The Journey Begins

My cake journey began this week.   I had the pleasure of making my first cake, after years of retirement, for Tayler's graduation party.  Tayler is a talented, budding artist who will be attending Syracuse University in the fall.  Having known Tayler since she was a baby and having made the Cyprien's several cakes over the years, it was fun to be able to share in celebrating another milestone for their family.  At her party she had many of her art pieces on display and we were able to see just how talented and creative she is.

The only request was to tie in an art theme with maybe an artist's palette but other than that I had creative license to do as I wished.  I wanted to acknowledge where Tayler graduated from and where she would be attending college so I made sure to feature those school colors.  I started with a white rolled fondant base.  The fondant I used is from a Swiss company and the flavor is very good compared to other brands I've tried.  I moulded the decorative pieces out of chocolate fondant, gumpaste and rolled fondant. 

Most items I made the day before to allow time to harden.

Rolled fondant. I think my finish was pretty smooth.

I love making curly ribbons!

The palette was a combination of white and dark chocolate fondant.  I sketched out a pattern and used it to cut out the shape.

I glued all the components on
with piping gel and added the
Syracuse orange paint being
squeezed from the paint tube.






I was pleased with the end result and so were they.  It's amazing how God works.  I had no idea until after the fact that all Tayler wanted was a rolled fondant cake and that is exactly what I felt led to do. 
Lisa

What a Class!

Hi All,

Chef Nicholas Lodge and me w/ his sample cake.

Sorry it's been a minute since my last post. I've been very busy at work and as most of you know I recently took a cake decorating class.  I think they should call it Cake Bootcamp because it was non-stop and tough.  The teacher was Nicholas Lodge who is phenomenol.  His resume places him in the pastry art and cake art Hall of Fame.  In this bootcamp we learned so many techniques that my head was spinning.  

The picture to the right has his sample cake.  The pictures below are of mine. 

  

I loved making the bows and drapes below. 

They might appear on every cake I do.

On top of the cake is a large wild rose in a technique called Brushed Embroidery.  It's very similar to painting. I can't wait to try this in some more contempory designs. The tassel and the doves turned out great too.

This is my favorite side.  The ruffle drapes are adorable.

 This isn't a great shot and the graduating pearls on the corner look a little bit like a white catepillar that crawled out of the flower.

Carrie gave me a really nice compliment when she saw the cake. She said it looked more professional than any other cake I'd done. Wow!  I can't wait to get some more practice in.  I've also got my eye on a few more classes.  Stay tuned.

The Gang.  (Don't asking what Sebastian was laughing at.)