Archive for the ‘Fondant Cakes’ Category

Hungry Polar Bear Cake

Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Polar Bear Cake

Polar Bear Cake

A polar bear eating ice cream? What could be more fun and delicious than a snowflake covered cake with a happy polar bear on top? Just the thought of a polar bear eating ice cream makes me smile, and children will be pleased to see that polar bears like ice cream just as much as they do!

Happy Polar Bear

Happy Polar Bear

Cozy in his striped scarf, this polar bear couldn’t be happier while enjoying his ice cream.

Polar Bear Backside

Polar Bear Backside

Aside from the polar bear itself, most of the decorations for this cake are made using cutters of various shapes. This speeds up the decorating process. The polar bear is sitting on a scalloped fondant circle made using our scalloped cutter set.

Tools

Tools

Using different cookie cutters to cut out fondant decorations is a simple and easy decorating idea.

Snowflakes

Snowflakes

Cutters that imprint patterns or textures will give more dimension and depth to the design. A non-stick mat is a wonderful work surface for rolling out fondant because you can leave the decorations on it while you work and they won’t stick.

Snowflake on Cake

Snowflake on Cake

Attach the fondant snowflakes to the fondant covered cake by applying a bit of water using a small paint brush.

Name in Lower Case Funky Tappit Letters

Name in Lower Case Funky Tappit Letters

These fondant letters are made using the funky lower case letters tappit set.

Tappit Set

Tappit Set

For this cake I wanted the first letter of each word to be capitalized, so I used the funky letters and numbers tappit set and the funky lower case tappit set.

Cutting out the lettering

Cutting out the lettering

Roll out long strips of fondant to cut out the letters using the tappit set. The tappit cutters are designed to cut each individual letter separately.

Fondant Letters

Fondant Letters

I use the pink (1/16″) dough bands on the 9″ rolling pin to get the fondant to the correct thickness.

Tappit Letter Detail

Tappit Letter Detail

I love the tappit sets because they produce stylish, crisp, clean, sharp looking letters. Tappit letters produce a fresh unique look that is different from hand piping plus there is the added benefit of being able to move letters around. If you make a spelling mistake with the tappit set, just remove the letter from the cake. Mistakes made with icing are much harder to fix.

Lettering on Cake

Lettering on Cake

Apply the tappit letters using a tiny bit of water applied with a paint brush. If you allow the tappit letters to dry, they will be stiff enough to attach to your cake with royal icing at the base of each letter so that they are free-standing.

Rounded Border Set

Rounded Border Set

The scalloped edge that surrounds the top tier of the cake is created with our rounded border cutter set. Cutter sets like these have endless uses and are great to have on hand for quick design ideas.

Top Tier

Top Tier

Scalloped stripes in alternating shades of blue add extra detail to this cake.

Sculpting the Polar Bear

Sculpting the Polar Bear

The part of this cake that is most daunting is probably sculpting the polar bear. I was inspired to make this bear by a greeting card I saw on one of my favorite stationary sites, Hello Lucky. A sculpting tools set will help you out with sculpting figures.  Don’t be afraid to try because it is just fondant and if you mess up you can always eat it and start over!

Starting the Scarf

Starting the Scarf

Making the scarf is a lot of fun, and the technique can be used for a variety of decorations. Begin by cutting small uniformly sized strips of fondant in two alternating colors. I use a ruler and x-acto knife to cut the strips to the same size.

Striped Scarf

Scarf and Ice Cream

Next use the small rolling pin to roll over the strips of fondant. Roll over them with even pressure so that they meld together. Now you have the fabric for the scarf.

Cut Out Shapes

Cut Out Shapes

The strips that have been rolled together should be stuck to each other and form one piece of fondant from which you can cut out a scarf, bowtie, or any shapes you can think of.

Polar Bear

Polar Bear

Polar Bear

Polar Bear

Skateboarding Dragon Cake

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Skate Boarding Dragon Cake

Skate Boarding Dragon Cake

Make this daring dragon cake for your skateboarding daredevils. The colors can be tailored to their favorites, and a message can be added to the fondant skateboard. This dragon cake is inspired by the dragon cake in Debbie Brown’s 50 Easy Party Cakes.

Cover a Cake Board with Fondant

Cover a Cake Board with Fondant

Take a 12″ cake drum and place a dollop of buttercream in the center (spread with angled spatula) and then cover with colored rolled fondant. I prefer Massa fondant from Switerland, It comes in a big tub, but homemade, Wilton, or Duff’s Charm City Fondant will work just fine too.

Trim Excess Fondant

Trim Excess Fondant

After the drum is covered, take a sharp knife and trim the excess fondant. Next, neatly shape the edge  with your fingers or a fondant smoother.

Bake Two Cake Halves

Bake Two Cake Halves

I ended up baking two cake halves in pyrex bowls because I need a larger cake to feed 24 kids. For a slightly smaller cake use our 6″ ball pan.

Level The Cakes

Level The Cakes

Next, cool the two halves overnight and then level them with a cake leveler as needed.

Assemble The Ball

Assemble The Ball

Pipe an icing dam around the edge of the bottom half and add a filling of your choice.  Place the second cake half on top and press down to make sure it is settled. Now crumb coat with buttercream icing using a spatula.

Mold The Head

Mold The Head

Make sure to mold the head at least 2 days ahead of time. While drying set on parchment or a silpat and support with tissue papper.  Attached the ears by applying a tiny bit of water with a decorator’s brush.

Mold The Parts

Mold The Parts

Sculpt the tail and neck piece 2 days ahead of time also. As the fondant sets up add the nostril holes with the opposite end of the decorator’s brush.

A Spot of Icing

A Spot of Icing

Add a spot of royal or buttercream icing to the fondant covered cake drum before placing the cake.

Assembly

Assembly

Place the cake as shown and add the neck piece and tail.

Roll Out The Fondant

Roll Out The Fondant

Take a string and measure the circumference of your dragon cake.  Roll out  a fondant circle that has a diameter equal to the measurement you just took. Roll out (with cornstarch) so that it is 1/4 in thick.

Drape The Fondant

Drape The Fondant

Roll the fondant onto your 21 in rolling pin and then drape over the cake supporting the fondant as you cover it.

Form The Body

Form The Body

Form the body around the cake using fondant smoothers and your fingers.

Place The Head

Place The Head

Cut the mouth into the dried head with a sharp knife and add the eyes (colored fondant).

Add A Skateboard

Add A Skateboard

Now add a skateboard or other prop.  This was made of fondant (colored with gel paste, like all my fondant) and dried for 2 days.  I thought about piping happy birthday on it, but ran out of time.

Fondant Rocks

Fondant Rocks

I had my husband sculpt all these fondant rocks.  He came up with a method of twisting two colors of fondant together, forming a ball, and then tapping them with a butter knife and crumpled tin foil.

Fondant Dragon Wings

Fondant Dragon Wings

The last thing to do is add the wings.  Again, make these ahead of time so they can dry thoroughly. Attach the wings with a little water.

Side View with Tail

Side View and Tail

Here is the back view of the finished cake.

Final Cake

Final Cake

A Skateboarding Dragon Cake Just in Time for Shelby’s 10th Birthday Party!

Mouse House

Monday, September 6th, 2010
Mouse House

Mouse House

Create an adorable Autumn cake with two whimsical mice living in a pumpkin house. This Mouse House cake is one of my favorites. Fabulous for Fall, and cute as a button, this cake will capture the imaginations of young and old alike.

Mice Peeking Out

Mice Peeking Out

Mouse

Mouse

The cake design is from Debbie Brown’s 50 Easy Party Cakes, a book that I absolutely love! This book can be found on our site, and I highly recommend it because it has tons of inspiration and provides instruction on making simple but striking cakes.

Mouse Looking at You

Mouse Looking at You

I chose to make a pumpkin flavored cake with cream cheese frosting to go with the Autumn theme. This cake is made with two half spheres. You can make this shape cake with a ball pan or if you have a bowl that is oven safe and fairly round, you can bake two halves to make the pumpkin.

Sculpted Fondant Mice

Sculpted Fondant Mice

One of the nice  things about this cake is that the mice figures can be sculpted far in advance. I suggest making them at least 2 days ahead of time so that they have plenty of time to dry. You want them to be pretty sturdy by the time you place them on the cake, so that they are easier to work with and don’t break. To prevent sticking, set your figures on a silpat (non-stick baking mat) or parchment paper to dry.

Side View

Side View

If you are intimidated by sculpting fondant figures, this is a good cake to start with. The mice are fairly simple, and you can make the figures far in advance which will give you time to practice. A fondant sculpting set will help you with the small details, and this product can be found in our store www.cakecupboard.com.

Bottom of Pumpkin

Bottom of Pumpkin

Covering the pumpkin shaped cake in fondant is easier when the cake is placed atop a tall cake pedestal. This enables you to see the sides and bottom. If you don’t have a cake pedestal, you could also rest the cake on a round jar lid that is smaller than the base of the cake. This will allow you to work the fondant all the way under the cake so that you won’t see any seams or bunching at the bottom. Once covered in orange fondant, I transfer the cake to a green fondant covered cake board. If you lift the cake from the bottom, you will minimize fingerprints in the fondant, since this bottom portion will be covered when set on the cake board.

Mouse House Back

Mouse House Back

To make the windows that the mice peek out of, I used the round end of a large decorating tip/tube. You could also use a small round cutter if you have one.

Mice Peeking Out

Mice Peeking Out

I attached everything except for the mice to this cake with a tiny bit of water. For the mice, I used royal icing to make sure that they would stay in place.

Mouse Tail

Mouse Tail

The curly mice tails and pumpkin stems add interest and detail to this cake.

Looking down at the Mouse House

Looking down at the Mouse House

Paisley Cake

Saturday, August 7th, 2010
Paisley Cake

Paisley Cake

This paisley cake is something I made for my mom’s birthday. I love that the paisley chocolates that decorate this cake resemble a beautiful wrapping paper pattern.

Paisley Cake Side View

Paisley Cake Side View

This cake is covered in fondant, and the bow and pearl edging are also made of fondant. The pearl/bead edging is made using a 4mm bead mold brushed with super pearl luster dust (that is why the pearls are shiny and opalescent).

Paisley Cake Closeup

Paisley Cake Closeup

The paisley chocolates are attached to the cake with royal icing. See below for a photo journal of the making of this cake.

Leveling the cake

Leveling the cake

This cake is an 8″ square so I leveled the layers using a small cake leveler. I then cut one of the layers in half, so that there would be three layers.

Filling the cake

Filling the cake

The cake is a champagne cake with a champagne custard filling. I piped a buttercream dam around the perimeter of the cake to make sure that the filling would not ooze out. Champagne cakes used to be popular and could be found in many bakeries. I remember the classic pink champagne cake that was covered in pink chocolate curls. It was stylish and delicious!

Stacking the cake

Stacking the cake

The stacked cake is about three and three quarter inches tall. This means that once the cake is crumb coated and covered in fondant, it should be about four inches high.

Crumb coating the cake

Crumb coating the cake

Here is the crumb coated cake. Crumb coating is applying a light coat of frosting (in this case buttercream diluted with water) to cover the cake and seal in all of the crumbs. Once this crumb coat sets up, you are ready to apply your final coat of frosting or cover your cake in fondant. The crumb coat is a rough coat and does not need to be perfect. It is intended to seal in the crumbs so that your final coat will not have any crumbs or bits of cake peeking through.

Smoothing the crumb coat

Smoothing the crumb coat

If you are covering your cake in fondant, you will want your crumb coat to be smoother than if you were going to apply another layer of frosting. This is because the shape and texture of the frosting that is underneath the fondant will show, so you want to get it as smooth as possible. To do this I fill an asparagus steamer with boiling water. I then dip a large bent spatula into the water and wipe it off with a paper towel and then run the hot spatula on the sides and top of the cake to smooth.

Smoothed cake

Smoothed cake

This is the cake after I have smoothed it with a hot spatula. Don’t fuss over the frosting too much, because the fondant will cover small imperfections.

Covering the cake in fondant

Covering the cake in fondant

This is the fondant covered cake. The red silicone rolling pin is the one that I use to roll the fondant. The straight rolling pin in the background is the one that I use to roll the fondant onto and pick up to lift and place on the cake. I use the fondant smoother (right side) to smooth the fondant over the cake.

Trimming the fondant

Trimming the fondant

I use an x-acto knife to trim the fondant from the bottom of the cake.

Making fondant pearls

Making fondant pearls

For this cake, I am trimming the fondant ribbon with fondant pearls/beads. I use the 4 mm bead maker to make the strings of pearls that will be attached to the ribbon. The super pearl luster dust is brushed into the pearl mold to keep the fondant from sticking.

Adding ribbon to the paisley cake

Adding ribbon to the paisley cake

Next I begin adding the fondant ribbon and pearls to the cake. Both are attached using a tiny amount of water (painted using a fine paint brush).

Materials for paisley cake

Materials for paisley cake

Now its time to start adding the paisleys to the cake. The fondant bow is formed using rolled paper towels stuffed in the loops to keep its shape while it dries overnight.

Attaching the paisleys

Attaching the paisleys

Adding more paisleys

Adding more paisleys

Paisleys panoramic view

Paisleys panoramic view

The paisley chocolates are attached to the cake with royal icing. Royal icing is very strong and the chocolates need to be held in place for less than a minute to get set on the cake.

Dried fondant bow

Dried fondant bow

The bow has dried overnight and is now sturdy enough for the pearl trim to be applied.

Adding pearl/bead trim to the bow

Adding pearl/bead trim to the bow

The fondant pearls are attached to the ribbon by applying a very small amount of water to the ribbon using a fine tipped paint brush. The strings of pearls will stick to the surface that is covered with water, but too much water will make them fall off and can also leave marks on the fondant.

Attaching fondant pearls to the bow loops

Attaching fondant pearls to the bow loops

Attaching the pearls to the bow loops was probably the hardest part. I had some strands of pearls that I had made the night before, but found that I could not attach them to the bow loops because the curves were too much and would cause the strands to break.  I ended up making additional fresh pearls for the bow loops.

Putting the bow together

Putting the bow together

Even though the bow looked like one piece when it was drying, it is actually five different pieces. If  it was all one piece, it would be even harder to attach the pearl trim. The final five pieces were assembled on top of the cake as the final step.

Paisley Cake birds eye view

Paisley Cake birds eye view

Here is the finished cake! It was a lot of work but definitely worth it!

Paisley Cake corner

Paisley Cake corner

The paisleys with polka dots are my favorite.

Paisleys

Paisleys

Ladybug Cake

Friday, February 26th, 2010
Ladybug Cake

Ladybug Cake

This is a cake that I made for a friend of mine’s little girl’s 1st birthday.  I love ladybugs and had just purchased a new Backyard Bugs cake pan that I wanted to use.  I had a limited amount of time for this cake so I wanted a simple design.  The birthday party invitation featured pink, white, and green so I thought I would use those for the cake.  Using white as one of the colors saves time because it is one less fondant color to mix.

I started with a three layer 10″ diameter cake.  I covered that with white fondant and made the green band that wraps around the bottom of the cake. I made holes in the green band before placing it on the cake.  I then used the same small round cutter that I used to make the holes in the green band to cut out dots to fill those holes. I then made the wavy stripes and straight stripes using the fondant cutter tool.

The second tier is a 6″ diameter, three layer tier that I covered in green fondant.  I made a band similar to the one on the bottom tier and then cut out tiny white flowers to place all over.

Ladybug

Ladybug

The cake topper is the Ladybug, and as mentioned before it is the Ladybug Cakelette from the Backyard Bugs cake pan.  I baked the Ladybug and let it cool before decorating it with a thin layer of fondant.  The eyes are  royal icing.

In addition to this cake, there was a tiny little cake especially for the birthday girl to enjoy all for herself.

Mini Cakelette

Farm Animals Cake

Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Farm Animals Cake

Farm Animals Cake

Fondant Animals on Farm Cake

Fondant Animals

I made the Farm Cake for my Sister’s baby shower. She loves cows and the shower was farm themed, so I thought this would be fun.

The animals are made of fondant colored with gel paste colors. Debbie Brown’s 50 Easy Party Cakes helped to inspire me for this cake. Instructions on making the pigs and sheep can be found in this book and the barn is similar to a barn shown in the book. Other items such as the cow, chick, and vegetables are also made of fondant. The sculpting set helps to make these figures and it just takes patience and trial and error to see what works. I recommend making the animals at least 3 days in advance and preferably a week to a month in advance so that they have set up by the time you put them on the cake. I use a small paintbrush and a very, very tiny amount of water to attach fondant to fondant such as when attaching the ears to the pigs and cow. These figures must then be left to set so that the fondant will bond.

Once the fondant figures have dried, they will be easier to move around and attach to the cake.  I attach all of the figures to the cake using a basic royal icing recipe.

For the barn I bake a sheet cake and cut it into rectangles to make four layers. I put 4 lollipop stick supports through the first two layers of this cake, and cut a cake cardboard to fit and place this on top of the second layer. I then place the next two layers of cake on the barn and frost it using an 8″ Angled Spatula. I placed this in the refrigerator to set up. The barn is covered in fondant strips that have been etched with a wood grain using the point on the end of a ruler.

Circus Cake

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Circus Cake

Fondant & Chocolate Circus Cake

I made this cake for my nephew’s 1st birthday. The birthday party included a trip to the zoo so I wanted to include animals. This cake is fondant and chocolate (candy coating). The peanuts, elephant rocking horse, and animal plaques that surround the cake are all made of candy coating/chocolate melts. I use the candy melter palette to keep many different colors of chocolate warm at once so that I don’t have to keep rewarming as it solidifies. Using a small paintbrush I paint the different detail colors into the molds. I let the detail colors set for at least five minutes before using a squeeze bottle to fill the background color of the mold. I attach the chocolates to the cake using a basic royal icing recipe. This cake went for an hour and a half ride in the car and nothing fell off, so the royal icing is pretty reliable. This cake drum is simply a white cake drum. It does not have any thing attached to it. I use fabric glue to attach blue rick rack to a 5/8″ yellow grosgrain ribbon and use it (attached with hot glue) to cover the base of the cake drum. This is one of my favorite cakes; I like the simple color scheme, retro feel, and the combination of chocolate and fondant decoration. This is one of the few cakes that turned out the way I intended. Also it is one of the easier cakes I have made and this is partially because the chocolates were all made in advance so the final decorating involved getting the fondant on the cake and then just attaching and placing the animals. Happy decorating!