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...
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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...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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...
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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...
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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!
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