Sunflower Fondant Cake

My class this week focused on fondant. I had worked with fondant before but I had never covered a whole cake with it. Only to make small things (like cupcake toppers). However it turned out well. I was just playing around. There is no real occasion for this cake, but my friends are going to enjoy it. :)


I started out with two 8in (vanilla) round cakes, cut to be even on top, and then cooled.

I then used a simple ziplock bag (this was such a small area I didn't feel the need to dirty a pastry bag) to pipe a little barrier to help hold in my ganache/buttercream mixture.

Then filled it with a yummy combination of buttercream frosting and a ganache that I just couldn't get to set up (and I didn't have time to melt more chocolate into it either). But it tasted really yummy and it spread onto the cake very well.

After stacking the two cakes, I used a thinned down buttercream frosting to crumb coat the cake. Because we were adding fondant to this cake I did add a little more buttercream than I normally would to help it taste better for those that hate (and pick off the) fondant.

I was going to make my fondant but due to a crazy schedule this week, I just bought a tub of it. Much easier. A little more expensive. But for my schedule this worked best.

Once I got to class, I kneaded my fondant (using a little shortening to help keep the fondant from sticking) until it was nice and pliable. I used this time to add a little cheesecake flavoring, the oil based flavors used for candy making. Awesome! Now I have a yummy flavored Cheesecake Fondant! :) Then I rolled it out large enough to make sure the top (8in) and both sides (3-4in each) of my cake were properly covered. And flipped it on top of my cake.

Slowly, working from the top to the bottom, I rubbed the cake and helped it stick and smooth onto the buttercream below. Once I reached the bottom I used a pizza cutter to remove any excess fondant that remained around the bottom of my cake and smoothed it down.

After coloring my fondant blue, yellow, and orange, I started decorating.

I used some molds (pearl border and swags) to help make decorations for the cake. Using a lot of corn starch on the fondant and dusted on the mold. I had a few places where the swags stretched and ripped a little but they turned out alright as long as you don't look for a long time.

And the yellow pearl border across the bottom of the cake was simple, easy to add more or to fix if I messed it up, and stunning!

I made fondant flowers by using a silicone mold and two different colored fondants. The center of the flower was a cute little button.
I also dusted the swags with a white pearl luster dust. And I dusted the flowers with a gold luster dust all over to give them a warm feeling.

I made a sunflower cake topper to help make the cake look a little more finished. And added two simple leaves. All made using a plastic mold, cornstarch, and fondant.
To help complete the look I also dusted the sunflower with luster dust. I used Gold on the yellow, a cantaloupe colored luster dust on the orange, and a pretty green shimmer on the leaves.

And it's finished and ready to eat! :)

Royal Icing Flowers

Class this week was centered around different royal icing flowers and leaves.

The first flower we worked on was a violet. 2 small petals on the bottom, 3 on the top with two little dots in the middle to finish it off. Very cute!

Then I put them in the flower formers to help them get a more natural look.

The next flower we made were pansies, Purple and yellow this time, though they can come in a variety of colors.
You make them by making 2 (yellow) petals on the bottom, followed by another two smaller petals on top of those two. And adding 3 petals to the top, however with these petals I did not make them individually, I just continued piping until all three petals were made.

I placed them in flower formers to dry, and added a tiny little yellow circle to the middle of each flower. This connects the two colors a little better and makes it look a little more life-like.

Another way to make them a little more realistic is using a very tiny paint brush or toothpick and painting little 'faces' on them with violet color gel. It really helps make them look better.

The next flower we worked on was ridiculously simple! A very tiny Forget-Me-Not. Beautiful and simple. I LOVED them!!! Using a tip#101s I made a simple 5-petal flower, which came out extra tiny but adorable.

Next we learned how to make a few flowers in a lily nail. We covered the nails in foil covered with a TINY bit of shortening, to make it easier to remove the flowers later.

The fist flower was a purple petunia.

For the stamens I used some lily stamens first.

And then fancy pearl stamens, giving each of them a slightly different look.

Switching to white royal icing and a leaf tip (354 I think...) to make the Easter Lilies.
I loved them! I made all the petals and then went back and place the lily stamens in the middle, adding extra royal icing so they didn't fall down.

I was lazy when making the next flower and I didn't color the frosting. So I ended up with white poinsettias but still beautiful. Honestly one of my favorite flowers I have made so far. It would be fun to cover them in red and gold luster/disco dust! :)

And after making all those flowers, some greenery is needed! :) so of course we worked on some simple leaves with the #102 tip. They are nice and will work with many different types of flowers.

And some beautiful holy leaves for Christmas time :)

And an adorable Christmas tree, or bush, or whatever else I would like to make this into. It's pretty easy. Using a leaf tip (like I did), or a star tip, I worked from the bottom to make the tree. As you can see I need to work on the top of it, but you get the idea. Haha :)

Darth Vader Birthday Cake

I made an awesome cake this weekend for my brother's birthday. He may be 25 year old this year but Star Wars is still a hit. Lol!
He requested a Darth Vader cake, and because I am not skilled with carving cakes, I went to my bake shop and bought a shaped pan in the shape of Vader's helmet. Much easier for me and it probably looks better anyway. Hahaha!
Because of all the grooves I was so terrified that the cake would stick and fall apart, but thanks to liberally greasing it, we didn't have a problem at all! It slid right out! :) I was SO excited! Haha!



I placed it on my cake board and started working. I piped the insides of the eyes and helmet first and all of the outlines.

After I got that looking right, I started filling it in with stars.

And...oh my goodness...it took a lot of stars to fill it all in. But it was worth every minute of it!
It looked WONDERFUL!!!

I also made some cupcakes out of the left over batter and frosting. Of course they had to be topped with black frosting and red sprinkles to match the cake.

Pink Lemonade Petit Fours

I was so excited for class this week!!! I have been waiting for this class since day one. I LOVE petit fours! They are some of my favorite desserts because they are easy, simple, elegant, and can come in so many varieties/styles/designs. I could not wait to learn how to make them properly :)

I started with a 9x13 Pink Lemonade cake, cut into 2x2in squares. I chose not to fill them this time because I did not have enough time this week (2 kids home sick from school all week did not give me a lot of spare time).

I also crumbed coated the 2x2in squares with pink buttercream and colored the poured fondant pink as well, to cover the Pink Lemonade cakes color.

I used a (clean!) hair pick to hold the cakes while I poured some fondant over the top, making sure to cover all corners properly and not to have it too thick on the top/sides.

After I made sure the excess was off, I placed it on a cake cooling rack (over a piece of wax paper, to catch the drips) and let them set up just a little bit.

Before they set up completely I placed the decorations on top. I had some leftover glittery blossom flowers, so I put them on top of a few petit fours.

Putting them in cute little petit four wrappers, available at your local bakery or craft store, really helped jazz them up and make them look much more professional and complete looking.

I put them all together in a 1/4 sheet box. There were quite a few with flowers on them.

But I also did a few with scroll like decorations, as well as some ruffles and flower/scroll/dot buttercream decorations. Just trying out a few different things to see how they worked out.

Then ended up looking wonderful though! I really loved them. cant wait to make another batch!

They were a big hit with everyone I shared them with! :)

Doll Dress Cake #2 w/Flower Cupcakes

My project this weekend was a birthday cake for my daughters friend's party. She was turning 7 and loved Princesses and her favorite color is Purple :) so this cake was a total winner for her! She was SO SO excited to see her finished cake!
I started by practicing with my new frosting tip (#070-a handy little ruffle tip that actually looks a lot like fabric!). I went around the outside of the pan to get a feel for it, and it actually worked out pretty well.

I also made some flowers to place on top of the cupcakes that will be going with this cake. I used pink and two shades of purple to make some simple drop flowers. And finished them off with edible glitter to make them shimmer.

The flowers ended up onto of the cupcakes for the party. They turned out AMAZING!!! I loved them SO SO SO much! They were simple vanilla with whip kreme buttercream but everyone was in love with them.

Now it was time to decorate the cake. She wanted the dress to be pink and purple so we started with a pink crumb coat (purple frosting filling inside the cake) and added extra pink frosting on the front so that the front of her skirt could be a pink Corneille lace pattern. Because she loves princesses, I made sure to add a lot of glitter on the front/pink part of the skirt.

I then added layer after layer of ruffles (the pics look kind of blue but it was just a dark plum purple) until we finished the bottom of the dress, as well as adding a simple beaded border to the bottom and front of the dress to help finish off the edges. I also added one of the light purple glittery flowers(and two small white ones) to the front of the dress to help finish it off.

I was really happy with it, so of course something had to happen! Haha! Well, my cake cooling rack fell over and smashed into the side of my cake ripping off 4 layers of ruffles (which cannot be added in easily). To avoid disaster I was able to add a bunch more layers of ruffles, but it was a rather tricky fix.
Then on the way there, the extra ruffles were too heavy and the back/top ruffle started to rip and tear but that's alright...it's in the back! Hahaha! That's what I kept telling myself to stay calm and not freak out on my husband while we were driving! Lol!
Despite everything...It ended up looking wonderful! The birthday girl (and everyone else) loved it!!! :) I had a ton of fun making this cake and was so happy with how the cupcakes turned out! Everyone was happy and went back for seconds, so I would say this project was a success.