Oops! I Did It Again...

Perhaps some of you recall this post.

If so, you are probably already shaking your head in wonderment, amusement, or horror.  Maybe even thinking to yourself, "How could she possibly endure that a second time?"

Well, the good news is, I did and the results were amazing!  That's not say there weren't some bumps in the road (remember that new cake toy I've been referring to?), and that I (and K too) didn't lose lots and lots of sleep, but the end product was well worth it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not in a hurry to do it again unless I've got an extra sous chef or two on hand, lots of extra space, and no other demands on my time, but its nice to know that I've got the chops to make it happen if I wanted.

As it stands, without the help of K and Hunny's I would have never gotten everything done in time.  You are all absolute lifesavers and your support and willingness to help me out means a great deal.  Thanks for everything!

So...care to see the cakes?

A Caddyshack inspired birthday cake:

The gopher is made from fondant pieces layered together.  I added a few hand painted details to liven it up a bit more.  Here's a closer look.  The gopher's expression never fails to make me giggle a bit...

This next cake was for the daughter of one of my best friends.  I just couldn't refuse the opportunity to make her birthday cake.  The birthday girl had very specific requests for the cake, including a rearing black horse and horseshoes and spurs around the bottom of the cake.  I added the pink boots (rather than the spurs) and edible glitter to give it some color and to match her sparkly attitude.

(Top View)

Here's the groom's cake for the first wedding of the weekend.  It is a German chocolate cake with homemade coconut pecan icing.  The deer "painting" is a gumpaste plaque painted with edible food color.  And, just for the record, German chocolate cakes are a bit of challenge to decorate - you still want to be able to see the lovely color of the frosting, but at the same time you don't want just a giant slab of brown.  This was a good compromise...

And here's the wedding cake!  It was a gorgeous five tier cake done in ivory buttercream with a Swiss dot pattern, purple fondant ribbons, and gumpaste hydrangeas.

I tried my hand at making gumpaste hydrangeas for this cake.  They were fairly easy to create, though I should have made nearly double what I did!  The hardest part was deciding how best to join the individual blooms to achieve the overall round appearance.

If you want to try your hand at making your own gumpaste hydrangeas, Jacqueline over at The Petalsweet Blog has a fabulous three part tutorial.  I highly recommend it!

The cakes for the second wedding of the weekend were great fun to create; they were a bit out of the ordinary, but were a perfect fit for the couple.  (Don't ask K's opinion on this (the fun part), we had a hiccup along the way, but I believe the cakes turned out better for it.)  

The groom's cake was K's favorite of the weekend...after all, who doesn't love the classic Nintendo game system?

It was done in fondant, with all of the pieces being hand cut.  The only buttercream on the cake was the writing on the controller and the cake's border.  The connection cable was a last minute addition, but it adds an extra dose of "realistic" to the cake.

And here's the wedding cake!  The phrase on the third tier reads "Love Is All You Need."  The cake was topped with a pair of gumpaste "love" birds atop a tree branch.  

The table setting and backdrop for this cake were an excellent complement.  They really helped the cake stand out amid the room's other decorations.

That's all the cakes, but here's a picture of my latest cake toy.  I am sad to say that as of this writing, I have yet to conquer and make it create anything usable for a cake.  The learning curve is steeper than I anticipated.  I will persevere until I figure it out though...I might even end up getting a new laptop out of the deal. He-he!

Whew! I am tired!  Kinda of long post today, huh?  Think I'll go take a nap...