deWishes delights

Chanel Purse Cake

2012-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to make a cake purse for a really long time, so with my friend's 30th birthday right around the corner, I offered to make her one. Since this was my very first purse cake, my friend found a purse design online and I basically tried to copy it.

I baked layers of cream cheese pound cake, leveled them off, and stacked them on top of each other. To make the layers stick together, I carefully frosted between each layer with homemade buttercream. Using a really sharp knife, I then carved the small mountain of cake into the shape of a purse.

All the surfaces of the cake also received a coating of buttercream to seal in the crumbs (I forgot to take a picture!). After chilling in the fridge for a few hours to harden the coating, I colored and rolled out a large piece of soft pink fondant and covered the cake.

Then I gave each side of the cake diamond details:

Next came the black corner fabric, rolled piping over the two edges of the cake, the Chanel logo, and an extra piece of fabric on top with stitching details for the zipper.

Zipper detailing and the metal rings for the double straps came next; I had to figure out how to give the straps the knotted detail at each metal ring.

Top view of purse straps and zipper detail:

To finish off the look, I rolled out white fondant and placed it on a cake board. Such a large piece of fondant is quite difficult to work with , but the wavy effect of the cloth was worth it. I wanted some different colors in there as well so I made a small bottle of nail polish, and since my friend said she normally uses lip gloss rather than lipstick, I also created a little jar of lip gloss. And of course, what's Chanel without a string of pearls?

Top view:

Side back view:

Other side back view:

Entire display with fondant lettering on board:

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY JOHANNA!!!

1st Birthday Cake Decorations

2012-02-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

This was my first out-of-state order! A lady wanted to make a 1st birthday cake for her granddaughter and saw a cake very similar to the cake below. Even though she had never worked with fondant before, she was willing to make the cake herself but wanted help with the decorations and the cake board. She found me online and it was really great to work with her! :)

Below is her picture of the finished cake:

Since she already had the tiara, I ended up making the "1st Birthday Princess Saalaya" sign, the hearts, the flowers, the butterflies, the lilac pearls around the base of the cake, and the cake board. Everything was pink and lilac, but the pictures make the lilac look a little bluish. I mixed both the pink and lilac fondant colors. Once I finished everything, I meticulously packed everything inside jewelry boxes before I packaged everything in a larger box and ended up having to make my own box to mail the cake board.

Here are the butterflies, hearts, and flowers I placed in the jewelry boxes. The butterflies have pink shimmer on them and the hearts and flowers were powdered with lilac shimmer.

I rolled the lilac pearls for the base individually, and I definitely underestimated the amount of time it would take me since I wanted every pearl to be smooth and similar in size. It ended up taking 1 1/2 hrs!

Fondant letters were not as easy as I thought they would be because the letters are so slim and soft and stretch out easily. I had to redo many of the letters and keep "ironing" out the heart to make sure the heart was large enough to fit all the letters.

For the board, I hand-painted all the butterflies and hearts in edible colors and glued a pretty pink ribbon around the edge. My client sent me a picture after she put everything together. I thought everything turned out beautifully!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS SAALAYA!

Valentine's Day Cake Pops 2012 - Order NOW!!!

2012-02-04T00:25:00.000-08:00

It's that time again when love is in the air! Express your love with an exclusive collection of delicious handmade Valentine's Day cake truffles (some may call them Valentine's cake pops) - hearts, double hearts, hearts within hearts, XOXO's, and edible glitter will do the trick. Your sweetheart will love you for it!

ORDER NOW!!!

Please see prices below:

Set 1: Valentine's Day cake truffles (box of 5): $15 + S&H (or you can just pick up the week before)
Set 2: Valentine's Day cake truffles (box of 8): $20 + S&H (or you can just pick up the week before)

Shipping and Handling: If orders are placed one week in advance of Valentine's Day (on or before 2/7), I will ship the order via Priority Mail on Thursday, Feb 9th ($10 for S&H); package will arrive on the 13th or the 14th (I can't control the arrival date). I can also ship the day before Valentine's Day via Express Mail for the truffles to arrive before 12 noon on Valentine's Day ($35 for S&H). Sorry - I'm going by post office prices!

Each set will contain an assortment of cake ball flavors: red velvet, chocolate, and butter cake.

A complimentary card will be mailed with the order. Please email me at dewishesdelights@gmail.com with the quantity you would like of each set of Valentine's truffles.You can pay by PayPal (or personal check if I know you). :)

Below are samples of the set of 5 and the set of 8.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Rubber Ducky Cake Pops

2012-01-30T00:14:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we went to a cousin's son's 100th day celebration and I decided to make some cake pops using a different butter cake recipe. I went with the classic rubber ducky design and mixed in some blue sugar crystal cake pops. I had meant to add some sugar pearls (as bubbles) to the rubber ducky cake pops, but I ran out of time so I had to be content with what I had. Thankfully, everyone thought the cake pops were cute and delicious, and someone even said that the rubber ducks look like baby Brandon!

Close up:

HAPPY 100TH DAY BRANDON!!!

Not-So-Pink Baby Shower

2012-01-21T00:40:00.000-08:00

For my good friend's baby shower, earthy and not-so-pink were the color scheme. The center pieces for the baby shower were glass bowls filled with a mossy bottom, and inside them were fawn figurines and red mushrooms with white polka-dots. The favors were almost mini-versions of the centerpieces with Bambi favor tags, so I really wanted to keep with the style. However, I didn't want the treats to look too washed out so I went with a combination of the baby's bedspread and the shower's decorations.

In addition to creating red mushrooms with white polka-dots, I made beige cake balls and dotted them to look like a fawn's back. Because I always picture Bambi poking his head into flowers and smelling them, I created multi-layered flowers in yellow and white with candy pearl centers. The pink cake pops were actually dipped in beige candy melt first and then capped with pale pink so the overall effect wouldn't be too pink.

When I finished, I displayed the treats in a woodsy basket I had saved from a wedding.

Here is a close-up of the stitching details on the butterfly wings. These butterfly and leaf designs were from the baby's bedspread, and the white dots were sprinkles that I placed on the leaves and the wings one at a time with food tweezers. :)

One final picture:

Welcome to this world, baby Serena!!!

Butterfly Birthday Cupcake Cake Pops

2011-12-21T23:17:00.000-08:00

What a tongue twister.....these fluttery cake pops were for a special little girl's sixth birthday party. Their garage was turned into a dance studio (disco ball and all) where an instructor taught the girls various dances (what a cute idea). The family already had a Tinkerbell cake, so I decided to make whimsical cake pops.

For these butter cake flavored cake pops, I used a cupcake mold to achieve the shape. I first dipped the bottom into chocolate candy melt, and when it dried, I dipped the top into pale pink candy melt.

Here they are before any embellishments:

I needed to "jazz" them up so I dusted each cupcake with pink shimmer dust (look closely):

They still weren't jazzy enough for me so I added lavender sugar sprinkles:

Next, I marbleized pink fondant, stamped out butterflies, and shaped the wings.

Once the butterflies were allowed to set, I gave each butterfly a white sugar-pearl head. All the butterflies also received a coating of glimmering pixie dust:

I attached the butterflies to the cake pops using pink candy melt and arranged all of them in a wooden basket with a bright pink bow.

And since I had one butterfly left, I placed it in the middle of the bow.

I really just wanted the butterflies to be able to fly away on their own.....

Butterflies drink nectar, but nectar comes from flowers, so I add a ring of pink and yellow orchids around the outside of the cupcake bouquet. When I showed up to deliver the butterfly cake pop basket, all the young girls swarmed me. I was so happy to see their delighted faces since I don't usually don't get to see the reactions! :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IVY!!!

The Nightmare Before Christmas...

2011-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

" 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." and so begins the legendary poem by Clement C. Moore.

This event was for a surprise birthday party (shhhh...it's this Friday) and since the birthday guy's favorite holiday happens to be Halloween, I used "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as the theme. I was asked to combine the birthday theme with Christmas, and since I've always loved the characters in "The Nightmare Before Christmas", I was super excited to begin this project.

A couple weeks before the event, I begin researching ideas and envisioning what I wanted the cake to look like and eventually drew this picture. As you can see from the photo above, I actually stuck pretty close to my original design (which doesn't always happen)!

Because I wanted to focus on decorating, I outsourced the 6" velvet cake from one of my favorite bakeries and asked them to simply cover it with buttercream. At home, I cut multi-width strips of black, red, and green fondant and laid them aside to dry out a bit. This is actually a bit more complicated and time-consuming than it looks.

Meanwhile, I cut a building silhouette out of sugar paper which was no small feat (for so many nooks and crannies) since sugar paper breaks easily. After placing the colored strips where I wanted, I adhered the silhouette to the side of the cake with frosting and made some windows out of fondant.

Next, I rolled black and white fondant pearls and lined the base of the cake:

Now it was time for Jack, who was an architectural challenge (skinny legs, arms, hat, and tricky beard). The arms were still too flimsy after several hours so I set Jack aside while I worked on the iconic moon and hill. His arms ended up drying overnight and then almost for another day.

Here is armless Jack (his arms are behind his body):

Next in line to make were the pumpkins, which I nestled on top of curled holly leaves. I also decided to make a couple of snowflakes for the side of the cake.

Here is the whole cake assembly, minus Jack...still waiting for Jack.....

Left view & right view:

And finally...Jack!

Again, left view & right view:

More close ups:

Time to make some cake pops. I already had the Santa Claus bellies from the previous post, so I made some Jack cake pops and created a design on yellow cake pops to complement the moon and the hill motif.

All the Jack's have different faces:

And voila! Here is the whole display:

Aerial view:

Almost everything looked great to me when I retired upstairs for the night, but one little thing kept bugging me: the back of the moon. I had covered it in candy melt so it would stand up, but I didn't like the look of it (see below). Cakes are meant to be seen from 360 degrees, and I cringed at the thought of someone seeing the back of the moon, so I slept on it...

My solution the next morning were two more pieces of fondant on the back of the moon:

Packaging the cake pops for delivery:

This project was super fun but also challenging. Estimation of total hours: 12 hrs. But then again, there's the saying, "when you do what you love," it doesn't feel like work...I love doing this!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN,

and I hope you enjoy your cake and cake pops! I've been requested not to post this up on Facebook until Friday night! :)

Here's one more picture!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS...

2011-12-18T01:22:00.000-08:00

Actually, it's been looking like Christmas for a while now, and Christmas is only a week away! A friend needed a Christmas present for her boss, and since they have two granddaughters, she asked me to make cake pops with "just any X-mas theme." I found these snowman and Santa Claus bellies online (I love that they are just the belly) and mostly recreated them, with butter cake and vanilla frosting on the inside. The hats are an inverted chocolate candy melt with a Rolo candy on top, and I added green autumn leaf sprinkles (I didn't have holly sprinkles on hand) and piped berries onto the hat for a little pizzazz. The snowmen's carrot noses are made of fondant, as are their eyes and mouths.

A few close-up pictures are always a must! I gave the snowmen a bit of color on their cheeks by brushing on pink shimmer dust. If these snowmen had hands, I believe they'd tip their hats!

Upon further investigation (by eating), we can safely conclude that Santa's belly is a cake belly and not a beer belly:

One more week until Christmas...

Winter Penguins

2011-12-13T23:45:00.001-08:00

A friend and I made these cozy little penguins for fun...the holidays are always an excuse to make something! We decided to dip them in ice blue since we didn't have enough black candy melt, and I thought they turned out pretty adorable. Each penguin was warmed up with a scarf, earmuffs, or a beanie. The scarves were surprisingly the most difficult to make because the long strand of fondant kept cracking. All the penguins are butter cake on the inside.

Here's a picture with a funny effect; the penguins look like they have blue eyes in this one. Brrrr........

We packed some of the penguins away in their igloo for house-to-house transfer, and apparently, one of the "naked" penguins was immediately eaten upon arrival!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY CAKE DECORATIONS

2011-12-03T16:39:00.001-08:00

Note: I only make the decorations that went on top of this cake; I did not make the cake itself.

My friend wanted me to only make cake decorations for her husband's 60th birthday celebration. She made her own cake which were two carrot cakes iced together and then she had me decorate the cake the day of the party. Because they own an ophthalmology medical devices company, she wanted me to tie-in an eye theme along with a little bit of Christmas. I decided to make a sculpture of the man of honor, a pair of gold spectacles, some Christmas ornaments, their beloved family cat, and several pairs of eyeballs without red blood vessels (I thought it would be too Halloween-like for a 60th birthday celebration).

When I arrived at the house, below was what I was given to decorate...I was initially a bit troubled by the unevenness of the sheet cake, but it was really just a background for a winter wonderland, right?

Once I placed all the decorations on the cake, it turned out to be quite cute!

Candy canes braced the corners of the cake, and I even added some blue snowflakes to the top and side of the cake to add some color (and to cover up wrinkles). I placed edible pearls on the snowflakes on top of the cake.

I came up with the idea of making an eye chart to contain the birthday message, but when I looked online for a sample eye chart, I realized I wasn't the only person with this great "eye-dea" (haha)! I had to modify the chart to create an aesthetically pleasing birthday message, but all that mattered was that everyone immediately recognized it as an eye exam chart. I worried that the chart would look too plain against a white cake so I gilded the edges of the eye exam chart which also contributed to the sophistication of a 60th birthday. This would also make a great optometry or ophthalmology cake!

Here is the cake displayed on the dessert table during the party.

Happy 60th Birthday Scott!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2011-11-23T23:42:00.000-08:00

These cupcakes and cake pops were so fun to make with a friend. We found cute examples online and started slaving away making our Thanksgiving feast!

These corn-on-the-cob cupcakes are made of butter cake with cream cheese frosting and different colored jelly beans for the kernels.

Ideally, we would've liked to place the "kernels" closer together, but because we didn't have enough yellowish jelly beans, we decided to be creative and make different colored maize. Afterall, corn really does come in all sorts of colors. Also, those corn-on-the-cob holders at the ends will be helpful during Thanksgiving dinner!

What's Thanksgiving without a turkey, or maybe a flock of fourteen stuffed with chocolate cake? We used Whoppers for their heads and butterscotch chips for their beaks, and for feet, we used autumn leaf sprinkles and orange floral sprinkles. I decided to put nostrils on my turkeys.

Lastly, my last turkey's head started slipping down the front, but by the time I noticed, it had already fallen down to the parchment paper. It was my perfect excuse to make him into the turkey that was picked for Thanksgiving dinner. I thought about making a little fondant axe for his neck but I thought that would be a bit too morbid, so I left him with "X's" for his eyes. I wonder who will eat him tomorrow......have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and I'm sure after the feast tomorrow, everyone will have to roll themselves home!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Gobble-Gobble Day!!!

Baseball Wedding Toppers

2011-10-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make wedding toppers for a wedding in September after the bride-to-be saw the bridal shower treats back in July. Because these were cake toppers and not treats, both the bride and groom are made completely from fondant. Edible pearl details were added to the brides veil and I "stitched" the couple's initials onto the groom's baseball cap. The home plate and baseball bat were added to liven up the atmosphere. The wedding was beautiful, and so were the bride and groom!

Aerial view of the toppers:

Congratulations to the new couple!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post for some fun Halloween cupcakes. We found these fun cupcakes online and decided to give them a try. Chocolate eyeballs and yummy mummies made from fondant strips and red gel.

Happy Halloween!

Safari Pool Party!!!

2011-09-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

This birthday cake and these cake truffles were for a special little girl's birthday party with safari animals as the theme. Since it was a summer pool party, it made sense to combine the two and have safari animals relaxing at the beach!

This was also a very special cake because it was our first two-layer cake with filling. We started with a 9" round butter cake for the bottom layer (cut horizontally in half) and coated the bottom half with vanilla pudding and sliced organic strawberries (yes - we washed, sliced, and chopped the green parts off of every strawberry), leaving a thin rim of cake around the filling.

A circle of ganache was then carefully squeezed around the circumference to keep the pudding and strawberries from sliding out. More pudding was smeared on top and the other half of the 9" cake (with the dome sliced off) easily adhered to the filling. The entire cake (top and sides) was then treated to a layer of ganache.

The next step was to cover the bottom layer with blue fondant to represent water, but of course, a monochromatic blue would have been much too simple (and not as interesting). My sister came up with a clever technique for a marblelized pond with circular white-caps (fit for a circular cake) to represent the ocean. Unfortunately, the marbled effect was diminished once the top layer of cake was placed on top, but in this picture, you can enjoy the effect to your heart's content! :)

Our idea for the top layer of the cake was to have an off-set island so safari animals could enjoy both the sand and the surrounding waters. (Our island might be the only island that tastes like carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.) The island was coated with graham cracker crumbs and sloped so the birthday girl's name could be carved into the beach. At first I thought it would be a cool idea to just draw the name into the "sand" just like on a real beach, but I quickly realized the name appeared indistinguishable and wouldn't be appreciated.

Spontaneous Plan B was to use white fondant and pearlize the letters with pink and white edible shimmer. Thankfully, everything worked out beautifully because the letters ended up looking as if they were made from abalone shells (and that wasn't even planned)!

Next came the whimsical task of decorating the island with fondant sculptures: two bronzed palm trees (it took three tries until the leaves wouldn't dry and crack off under their own weight), a tri-colored tropical bird (a mold was used for the bird), a bucket and shovel with a fish poking out (the shovel was the hardest to make because it was so small), a red hermit crab (a pre-made chocolate shell was used but I struggled to get the legs and angle of the body just so), a colorful beach towel to lay out on, and some pretty pink flowers to liven up the island and frame the name.

Having a 3-dimensional cake ususally makes an occassion feel that much more special, so instead of piping seaweed onto the side of the cake, each strip of seaweed was cut out of rolled fondant and attached with the blades turning in different directions for a flowing feel. Baby blue edible pearls representing bubbles gave the cake a touch of elegance, and coincidentally, tied in to the party's bubbleologist performance!

In order to accommodate 40+ guests, we made a fun collection of lemon, carrot cake, and chocolate cake truffles. My sister meticulously made the colorful beach balls putting strips of red, blue, and green fondant on top of a yellow-coated cake ball (by a twist of fate, there were safari animal beach balls at the party), and we also had each safari animal relax on his or her own lifesaver (we used gummy LifeSavers - convenient, huh?) and piece of glimmering ocean (blue sugar sprinkles). We also added some inner-tubers on the cake itself for fun!

Although it was tempting, we didn't want the beach theme to overshadow the safari theme, so on all the chocolate-covered cake truffles, we hand-cut leaves and veined them, curled them up on the cake balls to give more dimension, and propped one safari animal on top of each leaf. One particular monkey was a bit more mischeiveous than the rest and swung himself upside down (so we let my nephew eat him)! Also, in case you were wondering, we bought the safari animals (made of royal icing); sorry, we're not quite that good yet!

The final touch was a banner (the only inedible part of the cake) hung between the two palm trees declaring the happy day: "Happy Birthday!!!"

We surrounded the cake with colorful beach balls and inner-tubers and displayed the rest of the cake truffles on a 3-tier cake stand which turned out quite lovely. The party was fabulous and the cake turned out to be moist and delicious!

Happy Birthday Adelynn!!!

Note: This post is a bit late for July, but better late than never, right?

Bridal Shower Grand Slam!!!

2011-07-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

This pair of soon-to-be bride and groom love their sports, so we came up with these "cake balls" for a playful bridal shower. Footballs, basketballs, and baseballs surround a blushing bride and groom sporting baseball wedding attire (all hand-tailored). The groom and footballs have chocolate cake inside, and the bride, basketballs, and baseballs contain "deWishes" butter cake!

Side view of bride & groom: note the stitching on the groom's baseball cap and the couple's adorable profiles. The thread on the baseballs were hand-stitched and all the balls were handmade without the use of molds.

Aerial view: shows sample monogram on groom's baseball cap. The bows on the bride's pigtails are pearlized and set with a pearl.

Back View: shows the pearlized gleam of the bride's veil and the sheen of the groom's cap. From any angle, this union is a Grand Slam, a Touchdown, and a Slam Dunk all in one! CONGRATULATIONS to the happy couple!!!

Independence Day

2011-07-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

July 4th, 1776 marks the signing of our Declaration of Independence. As with all holidays, we must remember to celebrate and spend time with those we love and to be eternally grateful that we live in a country that believes in protecting the simplest form of all human freedoms: LIFE.

**HAPPY JULY 4TH!**

Rock Star Diva

2011-06-06T00:31:00.000-07:00

Cakes for this Rock Star Diva themed birthday party were a blast to make! The inside of each oval truffle boasts moist chocolate cake on top of a thin chocolate wafer, creating the perfect symphony of textures.

For the stars, thin strips of black fondant had to be carefully placed on top of pink fondant so each star would have the perfect zebra pattern when cut out with a cookie cutter. The guitar was drawn freehand and each piece meticulously cut out. Each star and guitar was then "glitterized" to the max, and a sprinkle of pink sugar crystals set the stage smashingly! We hope the lovely young ladies have a rockin' good time. Happy 8th Birthday, Alexis!

Po, the Dragon Warrior!

2011-05-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

According to Master Oogway, "there are no accidents" in the world; the manifestation of these Po cake truffles is also not by accident. They are here to celebrate one special boy's 7th birthday. Each Po has a different expression, and it's also no accident I put them on a bamboo platter for the photograph. Remember that the ultimate lesson in "Kung Fu Panda" is that things become special if you believe them to be, and I hope this is one very special birthday! Happy Birthday Ian!!!

National Nurses Week!

2011-05-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

National Nurses Week is celebrated every year, from May 6 (National Nurses Day) through May 12 (Florence Nightingale's birthday and International Nurses Day). This year, we created traditional nurse's hats to celebrate the hard work and dedication of a very special group of nurses. The white hats are made of red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, and the chocolate hats are chocolate cake with hazelnut filling. I can't think of a better way to spoil a nurse or two!

If there is an extraordinary nurse in your life that you would like to thank, please tell us about him/her in our comments section. As for us, we would like to send out a heartfelt thank you to the nurses at Talbert Surgical Associates and to all the nurses who dedicate themselves to patient care around the world. HAPPY NATIONAL NURSES WEEK!

Crazy-for-Oreos!

2011-05-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite cake flavors is Cookies 'n Cream. There's just something really special about an Oreo and the way it tastes, which is exactly why this post is solely dedicated to Oreos. The top picture features Oreo cake truffles (crushed Oreo with cream cheese frosting), and the bottom two pictures are my sister's Crazy-for-Oreo creations. These scrumptious treats start with an Oreo cookie topped with a layer of Oreo cake truffle (crushed Oreo with cream cheese), and then the entire thing is dipped in cocoa candy melt and topped with crushed Oreos for the perfect little crunch. The cropped picture on the right looks so yummy I want to take a bite every time I look at it!

Ghirardelli Graduates

2011-05-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

We will be making these for my nephew's graduation, but I'm also dedicating them to all the upcoming graduates! The graduation hats are Ghirardelli chocolate squares, and the fondant tassles are secured with yellow M & M's. As for the apples, I just wanted to post them up again because apples seem to go so well with school-related themes, and the red seems to balance out the flesh-tone pictures. Smile, Graduates! :D

Teacher Appreciation Week

2011-05-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Creating a spin on the traditional apple, my sister made these delicious red apples for Teacher Appreciation Week, which was last week. I remember most of my teachers growing up, and among the most memorable are Mrs. Feher (junior high) and Professor Schwartz (university).

The inside reveals red velvet cake with cream cheese filling:

I love the perspective of the photo below.

Thank you to all the educators for your dedication and hard work each and every day! ;)

Introducing Our New Line of Lingerie......"Sexy & Delicious"!

2011-05-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a sneak peak of our new line of lingerie, "Sexy & Delicious"! These were for a zebra and hot pink lingerie theme for a bachelorette party in Vegas (perfect!), with red velvet and cream cheese frosting on the inside.

I'll be the first to admit that when we started making these, I felt a little weird with my young niece and nephew around. However, in a flash of desperation, I replied "bikinis!" when asked "what are you and mommy making?" I think it did the trick...phew!

I'm also thinking that these would be fun for Valentine's Day.....Lingerie and sweets all wrapped up in one...can't go wrong with that!

To New Beginnings...

2011-05-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Ironically, the collection of sad faces below were requested as a farewell gift for a co-worker. Even though everyone was happy for his new job, everyone was also sad that he was leaving the company, so it was suggested that we create a box of treats with a variety of sad faces. It was such a cute and great idea, I got a little carried away and added different hair styles and tears. I love it when people have a sense of humor! :D

Mother's Day is this Sunday, May 8th!!

2011-04-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for a special gift for mom this Mother's Day? Instead of the typical flowers and chocolates, show your love and appreciation with a box of our delectable cake truffles! We are creating an assortment of yummy treats to celebrate the wonderful women who have nurtured and raised us. Each elegantly frosted box will contain 12 delectable cake truffles with decorative floral accents (picture below shows sample cake truffles).

Please place your request now as we will be making a limited quantity. Orders must be placed by Wednesday, May 4^th, and can be picked up on Friday (5/6) or Saturday (5/7). Please email us at dewishesdelights@gmail.com to place your order, and include the number of boxes. We will confirm availability and your order. The price for one box of twelve Mother’s Day Truffles is $40.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

Eggs have long been a tradition in symbolizing birth and spring time, which is why it's no surprise that eggs and Easter go so well together. We created these darling Easter eggs for...you guessed it...Easter! We had a (cake) ball decorating these eggs and loved all the spring-y pastel-y colors that surfaced, and if you crack open an egg, you are likely to find butter, strawberry, or chocolate cake on the inside! Happy Easter Egg Hunting!!!

Monster Madness!

2011-04-09T01:21:00.000-07:00

Monsters are the perfect theme for a little boy's 1st birthday party. The monsters were created to match the invitation (I printed out a sample invitation for the picture below). The green monsters are Cookies n' Cream and the blue monsters are butter cake. We created the feet and arms using Hershey's chocolate bars which we attached to the cake before dipping the monsters. Lemon cake truffles with coordinating colors made the monsters a bit more friendly.

Below are two more pictures of the monsters and cake truffles packaged in their box and ready to go! Look at the lower right corner of the picture below, and you will see the giant monster that we made for fun.
Happy Birthday Leo!!!

Spring Time is Almost Here!

2011-04-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

Pretty in spring time colors, these lemon cake truffles are garnished with pink blossoms and yellow daises. One of the best things in life is pausing during a hectic day and smelling the flowers...or tasting them!

Checkmate!

2011-04-02T03:53:00.000-07:00

This was such an awesome project to work on, and our imaginations ran wild. We wanted to incorporate chess pieces for a 70th birthday, and we immediately came up with the idea to make 64 individual cake squares to represent the chess board and 32 chess pieces to go on top. The party actually didn’t need that many pieces of cake, but my sister and I couldn’t allow a board game with missing pieces to leave our premises.

Initially, the chess pieces were to be solid chocolate because even though we were able to find a mold for the chess pieces, fitting cake inside a thin layer of chocolate seemed impossible. The plastic mold only accommodates one-half of six chess pieces at a time, so in order to create one 3-D chess piece, each mold has to be filled up twice, the halves need to be secured together with melted chocolate, and the seam of each piece requires caulking and smoothing out. We decided to step it up a notch and try putting cake in the middle of a very thin shell of chocolate and then doing all of the above, and after quite some time, we figured out a method.

Each square of the chess board was cut and then dipped to achieve nice corners for a snug fit. Chocolate (dark) squares have dark chocolate cake inside, and the white squares have butter cake inside. The chocolate chess pieces are all Cookies ‘n Cream, and the white chess pieces have butter cake on the inside.

There are a total of 32 chess pieces, and for each piece, we created 2 halves of the chocolate shell, stuffed each half with cake, secured the 2 halves together, and "caulked" and cleaned up the seam. However, instead of 64 halves, we probably ended up making at least 80 halves due to trial and error and the fragile nature of cake as the supporting beam inside such a delicate shell. The kings and bishops tended to behead themselves, and a few of the pawns also surrendered. Each chess piece took anywhere between 10-20 minutes to make, but it was all worth it when we finally saw the finished product!

Our final touches included bronzing the chocolate pieces and pearlizing the white pieces for a sophisticated effect, and we were surprised to discover how much the chocolate queen resembled an actual copper chess piece. The picture below doesn’t do it justice:

Here is a picture of my sister gingerly securing each letter onto the chessboard:

We couldn't stop taking pictures, and I couldn't decide on which pictures to post, so below are a couple more. We hope all the guests enjoy this strategic creation, and many happy birthday wishes to the guest of honor!

IN-tinction of Dine-o-saurs

2011-03-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

On Friday night I needed some stress relief, so we decided to make something for my nephew's playdate the next day just for fun. We thought of making basketballs and soccer balls, but that wasn't quite enough to cheer me up until we thought to make these cute little dinosaurs (Cookies 'n Cream cake inside).

Apatosaurus (also known as brontosaurus) and Stegosaurus are from the Jurassic period, and Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops are from the Cretaceous period. The extinction of dinosaurs is believed to have been caused by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event (also known as the K-T extinction event). These dinosaurs have all been momentarily brought here together until the next G-I (gastrointestinal) extinction event. Who knew that human consumption is the real reason why dinosaurs became extinct!!!

Even though dinosaurs are now extinct, people will always appreciate the sublime beauty of such magnificent creatures and continue to adore them. ;)

Babies, Babies, Babies!!!

2011-03-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

These adorable treats were for a surprise dual baby shower (both boys) at work. We figured that not everyone would want to eat a baby treat, so we mixed in coordinating cake truffles and decorated those in an elegant design. The inside of the cake truffles were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Here is a close-up of the baby faces. Pink shimmer was brushed on for rosy cheeks.

Welcome to this world, babies!!!

Manatee Birthday Cake

2011-03-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

Manatees are gentle giants of the shallow sea and river tributaries, which is why my sister-in-law requested a manatee cake for her husband's birthday. She let us choose the design and flavor of cake, but also said that in addition to the manatee, it would be fun to have a dolphin and a baby manatee on top. I wasn't quite sure how it would all come together, but I was up for a challenge. We picked the cake flavor, Kahlua (one of our favorites), and my sister topped it with dark chocolate ganache and decorated the side with mini-chocolate chips, which I thought was really cute.

Now it was my turn.....I molded a manatee from fondant (my first time sculpting anything like this), and had to look up a picture on the internet to get the flippers and tail just right:

Creating the mini-manatee wasn't too hard since now I've already done it once, and I thought a pink bow would be perfect (the couple has a daughter). For the dolphin, I was originally going to mold only part of a dolphin and have it's head pop out of the water, but I wasn't quite satisfied with how it looked (even though my husband told me it was amazing), so I made another one. After dusting the animals with edible luster, I put rock candy pebbles on top of the cake and added blue luster around the creatures and rocks to create a watery effect.

The birthday sign was first piped onto wax paper and the writing piped in chocolate, and once it was dry, I thought it was pretty clever to prop it up on the cake with more candy rocks!

To many more Manatee Cakes, and Happy Birthday Alex!!!

Mr. Potato Head.....x 49!!!

2011-03-22T01:17:00.000-07:00

This was a really fun project for a one year old birthday party with Toy Story as the theme. We had a whole assembly line for these Mr. Potato Heads since everything except the eyes and the arms had to be attached before the candy melt coating hardened. Here is the beginning of the army of Mr. Potato Heads awaiting their eyes and arms:

The next step was giving them pupils, which I really should have left until the last step, but only because of the uncanny experience when you suddenly realize that a slew of Mr. Potato Heads are looking at you (as if they jumped off the screen into real life)!! The amusing part of all this is that each Mr. Potato Head had a different expression, such as the right-most one in the front row who was probably wondering why are there so many of me? Good thing none of them had their mouths yet at this point. The arms were first piped on wax paper and then attached.

A confetti circle and a piped moustache completed the look of each Mr. Potato Head:

Finally, each Mr. Potato Head was nestled into a truffle cup and and finished off with two colors of curling ribbon. Hmmm....isn't Buzz the one with the plastic helmet?

And how could I resist sitting Mr. Potato Head and Mr. Potato Head Jr. on a real potato? I couldn't! These two were extra treats that we made for our family members. The one on the left is noseless because my nephew didn't want to eat the butterscotch nose, and of course we added a mouth and moustache! Happy 1st Birthday Noah!!

Happy Shamrock Day!

2011-03-17T00:19:00.000-07:00

This array of chocolate, white, and green treats were made for an office celebration. The chocolate and white treats have shamrock green butter cake on the inside, and the green treats contain contrasting yellow butter cake. One bite of these, and you'll be sure to find your leprechaun and a pot o' gold! Happy St. Patrick's Day, and don't forget to wear green today unless you want to be pinched!

Lollipops, Flowers, and Butterflies

2011-03-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

We used some of the birthday girl's favorite colors for her 6th birthday celebration. The inside of the yellow flowers contain French vanilla cake with sprinkles, and the butterflies contain Cookies 'n Cream cake. The lollipops are first coated with candy melt and then rolled in colorful sugar crystals, giving the lollipops the perfect crunch to complement their fudge brownie centers. It's beginning to feel like spring already, with all of these cheerful colors! Happy Birthday Emma!!

Hello Kitty Birthday

2011-03-15T01:50:00.000-07:00

These Hello Kitties cake truffles are the real deal - pretty in pink and ready for a pre-school birthday party! After finding some cool pink sugar pearls, we redesigned the bows from our practice-run Hello Kitties, and after making 38 of these, we packaged them into two boxes. If cuteness could kill, I'm sure this army of Hello Kitties could certainly do the job! Happy Birthday!!!

Pinkalicious Cupcakes

2011-03-06T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well, almost......we still have to put the curly border around the top of the cake, but these are the cupcakes from the Pinkalicious books. We wanted the bottom of the cupcake to have really good fluted definition, so we used two different molds (one for the top & one for the bottom) and put them together. The dipping was also a two-step process, and the bottom was dipped in chocolate. After the bottom dried, the top was dipped in Pinkalicious pink and topped with a fondant cherry and hand-painted white dots.

Hello, Kitty!

2011-03-06T22:59:00.000-08:00

These Hello Kitty's are a practice run for a preschool birthday party. The little girl wanted all pink bows, so we practiced with other colors for these bows (to save the pink ones). The nose is made of yellow fondant, the eyes are hand-painted, and the whiskers are hand-piped onto the Hello Kitty after the coating has dried. These are so cute and fun to make!

Birthday Koalas

2011-03-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

Heehee...I couldn't post this one until today because these koalas were a surprise for my coworker's birthday on Friday. We had to mix our own gray from white candy melt (for the head) and white fondant (for the ears). The shape of the ears was the hardest part to figure out. I started with bear-like ears but cringed disapprovingly because instead of looking like a koala, it looked more like a gray mouse with a gigantic nose. I tugged on the ears a bit hoping that stretching the lobes might fix the problem, but it didn't; the animal ended up looking even more grotesque, so I started from scratch. On my third koala, the ears looked a bit more koala-like but felt a little messy, and on the fourth try, a koala finally emerged! :) Happy Birthday!!!

Whooopeeee!!!

2011-03-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

These treats are actually called Whoopie Pies ("Whoopee Pie" is the name from a specific bakery), and here we have Whoopie Pies galore. Interestingly, Whoopie Pies are thought to have Amish origins, and the women would put these cakes into farmers' lunchboxes. When the farmer opened up his lunchbox and saw the treat, he would cry "Whoopie!"

Below are Red Velvet Whoopie Pie with cream cheese filling, Chocolate Whoopie Pie with an extremely light whipped filling (great choice if you like your desserts less sweet, like me), and Kahlua Coffee Whoopie Pie with a coffee-flavored mascarpone filling, which I started calling a "Zippie Pie!"

Key Lime Pie

2011-03-02T23:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this one is really my sister's story about her trip to Florida, but somehow, I'm the one telling it. Here's a "mathemagical" equation: Trip-to-Florida = Key-Lime-Pie. 'Nough said. When my sister's family returned from Florida, she nearly drove me crazy trying to recreate the Key Lime Pie they had in Florida into a cake treat. A chef gave her the recipe, and since she’s a formulaic perfectionist, she wouldn’t stop (for 3 days) until she achieved her goal and the by-products that resulted from her original project. So in addition to her “Death by Chocolate” cake treat (that’s also reminiscent of their Florida trip), below are two versions of her Key Lime Pie: one with harmless graham-cracker-crust-sprinkles on top, and the other with a homemade candied lime (the cake is spiked with tequila on the inside). J That’s some happy eating!

Turtles Galore

2011-03-02T16:46:00.000-08:00

The original turtles must have told their friends about the California coast because here is all of their turtle friends. We made 40 of these turtles last Saturday, and we threw in a few fondant seastars for fun. The female turtles have vanilla cake on the inside, and the male turtles are chocolate on the inside. The party was held in Turtle Rock, making these turtle treats quite appropriate!

Doraemon - Robotic Cat from the Future

2011-02-24T01:19:00.000-08:00

Doraemon, a robotic cat from the future, is a famous Japanese comic book character and a definite favorite of my brother's. He suggested we make the iconic cat, and once we had the idea in our head, we couldn't rest until we turned Doraemon into a cake treat!

I'm frequently asked: 1) how long do these projects take, and 2) where and when do you find the time? My answers are: 1) it varies from project to project, but generally, if we're creating something completely from scratch, there is about a 2 hr brainstorming, researching, designing, and prototyping session before we actually start a batch of something, and 2) we don't really "have the time" but we're passionate about our creations, so for right now, the time we spend working on projects is on weekends and at least a couple of times during the weekdays; today I went straight from work to my sister's house around 4:30 pm (work for me starts at 8 am and lunch is usually a 25 minute working lunch), and I didn't get home until after 11 pm (hence my 1 am posting). However, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't enjoy it so much!

These Doraemon (or should I say Dorae-men), were made on Monday; I just haven't had the time to post them until now.

Bon Voyage!

2011-02-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

The production of these airplanes began with some sketches and a prototype. After a few design modifications, this fleet was manufactured and is ready for its maiden voyage…Destination: Boston. Seriously - we’re sending these lil’ fellas on a transcontinental flight from California to Boston, and I’m going to ask my friend to take pictures of them. Too bad I won't be accruing frequent flyer miles...Bon Voyage!

Below is the first plane on the runway for take-off, and the subsequent picture displays the airplanes in the formation of a carnival ride. I couldn't resist!

A Day at the Beach

2011-02-14T00:26:00.000-08:00

Apparently, we weren’t the only ones that thought it was a nice day in Southern California. Sea turtles are usually found in Baja California, but this turtle family was spotted basking in the sun, enjoying a day at the beach (maybe at Crystal Cove)!

Weddings, Bridal Showers, and Bachelorette Parties

2011-02-12T22:57:00.000-08:00

We were super-duper excited when our cousin gave us the go-ahead to make her wedding favors, so even though her wedding is months and months away (8 months away), I popped myself on over to my sister’s house after work the very next day, and we came up with this 2-tier wedding cake favor. The designs on the sides are all hand-piped, and the flower on top is made from fondant. Each pearl is carefully selected (like at a pearl market) and delicately situated. This is of course just a trial, so the final product will reflect customized flavors, colors, and designs.

Ironically, the day after designing our cousin’s wedding favors, a dear friend booked us for bridal shower treats this summer. Now I’m just waiting for someone to book us for a bachelorette party!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day treats are a simple way to spread the love...remember when you passed out cards and candy in elementary school? These were for my niece's Valentine's Day party at school. People do say that the way to a man's heart is through the stomach! Happy Valentine's Day!! <3

Happy Notes at Home

2011-02-08T20:25:00.000-08:00

Here are the Happy Notes again, but this time displayed on a platter with a treble clef and staff piped directly on the plate. You'd have to be a pretty good pianist to play this!

Happy Notes

2011-02-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

A symphony of sixteenth and eighth notes for a preschool paino recital. Doo-doo-dee-dee-da-da.....

Super Bowl Sunday

2011-02-05T02:02:00.000-08:00

Aside from playing in the marching band at football games (speaking for myself), Super Bowl Sunday provided us with the opportunity to advance our creativity. The Steelers logos were hand-painted, and the Packers "G's" were hand-piped. Here's a field-level shot:

Pooh Bear & Hunny Pot

2011-02-05T01:32:00.000-08:00

This was completely experimental. I wanted to see if I could come close to making a cake look like Pooh. And Pooh without honey would be an unhappy bear, so he got his Hunny Pot even though it was neon orange.

The 'Bugs and the Bees - Ladybugs, that is...

2011-02-05T01:25:00.000-08:00

Fast forward several weeks, and the two of us were wondering what we could (notice the "could" and not the "should") make for my niece’s school birthday party. The owls were cute, but we didn’t like how the cupcakes tasted dry just after one day. My sister picked up a “Cake Pops” book, and while the pops looked adorable, the idea of sticks in a cake didn’t quite resonate with us. We decided to go for the cuteness and forego the “pops” of the equation. We happened to make strawberry-flavored cake and wanted the outside color to match, so after some time, the ladybug in the book looked cheery and harmless enough, and we started making cake balls. The dipping took some practice, and if you’ve ever worked with melted chocolate, it can be a nightmare. Candy melts are much more forgiving than chocolate, but getting the right consistency and covering the cake pockmark-free were not. But before long, my sister was dubbed the “Dip Master,” and I was the one giving life to the ladybugs (let’s just say I hand-painted, piped, and dabbed an awful lot). My favorite part was giving each ladybug eyes and a smile, at which point I found it too difficult to eat a creation that was staring back at me.

Our next task was coming up with something to accompany the ladybugs, and sunflowers didn’t quite work out, and neither did anything else we saw in the book. However, the sunflower idea led to bees (yellow as the common denominator), chocolate chips became the perfect stinger, and I became the Creative Director! By the time my niece’s birthday rolled around, we figured out how to pipe the wings beforehand (on wax paper) and to make green waffle leaves for the critters to rest on. Each lil’ fella went into individual treat boxes, and my sister delivered them to school on time!

The Beginning

2011-02-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

As with many things, there is usually a beginning. The very beginning really started when two young girls started baking when the older fourth-grader brought home a hand-bound recipe book of brownies, chocolate chip cookies, 7-up Cake, and much more. (Yes, kids learned how to bake in classrooms in those olden days; this was the time before Pillsbury "easy-bakes".)

However, we'll start in December, 2010. My nephew needed cupcakes for his pre-school birthday party, so we decided to make these adorable owl cupcakes we saw in a cupcake book. Our cupcakes ended up being entirely too small for the Oreo eyes, so we ended up with oversize-eyed owls that looked pretty comical. In fact, the whole process of making them was entirely hilarious. After 15 minutes of experimenting, we had my dad twisting open the Oreos (the cream had to remain a perfect circle on one side), and we had my husband carefully sawing the non-creamed Oreo sides into thirds for the ears (Oreos are very brittle, so that was no easy feat). My sister and mom frosted the cupcake tops, I added the eyes and placement of the pupils (very important part in expression), my nephew popped on their little yellow "M&M's" beaks (banana Runts are good too), and the owls cycled back to my sister to receive their feathers. The last step was to add a glimmer of mischief to the eyes, and voila - we had owl cupcakes! If you'll notice in the picture, there are also cupcakes topped with "bugs" which my sister piped together with "M&M's" on wax paper.

Welcome!

2011-02-04T23:23:00.000-08:00

After the urging of many, my sister and I decided to set up a blog where we could post and share our adventures in cake making. We hope to inspire and delight your senses. Enjoy!