Blue Cakelette: Ombre Petite Cakes for Mother's Day

Mother's Day was May 10th.

My Mom is about four and a half hour drive away.

It's hard to get there on a weekend. With cake.

Also there's a no gluten thing... I don't get it.

I get it if you're celiac, or trying to be more healthy, but no gluten?

How can you deny this little guy?!

May I introduce you to the Cakelette. Or Petite Cake, but I like Cakelette. 

I think it'll be my substitute for the cupcake.

Not that cupcakes can never happen; they are just over done. 

That's right, Cupcake, you're on your way out.

These were made for the ladies at my work. It had to be later since one only comes in later in the week.

Three inch round chocolate cake with dulce de leche and buttercream. It's splittable between two people, but then you start to eat it and it isn't sharable anymore.

The ombre effect is actually very simple, easy and looks very fancy.

If you need a video to see how click here. Also NicolaBakes is very cute.

Nicola does a cute, simple ringed fringe design on her tutorial, but I figured since this cake is a little over 3 inches across it would look too busy with the texture.

Also I had to top it with a tiny blossom.

Boop!

If you want to learn more about gumpaste flowers I recommend Craftsy. Especially Maggie Austin's Sugar Berries, Leaves & Blossoms. That's what I'm practicing right now. 

Enough free advertising.

Back to what this was actually for...

Happy Mother's Day to all the great mothers out there.

I love you, Mom.

Gold Drama Cake: Sequins & So Much More

When you were turning 15 didn't you want a fancy grown up party with a fancy cake?

With all the sugar you could handle?

I'm not even sure I had a 15th birthday party. Last one I can remember is when I was turning 11. Doesn't mean I didn't want it though.

I was quite happy doing this cake. It's what every girl should get for her birthday. Brownie cake with cookie dough and German buttercream.

If you've never had German buttercream I feel for you. It's amazing. Custard base, so it tastes like ice cream. I could just eat it with a spoon.

Although German buttercream and fondant don't really get along I learned. It's like trying to put fondant on a cake covered in whip cream. Not so much with the cooperation and more with the hole having due to weight...

But that's ok. It's a lesson learned and it got covered with quins anyways. And gold luster. Lots of gold luster.

Another lesson: Gold luster does not cover absolutely. Some colour will show through, but don't worry, it looks good, and gives it some more character to the metallic sheen.

Also, don't spend hours trying to do full coverage, it's not worth it. And it makes your not-sticking-on-so-well-fondant wet and less happy.

This is the last cake that will have homemade fondant. Homemade fondant just isn't working. I really wanted it to work, made many many batches and cannot figure out how to make a nice fondant that covers cakes in that nice pretty flawless way.

Gumpaste and I have made friends, however.

Tulips and roses aren't a classic combination, I know, but I like the drama of it all.

I decided not to do any foliage, although a rose leaf or two would not pull away from the flowers, this cake was full enough.

Parrot tulips are very dramatic. They come in all sorts of colours, but this sunburst kinda colour stole my heart. And I had real life inspiration.

Can you tell the difference between the gumpaste and real flowers?

The main give away for me was the stamens.

...I have to work on that.

Additional lesson learned: colour the petals before attaching them to the stamens. Everything became orangey-red. 

I think I've leveled up though. Can I determine that? (Insert Zelda music here.)

So this was cake 5 of 12. It's the end of March and I have 7 cakes to do in 9 months.

Seems like lots of time, right? But I've written off summer. My place gets insanely warm and I usually feel like dying, not baking, during that time.

I do have 2 cakes to be done toward the end of the year. At least I think I do. Things haven't been finalized yet. 

And I'm hoping I can do a big cake for an event in early May. Really really hoping. Cause it would be amazing. And Big. Really BIG.

But don't worry. I'll be doing things in the in between time. And I'll post things here, even if they aren't all cake related.

That is... If you care. If you're reading this... Whomever you are.

Are you just looking for some pretty pictures? 

I can't blame you for that.

In parting, my own personal grumpy cat says, "Leave."

"I was grumpy before Tartar Sauce."
~Boroboro

Two Beautiful Women: A Special Tea Time Cake

I feel like the luckiest girl alive.

I have two Grandmothers. Well, one Grandma and one Oma.

They are 92 years old. Born a few weeks apart, a large distance apart, and they are great friends. 

This was a tea party for my Grandma. She is a lucky Valentine's Birthday Lady. I believe that means she was born with an extraordinary amount of love. She is the most lovely and giving woman I could ever know. She can make you feel comfortable and wanted with a smile, and her eyes always twinkle with joy and laughter. She is a wife of 62 years, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She is the girl that's the first to befriend you, embrace you, and make you part of the family. I'm sure she was the school ambassador, if there were such things then. I guess they call these kinds the Pillar of the Community, but I feel that falls short.

My Oma is just as amazing, but in a different kind of way. She is straight forward. She says what she thinks and she gives no apologies for it. She is independant, stubborn... A true vrouw. When I called her to invite her to the party she says, "Oh Sarah. I haven't heard from you in ages. What's wrong with you?" (I'm bad at keeping in touch with people. When I want to call them I'm either at work or it's too late to politely call.) She never ceases to amaze me. She is legally blind, has worn hearing aids for as long as I can remember, and has lived alone for almost as long. And she hates it when people try to assist her constantly. She is proud, but humble enough to ask for help when she needs it.

But I digress. You're not really here to read about my gushing over my Grandmothers.

You're here to listen to me brag about cake. And flowers. And laugh about my casualty.

Apparently floral wire is irresistible to cats. Makes them jump up on tables and pull a resting gumpaste flower onto the floor where it go crash.

I wasn't impressed. But I didn't want the flower to go to waste.

So it sat on the cake stand; at the base of the cake. German Chocolate Cake with classic Pecan Coconut frosting. That frosting is a family favourite. It's between all those layers, and dolloped on top. The cream cheese honey frosting was really only for show. Naked cake needs some thick buttercream to be smeared all over it. It's a sexy cake like that.

My Grandma loved it. She doesn't like chocolate, so this was a White Chocolate cake. With flowers. One that my Grandma took home in a little vase I got for her. My very first gumpaste flowers. Another look at those shall we?

I'm pretty happy with them. Some minor things I'd like to add for next time, but I don't think anyone noticed the calyx was missing. Foliage wasn't needed for this cake, the flowers were more than enough.

These are fragile beast though. The two in the back cracked and chipped quite a bit. Only a small piece cracked off the light pink one. If you're going to make gumpaste flowers, make sure you pack them well, but not tight. Make sure they don't touch anything. I mean anything. Each other, floral tape, a table, some feathers...

Ok, I'm exaggerating. They aren't that fragile, but you need to be careful when handling them.

But don't worry we didn't just eat cake. Cookies, tortilla rolls, cucumber sandwiches, cake pops, veggies and chocolates were on the spread. You can guess what the kids ate and what the adults had.

Everyone visited, drank tea, coffee and juice, and visited some more. My Aunt was awesome and brought the Valentines my Grandma collected over the years.

Sixty-two years worth of Valentines, from her children, friends, and my Grandpa. Sixty-two years, starting in 1953, the first Valentine's Day they shared as Husband and Wife.

They didn't sit together for the Tea Party, which was a rare thing. We don't have many pictures where they are separated, or not holding hands, or something along those lines.

They are still in as much Love as they were when they were first married.

If not more.

Happy Valentine's everyone.

Winter Blooms Cake & More: A Winter Wonderland

It was a busy week.

I made things I didn't even need.

Like gumpaste.

But I made lots of things very successfully. In fact I wouldn't write off any part of it. Making fondant, gluten-free cupcakes of the mini variety, and my favourite was the modeling chocolate.

The modeling chocolate made the little flowers on the cake pops. And was mixed with the fondant for the blue tops of the cookies.

The brush embroidery took a long time. One of the cookies took 14 minutes to do the top... Four. Teen. Minutes. But it's pretty. So very pretty. They went nicely with the sugar sparkly ones and the luster-dust painted ones.

The sparkle tied together with the mini cupcakes. And the dragees on the buttercream. Bling-bling. They were gluten-free. and a pretty teal colour.

I loved teal. Although they didn't taste teal. They were just vanilla. With vanilla swiss buttercream. Silky swiss buttercream was also on the cake, also vanilla. Also vanilla (not white) cake.

This was a fun cake to make. I'll be the first to admit that my fondant skills need improving. It took three tries because of ripping issues, but I got it. It could have been easier if I trimmed the cake properly. But it looks good anyways, right?

The top took 4 hours to paint. Then paint on the colour. Then paint on the luster. I thought the sparkle gave it another dimension, especially on the winter roses. I like the middle white one and light red one the best. 

I did learn one thing from this: Let the icing fully dry before putting it in the box.

Some of the snowdrops didn't make it. The bottom two left their main parts on the inside top of the box. But it's still edible at least.

I didn't take pictures of the stand alone. It was textured, and painted, and pretty.

The Mr was responsible for the set up since I was stuck at the market. I think he did a good job. Even though the cookie stand I made broke in the cab. I figured a way to keep that from happening again though. I think. I'll have to test it out first, then I'll share. 

The event went well. Of course I only saw the aftermath. But there were a few still packing up when I got there. There were lots of people in pretty Lolita clothing. 

And the dresses. Oh the dresses.

One day I'll wear beautiful, fun dresses like those.

There were leftovers. Cake pops and cookies and mini cupcakes. My gorgeous and very cutely dressed up client had them to take home. I'm sure they got ate all up.

Cake was won by my friend and worker of Happy Harbour Comics. She was excited. She shared it. She's a good sharer.

So cake one of twelve is done. I'm thinking of the next cake already. Perhaps the next two within the next month or so. I've got a few important birthdays coming up. Mr's, Grandma's (on Valentines day, no less,) and Mum's. February is a busy birthday month.

I should get to the drawing board.