Sugar Sweet Cakes and Treats

Mom's Knitting Basket Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:22:00 +0000

A birthday cake for my mom who can knit, crochet, or embroider practically anything....

The basket was made out of 2, 9 inch round Carrot Cakes filled with Cream Cheese Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC) that I tinted brown with some AmeriColor gel colors. I didn't want the white IMBC to peak through the basket weave but in the end, with a white "liner" hanging over the basket, it would have technically been OK if it was kept white - if you get what I mean - live and learn =) For the basket weave pattern, I cut out strips of MMF in 2 sizes (one size for the vertical pieces and a another, wider size, for the horizontal pieces). I had never done a basket weave before but once I got the pattern down, it all came together pretty easily.

(Recipe for the Cream Cheese IMBC can be found at the bottom of this post:
Korean Hanbok Dol Cake from March 2011)

Once done, I brushed the fondant over with some Chocolate Brown Petal Dust and added the white "fabric" trim around the top rim. I used a stitching wheel to add the stitch pattern around the top and bottom edge of the white trim.

The balls of yarn were made out of Lemon Cake that were filled and covered with IMBC. I finally got around to using a cupcake pan my husband bought for me two years ago like the one pictured on Amazon below (Wilton Multi Cavity Cupcake Pan). They were the perfect size to create the balls of yarn with for the basket.

I put together 2 of the cupcake tops to form a round ball.

Trimmed off the pointed tops of the cupcakes to help make the ball look more rounded.

Used the bottom halves of the cupcakes to make a larger, oval, yarn of ball.

I then frosted all the balls of yarn with IMBC and popped them into the fridge for about an hour to firm up while I prepped the fondant.

There's a really neat post on Vegan Yum Yum on how to make balls of yarn and clothing with marzipan. I used the same technique but with MMF that I mixed with Tylose and a Clay Extruder to help extrude the miles upon miles (as it seemed) of yarn.

After trying out a couple of the disks that the extruder came with, the 2 disks pictured below worked out the best in creating the yarn look especially once the fondant was twisted.

I used the smaller disk (pictured left) for the green and purple balls of yarn and the larger disk (pictured right) for the pink ball of yarn.

Extruding the fondant, twisting it to look more like yarn, piecing it together into sections. Trim to size and add to the ball of yarn. Repeat and repeat and repeat until the entire ball of yarn is covered.

Spirals of fondant yarn to attached to the ends of the balls.

The finished ball of yarn. I later dusted it with Pink Luster Dust.

To get the gradation of color on the purple and green balls of yarn, I stuffed the extruder with a small amount of colored fondant followed by a small bit of white, then back to color, then white until the extruder was filled up. As you extrude the fondant, it comes out with a really nice gradation of color. The idea come to me after I had made the pink one and realized that it would have looked much better with some variation in color added to it. It actually worked perfectly since my mom had always preferred using the yarn that had a variation of color versus the solid ones =)

The purple knitted piece attached to the needle was something I improvised on and made up in trying to figure out how to show the gradation in color with. Hopefully these pictures below make some sense.

Marble purple fondant with white. Cut it out into strips, fold the strip in half, twist, then roll between your hands until you get a nice, thin, piece that looks kinda like yarn.

Brush a little bit of water between each strip to help hold it together then fold over every other piece like in the photo. Make sure the pieces sticking up are long enough to curl over the needle.

Roll the long pieces of fondant over the skewer using piping gel to help it stick to the skewer. Flip it over and use a toothpick or a scoring tool to create the knitted pattern into the fondant. For the knitting needle, I used a wooden skewer and painted it in Gold Dust.

The completed piece.

For the top of the knitting needles, I rolled out a piece of fondant into a cylinder shape and poked it into the end of the skewer using piping gel to help it stick together. I also painted it over with Gold Dust then imprinted 6's on the top of each needle. I made the 6 with a My mom turned 66 - a little discreet and very personal. I don't think the party guests caught that.

The 6's were made by pressing a #10 round piping tip into the fondant and a scoring tool to shape out the tail of the 6.

I added a little cross-stitch heart to the front with Royal Icing. A little tip to help the royal icing from not breaking on you as you pipe lettering or something thin is to mix a little bit of piping gel into it. It helps the Royal Icing stretch and not break on you.

Happy knitting...eating!

Barbie Goes to Hollywood Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:29:00 +0000

For a friend's daughter who turned 6. The theme of the cake was, "I can be a Movie Star" and Riley's favorite colors were pink and purple.

I made the purple, Hollywood mountains around the cake and added spots of sparkling glitter to look like the twinkling lights along the mountain side.

Everything was hand cut out of MMF (except for the alphabet cutters used on the, Happy Birthday). For the lettering, I used black MMF and dusted it over with blue pearl dust and rainbow glitter. I made her name, Riley, using a Barbie font which can be downloaded for free here.

I had such a hard time with the face and the nose...She went through 3 face transformations and quite a lot of sculpting before I settled with this one...must have spent close to 3 hours on her face alone. The easiest part was the arm and hand. For the arm, I used the tips on a video tutorial by Make Your Cakes - It shows you how to sculpt arms and legs easily. She did have a bare arm until my 4 year old daughter said that Barbie needs a bracelet and ring. These were added especially at her request =D

Cake: 9 inch White Vanilla Cake filled with Raspberry IMBC and decorated in MMF.

Chanel Classic Handbag Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:56:00 +0000

I made this cake for my mother-in-law's birthday. She loves Chanel and had requested for me to replicate one of her purses a few years ago. This year, although being in the middle of a home remodel, I HAD to make her cake....I couldn't let another year go by. She absolutely loved it and didn't let us cut it. Luckily, I had also made some cupcakes to go along with the cake that everyone enjoyed.

So, here are the photo's of the process....

2 days prior, I made the Black MMF using black candy melts. The recipe can be found under the "MMF Recipes" tab above. You can also use dark brown/chocolate candy melts. The black candy melts I had were more dark brown rather than black and I had to add a few drops of the black AmeriColor Gel to it to get it darker.

I think the black candy melts I used were either by Merckens or CK....I don't remember exactly but I do know that they were not the Wilton ones.

1 day prior, I made the blossoms, flower petals, and Chanel logos for the cupcakes with MMF (I mix the MMF with tylose to help it dry faster and harder like gumpaste). I also made the chain links to use for the purse straps with MMF too.

I made over 100 links and only joined them in two's (you'll see why later). I lay them over popsicle sticks so that they would dry with some curvature to them rather than being plain and flat.

I baked a 10" square cake (10 inch wide purse), and cut and stacked 3 tiers. Each tier was 2 1/2 inches wide by 2 inches tall (6 inch tall purse).

Carved the cake to the shape of the purse and covered it over in Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC). I also inserted 2 dowels down the middle to help hold the purse up since it was narrow and tall. Then, I put the entire cake into the fridge overnight to get nice and firm.

The following morning, I covered the cake over in MMF.

The 1st piece I did was the front. I rolled out the MMF and trimmed it to size. I also used Dark Cocoa to dust the surface with rather than Powdered Sugar or Corn Starch to help keep the MMF from sticking to the table top. It was great at giving the purse a dark, brown look that matched the color of the purse perfectly. Using a ruler and a stitching wheel (a sewing tool), I scored the quilt design over the MMF. Flipped the MMF over so the underside was now facing up, and rolled 1/8" of the edge over and all around so you wouldn't see the cut edges - I wanted to seams to look just like they were sewed together just like the seams on a real leather purse - hope that makes sense. Flipped the MMF back to the right side and lay it over the cake. With a fondant tool (a small ball tool will work too), I went over the quilt seams and lightly pressed it into the cake slightly to give it a little bit of a puffed up look.

The next piece I lay, covered the back of the purse and went up and over the front of the cake for the flap. I then added the 2 side pieces following the same technique above with scoring the quilt pattern and rolling the edges under. I then lightly rubbed the entire purse with a little bit of shortening to make it look more like leather.

Once the cake was covered, I got started on the details. I painted each link with edible gold dust mixed with vodka. Tedious but well worth it - you gotta have the gold, Chanel chain!

I then cut out 4 circles out off the top of the purse (2 in the front and 2 in the back) using a piping tip. The holes were then covered over with round circles made out of MMF which were also brushed over with gold dust.

Now to the fun part...laying each pair of links on the cake and threading the leather strap through it. I cheated. The leather strap is actually 1 1/2 inch wide pieces of MMF pinched in the ends and shoved into each link giving it the illusion of the strap going all the way through.

I used the same technique when adding the shoe laces on the sneaker shoe cakes I had done before...see them below:

Tennis Shoe Cake

Running Sneaker Cake

Now you can see why I only connected 2 links at a time to each other. The part of the links that are under the black strap are not seen so therefore, do not need to 'actually' be connected - cool illusion hah!

I looked over so many purse cakes trying to figure out how the straps were done on the cakes that did have edible straps and didn't like what I saw so after playing around with the links, I came up with my own technique....at least I haven't seen anyone who has done it this way or at least shown us how. Now, with this tip, I hope to see much better chain links out there by you all :-)

I used clear piping gel to help hold all the links up against the cake and onto the cake stand.

The 'minor' imperfection that really bugs me is that on the following day, since we didn't eat the cake the night of the party, I took the photo that you see above, outside in the morning light. As you can see, the cake settled and the 2 dowels used to hold the cake up appear as bumps (to me, they look like horns) along the top of the purse...err! I've been told, by a dear friend, that it's actually a bulging wallet full of cash - gotta love her! Next time, I'm cutting those things down at least 1/4 inch lower than the actual cake to avoid such an awful bump...Live and Learn!

As for the large flowers, I made them up. These were the very 1st flowers I've ever made petal by petal. There are 5 medium petals for the inside and 5 large petals for the outside all glued together with piping gel. The large, pink flowers are dusted over in pink luster dust and I added pearls of white, silver and black in an assortment of sizes to the middle of each flower and mini blossom. I just love how they turned out but I do need to take some classes and learn the REAL way to make flowers someday.

I made both regular and mini sized cupcakes frosted with IMBC and topped with the Chanel inspired decorations. The white, round disks have the quilt pattern on them too which is hard to tell from the photo. The C's for the logo were made using circle cutters.

The cake is on the pedestal while the 2 purses on the table are the non-edible, real ones.

And alas, 3 days later, we finally cut the cake....and ate it too.

1000 Fan Giveaway...THANK YOU!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:03:00 +0000

In celebration of my Facebook Fan Page reaching 1000 fans (and it's 2 year Anniversary), I'm doing a giveaway! With the holiday season upon us, what a perfect time to give away a pair of my silicone molds: 1 Reindeer and 1 Sleigh valued at $60.

Use them to create a festive and edible decoration for your holiday themed baked goods or simply hang them on your tree...endless possibilities.

How to enter:

1) Comment below on what you love about the holiday season. If you're the Grinch, sorry, your entry will not be accepted.

2) For an additional entry, like my Facebook Page and enter a separate comment below that you liked my page. If you already like my page, comment you're a fan already.

Winner will be selected by Random.org

Giveaway ends Monday, December 5th at 11:59 P.M. (PST)

Shipping fees will be taken care of and the giveaway is open to International followers too.

Good Luck and Thank you for supporting my passion =)

Happy Holidays!

CONGRATULATIONS #3 - Haley! I will be contacting you soon.

My Kitchen Remodel

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:28:00 +0000

It's been a little quiet here lately. My home kitchen is being remodeled...floor to ceiling, every inch is new. I'm excited to have a new kitchen but it's been killing me that I haven't been able to make anything...let alone use it.

We moved out of our old home two weeks ago and have been staying with family while our new home is being remodeled...so much work but at least the kitchen will officially be the 1st room in the house that will be completed soon - crossing my fingers! As for the rest of the house, which we plan to do as much as we can ourselves, has no flooring still but at least the walls are primed =)

The Bare Kitchen - new flooring, paint and lighting.

Thomas the Train Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Choo choo, here comes Thomas! An 8 inch cake covered and decorated in Marshmallow Fondant (MMF). Stevie turned 3 so I used the "3" theme randomly around the cake: 3 pieces of wood for the train track, 3 yellow stripes on Thomas, 3 rocks/boulders, 3 bushy trees, and 3 tiny flowers on each bush.

Although this was the 2nd time making a 3D model of Thomas, he was still a challenge...so many parts to add on to such a little guy - he barely stood at 2 inches. The inside of his body is RKT covered over with modeling chocolate and I used dry spaghetti painted with black gel colors for the 4 rods that are in the front. Dry spaghetti and piping gel was also used to secure the puff of steam to the funnel and into the body.

Note: When making edible treats for kids, try to use dry spaghetti over toothpicks - they will bite into anything...and everything.

I kneaded and marbled 3 shades of brown together to create the mountain and rocks with then scored it all over the place with a ball tool to give it some ridges and cracks. I also made the mountain stick up over the top of the cake a bit. Finished off the cake by adding the rolling hills in 2 shades of green, white clouds and trees.

A view around the cake....

I left room on the top for Stevie to add a No. 3 candle

Silicone Molds are Now Available

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:15:00 +0000

Christmas Reindeer Cake made in 2011 for a Charity Auction

Alas, I have the silicone molds of both the Sleigh and the Reindeer from last years Christmas Reindeer Cake!

To place your order, click here or click on the tab at the top of the page right under my logo, "Shop Sugar Sweet"

ENJOY!!!

Mr. Fluffy's Bakery (Ni Hao Kai-Lan)

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:39:00 +0000

My niece turned 1 and after doing a couple Kai-Lan themed cakes and decorations, I wanted to create something unique and different but especially cute for her 1st birthday. I love the show and one of my favorite characters is Mr. Fluffy and his adorably cute bakery so I designed her cake to look just like his bakery. I think it turned out really cute!

I had scoured the Internet and watched online videos of the show trying to find a really good picture of his home to duplicate and failed. There were a lot of photos of the toy but none of the home as seen on the show. As I was telling my brother about it, my 4 year old jumps in and says she has a picture as she runs into her room and comes back out with a Kai-Lan book and there was Mr. Fluffy and his bakery right inside that book - it was perfect! My little hero!

My two kids picked out which of Mr. Fluffy's cakes I got to replicate for the decorations along the side of the cake and since we were in the midst of a heat wave and with the party being outdoors at a park, I kept everything pretty flat and two-dimensional to be safe.

The house was built and carved out of 2, 6 inch rounds and an 8 inch round for the roof. Everything is covered and decorated in MMF including the handmade, giant chocolate chips sitting on the roof. I'm so sorry for not having pictures of the step by step process - it was such a busy and stressful week that the camera and I just did not find each other but hopefully all of these "after" photos will help paint the picture....a 360 view around the cake.

Included below are the table center pieces made by my cousin - The lollipop flowers are so adorable and too cute!

And my sister-in-law decorated this large box to hold the birthday envelopes. The characters were hand cut out of construction paper and glued together! So creative and perfect - they don't look like cutouts at all!

Emily had a beautiful birthday filled with tons of family and friends, lots of delicious food and beautiful decorations made by her artsy and crafty Aunties and Mommy =) Happy 1st Birthday Emily!

Giant Cupcake Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:20:00 +0000

This year for my nieces birthday she requested for a giant cupcake, a blue liner with hearts and sprinkles..what fun to make and I absolutely love, love, love the way it turned out!

I wanted to create something unique and different from the typical giant cupcake and found this cake created by Las Vegas Custom Cakes (www.LasVegasCustomCakes.com). I used it as my inspiration piece and I just loved how it gave you a tiny peek at the actual cupcake like your would see on a regular cupcake.

I baked 5 cakes:
2, 8-inch rounds
2, 6-inch rounds
1, 4-inch round

Cakes stacked - imagining what the cupcake would look like

I used a 6 and 8 inch to build the bottom half of the cupcake and the remaining 8, 6, and 4 inch cakes to carve the swirl for the top of the cupcake. The swirl could have been made shorter...something to consider if I would make another so it wouldn't look so much like an ice cream swirl. We did get about 50 servings out of all these cakes.

Stacked and ready to be carved

Carved and Crumb Coated

The top half of the cupcake was filled and covered entirely with White Chocolate IMBC (IMBC with melted white chocolate added into it - yum!) I had never carved a swirl before and it was a challenge trying to get the curve to work amongst the 3 tiers of cake - I must have turned the cake a couple hundred times picturing where the swirl was going and carefully carving it out - thank goodness for a turntable =)

The bottom half of the cupcake was filled with White Chocolate IMBC but the outside was covered in Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache since I wanted something more stable to hold up such a tall cake.

I carved the cake to look like a cupcake and then covered it over with ganache.

I then piped long ropes of ganache over wax paper, put them in the freezer for 5 minutes to set a little, then peeled them off and placed them evenly spaced around the cake to help create the creases of the cupcake liner. I did try to pipe the ganache ropes directly on the cake but they turned out uneven and the angle was difficult to work with.

Once everything was set and firm, I covered the top part with chocolate brown MMF.

Boba tea straws were then inserted into the cake (they were used to support and hold up the weight of the top tier once stacked).

I then flipped the cake upside down, rolled out the blue MMF into a wide ribbon and wrapped it around the cake being sure to keep it all at the same height up off the base. I did roll the MMF thicker than normal at about 1/4 inch thick.

Both tiers covered in White Chocolate MMF

Both tiers were covered and decorated in White Chocolate MMF.

White Chocolate MMF: I used my recipe to making MMF with Candy Melts but replaced the Candy Melts with White Chocolate and added a 1/2 tsp of butter flavoring to it - delish!!!

Then to the fun part, adding the finishing touches.

The finished cake measured at 8 inches wide at the widest part and 12 inches tall. It looked like a giant plastic toy rather than an edible cake =) We all enjoyed it. Happy Birthday Ally!

Tennis Shoe Cake (Nike Max Global Court Shoe)

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:06:00 +0000

My 2nd sneaker....what fun! This was for my Father-in-Law and the 3rd tennis themed cake I've created for him. I already have an idea for what I want to make him next year too =)

So here are some of the photo's on how I created a replica of the Nike Max Air Global Court Shoe as seen here:

Carved cake

Crumb Coated in IMBC

The entire shoe is carved out of cake. A Banana Cake crumb coated in Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC) and decorated over with Marshmallow Fondant (MMF).

Here are step-by-step photo's of the 1st sneaker cake I did 2 months ago: Running Sneaker Shoe Cake

I basically followed the same steps as I did on the Running Sneaker Cake and worked on a well chilled cake removing it out of the fridge a couple hundred times to measure and fit each piece of the shoe together - keeping the cake cold also helps with keeping the IMBC firm and easier to work with. It's a long and tedious process assembling the shoe section by section and it felt like I was "sewing" together a real shoe =)

Photo's of the shoe with scaled measurement and cutting out the "Nike" out of black MMF

Just getting started is always a challenge...what to do 1st and where to place that very first piece so all the other pieces miraculously fall into place is challenging. I think the best part to start on is the very front toe area of the shoe and then move up to the middle with the shoes tongue. Once that gets pieced together, I assembled the sides followed by the details along the very bottom of the shoe and lastly, assembled the back heel and the ankle opening.

Right before adding the shoe laces

Close up o the shoe laces

Excited to share how I used clear piping gel to create the air pockets =)
I did a thin layer 1st, let that rest and set overnight then added another layer over that...worked perfectly!

Outer side of the shoe

Inner side of the shoe

To finish it off, I dusted some of the grey areas in pearl dust to give it some shine and look more like the same plastic-like material on the shoe.

The one thing that was out of proportion which I wished I paid more attention to was to make the top "ankle" opening wider...once I was done, I noticed that I was about an inch short and couldn't fix it. I had my scaled measurements down correctly on paper but in the midst of assembling the cake, I lost track and never went back to remeasure and double check. You just have to have tiny ankles to get into these shoes - LOL!

Shoe Size: 9.5 US
Shoe Dimensions: 10x5x3 inches

Giraffe Themed First Birthday Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:34:00 +0000

I love how Aiden's cake turned out. As soon as I saw the invitation for his birthday, I fell in love with the theme...I just love giraffe's!

The cake was a 9 inch White Almond Cake filled with fresh strawberries and Strawberry Italian Meringue Buttercream and the top tier was a 6 inch Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream. The entire cake was covered and decorated in Marshmallow Fondant, the giraffe was made out of modeling chocolate.

Modeling Chocolate Giraffe

Ain't he cute? I made the bottom half of the giraffe's body out of rice crispy treats that was shaped into a rounded pyramid then covered it over with modeling chocolate. l made the modeling chocolate using the Merkens Yellow Candy Coatings (recipe for modeling chocolate found here) and added a little bit of Egg Yellow AmeriColor to it to get the right shade. All the little details on him is Marshmallow Fondant (MMF).

The leaves were made a few day prior out of MMF mixed with Tylose (helps it dry faster and harder) and placed over wrinkled foil to give the leaves some random and natural curves to it as they dried. I later painted the darker green leaves with white gel colors to match the ones on the invitation and trimmed the bottom of each leaf to fit flushed up against the giraffe. I attached the leaves to the cake with a little bit of clear piping gel.

The bottom tier was designed to match the border on the invitation. His name and the #1 on the front of the cake were made in black MMF then dusted over with blue pearl dust - I love the effect. The white round piece behind the #1 was dusted in edible glitter.

Photo of the invitation and some of the 3 dozen Cupcake Toppers

I also made 3 dozen assorted cupcake toppers for the mommy to add to their own cupcakes.

Photo courtesy of Saira B.

Caitlyn's Castle Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:07:00 +0000

My daughter Caitlyn has been begging for a castle cake for weeks. And in her exact words, "I want a purple castle cake with a princess in a poofy, blue dress and Darth Vader"...yes, Darth Vader. She's infatuated by Darth Vader and even wanted to dress like him for Halloween last year - I talked her into being a cute little Witch instead but I may not win the battle this Halloween, we'll wait and see.

She sees the cakes I make all the time and spends the entire year asking for each and every one of those cakes to be remade for her but she'll tell you exactly what you wants on each down to every little detail. Plus, she's always baking a cake in her play kitchen and making decorations with play dough. So, this year, as a surprise, on the day of her actual birthday, I completely let go and let the kids frost and decorate their very own 5 inch square cakes.

They got to do whatever they wanted to make. I gave them a bunch of MMF in different colors and my box of cutters to use and left them alone to do as they pleased. Caitlyn jumped right in and had her cake all covered with decorations in no time at all. She was so happy and definitely in hog heaven over her cake and with also having complete freedom to do as she pleased - A priceless moment.

A few weeks later, I made her actual birthday cake. With family visiting from out of town and only 2 nights to get it all done (1 night preppping and baking and another night to assemble and decorate), it was a group effort having my cousin and sister-in-law help out with some of the cake. We were up until 4am the day of her party getting the final touches done....phew!

With only a few of us celebrating her special day between the cousins, I kept the cake small (10 servings). I built the cake off a 10 inch square Chocolate Cake. The bottom tier measures around 5.5 inches x 4 inches tall while the dome is a 3 inch round. The cake is filled and covered in Italian Meringue Buttercream and decorated in MMF.

The purple MMF is grape flavored - made with grape JELL-O
(Click here for the recipe)

I didn't get a chance to take photos through out the process and this is the only one I have before assembly. The 2 tall towers are paper towel rolls that I covered in foil then over with MMF. Giant ice cream cones were inserted into the paper towel rolls and since the tops kept cracking off, I brushed them over with chocolate. The pink tower is a large sugar cone. The 1st sugar cone crumble on me when I tried to cover it with MMF and so on my 2nd attempt, I brushed the inside with a thick layer of chocolate to give it more strength. I ended up cutting it almost in half and recovering it over with another piece of MMF to fit on the cake better.

Top View: The path is rainbow sprinkles - Caitlyn's request

The entire castle is dusted in Violet Petal Dust

Cinderella

Although she wanted Cinderella in a big poofy dress, and with almost not making her due to time, she was still super happy to have her on the cake...at least looking out of the window is better than not having her at all - gotta love kids! For the tiny flowers, I used a 3 different sized blossom cutters. The largest ones are no more than a 1/4 inch wide; very tiny flowers. I piped the green vines in Royal Icing.

THE Darth Vader

And she got what she wanted...Darth Vader on her cake. He's made out of modeling chocolate and the light saber is a toothpick painted in gel colors (it had the perfect groove for the handle).

It was funny to hear the guys at the restaurant say the cake was "totally cool" - a castle cake, cool? Nah, we all know, it was Darth that was cool (LOL).

cheeeezzzz!

I asked her what happened to Darth, she points at the rest of his
body while chewing on his head (note the black teeth)

Chicago Themed Northwestern Grad Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:06:00 +0000

My cousin graduated Northwestern with a PhD and what better way to celebrate than with a cake with all things she loved about Chicago! So many little details on the cake, a complete 360 where I wished I had one of those really cool rotating cake pedestals to display the cake on (another addition to my wish list).

A couple dozen cupcakes with more Chicago favorites: The Chicago Flag, Deep Dish Pizza, Mustard Hot Dogs, Doctoral Graduate Cap, and the Chicago Cubs Logo

Some more cupcakes: Chicago Flag and the Chicago Bulls Logo

Once again, I had my 2 cousins help out with making some of the decorations for the cake a few days prior - they're getting pretty good at this stuff...I see some future employees - hah hah!

The 6 inch Chocolate Cake is filled and covered in Italian Meringue Buttercream then with MMF. All the decorations are made out of MMF. The cupcakes were an assortment of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes baked by one of the cousins which I topped them off with yummy Italian Meringue Buttercream too - delish!

Here is a tour around the cake....

The "L" Train, Hancock Building, Marina Building (Corn Cob) and Cloud Gate (The Bean)

Hancock Building, Marina Building (Corn Cobs) and Cloud Gate (The Bean)

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel and Lake Michigan

Willis Tower (Sears Tower), the Cubs Wrigley Field and Lake Michigan

Top: Doctorate Hat and Hood and The Chicago Theatre Sign

Congratulations Stephanie! We are so proud of you =)

Running Sneaker Shoe Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:39:00 +0000

One of my favorite cakes. I have wanted to make a shoe cake for a while and jumped at the opportunity to create this one for a friend. The shoe measures at about 11" L x 5" H x 4.5" W and is carved entirely out of cake and covered in MMF. It's modeled after the New Balance MR817 men's running shoe.

I baked the cake in a 10x10 square pan, cut it in half and stacked it to create a rectangular block to carve the shoe out of. With the shoes footprint, I used it as a template to carve out the sides of the cake and eyeballed the rest of it.

Covered it over in vanilla buttercream and let it rest overnight at room temperature to set and crust nicely.

I was so nervous with starting on the details and must have spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to piece everything together and where to start. In the meantime, I put the cake in the fridge for an hour to firm up making it easier to decorate over with the MMF.

Tip: I find it easier to decorate a cold cake. You don't have to keep it in the fridge overnight, only an hour is needed to harden the BC (I use a 50/50 mix of Hi Ratio Shortening and Butter - recipe can be found here by Edna at Design Me a Cake). I then used pieces of parchment paper lightly pressed over each individual section to sketch the shape I needed over it, put the cake back into the fridge to stay chilled, prepped the MMF to the size I sketched onto the parchment paper, removed the cake from the fridge and lay the MMF piece over it to double check the fit, removed the MMF if needed to trim it some more (as long as the BC is cold hard, no dents or smudges will be left behind), then once you have the perfectly sized piece, place and smooth the MMF into place. Repeat a couple dozen times =)

Once I got the first couple of pieces on there, the shoe took shape and everything else came together slowly and perfectly.

Total time spent on carving and decorating it...12 hours (not counting the baking, making the MMF, and covering the board) but well worth every minute of it!

For the fabric/mesh print on the shoe, I used a piece of a plastic/silicone drawer liner that had the perfect pattern on it as an impression mat - thank goodness! I spent a couple days trying to figure out how I was going to recreate the mesh pattern. I used the same mesh pattern on the name, "Bino!". The entire shoe is put together using 4 colors of MMF: White, light grey, dark grey, and orange. The light grey panels were dusted in white pearl dust to look shiny and "reflective". The stitches were made with a sewing stitching wheel. I also used the stitching wheel along the "50th". A piece of tulle was used to make the fabric print on the orange part along the inside of the shoe. For the shoe laces, I used a veining tool to score the various thread marks on it - I love bringing out all those little details =)

The cake board was covered to look like a track field floor. I used a dish cloth as an impression mat against the board to create the little bumps that you find on a track floor. I was going to dust it over with some brown petal dust to add some scuff marks but it looked a bit more like dirt and opted to not do it - although you can see my sample patch in the photo above).

I just wanted to slip my foot into it and go for a run. Can't wait to tackle another sneaker cake again - I really enjoyed creating this one!

"Justice for Girls" Monkey Themed Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:56:00 +0000

My little niece turned 8 and loves the monkey from the Justice for Girls clothing store and with a sleep over party, I wanted to create the perfect little cake incorporating the Monkey, the bright and funky store themed style and a bed. Her father said she was always laying on her bed listening to her iTouch so I just had to add that too =)

The cake is an 8 x 5 x 3 inch Dark Chocolate Cake covered in Chocolate IMBC - here's a picture of it in the middle of being crumb coated.

Once I covered the cake over with the IMBC, I let it sit in the fridge to firm up while I prepared the bed spread to lay over it.

I rolled the MMF out into a rectangle (11 x 11 inch - 5x8 inch top with 3 inches down 3 of the sides), I used a diamond impression mat to lightly mark the pattern over it. With a sewing tracing wheel, I marked the lines then lightly pressed in the creases at each intersection with a gumpaste veining tool.

I then lay it over the cake and smoothed it into place. The headboard was made 2 days prior to allow time to dry out of MMF mixed with Tylose and it sits flat up against the back of the cake.

I then added a small round "button" into each intersection and dusted the creases of the bed spread with pink petal dust.

The texture on the little rug was made by using the tip of the star piping tip then dusted over with lilac petal dust. I topped them with a pair of slippers =) for the little monkey.

The monkey is made out of modeling chocolate (the head is a RKT covered in modeling chocolate). I loved how she turned out - Laying on the bed, listening to her iTouch.

another view of the monkey.... I made the bow and the letters of her name out of MMF (mixed with Tylose) then dusted them with edible Glitter.

I just had to add the banana peel beside the bed =)

I also made a bunch of mini banana's to top the cupcakes with (1 to 1.5 inches). Here they're being dusted in sunflower and dogwood brown petal dust.

The 4 steps to creating a gumpaste banana (left to right):

1) Model the banana out of yellow gumpaste (here I used MMF mixed with Tylose)

2) Dust them over with a yellow or sunflower petal dust

3) Lightly and randomly, dust them with brown or dogwood petal dust

4) Steam them lightly to set the color = perfect, little, ripe bananas. It would have been nice to have added some banana extract to them but I didn't think about it until they were done.

Some of the cupcake toppers. We had 4 dozen Red Velvet cupcakes to top with decorations so I did an assortment of hearts, stars, flower blossoms, peace signs, banana's, the Monkey and #8.

My sister-in-law baked her Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and I topped then off with the decorations and finished off the dessert table with some Chocolate Peppermint Cake Balls. It all came together perfectly and I love the theme and colors - so Kayla!

Kai-Lan and Thomas Cake Toppers

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Sun, 22 May 2011 04:16:00 +0000

Modeling Chocolate Cake toppers ordered for a joint birthday for a little boy and a girl.

Kai-Lan is approximately 3.5 inches tall and made out of modeling chocolate. I used RKT to shape her head and help with not making it too heavy for her tiny body and she has a 6 inch popsicle stick that runs from the middle of her head and down 3 inches past her feet to stick into the cake. The birthday girl's favorite episode was the one about a trip to China so I made Kai-Lan in a red and yellow Chinese outfit dusted in red luster dust to look silky. I love the little yellow knots on the front of her shirt....she turned out so cute!

I've made Kai-Lan a few times before and you can see them here with some additional instructions: Kai-Lan

Thomas the Train was 5 inches long and about 3 inches tall. He turned out about an inch bigger than what I had originally planned and it was also the very first time I have ever made a train like this. I started his body out with a RKT rectangle and built up the modeling chocolate layer by layer by layer until I got his shape down perfectly.

He got a dusting of blue luster dust around his body and pearl luster dust around his face to give him a little more pop! I loved how he turned out....beep beep!

The mother used these to top a sheet cake with. She said that one of the kids tried to grab Kai-Lan as soon as they saw the cake and got the side of the frosting smashed - it's so nice to hear or see how the children react but what a scare to have one of them actually reach out for it!

Photo courtesy of Tania L.

A Day with Susan Carberry

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Wed, 18 May 2011 04:00:00 +0000

This past Sunday along with a couple members of the Sweet Arts of Orange County Cake Club, we spent a special afternoon with Susan Carberry at her store in Murrieta called, The Cake Cottage.

Usually closed on a Sunday, she opened up her doors just for us and gave us 2 demos plus some of her delicious, jumbo-sized and delicious cupcakes to savor...Ya-um!

If you ever get a chance to make it down to Southern California, be sure to stop by her store. It's small but every corner is packed with a bit of everything a cake decorator would love to get their hands on plus more!

The first demo was on how to make a Pansy and an assortment of filler flowers and leaves.

And the second demo was on how to make an assortment of Petit Fours (cutting, dipping and decorating)

It was a fun afternoon spent learning something new, buying a couple new cake decorating goodies I've been wanting to get my hands on, and of course, having a photo op with Susan!

Susan Carberry and me =)

Some little facts about Susan:

- She made the Show Cake for the 2010 ICES Convention in San Diego

- 2 time contestant of TLC's "Ultimate Cake Off" coming in 2nd place on one and winning one.

- Winner of the Food Networks "Top Five" for her 3D Cookies

She travels internationally teaching classes so check out her website for details: www.thecakecottage.net

Chili Pepper Class

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:41:00 +0000

Gumpaste Chili Pepper Plant

This month, at the Sweet Arts of Orange County Cake Club, we had a hands on class on how to make a Chili Pepper Plant in celebration of Cinco De Mayo. The class was taught by John Jennison who is an amazing sugar artist in making realistic and botanically correct flowers. I was really excited about this since it was also my very first class!

As eager as I was, before we could get started, John showed us how to knead the gumpaste into the right consistency and how to roll out and shape a chili pepper...

John Jennison showing us how to roll and shape a Chili Pepper

Ta-da! The chili pepper

My 2 chili peppers and 3 little leaves waiting for their next step

Calyx added to the base of each pepper

John showing us how to lightly brush the leaves and peppers with petal dust

After each piece was dusted we assembled them together using floral tape.

And finished them off with a light spray of edible lacquer

The edible lacquer we used is by Albert Uster Imports and called, Lacquer Spray. It only took a very light spritz of the spray, dried instantly and left a nice glossy finish on the chili peppers - amazing stuff!

What a fun class and hopefully, if time permits, I'll get an opportunity to take more of John's classes and finally learn how to make some real looking flowers. At least for now, I have some chili peppers.

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Wed, 04 May 2011 04:47:00 +0000

This is a change from cake decorating, but I wanted to share with you one of our favorite cookie recipes. We eat quite a bit of Oatmeal Cookies and I make them almost weekly. This one is the perfect recipe to use up those really dark, well ripened banana's.

So when life gives you some really ripe banana's, bake them into some delicious Oatmeal Cookies...they are so melt-in-your-mouth delicious! And also a perfect little snack or a quick breakfast bite to grab on the go.

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
approximately 30 cookies (adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies)

1 Cup Bleached All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup (packed) Light Brown Sugar
1 Large Egg
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Mashed, Banana's (approx. 2 large banana's but you can add only 1/2 cup if preferred)
8 oz. Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts (or pecans), toasted

1) Preheat oven 375 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

2) Spread out the Walnuts in a single layer over the cookie sheet and toast them in the oven for about 2-3 minutes. Remove and cool completely. I like to use walnut halves and break them down by hand for chunkier pieces once they're toasted. Toasting the walnuts gives them a really nice flavor but it's completely optional.

3) In a bowl, mix together the Flours, Salt, and Baking Soda

4) In a separate mixing bowl, beat the butter until fluffy, add the sugar and continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Reduce the speed to low, add the egg and vanilla, and mix until just combined. Add in the mashed banana and mix for about 30 seconds. By hand and with a wooden spoon or spatula, add the flour mixture and lightly mix it together. Add the walnuts, oatmeal and chocolate chips, fold it all in until just combined.

4a) We like our cookies fat so I chill the batter for at least 1 hour in the fridge or 1/2 hour in the freezer before baking. You can store it in the fridge for a couple days or in the freezer for a few months and bake a few cookies at a time. If you don't chill the batter, the cookies will spread out thinly when baked.

5) When ready to bake, scoop out about 1 tbsp full of batter and place it on the cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake them for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges, let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes (they will continue to cook) then move them over to a wire rack to completely cool down.

If they don't all get eaten up right away, you can store the cookies in an airtight container for no more than 2 days (these cookies are really moist and will soften up while stored).

Enjoy!

My 1st Blog Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:13:00 +0000

Today is the 1st Anniversary of my blog! So much has happened over the past year - so much learned and so much shared. Thank you to each one of you, the followers and the fans who make my day each and every day!

just pract-icing

I love sharing what I learn along the way and I hope all of you will continue to enjoy what I write. By no means am I an expert or a professional in any of this cake stuff but I am determined to learn as much as I can, to practice whenever time permits, and to document each and every step so you too can learn from my experiences and see things from a different perspective.

Keep on baking and keep on practicing...with constant practice and plenty of patience, perfection, or at least close to perfection, just might be achieved.

Cheers,
Angela

How to Make Modeling Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:45:00 +0000

I have started to work with modeling chocolate quite a bit recently and I'm loving the texture and workability it has. It's great for covering rice crispy treats up with and filling in all the grooves giving you a smooth surface to work with and perfect to making modeled figures with - seams are easily blended away and it dries instantly so no down time in building up a sculptured piece. Here are photo's of the step by step to making modeling chocolate using Wilton White Candy Melts (I know, it's not really chocolate but the candy melts works marvelously - no worrying about tempering the chocolate correctly)....

Recipe Ratio:
16 oz Candy Melts (weighed)
3 oz Light Corn Syrup (4.5 oz weighed)

Line a tray with wax paper

Measure or weigh out the ingredients
(I used about 6 oz of candy melts to a little over 1oz syrup here)

Melt the chocolate
(In the microwave in 30 sec increments stirring in between until melted)

Add the Light Corn Syrup

Note: Once the corn syrup is added, do not stir too much. It should only take about 4-5 stirs around the bowl before it comes together. I usually stir once around folding the candy melts over the corn syrup. Wait for about 4-5 seconds and give it one more stir folding the chocolate over. Repeat for about 1-2 more times before it all comes together and that's it. Don't worry about completely blending it all in, you will be kneading the whole thing together later and can blend everything in then.

The corn syrup reacts with the chocolate and siezes it a little - give it time, be patient and avoid overstirring or else the cocoa butter (when using real chocolate) separates and you get a very greasy ball of modeling chocolate.

Fold #1: Fold the Chocolate over the corn syrup going around the bowl once

Fold #2: Wait 4-5 seconds and go around the bowl a 2nd time folding the chocolate over

Fold #4-5: Now it's ready. It looks and feels like thick batter or like soft dough

Scrape the bowl clean and place the modeling chocolate over a piece of wax paper

Note: I've noticed that with using wax paper, it helps absorb any grease and dries out the modeling chocolate perfectly.

Using the spatula, spread the modeling chocolate over the wax paper.

Add another layer of wax paper over it and smooth out flat & let it sit overnight
(I throw a dish cloth over this and let it sit on the kitchen counter to set)

Peel the wax paper off, break off small pieces and knead it all together.

Your modeling chocolate is now ready to use. If you want to color it, you can add it now and knead it in or use colored candy melts. I've used Chef Master, Wilton and AmeriColors to color the modeling chocolate with and they all work well. If you work the chocolate too much, it will get really soft and melt a bit so just put it down for a minute to cool and set before working it some more.

PS - You can also do a 50/50 mix of modeling chocolate with MMF to do figures or flowers with. The fondant makes the modeling chocolate a little bit stiffer - the possibilities are endless.

Here are some of the things I've made with modeling chocolate:

Barney, Baby Bop, BJ, Standing #1

Woody and Jessie from Toy Story

Korean Hanbok Dol Cake Topper

Kai-Lan and Yeye Cake Topper

Head Cakes: Toothless (left), Harry Potter (middle), Pokemon Haunter (right)

Kai-Lan Figurine Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 03:22:00 +0000

This morning I held my first workshop on creating a Kai-Lan figurine using modeling chocolate and rice krispy treats (RKT). What fun creating sugar art together with others and teaching them my technique.

The lesson plan:
1) How to make modeling chocolate
2) How to prepare and make RKT
3) How to make a Kai-Lan figurine

Adding the little details

A modeling chocolate figurine on the left, the toy model on the right - perfect!

SugarSweet Students (the 2nd, tiny, figurine from the left is a toy used as a model)

They all did a marvelous job and 3 hours later, I had 3 happy girls each with a Kai-Lan figurine to take home and use as a cake topper...or to just eat up.

Thank you girls!

Korean Hanbok Dol Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:00:00 +0000

A very cute cake for such a cutie, Olivia. My cousins best friend's daughter was turning 1 and celebrating it with a traditional Korean 1st Birthday Party. The mom asked for a figurine of her daughter, Olivia over a 6-inch cake while my cousin baked the cupcakes to go with them. She sent me a couple pictures of Olivia's outfit, a traditional Hanbok dress and hat in silk with flowers and butterflies.

3 inch tall Hanbok Dol Figurine (modeling Chocolate)

Olivia's Hanbok Dress, close up of details on sleeve and Hanbok Hat

I made the figurine out of modeling chocolate and she stands at 3 inches tall. Some of the details were added in MMF and some in modeling chocolate. The flowers on her shirt and sleeves were painted in with gel colors and the skirt was dusted in red luster dust to look like silk.

I used a 6 inch popsicle stick and stuck half of it into a 6-inch cake dummy to help with getting the sizing correct then built up the dress to look like the outfit in the photo.

Making the stripes for the sides of the cake to match the ones on the sleeves

The cake was sectioned off with 3 sets of stripes that matched the ones on her sleeves. I made the stripes separately by color attaching them side by side with a little bit of water over a flat surface. I then cut each set of stripes down to the height of the cake and attached them to the side of the cake - repeating the pattern 3 times around.

6 inch IMBC covered cake (upside down method)

To get the tall, straight sides with IMBC (ganache or BC), I use the upside down method and you can find more info about it here:

- Baptism Cake (square and round cake covered in IMBC including more links to other posts)

In between each set of stripes, I added butterflies, vines, and flowers to match the ones on her shirt and hat. The butterflies were made using a PME Plunger and dusted/painted with various colors of petal dust and luster dust. The blossoms were made using various blossom cutters. The red/white flower was made using 3 different sized scalloped circle cutters - a larger one for the back petal, 2 medium circles for the middle, and 2 small ones for the bottom that are curling over (a left petal and a right petal). With no professional flower making knowledge, I improvised and came up with my own interpretation of the flower and painted the petals with gel colors in white and red - they matched the ones on the dress perfectly!

photo courtesy of Stacy C.

Since my cousin was baking 3 dozen cupcakes and to have them match the cake, we got together a few days before and with their help, we made just over 5 dozen butterflies and 5 dozen blossoms. They were used to top 3 dozen cupcakes with and displayed next to the Cake...Gluten Free Banana Cake with Cream Cheese IMBC.

Cream Cheese IMBC: I used my basic recipe for IMBC found here (under the Music Themed 80th Birthday Cake post) but added 1/2 dram of Cream Cheese LorAnn Oil to it. For the filling, I beat some cream cheese until light and fluffy then mixed some IMBC into it. I got the recipe idea from Jennifer, www.fromscratchsf.wordpress.com. She also shared some really nice tips about making SMBC that you can also apply to making IMBC - I used her method at the very end with adding the butter in with the mixer on VERY LOW and it turned out perfect and was so much faster - I'll be doing this from now on! See links below...

- Jennifer Bratko's SMBC Recipe and tips

- Jennifer Bratko's Cream Cheese SMBC Recipe

Workshop: How to Make a Kai-Lan Cake Topper

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:14:00 +0000

I'll be teaching my 1st class/workshop on how to make a Kai-Lan cake topper out of modeling chocolate.

When: 9:00-11:00 am on Sat, March 19th, 2011

Where: Aliso Viejo, CA (exact address will be provided with RSVP)

Cost: $45 includes all supplies - all you need to bring is a box to bring her home in.

How to sign up:

1) through Facebook, it's posted as an event under www.facebook.com/sugarsweetcakesandtreats

(http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188344201198610)

2) by emailing me at: sugarsweetcakesandtreats@gmail.com

Space is limited - RSVP due Thursday, March 11th.

Kai-Lan Beach Themed Cake Decorations

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Tran) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:35:00 +0000

Decorations for a beach themed cake. I made Kai-Lan and Yeye out of modeling chocolate and everything else is made out of MMF: Rintoo (Tiger), Hoho (Monkey with sunglasses), Tolee (Koala bear that thinks he's a panda), a Hula Duck, Mr. Sun and his little, tickle-me Sun Fuzzies, Seashells, Starfish, and an assortment of Flowers.

Kai-Lan stands at almost 2.5 inches tall and Yeye is about 4 inches tall.

They each have 1 popsicle stick for support and to also stick into the cake with. Their heads are made out of RKT (Rice Krispie Treats) since they were very large and needed to be light weight. I covered the RKT directly with modeling chocolate: Modeling chocolate is great at filling in all the groves and rivets from the cereal treats. The tiny features such as Yeye's hair, eyeglasses, eyes and the Kai-Lan's apple printed bathing suit are made out of MMF (Marshmallow Fondant).

Each character was hand cut of of MMF and I used gel colors to paint in the white highlights in the eyes and on Hoho's (Monkey) sunglasses and the brown stripes on Rintoo (Tiger). I have a tutorial on how to make these cutout characters here (Making Fondant Cutouts).

I loved making these - Ni Hao Kai-Lan is such a cute show and the characters are so adorable!

Xie Xie (thank you)!

Photo courtesy of Doris R.