Pomp and Circumstance

My brother-in-law asked me to make him a cake for his graduation party from graduate school.  He put in 2.5 years of hard work, but it all paid off in the end!  I had a general idea of what I wanted the cake to be - something that would go with the graduation theme.  I've always wanted to try to make sculpted books out of cake and a gumpaste figure of a person, so those fit the theme like a glove.  Since he is a police officer, I decided to add a sculpted cake to be like his police SUV.  It would tie everything together perfectly!

My bro-in-law's party was on a Sunday evening, so I had the best of intentions to start his cake Saturday morning.  That would give me plenty of time to finish all the meticulous details that I aspire to put into my cakes, but most often end up not having time to finish.  Saturday morning came and I awoke with a terrible migraine.  I was down for the count for the majority of the day.  Didn't even get to baking the cakes until later Saturday evening.  I was freaked out!  Somehow, miraculously I managed to get the cake done just in time for the party.  I would have like to have stamped out the letters for the book titles (I literally wrote the names on the books five minutes before we walked out the door) and put more detail on the police SUV, but all in all it turned out well and I was very happy with my gumpaste graduate.  Congrats to my bro-in-law who has always been like a big brother to me. :-)

I need a kettlebell, a tractor tire and a rope...

...was the request from a cliet for a 40th birthday cake.  Sounds a little odd, right?  I think this cake turned out awesome.  This opportunity was passed on to me from a friend and I gratefully accepted the challenge.  The birthday girl is a personal trainer and they utilize kettlebells, large tractor tires and various ropes in their training.  It was decided to add on 24 carrot-ginger cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, which I topped with gumpaste carrots.  The client seemed very pleased with the end result and I was so happy to have been able to create this cake for her birthday.

Cake board covered in fondant to look like the client's wood gym floor

Tractor tire cake

Different view of tractor tire cake showing treads

Fondant rope draped over tractor tire cake

The start to the kettlebell cake

Kettlebell cake with weight, I mean age marking ;-)

Kettlebell cake on top of tractor tire cake

With piped happy birthday message...only need the kettlebell handle

Finished cake with handle

24 carrot-ginger cupcakes

Close-up of the gumpaste carrots

Finished table presentation

A 60th Birthday Canvased in Pink and Orange

This year was a milestone birthday for my mother - she turned 60 in April.  My father is a year older than her and historically he was the one to get the 40th birthday bash and the 50th birthday extravaganza.  We thought we would change things up a bit for the big 6-0.  We decided to throw our mom a surprise 60th birthday party and I was tasked with making her a special cake.  I used her invitation as inspiration for the cake.  It is the tallest cake that I've created this far.  As I mentioned in previous posts, I like to try at least one new technique with each cake, so for this cake I made gumpaste flowers and used a stencil on the cake instead of piping.  I'm very happy with how the gumpaste calla lilies turned out and can't wait to try different flowers.  The cake received rave reviews at the party and best of all, my mom loved it.

The beautiful invitation that my sister picked out.  This became the inspiration for the cake.

Calla lilies in process

Finished calla lilies

Bottom tier covered with fondant

Top tier covered in fondant

The beginning of giraffe print layer

Completed giraffe print tier

Top tier made to look like a quilted gift box with pearl bordered top

Another view

Middle pink tier with stenciled paisly design

Finished product