Danielle's Graduation Cake

A graduation cake for the daughter of a coworker. 

Danielle was pretty specific about what she wanted.  The base cake was chocolate and the top tier was vanilla, both with hot pink vanilla filling.  As I was filling this one with the hot pink frosting I thought "girly cakes are fun to do!"  Both are covered with hot pink fondant.  (Note to self...wear gloves next time I color fondant pink.  I had pink fingernails for a few days!)

The balls are rolled fondant.  I made the graduation cap and diploma out of gumpaste earlier in the week so they would have time to dry.  You can't really see it in the photo but the tassel was made out of fondant using my new clay extruder.  What a neat tool!

Danielle was a cheerleader, the paw prints represent the "Home of the Wildcats".

Danielle was so happy with her cake she sent me a thank you note!  Thanks Danielle, you made my day!

Surprise!

When I saw this design on cakecentral.com I thought it was the cutest thing ever.  So when a co-worker asked if I could do Elmo I showed her a photo and she said it was perfect.

Pre work consisted of cutting out small fondant stars and curled fondant triangles, and making a color flow Elmo and street sign (see previous post).  The ABCs, 123s  and swirls were piped with buttercream.  Elmo was on two lollipop sticks so it was easy to insert him into the cake.  The fondant curls were just placed into the buttercream.  Of course the cake was chocolate with chocolate buttercream filling, what could be better for 3 year olds?

Happy Birthday Zuri!

This cake was fun and a well needed therapy session after my last wedding cake :)

Color flow

Color flow icing can be used to make detailed icing decorations for cakes.  It is sugar, water and a little color flow mix.  The design is piped onto a sheet of wax or parchment paper and allowed to dry.  The result is a puffy looking flat candy plaque.  It is edible but is very hard and sweet.

You can start with any simple design, coloring book photos work well.  I outlined this picture, taped it to a baking tray and then covered with parchment paper.  I made the color flow icing.  The outside of the design is traced with a stiff version of the icing to create a dam to hold in the icing from the next step.  Then water is added to the icing to make it more easily "flow" and fill in the outline.  Here I have filled in the eyes and nose and outlined the body.

Then I filled in the body.

These have to dry for a few days before they are hard enough to handle.  Once dried I added two lollipop sticks to the back with melted chocolate so I could insert into the cake.

Stay tuned for the finished cake....