The land down under, mate!

Just finished these earlier today!!

Each of these cakes were ordered for a going away party. The party this person is for is transferring to Australia so the customer requested these cakes specifically. She sent me the pictures and asked that I copy them. So, that's what I did!

Surprisingly, these cakes went off without a hitch. Usually I have some sort of small crisis or power outtage but not this time!





The boomerangs are vanilla cakes with both chocolate and vanilla icings. The kangaroo is a FBCT (frozen buttercream transfer) and I piped the snakes on free-hand. (really hard, I know) I made the wood-effect on the edges of the boomerangs by using two different tones of chocolate and swirling them together. I then smoothed the area(s) with my spatula dipped in hot water, so as to smooth the whole thing out. This cake wasn't necessarily HARD, it just took a really long time. I worked on it pretty much all day today (just decorating it) but it came out nicely and I'm pleased with it, so it was worth it.




The kangaroo crossing sign is a chocolate cake with vanilla icing. The kangaroo on this sign is a FBCT as well. (yay for new techniques!) I used two silver dragees on the top and bottom of the sign to resemble screws. This was was definitely one of the easiest cakes I have done. Very simple and looks exactly like what it's supposed to!

Red Sox

This cake was made for a birthday up at Tango. The birthday day boy this cake was for is really into sports and played baseball in college so I asked Rodney to find out what his favorite team was.

I decided to try a different type of cake this time - I was given no specific instructions as to what kind of type of cake it should be. So, knowing that the birthday boy is also a fan of chocolate, I came up with the Oreo Cookie cake. It's a triple chocolate cake with oreo filling (oreo pudding mixed with whipped cream --- DELICIOUS!) and vanilla buttercream. Rodney and I both sampled this cake as well and it's one of my new favorites. It tastes just like an oreo cookie and when you cut into it, it looks like it too.

I made the Red Sox logo using the frozen buttercream transfer technique. This is the second time I've attempted this but this time seemed harder for some reason. I was REALLY unhappy with the way this transfer came out, a lot of the lines are pushed together and there was some bleeding as well. The day that I made this cake was a tough day for me - things were crazy around here and all I wanted to do was get this cake done. By the time I got the transfer on this cake, it was nearly 9pm and I hadn't even gotten Rylee ready for bed yet. (Rodney had band practice that night) It was too late for me to start over so I had to leave it, even if I was miserable with the results.

Rodney said he loved the cake, he said he thought the logo was absolutely perfect (and this is the guy who would know) and couldn't believe I had done it. I guess that means it was a success, even if I didn't think so. Please excuse the crappy picture, I was upset with this cake and didn't really care about making the picture look nice.

*On a slightly different note, I applied online to be a Wilton Method Instructor today and received confirmation that my application had been accepted. Basically what happens is, you apply online - they accept you (or not) and then place you at a store that has an opening. They keep your file active for 6 months for openings during that time and at the end of the 6 months, you can resubmit your application to be put on file again. I looked yesterday and they have two openings in the area listed. My application has been accepted so now I'm just waiting to see if someone wants me! I think it's a really good opportunity for me, I really enjoy teaching and I'd be doing something that I love at the same time. Plus, it's a great way to get some extra practice and I'd only be working a few hours during the evenings/weekends. Just a little extra money, but it's better than nothing! Fingers crossed!

Diploma Cake

This cake was made for my good friend Ryan's graduation party. (yay Ryan!) The inspiration for this cake came from a fellow poster on cake central and wilton's sites, which is typically where most of my inspiration is drawn from.

Half of this cake is milk chocolate and the other half is vanilla. The entire thing is covered in vanilla bc with fondant accents. The UNT logo was my first attempt at a frozen buttercream transfer. Seriously, the last two weeks have presented me with a lot of new "firsts." I wanted to do it this way because from what I have seen, FBCT's come out smooth and clean and they look a little better than the pin prick method. I think there's a time and place that each of these methods work appropriately.

So here's what you do - print out an image in reversed form in the size that you want it on your cake. Tape the image to a cutting board or piece of plexiglass. My cutting board was too big and I didn't happen to have a piece of plexiglass laying around, so I used the back of one of my Magic Line pans (9x13). Tape a piece of wax paper on top of that - WAX, not parchment. Pin prick method use parchement - frozen buttercream transfer, use wax paper. Got it.

After that, outline your image with buttercream in whichever color you choose. Some people choose to outline in black, but I choose to make transfer exactly like the logo and that did not include black. Tip - it's a good idea to wait a few minutes after you do your outline. This allows your buttercream to dry a bit and will definitely make it easier when you are filling in. Fill in your image after the outline is complete. I read a lot from other posters on the sites I frequent to get a good idea of which tips to use that would make the process easier and most girls went with a #4 or 5 tip (Wilton, I haven't used Ateco but I really want to at some point). I used the #5 and some parchment triangles to fill in my transfer. I choose the the simplest logo that UNT had thinking it would be the easiest to replicate and the quickest considering the cake was ENORMOUS and was going to take me a while to ice. Despite what I thought, it wasn't easy. Okay okay, it was easy, just tedious and very time consuming. I think I spent almost 3 hours on it. Once you have the colors filled in, you should then put a layer of white icing over the entire thing. This is to ensure that the colors won't bleed onto your cake.

After the transfer has been filled in, put it in the freezer for a minimum of 90 minutes. I think I left mine in for 3 hours or so.

After you have iced your cake and made sure that it has crusted appropriately (you can only use a crusting buttecream when doing transfers), take your transfer out of the freezer and off of your flat surface. Flip it onto your cake and pull the wax paper off - voila! You have a neat and smooth image on your cake!

The transfer came out well, I think. It was my first one so I didn't expect anything spectacular. I got what I was going for and everyone could definitely tell that it was a UNT logo. I'm sure they will get better and better.

This cake was insanity to ice. Pure insanity. They do not make sword-like spatulas and a sword-like spatula I needed. Though, if they do, please point me in the direction of this place so that this may never be my problem again. Anyway point is, it was hard for me to use my spatula on this cake - it wouldn't reach far enough and kept leaving handle marks on the sides. Also difficult, the fact that I didn't have enough space in my kitchen to put the cake board. I don't have a ton of counter space anyway so this was definitely not working out. I had to ice it on the dining table which now seems a lot shorter since Rylee can just put her hand up there and grab for things. I had a few close calls with the infant cake swiper. I managed though.

I think everyone enjoyed the cake. They seemed to anyway. The party was great and I didn't have a lot of time to notice if people were enjoying it or not.

I also made 50 diploma cookies for this ocassion but they are the same ones I made for the tea two weeks ago, no picture needed.