Polkastripe cake

DSCN3951, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

This cake is for a little girl's first birthday. All decorations are made of MMF, and the inside is white cake with chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream filling.

thank you stars

stars, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

I couldn't decide what to do for the girls' teachers, bus driver and bus aide last week...it can get pricey when there are 6 people to thank. So I came up with these little cakes. Yellow cake, cut with a star cookie cutter, then covered with vanilla buttercream and yellow marshmallow fondant. I liked them, they turned out pretty cute.:o)

Luau doodads

tikispalmsandals, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

I had so much fun making these little guys. Like I said, I found MMF so much easier to work with. I think, given enough time, I could make just about anything out of MMF.....and a bonus is that it tastes really good, just like candy.
Here is the recipe for MMF:

16 oz. bag of marshmallows
1 T water
6-7 c. powdered sugar
Crisco
Marshmallows in microwave-safe bowl, add water, microwave for 2 mins. Stir with greased spoon until smooth, and add any dyes/flavors, stir again and start adding powdered sugar. When it starts to resemble thick pudding, grease up your hands and mix in the sugar by hand. after about 10 minutes of working the sugar in by hand, in the bowl, turn it out onto your powdered sugar-covered counter. Keep adding sugar until it is no longer sticky.

I added cocoa powder, just a tablespoon or so, to the marshmallows before I added the sugar, for the tikis. Now they taste like little marshmallow chocolate candy bars. Yay!

I have never tasted regular fondant, but I hear it tastes like poopy. I can attest that gum paste tastes similar, so for me the only way to go is to use MMF. It breaks my heart to think about putting all that work into a cake for it to taste bad!

Luau Cake

luaucake1, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

The Luau Cake was my first attempt at using marshmallow fondant. I found it much easier to work with than gum paste, the only problem being that it took much longer to harden. I was supposed to get some hardening agent (tylo powder or something like that) but did not....next time. I ran into more problems in the creation of this cake than I ever have before.....marshmallow fondant needs time to harden, or very cold conditions, and our AC broke during the 2 days I was assembling it. Bubbles formed under the fondant as it started to melt! We replaced the stuff in the freezer with the cake and I was able to poke a tiny hole in the bubble and smooth it out. This cake was definitely a learning experience.

rainbowcake

rainbowcake, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

This tie-dye cake was so awesome, and easy to do. I just used a white cake mix, split it into 6 portions and used gel food coloring to create 6 different colors of batter. Put them all into the pan(s), bake and bingo, you've got a tie-dye cake. Groovy.

Coraline cake

Coraline cake, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

This Coraline cake was for R's 9th birthday. It is my version of the cake that Coraline's "other mother" makes for her in the movie. The brown frosting is regular chocolate fudge frosting, and the "drippy" frosting was a basic buttercream, with cream cheese and milk added. The milk makes it drippy, to achieve the effect needed for the sides. The cream cheese is actually a great contrast to the sweetness of the fudge. This cake was fantastic.
Coraline was my first effort with gum paste, and it went horribly awry from my original idea of what I wanted her to look like. I wanted her to look like she did in the movie, but it is nearly impossible to achieve that look with gum paste. Figures tend to appear cartoony, which is ok, once you realize that and stop trying to make it look accurate.

Cat in the Hat cake

Cat in the Hat cake, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

This Cat in the Hat cake was for R's 8th birthday. I couldn't find a Cat-shaped pan anywhere, so I brought my laptop into the kitchen with me and drew him freehand with decorating gel. She was so thrilled!

skate ramp cake

skate ramp cake, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

My daughter B loves skateboarding, so I made her this cake for her 10th birthday. This is 3 9X13 cakes, stacked, with the middle carved out. I used about 3 cans of store-bought icing. I got the perfect look of wood grain by coloring a bit brown and swirling white into it while frosting the ramp. I intended for the outside of the ramp to be black, but I've found it next to impossible to get it dark enough. I used a ton of black gel food coloring and got purple, which worked for her. I have an easy-going kid.:o)

unicorn cake

unicorn cake, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

The unicorn is gum paste, as are the butterflies. Gum paste was hard for me to work with at first, but I think it was because I expected it to be like playdough, or clay.

unicorn cake

unicorn cake, originally uploaded by lorilei78.

I made this unicorn cake for my hubs' friend's wife. It is done completely in store-bought icing. I piped the flowers on with a tiny round tip, and used the hair/grass tip for the grass.

I've always been artistic, yet not a very good artist. I suppose that I've never really devoted the time to really become a great, but I've finally found a medium where I feel comfortable, where a blank canvas doesn't intimidate me. Cakes! I'm just beginning, but I truly enjoy making them. I want to share them with you, dear reader, so that you can tell me how great they are. Ha! Just kidding. I am learning as I go, so any tips or ideas are greatly appreciated.