Gravity-Defying Spaghetti Cake

This is one of the most fun cakes I've ever done...

and it's all chocolate!

This is called a "gravity-defying cake." It is made by using a copper tube that is run up through the middle of the cake drum. I took an online class through Craftsy.com, which was wonderful, called "Gravity-Defying Cake Designs" with instructor Lauren Kitchens. She was an excellent instructor.

Here is my Italian mother-in-law with the cake. She is so adorable!

BBQ Grill Cake

First of all, this picture has been photoshopped to take out the "cracks" in the cake. There was just too much work put into the detail of this cake not to use the picture. That being said, one thing I learned when working with dry ice while working with a cake is to not put the dry ice in the cake until you're ready to use it!!

I had hollowed out the middle of the cake, put a plastic cup inside, then added the dry ice. I boxed it up for transport in a heavy cardboard box. By the time I arrived at the venue, however, the frigid temperature of the dry ice had hardened my fondant and caused cracks! (There was already one crack in the front from experimenting with the dry ice before I left for delivery, but I did not realize it was the dry ice at the time.)

Here is a video link showing the "smoke" and "fire" in the cake:

https://youtu.be/-2TqVC5G5mM

Would I use dry ice again? I am not sure. It was expensive ($25 for 10 pounds) when all I needed was five small chunks altogether. I had to track down someone who sold it and pre-ordered it several days before I needed it. It seemed to be a big production. Then you have to take liability when leaving it at a client's house.

More details on decorating it later...!

Construction Cake

My customer's little boy, Caleb, was turning two and he loves trucks! 

The order called for a cement mixer, crane, dump truck, and garbage truck. There were all made out of gum paste about a week before the cake was due. 

I also made two small construction cones and some "holders" for candles, plus a number "2." I made an extra candle...you never know when one breaks and you need an extra!!

I saw a tutorial online about how to make a cake that looks like construction stripes:

I decided that a topsy turvy cake suited this design the best. If you are new to making topsy turvy cakes, bake extra layers of cake because you will lose a LOT of cake once you start carving...and you don't want the cake too look "squatty," you want it to still have height once you are finished cutting. Usually my cakes are 4" in height and takes 3 layers of cake. For the bottom cake, here, I made 4 layers of cake. For the top cake, I used 6 layers, which was very tall but it was the design I wanted. 

First, chill the cakes then level them. Afterwards, because it was going to be a topsy turvy and would be carved down, the cakes needed to be really hard. Wrap the individual layers of cakes tightly then put in the freezer until hard. Then stack the cakes and carve while still very cold. This does two things: it helps you to cut the cake easier without ripping it, and it keeps the cake from having tons of crumbs coming off. But don't put the outside layer of buttercream on before you carve because that will cause a mess with warm hands!! 

After crumb-coating, cut a large hole out of the middle of the cake to fit the top cake down into (but don't cut too deep down). Make sure the hole that you carve is larger than the cake base of the small cake. The small cake will have about three coats of buttercream plus fondant, which will "bulk" it up, and you want it to fit into the hole of the larger cake afterwards!

Dowel the bottom cake to support the top cake. 

bottom tier (four 10" round cakes, cut down)

I did not go crazy making this cake "even" because it was going to be a construction-themed cake and I knew that uneven surfaces would be fine

top tier (six 6" round cakes, cut down)

This, above, was almost too steep. The first layer of fondant ripped at the top corner and I had to start over again with another piece of fondant. This time I smoothed the fondant down on that corner before I moved on to the rest of the cake.

Bottom cake covered in fondant

Top cake when first covered in fondant

Stacked cake

I ran a sharpened dowel down the middle of both cakes and into the cake drum to secure it so it wouldn't topple over when I delivered it. I only had to hear that horror story once from a fellow cake decorator about not doweling a wedding cake and then the cake slid apart during the drive to the venue...I decided then and there that it would be forever worth the extra five minutes to dowel!!!

 With buttercream, I filled in the hole that the dowel left on the top cake then covered it with a yellow circle of fondant, purely for aesthetic reasons

Using piping gel, I piped a line between cakes and added chocolate rocks as an awesome border. 

Once on-site, I added the trucks. Here is the cement mixer, plus the chute and "cement" (gray buttercream)

Here is the crane. The trick with this was to make the crane "arm" around a thin dowel, then make a hole the size of that dowel on the inside part of the crane base. I was then able to run the crane arm down through the hole and into the cake to secure. 

Do you like how the crane is lifting the number 2 into place? I thought that was rather clever, if I do say so myself! ; ) 

Here is the little dump truck, filled with chocolate rocks. I used some piping gel inside the truck bed to hold the rocks into place, plus put some piping gel onto the cake to secure the rocks there, too

Garbage truck

Once I arrived, there was a crack in the top of the lower cake. I covered it with piping gel, ran the gel down the side of the cake and onto the cake drum, then used Oreo crumbs to the gel to stick. It looked like dirt coming down. 

Detail work:

And here it is, a Construction Cake for little Caleb. Happy 2nd birthday, Caleb! See you next year!

Summertime Cake Class for the Kids!

One of my former students' granddaughters were visiting and she

thought they'd enjoy a private cake class!

Waiting for them to arrive. The cakes are made and chilled, the buttercream is made, and the aprons are ready!

First, we color the buttercream!

Next, we put buttercream on top of the first cake to use as a filling...

Then add the other cake on top and cover the whole thing with icing!

We then rolled out fondant and gum paste 

to make roses, leaves, butterflies, and daisies...

Add them to the cake and voila! Adorable cakes!

Come again! It was fun!

Four-tier Buttercream on Slice of Tree with Fresh Flowers

Simple and beautiful. Love this.

Hexagon Cake

My customer wanted a cake for her good friend, and wanted to incorporate her friend's interests. We decided on a two-tier hexagon so we could include 12 items...

The first was the "40" and the family crest

Ralph Lauren polo logo and the NYC skyline

The NFL logo and lacrosse sticks

A four-leaf clover and the University of Virginia logo

Firecracker with yellow, and a beach scene

A cross and the NYU logo

A hexagon cake is a clever and easy way to incorporate lots of different ideas!

Red Sox Cake

RED SOX CAKE

Okay, okay, so we're New Yorkers and my husband was not happy that I was doing a Red Sox cake! But I love my customers so here we go...!

THE HAT

First things first. I knew that a gum paste hat would take about four or five days to dry so I started this first. I used a mixture of royal blue and black Wilton gel and colored the gum paste. I covered a Yankees hat (yay!) with plastic wrap and underneath that I put a half circle cake pan (Wilton) for a sturdy base. I covered the plastic-covered Yankees hat with the navy blue gum paste and cut carefully into the shape of a hat, using the Yankees hat as a guide.

Below: While it was still soft, I used a stitching tool to make it look as if it were sewn. 

I made a small ball of the gum paste for the "button" on top and had to use a piece of plastic to press this flat so that it didn't have fingerprints on it. For the air holes on the side, I made a small rope then cut it in even sections, pressing them on (used a touch of water for adhesive), then used a #4 tip and pressed in the center, while still soft.

As you can see on the top of the hat, the cornstarch is not absorbing into the dark color of the gum paste, and is discoloring the hat. So after three days, once the hat was fairly hard, I used a small sponge brush from the hardware store and some vodka; using very little vodka, just barely enough to get the brush wet, I brushed the entire hat and let it dry for two more days in order to get rid of the cornstarch stain. Once it dried, it looked shiny but it eventually lost the high gloss look, as you can see from the cake. The day before I needed the hat, I removed the Yankees hat and everything from underneath and just let the new gum paste hat air dry.

THE BASEBALL AND CASE

 The birthday guy's favorite player was Jon Papelbon so I ordered a signed World Series ball from eBay, and also got a baseball case. The signed certificate of authenticity was given to the customer on the side, but I rolled it up like a diploma and tied it with a ribbon in case the customer wanted to add it to the cake board on-site.

THE LOGOS

Next, I found these three Red Sox logos online and sent them to a printing company in town. I had them print them out onto one sheet of photo paper, giving them specific dimensions of each logo. Since my cake was going to be a 12" round, I used a 12" foam cake dummy as a sort of template. You can print logos, etc., out yourself, but I find that the printing company can adjust sizes, their colors are more vibrant, and the photo paper is thicker and works great in an edible printing machine. I use my local Waldbaum's for edible images. They charge $8 per sheet and I put everything I can onto one sheet.

Above: the customer asked for red socks...I used this on top of the cake base

Above: for front of cake

While the logo, above, was drying, I put it onto the side of a 12" round foam cake dummy so that when it dried, it would have that slight curve. I did this so that when I affixed it to the actual cake, it would fit right on. (See below for details on cutting logos, etc.)

Above: for front of hat

When I was ready to use these logos, the first thing I did was to take the original photocopy and cut out the images. Again, printing the images out on photo paper as opposed to regular, thin copy paper gave it a good firmness to use when using as a template. I placed these hard images on top of very, very thin white fondant and carefully cut away using an X-acto knife. You have to roll the fondant thin; if you don't, then once you start to cut with your X-acto knife, the fondant will stretch. I also let my fondant "set" for a minute before I start cutting so it firms up a little; the firmness makes it easier to work with than freshly rolled (softer) fondant. Note: I try to always put edible images onto white fondant instead of colored fondant. Sometimes the colors of the colored fondant bleeds through. Sometimes you have to use a color but I try to use white whenever possible.

Be sure to use cornstarch or powdered sugar underneath the fondant so the fondant doesn't stick to the cutting surface afterwards. 

After cutting, I removed the hard paper from the cut fondant, which left the white fondant in the shape I wanted. Using a tiny paintbrush, I dabbed on the very least bit amount of water I could get away with onto the back of the matching edible image, then added the edible image logos to the coordinating fondant.

THE CAKE BOARD

I used an oversized square board because I knew I'd need room on it afterwards for my design, which included more than just a cake. I attached the fondant to the board using water, used a Happy Birthday impression mat, then added a baseball ribbon for the sides with hot glue (you can also use double-sided tape). That ribbon is pretty nifty, huh?

NOW, ON TO THE BAKING

I have a great red velvet recipe (thank you, Monica Hanes, from TV's Bake This!). Just LOOK at that red batter. ("Red" again...sigh)

But here they are. Aren't they gorgeous?!

My buttercream recipe is from Edna de la Cruz, from DesignMeACake.com. Delicious!

I don't use cream cheese for my red velvet cake filling, which is traditional, because the one time I did was for a hot summer event and as soon as the cream cheese got to room temperature, the cake started sliding apart! I came right home and removed it from my cake flavor options!

ADDING A PERSONAL TOUCH

The birthday boy's last name is Price and he was turning the big 7-0, so I added these to the side of the baseball cap, just like they do in the big leagues.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

As all custom cake makers know, the prep work is what takes the most time. Once all that is done and the cakes are made, the fun really begins!

Ready to roll out the red fondant!

Cover cake and smooth with fondant smoothers. Usually I use a border around the base of my cakes but in this case I did not want one.

I added a dab of buttercream to the middle of my now-dried cake board to use as a "glue" when I added my cake. Do not make the cake board more than a day or two ahead of time or it will start to crack. Don't make it right before you need it, either, or your fondant will be too soft and will move and push in when you add the cake! I try to make mine the day before I need it.

 Add the cake to the cake board

Add the logo to the front, using just a TINY BIT of water to cover the underneath side of the logo. If too much water is on, it will drip out from underneath and run down the cake, which causes stains. Then it's an issue (especially since it's front and center!).

Add the red socks to the cake base with a tiny bit of water

Add the hat to the top of the cake, and place the baseball on the board. A simple design that is sure to please.

And voila! The Red Sox cake! (Sorry, hubby...)

P.S. The customers came to pick up and cake and they 

LOVED IT! Yay!