Hydrangea Cake (September 2013)

White cake filled and iced with vanilla buttercream, decorated with buttercream basketweave and 50/50 gum paste/fondant hydrangeas and leaves.

Happy New Year!

White cake filled and iced with white chocolate buttercream, decorated with pecan praline pieces and fondant dusted with silver pearl dust.

Gum Paste Poinsettia (December 2012)

 Gum paste poinsettia dusted with green and pink pearl dust.

Christmas Cupcakes (December 2012)

Red and green vanilla cupcakes iced with white chocolate buttercream and topped with 50/50 gum paste/fondant Christmas themed decorations, all dusted with white pearl dust.

Orchid Cake (October 2012)

Sponge cake filled and iced with chocolate buttercream, decorated with pecan praline pieces and a gum paste orchid.

Gum paste orchids dusted with yellow, pink and green pearl dust.

Fall Flowers Cake (September 2012)

Chocolate cake filled and iced with chocolate buttercream, decorated with 50/50 gum paste/fondant roses, daisies, mums and leaves.

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design (May 2012)

 Class  1: 50/50 gum paste/fondant button flowers and pansy

Class 2: Royal icing apple blossom, rose and primrose

Class 3: Royal icing lily, daffodil and violet

 Class 4: Chocolate cake filled and iced with chocolate buttercream, decorated with buttercream basketweave and royal icing lilies

Basket of Pansies (May 2012)

Yellow cake filled and iced with lemon buttercream, decorated with Chocolate Hazelnut Wafers and 50/50 gum paste/fondant pansies, leaves, ribbon and bow.

Daffodil Savarins (April 2012)

Savarins filled with whipped cream and topped with 50/50 gum paste/fondant daffodils.

 Daffodil veined with the Wilton Impression Mat and dusted with yellow pearl dust.

Lessons learned:

• I didn't have a daffodil cutter so I had to cut each petal individually with a small leaf cutter. It took forever to vein and glue each petal! I'm not doing daffodils again unless I get a multi-petal cutter.
• Everything is edible except the stamens. I should try and make royal icing stamens next time.

Easter Cupcakes (March 2012)

 

Flourless honey almond cupcakes iced with poured buttercream and topped with 50/50 gum paste/fondant calla lilies.

Calla lily dusted with yellow pearl dust for added realism.

Lesson learned:

• The Wilton Impression Mat adds beautiful details to the flowers and leaves, making them look even more real. I love making gum paste and fondant flowers!

Daisy Cake Pops (January 2012)

Chocolate cake pops covered with white chocolate ganache and topped with gum paste daisies.

Lesson learned:

• Covering the pops in chocolate did not work for me at all. The chocolate was not runny enough so it wouldn't cover the pops properly. I tried melting it in the microwave more, but it ended up just seizing on me. I found out later I should have added some Crisco to it. I'll try that next time.

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant (January 2012)

 Class 1: 50/50 gum paste/fondant bow

 Class 2: Gum paste carnation, rose, calla lily and leaves

 Class 3: Gum paste mum and daisy

Class 4: Chocolate cake filled with raspberry jam, iced with chocolate buttercream and covered with Wilton's chocolate fondant. The cake board is covered with marshmallow fondant. The bow is the one we made in the first class. The rest of the decorations are all made out of Wilton's ready-to-use rolled fondant (white and chocolate).

Lessons learned:

• The Wilton Gum Paste and Fondant course was a lot of fun! I loved working with gum paste and fondant. It was like playing with edible Play-Doh :)
• Gum paste flowers look so much better than the buttercream icing ones I've made so far! However, they are a lot more work, and really don't taste as good.
• Wilton's chocolate fondant is very dry and rips very easily! Apparently other brands are better but I haven't tried them yet. 
• I made my own marshmallow fondant to cover the cake board since I wanted to see if I could do it. It didn't work! It was good enough for covering the board, but I never would have been able to cover the cake with it. First I underestimated how much sugar I needed so it was too "soupy". Then I went overboard with the sugar so it dried up too much and wouldn't roll properly. And I probably used too much Crisco since it came out very greasy. I'll try it again and will have to follow the recipe more carefully.
• Wilton's fondant tastes quite bad. We ended up peeling it off the cake before eating the cake. Apparently other brands are better so maybe I'll try those next time, or I'll attempt to make my own marshmallow fondant again.