Winging Cakes

What a busy baking week!  (Or two weeks rather)  But that's a good thing!  
I was asked to make two full sheet cakes for the winging ceremony at Whiting Field.  (For you non-military readers, this is basically the graduation ceremony from flight school.  They get their "wings" and are turned out into the fleet.)  So, this was an honor!   The client decided what to say on the cakes and that one needed to have wings on it and the other would consist of the different squadron patches.  So I got to work.  
I started with the squadron patches because I knew they would take a couple of days to fully dry.  I piped these bad boys with royal icing.  (Talk about time consuming!)  But I think they turned out rather well!  - Don't worry, I went back and dotted the "i" in helicopter!
Confession:  My blue buttercream was "almost"too thick, which made the writing a little difficult.  Not to mention that I hate to see my own handwriting on a cake.  Anyone else have that problem?  

For the wing cake, I ended up going with an edible image of the Naval Aviator wings and the Saudi-Arabian wings.  (We had a foreign nation student at this winging ceremony)

 These cakes were so huge, that if they had been any bigger, they might not have fit in the car!  The cakes themselves were 18x24 inches and the boards were made of plywood 22x28 inches.  They probably weighed 50 lbs. each!  

The cakes were a huge success and I heard some rave reviews.  And like I said earlier, I was honored to do these cakes.  Good luck to all the "wingers."  I hope you all have a very successful career!

Birdie Birthday

I did a baby's first birthday cake for the owner of Tiny Dancer Designs.  (Check her out on facebook.  She makes the cutest tutus!)  They had a bird theme, so this is what we came up with. 

 She also requested a dozen "robin's egg" cake pops to go along with the order.  I thought they turned out really well!

Easter Cupcakes

When my son has a party at school, I try to make some kind of cute cupcake that I think the kids will enjoy.  Well, this time I went a little crazy!  I saw these cute cupcakes in the book "What's New Cupcake" and thought I'd give them a try.  

I started out with great intentions of a step by step "how to", but I got a little distracted.  (oops)  First, I started out with plain 'ole plastic easter eggs. *You have to use the ones that don't have little holes in them.*

Wipe the insides with a little vegetable oil and coat the inside with melted chocolate. (I used candy melts)

Place the coated eggs face down on a cookie sheet and chill in the fridge for about 5 minutes.  Now for the hard part....getting them OUT of the eggs without breaking.  (This is probably where I became to frustrated preoccupied to continue with my "how to" photos.  Anyway, CAREFULLY remove the chocolate from the molds.  I found it worked best when I used my tiny paring knife from Pampered Chef to help separate the chocolate from the mold.  Granted, I made a HUGE mess and broke a ton  a couple before I got the hang of it.   
Once I got them out, I filled them with jelly beans and sealed them shut with some icing.  I covered the mess of a seam with a fondant strip and decorated with leaves and flowers.  

 Up close, you can see what a mess they are.  LOL  But from far away, they made quite the impression. 

The cupcakes were a new lemon recipe. (YUM) with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream (tinted green for the grass.)  They were very cute, but time consuming.  Much like my ValenSwines, there were just enough for the class!

Tea Party Cake

Tea party birthday cake for a 7 year old.  It looks bare, but that's because the mom had a tea set ready to go on top of the cake.  

Cake is traditional yellow cake with buttercream icing, topped with a marshmallow fondant "table cloth" and accents.