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Monday, January 28, 2013

Highland Bakery Visit

 

While visiting my Aunt and Uncle who live near Atlanta Georgia I decided to stop by Highland Bakery along with LaPaul and my Uncle. The bakery is known for their custom cakes and the people in the cake decorating world who work there. Karen Portaleo and Joshua John Russel are great cake decorators as well as sugar sculptors who have made a name for this bakery. They weren't there when I visited. My DSLR battery needed to be charged so all of these pictures were taken with my iPhone.

 

 

Besides cupcakes and other baked goods the bakery also makes an assortment of fresh breads and espresso drinks. My Uncle got their jalapeño fecocia bread and that looked delicious. Above is an assortment of baked goods, which are in their cases.

 

 

Here is Highland Bakeries business card and catering menu. As for cupcakes they come in large and mini sizes. These are pictures of their red velvet cupcakes in both sizes. A cream cheese frosting tops the cupcakes with red velvet crumbs adding texture.

 

 

There is also a side to the bakery where you can order all sorts of food. I ordered the crab cake burger. It was pretty good with fresh lumps of crab meat throughout the burger. The atmosphere was very comfortable and welcoming.

 

 

 

 

Here is LaPaul and I outside of Highland Bakery. I'm glad that I got to visit one of the bakeries that I wanted to specifically see in Atlanta, Georgia. I hope that you all have enjoyed this blog post.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

Friday, January 25, 2013

Feature Fridays: Baby Elephant Cake Topper and First Wedding Anniversary Plans

 

This week I made a baby elephant cake topper and I think that it turned out so cute. I had fun hand sculpting this cake topper and I love how it turned out. I usually use gumpaste for all of my toppers, but this time I added a little bit of fondant to it so that I would have more time to sculpt. The ears took the longest time to completely dry, which was a total of four days.

 

 

 

I used a wilton knife tool to make the wrinkles in the elephants skin. Baby elephants are still chunky with cute wrinkles in their skin, similar to baby fat in humans. The wrinkles on the cake topper add a cute and authentic touch to it.

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the little nails that I added to all of the baby elephants legs. I cut white circles in half and applied them individually.

 

 

 

Since I wanted the trunk to be bent up I used a wilton gel color bottle and a cosmetic sponge to keep it in place while drying. Once I got the ears in the position that I wanted them to be I used wilton gel food color bottles also to keep them in place. I wanted the ears to look a little floppy and not look perfect.

 

 

Once the baby elephant topper was fully dry, I had the most fun adding color to its face and inner ears. I used non toxic chalk pastels for color. The picture above is me adding rosy cheeks to the elephants face.

 

 

I used Krazy Kool Cakes YouTube video to make the baby elephant topper.

 

 

 

LaPaul and I's first wedding anniversary is on Sunday, January 27. We will be near Atlanta, Georgia with some family for a few days so I may not be blogging a lot next week. I will try to visit a well known bakery in Atlanta and do a blog post on it while I am away. I will definitely do a blog post by next Friday.


Have a blessed weekend everyone and I hope that you all enjoyed this blog post.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

How to use the color wheel in cake decorating

 

The color wheel is often a tool that is overlooked in the cake decorating world. Whether it is being used on a cake or sugar flowers it is an essential part to the decoration process. Colors need to compliment one another and not clash. I use a pocket color wheel, which can be found in the art section of your local craft store.

 

With the coloring book picture above and using the color wheel I am going to briefly explain to you how the color wheel can be useful to you in all of your cake decorating projects. I hope that you take something away from this post.

 

 

In the coloring book picture above I used every other color on the color wheel starting with red. So with that being said I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. I used primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and secondary colors (orange, green, and violet). Another way of saying it would be that I used warm colors (red, orange, yellow) and cool colors (blue, green, violet). These color theories are all explained in the front of the color wheel.

 

 

The back of the color wheel has different tones, tints, and shades of the main colors. For instance you can say that in the coloring book drawing that I used red and a tint of red, which is pink. You can also say that I used green and a tint of green, which is light green on the leaves. The back of the color wheel also explains the different color schemes.

 

Each color used is also directly across from another color used in the color wheel. These are call complimentary colors. For example red and directly across from green.

 

I hope that this short blog post on the color wheel in cake decorating taught you a little something and interested you in learning more about the color wheel.

 

For more information on how to use the color wheel refer to the YouTube videos below. The YouTube users, Start2finishMUA and TalkinMakeUp, explain everything in detail.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that you all are having a great week and that you found this blog post helpful.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

Friday, January 18, 2013

Feature Fridays: My Top 10 Cake Decorating Tools

I decided to show you what my top 10 cake decorating tools are because these are the tools that I use the most in cake decorating. Without these tools cake decorating would be a lot harder than it already is. These tools make cake decorating a little easier. They are my little helpers.

 

1. Turntable

This turntable has seamless movement when I need to turn it while cake decorating. It is sturdy and I love that I can use both sides. This turntable has a big circle and a little circle so whether your cake decorating project is big or small it is perfect. I also love that this turntable looks like granite and that it looks great in my kitchen.

 

2. Small Offset Spatula

Whether crumb coating or icing a cake this small offset spatula is for small hands like mine. I feel like I have better control since the handle fits nicely in my small hands and I am not overwhelmed by a large spatula. Something similar to it can be purchased by going here.

 

3. Sewing Measuring Tape

A sewing measuring tape is useful for measuring angles in sculpted cakes, figures, and other cake decorating projects. I like that it can go around different shapes and angles and that it is not limited to straight lines likes a ruler is.

 

4. Pastry Wheel

Having two sides to this pastry wheel comes in handy on a lot of cake decorating projects. The straight wheel can be used to cut fondant and gumpaste of varying lengths, while the wavy wheel can be used to make ruffles or to make a girly border on a cake. It can be purchased here.

 

5. Mini Sewing Kit

This mini sewing kit has a few things that can be used when you least expect it. The needles can be used to pop air bubbles in rolled fondant or gumpaste. The tweezers can be used for stamens on sugar flowers. The little buttons can even be used to imprint into fondant. A lot of creative things can be done with this kit.

 

6. Small Paint Brush

I keep a small paint brush to be used with Tylose glue to use on gumpaste figures and sugar flowers. It also comes in handy when decorating fondant cakes.

 

7. Ball Tool

A ball tool can be used for many things, including sugar flowers, borders, and figures. I like to use metal ball tools whenever possible because you don't have to worry about them sticking to fondant or gumpaste.

 

8. 9 inch Silicone Rolling Pin

This rolling pin can be used for rolling out gumpaste or fondant. It can even be used for drying a few sugar petals on if needed. Depending on what cake decorating project you are working on the size rings are helpful. The pink size rings roll out to 1/16 inches and the purple size rings rolls out to 1/8 inches. It can be purchased here.

 

9. The Mat

If you are considering getting anything in this list I would recommend this cake decorating tool. The Mat has made covering cake in fondant much easier and fuss free. There is no longer a need for cornstarch or wondering if I have the right measurements. I have THE PRO MAT , although it does come in many sizes.

 

10. Self Healing Cutting Mat

This is the mat that stays on my work surface. I like that it is already lined with a ruler on it and that cuts do not get on it easily. It can be purchased here.

 

I hope that you have enjoyed this blog post. Have a great weekend everyone. What are your top 10 cake decorating tools?

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Ombré Frill Cake: Part 2

 

This is the part 2 of the ombré frill cake. For part 1 go to Savor The Baking: Ombré Frill Cake: Part 1. In this blog post I am going to focus on most of the fondant steps of decorating this cake.

 

 

In Savor The Baking: Ombré Frill Cake: Part 1 I mentioned that I colored the fondant in 6 different gradients of purple. I used Artisan Cake Company's marshmallow fondant recipe and it worked great. The marshmallow fondant recipe can be found by going to The Best Marshmallow Fondant Recipe EVER . The cake is also covered in marshmallow fondant.

 

 

Now lets get to making the frills. For each color in the gradient first I cut four inch strips of fondant and placed them in a sheet protector so they wouldn't dry out. I then placed the strips on a piece of foam and created the frills by going from the center of a strip straight down towards the edge of the strip. This process can be long and tedious, but it will be worth it in the end.

 

 

I turned the cake upside down before applying the frills so that the frills can be applied more easily and so they can dry. I started with the lighter purple and progressed to the darker purple. The process of making the frills and placing them on the cake took three hours.

 

 

When the cake was finished I waited about an hour to flip the cake the right way. I then took the end of a small paint brush to separate some of the frills a little more and to make some more movement in the frills. I then painted the tips of some of the frills with edible gold to highlight the movement of the frills.

 

 

 

This is the finished product. I am really happy with how this cake turned out. I wanted the overall feel to be artistic and I feel like I have achieved that. This cake took a lot of work, but the outcome was well worth it. I hope that you all have enjoyed this two part blog post.

 

Monday, January 14, 2013

Ombré Frill Cake: Part 1

 

I recently completed an ombré frill cake. It took me 3 days to complete from start to finish and a total of 3 hours to put all the frills on the cake and to put the gold highlights on. I am taking you through the steps that it took me to construct the cake. Cake decorating takes a lot of planning and time to make beautiful creations. I hope that you enjoy this step by step process.

 

The first thing that I did was take fondant and color it in a purple gradient, which is pictured above. This took about 30 minutes to do because I wanted the colors to be just right. I mixed two different gel colors to get the colors to the right shade. There will be six different shades of purple in the gradient.

 

 

Next I baked my cakes. This cake is a 6 inch cake in diameter and each cake is 3 inches tall. The cake is a chocolate cake and it is filled and iced with a crusting cream cheese frosting. The recipe for the frosting can be found by going to a previous blog post, Savor The Baking: Feature Fridays: Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting.

 

 

Next I crumb coated, iced, and smoothed the crusting cream cheese frosting. I always tape a larger cake board to the cake board underneath the cake for easy transport and less mess on my turntable. I put a thick layer of frosting on the outside because I would rather have more buttercream than I need, than not enough. I used a Wilton Bakers Blade to smooth the frosting. I like using this blade because it fits in my small hands easily.

 

 

This is what the frosting looks like almost smoothed before I used a viva paper towel to smooth it completely. This frosting smoothed very well with an offset spatula once it was at room temperature.

 

The process that I have shown you so far took about 3 hours. I enjoyed coloring the fondant the most and seeing the color gradient/ombré come to life.

 

My next post will be part 2 of the ombré frill cake process, which can be found by going to Ombré Frill Cake: Part 2 . I hope that you have enjoyed this post and that you are having a good week so far.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Feature Fridays: Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting

I hope everyone has had a great week so far. I wanted to share with you an awesome recipe, which I am currently using for a cake. This recipe is a cream cheese frosting, but the cool thing about it is that it crusts just like a buttercream. With that being said if you wanted to use a frosting different than buttercream this would be it.

 

This recipe comes from Edna De La Cruz at Design Me A Cake. Edna is well known in the cake decorating world for her elaborate cakes and her beautiful sugar flowers.



Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting

From: Design Me A Cake

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup of shortening

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter @ room temp

1 8oz bar cream cheese @ room temp

1 tblsp white vanilla extract

2 lbs sifted powder sugar

1/2 tsp salt

 

Directions

1. Cream together shortening, butter, and cream cheese until nice and smooth.

2. Add vanilla into mixture and combine.

3. Sift together sugar and salt, and slowly add to shortening, butter & cheese mixture. Make sure that all sugar is incorporated. Enjoy!

*If to stiff of a consistency use less sugar but all the salt or gradually add milk to make the perfect consistency!

 

If anyone tries this recipe let me know how you like it. It's an easy frosting to make and it smooths well. Have a blessed weekend everyone.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Cake Fu Masters Series: Paul Joachim

Yesterday I took a free online class with CakeFu. This class was with Paul Joachim who is known for sculpting life size figures out of cake. In this class he showed the participants how he sculpts his life size figures. I took a few screen shots of my iPad while the class was going on to show you all what was learned

 

 

This was the pose that was going to be sculpted out of cake. Paul thoroughly measures all of the angles so he knows how to make his armature. He uses simple tools to measure the angles and widths in the pose. A tailors measuring tape and a bendable ruler, which can be found in the drafting section of your local craft store, are the tools that Paul uses.

 

 

Here is the pose next to the armature that Paul made out of PVC pipe and other materials. This will act as the foundation and interior structure of the cake. It's cool, how you can already imagine the life sized structure just by looking at the armature.

 

 

The model is posing next to Paul's completed structure made out of cake, ganache, and modeling chocolate. It looks so real and all of the angles are so accurate down to the pointed foot. The bottom picture is Paul actually cutting into the cake to serve it at a yoga party.

 

 

I am excited to see that Paul will be teaching a class at the International Cake Exploration Societé convention this year. The class should be fun and informative. For more information on Paul Joachim and the cakes that he sculpts visit Art Edibles .

I hope that you all have enjoyed this blog post and learned a little something from Paul Joachim.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, January 7, 2013

Unboxing: International Sugar Art Collection by Nicholas Lodge

 

 

I recently ordered some sugar flower supplies from the International Sugar Art Collection by Nicholas Lodge. This is the first time that I've ordered anything from this collection so I was excited to receive it. I decided to do an unboxing of the supplies. I will be using these supplies to make some sugar French tulips later on this week.

 

 

 

Right away I liked some things about what I saw with the packaging. On the box their was a 20th anniversary sticker, which I thought was really nice. Also in the invoice their was a note that said thank you. It's nice to be appreciated when you order a product.

 

 

 

Each one of the International Sugar Art Collections packages have their logo on one side of the label and their contact information on the other. I ordered a French tulip petal cutter and a French tulip leaf cutter. They are stainless steel, which means they will make a clean cut when using fondant or gumpaste.

 

 

 

I also ordered a French tulip leaf veiner and petal veiner and center set. These are silicone veiners, which are flexible. These veiners will last a long time and are easy to use. There are two different sizes of petal veiners in the set, which is nice.

 

A floral tape cutter will come in handy when I am doing a lot of sugar flowers at once. This floral tape cutter will cut the tape into half length and quarter lengths. I am trying out this plastic tubing which will give the stems of the sugar flowers a more realistic look.

 

I will be doing a blog post later on this week on the sugar French tulips. I hope that everyone has a great week.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

 

 

Friday, January 4, 2013

Feature Fridays: Happy 2013 and Cake Decorating Goals

I would like to wish all of my blog readers a Happy 2013. I hope that you all have a year filled with success, joy, and love. This is a new year for even more goals. I have some big cake decorating goals to fill this year and I am excited about them. Below I have listed my cake decorating goals that I would like to complete by the end of the year. I may add on to these lists as the year goes on.

 




Cake Decorating Goals for 2013

Hand painted cake

Ruffle cake

Carved purse cake

Disney character cake

Sugar flower cake

 




Sugar Flowers for 2013

French tulip

Parrot tulip

Anemone

Peony

Sugar flower spray

David Austin rose

Sunflower

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are your cake decorating goals for 2013? List them below. I hope that you all have a blessed weekend.

 

Savor the Baking,

Chineka

 

 
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