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 some fun cakes this week!

Cat

Hi Everyone! 

Lots of baseball in my life right now. Our 13 year old plays and we spent the afternoon watching him play and now we are watching the World Series hoping our Giants can pull this game out in the end.  I was supposed to be caking but due to some sad news for my client, the Halloween party was cancelled. Since the reason was out of her control I told her that I would give her half off of her cake next time. She's a regular client so that will work for her. BUT I have a tombstone, a skeleton hand and some raven feathers just sitting here so I may make a dummy version of the cake next week just so this work doesn't go to waste. I'm going to use the cake ingredients to make snickerdoodle cupcakes for my son's team on Sunday instead. I always bring a couple of dozen for the team at some time in the season so I might as well do so now. 

So since I had a bunch of free time this week, unexpectedly, I started working on my Christmas crafts. I always handcraft a lot of our gifts for the grownups so that everyone ends up with something small except the kids who still get something purchased as well as something made. I make up small "baskets" that have one handcrafted item and then a bunch of baked goods for the family. Anyone else do this?

Tomorrow is Pumpkin Patch time. It's supposed to rain so that might be postponed...Happy to see rain if we get it! California is starved for water right now so I really, really don't mind. 

Hope everyone had a simply wonderful week and can't wait to see what you have been up to!

Cat

AHi Cat, isn't it nice to have some unexpected free time? I'm also busy with Christmas crafts with I sell at fairs and just between us, it's a nice change to do something else for a few weeks

Glad to hear that someone else gets into the Christmas crafting too! My hubby said he wants me to do a craft fair next year! LOL! Looks like it was just us this week...odd. Hope others chime in today.

NO FNCC NEXT WEEK. IT'S HALLOWEEN! Please enjoy your holiday and I'll catch you back here on the 7th!

Cat

AHi cat! Enjoy your unexpected time off! :) Your handmade baskets sound beautiful!

This has been one of my busiest weeks and i am so caked out! Glad i have the weeknd off! Yay :)

Here are my cakes: For a friend's son who loves basketball and who is in his school's varsity team [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3298439/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

For my daughter's 9month birthday!! Such a fun cake to make! [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3298440/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

For a friend's daughter who loves spongebob! [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3298441/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3298443/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Oh my gosh...that ghost cake is one of the cutest things I have ever seen! Adorable doesn't quite cover it!  Have a great weekend eating cake!

Cat

AOh I would LOVE some free time, especially to do craftsy things :) Love the ghost! I've been a bit absent of late, but had two orders this weekend which I can't yet post on my FB page since the events aren't til tomorrow and Tuesday. But no harm here huh!? [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3298500/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

This one the mama to be has been calling her bubba "lil muffin" throughout her pregnancy, so we went for the cute muffin Japanese type cartoony thing.

[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3298502/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AI haven't done much crafty stuff for the holidays lately, but for about the last 6 years I have what I call an open house where everyone stops by for homemade cookies, candies, and finger foods. After years of bakin cookies and fixing baskets I find this a little easier.

As always Matty your cakes are wonderful, but my favorite is the ghost.

Anaelisabethlee I love both cakes, but the mufffin one is so cute.

Anaelisabethlee....LOVE the muffin! SO cute. Your version of the FROZEN cake is gorgeous! I love how you went out of the powder blue color box! Perfect!

I just spent the past 2 hours painting tealight holders...time to run off to the Pumpkin Patch!

Cat

AOh wow, i love your Frozen cake anaelisabethlee!! So pretty!!! :) and the Lil Muffin cake is so cute!

I think the muffin cake is quite clever anaelisabethlee.

Mattty, all your cakes look like they would have been fun to make.

Finally the wedding has come and gone and I can start working on other things.  Have started baking my Christmas fruit cakes.  Have an idea for another 'disaster Santa' cake again this year so will need to start working on that to see if it is achievable.

Posted the 110 frangipanis on MBs wired leaf thread but here is the cake.  I made the top cake for the cupcake tower and all the frangipanis. Another friend made the cupcakes.   Went in to melt down when I discovered on tipping the cake up the right way at the 3 hour of frilling mark that all the frills had dropped out.  Not impressed.  Still looked fine and there was not much to be done so I left it.  I notice on the internet a lot of cakes with straight frills like this one.  Bride loved it, and who can complain anyway when it is a wedding present.

When I got to the reception someone had already set the tower up with the frangipanis on and the cake on the top.  I had planned on putting dill leaves amongst the cupcakes to give them more life but wasn't going to pull it all to bits.  I was a bit worried as the table was on a lean, and hence the cake, but it felt stable enough.  Heaps more frangipani cupcakes were on cake stands.  I took inspiration for the cake from Kara's Couture Cakes.

@mattyeatscakes you're cakes are going to make some children very happy!  They are perfectly detailed.

@anaelisabethlee those cakes are darling.  The little red headed girl is so well sculpted and what a face.  Great job.

@cazza1 I can't say enough how lovely  your flowers look, and how much I've enjoyed your tutoring.

@catlharper  Go San Fran  I'd love to visit their stadium.  Has anyone ever made a carved pumpkin thread?  That would be fun.

• anaelisabethlee - gorgeous cakes, I love the muffin!

 

• mattyeatscakes - love that ghost cake, so cute!

 

• cazza1 - such pretty frangipanis   :)

 

 

My efforts this week were all on a huge art deco cake for a wedding yesterday.  The theme was Gatsby, the room had a beautiful champagne saucer tower and I loved the gramophone that the bride provided as a cake stand!!

 

Congrats on some non-busy time, @catlharper! Snickerdoodle cupcakes sound fantastic!!

@cazza1 - glad you survived the flower making, and they look great. So detailed.

@mattyeatscakes - love the little ghost, she's adorable!

@me_me1 - the art deco cake is awesome! The cake stand was a very cool addition.

Have a SAFE and fun Halloween, everyone!

2 cakes, old Wilton designs, chosen by the organizers, donated to Breast Cancer Awareness month bake sale fundraisers. Fun, pressure free!

Hi everyone! The Pumpkin Patch was brilliant! We had such a good time and I started in painting my pumpkins right away! The guys have to wait to carve theirs till Thursday afternoon but I get to play immediately! We can't do a carved pumpkin thread here on CC (it's all cakes) but if you guys want to see mine you can check them out on Friday at my FB site. www.facebook.com/thecherryontopevents and see the ones I've painted and the ones they have carved. Feel free to guide us all to wherever yours are on display online so we can go look at them!

Cazza...your cake and cupcakes are gorgeous! I am sorry someone set it up for you..that's really something I like to do myself too. But rest assured it's just stunning!

And speaking of stunning...

Me_Me1...that's a beautiful Great Gatsby cake! And how wonderful that they had a set up so grand to spotlight your cake!

MBAlaska...the SF Giants park is amazing! SO beautiful with a view of the Bay...really nice. And they kicked butt last night! YEA!

Autumnwind...thanks for the laugh this morning! Both cakes are laugh out loud funny! SO great! Seriously wonderful work on Dracula! I know you said they are mold pans but I actually have more trouble with those than just hand carving! All those stars on Dracula make my hands hurt just looking at them...so cudos to you!

Have a great Sunday everyone. More baseball for us. Jack has a game at 1pm...thus the cupcakes. 

Have a great Halloween and if you do stop by my Facebook page say HI!

Cat

Hi everyone,

I just had this grown up cupcake cake this week. It was very last minute for a friend - she asked Wednesday for a cupcake cake, and we finalized the design Thursday for a Friday delivery.  Nothing else on the books for now, but my daughter has a end of season soccer party that I'll be bringing something to in a couple of weeks.

TFL

M

Nicely done Melmar02! I've never done a grown up cupcake cake and I love what you did there!

The cupcakes went well...but then snickerdoodle always makes the kids happy. The game was great..they won by 15 runs and Jack scored like crazy. Now time for the World Series! GO GIANTS!

Cat

@me_me1  that is a Gatsby cake that really expresses the art deco theme.   It looks like it took forever to make. How tall was that skyscraper?

@autumnwind  very cute, and they're perfect for a charity donation.  Oldies but goodies are fun, and it's kind of  you to make it for their event.

@catlharper  Those gourd tea candle holders are very cool.  Nicely sized rather for the table.  I didn't know that you had a blog with your cake photos, the pinwheel cake was unique and eye catching.  ( 7th inning and the Giants are ahead!)  "everyone stand up and sing 'take me out to the ballpark'".

@melmar02 That is a really interesting way to do a cupcake design.  For a last minute fix-up you really did great.  The cactus bits are perfect accents for the tequila.  I love the piped border.

@MBalaska The cake blog is a hit or miss but I update the FB for The Cherry On Top Events every day and all of my cakes are featured there as well. I love finding new crafts to do that are easy and inexpensive. If I look at it and think the craft has too many steps then I won't pass it along to the audience. Often I will do the craft myself after posting the original idea and then share that too!  I started out in photography, then had my son and got into my daughters party planning biz as a creative director...the cakes came from there. I was always "that" Aunt who made the fun cakes but didn't get serious about it till about 6 years ago. Now I can't learn enough about this art form! It's just SO much fun! When you say "pinwheel" cake do you mean the yellow and grey wedding cake or the 4th of July cake? Either way, Thanks!

Cat

ps. Let's GO GIANTS!!! (Everybody sing!) Let's GO GIANTS!!!!

• MBalaska - it certainly felt like it took forever!  The double barrels were both around the 8" mark, and the other two tiers were on the 4" mark, so a good 24" just in cake, and then the wonderful gramophone cake stand added quite a bit of extra height.  The whole thing (table included) was much taller than I am and I'm 5'8"!

 

ACazza love your flowers.

Me_me1 that cake is breathe taking.

Autumnwind love the Dracula cake.

Melmar02 that is fun adult cupcake cake.

Have a wonderful week.

Wow... the cakes this week are spectacular! I especially loved these....

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattyeatscakes 




For my daughter's 9month birthday!! Such a fun cake to make!


For a friend's daughter who loves spongebob!

Quote:

Originally Posted by anaelisabethlee 

Oh I would LOVE some free time, especially to do craftsy things
Love the ghost!
I've been a bit absent of late, but had two orders this weekend which I can't yet post on my FB page since the events aren't til tomorrow and Tuesday. But no harm here huh!?


This one the mama to be has been calling her bubba "lil muffin" throughout her pregnancy, so we went for the cute muffin Japanese type cartoony thing.

So much love and admiration for all of these cakes.  I  can't even express how happy the ghost and the cupcake cakes me.  Cazza's flowers are beyond beautiful and Annaelisabethlee the Frozen cake is perfect!

And oh yes, Cat, I'm with you - LET'S GO GIANTS! clap clap clapclapclap! One more!

Here's my latest cake:

It was just covered with dark chocolate ganache because I ran out of bothered-ness before putting any fondant on, but I quite like the colours.  Unfortunately I am having problems with my ganache forming lumps as it cools - anyone got any suggestions?  You can see the lumps are paler but I ran out of time and energy to try melting my ganache again.

The centre of the cake was carved out and filled with Skittles as a surprise for the birthday girl who loves Skittles and ladybirds.

@LizzieAylett  Your ganache looks like it was smoothed by a space age robot.  How in the world did you get it so perfect? The colors are nice and the little lady bugs are adorable.

I used to use a sieve to get the lumps of unmelted chocolate out of my pouring ganache, but if you're making thicker ganache it probably won't work.

Thank you, MB.  I use the upside-down technique which does give a nice sharp edge.  I just use a reasonably thick consistency of ganache for my first coat, then heat it up a bit for a second coat.  The lumps cause me trouble because they catch on my scraper and get dragged round the cake as I scrape to smooth.  I try to pick the big ones out, but would prefer they didn't form at all.

I'm really just starting out so I don't do too many cakes yet. This week's:

(Does anyone know how to get the Chevron stripes straight? I had a difficult time with this part!)

And I'll echo others' sentiments: The ghost cake from mattyeatscakes and the muffin cake from anaelisabethlee are simply adorable! Love them! :)

Ha, I used the upside down technique on my wedding cake on the weekend and when I upped my cake the right way the ganache stuck to the mat and ripped a hole out of the top of my mud cake as it was so moist.  I patched it up with more ganache so no-one was any the wiser but I have not had this happen before.  Mind you, this is only the third time I have done it upside down.

Mazcooke it is a technique for icing or ganaching you cakes that is designed to help you get a really sharp top edge on your cake.

Mazcooke, if you do a search for upside down frosting technique, then you'll find more detailed descriptions, but it is basically that you cover a cake board (larger than your cake) with greaseproof paper, then spread your ganache or buttercream on it to cover an area just larger than your cake.  Take your ready-torted, filled and settled cake, invert it and place it on the freshly ganached board.  Spread more ganache over the sides of the cake and smooth.  Leave to set and then turn onto another cake board.  Untape the paper from the initial board, remove board and then gently peel back the paper to reveal a beautifully smooth finish!

With regards to my ganache, I mix the chocolate pieces with cream then gently microwave until it is all melted together.  I stir to get all the lumps out, and leave to cool and thicken.  It is as it cools that the lumps form.

I really want to try this technique. Making a cake next week and was going to use poured ganache, but really think I will try this. when you remove the paper do you cut around the ganache on top to get it the same size as the cake?