Challenge accepted.

Large & Small daisy cutter, calyx cutter

Calyx cutter, large & small daisy cutter, large circle cutter

Cake Class 3.3: Even artichokes have hearts

Last night's class was pretty simple - two flowers using the same shaped cutters and the same techniques for shaping: the mum and the daisy. 

 The daisy is nice and easy, looks like a daisy without much effort. The mum is easy but takes a while because of all of the layers. However, look at that shape. In different colors, that could be a water lily, or an artichoke. Seriously, someone's getting a cake with artichokes on it soon.

Also, I knocked out some lilies over the weekend to prepare for my final class project. Not pictured are the paper cones I made to form them when I couldn't find cone shaped paper cups anywhere.

Cake Class 3.2: Flower Power!

Happy Valentine's day if you're into that sort of thing. Last night's class was fun, because we learned how to make calla lilies, roses, and carnations. Roses and calla lilies were cool, carnations were a pain in the butt. Overall it reminded me of high school when the Peers 4 Peers would sell roses and carnations to deliver to your friends on Valentine's day. Lesson of the night: get thicker spaghetti. 

Can you see my Star Wars lunch box? 

Cake Class 3.1

Hip hip hooray, my Level 3 class wasn't cancelled! I get to play with edible Play-Doh in the middle of a craft store!

The first class was pretty low-key. We talked about the difference between gum paste and fondant (elasticity and how hard it dries). Then we made bow loops, which were ridiculously fussy. The bow loops were set aside to dry and to be assembled at home. Next we learned how to make flower bases for carnations, roses, and mums. So basically first class was just prep for the second class, but soon I will be displaying my breathtaking flower creations.

The fruits of two hours of labor.

What I did wrong

 So many things went wrong with this cake that I wasn't going to blog about it, but we should learn from our mistakes, right? The night of the Super Bowl this monstrosity happened. Let's dive in.

I promised Sheletha a turtle cake for her birthday. I was feeling lazy, so I bought a box of cake mix and a jar of caramel topping. I should have also bought a can of frosting, because I was too lazy to make buttercream to go on the cake before the fondant. Somehow I thought it would be a good idea to pour caramel on the cake instead. Fun fact: all that exposed cake you see in the picture? Yeah, the fondant didn't stick to that. All that oozing caramel running down the sides? Kept on oozing under the fondant.

Turtle cake = chocolate cake + nuts + caramel

 I wanted to take this nail polish tutorial to make a nebula design and try to recreate it on cake. I thought hey, I'll get some black fondant and do some sponge painting with frosting and it will look awesome!

Just think about how much food coloring is in that. All the food coloring, that's how much. 

 Needless to say, it did not look awesome. First, I was using makeup sponges which were much too small for my task. I should have gotten regular cleaning sponges, or even better, natural sponges. They would have given me a much better "paint" distribution instead of just smudges all over. Second, the brushes I got in my student kits...well, they suck. I need something with a finer tip and less crappy bristles to be able to paint a star that actually has points.  About the only thing that looked good was the pearl dust glitter.

That's totally what outer space looks like. Totally.

Not being one to waste food, I brought the cake to work anyway. Ugly cake still tastes good, right? That is, until your cake carrier pops open and the cake falls in the snow. -_-