A Royal Affair

I tried royal icing for the first time..i have to say, my mixer almost broke making it! Then again..i'm pretty sure my mixer is from 1985. I made a couple of Apple Blossoms which are pretty small, and some Primroses which are pretty much just larger Apple Blossoms. I also did some rosebuds but unlike the other roses i've done, these would go along the sides of cakes as they're just 1/2 a rosebud.

A Cake Break

Today is Family Day in Ontario so thought I'd take a break from flowers and tell you what I made for my cousin's new bundle of joy. He had a beautiful baby girl on January 29th and they have named her Mythilli. I had been working on a cross stitching project for some time now, to go in the baby room. This was the finished project.

And since it's Valentine's Day, I made some butter cookies! These are strawberry/vanilla cookies adorned with non-pareil decors. This was the first time I made these..I think they turned out nicely.

Button Flowers

Due to a family emergency, I had to fly to Edmonton last week and didn't get a chance to do a fondant-covered cake. I'll attempt that later this month (so stay tuned)..but in the meantime, I'm trying out more fowers. The first one I attempted are button flowers and two-toned pansies, both made out of a 50/50 fondant and gumpaste mixture.

Spring Has Come When You Can Put Your Foot On Three Daisies

But I only made two..so thats right..spring's not here yet! Although with all the colorful flowers being made, it does feel like spring!
I tried my hand at some daisies. This is my first shot at them.

I also made Mums -- the picture below is what they look like in real life and the picture under that is what I made out of fondant and gumpaste. It'll be a nice topper for cupcakes.

Today I also covered a 12" cake board in Fondant. I chose to do it in light green. But then after covering my cake board I thought it looked very plain. So before it dried out, I took two differently sized heart-shaped cookie cutters and made imprints all over the board to give it a nice pattern.

Stop and smell the roses..

Can't really do that now though, it's the middle of winter! Today we had our 2nd cake class (Fondant and Gumpaste). We put together our bows, and learned to make carnations, calla lillies, and roses. The bow didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped..next time I need to make the base flatter so that the pieces fit together better. The carnations were time consuming, but they look realistic, especially when I put in the last layer on fondant. Calla Lillies are super easy to do..can't wait to try them in different colors now! But my favorite was the rose..it got better and better with every petal added on. The calyx was a good finishing touch I thought. Now I can use these on cakes to really give them an edge.

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it."
— Julia Child

Practice will make perfect, but I think I found it Ms.Child..

A taste of fondant

I made this cake for a coworker. It's a chocolate cake, covered in pink buttercream icing. I used a fondant cutter to cut yellow flowers, and bows (for the sides). I'm starting to experiment with flavors so I added a tsp of ground coffee beans, mixed in about 2tbps hot water to give it a little kick. I got this idea from my aunt who makes a killer chocolate cake. It smelled good in the cake batter but unfortunately you couldn't really taste it in the cake. Maybe i'll add a tiny bit more next time.

Hello 2011!

Happy New Year everyone!
I've sort of been out of commission for the past few days..I had a couple of wisdom teeth pulled. Way to start the new year huh? But I'm back on my feet and baking again. I signed up for January's Wilton Fondant & Gumpaste course. I'm extremely excited to learn about making figures out of gumpaste and how to cover cakes in fondant. Maybe one day I can make 'em like Buddy Valastro!