cake disguised as a different type of food

there are several times of day that i see something and think of how i could recreate it with cake.  would i need gumpaste,or would fondant hold up?  what about the structure?  airbrush?  these things float in my mind until i have figured it out or realized that i'll probably never ever need to make a cake that looks like a coffee maker.  or a ceiling fan.

there is one cake that was on my mind for at least a year.  i usually never make a cake unless it is ordered by someone.  i try to tell myself that i need to do a cake here or there for practice.  but on the days i'm not making cake, i don't usually bake.  i watch tv.  i love tv.  i love just about every series ever made on hbo.  except for trueblood. but especially game of thrones...watch it people.
....but finally, i just had to make this cake.  i thought about it often and i knew it wouldn't take that long.  and best of all, i could take it to someone that would get a kick out of it.  so finally i made the GYRO cake.  and it turned out to be one of my favorites.
best thing:  it was a single layer, no support! super quick to make!
weirdest thing:  making the meat.  i used fondant and i kept thinking how gross it'll be on a cake and i was glad i wasn't eating it.
other weirdest thing:  realizing it wasn't actual meat that i had just made.
fun thing: adding the airbrush details.
hardest thing: figuring out the overlapping fold of the pita.  i had to cut out a paper circle and and fold it to see the way it bent.  it sounds silly, but somehow i couldn't figure it out in my head.

this one made me have a cheezy grin for awhile after it was done.  i made a little flag on a skewer that said i love vaskens.  g's most favorite place to eat that he rarely gets to go to. (because if we go out i usually call the shots...thai thai it is)  he dropped it off as a special treat to a couple of the coolest business owners in town.  p.s. if you ever want to "accidentally" run in to yakov...this is your place.

cakes on wheels

i love making cakes with a lot of tiny details.  i imagine that the person that is receiving this cake (usually as a gift from who ordered it)  will get real close to it and see if there are any things that might have been missed.  generally, i try to get the main things first, like door placement and windows, and then add the fun things like lights and rear view mirrors.

the best part of making a vehicle cake is that it usually requires no support, so i just put the cake on the board and start frosting.  the worst part of a vehicle cake is getting the proportions right.  i've made some that started out big and ended up smaller because of proportion.  but even with smaller cakes, there's still plenty of cake to go around. 

if you are wanting to try making a sculpted cake, i'd recommend a car cake.  they don't require much cake and you could stack two 9x13 cakes on top of each other and start carving.  then frost.  then cover with fondant, (i make my own but i highly recc Duff's fondant available at michaels.  it is very easy to work with.  i use his when i need black) and then get to the fun details!  Try it!!

my first cake i ever made was for my long time pal McKenna  that was turning 16.  she was getting a car called "the thing".  it's a rad convertible old car.  the cake was very fun to make, but getting familiar with the fondant was not easy.  before this, my main experience with cake was cupcakes.  it turned out alright for my first go at it, and i would have never imagined how very many cakes i would get to create from that day on.

my first!

Today's cake: Yoda II

i made this one at the beginning of this month.  i had done a Yoda cake a couple years ago and i was super excited to make a new and improved one!  i went to high school with the sweet mama, Shawna, that wanted this cake for her son.  he asked that Yoda carry his light saber.  i immediately knew what i was gonna use for that.  my husband had purchased some small green flashlights for his show that looked like tiny light sabers.  i went and got one at Target and started work on this tiny guy as soon as i got home.  sometimes all it takes is something simple like a light to set the course for the rest of the project.

now i secure all standing cakes with a food grade pvc pipe that is screwed onto the wooden cake board.  the round cakes are stacked on and pushed down the pipe leaving room for the head.  this head was made with rice crispy treats, modeling chocolate and then fondant.  after all the details were added, like wrinkles for his face because he's like a super old Jedi and his tiny pouch that looks like a coin purse on his belt, it was time to add the finishing touch: the light saber!  yippee!

while i was making this, i thought about high school a lot.  i knew i was going to get the chance to see someone i had gone to school with that i hadn't seen in 14 years!  i thought about how different everyone is than when they were in high school.  how in high school, you are just trying to figure out life and fit in or not fit in, question yourself and authority, and just be happy while coming to the realization that it is a big world that doesn't actually revolve around your teenaged self.  i was happy to see Shawna and to meet her sons, and let me tell you that the birthday boy this cake was for is a total charmer!  i've never used the adjective charming before but that is how i've been describing her son.  and he has this total southern accent.  "mama, i'm just gonna go ahead and sit back here with the cake" of course she didn't let him because it was in the way back of a large suburban, but that was just about the cutest thing i've ever heard.

why does this blog exist? why?!!

well guys.  this blog is all about the cakes that i get to make.  i am lucky to have people ask me to make cakes for them.  i have done plenty and hope to create many more.  i am sort of on the verge of having an actual bakeshop.  actually, that brings me to a very important point that i'd like to make real quick.  through my adventure of opening a shop, so far i have realized a few super important things and learned some huge lessons:

    
     people will ALWAYS give their two cents.   amidst so much positive energy and well wishing, there are still some people that will attempt to bring you down.  try to convince you that your vision needs this or that.  maybe even try to copy you or take over.  this really took me by surprise.  i am just not a cut throat gal that wants to take out any competition.  i honestly just like making treats.  honestly. 
     owning and operating a business is HARD WORK.  i am trying to figure out if i am up for the challenge.  i am fortunate to be able to stay with my children while my husband makes his dream come true.  and although there are times that i want to run out of my house screaming, i recognize how important this time with my family is.  am i willing to be at a shop all of the time?  i dunno.  

    the money part of it all is a headache.  this is a battle with me.  doing something i love and putting a price tag on it is hard for me.

so while i figure this all out, i will keep doing what i do.  i love to make cakes.  while i am carving a cake, from the beginning to the very end, i am thinking about who the cake is for.  i absolutely love making birthday cakes.  most of the time, i do not know the particular individual that the cake is for but I think of the party that the cake is going to be making it's debut at.  and it totally makes my day if it...well..makes their day.  am i a cheeseball?  yup.  most cakes take me a few hours (some take a LOT of hours) to make,  and the clean up is uncool.  but it is all worth it.

so this blog will show some cakes that i absolutely loved making.  the pictures are not good.  i am TERRIBLE at taking pictures.  sometimes i will do a little play-by-play while i do a cake.  while i typed that, i actually yawned.  is that a sign that this will be totally BORING?!!  

well here goes.  the first cake i want to post about is one of my favoritest ever: 

this cake was made a long time ago but it was one of the first ones that i totally loved.  it was made for my pal Carni's friend that was turning 21.  he wanted a puppy dalmatian that looked sorta like a 101 Dalmatian.  i stacked 4 round cakes up and carved a body.  then frosted with yummy buttercream and covered with fondant.  next, i made a ball out of rice crispy treats and covered it with fondant. (this was way before i started making and using modeling chocolate) i jabbed a wooden dowel in the bottom of the head and then stuck that down the body of cake, careful to make sure the dowel was straight.  the super fun starts when the details are added.  i esp like adding black accent lines.  that's when you can start to notice if your cake is gonna actually look like it is supposed to.  if someone, oh i dunno..YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER walks in before the details are added and then points out that it doesn't look right then bad stuff will happen.  very bad stuff.  

usually, at least one thing goes wrong. this one actually had nothing go wrong.  it didn't take long to make, the fondant didn't dry out, the dowel didn't go straight through the top of the head and then make the body collapse.  this was when i really realized that a good straight dowel or skeleton is the key to a cake that will not fall down.  and that is super important to me.  a cake that will not fall.  these are cakes that i did before i knew this and could have fallen at any moment:

 but, i loved these cake and they stayed put. since then, i have had the opportunity to make similar ones to these that i wasn't scared of falling :)

so there ya have it!  a tiny glimpse into my cake world!