Ships Ahoy! Baby Shower Cake

 I threw my friend a baby shower the other day, and her theme was "Ships Ahoy! It's a Boy!".  I had fun making all the decorations but especially the cake.  The bottom is the cinnamon roll cake mix and the top is confetti cake mix, as requested by the mother-of-honor.  The rope border was especially fun to make...quick, easy, and clean-looking thanks to the clay gun extruder!  I attached the sail boat to the cake by using a short plastic dowel rod.  I stuck the stick end of the sail boat (a popsicle stick was used to support and connect the boat).  Then I put some gumpaste in to keep it from tipping, and then stuck the whole thing in the cake.  It's an easy way to keep cake toppers in place! The lettering annoys me, but that is because the red fondant I used was too soft so I was very difficult to get it to go on the cake right.  Oh well.  Everyone seemed to like the cake so it's all good!

Cake Decorating Demo

New cake coming soon!  I promise.  In the meantime, here are some pics of a little activity my church had about a month ago. My friend and I were asked to do a few demonstrations on basic cake decorating skills for the women.  It was fun but my presentation skills are severely lacking, so I hope that most understood what I was trying to teach them!  My demonstration was how to do the Wilton flower (and the flower spray), which I didn't expect anyone to get right, let alone try! But I had a few girls surprise me when it came to the rose, because that is not an easy cake decorating skill to just pick up.

 See that huge belly on me? That's from eating too much cake.  Just kidding.  It's a baby belly :)

 The rose demo...

 Some of the ladies decorating their cookies

A few of my favorite girls :)

My flower spray.  Man it was soOo SO HOT in there I thought I was going die!

Valentine's Day Cake

 Here's my Valentine's Day cake! Fondant free. I'm doing a rose demonstration this week at an activity for my church, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to brush up on my rose-making skills.  Which was sorely needed--I haven't made buttercream roses in over a year, and it didn't help that the disposal ate my flower nail.  I got a new one for Christmas though.
There isn't much to be said about the decorations on this cake.  Pretty basic, not very original, but cute enough for a Valentine's day cake.  I wasn't sure what to do with the center, so I just piped my husband's and mine initials.  The initials could stand to be more centered-or something cuter could go in the center. Meh.
I have to say though, this cake is DELICIOUS!!! I tried out a new cake mix, Better Crocker Decadent Supreme with a Cinnabon cinnamon packet that you add in the batter.  I frosted it with cream cheese frosting and it tastes like a big cinnamon roll!  Super yummy, especially if you like cinnamon rolls.  It's definitely my new favorite cake mix.  

Eli's 1st Birthday Cake

Here is the cake I did previous to the purple flower cake.  I made it for my friend's little boy who just turned one.  I'd  be out of business if it weren't for her!
Anyway, I had lots of fun making the trucks.  The little car and truck are made out of gum-paste.  I originally was planning on making the big dump truck out of gum-paste, too, but I thought it would be too heavy and I didn't trust that it would dry in time.  So I made some rice krispie treats, molded it into the separate parts, put them in the freezer and then covered them in gum-paste and stuck 'em together with frosting.  Slightly time consuming, but nothing too complicated.    
Overall it was a fun cake to make.  I also was planning on putting little road signs around the sides of the cake but I thought it would distract from the trucks plus I ran out of time--I was already an hour late to the party trying to put the cake together!  It is white cake with vanilla pudding filling and vanilla frosting.

Purple Flower Cake

Here is my latest cake!! It is a six-inch cake.  It's nothing amazing, just cut-and-paste but I did get to use the clay gun to make the vines.  The flowers are all very sparkly (I love using shimmer dust!!).  It was a fun little cake to make.  My little boy helped. Helped=eating the extra fondant, mimicking me by rolling out fondant when I did, and using the fondant cutters when I used them.  What a cute boy!
I'm looking forward to eating this cake...it's triple fudge cake with chocolate pudding filling and fudge frosting- my favorite-even if it was just a store bought mix.  The only complaint I have with this cake is I think that  a 6-inch cake is too small with this design...it looks a little crowded.

Clay Gun Extruder

I'm still waiting on the pictures of my last cake. Hopefully I will get them soon!

Anyway, for my birthday back in November I asked for a clay gun extruder (because as you know clay supplies work pretty well with fondant). I didn't get one for my birthday and then I forgot about all about it. I didn't even put it on my Christmas list, but lo and behold I received one as a stocking stuffer!! "Santa" know just what I want! So of course I got to work after coming home and tried it out...I'll post the pics in my next post very soon.
This is another tool to add to your collection if you work a lot with fondant! Mine came with 22 discs and it works great. My only complaint is that it is hard on the hands-it takes a lot of pressure to get any fondant out. But other then that I love it!!

Freezing Fondant

Sorry for the no posts! I have been busy with the holidays. Plus I've been gorging myself of yummy treats that always seem to show up around this time of year, and cake just doesn't sound as yummy as it normally does!

I have a new cake to post, I promise. I am waiting for the pictures to be sent to me and then I will post them! In the meantime, I thought I would share a little tip with you.

I hate being wasteful, especially when it is expensive/time consuming to make, like fondant. So I used to put the extra fondant in little plastic baggies and stick them in a plastic grocery bag and store the extra fondant with the rest of my cake decorating supplies. However, when I would bring out the stored fondant a few weeks later for my next cake, it would all be as hard as a rock and I would have to throw them away.

Well I've gotten a bit smarter now and so I simply wrap the extra fondant in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, mark what color it is with a permanent marker, and just throw it in the freezer. So easy! And when I want to use it again, I simply take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for at least a few hours. When it is thawed it is perfectly soft and easy to work with. No more dried out fondant!

The only down side to this way is that you have to take out the fondant well before you start decorating so it can gradually thaw. I don't really know what happens if you just take it straight out of the freezer and start working with it but I heard it messes up the moisture ratio or something.

I have both red and black fondant in my freezer right now, and let me tell you with those colors being the hardest to make, freezing them saves me a TON of time! I highly recommend freezing your extra fondant, even if it is just a little bit and especially if they are hard colors to make.

Hope that helps!