And no, they are not raindrops on roses.

By now, some of you may know of my love of Snow and Graham papers. After all, I did design a tiered winter cake (pictured) after one of their gift wrap designs. Now they have come back this holiday season as they do every year, with new exciting winter designs. They also sell holiday cards and stationery as well as assorted holiday wrap packages now. I assure you, you won’t be disappointed. And don’t be surprised if you see another winter-themed cake by me inspired by their designs!

I have also made a recent discovery of designer paper that is right up my alley and that is a company called Caskata. They don’t just do paper, but also tableware. which is also definitely my thing.

Getting away from paper, Dwell Studio has always been one of my favorites since my daughter was born. I love their fabric patterns and room decor items. As some of you may know, they also have a stationery line at Tiny Prints. They’ve recently expanded their product line considerably, including real furniture, so revisiting their site is worth a moment. They also have an excellent line produced for Target for a lower cost.

Last but not least is a site I have really come to love… and that is Shop Sweet Lulu. They are not the only site that does what they do, but are very selective of what they sell. I’d say this is increasingly becoming my number one site to visit for party ware and party/event supplies.

Often brides want to surprise their fiances with a grooms cake, a cake that has largely fallen out of tradition. The wedding cake is traditionally seen as the bride’s cake although these days we certainly see a lot of grooms partaking in the wedding cake selection process. A popular subject of grooms cake is not surprisingly sports. This is surely not the first time I have been asked to make a soccer (or “football”) cake for an English groom, and it probably won’t be the last.

I had the pleasure of designing and making this wedding cake for a close friend. The cake features cross-hatch patterned tiers alternating with fabric textured tiers. This cake had a little bit of everything the bride and groom were looking for. And of course, it’s always nice to see your work on site.

I did this one a while back and failed it share it until now. This was actually my very first attempt at a sneaker cake. Great learning experience. Enjoy! The sneaker is officially called Nike Air Jordan Retro Xi 11 Cool Grey. Fancy name!

Planning and designing this table was both fun and like all tables, challenging. It is truly a feat sometimes to come up with something original and clever at the same time. For this western-themed party, I decided to go gender neutral since there would be both boys and girls at this party. And instead of taking it modernly cowboy I went vintage/country. Deciding on the colors was a big first step. The classic American red, white and blue seems to always go well with cowboy themes, but of course brown is such a natural addition. I was originally thinking perhaps a red gingham tablecloth, but decided it would be too busy. I am glad I went with white. The dessert items ended up being classic country American choices, like S’more flavored whoopie pies (graham cracker-like cake, marshmallow filling and chocolate ganache), handmade marshmallows rolled in toasted coconut and cut to look like haystacks, old-fashioned fudge, southern-style biscuits with blueberries. I decided to include some popcorn which I dubbed “Critter Corn”, tossed with browned butter, lime juice, cardamom, salt and brown sugar for some kick. The cupcakes all had paper stick ponies in them. Each striped paper straw said “Moo!”

Get an alternative view on our Dessert Tables page.

I wanted to share this cake on the blog, because it was a rendition of the second pink mod monkey birthday cake on my gallery. Here is an example of taking one idea and translating it into a slightly different variation. I think the overall effect is a cleaner, softer and more feminine design.

If you are a frequent viewer of Mad Men, then you might appreciate this cake. I was asked to make this birthday cake for a fan of the character Betty Draper of the Mad Men TV series. 

Admittedly, I was not very knowledgeable about this subject matter as I had never seen the show. I knew that it took place in the 60′s and its main characters were in advertising, but that was it. I did a wikipedia search on Mad Men, particularly on the Betty Draper storyline as well as look at dozens of images or her. This type of research is what the job requires sometimes. I needed to make this cake feminine and retro, as well has having some iconic items of Betty Draper and her times. I decided on a round hat box design, and used a pattern from a Betty Draper dress to decorate the box. I included a sugar pearl necklace as well as a tube of red lipstick, a martini olive and a crushed cigarette. I had a lot of fun ont his project. Here are the results.

Remember how I made the Vintage Suitcase Cake? Well here’s its stacked cousin. This cake was put together as a wedding/farewell combo cake, as the brand new newlyweds were moving. 

I recently made a small cake for my new nephew. It was a perfect opportunity to get everyone in on the decorating process of this cake. I wanted to make this cake very simple with buttercream frosting. I decided on the theme of a sail boat since boats often represent boys. I recalled a cake I had seen from Martha Stewart that incorporated a paper sail boat with royal icing frosting for the water. Of course, I was not going to use paper on this cake. I was going to make this boat out of gumpaste. I chose to use buttercream, because I still wanted this cake to be accessible and simple for the average hobbyist to follow.

Gumpaste sailboat

Required items:

Gumpaste

sailboat template (see below)

wooden skewer, at least 10 inches long

glass jar

craft knife

gel paste color

Decide what color you want the boat base, sail and flag to be. Knead in your gel paste color in each piece of gumpaste.

Roll out your gumpaste on a non-stick surface to about 3-4 mm thick. Use the base template and cut out with your craft knife. Without stretching pick up the cut out gumpaste piece and gently pinch the diagonally cut sides together. If you are having trouble getting them to stick, you might very lightly brush some water onto the edges. You will want to now let the piece rest with the top being open like a boat. If you have a piece of cardboard, you can fold it in half to form a V and rest it between two items to hold it up. You can place your gumpaste boat inside to dry. Take your skewer and make a hole in the center of the crease. Making sure it is large enough for the skewer to fit through comfortably. Let it dry for a few days until very firm.

Roll out your gumpaste for the sail. Use the sail template and cut out with a craft knife. Without stretching the gumpaste, pick it up and place it on a small glass jar (ideally on a jar that is 4 inches in diameter or less). Be sure that the sail is resting on the glass jar with the short end and long end perpendicular to the length of the glass. Lay jar between two objects to hold it still. Let it dry for a day until somewhat firm. At this point gently, pick up the sail and run your skewer through the bottom and the top of the sail, where the “mast” will be running through the sail. Remove and place it back on the glass.

When it is time to assemble the sailboat together, take either some royal icing of the same color as the sail or a piece of moist gumpaste and run the skewer through the pre-punched holes of the sail and secure the skewer to the sail. Let dry for a day.

Assembling the cake

3 or 4 layers of cake

Cake filling

Buttercream divided into 3 shades of blue, and white buttercream

Gumpaste fish or fish cookies (alternately use swedish fish candies or goldfish crackers)

gumpaste sail and boat base

cake board

Pastry bag

Basketweave decorating tip

Round decorating tip

Assemble your cake by gluing the bottom layer to a cake board with a dab of buttercream. Gently press down to secure. Fill the layer and place another cake layer on top. Repeat.

Fill your pastry bag with the lightest blue buttercream and fit your basketweave decorating tip onto the bag. Pipe waves onto the top. Place your gumpaste boat base onto the top of the cake. Place the skewer (with the sail attached) through the hole at the bottom of the base. If you wish, you can secure the skewer to the boat with royal icing.

Continue to pipe rows of waves on the sides of the cake starting from the top. A third of the way down, use a darker shade of buttercream. Repeat with the darkest shade of buttercream.

Take your white buttercream with the round tip and pipe “sea foam” here and there around the sides and the top. Attach fish around the cake. You are now done. Enjoy!

Spring is finally here, if not a little drab and cold. I have a recipe that might brighten up your day. It’s another recipe for paletas. This was actually inspired by a brand of Korean popsicles called Dolido. They really are amazingly delicious and made with natural ingredients. The Dolido popsicles were not to bad with the sugar/calorie content, but since my daughter was addicted to these, I thought I’d make a slightly healthier version of these. Coincidentally, I saw some really cute and inexpensive popsicle molds at Ikea ($1.99).

I didn’t provide exact measurements as you can be in control of the consistency you want to get… more fruit, less fruit, creamier, sweeter, less sweet, etc.

Strawberry Rose Paletas

Fresh strawberries

rosewater

honey

sugar

low-fat milk

heavy cream

Combine strawberries with honey and sugar to taste. Remember that your popsicles will taste less sweet at freezing temperatures than at room temperature. I added about 3 parts honey and 1 part sugar as my sweetener. Feel free to use agave syrup or all sugar. Blend together first. Then add milk and cream. I added about 3 parts milk and 1 part cream. You can bypass the cream, but I find it helps keep a smoother consistency, not to mention a creamier flavor. Add the rosewater last.

Next you can either refrigerate and then put into an ice cream maker and the pour into popsicle molds, or freeze in ice cube trays and then put them in a blender and then pour into popsicle molds, or you can bypass all of these steps and pour directly into the molds. I find that following the first two methods allow for a smoother consistency with less ice crystals.

Enjoy!