Flowers

I worked on making my first roses. When you see them made you think they are so hard but they really weren't, even if you mess one up, you can still make it look good. These came out pretty good. They are half fondant and half gum paste.

I also made flowers for a Mother's Day cake. It seemed like I made a lot of flowers but on the cake it didn't amount to much. These are gum paste flowers and leaves on this cake. This cake had cream cheese frosting on it and I never could get it to smooth down nice but maybe all cakes are just not smoothed perfectly.

Here are some close ups of the flowers.

St. Patrick's Day Cake

I actually made this cake for a family get together we had when our cousins came down to visit but it was right around St. Patrick's day so it got an Irish theme to it. It is almond buttercream (which is my favorite now) and fondant decorations and sprinkles. The cake inside was supposed to be green as well but turned out to be a very dark green and it wasn't very tasty. Not a recipe I will use again. But this was definitely a pretty cake and I was proud of it. I got practice piping buttercream shells around the bottom (I need a lot more practice..).

The Caramel Cake Disaster

It doesn't look like much of a disaster but trust me it was. I saw this cake and just really wanted to try the technique because it is so simple. You basically pipe a large dot on your cake and take a tip of a spoon or knife and draw it to one side. So simple...if your caramel frosting will cooperate and if your mixer doesn't break whilst making caramel frosting..which mine did...which caused the frosting not to set up well and in the heat of our kitchen..it tried to separate. I had to keep mixing it--by hand--and putting it back in the refrigerator but I finally got it done. This was a very nice tasting cake though and I will use that technique again because it is easy and turned out so nice.

Cake Number 2

Cake number 2 was a cake I made for my daughter Michelle's friends birthday because when you are just learning to make cakes you need any excuse to make one. Michelle has a very nice friend as well and I wanted to make my first flowers. They weren't that great and the lettering was terrible but it is all learning. I did get to use a mold for the bottom border as well.

It All Started...

...with a video on Craftsy. It showed how to put fondant on a cake. I had never even heard of fondant but I loved it right from the start. Then I watched more cake making videos and learned how to make buttercream. I had never really used anything but boxed cake mixes and store bought frosting. This cake was my first attempt. It uses almond buttercream frosting and fondant hearts and sprinkles. I was pretty pleased with how this came out for a first try.

I continued to watch more videos, meet more cake people and ask more questions. I am slowly learning and this is my journey.