A Horse is a Horse, Of Course, Of Course!

This cake was for a surprise 60th Birthday for a horse lover. The client asked that her mother appear on the cake, leading a horse. So... I pulled out the modeling chocolate for my 2nd attempt at making a horse for a cake. All in all, I'm pleased with how the cake turned out. But I do have to admit that my favorite part of this cake is the horse itself. It represents so much to me.

My journey with sculpting began when I was 12 years old. I met a woman that lived down the street from me. She had a baby girl and being the baby nut that I was, I spent a lot of time at their home. During one of my afternoons at their house, I was introduced to Sculpy, polymer clay.


I turned into a real sculpting nut after that and made all kinds of miniature animals, flowers, beads, and even tiny food. I've been sculpting miniature things ever since. BUT NEVER have I ever considered myself a sculptor. Until I made this horse. Now, I feel like I've arrived. A horse that looks like a horse and not a cartoon! It was a personal accomplishment and one of which I am particularly proud.

A Rockin' Cake for a Rock Music Loving Guy

My customer ordered this cake for her son who is a big fan of Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. She asked that some of his favorite guitars appear on the cake. The guitars were cut out of gum paste and then the additional detail pieces were cut and layered on. The finishing touches were painted on.

We've been adding MORE tutorials!

This is a quickie post/note to let you know that several new tutorials have been added to our website. If you have anything you'd like us to include, please let me know by commenting at the bottom of the tutorial page. If any of the links don't work, please share that information as well. Here is the page with the new tutorials!

Happy Baking!

Just like mommy does it...

There are lots of things in life that can make us smile. But there are those moments we experience in life that not only put a smile on our faces, but also put a smile in our hearts.

Watching my 5 year old work on a project for his kindergarten class was one of those times for me. The project was to make a snowman. It could be made out of anything from Styrofoam balls to cotton to wood to noodles... But leave it to the son of a baker to choose to make his snowmen out of cookies!

And of course he's seen me working enough that when I'd try to show him how something is done, his knee jerk response was a very empathic "I KNOW!". At times it was utterly frustrating and at the same time, I watched in awe at how much my son has learned just by watching mommy work.

I thoroughly enjoyed helping him with his project. And quite frankly, there was very little he let me do! But boy oh boy did I take pictures!

So here is my son's Marshmallow Melted Snowman Cookie Project for School. Enjoy!

Icing his cookies.

Preparing the marshmallows to be "heads".

He put a little shortening on his glove (which was several sizes too big) and placed all of his marshmallows on his cookies.

This was a huge eye opening moment for me. I had no idea that he had any clue how to pipe icing. Look what an AMAZING job he did! Mommy was in SHOCK!

He drew the arms on his cookies using an edible pen. And he has seen me make so many of these silly cookies, he was spot on!


My little man showing off his skills. You'll have to ignore the noise in the background. My oldest and husband were having a wrestling match on the living room floor during taping... What can I say? I'm outnumbered by boys!



And of course we need to add the detail work. Hats, scarves, and buttons!

Finishing up.


And finally my adorable little man with his completed snowman project. I'm so proud of him! Great Job B-Man!


It's the perfect time of year for Melted Snowman Cookies. If you'd like to make some with your little bakers. You can see the full tutorial on my website HERE.

Run over to Mama Cheaps for her 2nd Anniversary and LOADS of Drawings!!!

Mama Cheaps is celebrating her 2nd Anniversary as a Money Saving Blogging Mom! Head on over to her site today and enter to win some of our famous Truly Custom Crunch!
_______________________________________
From Mama Cheaps Website:

"Pure joy in a box?

Mouth watering treat?

Succulent mood enhancer?


Yes, yes… and yes. These are all ways that I would describe Truly Custom Crunch from Truly Custom Cakery. Not only is it one of my very favorite indulgences, I love to put a bowl of it out when company comes over – it’s pretty much guaranteed to be the very first empty bowl on my table.

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 Cakery is offering one lucky Mama Cheaps reader a 1.5 lb package of Truly Custom Crunch!

This giveaway is open to anyone from the United States who is 18 years or older. It will run from today, 2/9/11, until 2/16/11 at 8 PM EST. Winner will be chosen via random number generator on random.org.

The winner will have 48 hours to reply to our email confirming their prize. If the prize is not claimed by return email within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

Truly Custom Cakery is providing the prize for this giveaway. All opinions are 100% our own."

Pink Peony's and Ribbon

One of the great things about attending shows is that you get to taste lots of Samples!!! And Samples are in abundance!!! On Thursday evening at the Savor Event to benefit Philabundance we had 3 different cake and filling combination's along with samples of our famous Truly Custom Crunch! Some of the guests sampled one flavor. Some sampled them all. And some came back for 2nd's and 3rd's. What can I say? They liked our cake!


Part of making a great display table is being creative with your samples. So I decided to incorporate my dummy cakes into my sample display and created this simple cake with a gum paste peony on it. It sat on top of the cupcake tree that served the cake samples. I loved the effect and am thrilled with how pretty the peony turned out!

Brown & Blue Baby Shower Cake.

Not all show cakes have to be "Weddingish". Whether your event is a wedding, anniversary, Birthday party, shower, or "just because", if you are celebrating something, people expect cake! So show cakes should depict a variety of themes. Since wedding cakes generally go in a more feminine direction, I decided to do a baby shower cake for a boy. And of course it needed a figure on top!

So here's the shower cake I designed. It's always fun to create my very own design without having guidelines. It allows me to think on my feet and do whatever comes to mind. I'm particularly fond of the texture on the bow and blanket as well as the little teddy bear the boy is holding.


Have I said lately how much I enjoy what I do?

A Bright, Funky, and Fun Cake. But is it Modern or Retro??

I'm not really sure how to classify this cake. I wanted to do something that was different, bright, fun, and modern. But when I look at it... I see the 70's... Kind of feel like there should be peace signs all over it. But then again... maybe it's more of a modern design... Either way... It's most definitely "out of the ordinary" for me. It was a fun cake to watch evolve. And quite honestly, I was terrified when I first started that it was going to be an utter failure. But I really like how it turned out. And apparently a lot of others liked it as well.

At the show Thursday night, it got an awful lot of attention for such a little cake! Go figure!


I started with a black background and created some strips of fondant to go up the cake in sets of 3. Pink, Green, and White were the base strip colors. From there, I used various cutters to remove sections of the fondant and replace with coordinating colors.

So what do you think? Is it modern or retro?

A Bright Fun Cake for a Special Birthday Boy!

The details on this care are fondant and royal icing. The characters were provided by the client.

This is a Red Velvet Cake with creamy, light, and fluffy chocolate chip filling! My kids each ate 2 pieces of the extra cake round I had. And I ate a slice as well!!! Gotta watch that snacking... That or I'll be watching my boo-tay! *wink*

A Spring Wedding Cake to brighten your day

This is the 3rd dummy cake I've put together for the upcoming shows. I'm trying to show a variety of techniques in the cakes I'm showing. This cake was covered in a yellow fondant and then the detail work was done in royal icing.


The flowers are silk to show the brides a more economical option for dressing up their cakes as opposed to using gum paste flowers. The topper could also be provided by the florist to coordinate with the bride's bouquet and color palette.

It's a great day to stay inside and bake!

According to the news, we got about 16" of snow in this last snowstorm. It's been a crazy winter and quite a while since I've seen some grass! My kids however are LOVING it! Enjoy the pictures!

A Contest for Philadelphia Area People that LOVE to eat and drink!!!

Win 2 tickets to SAVOR!!!!
ENTER HERE!!!

The 3rd Annual Can't Miss Food Event of the Year!!! Sample Fabulous Fare from Some of the Region's Premier Restaurants & Caterers while Sipping Luscious Libations and Listening to Live Music.

Benefits Philabundance!

Date: Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Time: 6-9PM.
Location: Crystal Tea Room, Wanamaker Building,
100 Penn Square East
Philadelphia, Pa 19107

Tickets: $20.00* / $30.00 at the door

*Open-Bar also included in ticket price.

Last Year We Collected 550 lbs of Food!

PLEASE Bring a nonperishable food item for Philabundance
& be entered to win hundreds of dollars in restaurant gift certificates!

Sponsors Include:
The Crystal Tea Room, Victory Beers, Barefoot Wines,
Philadelphia Distilling - Bluecoat Gin & PENN 1681 Rye Vodka
Select Event Rentals
Back2Life presented by Brandywine Valley Talent

SAVOR Restaurant/Food Participants to date:
A La Maison
Arbol Cafe
Avril
Bobolink Dairy & Bakeyard
Chabaa Thai Bistro
Concerto Fusion
Crystal Rose Catering
Cupcakes Gourmet
Desserts by Dana
Drexelbook Catering
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar- Radnor/Marlton
Fruit Flowers
Funky Lil' Kitchen
Green Valley Inn
Jimmy's BBQ
Mango Moon
Mediterranean Grill
Mel's on the Hill
One Village Coffee
Susanna Foo
Truly Custom Cakery
Twenty 9 Restaurant & Bar
Valley Green Inn
Waterworks Restaurant
Votre Vu
Xocai Chocolates