Gum Paste Flowers

      Joy and I each bought some flower sets to make gum paste flowers.  Since we had a wedding reception at church last week, we decided this was a great opportunity to practice.  We made three types of flowers - lilies, dogwood blossoms, and daisies.  The lilies are probably the hardest to make of the three and take the most time too - but well worth it!  They are not completely edible since you have to put wire in them to hold them together. They look so realistic though, many people did not realize they were actually edible!!  The dogwoods were fun and pretty easy to make and one of our favorites.  We want to experiment a little more with the centers to get them a little more realistic looking!  We have made daisies before, the only difference is the center is made with gum paste instead of royal frosting (what we have used in the past.) 

Gum Paste Flowers

We also experimented with a torte style cake.  We had a little raspberry filling left from the wedding cake and didn't want it to be wasted.  When I saw a torte at Sam's the day before, I decided we would make some to put our lilies on.  The cake is a butter yellow cake and the frosting is our homemade Mock Whipped Cream.  Sam's leaves the sides open so you can see the layers, but I am not so sure I like seeing the sides!  I might cover the sides next time with the frosting and see how it works!  I actually ran out of frosting and couldn't even pipe all the way around! 

Gum Paste Lilies

The cupcakes were just a simple store bought lemon cake mix with a cream cheese citrus frosting.  After it took us so long to make just 19 flower cupcakes, we joked it would be impossible for us to ever compete on a show like cupcake wars!  It is fun to watch those shows, but we know we could NEVER do them! Because we are inexperienced, slow and don't work as well under a time pressure.  We really have so much to learn and prefer to just do it occasionally for friends, family, neighbors and maybe the county fair each year!!

Wedding Cake and Groom's Cake

Non-traditional Topsy Turvy Wedding Cake

We made our first ever wedding cake and groom's cake for our friend, Annie!!  It was a very busy week of planning and baking!!  We did not plan for any problems, and have learned a few good lessons!!  First of all, plan for problem!!  We had a cake fall during baking (maybe because we doubled the recipe?) and it pushed our cake baking schedule an hour longer.  Humidity was also a problem which we heard could affect gum paste, fondant, and sugar works, but never experienced it ourselves until this weekend!

Annie chose a Lollipop Topsy Turvy cake to go along with a lollipop theme for the reception.  She had four tiers, so she chose lemon cake (with lemon curd filling & lemon cream cheese frosting), white chocolate cake (with raspberry filling & white chocolate frosting), red velvet cake (with cream cheese frosting), and orange cake (with orange cream cheese frosting).  She also wanted a sheet cake of a chocolate cake and butter cream frosting.

The wedding cake is covered in fondant with fondant shapes.  The 'Lollipops' on top are made from gum paste and one has a monogram P for their last name.  She wanted a non-traditional cake that would match her reception theme.  I wish I would have gotten a few pics of the tables, because she did a great job of planning and putting it all together! 

Cake Table

Tackle Box Cake

The groom's cake is a tackle box made with chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, and fondant covering it. This cake was a real challenge.  We wanted to make see-through plastic looking panels like Phil's tackle box, but the humidity made the rock candy sticky and unpredictable.  We threw that plan out the window early Saturday morning and did a little redesigning!  The drawer, bobber, fish string, hooks, fish lures, etc. are made with gum paste.  The styrofoam cup and worms in the cup are made of fondant, with a cup cake inside and ground cookies on top. The wooden 'dock' is fondant painted with food coloring and butter extract. .The red worms were made with a recipe for gum drops poured into a mold.  The fish string has writing on it using markers that have food coloring in them! 

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