Project of the Week: A BOOday Cake!

 BOO!

Happy Thursday! I sure have been having a fun, creative week! There are few things I would like to mention before I get into the good stuff! ;)

First, have you entered my Christmas Ornament Contest yet? Well you should!!! Do it now!

I have 25 entries so far! Some are double since you can an extra entry if you blog or facebook about my blog/contest! So please sign up!

Remember that t-shirt contest I entered for the Market that I blogged about a while back? Well... I think I sorta kinda won... ;) Well, they emailed me, and asked if I could change something in the design (add some fruits and veggies). So I did that, and they emailed me back again asking if I could swap an apple I put in the design out for another vegetable (I picked corn). In that second email they sent, they said I was the "front runner." Well, I just submitted the revised design. Hopefully I will hear something back soon! :)  I will let y'all know when I do!

And now for my project of the week... A Happy Birthday (Booday) cake for my coworker, Jean! She is such a great lady, and it was a great pleasure to make this cake for her!

I started off with a chocolate cake mix and added to it using a recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor Book.

The cake was DELICIOUS, but the cake was too moist. It was too crumbly to decorate on. I still managed it though. I am still searching for the perfect cake recipes to use for cake decorating. So if you know any, let me know!!

A lot of times before I do anything, a design, a painting, a cake, etc., I like to sketch out what I want to do. My sketches aren't pretty, but they really help! Here was mine for this cake:

I thought it would neat to post this to see how an idea
can become a reality! 

So I got started by layering my cake with green icing, and then covering the top with black icing and the sides with orange icing. I was finally able to get a BLACK icing... It would just stay gray when I made it before. The secret was to add some cocoa powder!  http://www.wilton.com/blog/index.php/how-to-make-black-buttercream-icing/

Then I used my icing tips to decorate the top and sides of the cake. I did orange squiggles on the top and made bats, trees and squiggles on the sides. I finished it off with a large black border.

Then I got to the fun part... playing with fondant! I haven't taken my fondant class yet, but I have watched Ace of Cakes enough to sort of know what I was doing! So I got some rice crispy treats and molded them into a ghost which I covered in white fondant.

Then I dyed some fondant orange, rolled it to little balls, and make them into pumpkins!

Added some lines to make them look more like pumpkins

Made some vines by twisting little pieces
of green fondant around a toothpick

The pumpkin patch!

I put the ghost and pumpkins on top of the cake. I finished my cake with "Happy BOOday Jean" in green icing.

I am very happy with how my cake turned out! Everyone loved it! There are definitely some things I need to work on, like getting proper recipes, but I think I am off to a great start. It is SO MUCH FUN! I love being able to make edible art! I have two more cake classes to take starting in November. I was supposed to start one yesterday, but it was canceled. I am excited to learn even more about cake decorating! This is the last cake I will be doing for awhile I think so y'all will get a cake break! I know I have been doing so many of them!

I worked on another project this past week which is almost complete. Katherine's Baby Shower invite! I will post it very soon! It's so cute! (It would be  easier to throw this shower if we knew the sex of the baby, KATHERINE!!!!! ;) Just kidding. I still love you.)

Next week expect a blog post on my newest project, a fall wreath! I have never made a wreath before, but after I saw my friend Andrea's Halloween wreath on her blog, I REALLY wanted to make one! So yesterday we went to Hobby Lobby and bought all the stuff  I would need to make one. Andrea and I are going to have a craft night this Friday and decorate our fall wreaths! Should be a lot of fun! I also get to cook for her!

I want to thank everyone for all your kind comments about my projects. I love that I am inspiring others to get creative! Doing projects like this make me really happy. It's what I am meant to do. :)

Have a great Thursday, and a wonderful weekend!

-Emily

Posted in: Cakes