One!

A #1 cake I made a while back for a little boy's First Birthday.

This was my first time making a shaped cake in all buttercream and I mistakenly assumed it would be a breeze. Boy, was I wrong. Sharp corners are the toughest things to get right on a cake and this one had sooooo many. But it came together in the end.

 

Stripe It Up!

Last post of 2016! A striped birthday cake I made sometime back for a dear friend's daughter.

I LOVE stripes. On anything. And I have been wanting to try a striped cake but couldn't trust myself to pipe so many straight lines. Well, lets be honest, I couldn't pipe even one straight line. Until I discovered buttercream texture combs.

The combs are quite simple to use. Slather on your base color like you would when you frost a buttercream cake, run the comb of your choice around the cake just like you would a bench scraper. Chill the cake between passes and once the grooves are just like you like it, chill it for at least an hour. Now take your contrasting color and slather it on. Make sure all the grooves are well filled with your contrast color. Then scrape off the excess with a bench scraper. That's it! And the result is so extraordinary!

Go give it a try and let me know how it turned out.
And wish you all a Happy New Year!

A Buttercream Watercolor Cake!

 Another buttercream floral cake that I made for a dear friend's baby shower.

I loved the water color effect on the sides of the cake. It was so fun to do. And there was a little sleeping princess in the buttercream garden.

And some matching cupcakes to go with the cake.

Mountain Bliss!

So, after working for 42 years, my father-in-law is retiring and my family and I decided to throw him a little party to celebrate his long successful career. Mom and Dad enjoy hiking and a couple years ago they did their first major hike to the Annapoorna base camp, in the snow capped Himalayas. I wanted to commemorate that hike with this cake because I know, it was the start of a new passion for Dad, one that will dot his retirement with many a snowy peak. Happy Retirement Dad!

A little bit about the cake. It is not a double barrel, but a triple barrel! There are three 8" cakes stacked one top of the other to form this 11" tall barrel cake. It is covered in a blue ombre buttercream. I have to give my husband props for doing all the buttercream color mixing because my hands were tired after a lil while. After I started the project I realized I had run out of blue food gel! Yikes! I had to mix black, purple and cyan to get the blues you see on the cake, so it took a lot mixing to getthe correct tones. But it resulted in a variegated blue with black streaks that I LOVE !

The painting on the cake is made using palette knives, one of my favorite painting techniques. I used 3 different shades of white buttercream. The trees are off white, the mountains are a medium white and they have a touch of bright white to give the look of fresh snow. Hope you like the cake. Let us know what you think!