Sunday, October 31, 2010

A Topsy Turvey Halloween Wedding Cake


How fun is this??? My client found a cake online that was originally done by Freed's Bakery in Las Vegas. It was replicated by Pink Cake Box and now, by Truly Custom Cakery, LLC. Why mess with perfection? When you find a good design, sometimes, you should just go with it! There are some small differences from one interpretation to the next, but overall, the design retains its integrity.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

STATS: Pound Cake with Buttercream filling. Iced in buttercream and covered with fondant. The cake is airbrushed. The leaves are a fondant/gumpaste mix. The pumpkins are fondant/gumpaste mix as well. The tree is royal icing. The moon is fondant painted with gel color. Bats are fondant.
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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Tutorials & Recipes

I'm going to try sometime in the near future to organize all the tutorials and recipes I've posted over the past few years. In the meantime, if you aren't a member of my Facebook Page and LOVE decorated sugar cookies, head on over there for a great tutorial that we shared courtesy of Sugarbelle! She makes the BEST and MOST ADORABLE sugar cookies I've ever seen. I just love getting her blog updates. I sit there, stare, and dream about being that good!



To see more of Sugarbelle's amazing cookies, you can visit her blog here: http://sweetsugarbelle.blogspot.com/

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

A Golden Anniversary and Two Birthday's!

Congratulations to The Wibel's who celebrated not only their Fiftieth Anniversary but also their Birthday's!


STATS: Pound Cake with Raspberry Filling. Iced in buttercream and covered in fondant. The swags were made using a homemade mold of a very pretty pin that I found. The gardenias are gum paste. The whole cake is airbrushed with an ivory pearl spray.

Not only did they get the Anniversary cake, but when their daughter contacted me, she asked for three cakes for the event. They didn't want to overlook their Birthday's so we worked together on the designs to create a special Birthday cake for each of them as well.

STATS: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Gananche. Iced in buttercram and covered in fondant. The detail pieces on the top of the cake are all hand sculpted of fondant/gumpaste. The cake itself was airbrushed with a light blue pearl spray and accented with little pearls to look like bubbles.


STATS: White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Buttercream filling. Iced in buttercream and covered in fondant. The base is airbrushed green and then it graduates to blue. The detail pieces are a combination of fondant/gumpaste. The grass is royal icing.

It was so rewarding to work on these cakes for them. This week was absolutely chaotic and yet, despite the total chaos, God provided me with an amazing amount of peace and organization. Thankfully, all the cakes went out successfully and everyone was absolutely thrilled. You can't ask for a better week than that! I know I sure can't!
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An Anniversary Cake for a Very Special Couple!


Congratulations to Ralph & Anne-Marie Crance! They were surprised by their children with a 50th Anniversary Party and a very special Cake. Anne-Marie carried Calla Lillie's in her Wedding Bouquet so her daughter asked that they be incorporated into the cake somehow. The party invitations had a damask print on them so we also incorporated a little of that look as well.

STATS: White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Raspberry Filling, Double Chocolate Cake with Mocha Filling, and Raspberry Swirl Pound Cake with Chocolate Ganache Filling. Cake is iced in buttercream and covered with fondant. The damask pattern was applied using a stencil and royal icing. The flowers are gum paste. The middle tier is quilted and gold dragees are placed at the intersections.
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An Adorable Halloween Themed Birthday Cake!


This cake was inspired by the party invitations and a cake that my client found that she really liked. The little monsters are all inspired by the invitations. They are such cute little monsters that it wasn't hard to make this cake adorable!





STATS: Pound Cake with Buttercream Filling. Iced in Buttercream and covered in fondant. The cake is airbrushed with a deep blue violet and sprinkled with a little rainbow disco dust. The detail pieces are all fondant/gumpaste.

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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Golf Anyone? A week of theme cakes dominated by golf fans!

It's very rare to have a week where the bulk of the themes are the same unless of course it's Holiday Season. However, this past week was filled with golf! In fact, out of 4 cakes, 3 of them included a golf theme. One was a wedding cake, one a grooms cake, and another a Birthday Cake. And they were all for different clients.

The first I'm going to show you is a grooms cake. I'm showing it first because it's a sports themed grooms cake that includes golf. And of course, with the Phillies doing so well this year, it was even sweeter. They won the night I worked on the cake (which must have been because of me. *wink*) No, I didn't watch the game. I am a rare breed. I live in a home that does not follow sports. My husband is into working with his hands, cars, motorcycles, fishing... but not sports. I consider myself a very lucky woman!


STATS: Pound Cake with Homemade Raspberry filling. Iced in Buttercream and covered in fondant. The ball cap is carved out of pound cake. The brim is cardboard covered in fondant. The details are gum paste, royal icing, and edible images.

This next cake is a wedding cake. The topper was purchased by the couple from a Polymer Clay Artist. This was the first time I put figures on a cake that were sculpted but NOT by me. It worked out well as this was a last minute order and the figures had already been made by the time I was brought into the picture.

The couple got married at Ringing Rocks Park in Upper Black Eddy. There is a field of rock as well as waterfalls which makes it a really fascinating destination. If you are local and haven't made a trip there, you should go! And don't forget to bring your hammers! The high iron content in some of the rocks actually makes them ring like bells when hit with a hammer. The kids have a blast. I recommend NOT getting hammers from the dollar store as we lost several hammer heads down in the rocks when they fell off.

They asked that the location of the wedding be tied in with the golf theme. Of course having the topper provided also added inspiration. I decided to use the color pallet of the topper to tie everything together and am really pleased with the outcome.


STATS: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganach for the bottom tier, Vanilla Cake and Raspberry Filling for middle tier, and Chocolate Chip Pound cake with Chocolate Ganache for the top tier. Iced in buttercream and covered in fondant. The waterfall is piping gel, the rocks are fondant, grass is royal icing, and roses are fondant.


This next cake is a Birthday Cake. My client wanted to get a cake for her golf fanatic husband. But instead of just putting him on the cake golfing, wanted to include their two boys. The oldest child enjoys golfing with Daddy and the baby will be out there with them shortly so he got to go along in the golf cart. This was my 2nd golf cart. I often don't like doing cakes a 2nd time because they never turn out the same, but you definitely get better at some things with repetition and this cart turned out so much cleaner and more streamlined than the first. Gotta love that!

STATS: Double Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mint Buttercream. Iced in Buttercream and covered with fondant. The figures are a mix of fondant and gum paste. The golf cart is also a mix.

The final cake is a Laptop Birthday Cake. The Birthday girl is a fan of iCarly so her mom provided a picture of her wearing an iCarly shirt to be the screen of the laptop. Isn't it such a pretty and very girlie laptop!?

STATS: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache filling. Iced in Buttercream and covered in fondant. The screen of the laptop is non-edible. The decor on the laptop is piped buttercream.

Happy Caking!


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Friday, October 1, 2010

Win a $50.00 gift certificate to Truly Custom Cakery, LLC or a 2.5lb tub of Truly Custom Crunch!


Mama Cheaps and I met a while back at a mutual friends baby shower. I was too funny because I had recently taken up blogging to chronicle my cake journey and she and her sister were discussing of all things "blogging". We got to talking, exchanged cards, and the rest is History! I've gotten some FANTASTIC deals through Mama Cheaps research. And quite frankly with the economy, budget living, and my penny pinching, her site is right up my alley! YOU MUST check out her website, sign up for the newsletter, and take advantage of all the fantastic deals and offers that are available to you. Besides, if you save money on the necessities, you have more money for the fun stuff, like CAKE!!!

The following post comes directly from Mama Cheaps Website.

truly custom cakery

Sometimes you just fall into some good. Very good.

I was first introduced to Stacey, owner of Truly Custom Cakery, several years ago. She was a good friend of a friend. I remember talking to her about a business that she had recently started- her own cake shop. She gave me her business card and I came home and pulled up her shop's blog on my computer. To put it plainly: I was blown away. One of my guilty pleasures is to watch those cake design/decorating shows on TLC, mostly Ace of Cakes. The cakes that I saw on Stacey's site were easily on par with some of the neatest cakes that I have seen on TV. They are that beautiful and creative.

Then in April my sister ordered a mini cake for her daughter's first birthday. She wanted her daughter on top along with their 2 dogs. The cake was over-the-top cute- attention to detail and skill were obvious.

avas first birthday cakeBut how many times do you encounter a beautifully designed cake that ALSO tastes delicious? In my experience, it's pretty rare. Not with Truly Custom Cakery. Ava's 1st Birthday mini cake was double chocolate with buttercream icing. My sister was nice enough to send us home with leftovers. SO UNBELIEVABLY GOOD! Tasty and moist- perfection.

So this year when we decided to throw a triple birthday party for myself, Biker Bob AND Lily Bean (all of our birthdays are in September!) it was a no-brainer that we needed a Truly Custom Cakery cake at our party. I called Stacey and we decided on a size and flavor. After that I told her that I just wanted something super fun. I mentioned that we were calling the party "Weaverpalooza"- so she could take that theme and run with it. Run she did! Check out this cake!!

truly custom cakery cake

birthday party cake

Tasted GREAT, looked AMAZING, totally impressed our guests. We couldn't have been happier!

Truly Custom Cakery is also the genius behind a succulent concoction called Truly Custom Crunch. Truly Custom Crunch is an "irresistible combination of pecans, almonds, and popcorn, coated with caramel toffee and drizzled with rich dark chocolate."

Need I say more?

truly custom crunch

It should come as no surprise to you that Truly Custom Cakery was recently named the #1 Philadelphia Cake Shop beating out 21 other competitors on Philly's Hot List. They've always been my #1 pick and I am so excited that the word is getting out about how amazing their cakes and crunch are.

Their prices also surprised me. Don't expect to take a 2nd mortgage out just to afford one of these creations. These cakes are a total triple threat- they look great, they taste even better and the price tag won't break the bank.

To celebrate their Philly Hot List victory, Truly Custom Cakery wants to give 1 lucky Mama Cheaps reader a 2.5 lb package of Truly Custom Crunch shipped to their door. If a local reader wins, they may choose between the Truly Custom Crunch or a $50 gift certificate towards a cake purchase!


How to enter:


:: MANDATORY: Go check out Truly Custom Cakery's Cake Portfolio. Tell me which cake it your very favorite! Leave a comment HERE with that info.



Earn bonus entries:


:: "Like" Truly Custom Cakery on Facebook. Head over to Truly Custom Cakery's page on Facebook and click "LIKE." Leave a comment HERE telling me you did so.


:: “Like” Mama Cheaps on Facebook. Head over to our page on Facebook and click “LIKE.” Leave a comment HERE telling me you did so.






This giveaway is open to anyone from the United States who is 18 years or older. It will run from today, 10/1/10, until Friday, 10/8/10 at 8 PM EST. One winner will be chosen via random number generator on random.org.


All opinions are 100% ours. The cakes mentioned above were purchased by us from Truly Custom Cakery. Truly Custom Cakery provided us with a free sample of Truly Custom Crunch. Truly Custom Cakery is responsible for providing the winner’s prize.




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