Abs of Cakes: Lakers cupcakes

I feel like it's been a while since I last blogged, and boy, do I have a lot to share! First off, I'd like to say "Happy Easter" and I am very happy that I now get to eat rice!! I was able to survive lent without eating a single grain of rice. Hallelujah!......Now on to some cake news.....

I had a cake request from my sorority sister, Elaine and her husband, Goose. Their son, Aries had turned two years old on March 28th and to celebrate they were having a Sports themed party. They wanted to incorporate some of Aries' favorite characters from Yo Gabba Gabba and Disney Friends. And being fellow Lakers fans, they requested the characters to be dressed in purple and yellow. In case you're unfamiliar with YGG (Yo Gabba Gabba), here is how they look:

Elaine and Goose had a very clear vision of how they imagined the cake to look. Since Aries likes both YGG and Disney Friends, they liked the idea of a "3 on 3 basketball game" on a rectangle cake that would resemble Staples Center (Home of the LA Lakers)....they chose Foofa, Muno, and Brobee to represent YGG; Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy to represent Disney Friends. I obliged and was excited to finally have the opportunity to make figures out of fondant/gumpaste.

The process and prepping for this cake started off a little differently. I wanted to first practice my sculpture making skills to make sure I was competent enough to make the characters recognizable and as accurate as possible. So along with character research and sketching, I also sculpted using Sculpey clay....I only sculpted Mickey because I knew he would be the most difficult and if I could sculpt him, then I could also do Minnie.

Once I felt familiar enough with the characters and the potential look of the cake, I began sculpting with fondant. I decided to start with Muno (the long orange bumpy Gabba) because he has the simplest form. I had to knead various colors into the fondant to get just the right orange. I was happy with how Muno turned out, and he ended up being the least fussy and my favorite one!

I quickly found out the differences between the two mediums: Sculpey is a lot firmer where fondant is really easy to knead; Fondant will start sinking and take the shape of whatever it's placed on where Sculpey is stiffer and will hold it's shape better....both still requires an armature to act as a frame or skeleton to keep the components like arms and legs intact. It was critical that I made all these characters early in order to have ample time for them to set and harden before going onto the cake. The next figures I made were Brobee (the green striped monster) then Foofa (the pink one with the flower on her head).

These figures took longer that I anticipated, but I really enjoyed making them. I wanted to get them just right and they were the main component of this cake so I didn't care that they took a while to create. After a full night of working on the figures, I stopped working only to find my doggie, Lilo asleep on the couch that put a smile on my face.....so I took a picture of her to share :) hehe.

The next days I continued to work on the figures. I was in such a zone that I forgot to take pictures of Mickey and Minnie's process like I did with the YGG bunch. The Disney characters are not the best, but I did my best with them and I'm happy that they are still recognizable. Originally I was going to include Goofy as part of the Disney Friends team, but I ran out of time and materials for him.

After working meticulously on the characters, I was actually ready to switch gears and start baking the cake. Elaine had a last minute request for a chocolate dobash cake, so I found a recipe and now have a new flavor to add to my arsenal. In my last blog, I mentioned that I've wanted a KitchenAid Stand Mixer ever since I was in middle school.....well, guess what?! I FINALLY bought one. It was all good timing really, serendipitous if you will...there was a sale at Target for them, I had just received my tax refund, and I have been baking cakes more than ever, making my decision a no brainer. She really is beautiful. I'm thinking I should name her.....any suggestions?

This chocolate dobash cake was the first to bless this amazing machine...

While the cake was baking, I prepared the dobash frosting...

Time for the decorating...Elaine and Goose are not big fans of fondant so I used buttercream to decorate with, meaning the cake was a lot more prone to damage during delivery.

I completed the cake the day before but the characters had to come off the cake during transport, otherwise I risked more damage. Mickey and Minnie were the fussiest figures and I kept having to fix them....if you notice in the picture above, Minnie is missing her arm, and Mickey is missing his hand. This was my first cake delivery with such fragile pieces, so I was very nervous and on edge. Every little bump on the road was magnified.

The cake received a few dints but nothing major. The biggest casualty was one of Mickey's ears which had fallen off, so we claimed that he "injured himself while playing". We had to snap pics and sing "Happy Birthday" faaast because all the kids were reaching for the figures especially the birthday boy himself. I took that as a compliment and assurance that I got his approval :)

This cake was really fun to make and I really learned a lot during the process. I feel honored to have been trusted by Elaine and Goose to make Aries' 2nd Birthday cake. Mahalos for the opportunity.

~Abs of Cakes~

This week I had the honor of making 6 dozen cupcakes for a Lakers themed party. Those that know me know I am a DIE HARD lover of the Purple and Gold, so you'd understand how stoked I was to be able to make and design these tasty treats. The night before these cupcakes were due, my good friend Christine came over and convinced me to start a blog about my cakes...it is something I had been thinking about doing especially after viewing other people's interesting & inspiring blogs, so no doubt I thought it was a good idea. My friends and family were also asking where they can view photos of my edible works of art, so due to popular demand, I am starting this blog and letting you into my world of cake making. enjoy.

My friend Keena (Hi Keena) celebrated her mom, Angie's 70th Birthday and came to me for an order of "Lakers" cupcakes. She ordered 3 flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate, and Red Velvet, so I felt I had to make 3 distinct designs to distinguish one flavor from the other. Not to mention give me liberty to play with the Lakers theme.

As with all my cake ideas and designs, I first start off with sketches that help with my plan of action. If there's anything I learned (or that was drilled in our heads) from Design school, it's that DESIGN IS A PROCESS...the final product does not happen in an instant. And more times than not, the final product is usually quite different from the original idea, but I believe the process is where you learn, and the final product is what inspires. Something I wanted to do was make a cupcake stand in the shape of the Larry O'Brien Trophy aka NBA Championship Trophy, but it was too expensive....maybe I'll get to one day.

Before any baking began, I worked on the edible decorations. I used fondant, gumpaste, and colored icing. I had to mix purple icing color into blue fondant to get it just the right Lakers Royal Purple...or close enough. For the gumpaste basketballs, I had to mix the right amount of orange and brown to get the Spalding color.

Then it was time to bake, frost, and decorate. First, I baked the vanilla cupcakes...I intended to make them purple to making them more authentic to the theme. Instead, they looked ube flavored and that batch turned out puny. I was not satisfied....so I re-baked the vanilla and stuck with its normal color. You can see the first batch of purple vanilla at the bottom of the final vanilla cupcakes.

My favorite part...putting everything together. The 5 Lakers starters and Coach Jackson were in purple, the 8 retired jerseys in gold, and the bench players in white. My favorite one is the Chick Hearn jersey :)