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 girl

Oh, 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!