Roses, Roses, Roses

I've been wanting to master the gumpaste rose and figured it was a good time to conquer my fear. I've attempted the roses as seen in the Tonedna videos on youtube, but was never fully successful. Actually, I never even finished one before because I always got too frustrated. So, I decided to take the easy route and take a stab at the "Duff Rose"! (Duff Rose: Easy-Peasy rose that Duff Goldman mastered.)

Here were my first attempts:



The rose on the left was bit too thick so I rolled my gumpaste thinner and tried again (rose on the right). It was better, but I wasn't too thrilled with the over all outcome.

I figured to really get over my fear and try a REAL rose. Here they are:



Again, rose on the left: too thick. Rolled my gumpaste out thinner and got the rose on the right. Pretty darn good! These were the first full real roses I've done and I was stoked! So, I figured I'd give it a go again today. These were the results:



YAY! I finally conquered my fears and came out on top! I actually timed myself: 14 minutes from rolling out my gumpaste (super thin!) the adjusting the last petal. Slow, but I'll get there. I'm sure of it! Oh, and here's the same blue flowers dusted with some "Peacock" luster dust:



Lessons Learned:
1) Face your fears and fight them!

Such a Lady!

I was watching the t.v. show "Amazing Wedding Cakes" and one of the bakeries featured a cake inspired by the movie "My Fair Lady". I then took their cake to inspire my cake! Inspiration makes the world go 'round, don'tcha know?
Here's the final outcome:



And here's a close-up of the bow:



I'm not exactly thrilled with how this came out, but it was a good practice cake. It was done in a buttercream. I waited for it to crust then I used the Viva paper towel method of smoothing.

The bow took a little while, which was my first obstacle. The black strips are actually separate pieces of gumpaste that were colored black, then applied to the bow. The gumpaste didn't take the black well, so I painted over them. Of course, my shaky hands got the better of me and made a mess all over the pretty white of the bow, but I figured out how to clean it up (for the most part).

The string work was also good practice. For the most part it went well, of course I had some breakage, but that's common. One of my biggest problems was that it didn't line up well in the back. I tried using the Garland Marker by Wilton, but those lines didn't match up in the back, so I winged it and was stuck with the Marker holes. Oh, well. Then my royal icing didn't take the black like the gumpaste. So, I painted over those strings, but we all know how well that works for me!

The gumpaste balls on the bottom were airbrushed with a pearl luster dust so they gave off the look of actual pearls.

If you don't look too close at it, it's a pretty good cake for a newbie! But, of course, I do look closely at it, and I'm not too impressed, but I'm getting there!

Lessons Learned:
1) Line up garland marks before actually marking on the cake.
2) Learn how to color gumpaste and icing black and/or get a less shaky hand!

Thanks for reading!

Lovin' My Heritage!

My sweet tooth kicked in (again!) and I wanted to try something I'd never done before. I don't know why but Mexican Wedding Cookies popped into my head. (In case you don't know they're somewhat of a shortbread cookie with chopped pecans completely covered and drenched in powdered sugar after they come out of the oven.) So, I headed over to 'net, found a relatively easy recipe, and let 'er rip! Here's the outcome:




I wasn't sure what to expect, but I LOVED the outcome! Super melt in your mouth status right here. The recipe was super easy and the longest part was covering the warm cookies in powdered sugar -- nothing to cry about though :) I'd definitely make these again... and again... and again! (Recipe found at FoodNetwork.com)


Note to self: Buy better camera!

Ganache Everywhere!

Okay, so I thought I'd update with my newest cake and maybe delve into a bit of a step-by-step process. Maybe "step-by-step" isn't the correct phrase... more like... "random-pictures-that-I-take-when-I-remember-to-". That's better. I don't know if I'll stick with this form, but for this post that's how it's going! Let's get started...



Obviously, the first step would be to bake your cakes, but I figure you already figured that, so let's just skip ahead... I filled with raspberry filling. Then, I made some ganache (hot cream poured over some chocolate chips) and I started crumb coating my cakes. As you can see from the pictures, I needed to fill in the middle a little more, so I did. When I got the sides relatively smoothed, I let it sit to harden up a bit. (In case you were worried -- I put wax paper under my cake to catch my mess. I'm not crazy! Though, it did go better this time around. I realized you need to put about 4 smaller pieces underneath the cake rather than 2 side-by-side. Much easier to slide out!)




After it hardened up I added a thicker coating of ganache. This coat of ganache was also a little thicker than the first (i.e. cooled a little more). It just allowed me to get a really good gooey coating on my cake. As you can see, smoothing ganache is my nemesis! I HAVE to conquer this before I'll be entirely happy. Until then...



... Cover with piping! This quick piping was also done in ganache. Doing this was a win-win for me since I screwed up my shell border -- all I had to do was smooth over it with my spatula and start again! So, as I said shell border and just piped dots. But you'll notice my dots are a little pokey. No likey...




I let them firm up a bit and with a (clean!) finger I pushed them down. Better! Quick and relatively simple. My favorite cake combo!



Lessons Learned:
Actually, not too much this cake. Well, I take that back...
1) Use 4 pieces of wax paper underneath, not 2. Much easier to get out from underneath that way.
2) WORK ON SMOOTHING GANACHE! If anyone is out there reading this and knows the answer to my problems: please help me!

Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, folks...

My Cakes Up to Now

I thought I'd update you on all my cake doings as of now. Just to keep a good timeline going. Here we go!




This is the veeeery first cake I ever did (2006). It was my nephew's 7th birthday. All this was was a CostCo sheet cake with some grocery story bought decorations and a hot wheels toy. It was a fun way to take a dip in the caking waters. Who knew what it'd blow up to??




This was the second cake (2006). It was taken from a cake decorating book from Debbie Brown modified to be my own. It was for a friend's 18th birthday. This was my first experience ever with carving and fondant! Pretty good for a first try if I do say so myself! This kind of set it all in motion for me.




Third (2007). This was kind of a set back for me. As you can tell I basically slapped it together. Absolutely no knowledge of dowels or cardboard for stability (what does that mean??). And apparently "smooth" wasn't in, either! But it was okay. It was very personalized. It was for the same friend as the previous picture. This was for her 19th birthday, though.




Fourth (2008). I lied, 2008 is when caking really took off for me. I did more cakes that year than I ever had. I started becoming the cake kid in the family and took every birthday opportunity I could! This was for my niece's 10th birthday. Kind of a set back, yet again, with a basic pan cake and store bought decorations. Don't worry, it gets progressively better!




Fifth (2008). This was a friend's 25th birthday cake. This was a BLAST to do! I think it turned out pretty well. It's pretty straight forward design so not much to explain here! Though about this time I had started buying better cake supplies. A leveler! Gel colors! Who'da thunk it??




Sixth (2008). This was the nephew's 9th birthday cake. (I feel like I'm kinda screwed up on my timeline, but there's too many photos that weren't labeled!! Oh, well. I'm doing my best. This is close to accurate. Nothing way off. Anyways...). This was a fondant covered cake. With BC (buttercream) frosting accents. I used a store bought toy. He was super stoked with this because he's in a huge Indiana Jones phase right now!




Seventh (2008). This was my mom's birthday cake. The moon was really blue, but the stupid flash made it green! Anyway, this is our "special moon". Some people have songs... we have a moon! I even have it tattooed on my back! Oh, and the star was a non-edible, wooden star (kinda redundant!) covered in frosting. I just couldn't get the points sharp enough with actual cake. Frustrating!




Eighth (2008). This is the one that's out of place, I think. I think it came a little before this, but oh well! This was a "just because I felt like it" cake. I wanted to practice tiered cakes. Some things you should know when doing this: 1) make all tiers the same thickness (or at least proportioned better!) 2) cover each tier separately! 3) dowels and cardboard!!! Still hadn't learned that lesson, yet!




Ninth (2008). This was my first venture with the Giant Cupcake Pan (Wilton) and it would not be my last! The bottom half was covered in fondant and the swirly was done with a star tip (a star tip that was not big enough! Another lesson learned!) Giant sprinkles were popped on top.




Tenth & Eleventh (2008). My other niece and nephew saw the Giant Cupcake and wanted their own! So, they both got one for their shared birthday party. Again, fondant covered bottom and a swirl of BC on top. This time I used a big enough star tip! (1M in case you were curious). These two got trick sparkler candles poked in the top with fondant covering to give more of a "birthday candle" look.




Twelfth (2009). I can't take a huge amount of credit for this. I iced the cake, stacked the little "shopping bags" on top, and did the writing. All other decorations (including sides and the outsides of the bags) were done by all the nieces and nephews. This was for their mom's birthday.




Thirteenth (2009). This was my first cake in the new house in Idaho. It was my twin cousins' birthdays and they don't like regular cake. Strawberry shortcake it is! Turns out this is now THE most popular cake in our family gatherings now. I believe I've made about 7 since. Maybe if I'm feeling generous I'll share my found recipe later on, but for now, we need to move on!




Fourteenth (2009). This was for a friend's sister's birthday. I think she was turning 10, but don't quote me. This was the first cake I ever got "reimbursed" for. It was a great feeling. It was a design the mom and daughter picked out. Simple sheet cake cut into a triangle for the bottom (covered in fondant) and cupcakes for the "ice cream scoops" swirled with BC. Fun to do!




Fifteenth (2009). This was a trial run for the same friend's other sister. The mom had asked in passing about a zebra purse for her 8th grade graduation. I silently freaked out and vowed to practice first. So here's the practice! Important: 1) BC must be smooth before fondant is applied! 2) cut dowels slightly shorter than cake... NOT longer! 3) make accents to hide said mistakes! 4) roll appliques thin... they'll look more realistic that way. Oh, and in case you were wondering, they got an ice cream cake from somewhere else instead :( but in her defense, she didn't know I practiced or even remembered her passerby suggestion! :D




Sixteenth (2009). This was for previously mentioned friend's (with all the sisters) 20th birthday. We're both pretty much in love with the movie "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar". A movie about drag queens which is why there is lip stick, a pair of awesome orange sunglasses, a wig, false eyelashes, a big high heel, a "boa", a strawberry (see the movie!), ripped up "princess points" (see the movie!), a "Dullard" name tag (see the movie!), and of course a picture of the statuesque Julie Newmar! All done in gumpaste, except the feathers of course!




"Seventeenth" (2009). I put "quotes" in because this wasn't really anything special. Cupcakes with a simple BC swirl. The only reason I even bothered posting was because this was my trial run at the BC rose swirl. Let's all ooooh and aaahhhh now :D




Eighteenth (2009). Sorry for the crappy photo quality! It was a camera phone. Anywho, this was my very own 20th birthday cake. It was my first attempt at a REAL tiered cake. I finally got the lesson of CARDBOARD! and DOWELS! make for stable cake! Thank you to all my CC (cakecentral.com) friends! They are the greatest over there! Back to the cake! This was also my first attempt at a ganache covered cake. I'm still working on the smoothing aspect of it (but hey! better than the first disaster!). All the accents were fondant and gumpaste. You can't tell but the bottom white balls were also rolled in sanding sugar so they sparkled. Oooohhh pretty!




Nineteenth (2009). This is my most recent cake. Recent as is just finished yesterday! I had quite a few mishaps with this one. All the cards are MMF (marshmallow fondant) but they cracked so much! It was horrendous! Still working on smoothing that darn ganache. I'll get it, I swear! I also put wax paper underneath to cake the mess of my ganache, but OF COURSE I couldn't get it out from underneath! Why should I be able to?? So, that's what that lovely little mess is on the left. This was for my Gran's weekly Bridge Gathering. She was thrilled and that's all that matters!!


Okay, you're officially all caught up! I swear the rest of this blog won't be a huge long list of old pictures. I'm still working out what it will be, but I'll be sure to let you know! ;)

Thanks for putting up with me again! Until next time...

Hi, Everyone!

So, a little about me and my intent with this blog... here goes:

I'm Adreanna and I'm an aspiring cake decorator. I also went to culinary school in my home sweet home of Southern California for a brief minute and wish I could have finished, but I moved to Idaho with my family. My main focus now (in the baking and caking world) is cakes and the decorating of, but I do bake other things very often.
So, comes the point of the blog. I will be chronicling my journey in the caking and baking world and where it takes me. I will post my trials and tribulations in all that is caking and baking. I'll share my recipes, my discoveries, my successes, my failures, and anything and everything in between.
I'm no professional by any means, just a kid paying my dues. I'm learning as I go... and in same cases failing as I go. But I'll take it, remold it, relearn it, and make a go of it again :)

Thanks for reading and I hope I can keep you all entertained!