Finding Inspiration

I'm now that person at the office that makes all of the birthday cakes.  I wanted to make something that my boss would enjoy, but since he is blind certain creations I would make wouldn't mean anything to him.  So, I searched for inspiration of something I could do that he could enjoy.

There is a sculpture in our lobby that a client and friend made for my boss.  It's blown glass and each piece is different and unique.  You are suppose to be able to touch each objection and "see" all the differences in each piece.

I decided to use this for my inspiration for the cake, so that no matter what piece of cake my boss got, he could enjoy it.  In starting the cake, my lily-like creations weren't dry in time so I was unable to use them.

The cake is as chocolatey as you can get, since that is his favorite.  All of the decorations are made out of fondant.

I love this cake because it is so different and there is so much to look at.

Train Wreck

We had family coming over and I decided last minute to make a Thomas train cake.  I thought, it's probably easy enough.  Boy was I wrong.

The cake was another Coca-Cola cake called the Chocolate Coca Cola cake and the key ingredient here was cinnamon.  The cake went very well, which was good since I had to hurry to do the rest.

I rolled green fondant semi-successfully over the cake.  It was better than my very first try, but not that great either.  Then, I molded trains out of cake that I carved and wrapped them in fondant.

At this point, I should have realized that this cake wasn't turning out how I wanted, but for some reason I kept going.  The black Wilton frosting I had bought to draw the train track exploded and would not cooperate.  There was black everywhere and no where were I wanted it.

I also dug a whole out of the cake, thinking it would give the illusion that the train was going into the cake.  Instead, it looked as those someone ate part of the cake.

All in all, this was a train wreck.  Nothing looked right and the train characters were barely recognizable.  However, the kid I made the cake for knew what I was attempted for, and for that, it was successful.

Store Bought

For the final of Cake Decorating Basics, I had to decorate a cake using ribbon roses.  I HATE ribbon roses.  I don't like anything about them.  I did pass the class, but when I went home I did classic Wilton roses.

The cake is simple as far as the decorating.  I wanted it to look store bought or good enough to buy in a store.

The cake itself is the Coca-Cola Cake.  For this cake you need Coca-Cola and marshmallows.

Inside I had cherry filling, to make it a Cherry Coke cake.  It was interesting.  I think I need more practice in cooking with the marshmallows since I didn't know how to work with them.  Overall, it was a good cake.

Color Striping

Just around the corner from the Gluten-Free Heart cake I made, was my mother-in-law’s birthday.  It gave me another chance to try another Gluten-Free cake.  For this one, I tried a box mix that is made by Betty Crocker.  It was White cake.

I also thought I’d try color striping since I had seen it on TV.  Before I filled my bag with the pink vanilla buttercream, I striped the bag with more pink coloring.  This made a very cool striping effect for the lines I put though the cake.  This was a very simple cake, but I loved the colors.  However I do need to keep an editing eye.