Saturday, February 20, 2010

Her First Footprints

Mon-Feb-22-2010@ 10:00 am

Hi to all my readers... since the new year things are going really good and I am glad to be able to have to opportunity to share my projects with all of you.. This week we are going to work on a familiar theme... The Footprints Cake...
This one is called "Her First Footprints", it's for a baby shower and she knows what she is having.... she is being blessed with a little girl! So we are doing this all in pink... lots of shades of pink... although the request is for the previous project, I want to make every cake unique to the person/event, so I will be altering, adding, changing just a few things here and there to make this one special and unique.
I will start with making the large footprints that will go on top of both cakes (the design calls for two cakes side-by-side that look like the baby's footprints...
These will be made with fondant in a very light pink and them I will put some glaze on them to make the really shiny so they can stand out...
SO... without any further delay... let's get COOKING! off to start this special project...

Cya...
-------------------------------
Mon-Feb-22-2010 @ 10:18 pm

Good Evening....

Well what a day.... ohhh myy what a day... hehehe just joking! From now on I will be working off of a tasks schedule so I keep everything in order... and I don't forget anything at the last minute... so I did today the most simple thing that goes on the cake... the beads to border the cakes.... they are very simple to do.... but there are some steps you need to take in order to achieve the same size in all of them....
So.... early on I got my sugarpaste ready.... colored it in tones of pink from very light to very bright (not neon though!).... then I let the paste rest because the color deepens as it sits so I wanted to make sure the darker ones were not too dark... then I started to make them.... all in all.... made about 145 beads (HAND MADE -HAND ROLLED!!!) :-P . Took me I would say.... 4 hours to make them all.... but now they have time to dry and set.
Then I went on the making the large footprints for the cake toppers.... so I go to my file... look at my previous order to get the template out... and what do you know? It's NOT there.... humm? I know I saved it... SO I go crazy looking everywhere for the template... no template to be found.... I then just gave up and did a new one.... I wanted to make it a little bigger this time.... so off I went.... but as you know from my previous posts... I am not too good of a sketch artist so it took me an hour or so.... because every time I finished one... I didn't like how it looked... too big... too small... toes not even... toes too big... u name it.... I thought of it lol.... until I finally did one that I simply loved!!!! so I went with that one.... I will post the pics Wednesday guys.... (tmo is a busy busy day lol) I made 3 sets.... I just want to make sure I have in case of breakage or if I add the glaze and I do not like how it looks... I have spared... so that's good!.....
As the night came to an end... I took a few minutes to "play" with the new baby mold I got...so I made a "dummy" (fake) baby so I could practice making the blankies.... they are just adorable!!!you will see.... now time to let the beads and the footprints set...so after a long night of kitchen cleaning.... off I go to watch some tv (that really means go to sleep.. because the minute I sit down to see something... I am knocked out before the first commercial brake lol)...

Cya...
---------------------------

TUE-Feb-23-2010 @ 10:00 pm

Hi Ya'll!!!!! (I love Paula Dean!) well I hope everyone is still keeping up with me lol, today was a busy day as I said before... my house smelled SWEEEEEEETTTTTT!! I was baking all day... and made some YummY GANACHE!..... I baked some nice fluffy light not too sweet yellow cake (mmmmm... ) and a chocolaty moist super rich chocolate cake!!.... I also made my famous simple syrup (it's famous 'cause it's the one everyone uses.... but I add my secret touch!).... now I took a break just to update you guys... then on to kitchen cleaning duties (any volunteers???)....

Tmo..... B U T T E R C R E A M ! sooooo good!!! well nite nite my friends.... God Bless...
PS. PICTURES TOMORROW!!!

Cya....
------------------------------

Wed, Feb-24-2010

Hi again my fellow cake lovers...
Today was such a good day... I did my yummy buttercream and this time I tried a new method and it worked beautifully... the buttercream came out very bright white and no air in it.... which is what we (well at least some on us... lol) aim for...

Then I went on to make my royal icing batches, you know I said before that I had to re-do all my RI (royal icing) because I didn't get the right consistency for the outlining and flooding of the cookies.... this time I am happy to say that both batches had the perfect consistency on my first try... and I used the saran wrap method which makes it even better to fill out bags and have them ready...
I then started to make my chocolate ganache... well there are a few different ways you can make ganache (ganache is simply a combination of chocolate and cream, melted together slowly. When used warm, ganache is poured over cakes or cookies to form a smooth glossy coating. If chilled, it can be formed into chocolate truffles. If whipped cakes a rich frosting for your cakes and cupcakes too.
Well I did it and place it in the fridge and when it was cool enough I checked it to make sure the consistency and taste was right (I did!!! it wasn't because it looked so good I couldn't hold myself from getting a taste of it with some cake scraps.... no no no I would never... HAHAHAHA) .
Anyways... it was dreamy! soooo good... so I wrap it as required and saved it for tmo when we tort and fill cakes....
After that.... I started to work of some of the babies... oh my.... those babies are just adorable! I can't believe how realistic and cute they come out.... here... look...

Right??? I told you... they are just adorable... so I did a few and left them out to set....
So I was kinda ahead of time and decided to start practicing some gorgeous flowers for an upcoming wedding project I have... I won't show you because that will be saved for that project's blog... I know... you wanna see it now... you just can't so sowwy!... :-P
As you know earlier in the week I started working on making the beads to border both cakes and also made the large footprints that will be used as cake toppers.... they are setting (drying) here is a pic (as promised... :-)~ . )
Here are the pics for the beads and for the footprints (remember that this time WE KNOW IT'S A GIRL) so everything will be in different shades of pink...


As you can see... I let the beads set and them with some clear spirits I dampen them and added shimmer dust to make them shine.... it gives it this shiny "stucco" look like a flawed pearl lol, they look so nice I know they are going to bring another layers of dimension to the cake....
Well... I think I got everything covered for now. I apologize if I don't and I will make amends if I did miss something... Have a blessed day and let's meet again tmo? you wanna? kewl!

Cya...
-------------------

Thu-Feb-25-2010

Hi, welcome you once again to my little piece of this wonderful world of sharing through a little invention called the computer lol...

Well today... (have you noticed that I used to update you at all hours of the day... in between project work? and that I no longer do that, that I have started having just one daily entry and the end of the day with all the events for that day??? Well thing is... Before I started "blogging" and before I knew how much I would enjoy it... during 10-15 minute breaks I used to make time to play with my baby girl so that she was not playing solo for long but rather had play time with mami throughout the day.... well I kinda allowed blogging to replace that mami and me time... (which BTW it's impossible to get back, lost time with her is irreplaceable time).
So I made "An Executive Decision" (lol) and decided to do my blogging after she goes to bed... or at night time when daddy is rolling on the floor playing with her... well this is working out a lot better and I do not feel guilty anymore... so sorry about my mile long stories lol)
Soooooo today... nice and early started working on making the cookie dough and on to rolling it, cutting it... baking it... cooling it... (baking and cake decorating is a lot of... do this... WAIT.... do that... WAIT... do another... WAIT... so you are limited on how fast you can work if you want a good end result.
They came out so adorable... and they bake so quick that it was like... make 2 trays of cookies... put in the oven... while they bake...get 2 more trays ready.. ohh guess what? cookies are ready,... take them out and put the new batch in... then I left them in cooling trays to set.... Look at how nice and adorable they look even before being decorated :-)


I went ahead and made the rest of the babies and that's like my favorite thing, when I have to work on the details that go on the cake... I truly have a mental picture of my vision and the more I do the details the more excited I get.... Here is some of the babies... I made them in different shades of skin tones so we do not have 1 baby, cloned many times... they look so cute... look:

Aren't they cute? little itty bitty tiny teeny cutey patootie... hehehe... they need time to dry and they need more than one day because of the thickness of the paste... so they are in for a long nap hehehe....
When DH (Dear Hubby) came home he was so nice and helped me with the cakes, he did an awesome job and the help was appreciated for sure! I also gave him a reward for all his hard work... Here is the beautiful job he did with torting and filling the cakes... I did the crumb coat... not because he didn't want to do it but rather because to be honest with you.... I LOVE! CRUMB COATING! It's for sure one of my favorite parts of making cakes... So after that was done.. we ended up with a picture perfect set of cakes that looked amazing... and don't take my word for it... I would never just say it and expect you to say.."Yeah it "MUST" have looked like that...." lol.. here you go...
(*You see how one cake is shorter than the other?... there is a reason to that.... you will know (see) tmo...

Now these beauties will take a nice treatment of fridge time so they can settle and set before we fondant...
Well.. off to bed now... I will tell you that tmo will be a FULL day and I can't wait...

Cya...
---------------------------

Fri-Feb-26-2010

Hi again (well think about it this way.... this is the last HI I say.... for this project anyways... well... maybe not... there might me one more... but just one more lol
So TGIF! lots of work to do... DH is NS today (but hoping he gets called in...) but the phone call never came, and as I always say...things happen for a reason... always...
So I opened the fridge to see what I'm gonna make for breakfast for Natie and DH... and as I am looking at the cakes (well I was actually admiring them :-D )... but it's like something didn't look right... not sure what but something was off... so as I take the eggs out and start making breakfast... in my head I am rewinding the week... from the start and kinda comparing the steps to the previous "footprint" project... when a light comes on... REALLY BRIGHT!!
The cakes look good and as I picture myself fondanting them.... I ask myself... isn't it a but too high? the cakes ...look kinda high.... hummm? (thinking) nah... they are fine... well... (I remember that picture I took of the other cake at eye level... OH MY GWADDD they are too high...
I run to the living room: "BABE! the cakes are too high!!!! we did it wrong!! and of course... he tells me I am wrong that I always look for something to be wrong... and I telling him just that... the cakes are too high... and he is like... no they are not, let me see the picture from our previous one... and I told him about the eye level pic... so we look at the picture and he says... you know what? they are too high... I go into PANIC mode... how are we gonna do this? how can we fix it? can we fix it?... I post my dilemma to my fellow cake decorators.... and when I post a question I get the answer from a lot of them fairly quick (5 minutes If that!) well... I decided to wait... 45 minutes go by and do you know how many replies I got? NONE!!! I don't know why but it seems no one was online at that time... well... 5 minutes later I got 2 replies... and they kinda made sense... but I was scared to mess it up... I just pictured myself trashing both cake sand re-making them all over again... then as me and DH are talking... we came up with in idea... and we decided to just go for it... I mean if it worked.... great and if it didn't then I had already prepared myself mentally to re-bake... so we agreed on DH taking the lead on this... so I leave the kitchen... I can't even look... so I was in the basement and I hear the door open and he calls for me... and my heart drops... so I run up.... and I look at it... and just like that... we have a perfect looking cake... the perfect height... it doesn't even look like it had been "fixed" next to the cake.. a torted layer lays there and it also looks great... I could not believe how he was able to do what he did and not damage the cake layers or the filling layers... I felt like a TON was lifted off from my back.... wow... here is a picture of what I saw when he called me up...
You see? it looks like there wasn't anything additional done to the cake on the right side... I was soooo happy.... I could not stop smiling... and thanking him... *that's why the picture of the two cakes already crumbed coated that I posted yesterday have one cake higher than the other... but out came the other cake and he did the same thing and it worked just as good as the first time.. Well after that... I started piping the outline on the cookies and setting them to the side until the outline dried... that was also a lot of fun for me because I enjoy piping... it's another one of my favorite things about cake making... I did all the soles first then all the toes, that took the longest time because I had to pipe each cookie with 5 toe outlines, but it was fun... after they set... I started flooding (I loveee flooding!!) and they were set aside to dry, here is a glimpse of it:

as you can see I snapped the picture after I flooded the soles, so the toes are still not flooded... aren't they just adorable??
While I was working on that.... DH decided to fondant the cakes so I would be able to continue with the cookies... He put the fondant on those cakes like speedy gonzalez lol he was fast! and look at the perfection in them:


Hah? nice work right?.... so that was out of the way... and this was by 10 am the latest... so we had the rest of the day to do last minute details... well I am still working on my cute cookies and my new intern comes in... (huh? I didn't tell you I had a new intern?) Ohhh I'm so sorry I didn't mention it before... I have a new intern... her name is Dora and she recently came form Mexico to work with me and learn the ins and outs of cake art... She came kinda late as we had done almost everything by then.. so she starts thinking about what can she do to help the project and learn something at the same time.. She starts to add petal dust to the babies that were not finished... I walked her through it and she followed directions very good... she then decides that it would be a nice thing to add something else to this special project... Her mexican background helped in the idea because the best chocolate comes from Mexico... so she wanted to make some chocolate baby lollipops to bring to the venue... and since there was really nothing for her to do, I told her to go for it... and she went to work on them... they came out so nice and I thought the client would be very happy about this nice addition and at no additional cost... well that's just "icing on the cake" lol (get it?). She needs to have progress pictures to add to her portfolio so here is one of the snap shots we took of her while she was working...

HAHAHAHAHA.... ok so it's not really Dora the Intern... it's DH having fun lol.... I thought it was hillarious... Well DH spent the rest of the day working on the chocolate babies... and after I was done with the sugar cookies.... Then I went on to add the beads around both cakes... I against my better judgement used buttercream to attatch them to the cake (the previous one, I used sugarglue to attatch them and the drive to the venue was uneventful, nothing came off of the cake although I was prepared with my "tool box" just in case), but I continued using the buttercream to add all the beads. Time has come... time has arrived... for my most favorite part yet.... adding the detailes to the sugarpaste babies.... this is so much fun because your imagination is the limit, there is so much you can do... I need to just let you know... this is my first time making sugarpaste babies... and everything I did was by just thinking like the best cake artist in Northeast Philly... maybe even Philly all together... I did tons of little details... here are just some of them:

  • Cute bonnet hat
  • pacifiers
  • rattles
  • rag teddy bear
  • the cutest blankies you can think of
  • dipers
  • headbands
  • bows
  • flowers with gold and silver dragees

I think I covered everything,.... my favortie part was making the blankies... I was able to use different techniques in each of them so that no two were alike..I mean... two-toned, embossed... marblelized, impression mats, and more... when I was done... DH told me the babies looked incredible (I truly value his opinion very much.... he is like Karry Vincent.... very very critical and he will tell me straight up when something looks amateurish... he will not hold anything back (so honest... that sometimes I just get mad because I want t hear: "Babe... they are perfect!, I wanna hear that everytime! lol) but he makes me a better artist... because his contructive critisisim (as hurt as it might make me feel) is what makes me push harder... to make it better, because if he says I can do better... then case closed... start over... because you CAN DO BETTER.. and he makes me push myself to as much as I can and he always gets it right because I refuse to send something to one of my clients that has put all of his/her trust in me to make their special event even more beautiful. what was my point? lol Ohhhh so... he said he loved them so I knew they would be a hit! Here is a pic of some of them together in a tray so they can set and then I have individual pics of all th babies so you can see how adorable they are:

I told you!! just adorable... well I put them all aside to dry for the morning trip to the cake board.... Tomorrow is the big day... can't wait! Now it's time for me to say goodbye (I've heard that before?...), Nite Nite guys....

Cya...
---------------------

Sat-Feb-27-2010 "THE DAY"

A big Hello to everyone out there... well woke up nice and early today for the big day (although the delivery wasn't until 4:30 pm... hehehehe...
The cake will be taken to the venue somewhat dissassembled (just the cakes with 4 babies (the ones attatched to the cake), will take chocolate babies, cookies and the other babies separate and the latter two will be added at the venue. I put them cookies and the babies just so I could get an idea of how I wanted to arrange everything once we got there... that took me 1 hour or so.. but finally I was happy with the placement... here is a pic of it:


Still "in pricess" everything is not in the cake as of this picture (but as you can see, so far... great looking!). Afterwards I start getting my "tool box" ready and packing the cookies carefully and the babies in another tray (then it dawned on me that DH left the choco babies in the fridge and they wer enot wrapped yet.. so I started doing that.... before I knew it... it was time to leave... DH was working so I had to wait until he got home so we could leave.... he gets home at 4! I was in a hurry to say the least (I wanted to get there by 4:15 and that wouldn't be possible now). So he rushes to take a shower and starts to load everything in the back of the truck.... and he puts the cake the same way as before and this time i dit in the front and my middle son and baby girl sit in the back, I tell him to please drive carefully because I didn't want any accidents to happen to the cakes... so we leave and right off of out street... the very first turn we have to make....

I say to my son... "Mike... from time to time take a look back there to make sure everything is ok with the cake", he looks back as DH s making the turn,,, when I hear him scream... the cake!!! it slid off!!... I once again g o into panic mode!! We pull over... (literally 4 houses from us!) and open the back... the cake slid off to the side and in one of the cakes almost all the beads come off the cake... I was pretrified!! I thought.... don't panic... this is something that can be fixed easily... so we gather the beads that came off... I switch places with my son and off we go, I called the event cordinator and touched basis with her.... she told me that the event would start by 5 pm, so as long as I got there before then, we would be able to put everything together... so we get there at 4:45 pm... 15 minutes to spare... at this point.... I am seating bullets... I don't know if that's enough time to fix the cake... and add all the details.... and to top it off.... no parking!, we pull over and we start bringing everything inside... well we place the cake in the table they have for it... Dh goes back to park the truck and I get to work.... adding the beads back on... in a few DH gets in.... and he starts helping me... as I am putting the beads he starts adding the cookies and placing the chocolate babies around... (remember.... I have a mental picture of where everything goes) so puts things how he feels they look best... I tell him... look at my phone because I took a piicture so we can use it to see where things go.... so I start moving things around until we have everything in place... we finished at 10 after or so... venue was still pretty much empty... I take a deep breath of relief and start taking pics.... when I look back... the place is packed..so it worked out perfect! Thank God for that... Now I take the time to look around and to take it all in... the place looks so cute.. they had a diaper cake... they had baby clothes hanging around the venue... and a wicker chair for her to sit on that was decorated with white and pastel colors.... it looked really good.... Here... look:


Everyone just loved the cake and the chocolate baby lollypops were a HIT! the sugarpaste Babies also, everyone wanted one.... we went on to celebrate and when the GOH got there it was all amazing, she got so surprised that she broke down and cried...she looked amazing, she was glowing and the love the was poured on to the happy couple that night was priceless... Here is a picture of her in her chair....
She is just the sweetest person... and she got tons of stuff... nice gifts for their first baby girl! When it was time to cut the cake... wow... I love when this happens... that cake was gone in 15 minutes or less I would say.... we even had to get some plates with cake to the side for the GOH and her DH because the cake was just GONE!

Very Nice night and awesome experience.... close call there for a few but all worked out great! Until next time my friends... when we embark together in another adventure here in cakeland... May you always continue to celebrate special events in your loved ones' lifes, so I can keep making great cake art!

Free Site Counters
AS SEEN ON TV WALL HOOKS

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Tappits Letter Tutorial




Here is a tutorial on how to use your tappits... I like some of you, use to dread using tappits, they would get stuck, distorted, ripped, and more... But I liked how good they could be if able to do them right.
As they say, practice makes perfect, so I kept trying until I found a way that it's pretty much fail-proof... Here is the viedo and below are the images if you want to print it or save it...
I hope this helps...

PS.
Points to keep in mind:
1) Keep your surface heavily powdered.
2) Roll your gumpaste/fondant very thin
3) Keep out on open air for 2-5 minutes, let it dry a bit
4) Dust your tappits before each use
5) Move you paste at times to make sure it's not sticking






Picture Tutorial:





Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Drummer Boy Project



Tuesday, Feb-16-2010

Good Morning my dear readers...
Another week.... another exciting project. This week we are working on a cake with "congas", which is a percussion instrument used mostly by spanish players. Here is a pic:

They "seem" fairly simple to do... but I can assure you... when it looks that simple is because is that much harder to achieve... So DH will be assisting in this project because he loves how good this instrument sounds... So far one of them is started and waiting on it to dry so we can add the details to it... Here are some progressions pics:



We will make the twin today and start the detailing on the first one also. The design for this cake will be so nice when it's finished... This is for a Band Player's surpeise birthday party and the colors are going to be very earthy, I can't wait to see it finsihed!Well... it's nice and early off to start some baking! YummY!!, will also start doing some of the details so they have time to set.... talk to ya in a bit...

Cya....
-------------------------

Wed-Feb-17-2010 @ 12:40 pm

Hi everyone!Well.. yesterday went very well... finished all my baking... now they are nice and sealed settling down... today it's time for buttercream!! YummY!! filling! double YummY and crumb coat...
DH worked on details for the drums, here are some pics, and today i will be working on some music notes that I want to add as details on the side of the cake...


This seems weird because there haven't been too many issues with this project, I guess it's true... practice makes perfect heheheI am NOT saying I'm perfect but that the process becomes second nature the more you do it...
We took the drums and added some really nice shine with some confectioners glaze and it looks amazing! take a look:


Well off to play with fondant! yeahhhhh
Cya l8r...
-----------------------
Wed-Feb-17-2010

Hya... it's me again hehehe
Well... I worked on the music notes... not tooooo happy but let me wait until they dry and see how they look, I also took advantage to do the happy b-day letters so they can dry with plenty of time... I might want to color them also.
My UPS haul is due to arrive today and I have one of my secret BC ingredients there so I can't start making it until that gets here... ggrrr... but I am doing other things while I wait so it's NOT time wasted! that's good... anyways... need to go out and make a run to the market...so we will chat later...

Cya...
------------------

Wed-Feb-17-2010 @ 5:56 pm

Well this is the time when UPS brings me my stuff (ggrr) so I wasn't able to do all I wanted to do today nice and early,
Now it's dinner time... after dinner... time to make icing... then tmo will be for tort, fill & crumb.... On the other hand... very happy about the stuff I got... will post pics in my "haul" page!

Cya...
---------------------------

Thu-Feb-18-2010

Hi everyone.....

Very uneventful week and that's a good thing.... everything running smooth with my drummer boy project... I have some pics to share kater on tonite....
You see... I had an order for a music themed cake that looked promising... for x or y reason... the deal fell through.... well I had ordered some music cutters and a music sheet stencil.... but DH said: "How many music cakes will you do?" so I said... "guess u r right" so I cancelled the order.... next thing you know.... ANOTHER MUSIC THEME CAKE!!! hahahahaha
So... I said... ok ok np! I can do the notes by printing them and tracing them with fondant.... well... no ink on the printer! lol....
SO I go to buy it.... they are out of the ink I need!!
SO.... ok I say... let's do this free hand.... how hard can it be? yeahhhhhh well turns out if you are not a natural artist or good at drawing... that might be a challenge.... so I carefully... slowly... looking at the monitor.... and cutting my music notes... I got them done... they are good... but I wish they were better (that's always the case with me lol).

I did some research on the sheet lines and got some good ideas on how I might get them how I want them to be on the cake.. going to try it.... you will see if it works or not!

Now I'm going to do some more notes but they will be wired so they can be over the cake.... not many just 3 or 4... already added some CMC to my fondant and letting it settle now.... as you can see... uneventful might not mean the same thing to you and me lol...

I will be back l8r with some progression pics.. I promise!

Cya...
-----------------------------

Fri-Feb-19-2010

Hi everyone!!!

Well things are running A OKAY! so far we are on time for this special delivery.... My music notes are all dried and set to go.
This morning... I knead it the fondant and colored it in a light beige tone... then I covered my cake... we wanted different earth tones throughout the cake so I added a top in a darker shade that hangs on the sides... then a double border.... one being dotted with a bone tool...
I also added some stripes, wavy and straight around the cake and put the HB Tom letters and some of the music notes.... it's coming out so good already....
Anyhow I promise some pics... and I have them! enjoy!

Here are the congas... shiny and all done up... hehehehe.. this was so much fun to do... they remind me of my childhood....


Here are the tappits (Funky Letters) drying alongside the music note... that I(BTW) did... FREE-HAND! :-)


These are the wired music notes that will be topping the cake...


ANd.... Here is the best part C A K E YummY!





Be Back l8r with the END RESULT!

Cya...
--------------------------------

SAT-Feb-20-2010

Hi!!...well today is delivery day and I am very happy about the end result... it is a festive... musical... nice looking.... male birthday cake! Here it is.....



Free Site Counters
AS SEEN ON TV WALL HOOKS

Monday, February 8, 2010

Natalie's Cake... Really! My Daughter's Birthday Cake Project!

Mon-Feb-8-2010 9:50 am

Hello my friends...

Well my baby girl's 4th b-day is on the 10th but we are celebrating it this Saturday, I will be starting on the cake details this morning so as you know there will be a lot of pics hehehe... I will be doing something inspired by the few cakes you see in the above picture...

My ideal cake would be very pink and cutesy with bows and maybe ballerinas and slippers and hearts and FLOWERS!!!!!! BUT...... she is into Ice Age now (a few weeks ago it was Lion King) so I kinda knew my pink cake dream wasn't going to be even before this lol. I keep buying her barbies and more barbie and you know what she does with the accessories the barbies' bring? she puts them on the ice age characters lol she put some high heels on dinosaurs and no matter how many Barbie's I buy... she goes back to her ICE AGE and Dinosaurs gggrrr but I have to do what makes HER happy not me lol..

Anyways... I will talk to u a little later on.... going to color the fondant/gumpaste in the colors of the characters and start baking on Wednesday so I have enough time to decorate without being in a rush...

Cya!
----------------------------------------------



Ok it's Mon-Feb-8th-2010 @ 1:35 pm

After coloring, which took forever!!! this is what I have so far on Sid The Sloth.... The Head Shape...
Looks pretty good.... now on to the body, I will add details after it dries... I don't' want to mess with is too much while is still wet cause I might... I know I will! discombobulate the shape of the head....
Cya!
--------------------------------
Mon-Feb-8th-2010 @ 2:58 pm

Just did the body part... it looks okay kinda big bottomed lol... but he's kinda big at the hips... I also used the veining tool to add texture to the body and also the head... u will see in the next set of pics... now I will work on the arms, feet and tail... let it all dry well, 'til tmo then start assembling it and adding the details... but while that dries I will start on Mannie, what I'm gonna do it work on Sid and Mannie first... if it's too much then I will just do them both and the eggs (baby Dino's) 'cause she loves playing mami to them...

Talk to ya in a bit...

------------------------------
Mon Feb-8th-2010 @ 5:14 pm

Ok Guys... the top pic is the body of Sid drying also and the bottom is Mannie's head and trunk... I am not doing the whole mammoth cause it would overtake the cake... so he's head is gonna peak out of the cake... still need to add the tusks, eyes, brows, hair and ears... when it's dried, so maybe tmo...
Cya...
----------------------------------
Mon Feb-8th-2010


Ok UPDATE!!! Here is Mannie with ears, eye balls, eyebrows and some hair... need to keep adding hair but it's tedious lol so I am taking a break so I don't do sloppy work....
I am very happy because I didn't think I was going to be anywhere near as close to how they look as I have so far... to add more depth to them we are going to airbrush them once they dry. I am going to add the details to Sid right after dinner and I will update you on the progress (or just like the other times before lol, I might end up getting knocked out and not work on them anymore until the morning) hehehe... but just so you can see..

When we are looking at all this from the outside... we see people on tv having 6-7 hours to finish a cake and we are like: "Ohhh that's soooooooo easy I can do that in no time.. why do they need 7 hours?!?!", but when u want your work to be as professional as possible... it takes hours and hours to make just one character, let alone 4 or 5... but when you LOVE doing it (like I do) it's just fun fun fun to sit there and work on them...

for now... Cya!
---------------------------------------------
TUE-Feb-9th-2010

Hehehe I told ya! I might not come back lol... after dinner DH came home and I just decided to spend sometime with him... and it was okay becaue everytime I checked the figures... they were still not as dry as I would have wanted them to be before I would start adding the details.
So.. this morning... woke up not feeling all there at all.. not sure why, but what I did was a nice prayer to God... read some Psalms to make me see the joy in God's holiness and... I finished that... went to get the mail.. and there were some very exciting documents that came in that made me very very happy.. so now I am AOKAY lol...Anyways... this morning I already started to work on Sid the Sloth... I added his legs and claws.... glued that to the body and added his eye balls... now I am working on the right color for his lips... it's not pink, it's not red.. it's not brown, but it's like all those colors together... so I mixed few shades and now I'll give it 10 minutes to deepen so I can see which one works better....I will post the pics in my next entry....
Cya...
----------------------------
Tue-Feb-9-2010 @ 2:28 pm

Hi again my friends....
take a look....



This is what I have so far... it's not as easy as I thought lol... My daughter has the toys so in a matter of speaking I could have either just used the ones I bought or make a mold of them and call it a day... but then where is my artistic talent displayed? molds are just like making an ice cube.... I mean that's my opinion....

Well I'm gonna let this set now (I just need a break lol) then on to putting the arms and then glue the head... I get all desperate and just want to see the finish product asap, but i need to wait, cause patience is a virtue that I have not aquired/mastered yet lol...

Talk to you l8r... Cya
--------------------------------------



Wed,Feb,10th,2010 @ 7:10 am

Good Morning to all..
First off.. Happy Birthday to my little Girl Natie.... she is 4 today... she was born at 7 am on a morning like this 4 yrs ago... I can still recall that it was a snowy (bad snow storm) back then also... my mom was here from PR and she is scaredddd of the snow lol, she was with me and DH at the hospital and when she saw the snow, she made DH rush home to take her cause she was scared... I miss and love her dearly, my brother (lives in Chicago) is visiting her in PR as we speak and they are in a nice sunny island :-)

Well back to THE ICE AGE lol.. last night I did the tusks and made them out of pastillage and that stuff is hard to work with because u need to work fast otherwise it dries on you.... When I kept rolling it to make it pointy at the end, it kept drying and would "separate", so I would have to add water, re-knead and start over... but eventually I got it.... I did 2 sets and here are some of the pics, I have not glue them to mannie just yet, but it gives u an idea of how it is going to look.

Today I will finish Mannie, and finish Sid, then start on Scrat and the eggs....
Be safe out there, Philly is covered in snow and they predict snow all day long.. on top of the 20+inches we had this past weekend.....

Cya....
---------------------------




Cya....
----------------------------------

Wed-Feb-11th-2010 @ 8:52 am

Good Morning everyone...

Well yesterday was an okay day... wasn't able to work on the figures as much as I would have liked due to other business matters that needed my attention. But I was able to finish with the assembly of both characters... As you can see Mannie, I say he's finish and you might be like... wait a sec... it's just his head?! Well that's all I need from Mannie for the cake design I have, his head will be kinda peeking out from the "cave" (cake).

I finished Sid... he was pretty easy to do... and the eyelashed which I thought were going to just brake off and fall (I made a lot of extras, just in case) none broke off or fell... that's good...

Mannie, his hair was a bit of a challenge because it's like a puffy thingy on the top and I had no idea how to build up all the puff without making a ton of hair and attaching it in layers... waiting for each layer to dry then add another... I found an easier way and I accomplished what I had envisioned...

This morning I will be painting them.. not the whole thing but just adding some shadings and depth to them... I had the beanie babies characters and some pictures as my "muse", but I think they ended up looking more like the stuffed animal version rather than the movie version, but I am okay with that.. I love how good they came out...

I will weight in whether I want to do the Scrat character or not... depends cause I have some orders that are due and I need to start some initial work on them... you will know before the day is over lol...

I kinda started doing some initial acorns just to see how they would look... here is a pic...



I like how they came out... with some darker paint on top and some highlighting streaks in the nut itself.. I know it will look awesome...

Anyways... let me get back to work... I will update you as things move along...

BTW: Another snow storm yesterday here in Philly.. and guess what?? remember I told you it was wishful thinking that our next door friends would use their snow blower to clear our house... well my kids did some shoveling in the morning when it was a mix of rain and snow... then it started to snow hard...so I told them to come in... well like at 8 pm our nice neighbors... went to clean their house and when I looked out the window.... they had clear our front...our sidewalk... and our driveway!!! so BIG KUDOSSSSS to our neighbors!!!
Talk to ya later..... Cya...
-----------------------------------------

Thu-Feb-11th-2010

Here are more pics you guys... :-)



Oh dear dear! lol... he was by far the hardest to do.... I did the color... and 3x the color was all worng... finally I decided to go with just a light orangy brown cause I just wan't able to get the right color...

So I start doing the figure... and for the life of me... at first I just couldn't get the shape of the face right.... I did it 2 maybe 3 times before I was able to do one that I liked... the one pic above is the best one and I am happy (not too happy lol) but happy with how it came out.... the gray thingy next to it, that's the tail drying before I glue it to the figure... and the acorm is next to them also...

Now I am going to add some paint to do some highlights to the figures... let's hope it comes out okay... I will let u know...

Hope u r still enjoying my progress... hardships.... dilemas... and all that comes with it... tmo I will get the cake fondanted so I can make it look like the north pole... but I'll let u be the judge of of lol... nite nite my peeps...

Cya....
----------------------------------

Sat-Feb-13-2010

Taadaaaa....


Hello my dear friends...

Well whatcha think??? they are finally done....
Finishing them took a lot longer than expected due to little ol' me getting a cold and feeling so sick that I barely touched them yesterday, I feel a little better today.

I want to give kudos to DH because he did the paint work on them and they look great... I had done scrat in like an orange/brown color and it was all wrong, he used his "magic" and mixed some colors and got the right shade and it looks awesome...

Now on to putting it all together on the cake... so throughout the day, you will see how it all comes together...

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far.

Our prayers go out to the family, friends and Olympic family of that young man that had the unfortunate accident that took his life...


Cya......
-------------------------------------------
Sat-Feb-13th-2010
Hi everyone.... Are you ready??? Here we go.....



Mannie The Mammoth...



Here is Mannie the Mammoth... finished... already in position on the cake... we made a "cave" out of RKT covered in fondant and placed his head there...as if he's coming out of the cave.... I love the way it looks like the snow is falling all around him.

Sid The Sloth...



Sid was place in the corner next to scrat and he is holding a snow ball just like the one on top of Mannie's head... he just threw one and is ready to throw another hehehe....

Scrat.....



Scrat came out sooooo cute.... I love it!... he has the acorn next to him "protecting" it as he hold a sign with the #4 for Nattie's age.... he's standing next to the cave.....

THE CAKE!



Here is a top/side view of the cake..... I love how cute it looks... it's very ICE AGE... nothing but ice and snow all over.... and they look just so good together....

DH working on the cake here he is adding the final touch ups.... some shimmer dust and sugar flakes to make it look like ice crystals all over.... I must tell you... I had the vision, but without him I could have not brought it to life.... he is amazing!



Here is a collage of the cake with some close-up pictures....



Here is the cake from various angles... I hope you guys enjoyed this adventure as much as we did... ironic.... me working on a snow themed cake during the worst snow storm in Philly hehehe.


PS. I need to share this with you 'cause I thought it was hillarious... So yesterday I go to Party City to get all the decorations for her party... And of course she went along with me and my middle son, he took her to another section while I went to get her things...

SO I am looking for Ice Age theme party accesories... of course they DO NOT have it... so I keep looking and based on what I sw... I "had no choice" but to get everything PINK with the princess theme ( YEAHHHH!!!) I said: "Well everything will be all girly girly in pink and she will just have her Ice Age cake!".

So as I am walking to the register to pay.... I pass by the boys birthday section, and of course what do I see?..... a jungle theme bundle (like Ice Age dawn of the DINASOURS) and I start thinking that, even though I might not like it as much as the pink princess.... it goes with the cake theme 100 times better... BOOOHOOOOO.

So... I start pouting as I sadly put all the PINK princess stuff back... and get all the Jungle Dinasour Theme Stuff...

AND!!! to top it all... there were like 3-4 other mom's getting all these nice girly theme accesories (Dora... Bratz... Hannah Montana... Pink Princess, etc...) It's just not fair!!!!

lol it's okay.... as long as she is happy.... I will do her birthday based on what she likes!

Anyways.... nite nite to all... hopefully my cold will go away soon.
I will share the birthday pictures with you tmo...

Cya...........
-------------------------------------




Free Site Counters
AS SEEN ON TV WALL HOOKS

Recent Orders from Natalie Cakes

Recent Orders from Natalie Cakes
Fall Themed Wedding Cake