My friend’s son loves dirt biking with his dad. They don’t get much time together because the dad just works so much – but dirt biking is their thing. He actually came up to me at church and had found something he wanted on his 12th birthday cake. He asked if I could carve the fox head out of cake – then he wanted the colors red, orange and yellow, like “fire” on the cake…I was tickled when the recipe I chose for carving worked out so well…there were hardly even any crumbs, yet the cake was firm and moist. Decorating this one was less difficult than I expected, so it turned out to be one of the easiest cakes I have done, thus far.
There is a little girl at our church who has lots of allergies. Her mom asked me if I could make her a cake with no egg, milk or butter – and it had to be chocolate and “princessy”. Well, that was going to be a challenge, but again, I was up for it….
After some research, I found what I thought to be a “good” recipe. After coming up with a design and baking the first two layers, though, I realized it hadn’t risen quite as much as I would have liked, so I baked a third square layer. Ah, now that was where I wanted it.
Now I knew how the recipe reacted so I went ahead and made the top two rounds, decorated the cake and had it delivered four hours before the party. When I got to church on Sunday morning, the little girl’s daddy said, “You hit it out of the park! The cake was beautiful, delicious and Sarah could eat it and enjoy it.” Now, that makes it all worth it! Hope you had a great 5th birthday, Sarah!
Two weeks and 2 Sponge Bob cakes. Luckily they were different styles so it wasn’t the same thing both times. I enjoy learning new things with each cake I make. What did I learn this time? Airbrush colors go EVERYWHERE! Two days later and I’m still cleaning up blue.
This cake was done for my young friend, Devin, for his 5th birthday. The bottom tier is chocolate cake, the top tier is vanilla. Both have chocolate buttercream filling – taste just like the filling in a Little Debbie Fudge Round! Both tiers are covered with white vanilla buttercream and airbrushed blue. The Sponge Bob characters are purchased items. The pineapple is a crispy rice treat covered with fondant. The leaves are gumpaste. The lettering is fondant. All other decorations are buttercream.
Keepin’ it sweet!
Deah
Well, I have no doubt what my new son-in-laws favorite flavor is. We were sitting at a Mexican restaurant when he piped up and declared, “I want German Chocolate cake for my birthday cake.” Okie dokie. Then my daughter told me she wanted a golf themed cake for her golf themed birthday party for her husband. Hmmmm…how would I make this work? I have never decorated a German Chocolate cake before. But then, it all came together…the coconut pecan frosting could be the grass if colored green and the small paisley pan could be the putting green. Okay, so, a cake was born. She is giving the cake to him tonight, so I don’t have a verdict yet, but she was having a hard time not eating it because it “smelled soooo gooood”! I hope you enjoy it, Neal.
Well, my daughter did it – she found Mr. Right. He is a nice man and definitely her match. They decided that they wanted a small wedding, only those closest to them were invited. I’m glad I was counted among them. Anyway, we had a small reception, for about 20, at my house, so I made her a small wedding cake to enjoy. It was a day of joy and tears, as I let someone else be the “most important person” in my little girl’s life. I wish them all the happiness in the world!
We were taking a friend’s son out to lunch to celebrate the beginning of his freshman year at college, Appalachian State University. He is a sportsman and has said his major at this school in the mountains of NC will be “streams and slopes” – an admirable goal, for sure. I made this college logo cake to share with him during lunch at our last meal together before he spreads his wings and cuts the strings.
My friend’s daughter married recently, then she and her new husband jetted off to Hawaii for 10 days in the sand and surf. I thought I would make dessert for her return dinner at her mother’s house, and because she has Celiac, I made a gluten-free cake – pineapple with a raspberry filling. The icing is pineapple flavored with raw sugar posing as sand. I went to Deah’s the Tuesday before and made the flowers for the lei around the cake. I also made the shell-shaped candies on top of the cake. The cake was fun to make, but better than that, Tiffy and her new husband loved it. My friend said it was the best gluten-free cake she has ever had.
A guy I work with named (as you might have guessed) Nick loves Coca Cola. In fact, he loves it so much that he doesn’t even drink water. We have seen him go through 2 six packs in one 8 hour day. So, in honor of this incredible love for this world renowned soft drink, I created the “Nick-Cola” cake. He enjoyed the cake and was touched at the sentiment.
I’ve been learning some things about cakes but not about techniques. I’ve been learning about copyright infringement. Some say “It’s only a cake!” But is it really? If you had invested time and resources into developing and marketing a product would you want everyone and their uncle copying YOUR work and taking credit for it? When you put it that way it really isn’t “just a cake.”
Now, I’m no expert on copyright law but this is what I’ve picked up over the last few weeks. We’ll use
Sponge Bob as an example. I can create a water theme cake, with seaweed, jelly fish, seashells and the like without having any issue. But as soon as I create a fondant (or any other material for that matter) figure of Sponge Bob I have then violated copyright laws. The solution to that is purchasing licensed toys to place on the cake. This way I have purchased an authentic, legal version of the copyright holder’s item. Using licensed characters avoids the issue all together. Copyright violations can come with severe penalties – lawsuits and judgements in the thousands of dollars.
Now, did you know sports teams are also covered under copyright laws? I’ve been told by other cake decorators that it is easy to get permission from colleges to copy their logos, etc. You just need to call and ask for written permission. This can be a one time thing or a blanket permission. I don’t know how easy it is to get a professional team’s permission. They may hold theirs a little tighter than the colleges.
I guess you know what I’ll be doing the next in the coming weeks. Yep, getting permission from UNC, WFU, NCSU and UT.
Keepin’ it Sweet!
Deah
My friend, Bruce, has a Shelby Cobra and he’s pretty proud. It’s a beautiful car and he takes great care of it. Bruce’s birthday was Monday and his wife asked me to make a car cake for him. At first, I chickened out! I wasn’t sure I could pull it off and not disappoint them so I didn’t want to promise anything. Well, my husband wouldn’t let me get away with that. He reminded me that it is unlike me to back away from a challenge. So I decided to try it. I wouldn’t tell anyone I was doing it so just in case it didn’t work out I wouldn’t have to show or explain it to anyone. I HATE FAILURE! So, I psyched myself out all week on this one. Delaying and delaying because I was sure it wouldn’t meet my standards.
Thursday night I finally bit the bullet and baked the cake. That was the easy part. Friday I began sculpting and when I put it in the refrigerator for the night I still wasn’t sure it would ever leave my house. Saturday I began making the details from gumpaste – steering wheel, exhaust pipes, head and tail lights. I covered the cake in red fondant and began ”installing” the details. I spent several hours on Saturday with the finishing touches. Seems that always is the case.
I gave the cake to Bruce on Sunday. He was surprised and amazed. And, Martha, his wife, was even more surprised. Martha wouldn’t let him cut the cake until they took it to the bowling alley to share with their friends. Everyone loved it.
Keepin’ it Sweet!
Deah
