I finally found a design that I liked on the Wilton website. I altered it a little to meet my talents (ok lack of talent) and lack of flower shaped pan... and started practicing right away. The basic concept was a round cake covered in white fondant with a daisy made out of fondant and gum paste on top of the cake. Each petal of the daisy was a separate piece, cut into a folded petal.
I cut out each petal and formed them to make the flower and let them dry overnight. The next day, I made another cake and successfully covered it in fondant, sort of. At this point I hadn't purchased a cake leveler yet, which, as can be seen in the pictures is a vital tool. I also found that cutting the bottom edge of the fondant was going to take some practice and in the meantime, I needed something to cover that up, so I decided to make a fondant border that matched the petals.
Fortunately, the timing of this, my first successfully decorated cake that wasn't hideous, was perfect to celebrate Sonya's 38th birthday in November. The cake was far from perfect, but turned out lovely and we had a really nice dinner to celebrate Sonya's birthday.
Then, 3 days later, it was Kelly's 40th birthday, so I got the chance to practice again. I had just purchased new professional cake pans in various sizes, so I wasn't stuck making the same 9" round cake anymore. I had also discovered pre-made fondant in various colors. This was a huge find, as it allowed me to work with a consistently textured product and for once, my hands were not dyed the color of my decorations. Using the 6" pan forced me to come up with a new pattern for my petals...which was important because I had recently purchased a cake stand for my mom's party and it would hold a 6", 8" and 10" cake. I needed to adjust the petals for each cake....so I turned to my trusty Lexmark All-In-One and who knew...it adjusts photocopies by percentages. After a few calculations, I had my pattern and set out to make my first cute little 6" cake for Kelly's birthday.
While eating Sonya's cake, we discovered that more butter cream icing and less fondant is a good thing when it comes to taste, so the center of the flower was also adjusted for Kelly's cake. Instead of rolling a log of fondant to fill the space, I just piped in some yellow butter cream icing.
Later that night, Roland drove me and Dominic and Georgia (Kelly's kids) to the hospital to deliver the cake. While everyone at the nurse's station checked it out, I got my first request for a business card. I was kind of shocked. I never thought of it as a business. I was just learning so I could make these cool cakes for my mom. And truth be told, I was becoming a one trick pony. I only had one design and even that hadn't been perfected yet. A business? Crazy.
Kelly quickly whisked the cake away to save for her break time, which disappointed Dominic and Georgia. They were hoping to eat cake. I was scheduled to baby sit them later in the week, so I told them I'd make them a cake of their own that they could eat and then I asked what flavor.
Big mistake. Dom wanted lemon and Georgia wanted chocolate. I couldn't image a worse tasting cake so I decided I better make them each one. Hey, I needed the practice and one of my mom's cakes was going to be lemon so it would give me a chance to work on the recipe too. So, they each got a cake.
Georgia specifically requested hearts, so her cake was very easy to conceptualize. Dominic on the other hand was 14 and a freshman in high school. I really didn't have the slightest idea on how to make a cake that looked cool for him. Sonya happened to come by while I was working and she actually helped cut out some of the circles for the cake. In the end, he only cared that it was lemon and tasted good. And, I had two new designs to add to my portfolio...
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