He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not Cake

 Valentine's Day practice cake complete! It's amazing how all the work that was put into this cake ended with a mere 20 minutes to put it all together into this beautiful creation! Let me go over the things that I have accomplished (and the things I have learned) from this cake...

1. Gumpaste Roses: I had an earlier post on these so I won't do a big repeat. Mission accomplished!
2. Covering cake boards in fondant: Originally I thought this was the stupidest thing ever so I refused to do it. Thought it was a waste of time, fondant and energy. I was wrong. I am trying to "up my game" as a decorator and that includes presentation - the cake board being a huge part of that presentation! I have tried covering cake boards in wrapping papers - no good. The grease from the cake and icing seeps into it. Fondant is sturdy and can be colored/ decorated to match the theme of the cake. Will be doing future work (and more challenging designs) with this.
3. Covering shaped cakes in fondant: Not that hard. Same as any cake - take your time and smooth from the top down!
4. Quilting: Going to need some work on this one. Pressure is key to making it look even and purposeful. The sides of the cake really need to be thought through to know which lines cross. The sides of the top of the cake turned out beautiful since that was about the point I figured out what I was doing... will be practicing more in the future since I really liked the end result.
5. Piped ruffle border: I practiced this one a lot on wax paper beforehand. I knew I was using black icing and there was one chance to get it right. Beautiful! Will be using a lot in the future! Next time I think I will try also piping over the top line with a bead border to give it a really finished look.

All in all a successful practice cake. Got to do a self-designed, simple yet dramatic cake. The color scheme is one I had been wanting to try for awhile now. Simple bold colors that really gave a clean professional look to the finished product. I chose to name this design the "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" Cake. Valentine's Day is definitely a holiday that brings on high emotions in both directions. I wanted to create something that included everyone in this holiday whether it was an I never want to forget or I can't wait to forget this day!

Monogrammed Snowflake Brownie Cupcakes

So we have a family dinner every Saturday night in my family... or I should say families. We rotate every other weekend between my family and my husband's family. This weekend is my husband's family's weekend and I was asked to bring something sweet. I wanted to stay away from Valentine's Day since I already have a cake in mid-design so I decided to do one of my favorite things - snowflakes! Lana and her cousin Elise just learned all about snowmen at the library this week so I just decided to keep the theme going :) Lana and I whipped up a batch of triple chocolate brownie cupcakes. Then I cut out some snowflakes and embellished each one with the first initial of a dinner guest. The extra cupcakes were topped with a secondary snowflake. Monogramming is very in right now (especially for weddings) so I figured this would be a good thing to have in my cake portfolio :) Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... cupcakes of course!

Let Them Eat Practice Cakes!

The practice cake has officially begun! Here are the finished roses that will be the main focus for my February practice cake! What is a practice cake? It's a cake that lets me practice all those techniques in cake decorating that I have been dying to try! Since I don't have any cake orders this month it is the perfect time to create and execute a self-designed cake. My husband has been urging me to do this for the last 6 months. Since it's the only way I'm going to advance my cake decorating skills, I have finally seized the opportunity. Back to the roses... I am really happy at how they turned out. The roses themselves were not hard to do but the stems were a completely different story! My husband challenged me to forgo the traditional green paper wrapped floral wire and instead cover the wires in gumpaste to make the flower look uniform. It took several attempts to achieve this. And I don't even want to talk about attaching the leaves! Hopefully I will either get better at it over time or discover an easier way to accomplish rose stems and leaves. Stay tuned for the finished cake later this month!