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 they can! Hope to see lots of great cakes this week!

Cat

Hi everyone,

No photo yet because the cake isn't finished yet. But here's the idea. I'm working on a Hot Wheels themed cake for the 2 year old baby brother of a leukemia patient for Icing Smiles. I have the base cake (4 layer 1 tier vanilla bean cake with caramel toffee buttercream filling)  finished, completely covered (half in Hot Wheels blue and half in checkered flag) and the tracks are drying. So far so good! Hopefully they will be solid enough to stand up on the cake tomorrow. I don't deliver till 2:30 so I have till 2pm to have them dry solid. I do have a back up plan if they don't! LOL! I promise to take photos tomorrow before delivery!

Last week shooting in Monterey was fantastic! I got so much for my article that I'm actually thinking of making a book. The blog will come first but I do think I'm going to end up with a book at the end of this project. 

Next week we have an event. An Ice Cream Social. I'll be working all week on finalizing the touches on that. We've been working on it all along. of course, and we are SO excited to see it all come together!

Hope everyone has had a lovely week!

Cat

AHi Cat! So cool about your icing smiles cake! I have one in august I can't wait. I'd love the link to your blog post when you get it all published!!

I have several things, but I finally mastered tbt concept of time management and I'm already in bed! Here's the bottom tier, it's airbrushed gold. Hope everyone has a good weekend. I actually ended up taking the gumpaste band off and adding satin ribbon instead. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265285/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Morgan,

That looks beautiful! I can't wait to see the entire cake!

As for the blog...that will be in September. Right now I'm covering Hawaii. The URL is http://shutterbugtraveler.blogspot.com/

I went heavy for 7 days and saw so much it was just incredible! If you are ever heading out to Monterey I can definitely give you some tips on where to go and what to see! LOL!

Cat

AI love photography cat (seeing not doing!) so I'm going to take a look at your blog :) Hawaii is on my bucket list - a bit further for me than for you guys!

Few for me this week, at the same time as my house sale falling through... It all happens at once right?!

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265287/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265288/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265289/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Sorry if the pic is sideways, I'm on my phone and can't work out how to move it! All Thank you teacher / childminder cakes as it's the last week of term here.

Look forward to seeing everyone's creations x

A

Thank you!! Thanks for sharing your blog I've saved it to my home screen it will make for some lovely reading!!

Ana, sorry to hear about your house. My youngest daughter went through that 2 weeks ago...fortunately they go another offer almost right away and it looks like this one is working out. Hope you get another offer soon!

I adore your teacher cakes! Not to use a pun but they are SO sweet! 

Thank you both for the photo support! I post on Monday's when I'm not actively traveling.

Cat

ACat! I'm nosey (lol) and looked at your cats cakes blog. I love that post about the different wedding cakes and price points. I am going to share it to my company Facebook if that's ok with you? :)

Oh please do share away! Always feel free to share any of my websites!

This is my first ice cream sundae cake.  Anaelisabethlee, I absolutely love your crayon cake - so cute!  How did you do the chalkboard writing?  Is that an edible print?

ACat can't wait to see the Hot Wheel cake.

Ana love your cakes and cupcakes especially the little bookworm.

Pastrybaglady I think I need a sundae now.

I am making the pigs and hot tub cake for tomorrow. It's for my mom's birthday. I already made the pigs hope it turns out half as good as the original. Post picture when I am done.

Looking forward to seeing more cakes. :)

ASome teacher cupcakes and a kickboxer this week! [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265410/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265411/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265412/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

ACat!! Good for you for answering your call to action for Icing Smiles! I just signed up last week for Icing Smiles Canada and am patiently and eagerly waiting for my call to action!!!

AAwesome cakes guys! I had two orders this week again nothing too complicated but fun none the less! [IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265511/width/350/height/700[/IMG] [IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265512/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

Fabulous cakes this week !!  You guys are so advanced in your decorating.

This is my first experiment with fondant/tylose butterflies.  I used powdered colors to paint with a dry brush on the blue ones - didn't really do it very well (live and learn)  The white ones I simply painted the body and tipped the wings with gold/vodka and let dry.

also my first experiment with making fondant balls, as I hate hard dragees on food.  What a pain rolling balls lol.

AMB, your butterflies are beautiful! I did hand piped chocolate butterflies last week and I used pearlescent jelly beans for the bodies. I realized later because of the fat bodies they looked more like moths than butterflies!

Wow! The cakes from just this morning are WONDERFUL!  I love the Sundae cake! That standing kickboxer is amazing! LOVE all the cupcakes. You guys put SO much more into them than I do! The Juke Box is too fun and the doll beautiful. I am making a guess that it's Tiana? Lovely. 

Matty: how wonderful for you to try to get a cake to that little boy. It looked wonderful. That is why I always take photos before delivery...just in case something happens! I have only  had one cake travel well on a plane and it was in my cake safe. 

Today's delivery is just across town. About to head out now but wanted to share it with you guys first!

Everything except the cars are edible. The cars are attached with orange royal icing and I'm praying it stays solid for the car ride over!

Cat

This is my only cake this weekend, but I must say I am VERY proud with the way it turned out. I designed it myself too.

Its a Marilyn Monroe themed birthday cake.

I hand painted Marilyn Monroe, the shoe is edible also except for the blind. Sticking those pearls around the plaque took some time though haha.

AGreat job everyone!

Here's the one cake I completed this week for my moms b-day. I ended up rushing to complete so it didn't turn out nearly as pretty as it should have and I started another cake that I'll have to do over. I won't say what it was, but hopefully I'll be able to post it next Friday or Saturday and get some feedback!

[IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265643/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

SweetShop and Sha1col...those are both truly wonderful cakes. 

Sweet: You hand painted Marilyn? I'm in awe of that sort of talent. I can barely sketch my cakes out! LOL!

Sha: I'm sure your mom loved her "rose" cake. It's just lovely.

Cat

A[@]catlharper[/@] thank you! :D

AAll the cakes are wonderful but my favorite is by far the Marilyn Monroe cake. It is now on my to do list, but u think I will stencil it on.

Here is mine. It turned out better than I thought.

[IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3265697/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Great cakes everyone.  I can't get over how spoilt some of your teachers are.  I think the teachers here would have fallen over with shock if I had presented them with cakes like I see here.

Sweetshop your painting is amazing.

MB I love the way you added the little balls and flowers as well as the butterflies.  They have added real movement to the cupcakes.

Mariane, gotta love the pig cake.  I did it for an adult breakfast last year and everyone cracked up when they saw it.

Had a girl from work ask me to make her a cake this week, said she would pay.  I laughed and told her that she couldn't afford me, that I would not be paid cheaply, if I was charging, and that she had bigger things to be putting her money towards.  She is pregnant and it was for a baby shower and she does not earn a lot.  Anyway I turned up to work with this baby topper and cupcake toppers for her a couple of days later and told her to have her mother make a cake and put it on top.  She was over the moon as she had decided that she really couldn't afford even what the cheaper ladies charge.  It turned out her girlfriends had bought some cheap plastic ornaments to put on a cake, so now she has something special.  I enjoyed doing it, I like her and it was so worth it to see the surprised look on her face and the gratitude.

The baby originally had a beautiful set of sugarveil lace butterfly wings (Claire Bowman mat) but it rained and in the humidity they sagged and stuck so I peeled them off.

Oh, I forgot to add that I was the head honcho demonstrator at our cake decorating club this weekend.  First I attempted (note the word attempted) to show them how to use onlays (which I  have only ever done twice in my life) and couldn't get the icing to the right thickness.  It didn't really matter, they got the idea and none of them had ever seen or heard of onlays before (they are not computer savvy at all).  Then I showed them Jessica Harris' wax paper transfer method, which I might add I have NEVER done before, just watched the Craftsy video.  It worked perfectly and is so easy and I am so excited about trying it now on a real cake.  I thought they would all want to try the wax paper method, but NO, everyone went for the onlays (fortunately I have half a dozen).  Emmy had rubberbands on her rolling pin that turned out to be the perfect thickness so there were several successful tries.  I must confess that I have an electric pasta machine sitting on the table next to me at home and am not used to having to roll things out to specific thicknesses.  Anyway everyone had a good time and I have introduced them to a couple of new techniques.

A

If that's your idea of "nothing too complicated, . . ."

(My Apollo Day cake is still waiting to be baked, frosted, and the edible print mounted.)