'Tis the Season for saying thank-you!

I donated a certificate for a 50 serving cake to the Epilepsy Foundation and the good folks at the Gebauer Company were the winning bidders. They ordered a chocolate chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream frosting as a centerpiece cake for their winter holiday party at the Cleveland Skating Club.

The sign is an exact replica of the one that greets visitors to the Gebauer plant complex. It was made out of Rice Krispie Treats, covered in fondant, and scored to replicate the stonework. The logos and address were impressed with an alphabet press and colored with food grade markers. The snow is royal icing. The rocks are marbled fondant and the hand modeled cardinal is the state bird of Ohio.

"Weighty" Birthday Cookies and the World's Smallest Violins

The hexagonal cookies were made for a gentleman celebrating his 45th birthday. He was a power lifter in his teenage years, hence the barbells. Each cookie was individually wrapped because they were going to be shipped. To minimize the possibility of damage to the decoration, the inscription was done using edible food markers. The cookies are vanilla sugar cookies covered in fondant.

The violin cookies were made as favors for a private party honoring a Grammy-nominated violinist hoping to release a solo CD . Each cookie is about 4 inches tall and includes all of the parts of a real violin. The strings are piped from royal icing and the rest of the decoration is hand-cut fondant.

Custom Logo Cookies

These cookies were made using a hand-cut, custom stencil. They're vanilla sugar cookies covered with vanilla rolled fondant.

The background color matches the New York Life logo. The small cookies are marbled fondant with piped royal icing letters.

Thankful Gifts!

These 3 "gifts" and the accompanying cupcakes were made for a reception at Plymouth Church. The theme of the annual stewardship campaign was "Gifts" and these cakes were made to represent the new logo of the stewardship committee.

The largest cake is pumpkin spice with cheescake filling. The blue cake is chocolate brownie cake with caramel ginger filling and the purple cake is lemon with peach passion fruit filling. All are covered in borderless rolled fondant with handmade gum paste bows. The cupcakes are pumpkin and lemon with buttercream icing tinted to match the fondant counterparts.

125 & Going Strong!

Willoughby Hills Friends Church celebrated its 125th birthday with this HUGE cake--the largest horizontal cake I've done to date!

The custom designed cake board was cut from a 31 inch square, covered with Fall themed paper, and embellished with orange satin ribbon and green pearl headed pins.

The 190 serving cake was composed of 3 different flavors: white almond sour cream with mocha mousse filling, milk chocolate with oreo mousse filling, and yellow buttermilk with black raspberry preserves. The icing was homemade buttercream. The Bible verses decorating the cake were piped in buttercream tinted in Fall colors. The church logo was hand piped on a gum paste plaque.

All I can say is, "Thank heaven for double doors!"--or we'd have never gotten this behemoth out of the house or into the church!

Labors of Love & String Theory

Some cake decorating is, in this fast paced day and age, quite lovely--but tragically impractical !Actually doing some of these techniques could take days, if done correctly.

The techniques on the yellow cake are called Lambeth, named after a baker and decorator who made the most amazing cakes in the 1940's. Each line of royal icing is individually piped and the flowers are also hand piped. Not all of these motifs would be used on a single cake, but the idea of the decorating method is to have an intensely decorated cake.

The green cake shows examples of Australian curtain stringwork that is piped with a tip whose opening is about the size of a pinhead. The top of that cake is crimped in a pattern that is then highlighted with piping, too.

My Cake is a Barbeque?

I donated a certificate for a 35 serving cake to a silent auction at church. The certificate winner asked for a smaller cake and some cookies for a Labor Day barbeque. I found a similar cake on the web, some wonderful cookie cutters and this was the result.

The cake is a sour cream marble cake with oreo mousse filling. Everything "on the grill" is hand modeled and edible. The cookies are sugar cookies with fondant decoration.

The family was really delighted with the cake & cookies. They thought it would be the star of their event.

A Special Cake for Friends on the Move

This cake was done for a party honoring the client's longtime friends who are moving. The request was to do something incorporating the breast cancer pink ribbon and the Parker Hannifin logo.

The bow, pink ribbons, and Parker logos are all chocolate. The cake is French Vanilla Sour Cream with strawberry cheesecake mousse filling. It would feed 30 comfortably.

Learning--All of the Time!

I tell people that I'm a "class junkie"! I enjoy learning new techniques so much and I take classes whenever and wherever I can find them.

This year the ICES Convention was held in Orlando and Cake Camp was held in Las Vegas just one week later.

I was able to take some fantastic classes with some well known cake artists at both events. I learned to do cross stitch in royal icing on a gum paste plaque, to paint with cocoa, to model an adorable baby ballerina (taught by British artist, Debbie Brown), to make quick animals (taught by Food Network Challenge winner, Bronwen Weber), to paint delicate watercolor flowers and henna designs on cakes (taught by Norm Davis--another Food Network Challene winner), to make miniature bridal dress and tuxedo cakes (taught by artist Susan Carberry), to make delicate miniature evergreen and poinsettias (taught by artist Diane Gruenberg), and to pipe delicate Oriental stringwork (taught by artisit Geraldine Randlesome).

You just never know when one of these techniques will be the one for that perfect cake!

An Outdoor Wedding in Blue & White

Three years ago, I was out for dinner with my husband. While waiting for the salad, I began discussing something about cake decorating. Our waitress happened to hear me and asked if I did cakes. I told her that I did decorate cakes and that I happened to have a photo of the one I'd just made for my son's 16th birthday. She liked it so much that she ordered a Valentine's day cake on the spot--little did she know, that cake would be my first donation/paid cake!

Fast forward to July, 2008. Out of the blue, she calls me to make a wedding cake for her mother! I couldn't believe that she would think of me after over 3 years (I'd always thought she wasn't too impressed with the first cake because I hadn't heard from her :), let alone be able to find my phone number after all that time.

There were no specific requests for this cake--just a stacked cake with some baby blue flowers.

I made the flower covered entwined heart topper using a floral wire armature wrapped in gum paste. I applied the blue and white dusted gum paste flowers using royal icing.

The 3 tiers were french vanilla cake with strawberry filling and buttercream icing.

The bride was so very happy with her cake--I got a big hug!

40th Wedding Anniversary: Rubies & Stargazers

This 150 serving cake was created for a formal 40th wedding anniversary party. The couple wanted a traditional, understated cake with stargazer lilies to match the centerpieces and a few ruby red accents to represent the gemstone associated with the 40th.

Each gum paste stargazer lily was handmade and colored. In all, a dozen lilies and 2 dozen leaves accented the cakes. The ruby accents were provided with custom colored fondant dragees.

The largest cake was white almond sour cream with raspberry filling. The middle tier was lemon cake with mango mousse, and the top tier and satellite cakes were dark chocolate fudge cake with oreo mousse or chocolate chip mousse.

The customers were delighted when guests declared that they couldn't believe that the flowers weren't real !

Summertime Lazy Daisy Cupcakes

Special cupcakes for a post wedding barbeque. Yellow daisy cupcakes were lemon buttermilk filled with vanilla buttercream and white daisy cupcakes were caramel filled with burnt sugar buttercream.

Embossed fondant covers a thin layer of buttercream so that the cupcakes would remain pretty in the summer heat.

Daisies are fondant with sanding sugar centers, all dusted with pearl dust.

Each cupcake was wrapped in a handcut, individual decorative paper.

Butterflies, Flowers, & Circles Gone Mod

Delicious vanilla-almond butter sugar cookies covered in embossed and inlaid fondant for a young lady's graduation party. The request for something "not too girly", but still pretty.

Mom said that she hates cookies, especially sugar cookies, but that she LOVES these and can't stop eating them.

The fondant keeps the cookies softer and these store beautifully for long periods of time in airtight containers, even in the freezer!

'29 to 20-09:Art Deco to Deco Art, My Wilton Contest Entry

As part of an 80th anniversary celebration on June 14, 2008, Wilton Industries in Chicago held a cake decorating contest at the Wilton School. The theme of the contest was "Past & Present", so I looked back to the start of the company at the end of the Roaring Twenties. I found my inspirations in the flapper dresses of the era, cloche hats with egret feathers, Erte Art Deco prints, and the jewels that symbolize an 80th anniversary--diamonds and pearls.

The 3 tier, elongated octagonal cake was done in shaded fondant from dark purple to pale violet. The settings for the jewels were made in fondant from original 1976 Wilton Baroque Gum Paste Molds. The diamonds were done in 2 shapes in a silicone mold that I made from scrapbooking jewels. The egret feathers were hand cut and veined gum paste. All of the draping was done free-form in fondant. The finishing touch was beaded fringe trim on all 3 cakeboards.

I was delighted to be awarded 2nd place out of nearly 30 entries in the non-professional (i.e. don't make a living selling cakes) division .

I've taken the Wilton Master Course and many other classes at the school and I attribute many of my skills and my keen interest in cake decorating to the wonderful people and instruction at Wilton.

"Little Jim" and the Giant Church Organ

Our church Music Minister and organist celebrated his 10 year anniversary and the social committee asked me to do cake for 150. Since the celebration coincided with the church picnic, cupcakes were the grab & go choice for the majority of the cake, but a centerpiece cake for the special anniversary was a must, too.

I modeled the church organ and bench using Rice Krispie Treats covered in woodgrain fondant. The 2 church hymnals were added, along with music, and other various "organ parts"--stops, tabs, etc. "Little Jim" was done in gum paste.

"Big Jim" was so delighted with his cake! I made it so that he could take the maquette home to eat, dust--whatever.

The support cake was blood orange with mango mousse filling and cream cheese icing (Big Jim's favorite) and the cupcakes were cherry bit sour cream with buttercream icing.

The day was extremely HOT--97 degrees plus! Thank heaven for the nice breeze! The cakes were enjoyed thoroughly and I hope to be doing one in 10 more years for Big Jim's 20th!

Polka Dot Shower --Just like the invitation

This was done to match a wedding shower invitation--a green & white striped background with a 3 tier, stacked cake accented with polka dot bands and topped by a gathered, draped ribbon.

The white almond sour cream cake filled with mango mousse was covered in a layer of buttercream under the white fondant. The bow topper was gum paste. It fed 50 comfortably.

The shower was kitchen-themed, so the minature kitchen tools on the board are molded fondant. The recipe card has the ingredients for a "Happy Marriage".

Hangin' 10 Surf & Guitar Hero Cake

6 year olds have such great ideas for cakes! Gio was having a beach party in the backyard, complete with a waterslide, so he wanted a beach themed cake. He also loves Guitar Hero, palm trees, and purple octopi, so......that's what he got!

The cake, which stood about 17 inches tall with the sun plaque, would serve well over 50 people. The bottom oval tier is chocolate cake with malted chocolate ganache filling. The middle tier is yellow cake with seedless raspberry preserves. The carved wave tier is one layer yellow & one layer chocolate with buttercream filling. The outer icing is vanilla fondant. The sand is brown sugar. The white wave foam is buttercream.

Everything on the cake is edible. The palm trees are pretzel rods coated in chocolate. The shells & fish are molded fondant. The sun is gum paste lettered with edible marker. Gio, the surfing Guitar Hero was hand modeled using gum paste & fondant.

Gio's response to seeing his cake, "Awesome!"

Star Wars Inspired OSSAS Cake 2007

In September of 2007, I entered my first Oklahoma State Sugar Arts Show. The theme for the show was motion pictures, so I chose Padme from Star Wars in her picnic gown. For the competition, the table must be dressed to reflect the theme and inspiration items must be presented.

The cake is covered in embossed fondant and painted gold. Green ribbons and individual miniature roses decorate the cake to mimic the pattern on the bodice of Padme's gown. The topper is a floral ball of dozens of miniature roses. The cake board is covered in embossed fondant made to look like a wicker picnic basket pattern.

The was my first "big" competition and I have a long way to go, but my score was in the upper 3rd, so I was extremely happy with the results.