Graduated Colors

It seems like the latest trend in cake decorating has been graduated colors.  I have always wanted to try this, but thought it would be very time consuming and difficult.  While the first part is true - it IS time consuming, it really wasn't that difficult at all. 

Green is my favorite color, so I thought I would experiment with that.  The trick to doing the graduated colors is pretty simple - Thanks to Half Baked - a caking blog I follow - I too was able to figure out how to do this!  Basically you start with the darkest color you want.  Not the way I would have attempted it, but it makes sense - you do your first bottom row in the dark, then add some white fondant to it.  You then have the next step in color and it is not too drastic of a change. 

One hint though - the base color, before you add the white, halve the amount.  Otherwise, you end up using A LOT of fondant that you don't really need to and have a ton of color left over.  Don't ask me how I know this!  LOL 

My topper for this cake is simply a pear.  I considered using a Granny Smith apple, keeping it in the color scheme, but decided I liked the color and shape of  the pear better. 

Stained Glass & Shipping a Cake

My son turned 22 this month and all he wanted for his birthday was a cake created by mom.  Only one problem, my son lives in Alaska.  Sorry kiddo - no can do!  But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered... can I do it?  Why not try?  The worst that would happen is that he would end up with a box of cake crumbs. 

If I was going to ship this to Alaska - a buttercream cake was ruled out right off the bat.  Fondant, it is!  No pieces that stand up.  This needs to be a smooth cake.  I saw this cake - done much more professionally - on a blog site that I was browsing through.  Ah hah!  That's it - smooth fondant, but lots of color. 

This cake is a triple chocolate fudge cake that I crumb coated with swiss meringue butter cream.  Once it was chilled, I covered the cake in white fondant and smoothed it.  From there, I used a black edible marker and drew on the koi and the lily pads. 

I purchased from the craft store a set of paint brushes.  I used a stipple brush to do "paint" the light blue food coloring gel on the cake.  Let dry.  Switch brushes and color, paint in and let dry.  Repeat until all of the cake is colored in.  Once it is completely dry - I outlined everything in black food gel. 

To ship:  I covered the cake in saran wrap and froze it.  Once it was frozen solid, I wrapped it in bubble wrap and placed it in a sturdy box.  I filled the box with more bubble wrap, sealed it with duct tape and sent it off.  It was sent overnight and made it all in one piece!  Happy Birthday to my son! 

Plants vs. Zombies

My son loves to play Apple Ipod/Ipad games. He is a fan of Angry Birds, but most recently that lost top spot to Plants vs Zombies. So - when he turned 14 he asked for me to do that for his cake.

The cake itself is a chocolate strawberry marble 1/4 sheet cake. He requested cookies and cream for a filling - which I found a fantastic recipe for on a cake blog called "That Really Frosts Me". This filling I could just eat with a spoon, straight out of the bowl!

The flowers, peashooter, lawn mowers, potatoes and walnuts were all made several days in advance, as were the zombies. I used 50/50 gumpaste and fondant to make them, so I would have time to mold them without the fear of them drying out too fast. The zombies were the most fun to make - I didn't have to worry about perfection for them! They are SUPPOSED to look scraggly and a little malformed!

The lawnmowers were made in 3 steps. First red was formed into a rectangle, a smaller round piece was placed on top. I use almond extract for my glue. Then black fondant was used to make the wheels and the top of the mower. Take a toothpick and make holes on the top part of the back end - this is where your mower handles will go. Set aside and let dry. The handles are just white fondant ropes which I made into a "U" shape, the same width of my holes. Let dry. Once the handles are dry (I let them go 2 days) I painted them with silver luster dust paint. I make my paint with luster dust and a little bit of vodka. Mix it until you have the consistency you want. I store mine in small baby food jars with lids. Once the handles are dry - attach them to the lawnmowers with royal icing. Let dry again with the handles leaning up against something. I have a large fruit box that I use to store my fondant pieces while they are drying.

The fence was made with the same 50/50, however after I rolled it out, I used a wooden impression mat and rolling pin to make the wooden fence effect. I cut the planks out, let them dry. After a couple days of dry time, I put them together using royal icing to hold them together. Let dry again.

The worst part of this cake was piping the grass. Once I had my buttercream tinted the desired colors, I used the Wilton grass tip to pipe it all on. I used a ruler to measure out and mark the squares. I piped all the light colors and then piped the dark colors.