For Moishy’s 31st birthday, he got a cake featuring his favorite foods!  The platter included a bowl of hummus, some slices of pita, a sliced avocado and some lemons.  This is my first themed food cake and was really fun to create!  The plate and the bowl are even edible. The whole platter is sitting atop an 8 inch cake that I covered in white fondant and airbrushed silver.

Here’s a closer look.  To make the plate, I rolled out a large piece of white gum paste.  (I like using gum paste because it hardens more than fondant, making it more sturdy for a cake like this).  I dusted one of my fancy dinner plates with tons of cornstarch, so the gum paste would release easily, and placed the gum paste on top.  Then I trimmed the gum paste to the same size as the plate and let that dry for a few days.  I did the same thing for the silver bowl.  I used one of my small serving bowls as a mold, flipped it over and dusted it with a whole bunch of cornstarch.  I then draped a thin piece of gum over the bowl, trimmed it down (so it wouldn’t be too deep) and left it to dry out for a few days.  Once dry, I airbrushed the bowl in silver.

Now I wouldn’t recommend biting into one of these avocados; they are made completely out of fondant.  But they look pretty authentic!  I used some light green fondant and formed it into an avocado shape and then sliced it in half.  I scooped out a little circle for the pit to fit and I left it to dry cut side down for a few days.  Meanwhile I mixed some leaf green and black gel food color with vodka and pained it on the outside.  After a few days, I flipped the avocado, cut side up and worked on the inside.  I mixed some leaf green gel color with vodka and brushed it around the edges, trying to blend it lighter towards the center.  Then I formed a pit out of fondant and painted it with brown gel paste thinned with vodka.  I attached it with a little royal icing.

I also made the lemons out of fondant.  I shaped two pieces of white fondant into lemon slice shape.  I scored the inside with a pointed gum paste tool, but you can also use a toothpick.  I also poked holes around the top to replicate the lemon peel.  To color the lemon I used lemon yellow gel color (how appropriate!) thinned with vodka and painted the peel and the sections, leaving some white spaces to replicate the pith.  To make it shine I brushed on a mixture of corn syrup and vodka.  It’s hard to tell in the picture, but the lemon is shiny!

To make the pita chips, I tinted some ivory fondant and rolled it out thinly.  Then I folded it in half (making sure to dust it with confectioners sugar or cornstarch so it wouldn’t stick together) and cut out a “v” shape starting at the folded edge.  Then I crumpled the top of the pita wedge to make it look baked and puffy.  Once they were allowed to dry for a few days, I airbrushed the pita slices with some brown and orange airbrush color.  The pita is my favorite part-don’t tell the rest of the cake!

The hummus was the easiest part of the cake.  I tinted some thick frosting with ivory gel paste and piped it into the bowl.  The I sprinkled some paprika on top (what…it’s edible!) and cut some green fondant to look like parsley.  Once everything was arranged on the plate, the cake really came together.  This cake took a lot of preparation, but I couldn’t be happier with the results!

I was asked to make Sophia a 3rd birthday cake.  I made this hugely popular Harry Potter inspired cake for her brother so I knew I could not disappoint.  The guidelines I was given were make it pink and girly with a princess theme and a ballerina tutu element.

For the princess element, I cut out a tiara out of fondant and propped it up around a coffee mug until it was dry.  I cut a large star out of fondant and inserted a lollipop stick inside.  Once the tiara and wand were dry, I airbrushed them with silver airbrush color, but I’m sure you could use luster dust mixed with alcohol if you don’t have an airbrush.

For the ballerina tutu element I decided to make two smaller tiers with a ombre ruffles separating the two.  I have never made these ruffles before but ever since I saw Marina Sousa make an amazing ruffle cake, I’ve wanted to try it!  I used three different shades of pink fondant.  I rolled each color out thinly, then cut a 10 inch round out of each.  To get the ruffle effect I propped cotton balls that I dusted with lots and lots of confectioners sugar into different areas.  I can’t wait to try this again!  Happy Birthday Sophia.

This is my favorite cake to date.  My most recent cake is always my favorite, I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s because I get a little better with every cake I make?  That’s possible. Whatever the reason, I’m really proud of this cake!  I was asked to make it light blue with hanging seahorses.  Those were the only requirements.  I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do until I remembered that I had this cake stencil that I have never used.  I was so excited to finally use it because I love it.  It is so elegant and girly!  The seahorses gave me a little more trouble.  I piped them directly onto the cake using white royal icing.  I’m always really nervous when piping directly onto the cake but they came out really pretty if I do say so myself.

I love using stencils, they are a great way to apply an intricate design in a short amount of time.  I just tape the stencil to the cake using blue painters tape and apply a thinned out royal icing using a small palette knife.  Then I carefully peel back the stencil and voila! A perfect pearl swag design appears!

These gumpaste flowers were really easy to make.  I used Wilton’s fantasy flower tutorial with a few modifications.  I didn’t need a ton of specialty equipment.  Mostly I just needed heart shaped cookie cutters (who doesn’t own a million of those!) and a regular and mini cupcake pan to dry the flowers in.  If you don’t own those you can buy some muffin tins; they are super cheap and disposable!  If you want to ruffle the edges you would need a gumpaste ball tool and a foam mat.  Those are staple tools in flower making so if you are interested in making sugar flowers you may want to invest in those two tools.

The only other requirement I was given was to include a small rainbow with a pot of gold at the end.  It sounds pretty strange, but the birthday girl was surprised at her party with a trip to Ireland!  What a great gift!  I decided to sneak the rainbow on the cake board behind the cake.  Here’s it is:

I think the rainbow added a cute touch to the cake.  I hope the birthday girl was surprised by her cake and her amazing gift, I know I would be!