WINE BOTTLE CAKE

For Lizette's (one of 24 Hour Fitness/San Ramon's incredible Personal Trainers) birthday.  I knew she liked wine and always made comments on my husband's cake, so I knew exactly what to make for her.  It was a new recipe; chocolate cake with an espresso (Peet's Coffee's espresso) buttercream.  Covered in home made marshmallow fondant and hand painted.  I digitally created the image (see below) and had it printed out on edible sugar.  I wish I had my own printer so I could ensure it's color was more accurate.  A lot of times (surprisingly) the people that work within the stores bakery don't always know what they are doing.

The biggest complication of this cake is painting the bottle.  It's hard to get a look without drippings or brush strokes showing.  Takes a lot of patience and time.  One issue was the shortening which I use to smooth out some of the fondant in some areas.  Well shortening acts as a barrier.  Lesson learned: Eliminate shortening to smooth out fondant. Task: Find another way to smooth it out.

Wine Bottle Cake 2/9/12

Lizette & her Cake

After the cake is FINALLY cut.  She didn't want to cut it ;)

I created this label with multiple photos

TRAGIC but not so TRAGIC story for this Patron Cake

I work at a gym and had this cake on display for the Birthday Girl to arrive and see as she walked in. It was sitting right behind me in what I thought was safe keeping until....... A man of about the age of 50ish or so all sweaty after working out and talking on the phone, walks up to the cake and picks it up by the NECK! The trainer that was talking to me sees this and was like......"No, oh no....." then her head goes down. I asked "WHAT?!" and she tells me what the sweaty man does. I turn around and the cake is still all intact (And to think that I was worried about the drive in the car). I was with beyond words that someone would do such a thing. 


The only damage to the cake was he dented my ribbon a lil bit and put his ugly sweaty finger prints on it. Not to mention and most importantly, who wants to eat the cake now?! 

Now I know how you cake artists feel after a tragic event happens to a cake. 

I was so mad that I actually had to leave the area before I attacked the dumbass with words of: 

1. Look with your eyes, not your hands DUMBASS!
2. Does it have your name on it to touch it at all?.....DUMBASS!
3. Ummmm hello, Patron is clear NOT white.....DUMBASS!
4. What gives you the right to touch this or anything for that matter within this area!....DUMBASS!
   

After the man touched the cake, he walked away like he did nothing wrong. No apologies..... NOTHING. Not that I would accept it anyway. Lesson learned..... PUT A BIG SIGN SAYING..... "THIS IS A CAKE.....KEEP YOUR SWEATY PAWS OFF OF IT!......DUMBASS!!!!

Cake is made of:

• Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Filling. 
• Home made Marshmallow Fondant
• Hand painted with the exception of the label
• I created the label digitally myself.
• Unfortunately I had run out of time and had only time to print out a label on clear film.  Brushing the fondant with water made it become adhesive.  She would have to remove the image prior to cutting the cake.

Money Cake for our District Manager

For someone who LOVES to collect money or just MAKE IT.

• Chocolate cake with white buttercream and raspberry filling.  
• The Million Dollars is from an image I did and had it printed out on edible sugar to adhere to the top.  
• I used my Silhouette to cut all the signs.  
• The coins are from See's candy (Only the best chocolate around).  
• The money bag is made from cake pop ingredients then covered in fondant and airbrushed.

Needless to say the Big Daddy totally loved it and was very surprised.  

REBECCA'S 21ST BIRTHDAY

Vanilla Cake with vanilla buttercream and rasberry filling.  

She’s 50 & Fabulous

Chocolate cake filled with raspberry white butter cream.  Crumb coated with Ganauche. 

I was asked to make a cake by a friend for her friend who is turning 50.  She wanted something with a martini glass.  I thought, hmmmm, since I make cakes for the fun of it, I’m not really in the mood to construct a martini glass.  I suggested to her that they buy a custom-made martini glass that she can have as a keepsake.  I lead them to

 

Kudo’s Kitchen offers you a unique brand of wonderfully detailed hand-painted glassware and ceramic tiles. She specializes in completely personal pieces that fit your many interests, occasions and people in your life. I’ve ordered from her and the quality is outstanding and the artwork is amazing!  If there is anyone you would like to have a personalized gift done for, Kudo’s Kitchen is the place to go!  The photo of the glass doesn’t do it justice to what it looks like in person.  One other KUDO for Kudo’s Kitchen, when your item arrives, it is beautifully and professionally packed and ready for wrapping.

 

The Process of the Cake:

I wish I had taken more pictures of the process.  I’ll have to remember to do so next time.

I can’t say that doing stripes is my favorite.  It was my first attempt at it and it was a painstaking process for sure.  I drew up a template within my Photoshop program.  Printed out several copies in black & white (to save on my color ink).  The pink was the shadowed color.  I measured around the cake pan and compensated for about 1/4” of ganauche to go around it.  I wasn’t sure of the exact measurement of the circumference or height of the cake, so I guesstimated the whole way. 

I taped together the print out of the template to be what I thought was close to the circumference of the cake, leaving a very long template on my table.  I then laid wax paper on top taping both together so the template stayed In place with the waxed paper.  Each cut out piece would be laid upon this template.

I then rolled out some fondant and laid wax paper on top of it.  Then took another sheet of the print out of the template and placed it on top of wax paper for cutting out each piece.  The reason for putting the wax paper on top of the fondant is to keep it sealed from drying out while cutting out all the other pieces.  The wax paper will remain on the fondant until the very end prior to putting onto the cake. 

The scallops along the top were easy.  Now this is the part that took *F.O.R.E.V.E.R* to do and why I’m not stoked on doing stripes.    I rolled out the white fondant and using a very sharp exacto knife, cut each strip out individually.  Then I did the same for the pink.  Once one sheet was done, I would take it to the cake template and place each one according to the template.  If you’ve worked with fondant before you would know it’s like clay and can easily be squished or disproportioned.  What a PAIN!  As time went on the process became a lil easier but still VERY time consuming!  If anyone has a solution or an easier way to do this, please fill me in. 

TIPS:

1) fondant colors can fade easily.  Even though I had the wax paper over the fondant, light can still get through.  So to ensure that the color was protected from the light and the sides (where I had cut out the image) did not dry out, I laid foil over the top.

2) Use rolling pin spacer rings to ensure the thickness is even.

Now that all the fondant pieces laid on top of the wax paper template and ready to be placed onto the cake, I did the following. 

1) I rolled and cut out some white fondant to go over the top (not down the sides) of the cake. 

2) I took a tape measure and measured around the finished crumb coated cake and then in height (to now include the fondant you just placed on top) and then trimmed the template where necessary

3) Then I removed the top layer of waxed paper from the template that was protecting the fondant from the light and drying out. 

4) Now the *COOLEST* thing about this process was…. all I had to do is roll the template up on to the cake.   LOVE THIS!  Very precise design laid in place with no movements of pieces. 

Having all my scrapbook supplies and a ton of templates, I made use of one by cutting out the number 50 along with the oval circle placed on the front of the cake.  And to think I wasn’t sure what I would do with all those templates I had stored away. 

The bow was a challenge.  I used Planet Cakes bow tutorial to make the bow on top.  What was challenging was to get it to set up like they did, but finally I was able to succeed.  They make it look so easy!  Now black fondant can easily start to look like leather so I took my steamer and steamed it right away to give it that shiny look that most ribbon have.  The photo below is shown prior to the bow being steamed.

      

The two ribbon tails on my picture above were tossed and redone once the cake was put together.  I wanted them to flow down the cake and they dried out so much that there wasn’t any movement to them.  I didn’t have the cotton batting as Planet Cake shows in their video, so I used brand new packing material.  It did the job but I want to try this again using the batting material.

Putting the cake together.  I was really proud of the layering of this cake.    I looked at it while it was setting up within the fridge and thought I should take a picture but I didn’t and now I regret it.  Ah well, next time.  Photo shows the Ganauche crumb coat.  Cake was leveled perfectly. 

Note the flower in the image above?  Well it wasn’t used on the cake because it was to big to sit where I wanted it to be placed.  So I had to quickly work another flower to fit perfectly. 

I have found that the following process is a nice way to conceal the edges of the bottom of the cake.  Here is a great video to show you how to cover a cake board with fondant:

Overall I love the cake.  It’ll be awhile before I attempt stripes again; however, I want to come up with an easier solution to make this process faster.  It’ll be on my mind for awhile and knowing me I’ll try it again soon.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Suz
Cosima’s Creative Cakes

 

A Sweet 16 Birthday Cake for a Sweet Girl

For a sweet girl.  This cake actually wasn't exactly suppose to come out like this.  It was suppose to have one more tier on top.  BUT!  after putting the crumb coat on this cake, my right hand literally gave out. I didn't know what in the world happened...... this has never happened to me before!  But all I could say, the next morning I couldn't even hold my coffee cup....it was that painful!  My husband, whom lives with Tendinitis, says you are using  your hand too much! 

I wrapped it up put on the brace that my son once had when he broke his hand and let it rest the full day.  I sat there and wondered "WOW, What would I do if I had no use of my right hand?!?!"  I live to do artistic things; whether it be cakes, photography, digital art..... and to live in pain the way I was that day was really an eye opener in so many different ways.  And WORK!  By trade I'm an Esthetician and that would just put a HUGE damper on making a living.

The cake ended up being decorated on top of the crumb coat.  Thank goodness I had all the elements done days prior.  The ribbon wrapped around the bottom was suppose to be fondant.  All in all the cake came out beautiful.  The crumb coat could have been smoother but I had to work with the abilities my right hand had left me.

Danielle loved her cake and it was plenty to feed everyone, with some leftover.  Cake flavor was Oreo Cookie with Oreo Cookie Vanilla filling.

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