This cake was all real cake, chocolate with chocolate buttercream. YUM!! It was super heavy. As simple as it was this cake was so very elegant and just beautiful. It was very fitting for a wedding at Christmas time.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
60th Birthday Party
The assignment was to not make this too much like a little girl's cake so we couldn't decide what colors to use. This is what we decided on and it turned out really fun.
Snowflake Cupcakes
These cupcakes were so fun to make. The sanding sugar on the snowflake cutouts and the crystal sugar on the cupcake made them seem very wintery... :o)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
I'm going to be on TV!
Set your DVRs again my friends... I'm going to be on Arizona Midday next Wednesday the 23rd. The show is live from 1-2 p.m. on Channel 12 and we will be making cake pops! Fun and De-lish!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Barn Cake
I only had a couple days notice to make this cake but it turned out just like I envisioned. She said they were having a barnyard theme party and it was up to me to decide what kind of cake went along with that. I thought that the barn was a super cute idea and went to work. The walls and roof were impressed with a woodgrain pattern to make them look like wood slats and shingles. And the animals were made out of fondant. But one of my favorite things about this cake was the hay bundles at the corners of the barn.
Lots of Dots Wedding Cake
The bride designed this cake. She was very sure about what she wanted and thank goodness because it turned out very cute. It actually turned out cuter in real life than I had pictured in my head. She originally wanted real ribbon around the bottom tier that was the blue with the white polka dots but I refused to do it. I have this thing against real ribbon on cake so I made it out of fondant and then just piped the little dots on it and it turned out so much cuter than if we had just tied real ribbon around the cake. I'm such a cake snob... :o)
Rainbow Trout Cake for Grandpa
This cake was for my husband’s Grandpa. He is a huge fisherman and so we had to make him a fish cake. I made it so late at night and there was so much more I wanted to do with it but I just didn’t have time. I could have worked on this cake for another couple of hours but when it hit 1:30 in the morning it was time to go home. But it was still super cool and for sure the most fun birthday cake he had ever had in all his 88 years.
Christmas Cake
This is a demo cake I made for the Taste of Chandler event in November. It was so much fun to make. People kept asking me if this could be made in real cake and the answer to that is that the first 4 tiers probably but the top one would be a little precarious. :o)
Artsy Wedding
This cake was so very cool. It was for a wedding at the Phoenix Art Museum. It started out as 3 white tiers and then I airbrushed the black and silver on it to get the faded effect. I had to “wash” it three times before I finally got the color and fading right. The topper was also very cool. It was like a brushed aluminum or something. It just made the cake that much cooler.
Elmo Birthday
This cake was so fun to make! It was for my niece's birthday. She loves Elmo so we had to make her a cool cake. I had her mom, my sister, cut out the Elmo, which was so very fun for her I'm sure. She's a cop and cake decorating is not her thing but she so graciously helps me when I need her and in return I helped her make this super fun Elmo party cake.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Colorful 40th Birthday Cake
This cake matched the decorations of the party perfectly. The table that this cake sat on was probably the cutest table I've ever set one of my cakes on. The candy bar behind it all matched and the cupcake tower with matching cupcakes that I made just made it look like a fabulous colorful party for a woman who is absolutely still fabulous at 40!
Purple Butterfly Cake
This cake was so much fun to make. I love the more artsy cakes that come from a great idea. I made the rose on top out of red fondant. It's much more difficult to make flowers out of fondant than gum paste but I couldn't bear the 
thought of coloring gum paste red and the fondant came that way. The branch was made out of black fondant and the silver butterflies and dragonflies just made it look so magical and whimsical in a dark sort of way. The black and silver airbrushing on this cake just give it that extra depth and character that you just can't get any other way. LOVED this cake! We also made butterfly cookie favors for her to give to her guests at the end of the party!
Princess Tiara on a Pillow
This cake was inspired by a dream that her mom had for this cake. The ivory base and all the trim were painted with antique silk luster dust and the tiara was embellished with edible pearls. The "pillow" was trimmed with fondant ropes and tassels that, no lie..., we made with a play dough extruder (never used for anything but fondant I swear). It was such a darling cake. We also made little crown cookie favors for the party guests.
"Love Nest" Wedding Cupcake Tower
300 cupcakes and a cake for the top of the tower took much longer than I could have anticipated. Being the perfectionist that I am I had to add all the little details that take time to do but make a HUGE difference in the finished product. The theme for the wedding was "Love Nest" hence the nest with eggs on the top of the cake. The cupcake flavors were chocolate with chocolate buttercream, white cake with lime topping, and pumpkin chocolate chip with cream cheese frosting.
Tooth sugar Cookies
These cookies were for an open house for a dentist office. These were so much work to make!! I completely underestimated how long it would take to make 160 tooth shaped cookies with smiley faces. I couldn't find a cookie cutter that was big enough for what I wanted so I made my own out of stainless steel stripping, a cardboard cutout of the shape, needle-nose pliers, and a wooden dowel. It was crazy but we got them done! Yeah!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Las Vegas Theme Engagement Party
This was a super fun cake to make! The sign was super time consuming but was worth every minute. I thought it turned out really nice... But now that I look at it the letters are a little bit not straight. I thought they looked straight when I did it... I guess that what happens when you are going on very little sleep. Something funny about this cake... I had to deliver the previous cake to Fountain Hills at 2 and this one wasn't due until 6 also near Fountain Hills, so I took them both at 2 and then left this one in the walk in cooler at the Basha's Bakery and then picked it up when it was time to deliver. When I was walking out with it somebody said, "wow, I didn't know Basha's made cakes like that!" :o)
Black & White Wedding Cake
I LOVED making this cake. I got a new stencil set and they are so fun. Usually I would have done the dark on the light but I really liked the reverse effect. I saw a cake similar to this one on TV and loved it so much I had to make it, thank goodness the bride agreed and liked it too or that would have been awkward...The quilting on this one took forever... I made it really small because it just looked so much more sophisticated, and then I put the tiniest silver dragees at the corner of each quilting mark and that was a ridiculous challenge. They are so small you probably can't even see them in this picture but they are there and they made the cake look really great in person.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween Wedding!!!!!
This cake is one of the coolest cakes I have ever made. People were freaked out about the thought of a Halloween wedding cake but I thought it was awesome. I actually got married on Halloween 9 years ago but I didn't have a cake so I loved every minute of this one. This cake was so much work though. I swear we used every tool in our arsenal. Of course the airbrush makes this cake. It just wouldn't have been the same without it. Also, I painted on this cake which I had never done before and I actually quite enjoyed it. Then we made the skulls out of white chocolate, we just forgot to color the eyes black, oh well. Then I made the grave yard scene out of gum paste. And of course you can't have a Halloween wedding cake without the Corpse Bride on top right... I was told that the bride got choked up when she saw it because she loved it. That is why I'm in the biz, to make people happy. As hard of work this week was it is still so rewarding and still kind of like craft time. I just love what I do so much.
Scary Face Pumpkin
This cake was the most fun thing to make EVER... It was for an 8 year old boy. The airbrush just adds so much dimension to the cake. I actually feel like a real artist when I make cakes like this one. I forgot my camera this day so this was taken in the fridge with my blackberry so it's not the best picture but you get the idea... :o)
Happy 50th
This was for a surprise birthday party for a 50th birthday. The party was decorated with a masquerade theme and she wanted a fun cake with Phantom of the opera and Paris themed items on it. So... I made the Arc De Triumph, the Eifel Tower, the Moulin Rouge windmill, and the phantom mask out of gum paste and the rose out of fondant. This cake was no joke. All three layers had a different kind of cake and filling. I hope a ton of people came to this party because this was a TON of cake.
Baby Shower cake
I got a picture of the CUTEST baby bedding to base this cake on. It had stripes and polka dots as well as some really pretty damask pattern. I originally tried to put that pattern on the cake but the stencils on a round cake are crazy difficult and it just wasn't working so I had to "wash" the cake and start over with a new design. But I was really happy with the way it turned out. It was so cute.
Simple Elegance
When we got the request to do white on white without the bows, just ribbons we were a little bummed. We thought it needed more, but when we got done this cake was so gorgeous just being simple and elegant. I'm so used to doing things so over the top that I forgot that simple can be just as beautiful. I forget sometimes that not everyone likes things crazy like me. :o)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Vintage Inspired
This cake is totally something that I would have never done of my own free will but now that I've done it I would do it again in a heartbeat. This cake isn't particularly "me" but it was gorgeous and a whole new challenge for me. I had never done this technique before but I was pleased with how the lace effect turned out. And the monogram was fun too. I got a new tool, the food color pen and it works wonders!! Then there was the sugar pearls... We placed a couple hundred at least by hand. I didn't think such tiny little pearls would add that much to the finished product but it really did. I just love how this cake is kind of vintage by modern and forward all at the same time. This was the shocker favorite of the year for me I think. It just goes to show me that I need to open my mind a little more and not just do cakes that are "me" or in my comfort zone.
Ice Blocking Birthday Party
This cake was for a birthday party where the boys were going ice blocking so we did the cake to go with the theme. The boy to ice ratio is a little off but hey it's easier to make a big ice block than a huge kid. This kid was hard enough. Heather and I had never made people before so I thought we did a good job for our first time. I have a whole new respect for those people on Ace of Cakes who model little people all the time. But the ice block was fun too. We finally got an airbrush, we are really official now... :o) We used the airbrush to spray blue and silver on the "ice" block to make it look like really cool melting ice. Then we had to put "grass" around the bottom of it since they are sliding down the side of a grass hill. We had a TON of FUN making this cake!
Monday, October 5, 2009
My Favorite Demo Cake From The Show
I did this cake specifically for the show. I have been wanting to do a cake like this for a customer for a long time but for some reason I couldn't talk anyone into wanting ENORMOUS bows on their cake.... But I think it turned out awesome! It was a definite show stopper. We painted the bows with pearl and it made them totally look like taffeta fabric. I also made the little decorations for the middle of the bows too. It was just a really fun cake and I personally LOVED the enormity of the bows.
My Table at The Bridal Show
This was my table at the show. I didn't think I was doing enough cakes for it but when I got there I realized that we had more demo cakes than all the other cake vendors combined. It was a good show. I met so many great people and being on Good Morning Arizona was a nice bonus even though I had to set my table up 3 hours early to be on TV. I mean who really needs more than 2 hours of sleep right??? :o) A HUGE thank you to Heather too. She worked so hard on Saturday to get the cakes done and then came to the show on Sunday! You rock girlOh, I forgot to mention that since the last show we decided to not change the name. We are going to keep "Designer Cakes By April" since it has been that for a long time and I'm pretty sure that no one else has that name for their cake company or any other business for that matter. My friend Erin said it very well... "Just call it what it is." :o)
Speaking of Erin, I want to say a quick thanks to her for her great moral support and inspiration!
A Tiny Purse Cake
I made new purse "cake" for the show too. Melissa made one very similar to this for the last show and being short on time I pretty much just copied what she did. And by doing that I have a whole new respect for her. This was so much more work than I imagined. The details just took a really long time. And the zebra... not my favorite but it was like 11:00 at night and I had been working for 14 hours so it just had to do. Next time I'll make like a Chanel purse or something. :o) This one was cool though, several people who saw it on the table just thought that someone had left their purse.
Demo Cake For The Show
This was a demo cake I did for the show. It's made out of styrofoam. My husband thought I was going overboard by making another cake but I wanted my table to be full. It's kind of simple but it was fun. The giant daisies and the jewels coming out the top were a fun addition. I finished this cake the morning of the show. If I had had more time I would have done a TON more to this cake but I only had a couple of hours to work with... Oh well.
East Valley Bridal Affair Cupcakes
These were our sampler cupcakes that we made for tasting at the show. They were a big hit! We were on Good Morning Arizona on Sunday morning and Brittany the reporter ate one on camera and loved it.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Fish Cupcakes
These cupcakes are some of my favorites!! I was going to put jelly fish on them but then I just couldn't. I had to make them. Which brings me to the point of how much I LOVE fondant!! You can make anything out of the stuff!
LEGO Cupcakes
These cupcakes were so much fun to make!! It't the first time I have decorated cupcakes with fondant and they turned out actually pretty tasty not just cute. Although they did look more like something you should play with than something you should eat. But everything was edible, even the legos!!
Eagle Scout Court of Honor
These cupcakes were for an Eagle Scout Court of Honor and they turned out DANG CUTE!! It's not exactly proportionately correct but hey... when you're only working with 100 cupcakes there's only so much you can do, but I think it looks great. :o)
Shoe Sugar Cookies
These were for Young Women In Excellence and they turned out so cute! We just did the five different colors with edible glitter and a flower embellishment.
Cake Pops!!!
Holy Cow!!! We did 250 of these and 300 mini cupcakes in the same flavors for a church event on Saturday. It was a ton of work but it turned out so dang cute. We had an assortment of the different flavored cake pops and cupcakes on cake pedestals in the middle of each table to serve as a centerpiece as well as dessert!
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