Joy's Birthday Cake

Wilton Roses on white chocolate cake and frosting with raspberry filling!

Here is my daughter Joy's birthday cake!  She didn't care about it being pretty, she wanted it to taste good!  She chose white chocolate cake, raspberry filling, and with white chocolate frosting.

White chocolate frosting is very hard to work with!  It is hard to smooth nicely and also hard to pipe.  I was still happy with the end results.  I was hoping Joy would be able to help with this cake, but she was busy working with the Netcaster team that was at our church that week.  At least she was able to be home on her birthday!!

Thank You Cake

 Here is a cake given as a thank you.  Debby E. had surgery several weeks ago and her husband and their dog have been taking great care of her!  She asked for a small white cake with white frosting.  We talked about doing a bandaid cake, but when she sent us a picture of Curly and their dog, Daisy, I couldn't resist using it. 

The picture was printed with edible ink on potato paper. The frame is made of fondant that has been indented to look like wood, then painted with food coloring and flavoring.  The roses are simple rose buds, knowing that Debby loves roses, it seemed like a good choice!! 


This was a fun cake to make!  Hopefully Debby will be up and around SOON... we really miss her!!

Hobby Lobby Display Case

There is a display case at Hobby Lobby for me to advertise the Wilton Method classes.   I have papers about each course with pictures from the techniques taught with each course (Wilton provides them online for me to copy and use.)  I also have my class times also for those interested and Wilton papers with my information on them and the link to this blog. I also have a 'cake' that I made.

 The cake is actually a piece of styrofoam covered in Wilton Frosting and shells taught in the first class.  The violets made with royal frosting are taught in the second class.  The only problem I am having right now is that the sun shines into the foyer area and is slowly messing up the frosting.  I will have to redo this and will have to use solid white to frost it in.  The white should not show up the problems as easily.

Nurse Graduation Cake

Nurse Graduation Cake

 Phil P sent me a message on Facebook several months ago asking if I would make a Nurse Graduation Cake for his wife (and my friend) Annie.  I asked for a few ideas of what they wanted, then started researching it online.  I looked at real pictures of nursing items and also looked at how other cake decorators made each of these items.  Each cake I looked at had different things I did and did not like. 

 Annie's favorite flavor of cake is lemon, so the top layer and the hat is triple lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting.  The bottom layer is a triple chocolate pound cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting.

 Everything on this cake is edible - gum paste, fondant, buttercream frosting, royal frosting, food writers and food coloring.    I was able to make almost everything I wanted to except a thermometer.  Time ran out unfortunately...

But I was able to get:  a prescription bottle with top and pills, bandage roll, band aids,  tweezers, nursing cap, diploma with Trinity's school colors, hypodermic needle, and pink stethoscope.  The bottle has Annie's graduation date and her cell phone number on it! 

 The last touch was a message handwritten by Phil to Annie.  He planned this party for her and the cake was his idea...  nothing like a personal message from him!

Thanks for looking!  

Wilton Classes

I began teaching Wilton Classes at the Hobby Lobby in Bettendorf, IA last month.   I love Wilton products, I love to teach, and I love cake decorating - so it seems like the perfect job for me!!  It started out slow with only 3 students my first month, but this month I have 4 classes with a total of 21 students! In fact, we were not quite prepared for the great turn out this month with many people signing up in the last few days before the class started!

I love the Wilton Method and how it can teach everyone to make a great looking cake!  Here are a few cakes from my students this past week.  Not sure why they came through sideways... they are lined up correctly on my card and my computer.  After several tries, I gave up, maybe I will come back and try it again another day!  

If you are interested in classes go to http://www.hobbylobby.com/home.cfm and click on the .store finder.  Put your zip code in and click on 'class schedule' to see each month's schedule.  I hope to see you soon!!

  

MD-11 Birthday Cake

MD - 11 airplane cake

 Nick turned 25 today!  Over a month ago he told me his favorite airplane was an MD-11.  His dad flies this type of airplane for UPS. After some research online and some planning, I decided to make it with all sugar.  The base of the airplane, wings, and tail are all made with gum paste. The body of the plane is layered with royal frosting and cake.  Butter frosting and fondant cover over everything for a smoother surface.  It is painted with food writers and lots of food coloring. 

UPS airplane cake

The airplane cake sits on a triple chocolate cake decorated to look like a runway with butter cream frosting.

I had a few problems and will do things differently if I ever make another airplane.  I will have to get a wooden base for the bottom of the plane, because the moisture of the frosting made the gum paste flexible and start to sink at the back.

Airplane Cake

I love a challenge and when I first thought of this cake, I did not think I could do it!!  The more I planned, the more I thought it MIGHT work.  I was still wondering this morning before I layered the fondant on!!  Once it held together, my only worry was getting it on the cake and staying...   Let's just say, pictures were taken quickly!!  lol

Happy Birthday!

Wilton Classes at Hobby Lobby in Bettendorf

I have become a Wilton Method Instructor at the Hobby Lobby in Bettendorf. If you are interested (or know someone who would be interested), you can sign up at Hobby Lobby. April is a GREAT month to get started - the class is 55% off the $45 price, which makes it $20.25 for 4 - 2 hour classes (8 hours of instruction)!! In this price you also get the lesson plan book and a coupon at the last class for $15 off Wilton Products with $7.50 off shipping as well!! This is like getting the class for FREE!!  If you have questions, send me an email (Cains4Christ@gmail.com) or you can go into Hobby Lobby to see a list of classes and times and to sign up!  Thanks!!

Cascading Flowers on Becca's Birthday Cake

 My daughter Rebecca turned 23 today.  She asked for a brown and blue cake with lots of flowers.  Since she loves chocolate, I made a triple chocolate pound cake.  I cut it in layers like a tort and in between layers put homemade fudge.  There is a soft fudge frosting around all of that and covered in chocolate fondant - which was a somewhat simple way to get brown!!  

Next Becca wanted a blue ribbon around each layer of the cake.  I debated using real ribbon or a fondant ribbon, but is a lot easier to match colors exactly with the flowers if I use fondant.  We talked a lot about the flowers as we were trying to decide on which kinds, colors, and recipes.  Her favorite kind of sugar flowers are the ones made with royal frosting.  They are not as realistic as the fondant and gum paste, but definitely have the best flavor!!  

Wednesday I started making flowers and was surprised how much I had forgotten!! We really love the look of gum paste flowers, and have focused on them so much more in the past year and a half! Reading through the Wilton book, I realized our instructor a few years ago actually taught us to make the daisy wrong. After a few experiments and a lot of time (I was still making flowers late on Thursday night)  I figured them out!! 

Friday morning I had a hard time figuring out how to put them on for some reason.  Whether I was tired, or just not in an artistic mood, who knows.  Becca came through and said she wanted them to cascade...  so I cascaded them on one side, and threw others on at various places. 

She was happy with the cake and was the one who took pictures for me, since I had to finish getting ready to run to church to clean.  It is definitely so rich, I couldn't even eat a whole piece at one time!!

Happy Birthday my sweet Rebecca Cain!!

Clown Birthday Cake

Clown Birthday Cake

 I was asked by someone in our church (that keeps up with everyone's birthdays) to make a birthday cake for the daughter of the evangelist who would be with us this Sunday.  Her birthday would be later in the week, but a thoughtful idea for us to be able to celebrate it with them Sunday.  We had a potluck after the morning service so that anyone that wanted to stay and be able to visit with them more would be able to.  We sang Happy Birthday to her and enjoyed a great meal and many other desserts also together.  

This is a simple beginner cake which was what I needed this weekend.  I was so tired from the busy and crazy weekend of getting my family off for a visit in SC, a cake demo at Hobby Lobby, cleaning house for company, and another cake order.

It also really made me miss Joy after these two cakes and a cake demo this weekend...  cakes are always a lot more fun with her around! 

Thanks for looking!

Team Umizoomi Birthday Cake

I have never heard of Team Umizoomi until I had to make a cake for Danny M this past week.  He wanted a cake for this newer cartoon he likes to watch on TV.  After some research online, I made a simple sketch of the main characters with food writers on the frosted cake.  Then filled them in with colored frosting using mostly a star tip and a few other simple techniques. It definitely took me longer than I thought it would, but I was happy with the results.  The characters from this cartoon are very cute and colorful which makes a nice child's birthday cake!