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~