HOT DOG!

okay, so first of all i had a BLAST making this cake. our class was assigned "fun food items" and we each selected a food that would make a good groom's cake. my husband was my groom-inspiration. when we got married, i couldn't afford to surprise him with a groom's cake, despite the fact that i had desperately wanted one. so, i took this opportunity to make it up to him and made him a groom's cake. in short, i made him a GIANT hotdog on a bun. i LOVED making it. it was a lot of fun to conceptualize, carve and decorate.

on a side note: i submit this video, because every time i look at this cake i hear this play in my mind!

bahahahahahaha!!!!

the hotdog itself was made out of rice krispy treats and was covered in fondant. the cake was that orange, vanilla pound cake and it was filled with a luscious vanilla butter cream. i used several techniques in decorating this one including: airbrush, carving, sugar paste decor, tinting and royal icing.

behold: my favorite picture of this cake!!

now a little back story here: the hotdog is wearing a beret and there IS a little word bubble that has the hotdog exclaiming, "OUI!" [which i'm assuming you know means "yes" en francais...] how to explain this... well, i adore my husband's family. and ONE of the things i love about them is how they french everything up! specific to this story is the sabrett hotdog. pronounced "sah-brett" with emphasis on the fact that there is an 'ah' sound [like 'ah-choo'] and the word is broken into TWO syllables. BUT not in my husband's family. they call it "sa-bah-ray" and so... you probably don't truly understand the humor here, but it's a little private, inside joke between me and my husband and so yes, that's why the hotdog is wearing a beret.

serendipity would have it that the creation of this cake coincided with my husband's grandfather's birthday! (POPPY!) love him. and he loves my cakes! so it was a win-win-win!

when i asked him how the cake tasted, he replied, "beautiful!" he's a man of few words but he doesn't waste them! :o) he might be one of my biggest fans. and what i mostly love about this photo, is that it shows just how big the cake was! i wasn't kidding when i said it was huge!

anyway, i can hardly believe it but the next time i post will be the post that sums up the culminating experience and my final cake. is it the end already?!

i wonder what the future holds?... but until the next post...

more to come!

xo

m

a nod to a coco chanel wedding in cake and farewell to plasti-dome.

so we were assigned a wedding dress cake. we were tasked with finding a wedding dress and creating a cake around that. having recently planned a wedding (2 years is recent isn't it??) that is exactly what i had asked my cake designer to do. design a cake that payed homage to my beloved gown and to please please please give it an elegant, yet whimsical vibe by pulling in breezy and hues of blue. i LOVE my wedding cake. LOVED. loved. with that in mind, i did the same thing for my imaginary bride. i selected an entire wedding as my inspiration. her hair, her dress, her pink, girlish flower wall art, her ruffles, the pearls. everything. by the way, to see the wedding itself, please head over to styleunveiled and you'll see how i got the cake design i did. they have stunning taste. and i often visit there to daydream. i adore weddings.

here's the one picture that i borrowed from the site:

the cake i designed included ruffles, fantasy, anemone-inspired flowers with chanel-inspired black pearl centers, swiss dot pearls and a stark contrast black belt. it was also dusted with a diamond pearl dust, just to luster it up and make it sparkle. i don't have any white-box photos of it as of yet. it is still at school, wrapped in plastic, waiting for me to lug it home. (it's a dummy cake: ie. made of styrofoam so it's got some really good shelf-life...assuming it can survive the shelf in class and the long trip home)

here are some photos i took in class:

i hope to take more once i get it home and tweak it a touch. but all in all, i wanted to challenge myself and do a white on white cake with a few touches of black and pink. working with black on white presents its share of challenges and using all white afforded me the opportunity to play with texture and patterns. all in all, i loved how it came out and i see the wedding in my cake. it's fun, youthful, playful and pretty. now, to get it home in one piece!!

speaking of trips home, i have to update you on some somber news. remember my sidekick, plasti-dome??? i'm so sad and sorry to report that i left it on the train a few weeks ago. i had fallen asleep and awoke in penn and scrambled to get to class. you know how you wake up sometimes and you're all thrown off like, "OH, i'm here!!" and off i went and it's the saddest of partings. plasti-dome has been with me since day one, and now, alas, i know not of his whereabouts. i just know i am actually a bit bummed. i'm oddly sentimental and we found each other on ebay years ago. he was a bit of a gift and was the perfect, retro-style cake dome that i had searched and searched for. we were a perfect pair.

and now i've lost my sidekick. *wah*

either way, i'll be on the lookout for a new plasti-dome. this baker of cakes needs a good sidekick!

by the way, i graduate this week!....EEK!

more to come!

xo

michael kors rocks my socks

it may have been a while, yes! but i've had a whole bunch of things to do... it all started with Irene and a power outage and the crash of my beloved mac. BUT all bits are restored and i'm back to finishing some MUCH needed updates!

next up on the menu is carved cakes. if you haven't carved a cake yet, might i suggest that you do indeed stack yourself up some cake and butter cream filling, put it in the fridge so it gets nice and set and then grab your favorite sharp, serrated knives and get to carving. umm, but first, you need a plan!

in class, we were making purse cakes. though, i don't call them purses. or pocketbooks. i think i probably just call them bags. but not just any bags. designer bags!! (one of my favorite things to do is go to stores and flounce around with the newest, prettiest, largest bag i can find, with all its shiny, gold or silvery accoutrement. it's tassels and grommets and zippers and pockets.) err, umm. *clears throat* anyway, i selected my personal favorite michael kors. i modeled mine after the astor grab bag.

it's a velvety-soft, purple-gray leather bag with silver grommets and great thick strap handles. the only changes i made to the bag was to give it one, slightly longer handle instead of two shorter ones, attach the handle to the sides rather than the front and back of the bag and make the grommets a wee bit larger... often in class we don't have a LOT of time and for me, it's important to finish the cake. IF i had my druthers, i'd've made two handles and tinier little grommets, but part of our grade is to finish within the time constraints so you must plan accordingly. so i took a LITTLE artistic license due to time constraints... but BY FAR, the most difficult thing about this bag was tinting the fondant and sugar paste to the correct hue. NOT EASY...but it can be done!! :o)

to carve a cake, i suggest the following:

1. do NOT be afraid to carve your cake. do not be intimidated by your baked goods!

2. VISUALIZE your finished product at all times, because it helps to secure that your vision will become a reality.

3. have measurements, and templates, accurate and created to the appropriate size. PLAN PLAN PLAN! don't just got at it. hacking and sawing away and expect good things. i mean, expect good things, but plan for them too!

4. step away every once in a while and look at it from all angles. give your eyes and brain a chance to see what you're doing. don't try to do it in one shot, because if you carve too much, well... you'll spend a lot more time fixing it. that will be frustrating. and you're dealing with cake... it's supposed to make you smile.

5. have fun with it. it's cake!

6. ** important to remember: make a delicious, carve-able cake - in this case a orange-vanilla pound cake with vanilla butter cream. a cake can look good, but if it tastes like sawdust...well...**

anyway, here is my cake.

now if only i could eat my cake, and have the bag too...[i have a bag problem...and his name, is michael kors]

more to come

xo

m

rarefied birdhouse for some fine feathered friends

OPEN HOUSE!

one last thing my partner and i worked on was a pastillage birdhouse! we created a whimsical, fun, very dr. seussian birdhouse that looks cheerful and happy and very inviting. we used isomalt to glue the structure together - which works FABULOUSLY should you once again work quickly, and neatly!

we cut out our pieces a few days prior to assembly using the patterns and templates we created. we allowed them to dry on a flat surface.

my favorite thing, by the way, was the little stick perch! super cute!

we airbrushed the pieces to accentuate their original colors, as well as to pick up some of the texture and design elements we included such as the "feathery" swirls on the sides of the house, and the woodgrain on the roof tiles. the color brought it all to life.

this project, again, just shows how exciting pastillage can be if you allow your imagination to run a bit wild. it's always best to color outside the lines.

more to come!

xo

m

the haunted castle

so fun with pastillage is next on the menu. if you haven't used it yet, may i suggest you do so immediately? besides being fun to play with, it lends itself to a variety of very valuable uses. i'm most eager to use it to create a cake stand as well as decor for a cake board or two. it's a sugar-based dough that dries very hard and will be quite sturdy and durable. it can even be sanded to remove sharp edges and uneven surfaces. traditionally, it is left white, and then airbrushed (should you so desire color). though you can work swiftly and add some gel color, knead it in and work with your pastillage that way as well. you can also paint it with color dust and some vodka or extract.

but making and cutting the pieces themselves? given the fact that it begins to dry VERY quickly, you MUST have your plan, your templates, your supplies, etc. completely set up and ready to use otherwise, you will struggle. it begins to form a dry "skin" on the surface within several minutes so i'm not kidding when i say you have to have a plan, you have to work efficiently and quickly in order to successfully work with pastillage.

my teammate and i had our plan and templates all set! we elected to do a haunted castle. it was a great working relationship because neither one of us was interested in make a pretty, princess-y type castle. we used the temperament of the pastillage to our advantage as well, knowing that a haunted castle is a bit run-down and old, so we allowed for cracks, rough surfaces and uneven windows, etc. for as difficult as it may be to make everything perfect and even and smooth, it is EQUALLY as challenging to make things cracked, uneven and ...haunted! but it was all intentional...and A LOT of fun!!

we textured some of the surfaces with a snake skin or houndstooth pattern.

we added vines, dusted gum paste jewels, crowns, and pieces of rock/brick wall.

my favorite thing was sewing the roof closed with some gum paste vine. possibilities are basically only limited by your own imagination.

we also got to play with some sugar in order to make a very cool base and extra decorations for our castle.

we added color, poured it on the silpat, swirled in some additional, contrasting color and allowed it to cool.

they looked like giant, evil lollipops. perfect base for the castle!

when all was said and done, it looked like a pretty cool, sugary-sweet haunted castle.

*Tip: use PVC pipe and large wooden dowels to form your cylinders of pastillage. once they dry for a day or two, you can slide them right off (remember, it's sturdy stuff!) and they stand straight, tall and evenly on your surface!

more to come!

xo

m

cake pilot travels the globe...

just a little aside for you this afternoon.

i was sort of amused by this.

when you grow up on and near farm land, and everywhere you look is filled with trees and woodland creatures... i mean, i had CHICKENS as a kid! [four to be exact: lucy, ricky, fred and ethel!... RIP guys] well, you don't realize how big the world is as a kid.

of course, i've grown up since then [still want chickens though]... and i've been to amazing places - all over the US, and most recently Iceland and Australia... i know how much the world has grown, how it's all expanded and it excites me to envision myself traveling to the many beautiful, wonderful places. (i have blogs on those too! haha)

i began to write when i was very small. i write my own greeting cards, i write journals, i even write on my sneakers. i have this quotation painted on my office wall [inspired by an old fortune cookie fortune]. it reads, "a writer writes not because [she] is educated but because [she] is driven by the need to communicate. behind the need to communicate is the need to share. behind the need to share is the need to be understood."... the writer writes because she must. thank goodness for blogs.

anyway, i was reviewing some settings on my blog this morning, and i saw my viewership has grown EXCEEDINGLY quickly thanks to RBI Cakes and their posting of my blog links on their FB wall. [for which i am immensely and eternally grateful!!] what was so exciting to me... was seeing how FAR my little blog has reached!!

thank you all for your interest in my blog. for your interest in my experiences! i look forward to continuing to write not just for me...but for you as well.

more to come!

xo

m

overture de fleurs

i've been working endlessly for the past week. if i'm not running to or from school, i'm doing one of a thousand separate things lately. i actually scheduled a "date" with my blog. you guess it! it's right now! (we're getting along famously by the way!)

i wanted to take a moment, and rewind a tad...because i wanted to [once again] discuss the maestro of sugar flowers, and basically lavish some attention on the gorgeous arrangements that i witnessed unfold before me in class.

leading up to this discussion on flower arrangement, we had a practical exam. we were required to make a full rose, a half-rose, 2 buds and 6 leaves. we had to dust everything, arrange everything and compose it together in a pressed sugar vase that we created in the weeks prior.

one of the many disadvantages to missing a class with Chef Ron is that i missed some very important details about coloring flowers, dusting leaves and petals, even how to compose leaves together and learning (and practicing) how to arrange everything in a way that is beautiful and in a way that makes sense.

while i was basically satisfied with my roses, prior to dusting them, i fell seriously short when it came time to dusting my roses and leaves. i didn't have any notes on the process (thanks LIRR), i didn't have an photos (thanks again LIRR) and i didn't have any experience based on the teachings from that monday night (thanks LIRR)... [once again, never forgive the train or the clouds]... so i felt an immense pressure to perform.

having studied classical performance of flute for 20 years, i understand that sometimes, you must do what is called "sight reading." it involves looking at a piece you've never seen or read or heard before, often it's very technical and difficult, and you must take 1 - 3 minutes (depending on the test) before you are required to perform it for evaluation. it's intensely difficult, your mistakes are counted heavily, even for the most seasoned of musicians. it tests your technical ability and strength of your playing "chops." no one likes to sight-read.

well i felt the same pressure during the practical. probably even more so, because i hadn't been taught how to dust the way Chef Ron does it. i can't say i was pleased with the flowers i produced. and i CAN say i wasn't pleased with my final product - especially the way i misunderstood the objective of how to arrange the flowers in the vase. i left a lot of open space because i thought we would get to add some of my other sugar flowers to the vase. so...that meant where i should have simply arranged JUST the roses, i arranged them with the intention of filling in more with our other flowers. of course, this was incorrect and caused me to look a bit incompetent. never a good thing when you are being critiqued by the man who redefines sugar flowers on a daily basis. especially when you missed his class [even if it wasn't your fault, it doesn't matter. perhaps a more resourceful student would have just hitchhiked??]

BUT that being said, when i look at my few roses, i'm reminded of how far i've yet to go. which would explain why i've since made and plan to continue to make roses at my kitchen table, with my cats watching me late at night wondering what i'm doing. the ONLY way to improve is to practice. that's something i've known since my classical performance days - i've played for so many hours that my lips would go numb and the sun would be rising again. trust me, i know all about dedication and practice!

my favorite part of the evening was [no, not when the evaluation was over *smile*] when we got to watch Chef Ron demonstrate his talents. and all you have to do is sit there, really just as a witness, and watch him nimbly and confidently manipulate flowers, press and bend, pull and push, twist and hug all the flowers. they just dance for him. it's a lot like watching ballet. and i guess that makes sense, given his background. it's really no joke when i use words like symphony, maestro, grace and ease... it's all very fluid - not unlike a performance one might see on a stage somewhere with Sergei Prokofiev's or Peter Tchaikovsky's wonderful orchestrations shimmering across your ears and eyes. now that may sound over-the-top, but i assure you... i'm being nothing more than completely serious. having studied classical music [remember my carrot video??] i feel, see and hear the world in a very musical, synesthetic way. so watching Chef Ron build and create right in front of me...well it's been a gift. it's all just very Chopin and Bach!

anyway, here are a few of his arrangements...

the beginning:

as well as one of my favorite photos!

when he posed for it, he said "hello blog readers!!!" love him!

more to come!

xo

m