Abs of Cakes: July 2011

My dear friend and sorority sister, Caroline from The Sweet Love Chain and I were approached to coordinate a very special party for Allie and Kit. Allie was graduating in Art History from Cal State Long Beach (Go Beach!) and Kit was turning 25 (Yaaay she could now rent a car on her own!). Allie and Kit had already thought of a fun theme for their celebration. Caroline and I just had to bring it to life. They wanted a "Lips and 'Stache Bash" where the ladies "flaunt red lips" and the gents "fashion a moustache"....or vice versa ;)

Here was their invitation.

Allie and Kit wanted one main cake for the both of them. You'd think it would be easy enough....stick a mustache and some lips on a cake and call it a day! But for a theme this fun, that design seemed way too easy. Plus, there are so many mustache styles to choose from...which do I choose? [Remember Sanchez the Crab and his 'Stache?] And the lips! Do I make one big set of red lips? or just lipstick stained kisses? It took a few days to come up with a solid design idea....but it came to me while brainstorming with Caroline over a bowl of Pho.

Wanna know what I came up with? Well, here's the story...

Mr. Mustache (first name Harry) is an artist and has a life of his own. He is surrounded by many sexy red lips and feels out of place. Being the creative mind that he his, he takes his paintbrush and decides to decorate them with mustaches of their very own. Now Harry Mustache is no longer left out :}D

Now I just had to convert this story into cake form...I started by first sculpting a mustache out of red velvet cake.

I had a template as my reference and guide.

A small paring knife was used to get into those tight spaces.

Next was to frost (cream cheese frosting) and cover with black fondant. The base of the cake was a 6-inch round where the lips would be mounted.

The #6 tool was used to create the texture of hair.

The red lips were created using a mold with red colored candy melts. I hand sculpted a paintbrush using chocolate fondant, and created the mustaches with black colored chocolates. Here's the final result. [photos courtesy of Eloisa Nadine Hernandez Photography]

My job consisted of the cake and dessert treats. Caroline was the creative eye that styled the whole party, from the main elements like tables and chairs to the very little details that make this celebration all the more memorable. While brainstorming, we came up with the idea of having two dessert tables....since they would be celebrating two milestones, two celebrants, and dual themes....mustaches/red lips, ladies/gents, masculine/feminine.