3-Cake Weekend - Part II

The second cake in my 3-cake weekend was for one of my good friend's daughter's 3rd birthday party.  After trying to dissuade her daughter for weeks from having a princess-themed party (even telling Marley that "I don't think Whitney can make a princess cake" to which Marley replied "yes she can!"), my friend Brandie finally surrendered to the princess party. So, a very special princess cake for a very special little girl was in order!  Brandie had already purchased this adorable princess cupcake kit from Williams-Sonoma for me to draw inspiration from, which made the design process easy.

I decided that I would make three-dimensionsal flowers to match those on the princess dresses and cupcake liners.  And the piece de resistance would be a princess crown on top of the cake of course!  I made the crown by drawing a template on parchment paper (as you would if you were making a paper crown), laid the template over white fondant and cut out the shape using an exacto knife.  Then I wrapped the fondant crown around an empty oatmeal container and let stand upright to dry overnight.  Once dry, I applied decorations.  I also gave the crown a dusting of luster dust to give it that golden glow.  Here it is in its beginning stages:

The finished princess cake - chocolate cake with vegan raspberry "buttercream":

Happy birthday Marley!!

3-Cake Weekend - Part I

What is it about May and birthdays?  It seems like the majority of the people we know have May birthdays which means that every May we have at least one birthday party every weekend!  I guess people just get that lovin' feeling when the weather starts to cool off and the holiday season draws closer...

This year, more birthdays equals more cakes for me to make...yipee!  The weekend of the 21st of May, 2011 will always be remembered as the 3-cake weekend.  Not only did I have to make three cakes for three separate birthdays, but I had to shuttle my kids around to three different parties!  You might think I'm crazy for piling all of this onto my plate in one weekend, but I just couldn't say "no".  I'll explain below and in my subsequent posts.

Cake #1 - Tulsi's Carnival Carousel Cake

I was asked at the beginning of the month to make a cake shaped like a circus tent for a carnival-themed birthday party.  Although I had never done a shaped cake or a cake with such detail before and I knew that the weekend it needed to be ready for was going to be crazy, I couldn't say "no".  I think that it is so important as a creative artist (or for anyone in any profession for that matter) to continually do things that are challenging and scare you.  That's the only way you can become better at what you do.

At first I wasn't sure how I would make the pointed top of the cake.  Initially I thought molding the top out of rice crispy treats would be the way to go, but after giving it some thought, I decided to make a separate cake and just carve it into the shape that I wanted.  It was a messy task, but it worked really well.

Here is an image of the top after I iced it and covered it with fondant.

Top view

Finished cake and top ready to be assembled

Detail of fondant carousel horse I made to match graphics at the party

Tulsi's carousel carnival cake - Vanilla butter cake with vanilla buttercream

Stay tuned for parts II & III!