I haven't had a chance yet between the holidays and the Fiesta Bowl (Go Pokes! Fiesta Bowl Champions!) to take a final tally of the number of sugar creations I turned out this past year, but I can tell you that the number far exceeded that of 2010!
The last week of 2011, I finally got to make a cake that was themed around one of my favorite cartoon characters. It's somewhat hard to believe that with all the cakes I've done thus far, he hasn't popped up somewhere prior to this...
The cake was iced in buttercream with the orange fondant overlay on the top to create the "explosion." The stars and character were edible - made from gumpaste, of course.
I also was pleased to get to create a wedding cake and cupcakes for a New Year's Eve Eve wedding (December 30, for those of you trying to figure out what I mean there). The wedding cake was all buttercream with a stippled paisley pattern and gumpaste roses and sunflowers for the topper.
To accompany the cake, there were also several dozen cupcakes in red velvet, carrot cake, and white almond. Each flavor was topped differently to both complement the main cake and wedding colors, as well as to simplify serving. The white almond cupcakes were topped with a blue and white swirl of buttercream with silver dragee accents, the carrot cake cupcakes with miniature gumpaste sunflowers and leaves, and the red velvet cupcakes with miniature gumpaste roses and leaves.
Here's a look at the bride's table once the cupcakes and cake were set-up:
I also created the groom's cake for the wedding. Yes, it was a dragon...a 3D dragon. Confession time: I would rather make hundreds of cupcakes or a huge wedding cake that needs tons of handmade flowers and piping than a 3D cake. 3D cakes stress me out to unbelievable proportions; often reducing me to tears, so I'm sure you understand why I limit my exposure to them. But, that being said, I do (and will) dabble in them occasionally. I thought this one turned out quite well...here he is in all of his green glory:
Yes...those are scales are all individual pieces of fondant. They took over 3 hours to cut and apply! But, I wasn't willing to compromise the overall look of the cake just to save myself a few hours of work, which is why I went the individual scale route versus one piece of fondant embossed to give a scaly appearance. The wings and spikes were made from gumpaste...meaning everything was edible. (Do you get tired of me telling you that? I hope not because having as much of the finished cake being made from edible product as possible is a point I pride myself on.) The dragon is surrounded by coconut pecan frosting "dirt." The reason? The groom's favorite cake was German chocolate, but that style of cake tends to be too light to hold up to carving...so we opted to use a dense chocolate cake to build the dragon, with coconut pecan frosting as the filling and accent. Oh, and I used my trusty airbrush to give the dragon some dimension; he started out completely lime green in color!
I hope you're looking forward to everything 2012 has in store. I know I am! Talk to you soon!
P.S. For those of you wondering how the Fiesta Bowl trip went, it was fabulous! A perfect way to start out a new year. A huge thanks to SP, MP, and KP for allowing me to tag along and to Madre for helping make it possible...it's an experience I won't soon forget.
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