feels like Christmas is here.   

Olivia Birthday Cake

This cake was made for a girl who loves shoes, and also reading. 

 Her favorite character is Olivia.  I wanted to make a cake that incorporated both of them. 

In Olivia she asks her mom to read her one book, or two, or three. 

 I took that saying from the book and added a twist on it about shoes. 

If you have read the book, you would know that everything is in red, black and white. 

Olivia only wears red, because it is the best color.

Olivia and the 5 pair of red shoes were made out of gumpaste. 

Everything is completely edible.

The bottom cake was a 10" cake, the top layer 6". 

The cake was strawberry flavor, with vanilla buttercream, and homemade fondant.  

Happy Birthday!