Donkey Kong Cake

Earlier this summer I made a Donkey Kong birthday cake for my brother-in-law's 30th birthday. I was fairly happy with the way it came out, but I should have made all of the figures smaller. Once I had made Mario so large, I realized that meant that Kong had to be HUGE! Oh, well. I also think Mario looks a little more like Warrio.

It was good practice for modeling figures in fondant, anyway, and I'm told the cake was delicious.

Painted Cakes

I've been practicing some fondant techniques and trying out some new ones. I've been wanting to try painting on fondant and to see if I can translate my painting style to fondant. This birdy and flowers looks a little more tropical than I had wanted and also looks a little like a tattoo. Overall, I'm happy with it.

Here is another view - you can see the ribbon at the bottom in this one.

Extreme birdy close-up!

Here is the other cake I decorated. Same basic color scheme but a really different style. This one is a little more whimsical and maybe more fitting for a teen or child.

I combined fondant cut-outs and painting with this one. Below is a pic of both of them together.

Fondant Bear Tutorial

Did you know that there are Rules of Cuteness? Okay, I like to think of them as guidelines but you can check out some of them here: http://cuteoverload.com/tag/the-rules-of-cuteness/ Still with me? I hope you didn't get too distracted by all the cuteness! Here is a step-by-step tutorial on making a cute little fondant bear. You will need:

• Dark Brown Fondant


• Light Brown Fondant (small amount for ears, paws, tummy)


• White Fondant (small amount for eyes)


• Black Fondant or Food-Safe Black Marker (to make eye pupils)


• Small amount of water and a paintbrush


• Toothpick or paring knife

Step 1: Take a little less than half of the brown fondant and roll into a ball. Make it slightly wider than it is tall. Make two little balls for ears. Remember - small ears are cute!

Step 2:

To attach ears (or anything), dip paintbrush in water and then wipe almost all water off the brush. Dab a tiny amount of water onto fondant surface and stick ears on. Roll out a small ball of light brown for the muzzle. Tap with finger to flatten or use a smooth jar to roll out. Attach with water.

Step 3:

Flatten two tiny light brown balls for the inside of the ears and attach with water. Roll tiny amount of black fondant and squish on for a nose. Take tip of a knife or a toothpick and make the mouth. See how my mouth is lop-sided and close to the nose? Cute!

Step 4:

Roll two small balls for the eyes and flatten them. Place them wide apart for maximum cuteness. You also want them fairly large in proportion to the rest of the face so play around a bit until you're happy with them.

Step 5:

Flatten two balls of black for the pupils and attach them. I decided to make my bear a little more smiley, too. The head is done!

Step 6:

For the body, roll out a brown ball that is slightly smaller than the head and taller than it is wide. You will also need a small amount of light brown fondant for the tummy part.

Step 7:

Flatten the light brown ball (a rolling device does come in handy here) and attach to the torso with water.

Step 8:

Roll four balls for the limbs. Here's a tip for making balls of the same size: take one ball of fondant and break in half then break those in half. It's more accurate than trying to break one ball into four equal parts.

Step 9:

Squish you balls into elongated jelly bean shapes. Don't make them too long and skinny, though, because...yes, stubby arms and legs are cute!

Step 10:

Attach legs and arms with small amount of water. Don't be afraid to really squish them on. You might end up with little wrinkles but that's okay, in this case. It is NOT cute when your bear's leg falls off!

Step 11:

Make 4 small light brown balls for paws. Flatten slightly and attach.

Step 12:

Attach the head using a little water again. You may want to support him against something while he dries. Or, if you're worried that the head will fall off, you could put a toothpick through the body for support and then stick the head on that.

L'il Bear with a Kite

I made this cake for one of my sister's co-workers who just had a baby boy. I've really wanted to make a cake with a kite this spring and thought the cute little bear cub would be perfect for celebrating a new baby boy. I could have gotten my buttercream a little smoother and my piped chocolate "string" could be more even (a hazard of piping at 11pm, I think), but overall I'm very happy with the design. The kite, the grass, the bear, and the clouds are all fondant, in case anyone was wondering.

I'll post a tutorial for the bear in the next couple days! Happy Spring!

My Wedding Cake

Nope - I haven't gotten married! This is my wedding cake from our Advanced Cake Techniques class. We had to do a mock cake (styrofoam covered in fondant and decorated) of at least three tiers and then an 8 inch tasting cake. I decided to do a winter nature theme. The birds and flowers above were on the top tier. Birds, flowers, and leaves are all made from gumpaste and painted.

Above is a detail that shows the embossing I did (using clear plastic, flexy stamps I got from Michaels) and the brushed embroidery piping I did on the bottom tier.

Here is the "tasting cake" - I did a coconut cake with vanilla bean pastry cream and tangerine curd between the layers. The frosting underneath the fondant is just vanilla buttercream. The sparkle on the edges is a product called edible glitter - it's basically a type of gum or gelatin and has no flavor.

Here's a photo of the whole cake. The silver birch branches are made out of pastillage (basically a play dough type substance made from sugar, cornstarch, gelatin, and sugar) that was formed, dried and then painted with a cocoa butter paint.

It was fun (and nerve-wracking to work on such a big product). The most time-consuming part was making all the flowers and painting them with silver.

White and Gold Birthday Cake

Here is my latest commission - a white cake with gold accents. Silver and gold was requested, but did you know that silver dragees are quite expensive? Maybe if I buy them in bulk then it would be worthwhile, but $10.99 at the grocery store for a little bottle is way too much. Anywho, my friend seemed happy with the cake and I was mostly satisfied. I tried all of the components (cake and icings) separately, but hope it tasted good all together. The piping is, um, rustic, to put it nicely, because my sister has my icing gun thing at her house. I also realized I need to get more cake pans; I only have a few sizes and that's pretty limiting.

The cake itself is the White II butter cake recipe from The Joy of Cooking, with some colored sprinkles in the batter for a "funfetti" look (requested by the birthday girl). The frosting between the layers is cream cheese and the frosting on the outside of the cake is just a quick buttercream. For the decorations, I cut star shapes from white fondant and painted them gold with luster dust mixed with lemon extract (the extract is clear and the alcohol in it evaporates, so it works well for this kind of decorating).