I logged in to CC to check out FNCC only to read that @catlharper ‍  had issues starting it up this week so I thought I'd see if I could get it rolling. Looking forward to seing what everyone has been up to :-) 

I'll post my creations once I get pictures put together.

Kelly

Since there was no FNCC last week, I'll start with the cake I did for last Sat.  I made a 40th birthday cake for a friend of my brother.  He is a bow hunter so his wife requested a hunting themed cake.  She had no real vision for the design so it was left in my hands. The bottom tier I did in (hunter's) orange and then drew a hunting silouette with edible marker.  The second tier I made to look like a tree stump following a tutorial by Zoes Fancy Cakes for the bark.  As the topper I made a set of deer antlers from modeling chocolate and then painted them with gel paste.  I wanted to have an arrow in the cake & came up with the idea to make it look as though it was shot through a piece of paper with Happy Birthday on it.  I tore the edges of the fondant to give it a weathered appearance and the arrow is modeled after those that the birthday boy uses.  When I delivered it I didn't get the reaction I was hoping for from the wife so I was afraid that I didn't produce what she was hoping for.  Thankfully she sent me an email a few days later to say how much they liked it and that the birthday boy refused to cut it the night of the party. Lol

This week I made a gingerbread cake for the Chemistry Club's Christmas potluck.  I made simple gingerbread cookie houses to go around the cake and then made a 3D gingerbread cookie house for the topper.  I used a snowflake cutter/plunger set to make fondant snowflakes that I dusted with some luster dust and placed them around the cake as well. Simple design but I really liked it.

My second cake was for a graduation ring ceremony for St. Francis Xavier University.  I had made a birthday cake for the same girl a couple months back and she liked it so much that she asked me to do this one for her as well.  Her request was for drip cake that was gold in color with black drips and some shiny sprinkles and the "X" ring on top.  The ring I made with modeling chocolate and then airbrushed gold.  For the shiny I sprinkled some gold stars over the bkack drip and used onyx sugar around the base of the cake.  She was thrilled with it :-) 

My last project was an order for cupcake toppers for a theater themed birthday party.  She sent me pictures of what she had in mind so I just had to recreate them in silver and blue.

Pictures to follow. I hope some others chime in with their creations as well.

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Those are some really nice cakes, kstevens.  You did a really good job.  I've just been reading on the site lately because I haven't been baking anything yet.  I'm only a hobby baker, too, so I don't bake for a lot of people like most of you do.   But I sure would enjoy making some of the creations you guys do.  I've had a few health issues lately  so my baking is almost nonexistent.  I'm hoping to get some Christmas baking done, though.  But I always enjoy coming here and seeing what everyone is doing.

wow amazing cakes kstevens ur cakes are always amazing!! the cake i made this week( which i thought was due for next week!! but i managed to get it done in good time!!)  was my first hand bag cake and i thought i`d nailed it until someone pointed out a spelling mistake!! oopsie!!

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I did a cake for a fellow that is into Renaissance. He actually does jousting and this is the image on his shield.[postimage id="5845" thumb="900"]

Amazing cakes @kstevens ‍!!!

@shellbell181 ‍ sorry you didn't see the mistake in time. But am sure hardly anybody noticed as they were admiring that cake ;)

@srichmond ‍ wow...did you cut that out by hand? Good job!

I'm just back from a long day of snorkeling with my oldest and his friends to celebrate his birthday. He's very much interested in gemstones and stones in general at the moment so I thought a geode cake would be perfect. Tomorrow I'll bring some crystal cupcakes to school...It's gonna be a long night for me...

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Kstevens, I am gobsmacked. You drew that entire silhouette scene with a food safe marker/ How? I have a hard time writing on fondant without the tip making impressions or stroke marks?  I used food safe markers on my HMS Bounty cake for the signal flags and it was a challenge. How did  you pull that entire scene off?

@kstevens ‍Amazing cakes as always. Love the gingerbread house cake and the bow hunting  one. I know my husband and son would love it. 

@shellbell181 ‍love the cake and I hate when I misspell something on a cake.

@srichmond ‍ great cake

@julia1812 ‍ one of these days I would like to do a geode cake.

i baked a gingerbread house and will put it together later this week. Working on baking cookies for my Christmas party next Saturday.

@shellbell181 ‍ Your cake looks great!  Fabulous job on the leopard print! Spelling mistakes are my greatest fear. So sorry it happened to you.

@srichmond ‍ you did an awesome job on the shield!

@julia1812 ‍ snorkeling....I'm jealous as we are heading in to winter here.  Our temperatures have dropped and we got a light dusting of snow overnight.  Your geode cake is very pretty.  I like the touches of silver.

Thanks everyone for the comments on my cakes :-)   @gscout73 ‍ I use Ameri Color Gourmet Writers.  I used a very light touch to draw the image and then used the marker kind of on it's edge when coloring in if that makes sense.  It covers a larger area at a time and seems to help blend plus avoids digging in to the fondant. I avoid using the very tips of the markers when coloring in. If you zoom in on the image you can see a bit of the strokes but for the most part it worked well.  I find it also helps if you let the fondant firm up a bit before drawing. 

Thank you, kstevens, you did an amazing job drawing that on there. I teach archery, indoor and out, compound and recurve, and love that cake!!!

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@julia1812 ‍ Snorkeling?! Can you adopt me?!! @gscout73 ‍ - you as well? I love archery, but am no good at it LOL. Comes to think of it, I only indulge in that love when I go to RenFests, using their plank-and-twig bows :-) Speaking of renfests,

@srichmond ‍ I bet the jouster was happy! The shield looks great!

@kstevens ‍   - beautiful designs, very unique. I always love seeing what you come up with. 

For me, I am busy this week with three cakes, nothing too fancy. Hopefully they will be appreciated where they go to. And hopefully no problems with assembly and such today - it is just a 2-tier, so shouldn't be too much trouble to put together.  

@LelekBolek ‍ hahaha! It's actually way less exciting when you can do it all the time...but the kids are still happy to go and as we are heading towards summer (which means it get even hotter - if that's possible lol) it was nice and refreshing. One of the few positive things to do when you live on the equator and the Indian Ocean right at your house ;) 

@LelekBolek ‍ hahaha! It's actually way less exciting when you can do it all the time...but the kids are still happy to go and as we are heading towards summer (which means it get even hotter - if that's possible lol) it was nice and refreshing. One of the few positive things to do when you live on the equator and the Indian Ocean right at your house ;) I'll happily take you on as my third child!

@julia1812 ‍ you are KILLING me! I grew up (partially) in Laos and Burma, traveling for my dad's job. We frequented the bay of Bengal for holidays, specifically a place called Sandoway - now Ngapali resort... It used to be a lot simpler back then when, since I'm talking mid-70s - early-1980s. I wasn't old enough in Laos to remember much, but remember some. Burma though, I remember well. And Sandoway was where I started snorkeling. I remember January being insanely hot. Once, we had a front windshield of our 1980'-ish Datsun bust into fine pieces from the difference of temperatures of the outside and the A/C inside! 

Since then, I've visited Maldives long ago, and had a fantastic snorkeling and scuba experience. 

But I am holding the trip back to SE Asia for later, when my kids are old to remember it. And when I win lottery and can afford a long, long, expensive trip, for it makes no sense to hop all the way there from where I live now, in the States, for a weekend. 

Yes, it's great for the kids growing up here although we are in Kenya not Burma. We are right at the sea but the Masai Mara with all it's wildlife is always worth a weekend getaway ;). Those things make up for all the negatives we are dealing with here.....

@julia1812 ‍ Yeah, I figured that "heading into summer" was too improbable to be from the same exact region as Burma :-)  But still, the Indian Ocean and the tropics have a special place in my childhood memories. I looked up Masai Mara: pretty wild stuff!!! :-)