The Versatile Circle

So my sister, Tran's birthday was in August and of course I made her a cake. I love making cakes for my sister 'cause every year I ask her what she wants and every year she says, "whatever you want to make me" <--- cake designers love this answer :). Like me, my sister loves bold colors so last year, I made her the below two-tiered cake with simple red flowers that remains one of my favorites to this day.
This year, I noticed that Tran had accumulated a lot of green stuff (clothes, bags, accessories, etc.) and made a comment to that affect. She responded by saying that green was her favorite color and I instantly felt like a heel for not knowing my own sister's favorite color. But, I quickly got over it and decided to make her a green cake for her birthday to make up for it. =D

My sister's big day fell on a busy week, so I chose a design that was fairly quick to execute. In terms of cake design, fondant circle cutouts are unquestionably the most versatile, not to mention virtually foolproof design element a designer can use. It's as simple as cutting and pasting, literally. Circles can be placed in a myriad of patterns to achieve designs that are cute, whimsical, modern, retro, and just plain cool . For my sister's cake, I went with the traditional "pretty" with the extra bit of oomph coming from the oversized gumpaste flowers I had made the week prior.

Here's a shot of the cake with the flowers placed to the right. .....and now to the left. I prefer the flowers on the left, don't ask me why.

I've seen this circle pattern used many times on other cakes but mostly done with very pale colors on a white background so that the tone on tone coloring almost resembles a texture. With the darker colored circles that I used, your attention is definitely more drawn towards the negative space left by the circles. The overall effect calls to mind gingham checks, no?......which immediately makes me think this cake would be fabulous done in red for a country wedding, maybe displayed on a bed of apples. But, I digress...........here are some close-ups of the gumpaste flowers.

I had loaned out my 12" cake stand but still wanted an elevated look for this cake so I MacGyver'd a cake stand by placing a flat serving plate on top of an upside down bowl. And to prevent slippage, I threw in a small square of grip padding. Ta-da!

So the moral of this blog post? Fondant circles are your friend and you can make a cake stand with almost anything. To end, a pic of my beautiful sister and her equally beautiful gal pals :).

Lien Sanchez

Crazy Cake Company

www.crazycakecompany.com

Black Fondant Wedding Cake

Like many couples, Christine and James started their wedding cake search with a general idea of what cake designs they liked but had nothing concrete in mind. So like a good spy, I asked a few probing questions about their event and particulary about the decor and theme. As you may have noticed by now, I love to incorporate wedding design elements into a wedding cake design. Invitations, in particular, can tell you a lot about the couple and the event and as cheesy as it sounds, invitations do set the tone for your event and in a way, gives the guests a glimpse into the ambience of the event, whether it's casual or formal, simple or elaborate,...you get the point.



Christine and James' invitations screamed "fun elegance" to me, meaning that it was going to be a beautiful wedding but gosh darn it, they're gonna have fun while they tied that knot..........or I could just be smoking crack and reading too much into those little white swirls, lol.

Based on their general likes and dislikes, I drew up a cake design that incorporated their monogram and their invitation design. When I got their blessing, I was almost giddy. I've always wanted to make a black fondant wedding cake. I think there's just something so elegant about contrasting colors against a black background but let's face it, not many brides are keen about having a black cake at their wedding, ya know? Fortunately for me, I always seem to have the most awesomest customers :)


A shot of the cake in progress...

Before the gold accents..

and the final result...Ta Da!! Don't you just love pedestal cake stands?

and you know I always have to throw in an angled up shot :)

Now if just one bride sees this cake and is inspired to have a black fondant wedding cake at her own wedding, then I think my life would have meaning. (I'm joking, of course, who cares about the color of your cake when there's millions of starving children out there............well, who, besides me, of course.....)

Lien Sanchez

http://www.crazycakecompany.com/