First Communion Cake

This weekend was my daughter's First Communion. We sketched up a cake idea together and this is how it turned out. 

I baked a Funfetti box cake mix in a 9x13 pan. After it baked and cooled, I put a piece of wax paper on top and drew out my cross shape until I got it right, then cut it. I used the cut-away corners to build a second layer to make it a taller cake. (I put the pieced together layer as the bottom and the solid cross on top with white icing in between.) 

I used white store-bought icing and did a crumb coat. Then I made a batch of white homemade fondant and rolled it out to cover the whole cake.

I tinted a can of store-bought icing light purple and piped tiny flowers around the top edge of the cross to define the edges. I then piped slightly larger flowers around the bottom to hide the fondant edge. 

I cut a small circle out of Candy Clay for the host and used a toothpick to draw a cross. I used the toothpick to lightly draw a chalice outline in the fondant, then I piped the outline with white icing, and filled it in with gold sprinkles. 

Cake is done!  It looked great and tasted great and my daughter loved it. 

Candy Clay

I've been using Candy Clay for quite a while for edible cake decorations.  The recipe on Wilton's site has you use an entire bag of Candy Melts.  (Melt one 12oz package of Candy Melts according to package directions, then stir in 1/4 cup light corn syrup until smooth.)  That makes a ton of candy clay and I never need that much.  So, a while back, I did the math to scale down the recipe.  If you want a smaller amount, use one teaspoon of corn syrup for every ten candy melt discs. (This only applies to Wilton brand Candy Melts.  Other brands may have different sized pieces.)  The instructions Wilton provides are easy to follow - but basically, it is melt the candy melts (I use microwave method), stir in the corn syrup, then spread out on a plate or wax paper and let it cool overnight.  When you are ready to use it, you knead it a little at a time to soften it up and you are ready to go.  If it starts getting too soft, put it in the refrigerator (or other cool location) to firm up a bit.

Examples of things I've made with Candy Clay:

Trees for a "Frozen" Cake

The host for a First Communion cake

Rapunzel and her hair, Pascal, flowers, hairbrush, sun

Red trim, basketball hoop and net

For the tree above, I shaped the prepared candy clay into a cone shape and then stuck a lollipop stick in.  I used kitchen scissors to make small snips all the way around.  When done, I stuck them into the cake evenly around the bottom layer.

My kids and party guests seem to always argue over who gets the Candy Clay pieces.  I think they like it more than the cake itself. Try it out and see if you like it.  Let me know how it turns out for you.

"Frozen" Cake

"Frozen" is the biggest movie on the planet currently, right?  So, of course, my daughter requests a "Frozen"-themed birthday party and cake.  Here is the finished cake...

The first thing I did was search Pinterest for ideas.  We found this image of a cake and my daughter gave me the go-ahead.  

She chose two different flavors of boxed cake mix (because I have yet to attempt baking a cake from scratch) - blue velvet and pink lemonade.  I baked them according to package directions, leveled them, stacked them, and crumb-coated them in store-bought icing.

Somewhere along the line, I decided this cake would be the perfect opportunity to finally try using fondant, and homemade fondant at that.  I followed the instructions for Homemade Fondant found on Johanna's blog My Crazy Blessed Life.  It was easy to make - just marshmallows, powdered sugar, and water.  I added a bit of blue gel food coloring at the end and kneaded it in to make a marbled effect. However, after I rolled it out nice and thin and got ready to pick it up to gracefully drape over the cake, it was hard-core stuck to the counter.  So I had to knead it some more before rolling again (with way more powdered sugar on the counter this time) and my marbling was gone.  I did the bottom tier by itself first, then did the top, and then stacked them.  I covered the rough edges with a fondant rope.  The ice/snow steps in front were blocks of fondant and a fondant rope railing held in place at the top and bottom with a cut toothpick.

Now for the other decorations...  I made the trees out of candy clay.  I've been using candy clay for quite a while for edible cake decorations.  The recipe on Wilton's site has you use an entire bag of Candy Melts.  That makes a ton of candy clay and I never need that much.  So, a while back, I did the math to scale down the recipe.  If you want a smaller amount, use one teaspoon of corn syrup for every ten candy melt discs. (This only applies to Wilton brand Candy Melts.  Other brands may have different sized pieces.)  The instructions Wilton provides are easy to follow - but basically, it is melt the candy melts (I use microwave method), then stir in the corn syrup, then spread out on a plate or wax paper and let it cool overnight.  When you are ready to use it, you knead it a little at a time to soften it up and you are ready to go.

I shaped the prepared candy clay into a cone shape and then stuck a lollipop stick in.  I used kitchen scissors to make small snips all the way around.  When done, I stuck them into the cake evenly around the bottom layer.

Next up, I needed some Anna and Elsa and Olaf to actually make this look "Frozen" and to meet the approval of my daughter.  This is where things got surprisingly complicated.

I planned to just go to Target or Wal-Mart and buy small Anna and Elsa toys to put on the cake like in the inspiration photo.  Not so easy.  I went to every store I could think of and couldn't find Elsa.  I found Anna at a few stores, but the cheapest small Elsa I could find was included in a larger playset and cost around $40.  I love my daughter, but I am not spending that much on a cake topper.  Sorry.  I explored every option I could think of and settled on printing my own Shrinky Dinks.  If you are not familiar with Shrinky Dinks, immediately stop reading this and go Google it and then buy some and have hours of fun.  Just come back and finish reading this blog post eventually.

So, anyway, I found these printable "shrink sheets" forever ago and tucked them away.  

It looks like Avery maybe discontinued the product, but this product on Amazon looks like it might work.  I found the images for Anna, Elsa, and Olaf on Google Images.  I used Photoshop to get them all on one sheet of plastic and faded the color quite a bit.  (You will want to experiment with this if the instructions don't give you specifics.  If you leave the image full color, it will be really dark after you bake/shrink it.)  I flipped the image and printed on the back also.  Then I carefully cut out the characters leaving a spike at the bottom of each one under the feet.  I baked them and stabbed them into the cake.

Shrinky Dink Elsa and Anna

And since my daughter wanted an "8" candle, I stuck a toothpick into the bottom of the candle for extra support and cut out a small spot of fondant for the base and placed the candle.

Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and a giant 8 candle

And with a finished cake, I had a very happy birthday girl.

The End.  And we all lived happily ever after.  Right?  Well, mostly.  Just one thing I wanted to point out.  This fondant is rather heavy.  Everything worked out just fine, but you may be able to see the fondant on the bottom cake layer buckling a bit.  Next time, I think I need to make a change or two to prevent this.  

Some options:

-roll the fondant thinner, thereby using less

-use a denser cake (at least for the bottom) to better support the weight

-put some sort of support system in the bottom cake, dowels to hold up a base for the top cake, maybe.

I think I was the only one that noticed it (and then pointed it out to everyone) and the cake didn't collapse or anything, so it all worked out, but just a word of warning...

Thanks for stopping by!

Rapunzel Cake

Before you even look at the photo, I need to offer a disclaimer...I am not an artist.  I am not a sculpter.  I just enjoy making things.  

My daughter LOVES the Disney movie Tangled and everything Rapunzel.  If you haven't seen the movie, stop reading now and go rent or buy the movie and watch it.  It is really good.

I made three cakes, iced them, and stacked them up.  Round, square, round, decreasing in size.  The cakes were box mixes and the icing was store bought, too.

Now here is where the hard part starts.  I made Candy Clay in various colors using Wilton Candy Melts.  That recipe is for a whole bag of candy melts, but you can scale it down.  My calculations have it at 10 candy melts per 1 teaspoon of corn syrup.  I used the clay to make a (not-very-pretty) Rapunzel, Pascal the chameleon, a frying pan, a hair brush, my version of the sun symbol, lots of flowers and leaves, and then a Rapunzel-supply of hair.  I wrapped the "hair" around all the layers of the cake and then used my super-rusty cursive-writing skills to spell Hannah's name across the front of the cake.  (The "6" is the candle, not edible.)

I was a little disappointed in my Rapunzel-sculpting skills, but other than that, I love how it turned out.  And most importantly, my daughter thought it was the most awesome cake ever.