Happy Birthday Banner

 

I saw this image of a birthday banner ( I think Martha Stewart) and I thought the colors and string banner idea were cute, so I decided to translate this to a cake.

First, I made orange and pink disks and punched two holes on the top with piping tips.  Def two holes, not one, so the disks can lay flat against the cake.  Then I cut out letters using Tapp-its to spell out Happy Birthday.

 

I also made a larger disk for the top.

Once dry, I strung all the disks together with a ribbon.

Here its all connected

I glued the circles to the side of the cake with royal icing and put little bows on the corner.  Finished it off with a big #5 on the top.

Done Done Done and photographed with a nicer camera :)  Enjoy

Best Wife Ever

I recently made a cake for someone I know who wanted to treat his wife with a special cake for her birthday this year.  It was a simple and small cake that I made for their family, but it came back with so much gratitude.  As a baker, it made me so happy to know that something as simple as a cake can make a person feel special and appreciated.

I made a bunch of blossoms, large and small.  I dried them on a cookie rack so they they would maintain their cupped shape.

 

Then I dusted them with petal dust in various colors.

 

New Book and Sneak Peak

I was at Barnes yesterday and I passed by this book.  It immediately caught my eye so I sat on the floor below all the cooking books and started going through the pages.  Omggg, this is a great book.  They have really creative cakes and good techniques to know, esp the ganache trick.  I think this is a great book to have and its like $9.98 which is SUCH a great price compared to some of the other cake decorating books out on the market.  I've heard of Planet Cake awhile back and its this company Paris Cutler started in Australia.  Check out their website www.planetcake.com.au

Speakkkkking of websites.....here's a sneak peak at what I'm working all day and all night on. It took forever to make the actual cakes so I'm really excited to finally be able to post them on a site and share them with people.  It still has some more work to be done, but it will hopefully be launched in < 2 weeks!

Bubble Tea Station

I went to a wedding this summer and I feel like the
themed stations have been gaining popularity.  I've heard wedding with gelato stations, cigar stations, candy stations, but this wedding had a bubble tea station!  The brought these guys in from Rutgers and of course they had the normal tapioca balls, but these also had these balls that were like a tart liquid encased in a bubble.  Idk how they made them but when you bite down on them they pop and explode all over your mouth.  It was kinda cool.

Wine Label and Grapes

A friend of my in-law's just turned 60 and I had the opportunity to make a cake for his celebration. In collaboration with his daughter, we found it fitting to make a cake in the shape of a wine label because he manages a wine market in NJ. She actually drew up the label and I turned it into a cake. In the end, I realized if I didnt mention it was a wine label, it could be mistaken as a door mat. Hahha Here was some of the process...

It was a choclate cake with chocolate ganache and raspberry filling


Here is the cake covered in fondant, but yet to be dressed.


Here's me painting on the script and cutting something out. Notice I'm in a sweatshirt in the middle of summer because I had to turn on the air to 60-some degrees so the cake wouldn't melt. It was so cold!


Done! Looks like a doormat huh? hahah I guess the grapes help





Making grapes:


Roll little balls of purple gumpaste


Hook onto to floral wires


Mix together purple, blue, and red powders till you find a good color to dust on.


After dusted and dried, start building the shape by attaching the individual grapes to the stem.


Cut out leaves, press into a veining mold and let dry on mounds of plastic wrap to get natural waves.