The first 8 hours

As you may or may not know, any cake takes hours of work to prepare and build-- add sugar flowers and you can easily double or triple your time. I'm getting ready for the Central Florida Fair Confectionary Arts Competition... The cake (dummy cake) will be dropped off for the show on April 12 and I started working on it this week. I sketched about 6 different designs and finally settled on the last one I drew. My first four-tier cake! I'm entering the wedding cake category, so this will be my first wedding cake too.

In order to take my time and really have an opportunity to do the best work I've done yet-- I've gotten started early. Here's a sneak peak at my first 8 hours worth of flowers. Eventually I'll have many more flowers and they'll be dusted and wired together and all that technical stuff. Crysanthamums and yellow roses.

More to come!

Belated Birthday Post

I have been meaning to post this cake for a very long time! Since January, to be exact. It's been so busy at work and in my pesonal life, I've not gotten to make many cakes-- in fact, none since this! But I'm getting back to it. And I'm still determined to master the square. This was my sister's 20th birthday cake. Cute, funky, and pretty, and just enough girly-- just like her! Love you sister!

Central Florida Fair Confectionary Arts Competition

I'm doing it!
I just ordered my very own set of cake dummies from Taylor Foam. So, off to the drawing board now. There are so many categories you can enter... wedding cakes, themed cakes, mini-tiered cakes... I'm thinking I've always wanted to try a "wedding cake," and since this has no actual "big day" on the line, this is the time to do it. Still thinking about it. But, I'm going to sketch out some ideas this week and we'll see what I come up with. Wish me luck!

All Together Now

I'm working on an exhibition at work about Jim Henson and the Muppets, I make cakes, my last name MEANS onion in Italian, and I'm Swedish!!!
Enjoy:

Stay tuned for pics of my little sister's 20th birthday cake!

2008 Milestones in Sugar

After realizing that I've been toying with my new hobby for well over a year now, I thought it would be fun to pick a few milestones from 2008. Let's just say we've come a long way baby! In no particular order, here were three milestone cakes from this year.

1. July 2008, My Birthday Cake: First time with three tiers - whew!

2. October 2008, A Cake for Damaris: While a sad occassion for this cake, I am forced to point out that under that pressure, I piped the BEST buttercream roses I have ever managed to pipe.

3. August 2008, Baby Shower Cake: First time wiring flowers and using them on a cake! Not only were my wired flowers successful, but I loved my clever idea of putting litle baby footprint blooms in there. Also, I was given the shower invitation to match, and well, I was impressed with my color matching abilities here. (see earlier post for pic of invite.)While I'm at it, this was also my first "bow" which was also successful.

And the greatest thing about this is you learn from every experience, and so next time I do any of these things, they will be even better!

Cheers to a Happy New Year and more Happy Cakes.

Merry Christmas Petit Fours

Click photo for close up.

I knew going into this world of tiny covered cakes that there was potential for absolute disaster. So, I must say I was pleased with the relative lack of disaster... I think there is still some ganache on the kitchen cabinets, but that comes with the territory.

I do believe everyone enjoyed the taste, and for a first attempt... not bad looking! Right? Note the tiny gingerbreak men and candy canes :)

There were almond cake with white buttercream and almond filling, almond cake with apricot filling, chocolate fudge cake with Kaluha-Chocolate buttercream, white cake with rasperry or buttercream... and a few other variations. Merry Christmas. Easter will be a good second attempt at petit fours.

After making it from my Mom's house to a dessert party and to a post-Christmas party the following day, they were finally all eaten!

Chistmas Cake

A friend is trying to teach his son that Christmas is about more than the presents. Each year they celebrate with a cake for Jesus' birthday. This year, I had the honor of making that very cake, and here are the results. I'm excited because I used some of the left over batter (Mandarin Orange Cake - cream cheese frosting with a hint of orange) to make mini cakes so I can make my first attempt at petit fours for Christmas at mom's house. Watch for that post soon.

Happy Belated Birthday Sherry

Happy Belated Birthday Sherry! She's a fan of Audrey Hepburn and all things classy. So I just wanted to make some beautiful and elegant treats for her. They are mini french vanilla cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream roses / sanding sugar. Very sweet!

A Cake For Damaris

My best friend's husband's mother passed away last week. They wanted just something pretty to have at the reception at the house after the service. So I make this vanilla poundcake with lemon curd filling and a light lemon buttercream. On a lighter note, I must say, these were THE BEST buttercream roses I've made to date.

Addendum: December 23, 2008--Wanted to post a better picture, so I tried to cut the background out...
haha.

Happy Birthday Dad

Daddy's birthday again. He's a chocolate man, so every year I'm determined to design all chocolate cakes. mmmm.