An Ode to the Purple and Gold

I've got to be honest. October is not my favorite of months. The air begins to get a little chillier. The days get shorter and shorter. It marks the beginnings of the hectic holiday season. The signs of summer in Southern California begin to fade away. 

There is one thing however that I look forward to every October...the NBA Season! (*especially since we didn't get a full season last year. Stupid lockout!). I LOVE the Los Angeles Lakers! A fanatic is an understatement, some would call me borderline obsessed...and I'm not afraid to admit that. So you can imagine how excited I get over a request for a Lakers themed cake. My very first blog post happened to be Lakers themed cupcakes (not by mistake either).

My beloved team did a lot of revamping during the offseason, and us Angelenos are full of anticipation for our new and much improved squad. Mitch Kupchack did work to keep the legacy of the Lakers organization alive, and for that we thank him. This post is dedicated to the Purple and Gold.

Did you know that the NBA Logo was modeled after the silhouette of a Laker? That's right. Jerry West aka "Mr. Clutch" aka "The Logo," represents the National Basketball Association. This trivia knowledge inspired me to use the NBA Logo with a Lakers twist for a Jerry West fan.

Jerry West photo by Wen Roberts via Logo Design Love

Typically, getting "people" (picture or sculpture) on cakes is not an easy feat, unless you have an expensive edible image printer or you make that person "cartoony". Very rarely will you find someone to look like an exact replica of themselves. I had to tap into my artistic skills when it came to Kobe Bryant. With some white rolled fondant, food colors, a paint brush, and a pin, using a technique that tattoo artists use when tattooing a portrait to get the contours and features of a face on skin, I was able to achieve a decent Kobe Bryant. It's almost like "painting by numbers". Check out the "player development".

I would have photoshopped Kobe's face to simplify the colors of his picture, but I was lucky enough to find one that had already been simplified and broken down with perfect colors.

Here's one of my favorite cakes done for a fella going off to college to play basketball. 

Did you notice the Wheaties box in the background? It happens to have the 2008-2009 NBA Champions on it ;)

Lakers cupcake toppers

Personalized and Lakers inspired ball cake

I designed this cake at Sweet E's Bake Shop the week before the Playoffs to get fans ready. I had to let LA know that the Lakers run this town....now and always!

I can go on and on about my love for the Lakers, but I'll try to keep this about the cakes. Surely I'll have future orders that require me to channel my other passion and I'll have more opportunities to blog about it. Until then, I wish the LA Lakers good luck and health during their 2012-2013 NBA Season. We look forward to October 30!

~Abs of Cakes~

Cherry Blossoms and John S. Culqui Art

I'm BAAAAAACK!!! I know it's been about 2 months since I've last updated my blog. I've had a very eventful May and June so far which has kept me quite busy....not to mention my Lakers have been playing in the Playoffs, so I've been very distracted!! As of Thursday June 17, 2010 the Lakers beat the despised Boston Celtics to OFFICIALLY become the NBA's Back to Back 2010 World Champions!! CONGRATULATIONS LA!!! I <3 You!  Thank you for making this the BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE and making my 28th Birthday wish come true :)

OK, now I'm back with your full undivided attention. I apologize to my followers and those anticipating some new creations. Since my last blog, I've done cakes for a couple weddings, baby showers, and many many birthdays. But for this blog I will feature probably my absolute favorite cake.  On April 17, 2010 my cousin Marvin got married to his high school sweetheart Andrea DeJesus (one of my avid followers).  Despite large families on both sides, they had a small wedding in Ojai, CA amongst their parents and siblings. Since I was not able to attend their special day, I decided to surprise them with a special mini wedding cake. I was completely inspired by art, had a vision, and executed it without any restrictions.....I truly felt like a designer for this one.

During the time of their wedding in April, there had been many Cherry Blossom celebrations and festivals. Cherry Blossoms are often used to represent Spring and symbolize the transient nature of life....which I imagined would be a perfect image to celebrate the new beginning of my cousins' lives together.  So I already knew that I wanted to incorporate them somehow into the design of this cake.  

Inspiration further ensued as I traveled through the streets of my neighborhood in Long Beach...and thank goodness for the City's Public Art Program for advocating art throughout our community and urban design. I would pass multiple traffic signal boxes, and one in particular piqued my interest....on the corner of Atlantic Ave. and Carson St. Not only are there Cherry Blossoms on it but the colors are vibrant yet simple.  

  Here are some photos of another traffic signal box on the next corner:

I became so enamored by these works of art that I decided to do some investigation about the artist.  I found out that the creator of these masterpieces is John S. Culqui.  I checked out the rest of his art and instantly fell in love with it...click here to browse more of his artwork or check out his website: http://www.jsculquiart.com. Maybe I should send him a message to let him know I'm promoting him on my blog, huh? Anyways, on to cake.....

As Andrea and I were texting back and forth about blogs one evening, I asked her what her favorite cake flavors were...little did she know I was really asking her, "What flavor would you like your surprise wedding cake to be?" From the 3 she told me, I decided on the lemon cake with cream cheese frosting.  I found a FABULOUS lemon cake recipe courtesy of Ina Garten. Now, I'm not a big fan of citrus flavored desserts but this recipe made a fan out of me!!!  It was so very moist and delicious that I even wrote my very first review on the recipe's site giving it 5 out of 5 stars!  This recipe calls for A LOT of lemons and their zest making my kitchen/dining area smell so good.

I knew I wanted to make this a multi-tiered cake, it was just a matter of what size each tier would be.  I did a few sketches as well as stacked pans to get an idea. Afterward, I lined the pans with parchment paper, made the batter, filled the pans, baked, then frosted before chilling the layers in the fridge.  I used chocolate fondant to cover and decorate each layer before stacking them. A wooden dowel was used to keep the layers intact and centered. 

On to the fun part....decorating and watching the cake come to life. I free-handed blue waves and brown branches, then piped black icing with two different sized tips for the details.

The cherry blossoms added a whole other layer and pop of color. I tried to create dimension using a ball and vein tool making the blossoms lift up from the cake rather than lay flat. They also helped cover up any blemishes and dents in the cake ;)  Lastly, I made some congratulatory messages to the happy couple to add the final touches.

Congratulations again Marvin and Andrea!! I'm happy to know that I was able to provide you two with your very own wedding cake :) Love you guys...

 ~Abs of Cake~