Winkinpa's Cake Central Gallery

50Th Birthday - Gold And Glorious

I made this for a friend's 50th birthday. I used a crackle finish I learned in a craftsy class except that I did it over ganache instead of fondant. It worked well though I modified things a bit as I went to make it work. I was originally thinking gold leaf but I think this worked out even better. I did a 2:1 ganache with Callebaut chocolate. The chocolate was amazing, but it was a bit hard to cut... just too firm and rich. It tasted wonderful. The cake was red velvet... not my favorite but the birthday boy's request. I made modeling chocolate for the first time as well... and first time making roses. I was happy with the result. We added the candles at the end... I took a $3 mini chandelier from Target and spray painted it gold... loved how it fit in with the mood.

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Winkinpa

Quilted Anniversary Cake

My friend Becky and I decorated this cake for her parents 50th Anniversary. We started out using a imprint mat for the quilting but it wasn't distinct enough. So we went over the lines with a fondant embosser. Love to hear how others do their quilting.

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Winkinpa

Under The Sea

A friend's daughter was crazy for me to teach her how to decorate a cake. We settled on doing an under the sea theme (no movie relation). The finished product was a little more decorated than I would like, but it was fun and she was ecstatic with the results. We accidentally came upon the technique of marbling our decorations. An accident turned into redoing all of it that way. MUCH more interesting and realistic. We purposely did not blend the fondant color super well so it had more of a feeling of water.

Winkinpa

Lace Birthday Cake

This was a cake for a friend at work. First try with lace fondant work and molding with fondant. The keys were TOUGH to unmold and paint, but they came out well. The keys were relevant because they are the symbol of our office. The fondant was done with an imprint mat to add extra detail.

Winkinpa

Topsy Turvy Cake

First major attempt at a layered fondant decorated cake. Had not mastered the bulge and this cake really suffered for it. Also the cake did not have the proper support so it was not great in that way either. I used the big straws but it wasn't enough. I did love the decorations - using the sugar paper was fun and the pop-outs were fun! Now this would be so much nicer, but we learn from our mistakes! This was made with slanted pans not sculpted cakes. I am not sure which was better.

Winkinpa

Baby Shower

First time for a few techniques... making a baby (in fondant... be good guys!), fondant overlays. All worked nicely. Now I know to use a pasta roller with a lot of cornstarch. Here I rolled the overlays by hand. MUCH faster with the pasta machine. This was my "chocolate neopolitan" cake... one layer of milk chocolate, one of red velvet and one of dark chocolate fudge. Very cool look and a bit of a surprise inside. Just a note - no more bulges on my cakes since I started putting a chimney hole in the top and pushing the cakes down. You can see how this one bulged. It made me crazy!

Winkinpa

My Wedding Cake Adventure

trying this again... This was a wedding cake for my son and daughter in law. Weeks of obsessing and 25+ hours of labor was a labor of love. Quite the cake - a 16" layer of lemoncello, a 12" layer of red velvet (with mini-chips in icing), an 8" carrot cake and a 6" dark chocolate fudge layer with crème d'menthe icing. Only problem was the edible lace veil that I made melted in the humidity of the day. But the flavors were a huge success! One problem I always had was bulging sides with my fondant. Pushing on the cake layers before the crumb coat and poking a chimney in the top let all the air out and the sides stayed straight. Only lesson for next time is my cake supports were just a bit high... i'll take that!