Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Raggedy Ann & Rags Baby Shower Cake

A recent request for a Raggedy Ann baby shower cake caught me by surprise. Was Raggedy Ann still popular after the whole Annabelle horror movie thing?

I looked around for inspiration, but most of the cakes freaked me out (too creepy). Then I found an inspiration cake that had Raggedy Ann sitting on top of the cake. I was going to buy an actual doll to place on top, but I couldn't find the right size. So I ended up just making one out of fondant. How does my Raggedy Ann look? Hope she doesn't look too creepy!

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To make the doll, I started with the lower body. For the legs I rolled out two sausage shapes from white fondant and wrapped a thin strip of red fondant around the legs. I used the PME Strip Cutter #1 to cut the strips, but you can just do it with a long razor blade. To make the shoes, I flatten tear drop shapes from black fondant. I used a ball tool to make a depression in the shoe and then stuck a leg to each shoe and glued it in place with a dab of water.

For the body I mixed some CMC powder to leftover brown fondant and made a crude body shape. The CMC powder makes the fondant harden to a rock-like consistency and allows it to support the weight of the head and dress without collapsing. The tooth pick is for extra support and to attach the head to the body. I added a loop of blue fondant around the base of the body to help the dress flare out. Also notice that I added some bloomers to the legs. I thought they looked cute, but sadly most of the bloomers got covered up by the dress.

Next I made the dress. I rolled out a circle of blue fondant and added the tiny red flowers and a white dot to the center of each flower. Then I simply draped the circle over the body of the doll. I added tube shaped pieces of blue fondant for the sleeves/arms and stuck the red flowers on the sleeves in random places. I added an apron with a frilly edge and blobs of copper tinted fondant for the hands and neck.

Then came the hard part - the head and face. I tried so hard to make her look friendly. The eyes, mouth and nose are fondant, and I drew on the eyebrows and lashes with an edible black marker. I put too many eyelashes on, but once they were on I couldn't remove them. I also added CMC powder to the fondant used to make the head, and once it dried a little, I placed it on the body.

The hair came next. I cut out a bunch of red fondant strips.

I moistened the head with some water, and just started placing the strips. It was very time consuming.

And here is the (almost) finished doll. Later on I removed the second white dot on her eye because some people thought it looked strange. I also miscalculated the placement of the eyebrows. I should have put them closer to her eyes because the hair/bangs covered them up. Oh well, can't fix it now. I also added some fondant buttons to the apron and some frilled fondant around her neck.

I also thought she looked a little lonely on top of the cake, so I added her dog, Rags. I used this YouTube video to make the dog. You can see a tool at the lower right corner of the picture below. This was what I used to cut into the fondant to make it look like "hair". It is actually a woodcarving tool. Clay, woodcarving, and pottery tools work great for fondant.

Rag's neck looks a little thin, but once I added the collar it looked okay.

The toppers were finished ahead of time, so on decorating day the cake went together pretty easily. I used a triangle cutter to make the bunting flags that hung around the cake. I made them in different patterns and colors.

Once all the flags were cut, I draped strings of fondant around the cake, and then placed the flags below it. As a final step I added the red flower buttons, to give it a more girly touch.

Last step was to place the topper. I set the topper on a blanket of white fondant so it would be easier to put on and take off. There is also parchment paper under the blanket so the blue buttercream wouldn't get on the topper. I wanted to keep it clean just incase the mom-to-be wanted to keep the topper.

Here is a closeup of the topper.

Hope she likes it!

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Friday, February 9, 2024

Butterfly Cake

This was a really simple cake to throw together, but it still looks good enough for a dear friend's birthday. Happy Birthday, Melissa!

This is a 7 inch round cake that stands about 5-1/2 inches tall. The cake is sitting on a 12 inch cake drum. The 12 inch drum is much too big and I should have use a 10inch, but I was all out. I need to order some from Amazon ASAP.

The cake is frosted in American Buttercream that I tinted purple using Regal Purple food gel. I like the Regal Purple better than the Wilton Violet or Purple gels. The Violet and Purple look dull and a little too blue for me, so I tend to stick with the Regal Purple.

The butterflies are paper cutouts. The pack comes with both pink and purple, and have a range of sizes. These butterflies are handy to have around.

The white balls are a combination of sugar pearls (the two smallest sizes), white candy covered chocolate Sixlets, and plastic balls (the three largest sizes).

The Happy Birthday topper was made using a Cricut Air Explore. The font for the Happy Birthday is called Hunters, and the font for the name is called Channel. I download my fonts from dafont.com

I wish all the cakes were this easy.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Duck Hunting Cake for 1st Birthday

I made this cake for my niece-in-law's son's first birthday - Happy Birthday, Luca! Luca's dad is an avid duck hunter, so of course the party had a duck hunting theme.

The bottom tier is a 9" round cake and stands about 5" tall. The top tier is a 6" round cake and stands about 5-1/3" tall. They are both frosted in American Buttercream.

The background color of the cake is a soft green. I was trying to match the color of the invitations so I tested three gel colors that I had on hand: Juniper Green, Moss Green, and Avocado. In the end I picked the Juniper Green as the best color match.

After frosting and stacking the cakes, I moved onto the decorations. I found some images of flying ducks and a dog silhouette, and I made some cutters using my 3D printer. The dog cutter is about 3-3/4" tall, and the ducks range in size from 1-1/4" to 2-3/4" wide.

I also made some grass cutters, but they didn't work very well. The thin blades of fondant grass kept getting stuck in the cutter. After the disaster with the grass cutters, I planned on using frosting and a grass tip to make the grass, but sadly I ran out of frosting. I was lazy and didn't want to make another batch of frosting, so I ended up using a long razor blade to cut out each blade of grass from the fondant. It was a little time consuming to say the least, but in the end I got it done.

The dog and duck silhouettes were all cut from Wilton's Black fondant, and the grass was just random colors of green and brown fondant. Below is everything cut out and ready to go on the stacked cake.

When I frosted the cake I originally wanted the top tier to be mostly white with a swatch of light green at the base and the bottom tier to be lighter green and a swatch of darker green at the base. But something went wrong in my icing calculations and I didn't make enough, and then I colored too much with the light green color and didn't leave enough white. Below is what I had left after frosting the two cakes. I like to minimize the frosting I have left over (because it gets thrown away), but this was just too close for comfort. I should have given in and make more frosting.

So, because I didn't have enough white frosting, the top tier ended up being mostly green. No big deal, I guess. After the cake was frosted, I started putting on the silhouettes. Below is my first arrangement, but I didn't like the look of the big ducks, so I repositioned the dog on the other side of the cake and used more of the smaller ducks above the dog. I left the larger ducks on the cake, but they ended up being on the back of the cake. And at this point you can still see the darker green at the base - I should have made it taller, because later it got covered up by the fondant grass. - Oh well....

For the two mallard ducks sitting on the cake I used this YouTube video. They were super easy to make and took all of 10 minutes. I love it when things are quick and easy.

Here is the front of the cake again. It shows the dog staring longingly at the smaller ducks flying away. And don't you just love those little Mallard ducks!

So Happy Birthday, little Luca Man.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Bob The Minion Cake with Tim the Teddy Bear

Minions are such cute creatures, especially in cake form. This is Bob with his trusty teddy bear Tim. The requestor of this cake was specific in that she wanted "Bob", which meant the minion had to have one green eye and one brown eye and NO hair. The top of the cake looked a little plain with no hair, so I added Tim the Teddy Bear at the last minute. I also wanted to add the pet rat, Poochy, but that little guy is just plain ugly.

I started the cake by making the goggles. The cake itself is 9" round and about 6" tall, so I sized the goggle to 6" wide to fit the dimensions of the cake. I made a cutter using my 3D printer, but you could just cut it out by hand. If you want to read more about using 3D printers to make cookie cutters, click HERE.

I just cut the silver things on the side of the goggles by hand, and I used tiny circle cutters to cut out the circles that edged the goggles. I draped the goggles on a 9" cake dummy so the goggles would dry with a curved shape.

I used silver shimmer fondant to make the goggles, but I didn't think they looked metallic enough so I dusted them with some silver luster dust. The luster dust really made them sparkle. After I dusted the goggles with the silver dust, I added white circles of fondant to make the eyes, then I added the iris in green and brown, the black circle for the pupil, and finally a tiny white dot to add interest to the eye. Note: I added the eye section after dusting the goggles because I didn't want any of that fine-grained dust to float onto the whites of the eyes.

After the goggles were made, I started working on the cake. The buttercream is colored with Wilton's Golden Yellow gel, and the strip around the bottom was made with Wilton's Blue fondant. I used the JEM Strip Cutter No. 3 to cut out the blue strips.

Next I positioned the eyes and "glued" them on using some melted white chocolate.

Next I added a piece of blue fondant to represent the front of Bob's overall and his front pocket. Notice that I ran a stitching tool along the edge of the fondant to give it a sewn fabric look. I added blue straps for the overalls, a black fondant button, and a black fondant strap for the goggles.

Here is the back...

I was told not to put hair on the minion, but after finishing the cake I thought the top looked a little plain, so I added Bob's stuffed teddy bear, Tim. He is made with Wilton's Brown fondant, and I just stuck the fondant with a random kitchen tool to make the fondant look like fur. I made some button eyes, but I thought these eyes looked a little creepy so I made new button eyes that were darker in color.

Here is the "fixed" version.

So a fun, and not too stressful cake to make. I hope Harry likes it!

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Glam Stencil Cake

Using a stencil is an easy way to add a touch of glamor and elegance to a cake.

For Goldie's 102nd birthday I wanted something elegant but not too fussy. I also wanted something quick and easy because I accidently booked another cake for the same day. (I hate it when that happens!) The cake is a 7" double barrel cake that stands about 9" tall.

The stencil is called GLAM and it is sold by Lacupella Cake Designs. I really like the Lacupella stencils. They are expensive, but they are made with high quality plastic and the cutouts are precise and detailed. On this particular stencil, some of the tiny circle cutouts were a little too small for buttercream, but I still think the cake shows a lot of the details. This particular stencil design would probably work better with an air brush or aerosol color application.

To use the stencil I just held it in place with one hand and then started applying the buttercream in the center. Once a little buttercream was applied, the stencil stayed in place and I could remove my hand and start applying more buttercream out toward the edges of the stencil. The stencil does have cutouts where you use push pins or a strap to hold the stencil in place, but for me it was just easier to secure it with buttercream.

Once everything was coated in buttercream, I just peeled off the stencil. I had to go through the same process 3 times to cover the entire cake, but the pattern matched exactly along the edges, so you really couldn't see the line where I matched up the stencils. In hindsight I should have used more buttercream on top of the stencil. The sections with the thicker coating looked much better than the areas where the buttercream was thinner.

To finish the cake I added a buttercream layer to the bottom using a simple fault line technique, and then painted the fault line edge with some edible silver paint. I also added some silver glitter flakes to give it added sparkle. The Goldie and 102 toppers are made of glitter cardstock and cut using my Cricut Air Explore 2. The font for the name is called Amarillo and the font for the number is called Forte. I get my fonts from the website DAfont.com

So here is Goldie with her birthday cake. She wasn't too happy with me. She was telling everyone she was 87 and then she saw the cake with a big 102 on the top.

Oh well, she was happy once she started opening her gifts!

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Highland Cow Cake with Flowers

I thought the Highland Cow trend was over, but I guess not. This one includes the cow and an explosion of flowers.

This cake is a 5" round on top and an 8" on the bottom. Each tier is about 5" tall. I made the gum paste flowers ahead of time, so on decorating day is was a snap to put together. I have roses, chrysanthemums, carnations, hydrangeas, and a generic 5 petal daisy flower that I used this veiner on.

For the cow's horns, eyes, and nose/mouth I used the pattern below. I made cutters using my 3D printer, but you could just cut them out by hand. To make the nostrils of the cow's nose more noticeable, I dusted them with some ColorPop Petal Dust Brown #9. To make the horns, I mixed some CMC powder (makes the fondant dry rock hard) with white fondant and then rolled out a long sausage shape to fit the size of the horn cutter. Then I inserted a bamboo skewer into the horn and finally pushed and molded the fondant into the curved shaped. I didn't use the cutter to cut out the horn because I didn't want the horns to be flat. Instead the cutter was a template, and I used it to mold the long tube of fondant into the appropriate shape.

The thin pink line of fondant around the base of the bottom tier was made using the JEM Strip Cutter #2. I love these strip cutters, I have them in all sizes. They come in so handy.

For the top tier I finished the cake as I normally do (using my acrylic discs to get straight sides and flat top), and then I used a Wilton Grass Tip to make the cow's hair. It was an easy although time-consuming process. I used about 400grams of buttercream to coat the 5" round by 5" tall cake in "hair".

Here are some other views of the flowers....

So, this was an interesting cake to make, too bad the party was canceled due to all the snow, sleet, and icy roads. Damn you Mother Nature!

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Party Dino Cake - So Cute and Easy to make

Some cakes are easy to make, yet the finished product still looks impressive. Take this cute little Party Dino cake for example.

As with all my cakes, I made some fondant cutters to help make the decorations. I used my 3D printer to make the cutters, but you could just use paper templates and cut them out by hand. I wasn't sure what size hat/banner I was going to use, so I made several sizes. I also made several sizes for the plates that line the back and neck of the dinosaur. (For more into on using a 3D printer to make cookie and fondant cutters, click HERE.)

For the dinosaur I used Wilton green fondant mixed with some Juniper Green food gel. I thought the packaged Wilton green fondant was a little too bright, so I toned it down with the Juniper Green. Then to a small blob of green fondant I mixed a lot of the Juniper Green to make a really dark shade for the back plates, the lettering, and the leaves. Once all the back plates were cut, I stuck them to the body of the dinosaur with a touch of water. For the mouth, eye, and nose I used black fondant.

For the dinosaur's party hat, I mixed Wilton Orange food gel to white fondant, but I thought the color was too orangey so I added a touch of red. The yellow is just a mixture of Wilton Yellow fondant and white fondant. While the fondant of the dinosaur and the party hat were still soft, I stuck the two together with a touch of water. Once the dinosaur was assembled, I put it to the side and allowed it to dry.

For the #1 topper I took my orange fondant and added some Gum-Tex/Tylos/CMC powder to it. The Gum-Tex will make the fondant dry rock hard, and allow it to stand upright on its own. I added the Gum-Tex to the green fondant I used for the dinosaur plates, and made some additional plates to go on the #1. While the number and plates were still soft, I stuck them together with a touch of water, and then allowed them to dry flat. Once the #1 was dry, I used some melted orange candy melts to glued a bamboo skewer to the back of the #1.

On decorating day all the decorations were premade, so I just needed to arrange everything onto the cake. The cake is 8" and I have it sitting on a white 12" cake drum. The final touch was to add a black ribbon to the edge of the drum.

Now wasn't that EASY!