Chanel Purse Cake

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

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!!!

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

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!

HAPPY 100TH DAY BRANDON!!!

Not-So-Pink Baby Shower

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 Bambi and 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 represent Bambi cake pops.  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

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...

" '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!!!