Monday, July 18, 2011

Lake Lot 2011

 I have a big Family! On my dad's side of the family (Schneider) he is one of 14 kids! I am the oldest of 10 kids in my family too! When all of us get together... it's a lot of fun! Well... about 40 of us out of 64 got together this year for our annual Lake lot party at my Godmother's lot on Big Deep in Hackensack. (July 15th thru the 17th) We decided that the family would enjoy making a cake & seeing what I do to make a cake. So I packed up almost all of my supplies, glitter, rolling pins, etc... & made lots of extra fondant so they could design & decorate their own cake.
 This is my Godmother Judy, cousin Lindsey, & sister Karen making fondant people for the cake.

 My sister Diane, (her boyfriend Andy sleeping), my Godmother Judy, cousin Lindsey, & my sister Karen designing & decorating the cake.
I covered the top tier in a light pink fondant and made a pink bow. The bottom tier I covered in a turquoise fondant and another pink bow. I then added green dots.
 For the top of the cake, we put a lot of ideas together. We made a few floaty noodles, a few black inner tubes, a volleyball, flippers, & people floating in the water upright & upside down. I also made a fishing pole with a fish for the lady on the inner tube.
 After a while we started to get more help. Mark (cousin), Rachel (sister), Penny (daughter), Lindsey (cousin), Karen (sister), and Melody (daughter) all had to help out.
 We made green fondant fish to put around the cake. These are my two fish I made.
 Judy made a sun for the cake & Lindsey made a watermelon for our annual Watermelon Toss game. We bring 2-3 watermelon to throw off the end of the dock to try & break it. After it breaks, all of the kids race to eat the watermelon in the water. Sometimes it takes quite a while to break the melon so it becomes a challenge for those trying to smash it to use different throws & dives to get enough force to crack it.
 Lake Lot 2011! Judy's fish.
 We always have a huge fire each night and hang around it at night. Oh & look at the marshmallows being roasted over the fire! Oh shoot... we should've made a the state bird..... a huge mosquito.
 Judy needed to make a snapping turtle...
My Godfather, Dan made a Lockness monster a few years back that he put out in the lake about 10 feet away from the dock. He rigged a pulley system to the start of the dock which made the monster rise & fall out of the water. This totally freaked out the kids & gave the adults something to joke about. As you can see, Locky has been retired and now hangs proudly on the wall in the lake lot shed. 
 Lindsey's re-creation of Locky.
 Our family LOVES to play volleyball. We have a lot of people in our family & there is a lot of competition. I made a volleyball net to go with the ball (which fell in the lake this year during a game. We have 4 flights of steps to get to the lake.) I also had to make it look more like a net, so I had to make someone hanging/spiking over the net.
 This is my uncle Bob. He always brings his jet ski & tube up to the lake. My sister, Karen made the jet ski & I helped her with Bob. I then added wire glasses for the finishing touch.
 Diane's fish.
 This is a sand crocodile made by my Melody. We always have new sand brought in for the kids to play in a giant sand box that is shaded by a tarp to keep cool. There was a crocodile mold in the sand box this year so she wanted to make it herself. I added brown sugar for the sand & made her some light brown fondant. Melody shaped her crocodile & even made her own tongue & mouth with pink. She added scales, nostrils & teeth too!
Melody with her crocodile & watermelon half from the watermelon toss! I forgot to take a photo of the inside of the cake. Melody told me what colors to layer in the cake. It had pink, yellow, purple, blue & white buttercream frosting that was alternated randomly. When it was cut it looked so cool! This cake is a 6inch tier for the top & a 10 inch tier for the bottom. Each tier is 2 layers.

Tropical Honeymoon Paradise

A friend I graduated asked me to make me a cake for her sister's bridal shower on July 17th. The Bridal Shower had a luau theme.  
I made a palm tree out of gum paste, marshmallow fondant and a cake support column. I made coconuts & shells to decorate the cake with. I also made an umbrella out of gum paste, marshmallow fondant, and a few dowels & toothpicks.
 The little legs were the bride & groom being "naughty" under the umbrella. I had to put a representation of the happy couple & what better way to represent them than a happy honeymoon scene! Notice her painted toenails.
The bottom tier is covered in green tinted homemade marshmallow fondant. I made a waterfall for the cake out of homemade buttercream frosting tinted with turquoise & white. I made rocks, tiki men, and hibiscus flowers for added decorations around the cake.

I used pirouettes for bamboo around the first tier.
All of my decorations on the cake (except for the umbrella & palm tree) are edible homemade marshmallow fondant.
I had my daughter, Michaela help transport the cake... it was a little heavy! But it was only across town & she was a big help! This cake has a 6inch tier and a 10 inch tier, both with 2 layers.

Happy Birthday Horse!

I made this horse cake for a little boy named Evan for his birthday on the 16th of July.  He is in love with horses & sports. Evan was in Kindergarten with my daughter, Melody and always wore a cowboy hat to school & talked about horses. 
His grandmother called about the other bathing horse that I did I wanted one holding a baseball.
 I made this horse out of homemade chocolate marshmallow fondant. This is a two layered 6 inch cake with homemade buttercream frosting.
Smile horsie! You are about to be eaten by a little boy!

Black, White & Pink





 These are sample cupcakes that I made for a Bride for July 13th. They are doing a Damask themed wedding with the black, white & pink.
 These are all homemade buttercream frosting and funfetti cupcakes... just like the bride ordered.
 I cut out little leaves in black for a leafy/ curvy look.
 I also bought a little stamp and brushed it with black food coloring paste and stamped it onto a marshmallow fondant circle I cut out.
 I also made a quick rose for a little different look.





Friday, July 8, 2011

Bows, Dots, Bubbles & Baby Ducklings


 This is a baby shower cake that I made for a good friend, Monique! A friend of hers is having a little girl! She asked me to make a cake & wanted me to design it. I chose to make ducklings with bows & blue sparkling bubbles.
 The base color of the cake I made with homemade marshmallow fondant tinted baby pink. I wrapped the cake with marshmallow fondant ribbons and made two giant bows for the front of the tiers. I also added white dots all over the cake to make it a little more girlie & cute!
I then made marshmallow fondant ducklings with pink sparkling bows!
  Little homemade marshmallow fondant duckies!
 Cute, huh!
This is the biggest Duckling I made for the top of the cake. Isn't the Emma Rose ducky cute! The baby is going to be named Emma Rose.
This is a two tier: 6 inch & 10 inch cake... each are two layers, made with homemade buttercream frosting & marshmallow fondant.

Say Cheeseburger!

 I made this cake for a little boy's July 10th birthday party. He wanted a plain cheeseburger.
 No pickles, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato's or sesame seeds. (Tho, I can make them if anyone wants them) This is a 12 inch 3 layer cake made with homemade buttercream frosting and marshmallow fondant.
I also needed to make a side of fries, which I made out of homemade marshmallow fondant, food coloring for the brown burn details and sugar crystals for the salt. I also painted the bun details with brown food coloring. I then added red buttercream frosting for the ketchup for the fries... because you need ketchup for your fries & made a sandwich poker for the top of the burger.

Melody is all Tangled up!

I have a Tangled fanatic in my house! So... I made a Rapunzel tower cake for my daughter, Melody's 6th birthday. This cake was made for her July 6th golden birthday.

This is the starting of my Rapunzel tower.  I made a structure out of an aluminum base & an empty corn skewers plastic jug. I stuffed the jug with foam circles & then added the towers & windows/doors with foam cones & squares that I shaped. I then used 3 inch nails to secure the entire structure.
I used gum paste mixed with marshmallow fondant around the structure so that it would harden.  I rolled out the gum paste/fondant in sheets and formed it to look like the walls of the tower.
 I then used more gum paste/fondant to roll out, cut & form the details for the window moldings, doors, chimney, towers, and supports for the tower. This was A LOT of work!
 Here is a look at the finished tower room & bay window.
 I then hand painted the tower bricks and wood moldings with acrylic paint. This tower was meant to be re-used and set upon a square support on top of a cake. So... if you want to use the tower & rapunzel doll set, let me know!
I then added a gum paste/fondant roof... in which I asked my Daddy (who's a contractor) the right way to do it correctly. "I hope I made you proud, Dad!" 
 Here is a shot of the roof complete & ready to be painted!
 Me, painting the roof of the tower! This whole project took me an entire week of my free time & a couple LATE nights.
 This is the 10 inch, 2 layer cake that I made for Melody to go under the Rapunzel tower. Melody wanted a "Melody Cake," so I literally made a cake with her name all over it. I also covered the square base that the tower sat upon with the same mint green fondant to blend in with the cake.
 Melody & her friends decorated cupcakes with 5 different colors of frosting & fondant flowers that I made. This is her creation!
 Melody hitting Flynn Ryder with a frying pan. This is a poster that I drew & I printed out a frying pan template from online.
 Rapunzel in her tower! I also added flowers which are green, white & purple hydrangeas.
 Melody's cake all done! Rapunzel in her tower & Flynn Ryder waiting to climb up!
Melody with her Rapunzel Tower Cake!