Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Finding Nemo/Under the Sea Baby Shower

I wanted to share this awesome baby shower I had the pleasure of contributing to.The mama to be wanted a Finding Nemo/ Under the Sea themed party for her baby boy's shower. The color scheme for the party was green, blue, and orange. I thought this theme was really cute for a baby boys shower and tried to incorporate the them completely throughout the dessert table.The party was being held at a waterfront home which was the perfect backdrop for this party.
 
For the cake I made a topsy turvy Finding Nemo themed cake complete with edible Squirt and Nemo. We featured Squirt on the top of the cake since he was the mama-to-be's favorite character. We also made a variety of mini desserts to tie in the theme. We had sugar coral cupcakes, blue jello fish bowls, fruit cheesecake star shooters, shell cookies, and Inky chocolate covered marshmallows.
 
 
 For the decorations I made a wooden sign that spelled out the baby boys name. I painted it and added Nemo characters to it and displayed it in the front of the dessert table. I also added sea shells, starfish, and sand to decorate the table.

 I tried to incorporate mini fish bowls into the dessert table to represent when Nemo was stuck in the fish tank during the movie.
 Edible Inky's
 I love the way the sugar coral turned out. It looked so realistic! I will be posting a tutorial on how I made it in the near future.
 
 Some of the themed food included ocean punch, shark watermelon, goldfish, and Swedish fish.

 
For the favors, the hostess made little bags of chocolate popcorn for everyone to take home and labeled it fish food. Yum!
 
I think the kids enjoyed the desserts!
 
Here is a close-up of Squirt which was made by my awesome husband Jason! I think he did a fantastic job on him! He is so cute!
So hope you enjoyed this baby shower feature! I will be posting the new sugar coral tutorial shortly and of course many more wedding cakes as wedding season is in high gear now!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Construction Themed Cupcake Toppers Tutorial

So my next guest post for Spaceships and Laserbeams was how to plan a construction party. I think this theme has become very popular among little boys and so I thought I would help everyone out with cute some ideas. As always please check out the first post on ideas to plan the party here. 
For the tutorial part of my post I made different construction themed cupcake toppers. These toppers are super easy to make and add a really cute touch to the party. I hope you enjoy!
 
 First up bake as many cupcakes as you will need to feed the guests. I used yellow cupcake wrappers to tie in the construction theme but, you could also use black or orange. Also, make yourself a batch of chocolate buttercream for the “mud” and grind up some Oreos for the “dirt” and set aside. You will need yellow, orange, black, and white fondant to make the cupcake toppers. Quantity will vary depending on how many toppers you need to make.
 The first topper is a super easy construction cone. First, roll out the orange fondant and cup a square out using a cookie cutter.Next, take a small amount of orange fondant and roll it into a cone shape. Then attach the cone to the square with a little bit of water.
Finally, to finish the cone roll out some white fondant and cut two very thin strips. Attach the strips to cone at the base and almost half way up the cone with water to finish.
 Next up, is the construction hard hat. First roll the yellow fondant into a ball and then snip off the bottom of the ball with scissors to make a half ball shape.
 Then roll out an oval and attach the half ball to the oval to form the hat.
 Add indents to the top of the hat, as well as a square with a circle in the middle to the front of the hat. This will finish your yellow construction hat. 
 The next topper is the stack of tires. First, roll out some black fondant but leave the fondant very thick. Then take a circle cookie cutter and cut three circles from the thick fondant.
 After you have cut the circles use a ball tool to indent the centers of the tires. Next, to add tread take a small square cookie cutter and imprint the fondant around the entire tire. Repeat the imprint on both sides of the tire to complete to tread.
  Next, stack the tires securing them together with a little bit of water.
 The last topper is probably the trickiest to make but, certainly will be worth it in the end. To start the dump truck your will need a fat square of yellow fondant for the cab of the truck.
 Attach the cab to a thinner rectangle of yellow fondant. Next, add four small tires using the same technique we used before on the other tires.

 
Then roll out a thin piece of white fondant for the windows of the cab and a thin piece of yellow fondant to finish the canopy of the cab.
  Lastly, you will need to make the dump body portion of the truck. In order to do this start with a thick piece of yellow fondant in a trapezoid shape
 Hollow out the inside of the trapezoid using a ball tool. Fit the dump body on the truck to make sure the shape is correct and is in proportion with the rest of the truck.
After you have the dump body completed you can add any finishing details to the truck like a grill or headlights.

 To complete your cupcakes start with icing the cupcakes in chocolate buttercream (mud) and then roll them in the ground Oreos (dirt). Don’t worry if the cupcakes are a little messy they are suppose to be construction zone cupcakes, the messier the better. Then add each of your toppers using a little buttercream as glue.

 
For the tire topper I added a little chocolate buttercream to the tires to make them look messier.
 For the dump truck toppers I made them look like they were actually dumping dirt from the trucks. If you plan to do this make sure you attach the top of the dump body to the cab with a little water to secure it.

 So there you have it super easy cute cupcake toppers to match your construction party. Don’t forget to check out our Pinterest board for more great ideas, and of course if you have any questions feel free to ask. Stay tuned because we are working on a very cool dessert table for a little boy's baby shower!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Recent Wedding Cakes

Since wedding season is officially upon us I thought I would share some of our more recent cakes. First, up was an all buttercream cake with royal icing piping. The bride wanted the cake to have a lot of over piping and detail. This is not traditionally our style but I think this cake looked beautiful, classic and elegant.
 
Here is a close-up of all that piping which took hours of work.
The bride also ordered a surprise grooms cake for her hubby. I love when a bride does this but it always makes it tricky for me not to accident;y ruin the surprise. So far I have not spilled the beans early, and have not run into any grooms while delivering surprise cakes.
The boat was purchased with the couples honeymoon money so the boat was named "the honeymoon" in Italian. So cute! 

 
The next cake was a cake we made for Cake Central magazine. It was featured in Volume 4 issue 4. The theme was ombre and the inspiration picture included a bride with yellow orchids and yellow and green striped hair. I went with a square cake because the inspiration picture was very modern. I wanted to display ombre is a different way so I came up with this modern design and added the orchids to include the inspiration photo. 

The next cake made in collaboration with a local invitation vendor friend that wanted to pair his invitations with a matching cake. The invitation we selected were a very pale pink and ivory with hints of brown. When I looked at the invitations I thought it would be easy to come up with a matching cake but, after changing my design several times I finally came up with something I was happy with and matched the invitations to a tee. 


I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into some of the things we have been working on lately. We have lots of great things to come this year so stay tuned for more great tutorials, birthday bashes and real weddings.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Capital Area Cake Show 2013 Wedding Cakes

So as you guys know I went to the Capital Area Cake Show last weekend and took some photos to share! So up today are the wedding cakes! The theme this year was art deco which, I personally think is a bit of a harder challenge. Art deco is such a specific look and I tend to think it looks more masculine so it can be difficult to get a nice balance. So here are this years art deco inspired cakes (I did not edit any of these photos so if some appear crooked its my picture taking abilities not the cakes themselves). Enjoy!
 
I love the soft colors and contrast of this cake.


Art deco at its finest!

I will say I don't know who won but this cake would be my choice. It so pretty although it doesn't scream art deco to me I still think it is a beautiful cake.
Such detail!




I love the texture and contrast of this next cake. This cake artist was really thinking out of the box and this cake is a beautiful work of art.




This cake is so much fun with its pops of color. Typically you don't see that much color in an art deco cake but I love it!
As I said before I am not sure who won but I think all of the cakes turned out beautifully. Art deco can be hard to incorporate into a cake and I think these artists did a fantastic job. I hope that next years theme is a bit more fun. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse at the Capital Area Cake Show.