Opening up another session of the FNCC! Everyone is welcome to share their week, photos of their work, ask for help or provide help if you can!

Cat

I'm sure this is going to be a slow night here if not non existent! We did our yearly Valentine's dinner with our kids and my mom. That is why I'm late. Here are the cupcakes I made for us:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes topped with buttercream and chocolates! They were totally yummy!

I always decorate up for the dinner and we make something special. Tonight's was French Onion soup followed by caesar salad and then shrimp and asparagus linguine and topped off with the cupcakes!  Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Cat

Your cupcakes are adorable!

Here is a pic of my cake for the week.  I am wondering when the best time to post pics is...I posted this on Thursday later in the afternoon. 

This is going to sound whiny and egotistical, but it's one of my favorite cakes that I have ever done and thought it was pretty darn good.  It's not everyday that I get the chance to be "artsy" on top of being "cakesy".  However, it only got 60 some views (from when I looked last, anyway) and no comments or likes at all.  I have had many other cakes that weren't nearly as good get lots of comments and likes. 

Maybe it's not as great as I think it is?!  lol  You can see a lot more pics of it if you go to my profile.  I guess my ego is just bruised, feeling swept under the rug, and I need some coddling! 

But again, it could just be because I posted it later in the day, a Thursday, which everyone who has cakes to work on for the weekend are busy plugging away and didn't see it. 

My inner self-centered child is throwing a tantrum....but please know I am not the kind of person who goes around begging for compliments.  I am really humble when it comes to cake because of the level of talent I see on here.  But it was my first at two different techniques (mod choc and sculpting) and I wanted some feedback.  Personally I thought my Buddha looks a little Mayan or Incan, but I love him anyway.

Thanks for putting up with my pouting!

First off: thank you Debora...they sure were yummy!

BeesKnees...I SOOOOOO feel you! I pretty much just post here rather than to the general population unless I consider it a "big" cake. I post on Monday or Tuesday which is good and bad. A lot of people post on Sat/Sun so you get a lot of traffic on Mon/Tues but your cake can still get lost in the volume. Posting later in the week can leave you unnoticed because most cakers are working for the weekends orders and not on here. But it IS a blow to your self esteem when a cake you think is incredible and you are very proud of doesn't get the notice you were thinking it would. It actually is hurtful. Please don't feel badly about those feelings. We are artists and as such part of us is always sure someone will figure out we are faking and the other part of us is saying "SEE??? I'm not a fake! I can do wonderful work! " and then if the cake doesn't get noticed it's like no one is believing us. Hurtful. 

Rest Assured that your cake is truly wonderful! I simply adore the design and all of the elements are amazing! Your buddah is serene and your lotus flowers are gorgeous! But it's truly the bottom section that I love the most. The shading and detail are wonderful! That plaque is great...looks antique. Really great work there.

I'm starting work this week on my daughter's 30th birthday cake and I have to say I'm really nervous. It's the first fondant I've done in months and my hand still doesn't have the mobility yet or dexterity yet so I'm really nervous about it. So many people who know my work and what I've done before will be at this party so they know what to expect and I'm terrified I won't be able to do it. Cross your fingers for me...say a prayer...whatever works for you...that I'll be able to do the work. I'll post next Friday night so you can all see!

Cat

AIm a little late to the thread but here's a cell phone pic of one of my cakes from this week. I didn't put this one on a foamcore board because there was a stand that I was using. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3186665/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

All cakes are so yummy.

First I like Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes because chocolate taste is my favourite.

For three cakes awesome job.

Thanks for sharing.

I've been looking forward to this week for a while, hoping to try out various recipes and ideas, but when it came to it, my children had other plans and came down with a nasty virus - kindly giving it to me - so the week has been a complete miss as far as baking goes!  I only managed to put together a quick cake yesterday for my husband:

I'm annoyed looking at it, as I just used up scraps of fondant that I had left over and didn't bother about the little lumps and bits in it.  But now all I can see are the contaminants in the hearts!  Still, he liked it, and it tasted good -  almond rose cake with raspberry curd filling made from our homegrown rasps from the freezer.

I also made a cake for a friend's dad's birthday last week.  I am so disappointed with it, it is hard to put it up here!  The shop was sold out of red fondant, except from one pack that had been in the window display.  I mixed it with some hot pink I had, and then had to play around with colours to get it right.  As a result, the fondant kept ripping and wouldn't behave.  It is a right mess!  And then I was so frustrated with the cake that it affected all the other bits of the decoration (I didn't even notice the white strip was squint until it was too late to move).  The edging on the bows was rather fragile too.  And it could have been such a lovely cake, too!

Thank you Cat...for feeling me!  After I posted it, I felt so ridiculous for even speaking the words!  But you made me all better.  I'm smiling now.

Thanks for the great compliments, too.  I truly appreciate them.  

It was my take on some other cakes I had seen on here.  So thanks to all for the inspiration!

Good Morning everyone!

Morganchampagne...your cake is TOO cute! It's just so much fun!

Lizzie...your week sounds awful! I do hope you are feeling better now. I hate to admit that I've had weeks like that where fondant was NOT my friend. Those are the cakes I hate to let out into the public at all. BUT, both cake designs are wonderful. Until I read the words I had not looked closely at the hearts to see the issues there...I just loved the design. Same with the little red cake...love the bow edging...is that all piped or is is fondant?? Amazing either way. (((HUGS))) for your rough week. Hoping that this week is wonderful for you and that your household is all better now!

Asmita...thanks! That chocolate is a favorite of ours...the cinnamon and red pepper just seem to punch up the chocolate and it's irresistible then! Our guests were picking up the crumbs to eat! LOL! This was a slow week due to the holiday, please do join us again. We meet every Friday night and it usually drifts over to Saturday morning too!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Cat

AThanks guys! And yes it's always tricky but I never left alone and I'm very careful! I try not to do it if I don't have to but it works!!-

Cat, I love those cupcakes and the dinner sounds so good!

I didn't make anything this week, just a batch of 42  chocolate cake pops for my nephew's jazz program.  They had a chocolate cafe fundraiser.

it was so cool because they had fudge, brownies, cookies, candy, fondue, e.t.c. but my cake pops were gone first…devoured within 5 minutes…!  

Very busy weekend, and its not over yet! Here's what I made so far:

AHey guys, ive been so busy this week. I started making what I call "Heaven in a jar" and it's been on fire requested from my friends and family. I did two cakes this week and a bunch of Valentine's day orders. Still learning but i have definitely seen growth in my cake decorating skills. Here are the pics. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3187004/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3187005/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3187006/width/200/height/400[/IMG] Plus I did cookies, cupcakes. ..etc.

[@]SweetShop5[/@] your cakes are amazing!!!

[@]LizzieAylett[/@] I love your heart cake! [@]beesknees[/@] your cake is a masterpiece [@]catlharper[/@] your cupcakes are adorable

Here's my cake for the week.  I traded some horseback riding lessons for my daughter in exchange for the cake!  She wanted a valentine's cake with either a fishing, horse or Ukranian theme....I picked horse!  I love when I get free reign in the design, I wanted to practice painting with the food pastes.  I have zero background in painting or anything like that so I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I had a hard time making it not look streaky, which I finally just started to work the streakiness into the design because I couldn't get the colour uniform.  Any tips on painting with vodka and food gels?

BeesKnees, that cake looks incredible.  I know what you mean, though!  I throw inner tantrums as well when a fantastic cake I make goes by without a blip!  I feel egocentric as well and then wonder if I'm a spoiled brat who just needs my ego stroked...it must come with the artistic territory!  I was doing the happy dance with one of last week's cakes (posted below because I'm egocentric, lol!) because I finally had enough likes on a cake to make it into the top five on the home page.  That glow carried me all week!

Lizzie - I love the heart cake!  I didn't notice the imperfections until I read you pointing them out!

luvmykids: I adore the horse cake! I, like you, have no background in drawing or painting so whenever something I hand paint comes out well I'm just thrilled! You did something really ambitious and you did it very well!  I love the baby shower cake too. SO cute! And,yes, the need for validation is one of the reasons this weekly forum works. We can all get some sort of feedback from here even if our work was totally overlooked in the main galleries!

Cat

Thanks, guys :-)

Luvmykids, I agree with Cat - that horse cake is amazing!  I think the unevenness of the colour looks very natural.  It gives some movement and life to the horses.

Both Sweetshops, you are amazing getting all those done.  I often wonder how people cope with getting lots of cake requests.  Is this a full-time business for you?  Or do you fit those in around life?

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3187116/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Not finished yet but my first go with ganaching with a board on top and loving it.

Last cake for this weekend!

Here's another cake I did for a friend's birthday - well, that was my excuse.  It was really a chance to indulge myself and try out some gumpaste flowers.  I had some difficulty with the lily petals - the wire kept sticking through them.  Any tips on how to prevent that?  I enjoyed making the hydrangeas; using petal dusts is very satisfying!  The roses were actually fondant ones left over from a previous cake, but I thought they fitted in on this one too.

I'm pleased how they turned out for a first time, but was really upset that, having had to rush out to do the teas at church and leaving my husband to take the photos (which he normally does, but I'm usually there to guide as to angles etc), I didn't check them before we gave my friend the cake.  I know it is a little thing, but he didn't quite get the angles right and I was so sad.  The cake looked so much better composed from the right angle!

Ah, well, my friend enjoyed the surprise, and I have learnt several things, so it is all to the good... :-P

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3187625/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

I've finished. Been playing with royal icing.

AThank you. Bit uneven but not bad for a first go. I do enjoy royal icing.

First, I speak for the whole community and say we're so sorry that you didn't get the reaction this cake certainly deserves.  It's totally awesome.  You'll notice that when we're nearing any holiday, chat goes way down because we're all busy filling our customers orders.  Same with eBay, very little bids near a holiday.  Everyone is so busy.  And the last point I want to make is that if you're happy with your creations, that's all that really matters.  Creating a work of art like you did has to make you feel all warm and proud of yourself.  Totally gorgeous.