iPad Cake

I can't believe how fast kids are growing up these days.  A year ago, my nephew requested a Spongebob Square Pants cake for 9th birthday.  When I asked him what he wanted me to make for him this year, he replied with an iPad cake and all the apps!

This cake was a white almond sour cream cake (adapted from Cake Central) with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream (adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes).  The frosting didn't hold up well with all of the fondant laying on top.  I noticed a lot of bulging and air pockets later on.  Next time, I would treat it as a filling and use a sturdier frosting as a dam. 

The details were  made with a mix of store bought and home made fondant.  I used royal icing on the cake and an edible food marker on the banner for the lettering.  The bottom was heavily coated with silver luster dust.  I say heavily because I realized too late that I didn't have enough white fondant.  So, I ended up mixing together all my available fondant and I happened to have a lot of pink fondant.

Just like last year, he wasn't shy about pointing out my mistake.  I forgot the camera lens.  But we fixed that by sticking the candle there.  Overall, he was very happy with his cake as I was to make it for him.

Chic Birthday Cake

By adding a bow to the cake, I turned it from simple to chic!  This cake was made from the extra chocolate cake layers and peanut butter frosting I had saved in the freezer from the Hello Kitty Baby Shower cake I made the other week.  I sampled some of the trimmings when I was reshaping the cake and I swear it seemed more moist than the first time around.

When I freeze my cake layers, I triple wrap it in saran wrap and then place in it a Ziploc bag.  The cakes can be frozen for up to two months without losing its flavor.  When I need to use it, depending on whether I'm carving or not, I'll thaw it slightly or completely before use.

Tool Box Cake

Finally got back into the kitchen to make another fondant cake.  I can't believe an entire month has passed since I made the Nikon Cake. My cousin requested this cake for her husband's birthday.  She didn't have any ideas on what she wanted for him; so I suggested a tool box as he is a mechanic and she let me run with it.

I baked four 8x8-inch vanilla cake layers (adapted from Baking Illustrated) and ended up just using 2 and 1/2 cake layers.  After I filled the cake with kahlua mousse filling, frosted the cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, and covered the cakes with marshmallow fondant, I realized that it looked a lot like a suitcase.  I should've trimmed a bit off from the front!  Speaking of the front, I personalized it by replacing where the brand name Craftsman would've been with the recipient's name.

I made the screwdriver with my amazing new tool, the clay extruder; no more uneven ropes!  Also, for black and red fondant pieces, I have been staying away from dying my marshmallow fondant and have been using store bought fondant instead but I recently purchased some Americolor Soft Gels Paste and it did not disappoint with how vibrant it made my fondant.  Good thing as I'm having better luck working with marshmallow fondant than store bought fondant lately.  All the gray pieces was white fondant covered with silver luster dust.

Optimus Prime Cake

I knew I wanted to make this cake for my brother for his birthday for several months now! At first, I thought I might have been too ambitious but it wasn't as difficult as I imagined. I should've made the bottom tier 3 layers and I should've allowed the antennas to dry a few days earlier but all in all, I'm quite happy with the results.

The cake was made of 2 8-inch lemon cakes with raspberry buttercream frosting and 2 6-inch red velvet cakes with cheesecake mousse filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.  I used a mix of Duff brand buttercream fondant and homemade marshmallow fondant to cover and detail the cakes.  Adding tylose powder to the store bought fondant did not speed up the drying process.  It did work wonders on the homemade fondant though.


The toothpicks actually kept the antennas from bending over and by the evening, they were finally dry enough to stand up on their own. Tylo glue was my best friend.  It held up the pieces through the entire 45 mins drive without a hitch.

I couldn't make this cake without incorporating the autobot logo somewhere, so I attached it to the back.  I used the good ole pumpkin carving technique to get an exact replica of the image.

DDR and Pokemon Cake

I love making cakes for my family members and friends because it gives me a chance to whittle down my list of cake flavors and frostings I want to try.  Funny I say this because lately, it seems for every recipe I cross off, I'm adding two or three more, hah!

So, this week, for a friend's birthday, I combined his two favorite things - Pokemon and Dance Dance Revolution.  This was a lemon cake (adapted from Cake Central) with raspberry buttercream frosting (adapted from Cake Central) covered in marshmallow fondant which I painted with luster dust.  The pokemon figurines I made with gumpaste earlier this week, were stuck tight to the sides with the tylo glue.

 

I had a few problems with this cake.  I noticed that the top layer was a bit dry once we cut into it.  Almost like that one time with my R2D2 cake.  I torted/filled/crumbed the cake and left it overnight in the fridge in my cake carrier before covering it in fondant.  I thought having it in the cake carrier would prevent any dryness but I guess not.  I also didn't let the cake come to room temperature before covering it in fondant and I think this caused those stupid air pockets.  So, no more letting my cakes rest in the fridge (which is okay since I don't use any perishable fillings and frostings anyway).

R2D2 Cake

Here it is!  My first 3D cake.  It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.  Having a time line helped a lot!  Especially when I was trying to squeeze in a batch of sugar cookies in the same week.  Much thanks to my brother who helped out with cutting all the details by free hand.

The body was made of yellow cake and chocolate buttercream frosting and then crumb coated in vanilla buttercream frosting (adapted from Cake Central).  The head and legs were made of rice krispies treats and chocolate ganache.  I absolutely love working with ganache now.  It held up 10x better than the butter cream.  The body gave me a lot of trouble from air pockets to sagging and even cracking/splitting open the next day.

Instead of covering the body in sections or horizontally, I just rolled out a huge piece of marshmallow fondant and covered it as I would with any other cakes.  Also, there was no way I was going to try and make black fondant.  I had a 50% off coupon for Michaels and used it on a 2lb tub of Duff (Ace of Cakes) buttercream fondant.  I heard many bad things about Wilton brand fondant but this one was yummy for store bought.  Only worth buying with a coupon though.  Making your own fondant is much cheaper.

I figured out what I was doing wrong with my luster dust.  I was suppose to mix it a little bit at a time with vodka to make a paint appose to wetting the surface and painting it on dry.  So nice and shiny!  The fondant underneath was actually a dark purple.  You can't even tell!

When I tasted the cake scraps earlier in the week, it was so good!  I saran wrapped and froze the cakes overnight before the torte/fill/crumb coat step. And then, I put it back in the fridge after the crumb coat.  Somewhere, something went wrong.  The cake was crumbly and dry like cornbread! I got another cake to make this week.  Going to eliminate the fridge after the crumb coat step and see what happens.

Championship Belt Cake

First time working with chocolate ganache (adapted from Cake Central) as I needed to cover the chocolate cake as clean as possible without using a lot of MMF because the birthday cake recipient doesn't like it.  Read it works wonders as many have come to replace butter cream with ganache under fondant even.  After this first attempt and a bit more practice, I might be converting as well.  It was easy to work with.  Loved that I could just take a hot spatula and smooth out all the rough spots afterwards.  However, I could've done a cleaner job.  One thing I had problem with was the luster dust.  Wanted the fondant pieces to pop out but I couldn't quite get it.  The "buttons" were mini M&Ms.

SPECIAL NOTE: I got help with this one.  My sister drew on the falcon and my brother did the blocked text with the edible ink pens as I am far too artistically inept.  Thanks guys!