Banana Maple Mini Cupcakes

These are banana maple cupcakes with maple buttercream icing and topped with toasted pecans.  They were for my husband's birthday.  He loved them.  He took them to work the next day and everyone else loved them too.

3d carved Cotton mouth snake

This cake was a completely new ball game for me.  The bulk of the cake is carved into a hill that is only on one side of the board.  The other part of the board is only covered in fondant with part of the snake on it. 

When I was asked to do a cotton mouth snake, I was a little hesitant.  What I ended up doing is cutting the snake into sections, covering those sections with fondant, then adding a vine to cover the sections.  To get the colors, I decided to use all white fondant and paint everything myself.  I had never painted on a cake before so this was a first.  I also had to make that head myself.  I found pictures and had them hanging everywhere and sculpted the head, then painted it.  

Now looking back, I would do several things differently next time but overall I am very satisfied with the outcome.

Royal Icing Daisies Cake

I did this cake while I was still in classes for cake decorating.  I had just learned to make those daisies out of royal icing.  It has basic techniques like reverse shell and ruffle borders.  To show how early on this cake was, that writing wasn't even my own.  My mom was taking the classes with me and she wrote on all my early cakes.  It took me a long time to write on cakes myself because I am left handed and it just proved to be a technique that I had a lot of trouble doing.  I used to sit with a tv tray and wax paper and just write for hours in front of the tv to practice.  She probably wrote for me at least a year before I became confident enough to write on them myself.

For some reason, I have always really liked this cake.  I wish people would order cakes like this more often.  Its clean and simple.

Lt. Governor Cake

I was asked a couple years ago to do a cake for someone running for Lt. Governor of Louisiana.  I'm not big on politics but I thought this cake would be great for exposure.  I was new to fondant...and you can tell by some big fondant blunders on the cake.  I was also very new to making gumpaste flowers.  I spent 2 days trying to make gumpaste magnolias, then picked them up to put on the cake and they fell apart.  Nothing that a quick trip to Hobby Lobby couldn't fix with silk but I was really disappointed that I didn't have gumpaste flowers on the cake. Live and Learn...its not like they were paying for it.

All three cakes were fondant covered.  The Louisiana flag was blue fondant and a screen print.  I have a printer dedicated to edible printing.  This cake is one of the few times I've been able to use that thing.

Molded Chocolates Tutorials

Check out the tutorial section on June 10 for the first part of a 5 part series on making handmade molded chocolates!

Baby Shower Elephant Cake

This cake was made with the Wilton 3-d Bear pan.  I used cardboard covered in fondant for the ears and Marshmallows for the front paws.  Its on top of a 16" round with fondant leaves.  The bottom border has molded blue, chocolate baby items.