Trying to catch up

This has been a busy week, but it seems they all are lately. I wouldn't say it has been crazy, just busy. I guess I'm starting to adjust to life with a fuller schedule. As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm doing a cake order for a sweet sixteen party this weekend. We decided on three cakes and I'm really excited about them. I can hardly wait for Saturday when I will actually decorate them. In preparation, I have been experimenting with gum paste. Gum paste is similar to fondant, in that it is a powdered sugar-based edible clay. But unlike fondant, gum paste dries very hard, to the point that, although it is technically edible, you probably wouldn't want to eat it. Because of this, it really holds its shape well. For my birthday, Lincoln got me a set of gum paste flower cutters. These are great for cutting out the basic shape of the leaves and petals, then you can assemble and sculpt and mold them into the final product.

The design for the cakes I am doing is very simple and elegant. The client sent me this inspiration picture.



The colors requested are purple and white. I will do one tier ruffle cake, like the pink one in the picture, one larger layer cake in white with a ring of daisies around it, and one smaller cake with very simple, understated ruffles around it and violets either in a border around the base, or cascading from the top to the base. I'll have to play with that a little to decide what I like best with the ruffles. I don't want it to be too busy, since clean, elegant lines are what we are looking for, with the variance in size, shape, and texture taking center stage.

I have worked a little bit the last couple of days creating these:



I added a little glitter to the violets which you can see a little better in this photo (you might have to click it to enlarge):


Cake decorating has really proven to be a great creative outlet for me. Every cake I do I try to learn something, create something I haven't before. This weekend I need to print off some pictures of my cakes for an auction at the elementary school. I am donating a cake to be auctioned and I need people to be able to see some of the cakes I've done so they know what their options are. I'm hoping this might be some good publicity/advertising that will land me a few more cake orders.

I'm looking forward to sharing my final product with you this weekend!