some of my earlier work...

I must say that writing this blog and thinking about what to post is a bit daunting...it exposes a piece of me and my thought process to be judged by you the viewer (whoever you are...stranger, close friend/family).  People typically show off their final product....that's why editors are hired, but I choose to share with you all the steps that led me there. I got a lot of feedback from "My VERY First Blog" and a lot of you really liked that I included the process of my work. (Thanks again to those that viewed it, those that left me nice compliments, and to YOU who's reading this now!!)  Unfortunately, I am not clairvoyant and had no idea while making my earlier cakes that I would one day blog about them, so I did not  take pictures and document the process like I did with the Lakers cupcakes.  Fortunately, I do have sketches of some of my ideas and pictures of the how those cakes turned out , so that's what I will share with you here.

For New Year's Eve, I celebrated with my Damn Good Friends.  We had a Black and White party, so easily I had a color scheme to work with.  All I had to think about was the design and flavors of the cake.  To go with the Black and White theme, I decided to go with Chocolate for the "Black" and Confetti to represent the "White" with a splash of Celebration for the  New Year...that idea was my favorite concept :)  The thing I learned from making this cake was you can't turn white icing into black, no matter how much black icing color you add to it!! I should've known better, huh! It's just like mixing paints...What you do get is a funky tasting really dark grey color.  To get black, you should use a dark chocolate or fudge icing.

 

My Godson, Khyle turned 11 years old on January 9.  Khyle looooves skateboarding, so I wanted to surprise him with a skateboard cake and put all his favorite skateboard brands on it.  Brands and stickers are usually stuck on the bottom of the deck, so I originally wanted to make the cake with the underside showing.  However, this was not the case.  I did not yet have the expertise to pull that off.  If I had learned how to work with fondant by that time,maybe I could've made this cake exactly how I first envisioned it.  I'm sure his next skateboard cake from me will be a lot better.    

 

My good friend, Eileen (Hi Tei!) is one of the biggest Disney fanatics I know.  I used that as inspiration for her birthday cake.  This too was a surprise cake that was revealed during her birthday dinner at BJ's.  I wanted to somehow incorporate the infamous Mickey logo. Simple right? One big circle cake with 2 smaller circles for the ears.  But that seemed a little too simple for me, plus that shape did not fit in my cake carrier to deliver to her.  Ultimately I came up with a Mickey Ears hat cake.  I made the ears out of colored gumpaste a few days before so that they would harden and stand on their own.  I deliberately left the crumb texture to give it that felt fabric look.  I added a gumpaste fantasy flower to make it more feminine and sophisticated.  Good thing I took pictures of it right after because it ended up melting during delivery :( oh well, lesson learned.

I got so carried away with my sketches that I even came up with potential wedding cake designs for her and she's not even engaged yet ;) ssshhhhh, don't tell her. hehe.

Some of my favorite shots are of the CUT cake...

 

      

When I finally learned how to work with fondant I decided to use that new found skill for my 4 year old cousin's birthday cake (on my sketch it says "5" but found out later that she was really turning 4, oops).  All that my aunt said was that she wanted chocolate and Barbie on her cake.  For this cake I used the "Wonder Mold" to get her dress shape....and No, that's not a whole Barbie in the cake.  It's just the torso of a doll (not even a real Barbie) on a pick  that is made specially for cakes like this.  A little piece of me had to become a fashion designer to make this one. Shout out to my friend Limbert for helping me take pictures of this cake.

During the same week as the Barbie cake, I decided to make a sneaker cake for an event that my cousin Ron hosts every year called Sole Assassins (www.stayloded.com).  It's a convention where sneaker heads unite, so I made a cake that was inspired by a shoe that my cousin painted for my dad.  This was one busy week, so I didn't really take many pics of this one, but good thing Ron's wife, Joy took a few with her iphone (thx Joy!). I really wish I got shots of the details because that's what really made this cake special.  This is probably my most creative cake that I've made so far.  I'm sure I'll get to make more like it, but better since I've had a chance to learn from this one.

 

 What I hope you take away from this blog is an appreciation for other artists/designers and the work involved to create their masterpieces to inspire others. Thank you for viewing.

~Abs of Cakes~