DelightfuLea Complete

Happy Meal McNugget 'Cake'

2009-03-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. This was a fun one. I'm calling it a successful failure... my plans for this 'cake' were far greater than I achieved, however, I'm so thrilled about the look of the McNuggets that I'm over it!

Besides, I've realized that whenever I do a test cake.. the second cake ends up at least 500x better (examples? the Quilt before and after and Rubber Ducky before and after cakes) - so I'm confident if I were to do it again, I would get what I had originally envisioned, and that's good enough for me right now.

The plan was a Happy Meal - for Ryan (of cakes past). As he correctly guessed, it was a poke at the fact that he doesn't ever eat more than a kid (Des once ate more than him...)

The Failure:
I had hoped to have a happy meal box, built much like a gingerbread house over the vanilla cake, frosted with chocolate icing. I had also planned a McNugget box as well - both of these were casualties of icing crappiness, and last minute doing of things. I should have done more ahead of time.

The frosting was done all in an hour or two - and because I was semi-rushed, that meant that the colours bled and things just weren't as sharp as I would hope.

The Success:
The chicken nuggets and fries! OMG love it!

Served with chocolate syrup "BBQ Sauce", the fried cake nuggets (yes, yes I DID fry cake and it was everything I wanted it to be) are dead ringers for chicken nuggets! The fries were cookies - baked long and slow to brown them), glazed and sugared to give that oily shine, and salty look. They were served with some tube frosting "Ketchup".

Dan stepped in on this project and made me a fry bag and cup out of French butter cookies (much like fortune cookies). And it was awesome. He also did some cool design things that I might have to make him do for future projects.

Oh and yes, that's a happy meal toy on top of the cake.

Easter Cookies

2009-02-25T11:14:00.001-08:00

After receiving one of the cookie bags that I made for the baby shower last week - my friend Darlena asked if she could put in an order for herself - HECK YEAH!
80 cookies total (plus an additional 24 that I made *just in case*), it's been far more work that I thought it would be (if they had all been the same one or two designs it would have been infinitely easier) but I'm done, a day early - and pretty happy with the results!
I learned, as always, a lot - and I can see a noticable difference in the first cookies I decorated vs the 100th (bees and ducks were last, bunny was first). Also - I got to use mys himmer dust on the inset wings, and I almost never get to use that stuff.

She's giving most of these away as gifts, but liked the cookies themselves so much, she divulged some would make it to her own freezer.

The colouring and shimmer doesn't come through well in photos - but the lines you see inthe frosting are colour from the dust, and the whole wing glimmers like ruby slippers...

Would you believe that I hardly ate any?
Eh, me either.. about 5 made it into my tummy over the three days of preparation.

Snowman

2009-01-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

The evening before his work holiday party - Dan mentioned that there was a desert contest. Damnit. He hada good idea too - a snowman cake! And so it goes.

He was baked in mixing bows of various sizes. He's white chocolate cake on the bottom, and gingerbread cake on top. My favorite swiss buttercream makes up the snow, and his arms are chocolate coated pretzles. He has a large support dowel down his center, but i should perhapse have attatched it to the base, because he still started to "melt"

He did win me 20 bucks though.

Crayon Cake

2009-01-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

While she was learning her colours, Des would default everything to green if she didn't know what the color was, hence the green crayon! Des painted the Pooh Bear colouring page with dyed royal icing.

The cake itself was Green Velvet (read: Red Velvet, but.. green!) and baked in a large can. I must say, I do not recommend baking cakes in tin cans - the heat distribution is all wrong and ends up producing not-so-leavened cakes. The tip was baked in an aluminum disposable pan which I molded into the shape I wanted. Again, not suggested - that part of the cake was a solid mass.

Somehow, the part of the cake served was actually good, lucky me!

While I was assembling before the party, there was a big moment of "I can't do this. This sucks. $*@()!! Daaaann.. is it too late to go pick up some cakes from the store?" Dan, being excellent, promptly went out and procured some cakes. While he was gone I started to get very angry with myself for giving up and decided that there was no way Des's birthday cake would be from a store! Not after I've come so far!

So I finished it! BWAHAHAHAHA.. yeeeah...

Also, I made blue peanut butter ice cream and red mint fudge ice cream to be served with it -obviously a colour theme! I also wouldn't really suggest the heavily dyed ice cream...

Go Diego Go!

2008-11-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

This is a Diego cake, made for a co-worker's daughter.

The base was an overturned platter, painted with colorfill - and then airbrushed.

The butterfly and Baby Jaguar are also colorfill pieces made separately and later attached.

The cake was a dense white cake filled with strawberries and Swiss buttercream.

Diego is hanging form a fondant vine.

The Pimply Butt

2008-10-06T18:06:00.001-07:00

Here it is.. the post I've been waiting for... the PIMPLY BUTT CAKE!!

Now, truth be told, it's not for the faint of heart. But all in good fun. So, to be fair, I'll put a ton of space between this text and the rest of this post, so you can run away if you want to. Get ready for some gratuitious grossness.

Although any person that is even partially human won't be able to resist the urge to scroll down to see what I'm talking about!

Now wasn't that fun? All that scrolling?
Anyway. Erin's brithday was last week, she just turned 29 again, and wanted a cake "so gross no one will eat it" and so.. after some brainstorming we decided that a pimply butt just might be gross enough. Pimples that you could pop! Hair! Butt!

So I got an air brush, in anticipation of detail and skin tone (was the cake just a really good excuse for an airbrush? you decide).

So here we go. The cake it'self was red velvet. Within the cake I swirled cream cheese lumps (think flesh and fat). Between the cake layers was red cream cheese buttercream and rasperry preserves. (blood, duh)

The cake was carved to look much like, as one co-worker described it "a burn victem"

Next, ivory tinted fondant.

Now, this is where I took some white buttercream in a piping bag, injected it under the skin, and made some pimples in choice locations. Then, airbrushing added detail thoughout. And.. tada! A nasty-ass pimply butt cake!!
Some work needs to be done on my air-brushing skills and technique, as I had to take off the colour on half and do it over - which then made it look a little wonky.. but I'm still exceptionally please with the results. I'm quite proud of this monstrosity.

KMR Make-Up Academy Vanity

2008-07-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

This was a Vanity i made for the Grand Opening of the KMR Make-Up Academy.
This cake is 24" x 16" in the vanity, and 10" diameter in the chair.
The Chair is a white cake with lemon butter cream and MM fondant.
The Vanity is white cake with butter cream and fresh sliced strawberries, all under MM fondant.
The mirror is a combo of poured sugar and gum paste.
The accessories are all gum paste.
The cake stands are wooden bases covered and styled with gum paste.

And here is my original planning design. Mad Photoshop skills here.

Fat and Thin cake

2008-05-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

This was a cake planned and executed in two days for my co-worker and friend Ashley's birthday. The idea was a Fat cake turning Thin.
The Thin version was under a fatter facade - peel away the fondant, and reveal the thin cake.
Creepy on many levels, but still a pretty cool idea.

This was made of yellow boxed cake mix, buttercream, and MM fondant. It fed at least 25 people with leftovers.

Ninja Teddy

2008-04-26T17:35:00.001-07:00

A Rice Crispie treat ninja teddy bear for a co-worker's baby shower. He is painted thoroughly with white chocolate, his mask and eyes are bittersweet chocolate, and his sai and shuriken are entirely edible gum paste.

This is the original design.

Moroccan Wedding

2008-04-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

A wedding cake for my two dear friends Chris and Brandy.

Bottom layer was chocolate with a chocolate mint ganache
Second layer was white cake with a chocolate ganache
Third layer was white with funfetti icing
Top layer was chocolate with chocolate buttercream
All layers done up in chocolate buttercream, chocolate fondant, and chocolate paint. Decorations are white and milk chocolate, ropes and pearls are fondant.

Here is the original design.

Garden

2008-04-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

For my Grandmother's birthday. The first multi-teir cake I've attempted. As you can see, it wasn't anywhere near perfect, but I learned a lot of lessons from this one.

The bottom layer is a rich chocolate cake, the middle is the chocolate cake again and half white cake, and the top layer is white cake. The filling is raspberry made by Dan. Frosted with chocolate buttercream and M.M. fondant. The flowers are sugar paste, and the butterflies are sugar.

Quilt

2008-04-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

For my mom's birthday, the cake is mimicking a quilt she designed.

The cake is dark chocolate and cherry pie filling (can). Frosted with white chocolate buttercream and M.M. fondant.

This cake served 8 with a little left over.

Rubber Ducky

2008-04-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

This is the first designer cake I made. Dan jokingly suggested I try to make a duck cake, like in those cake shows.. and I took that to extremes. A new hobby is born...

The duck is pound cake (from a box). The sheet cake below is a yellow cake (box) with blueberry pie filling (can).

I used M.M. fondant, and frosting from a jar.

This cake fed about 15 peopole with signifigant leftovers.