Passport Cake

I was asked to make this cake for a local school board member who had finally gotten her passport, after many months. She asked me to somehow depict all of the destinations that she'd like to visit, and feature her new passport. I decided to use a postcard and post-stamp theme. Each postcard was designed and painted by me (with food color), and each of its 6 stamps were as well.

In total it took me about 5.5 hours to complete this cake (plus delivery time).

Prep: First I bake two cakes in jelly roll pans. I then let them cool completely on the counter before leveling, and sharing the excess. I then chose what layer I want on the bottom and spoon on the yummy apricot filling. I use a cake spatula to smooth the filling and make sure it is level. After placing the other cake on top I check to make sure everything is level and then spread on the apricot glaze.
Fondant Fun: This is where the fun comes in. I rolled out some white fondant and then spread it evenly over the layered cakes. I then rolled out more fondant and cut the shapes that I would need for the decorations. I let the decorations harden for about 20 min. before painting them.
Paint: I spent the majority of my time painting the decorations, or postcards, for this cake. I painted eat postcard and their matching stamps. I had a list given to me by my client of exactly what they wanted, I tried to follow it as closely as possible. I then rolled out the black fondant and created the little passport. I painted the passport last with gold dust. I tried to give the passport a leather-y look by flexing the fondant after it had mostly dried (*it's most obvious in the last photo*).
Assembly: (This step happened to be the quickest, in terms of time taken). After the decorations were done I simply plastered on some frosting and laid them out on the cake exactly where I wanted them. I took several pictures, and then delivered the cake (everyone loved it).

(*In the above photo, notice that the paint is still not quite dry yet -- when it was completely dry it lost the shine, and the passports wrinkles closed more to look like leather*)


Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.

Carrot Cake

This cake was made for a carrot lover. The cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I let the frosting dry enough so that I could create some texture on the surface, by pressing a paper towel along the surface of the cake. I then made some royal icing and divided/colored it appropriately. I pipped out my carrots with the royal icing and let them harden over night. I used icing to decorate the cake with a couple of different borders.

Carrot Cake

2 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups grated carrots
1 1/3 vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preparation:

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add carrots, oil, and eggs. Beat until well mixed. Stir in remaining ingredients. Put batter in two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
Makes about 2 cups
8 oz. fat free cream cheese
8 tbsp or 1 stick butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
1 c confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: Start with beating the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then beat all of these ingredients together until well mixed and as fluffy as you can make it.


Photographs are © Copyright to me (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from me.