Happy Birthday Steph!

My sister turned 23 and my dad wanted me to make her a cake for her birthday dinner. He sent me a few ideas and this is what I came up with. Cherry Chip cake 8" round 5" high on the bottom, and 6" round 5" high top tier. The bottom is done in white buttercream with pink fondant polka dots, pink happy birthday banner, white gumpaste/fondant daisies with pink centers. The top tier is pink buttercream with white buttercream ribbons topped with a gumpaste/fondant bow. Inside each tier were 3 layers of the cherry chip and buttercream.

Wilton Course 3

Wilton Course 3. I learned to make fondant/gumpaste bows, flowers, borders and to cover cake boards and cakes in fondant. My final project had everything except the bow. I guess it looks like a hat.

I love making these roses! It is so therapeutic to sit for a few hours and methodically go through the steps.

Daisies are simple but make a big statement.

I hated making this mum, but it is so pretty!

Calla lilies were easy and I love the sugar crystals that make them so realistic looking!

Rosenberg Wedding Cake

Ivory wedding cake with black scrolls and bead border. Four tiers: 6, 8, 10, 12" and two sheet cakes 11x15". Real red roses on top. Vanilla white cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. Since I used fresh flowers on this cake, I first set down 6" doilies, and piped a mound of buttercream. I placed the cut flowers into the mound and the vertical flowers I used flower spikes to insert them into the cake.

 I baked the cakes on Thursday. There were a total of 10 cakes since each tier on the large cake had two 2" cakes to make them an exact 4 inches in height once stacked. That was a total of 7.5 hours bake time. I leveled and filled them on Friday. Made buttercream Friday and frosted and piped the scrolls and borders on that day. Nine and a half hours for the work on Friday. I trimmed and placed the flowers Saturday morning at the reception site. I assembled the tiered cake completely at home and delivered it that way. Very nerve-wrecking! But I was confident since I used my cut pillars for support that the cake was level and I inserted a total of 4 skewers, sharpened to pierce through the layers of cake boards, that I wouldn't come apart. It was extremely heavy, probably close to 50 pounds of cake on my lap! I got to use my new silver hammered cake stand also.

The cake tasted great too (as I was a guest to the wedding, I actually got to have a slice, which is rare). The best part of the day was hearing the bride, Angela across the room "Oh my gosh, I LOVE the cake!" I didn't send her any pictures of the cake before the wedding, her reaction was priceless and made me tear up!

 Final set up. The globs of buttercream and doilies on the cake aren't the most attractive but I didn't want to stick potentially pesticide ridden flowers directly onto the frosting.

 My final cake sketch.

The florist told me to put the roses in hot water overnight to get the blooms to open. I didn't mind having flowers in vases to wake up to the next morning either ;)

The final set up at the reception.

Sheet cake 2

Sheet cake 1

I was also in charge of setting up/styling their table. 

Their first cut.

Just little old me, serving up cake!

Course 2 Final Project/Bye Terri!

A culmination of everything I learned in Course 2 as my final cake project. I gave this to a friend for her going away.

Wilton Course 2

I'm still continuing to take Wilton decorating courses. Here's what I learned in Course 2.

Pansy and Button flower

Apple Blossom

Primrose

Lily

Roses

Rosebud

Violet

Daffodil

My final cake presentation had all of the flowers on top with leaves, and basket weave buttercream around the sides, finished with a reverse shell border.

Bridal Shower Birdcage

Inspiration for this cake came from Pinterest. It is a birdcage bridal shower cake.

The cake was made with my wonder mold pan which has the dimensions of 8" diameter and 5" tall. To add some height and create more of the birdcage shape, I used an 8x3" round. The cakes were vanilla and I  torted both cakes and added a raspberry filling and covered them in sweet buttercream. The wonder mold was set on a cakeboard and I used dowels in the round to support the top cake.

I made the flowers a few days ahead of time, just large and small swirl flowers, to give them time to harden.

I hand cut the birds from fondant and handpainted the details on with food coloring. Then I made the birdcage handle from fondant and allowed them to harden for a few days also.

I tied a small string of baker's twine to a toothpick, centered it and stuck it in the top of the cake and ran it down the sides, lightly pressing it into the buttercream to divide out the lines for the birdcage.

The finished cake I set on my porcelain cake stand.