April Showers Bring May Flowers

Well, it's not May yet, but I was in the mood for creating simple fondant flowers after watching the Cake Boss boss on Rachel Ray's show this afternoon.

When attempting to make a spherical cake for my sister's boyfriend's birthday (see previous entry), I made an extra cake, just in case something went wrong. Luckily everything went smoothly but now I am left with an extra mini cake. It looked so perfect pre-decorated (I'm sad I didn't get a picture), but I was itching to play around with some of the leftover fondant I have... gotta use it before the fondant dries out!

I made the cover layer a bit too thin and you can see indentations and other ugly marks. I love how the fondant flowers and leaves curl and stay.

Now I don't know what to do with this cake? Who should I give it to?

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My sister is getting ready to take her first big boards exam for her medical degree (STEP 1). She has been locked away studying day and night and attending crazy prep courses to prepare for this day. She even moved her testing date earlier (therefore less studying time) to attend my Master's graduation from Cal State Fullerton!

So during one of my creative moments, I decided to make this card to wish her good luck on her studies.

I couldn't find thicker string so the piece of thread will have to do for now. Also, I wanted to write my message on vellum paper so that the flowers and butterflies will show through but I cannot find my vellum paper! I hate it when I misplace things. I ended up writing my message directly onto the card.

What do you think?

Cake: carrot cake with carrot-flavored bits, cream cheese frosting, and fondant covering and decoration pieces

Card: Heavy-duty embellished scrapbooking paper, mini blue brads, blue threading, scrapbooking stickers, and jewel embellishments

Soccer Fun

First off, a birthday-shout out to my sister's boyfriend Jack!

To surprise him on his birthday, I decided to create a soccer ball cake because Jack is British and loves to watch and to play soccer. (He is actually currently on his college's team.) Because I have never created a spherical cake before, this should be interesting. I did a lot of research and decided I did not want to buy a special pan. Instead I went searching for a Pyrex glass mixing bowl, which is round enough. Due to lack of time, I was not able to find a mixing bowl and had to settle for a rounded glass Tupperware container by Pyrex.

Jack likes carrot cake and since I've never made carrot cake before, this would be a fun time to try! I loved how the carrot cake's texture and density came out! It was so yummy... like a muffin! Because it was dense, I was able to carve and shape the cake into a half-sphere without any crumbs. First, I covered the cake with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting (just because carrot cake and cream cheese HAS to go together... yum!). Once that was settled, I outlined the pentagon and hexagon patterns onto the cake. The soccer ball pattern was surprisingly hard to figure out. Then I finished by piping the black spots on the cake.

Hmmm... something is missing. I decided overcome my laziness and also pipe in the white area of the soccer ball. I was glad Miss Amy was available via text/gchat to help me decide what looks best.

The soccer ball cake looks better already! By this time, my arm is ready to fall off from all the piping. But I needed to add the grass....

And a birthday message (I was too lazy by now to pipe the words on so handwritten Sharpie will do).... and voila!

I am pretty please with my soccer ball cake. I hope Jack likes it! Shhh! It's a surprise... his birthday isn't until Thursday, April 29th.

One big downside of using buttercream... the clean-up. Such a big mess.

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I've also been meaning to post some of my other (non-edible) creations on here, but haven't found the time (or energy) yet.

This is a quick birthday card I made for Jack to go along with his cake.

I love DJ Inker. As a teacher, I think I have all of their cute fonts and a bunch of their clip-art collections. For the soccer ball in front, I wanted a 3-D sticker, but I didn't find one that I like during my one trip to Michael's Arts & Crafts this week. (I am kind of glad I don't live by a Michael's because I would be spending money there all the time!)

Cake: carrot cake with carrot-flavors bits, thick layer of whipped cream cheese frosting, and black and white buttercream icing on the outside of the cake

Card: blue, yellow, and green scrapbooking paper, mini colored brads, cotton balls, and DJ Inkers fonts and clip-art images