Sweet Kat's Creations

Tiffany Gift Box Cake

2013-05-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

I was asked to make a Tiffany gift box cake for a bridal shower and I was interested in seeing how it would turn out. As a cake perfectionist, I saw where I would have liked to make it perfect (cleaner piping of the logo, sharper corners, etc) but I was pleased with the cake overall...plus the bride and bridal party said they loved it!

To start, I baked two 8" square cakes and cut the sides to make the corners sharper.

I then colored the fondant to match the famous Tiffany blue. I took white fondant and kneaded a little bit of blue and a tiny bit of green to create the color. This can also be achieved by adding blue and green color gels to white fondant as well.

After icing the two layers, I covered it with the fondant.

After that, I rolled out the extra fondant and cut out a square that was an inch longer on each side of the length of the actual cake.

I covered the cake with the square and then worked on evening out the edges with a smooth item such as the blunt end of a long knife. Note: it's easier to even out the edges when the fondant hardens a little bit.

I outlined the Tiffany & Co. logo with a pencil by putting a printed out copy under some parchment paper.

Then I flipped the parchment paper over and outlined the logo with black decorating icing with a #1 tip.

How it looked after I filled in the logo with black icing.

I flipped the parchment paper again and added it to area where I wanted it on the cake by pressing the paper on the cake.

I was HOPING that all the icing would transfer over but because I was using so little icing, a lot of the icing dried out before I added it to the cake. But I at least used the outline to pipe in the logo with the icing.

I used decorating items that had flat surfaces to make sure each side was as flat as possible. I added icing under white ribbon to glue it to the cake (I put tape all on the other side so that when the icing was on it, it wouldn't bleed through the ribbon on the other side), made a bow and added that to the cake with a little more icing, cleaned up the cake board and added the bride's name sign.

Hydrangea & Orchid Wedding Cake

2013-02-06T14:56:00.001-06:00

I mentioned this in the past but one of my favorite parts of making a cake is when I have creative freedom on decorating it. I love applying new and different techniques so it makes the artist in me so happy when I'm given that flexibility. This cake was originally going to have just the flowers and ribbon border but I thought about adding a molding technique to the cake sides. I asked the bride if I can move forward with this design and she told me to go for it. This wasn't surprising as she was one of the most easy-going sweet clients I ever had the pleasure of working with!

The end result: 4 tiered square cake with hydrangeas and orchids, a lavendar ribbon border and baroque style molding on the sides.

Photo Credit: Kenny Kim © kennykim.com

The bride also ordered truffle pops to complement the sweets table.

Photo Credit: Kenny Kim © kennykim.com

And a shot of the lovely bride & handsome groom during the cake cutting ceremony to conclude this post.

Photo Credit: Kenny Kim © kennykim.com

3 Tiered Book Cake

2013-01-21T21:00:00.000-06:00

What a unique and fun cake to celebrate a 1 year old's birthday! The cake was inspired by 3 of the birthday boy's favorite books with the focus on a scene from the book "Good Night Gorilla" where the animals all sneak out of the zoo (second photo). It was just so much fun replicating that scene.

I started creating the fondant figures a couple weeks in advance. You can see them starting to come together from this shot.

A bit random but one of my favorite animals was the little mouse dragging the banana...no idea why he was doing that (the book didn't explain it) but it was just pretty cute.

Before the party, I worked on the cake tiers. This is the top tier of the "open book" covered in fondant before I added brown fondant for the book cover and green fondant to cover the top of it.

Then I worked on covering the two "closed book" tiers in fondant.

Adding a red fondant cover to the bottom tier "book."

Working on the middle tier "book."

Middle tier, bottom tier and smash cakes covered in fondant.

I also created a fondant moon and put it on florist wires since the moon is a prominent visual of the story. I twisted a couple wires (instead of just using one single wire) to give it more strength and also added part of a toothpick to the bottom for additional support.

Then rice krispie treat "trees" were created. Super easy as I made them exactly the same way they are usually made but added green food coloring and shaped them into small balls. The trunk part of the trees were made by covering toothpicks in brown fondant. I then stuck the top of the brown fondant toothpicks to the rice krispie treat balls.

I stacked the bottom and middle tier book cakes, placed the open book tier on top, and arranged the fondant characters/rice krispie trees/moon to complete the cake.

Here's a shot of the simple smash cake that the birthday boy got to dive into (name removed for privacy purposes).

His mother told me she wasn't sure if he would like it since this was his first time having cake but he happily dived into it!

Wedding Cupcakes

2012-11-11T20:42:00.000-06:00

I made 200 bride & groom cupcakes for a really lovely couple. Their wedding was back in June so this post is a little overdue!

I let the top hats and tiaras toppers harden a couple days before adding them to the cupcakes.

The couple pictures below this was taken with my camera phone so apologies for the quality.

And also a shot of the small cake that was made for the bride and groom to cut into. A veil was added to this tiara to let it really stand out.

Stove Cake

2012-09-24T20:55:00.001-05:00

How fun is this?

I was asked to make a cake for a guy who really enjoys cooking + loves red velvet cake.

Result: A red velvet cake disguised as a stove.

I also took a close-up of the top because I love the detail of the range. I purposely made it look a little "dusty" with powdered sugar so that it would have more of a realistic look.

I'm wondering what other fun ideas people will come up with for me to create next!

L♥VE Cake

2012-08-15T20:30:00.000-05:00

This absolutely awesome couple asked me to make them their wedding cake for an intimate celebration with their families back in June. The bride loved flower work so I made a bunch of yellow fondant roses and had them cascade down the top tier with a few scattered on the other parts of the cake as well. Mini orange flowers and satin ribbons were also added to the cake, then topped off with a modern mirror-like L♥VE cake topper.

After the wedding, the bride was kind enough to send me a note saying, "The cake you designed and baked was awesome. It was beautiful and tasted delicious too. Several people commented on how great it was!! Thanks for all of the work and love you put into it. It made our day so nice."

I love making cakes but nothing beats making them for people who are truly so sweet.

Teddy Bear Flower Cake

2012-07-16T20:54:00.000-05:00

A mother sent me an adorable picture of her soon-to-be 1 year old daughter wearing a pink girly birthday hat. We decided to recreate a teddy bear wearing that hat and add lots and lots of pink flowers to her daughter's birthday cake.

A close up of the teddy bear topper.

The cake was supplemented with about 100 mini cupcakes and truffle pops (not shown).

The birthday party was a huge success and the mom gave me a big hug afterwards thanking me for a job well done - which really made my day!

Zebra Present Cake

2012-06-20T13:59:00.003-05:00

I was asked to make a zebra patterned present cake, similar to the present cake that I made in this post. Who else loves the color combination of white and black with pops of red? I'm a big fan of it...and also white and black with hot pink!

I started with an 8" square base, covered it in white fondant and added red fondant stripes.

I rolled out some black fondant and randomly made some irregularly shaped pieces with my cutter.

Started adding them to the cake.

And topped it with a red fondant bow.

Simple and pretty.

Poker Table Cake

2012-06-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

A bride wanted to surprise her groom with a cake for the rehearsal dinner. Since he loves poker, she decided that a poker cake with "All In" and the wedding date would be a great idea (I definitely agreed).

I used a 12" hexagonal cake pan to bake the cake. I cut out fondant circles to make the chips and covered them in tiny pieces of white fondant. The one part of the cake that wasn't edible were the legs which were mini unused plant pots covered in black fondant.

Purse Cake (PS1 Proenza Schouler)

2012-05-20T21:42:00.001-05:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted! I've been out of the country for the last month and although it's been fun, it also feels great to be back.

This particular cake was made after the birthday girl's favorite purse.

It was a lemon cake with strawberry filling, one of my favorite combinations.

Started with the base. Excuse the powdered sugar which was used to help roll out the fondant...it was dusted off later.

I then took a thinner piece of cake to make the front pocket and more fondant to make the flap.

My favorite part of this cake was all the stitching detail. TIP: I used a cutter/embrosser and used the ridged wheel to make the stitch look.

Worked on the handles.

Added them to the bag.

I spray-painted the hardware silver, waited for it to completely dry, and then rubbed some black fondant on it to give it the tarnished look.

Looked awesome on the cake!

The handle

The finished product

Tokidoki Cake

2012-04-18T14:44:00.000-05:00

I had free reign to make a Tokidoki cake as long as Adios was incorporated in there somewhere. I thought I'll add in Ciao Ciao as well since she's his girlfriend. I was vaguely familiar with Tokidoki but I still had to do a little research on the characters. I wasn't really sure how to describe them but the two characters are the signature couple from Tokidoki's 'Til Death Do Us Part' line...I had to look that up btw! They're kinda creepy but in a cute way.

Like usual, I started by making the fondant figures a few days in advance. Tip: I always make just the basic shapes first to let it harden before adding details as it'll be a lot easier to work with that way.

I covered a cake in white fondant and added a bunch of different sized black stars and border.

Finished Adios & Ciao Ciao. Everything was fondant except for their noses, Ciao's eyelashes and her scar which were done with edible marker.

Added a skull for the big star.

And finished it off with the toppers. Here's a back view to show more of the design.

And a side view...I went a bit star-happy here haha.

Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle Pop Favors

2012-04-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

I've been doing chocolate hazelnut truffle pops for awhile now although I don't think I really talked about it on here. I thought nothing could beat the chocolate-y sweetness of the regular chocolate truffle pops but the hazelnut version is my all time favorite. I let one of my friends try it and she and her husband loved them so much that she asked me to make 120 of them as favors for her daughter's reception after her baptism.

I hope you don't mind me sharing some pictures of Lucia - or affectionately called Lulu by many - as I am hopelessly in love with her.

Look at her adorable chubby cheeks during the ceremony.

It was seriously a very special moment.

Happy daddy, mommy and baby during the reception.

And I'll leave you with a super cute picture of her that'll probably make you smile.

Baby Panda Cake

2012-03-26T20:47:00.000-05:00

This cake was for a first birthday and the theme was baby pandas with the colors being lime green, yellow and purple.

So to start, I first covered a small cake in lime green fondant.

Made the yellow bamboo.

Placed it on the side of the cake and used a knife to make cuts into them (a bit hard to see from the picture).

Made the baby panda topper using the invitation picture.

And also the name of the birthday boy in purple to place that on top of the cake with the baby panda topper.

3D Thomas the Train Cake

2012-03-15T21:13:00.000-05:00

Coincidentally, I was asked to make two Thomas the Train cakes for the same weekend. This one was a 3D version of him.

I put the train topper (that was from my last cake post) next to this cake so you can get a better idea on the size. The head, wheels and a few other accessories were plastic with the rest being cake.

Sadly, the picture below was the only one I took of the cake process! When I get in the zone, I really get in the zone and I don't want to stop for anything (I know, horrible). But basically, I took the sheet cake and used about a third of it for the grey base and then the other two thirds was cut and stacked to make the train shape. I also cut one cupcake in half as well to use the halves for the part in the middle. The sections were iced, covered in fondant and put together. The fondant details like the red stripes and such were then added and the cake was complete.

Thomas the Train Real Tunnel Cake

2012-03-06T21:40:00.001-06:00

I've seen a lot of designs for Thomas the Train since he's a pretty popular character for boy birthdays. One design element that tended to pop up a lot on cakes were tunnels. However, almost all of the cakes I saw never had a real tunnel and I knew I wanted a challenge. So when I got the a-okay to go with it, I was excited to begin.

I took a 2 liter pop bottle and cut it so I could use the middle part. Be aware that nowadays, there are some brands that have the 2 liters that concave towards the bottom...you'll want the one that is straight all the way to the bottom.

I took white gumpaste, rolled it out and placed it on top of the soda bottle. I let that harden for a few days so it could be strong enough to support the cake and not collapse on itself. The length of the tunnel worked perfectly for an 8" cake.

Then I proceeded to make the Thomas the Train fondant figure. I used this image to get an idea of how to make Thomas.

Photo Credit: Gullane (Thomas) Limited

Finished figure.

The day before the party, I got to work on the cake. This was a white almond cake that worked really well for this design since the texture was more firm and better support.

After putting some strawberry filling between the two layers, I started carving out the middle part where the tunnel would be (my friends happily enjoyed the cake portion from that!).

I actually decided to add more strawberry filling in the middle since I had some extra space from the tunnel. I normally wouldn't put this much because if you put too much filling in the middle, the cake will form a bulge between the layers and I get paranoid that will happen to me! But it was okay with this cake since I had the tunnel supporting it. If you do want a lot of filling, you have to make sure it's a filling that isn't soft and can hold up well under weight.

I then iced the cake.

And proceeded to cover it in fondant. This was actually really easy to cover since I was able to move the folds towards the tunnel and trim away the excess.

Fondant covered tier.

I then covered a 6" tier with the same blue fondant, placed it on top of the bottom tier and put a border and the name of the birthday boy on it.

Added an archway for both entrances of the tunnel. Btw, I thoroughly enjoyed pushing Thomas through the tunnel like a little kid when I was making this cake haha!

Some hills on the bottom tier.

A few days beforehand, I also made some stars and a big "2" to place on top of the cake.

I also partly covered a 14" cake board with green fondant and put "Happy Birthday" on it.

Added the cake to the board, placed the "2" and stars on top of the cake and it was finished.

Teacup Party Cake

2012-02-27T21:51:00.001-06:00

The theme for this birthday was a teacup party so having a teacup on top of a cake seemed like a cute idea.

I first covered an 8" cake in pink fondant.

Covered it with pretty white flowers and added a sugar pearl border.

Added some fondant roses on top with support rods behind them.

Put a pearl border around the saucer that the teacup would be resting on.

Placed the completed saucer on top of the cake (the pink circle was for the bottom of the teacup).

Added the teacup.

My heart just melted

2012-02-24T16:13:00.003-06:00

http://adaywithlilmama.blogspot.com/2012/02/pink-grey-striped-birthday-party.html

Cakes for Charity: Bachelorette Cake

2012-02-23T11:38:00.000-06:00

The next Cakes for Charity cake was for a bachelorette party. Since it was for a bachelorette, I don't have a picture...I hope you understand! But just know that the proceeds for the cake went to a good cause.

I was allowed to pick the charity of my choice so I went to one of my favorites, Feeding America which is an organization that helps feed 37 million Americans and distributes over 3 billion pounds of food a year through their network of food banks.

Keeping this post short and sweet. I'll leave you with a quote that I really love.

"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving."

-Albert Einstein

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake

2012-02-19T20:26:00.000-06:00

It's a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake!

How many of you are familiar with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse? I sure wasn't so this cake was made looking at several pictures such as the one below.

Photo Credit : poptower.com

I was given free reign to make this birthday cake how I wanted to and was only asked to somehow incorporate the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So of course knowing me, I wanted to make the actual clubhouse haha. When my husband saw me making the cake, he didn't know it was a clubhouse but thought I was just doing a very modern artistic interpretation of Micky Mouse!

I took 1 large and 2 smaller styrofoam balls, covered them in black fondant and then let them dry a couple days before the birthday party.

The day the cake was to be picked up, I started working on the cake portion and covered a small sheet cake with green fondant.

Then added half of a sphere cake covered in red fondant on top.

I stuck a cake dowel rod in the middle and covered part of the visible rod with more black fondant.

Stuck Mickey's ears to his head with toothpicks and added that on top of the rod.

Added the blue windows and yellow fence border.

Added the shoe/door. I actually made the shoe out of styrofoam/fondant first but didn't like the look of it so I scraped that and made the shoe purely out of fondant. The leg part was a short piece of a dowel rod that I covered in black fondant. I also added the birthday boy's name at this point.

Added the hand. This was made out of fondant and dowel rod (for the arm) as well. The fondant fingures were stuck on using toothpicks but I also gumpaste glued them and let them dry for a few hours before adding them to the cake. I stuck bits of paper towel pieces to support the fingers while drying.

Stuck the hand on the cake, drew in details for the windows and door with edible marker and added the Mickey Mouse candle.

The newly 3 year old birthday boy apparently loved his cake and didn't want anyone to eat "Mickey House." He had to be distracted with gifts before he started to cry when he saw the cake cut up. He also got sad when his older brother started eating one of Mickey's fingers!

3 Tiered Baby Animals Cake

2012-02-15T15:46:00.005-06:00

I was asked to make a cake for a 2 year old's birthday party that had these super cute animals and followed a theme of white, pink and grey diagonal stripes. I used the invitation below the picture of the cake to help me with the design of it.

Source: adaywithlilmama.blogspot.com/

I started by working on the fondant animals a few days ahead of time.

Added the monkey (cat in the background was for a different cake). I let the fondant harden for a day to make them easier to work with before adding more details such as snouts and noses.

The day before the cake was due, I stacked 3 white tiers and started adding the diagonal stripes to them.

I then took a small knife and cut off the excess fondant. Repeated for the top two tiers.

Added a pink ball border to each tier. Btw if you noticed, I use the ball border quite often. There are lots of different borders to play with but this (plus the ribbon border) are my favorites as they are so versatile and work with so many different designs.

Added the fondant animals - here's a closeup of them. If anyone is curious about the balloons, they were made from fondant as well. I let them harden for two days and then stuck two floral wires (the kind I use to make gumpaste flowers) into it. I twisted the wires to make one end and that part was stuck into the dog's paw and cake.

The finished cake at the party.

You can see all the stuffed animals in the background. :)

On another note, the organizer of the party, Mindy - who is also the mom of the birthday girl's party - did such a fantastic job. I was really impressed! Here is just a sample of what she did for the party but there were so many great little details that I sadly don't have any pictures of.

Source: adaywithlilmama.blogspot.com/

She actually does this on the side for other people's parties and events as well so if you're in need of a great party planner, click here for more info!

Minnie Mouse Cake

2012-02-09T11:23:00.000-06:00

I knew someone would eventually ask for a Disney Mickey or Minnie Mouse cake and the requester asked for the cutest design! I loved all the little details of this cake from where Minnie Mouse's ears peeked out from behind a ribbon to all the small Minnies around the cake.

I covered two tiers in pink fondant.

Started adding ribbons.

For the ribbons that are cascading down the tier, I let the fondant harden up a little bit so that it wouldn't just droop when it got on the cake.

Added the birthday message on a fondant ribbon on the serving board.

Worked on the small Minnies that would go around the cake next. Made 6 total.

Added the Minnies, the polka dots and the big Minnie ears on top of the cake. Here's a shot of the back.

Penguins & Igloo Cake

2012-01-29T21:24:00.000-06:00

I was invited to a "July in January" birthday party where we nibbled on summer hors d'oeuvres, drank fruity cocktails and wore Hawaiian leis. We didn't let the Chicago snow get us down!

I thought penguins having their own little pool party would be a fun addition since they love partying in the winter too.

On a bit of a side note, the birthday girl hosting the party adopted a shiba inu that my husband and I fostered last year. We first got him when he was just 2 months old and he was from a rescue organization that saved him from a puppy mill. Want to see how he looked when we got him?

Yup, quite the cutie.

How he looks now...all grown up and so dashingly handsome.

He and his owner are perfect for each other!

His girlfriend even came to play. They are just so cute.

Adorable dogs, witty interesting people and delicious food with refreshing margaritas made it a fantastic party.

Anyways, back to the cake!

I created the penguins ahead of time. Everything is fondant minus the black dots of the eyes (that was created using an edible black marker).

Then the igloo. If I needed a cake that served more, I would have created the igloo out of cake as well. Since that wasn't the case, I just used a styrofoam base, covered it in a little frosting and then fondant. I then randomly made "blocks" around the igloo with a sharp tool.

I then created the base. Before icing and covering with fondant, I dug out a little bit of the cake on top so that I could make a "pool."

I then added blue food gel for the water and placed the penguins and igloo on the cake. Once I got to the party, the little cocktail umbrellas were added to give it a bit of beach festivity.

Chicago Bulls Hat Cake

2012-01-11T08:58:00.000-06:00

I got a request for a Chicago Bulls Hat cake and boy was I excited! My two favorite sports to watch are football and basketball but football was something that I just got into a few years ago. I fell in love with basketball and the Chicago Bulls when I was a kid during the Jordan era and even got my whole family into it. We would watch all the games together and cheer loudly for our Bulls. I remember how I would always doodle the Bulls logo and I finally got to put it into cake form. This was too much fun.

I started off with one 6" round and half of a ball cake. Since the half of the ball cake was a little larger than the 6", I had to shave it down a bit. I added frosting between the two layers and over the cake and covered it with red fondant. I also started adding some details and put a thin layer of fondant in front to start shaping the bill.

Finished the bill. I also had one of my husband's hats next to it as well which helped me make sure the proportions looked correct.

Finished the top part of the cake (I'm sorry I don't know the actual parts of the hat!)

Then I started on the Bulls logo.

Added the red details plus a sliver of white around the eyes.

Added the logo to the hat.

Birthday message and some small details and it was complete.

Cakes for Charity: Peas in a Pod Cake

2012-01-01T20:55:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year everyone! Like many others, I looked back at 2011 and it was a significant year filled with many blessings. Some of my favorite memories or thoughts that made me smile were:

Swam in an awe-inspiring cenote (underwater cave), visited a sacred Mayan pyramid, observed the fierce beauty of an active volcano, walked along the shores of black sand beaches, hiked a volcano crater, danced in my first luau, swam under a waterfall and then watched a Hawaiian sunset on the beach, made great new friends and laughed & cried with old ones, celebrating our one year wedding anniversary with my husband, got a dog that I love to death, started Sweet Kat's Creations, quit a job that I wasn't passionate about and spent time reflecting on living a fulfilling life.

In regards to the last part, I really did a ton of reflecting and I had one big epiphany. I realized that at the end of my life, I'll like to look back and believe that I've done my part in leaving the world just a little brighter.

I'm hoping Cakes for Charity will be one part of that equation. Basically with some of the cakes made, the cake requester will be able to select a charity that they would like the proceeds donated to. Sweet Kat's will ask for a minimum donation depending on design and size of the cake that the requester is asking for. Two stipulations: the charity must be a 501(c)(3) organization and the requester must provide a receipt detailing the donation amount. I am super excited about this and what it can do for our communities.

The first Cakes for Charity creation was this Peas in a Pod Cake where the proceeds were donated to assist with disaster relief with the Iligan tragedy in the Philippines where a flood took away many people's homes and they were left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

A little background on this cake: one of my girlfriends J wanted to give her sister a personal Christmas gift and had some adorable crocheted peas in a pod made to give to her. Each pea represented each of her sister's 3 children. Btw, these peas in a pod were made by a talented college friend and you can check out her blog here: http://thetokicafe.blogspot.com/. Her stuff seriously rocks.

My friend asked me to make a small cake that she would be giving in addition to the gift and it was pretty darn cute ...can't go wrong with anything peas in a pod related!

To start, I asked J to send me a pic of the crocheted peas in a pod so I could take a look at the details.

Then made the pink cake base.

Made the peas in the pod.

Added the border.

Added the details: eyes, smiles and little bows for the 2 girl peas.

And some circles on the sides to jazz it up a bit.

Ready to go!

DJ Turntable Cake

2011-12-18T21:05:00.000-06:00

One of my close girlfriends wanted to surprise her boyfriend with a cake for his birthday. Since he loves music, we thought a DJ turntable would be appropriate. With a lot of cakes, I either just deliver it or it gets picked up so sadly, I have to just envision the person's reaction. I was super excited about this one since I was at the party and got to see his expression when he got surprised with the cake!

I first covered 3 rectangular shaped cakes with white fondant.

Used edible spray-paint to make it silver.

Started adding the details.

More details and birthday message. I made the "Happy Birthday Eric" in white so that it popped on the cake against the silver and black.

Also, I cut a cake board so that it would fit in the bottom of a catering tray and placed the cake in there once I was done. I made up a lie saying that the catering tray was for something else and the birthday boy never suspected a thing.

We gave the tray to the restaurant so that they could bring out the cake after dinner and he said it was the most awesome birthday cake ever!