Starting 2011 the right way!

First cake of the new year - I am loving it!  My grandmother turned 92 this month and requested that I create a work of edible art for her.  She is a big fan of roses - has tons of them growing in her garden.  I got a new airbrush for Christmas and was dying to use it.  Hmmm.... and idea was born! 

My friend Melissa recently showed me a super easy way to make fondant roses.  Much, much easier than the way I was making them before.  Sitting down one evening, I made a ton of roses, all different sizes out of plain white 50/50.  Once they dried, I used the airbrush to color them different colors. 

Something to note about the airbrush - the fine mist goes EVERYWHERE!  I have "constructed" a painting box and that caught most of it - but after I was done, there was a fine layer of colors on the counters. 

I have a large egg carton that I saved, which makes it perfect for putting the roses in to dry.  It took about 24 hours for things to completely dry and I was then able to make "paint" out of luster dust and vodka.  I painted the edges of the rose petals to make them pop just a bit and give it a little more definition.  The white roses I experimented with and painted the entire petals with a pearlized white - it made them come out sort of satiny looking.  Very pretty! 

Constructing the cake - triple chocolate fudge with raspberry filling - crumb coating and then airbrushed the cake brown.  I wanted it to match the color of the fondant strips I made to give it a basket look in case I had any large gaps.  The fondant strips I cut and then scored with my gumpaste tool to give it a wood grain look.  Each strip was applied and I made them long enough to overlap on the top and cause a "bump".  That way when I put the roses on the cake, I had a ready made height in the center.  Roses were added, gumpaste leaves added and voila!  One very happy grandmother - and me too!  :-)

Torting and filling! Not so much....

September's office cake was a disaster in the making - at least in my mind.  First off, the cake was a french vanilla one.  So far, so good.  Loved the flavor, cake baked up real nice.  Tried a new leveling method from the cake forums I followed and it worked well!   The problems occurred when I went to torte and fill. 

It all started out okay - I torted, used a buttercream dam and put in my filling of white chocolate mousse.  Let the cakes settle.  Covered the cakes in white chocolate ganache.  Which, by the way, was the first time I have ever used ganache - I was always afraid to try it.  It sounded super chic and I figured I would probably mess it up!  Melissa convinced me to try it - thanks Melissa! 

Anyway - cakes have settled, looking good.  Next day I take the cakes out and cover with the fondant.  The hula girls are drying and looking more like girls and less like mismatched torsos.  Then... I get sick.  Here I am having to finish this cake and I feel horrible.  Oh well - figure I can work a little, take a nap.  Work a little, take a nap.  It was a good plan!  Sometime between a nap and pulling the cake out of the fridge to work on the roof, the cake settled more!!  Yikes!  Now instead of my beautiful tiki wood walls, I have bulging walls. 

I don't know if it was the ganache that caused the cake to settle more or if the cake was too moist to hold the ganache, filling and the weight of the fondant.  My research since leans towards the cake being too moist and therefore to "frail" to hold itself up.  Sigh.  Just when I thought I had the best fondant work to date! 

The good news - the cake made it in to work all in one piece.  The birthday girl raved about it - couldn't believe I was sick but still made "a fantastic work of art"!  The flavor was good and obviously we didn't have to worry about a dry cake! 

You want what?!

Back in January, I made the office birthday cake with an igloo and penguins.  My sister saw the cake and promptly informed me that for her birthday she wanted surfing penguins..... um, ok....

Several different design ideas went through my mind.  I know how to make penguins.  I can make a surf board.  But how to execute??  I thought about a tiered cake with the penguins surfing down the side.  I wasn't sure I wanted to make a sheet cake.  I thought about "beach cakes".  Then I thought about penguins on a beach  (on vacation) - wondered if it was possible to make a wave.  So - google to the rescue!  And the result.....

The cake is a box cake mix - Funfetti flavor.  It was cute when you cut it as they had all kinds of colored sprinkles in it.  The penguins, surfboard and wave are all made out of gumpaste.  The wave was actually double that size, but I ended up breaking it in half so it would fit more to scale.  Easy, easy to make!  Colored gumpaste rolled thin and draped over a liter pop bottle to dry.  I painted the surfboards with food markers.  The tree was a pretzel rod with royal icing piped over it using the leaf tip.  I put my mom to work making the sand for the cake.  Crushed graham crackers with brown sugar - sifted and then applied to the cake.

This was a really fun cake to do.  Thanks to my sis for wanting something different!