Ants & Anniversaries

And a couple of other things too.  But you'll have to wait to find out what they are because I like to keep you in suspense like that.  Hehe!

But, to start us off - who doesn't love a nice slice of fresh watermelon during these long, hot summer days?  True, this slice is made from cake, but the ants seem happy to be a part of it.

Bet you can't guess what flavor of cake this one was...red velvet, of course!  The ants and seeds were made from fondant, but everything else was buttercream.  I used Wilton Air Mist for the pink/red flesh of the melon because I ran out of my regular red airbrush color.  The Wilton mist was an adventure, but it worked out okay in the end.  Oh, and I used regular green airbrush color painted directly onto the buttercream to achieve the darker green stripes.

A golden anniversary!  That's 50 years, just in case you're wondering.  Kinda gives you the warm fuzzies, doesn't it? 

I used Fondarific fondant on this cake, but for the price I paid for it, I was sorely, sorely disappointed in the way it performed.  I had two buckets of the stuff, same color, same flavor, but two completely different textures!  One was so bad it was pretty much unusable.  Boo!  I probably would have gotten better results using a different brand or making my own, so I doubt I'll be using Fondarific again.

Sorry for my little rant there.  I'm good now.  As for the rest of the cake, the ribbons were gold fabric, the piping was white royal icing, and the topper was one the client ordered and had personalized.  It was a a beautiful topper, but didn't photograph well since it was clear acrylic, so just trust me on that one, mmmkay?

Or how about this "dino-mite" cake?

I had a lot of fun with this one, even if my attempts at making dinosaurs were less than stellar.  So un-amazing actually that I ended up using plastic dinos rather than ones made from edible material.  The volcano was made from rice krispies covered in fondant; the lava was made using thinned royal icing.

And, last for today, an elegant engagement cake.

The bottom tier was covered in individual feathers (yes, I'm a glutton for punishment); it was a pretty effect, though it didn't photograph well.  And those black "pearls," those are actually black sixlets, also know as candy coated chocolates, that I found in the wedding aisle at the craft store.  Turns out they make a plethora of colors...always good to know for future reference!

Talk to you soon!