3-D Alligator Cake Tutorial

Hi Ya'll!

So I have been keeping my promise and blog more often. Well last week I had a very challenging cake for a wedding at the York Country Club here in York, PA. This cake is hands down the most complicated cake I have done so far..everything else was a cake walk (pardon the pun) compares to this cake. The reason why this cake was soo difficult for me was that 1. my hubby decided that this was the cake I was going to learn how to sculpt cake all by myself with out any help from him (insert angry face here) 2. The cake needed to look very to close a picture that the bride provided to me  and 3. The cake was had a curve it and needed serious shading to it.... Well needless to say that I was feeling a bit overwhelm looking at all of the sheet cakes before me trying to figure out where to start first. Seeing my very confused face, the hubby did help me initially by helping me line up the head (hand molded by me and made from rice krispy treats) with the first sheet cake and started carving the outline. I thought at this point he was going to carve the whole thing but noooo..he passed me the knife and said "now is where you have to stop relying on me for the carving of 'your' cakes". Well of course I said a few choice words before I set to the task of carving this big mama of a cake.

In the middle of carving the idea came to me that I should make this a tutorial since I couldn't find any on the internet. I know that some other cake decorators have had this same problem before me and probably after me. By doing this tutorial, I hope to help someone else out too from going through the frustration that I went through to get this cake done. OHH and ALSO I forgot to mention that the bride wanted the cake to be 2 different flavors..yep you heard me 2 different flavors. So I have to mid-way through the carving process stop and glue together with buttercream the second half of the cake. Also the cake had 2 different fillings as well.. I wanted to hit my head up against a wall sandwiching the two sections together while trying to make it look seamless. The picture below is of the cake carved with just the first crumb coat of the two different flavors.

Once I let the cake sit over night then I added the second crumb coat layer which was vanilla bean buttercream.

Now after this point is where I forgot to take more pictures of the process. I was running a bit behind schedule for me. So I can tell you want I did from the crumb coat part. I first covered the cake in a dark green fondant which I made from white, brown and green colored fondant. Once the gator was covered I start with the spine and pinched (while trying to space is evenly) up sections of fondant to replicate the scales on the gator. I worked my way from the back to the front of the cake. I then took a sculpting tool and engaged the lines running in between each scale. After I did that, I then worked on putting in the details on the face and adding the eyes. After that was done I begin to do the shading of the cake by hand with petal dust. Now most decorators would probably use a air brush machine (its much faster), but since I don't have one yet. I had to do it by hand. The coloring was a mix of a dark green and brown dust colors. Once that was done, I think hand molded the legs and glued them to the cake. The final touch I did was mist the entire cake with water to add a sheen to the cake to make the skin look like skin.

All in all I think I did pretty good job. You all tell me what you think....

Well that's it. I took myself out for a much deserved nice dinner after delivering that cake.... :)

Until next time...
Peace & Blessings,
Kima

Wedding Madness Week!

Hello,
I have had quite a week this week! I am still recovering from Saturday. WHEW!!!!! Somehow I managed to book 3 weddings on one day! I know I think I might have lost my mind for a second. After I recovered from the initial shock of it..I had to really sit down and think about to schedule this day out. Not to mention I had an additional 5 cake orders for Saturday and 1 cupcake order for the following Sunday! So I got to work..put on "my girl panties" as Caroline from Real Housewives of NJ would say and made it work! All of the cakes were delivered on time and I am quite proud of the way the dessert buffet for wedding number 3 turned out:) I learned many things from this weekend that I will most definitely be double checking and reinforcing the only 2 wedding cakes per day rule and that having extra people on hand is a HUGE plus. I would have never been able to pull this off if it wasn't for my 2 interns, my assistant and my dear hubby. Being a superwoman does have limits and cake deliveries is one of them. You physically can't be in 2 places at once, learn to lean on those around you when you need to and thank them for their help! 

 Vintage Inspired Dessert Buffet: 2 tier cake in Neapolitan flavor, chocolate dipped strawberries, cake pops, mini cupcakes and dessert shooters (dark choc. raspberry, grasshopper, smore and key lime pie). Delivered to Regent's Glen in York, PA.

 Close up of Wedding Cake

White & Blue Wedding Cake- 4 different flavors delivered to Heritage Hills in York, PA.

 Rock Em, Sock Em Wedding Cupcake Tower- Lots of different cupcake flavors. The cutting cake is Gluten-free White Chocolate with fondant made toppers made to look like the Rock Em Sock Em robots in the background.

Star Wars Groom's Cake- Orange Creamsicle cake flavor. 

Black & White Coach Purse Cake- Vanilla cake with Strawberries/Cream filling. 

 Over the Hill Birthday Cake- Top tier is vanilla and bottom tier is chocolate.

Over the Hill Cupcakes- Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream. 

Gluten-free Birthday Cake- Chocolate cake with Milk free Vanilla Buttercream. A lot of clients that are gluten free have diary/milk allergies so this buttercream was made with flax milk instead of regular milk.

Also if you haven't checked out my new Etsy store please do. I will be adding some angry birds toppers tomorrow. I will be adding more toppers over the next couple of weeks. My website will also be getting an overhaul thanks to my web designer, Sharvon of SP Photos! Please go check out her site.  She does website work on the side and is very reasonable so if you are looking for a new web designer, she is your gal!

Until next time...
Peace & Blessings

Weddings & Airplanes!

Hello once again,

So I have been able to blog more lately because I am learning to do my prep work for cakes earlier in the week so by the time I have to start baking cakes or cupcakes I have everything else prepared. It really helped me out last week with all of the orders I had and it also helped out a bit this week. For the past two weeks it has been really really busy for me and I love it! It lets me know that the local community is starting to find out about me :) So on to this week. First up was a cake I had to make for a couple that I did their wedding cake back in July. Due to the heat and having their wedding outdoors (which I warned them about) I had some issues with the bottom tier by the time I go to the venue and then the cake sat outdoors in the heat. Needless to say the fondant slid a little. I explained to her what happened and why the fondant slid. So because I am who I am and want all of my customers happy and coming back, I told her that I would do a smaller cake for at her choosing for free. So this is the cake, it was her husband who turned 25.

Butter cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Filling. The 2 & 5 were separate cakes that I attached to the square cake. 

The next cake was ordered from a repeat customer of mine. She is so easy to work with and gives me free reign as far as design is concern (which I love).

Strawberry Theme Birthday Cake- Strawberry cake with Strawberry Buttercream Filling. I made the strawberries on top from red fondant. The vines are dark chocolate with white dogwood flowers. This was my first time making fondant figures so I am really pleased with the way the strawberries came out. 

The next couple of pictures are from the order a customer picked up today for her sister's wedding. The wedding will be held in Maryland tomorrow. She preferred to take the cake and things down rather than have me deliver. The wedding's theme was red, blue and airplanes. This order was good size too one smaller cake (for the wedding party), sugar cookie favors and cupcakes for the guest. I love doing these kinds of orders because I am doing multiple things for one event and it shows off my skills. 

Airplane Wedding Cake- Triple Chocolate Fudge cake with Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate Buttercream fillings. The cake is decorated with blue and white compass roses on the sides. On top sits a little airplane that the couple wanted. A very talented fellow cake decorator did the plane for me since I am not that good with fondant figures yet. I had to put it together and think I did a pretty good job:)

Compass Rose Cupcakes- Matching cupcakes to the airplane wedding cake. Cupcakes were carrot, vanilla and chocolate. Topped with blue and white compass rose. 

Airplane Sugar Cookies- Vanilla sugar cookies decorated with red and blue royal icing. The cookies have the couples name and the wedding date on them. I made the favor tags as well. 

Cupcake Tower- I made this square tower to go put the cake and cupcakes on. 

I really wished that I could have set this up but I will have to wait for pictures so see how she set it up. I will be posting more pictures tomorrow after I deliver and set up a cupcake tower for another wedding. I also made some delicious cakes for my church's annual picnic for the baking contest. I also have a birthday cake to deliver as well. But I have GREAT news for everyone. Kima's Konfections is moving! Yes we have have been approved for a house in the city of York (we currently live in the township). It is up the street from a park on a quiet one way street. But the best thing to me is it has sooo much room! I will be able to have a dedicated room just for the business! Which means I can take on more customers! I am so excited and more updates will be coming soon with pictures. Move in date is set for sometime in October! 

Peace & Blessings

Second Wedding Cake Order... plus new Equipment!!!

So I delivered my second wedding cake today. I loved the way it came out! My client Hong wanted a cherry blossom wedding cake because they were having a pink and white wedding. Him and his fiance are Asian and wanted something to reflect the heritage. So I made them a 4 tier round wedding cake in white fondant with pink/white cherry blossoms. The branches are brown colored vanilla buttercream.

I was also recently blessed with the money to bought some much needed equipment to expand my business so now I can do edible images and more complicated scroll work. I was able to get a Agbay cake leveler (which is a godsend because I get my cakes perfectly level now), Cricut Cake, Food Color printer ink and dedicated printer and a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer! Now I would have given my left arm for the mixer itself, it makes baker so much quicker and easier. So you can imagine I was doing the happy dance all around the house when I was able to get everything else... it is Christmas in June for me!

 My beloved new mixer and its purple!!

So look forward to more cakes coming soon. I will be doing my family cake for my cousin Gensis's first birthday. It is going to be a candy themed cake (so much fun). Until then... Peace & Blessings

First Wedding Order Done!

Last weekend I had my first wedding to cater and it came out beautifully (with the help of the hubby)! The couple I had the pleasure of catering a dessert table for Jessica & Steven wanted a yellow and green nature themed table along with wedding cake. The cake was 3 tiers carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake was covered in green fondant with yellow cherry blossoms. They wanted simple yet elegant and I think I achieved that look.

The dessert buffet was for 200 guests so I made a combination of brownies, cupcakes, cookie truffles and cake pops. The brownies were plain chocolate with a hint of vanilla and cinnamon which is my signature brownie. The cupcakes were cinnamon bun with cinnamon cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream, lemon with lemon-lime buttercream, strawberry with lemon-lime buttercream, carrot with vanilla bean cream cheese buttercream, red velvet with vanilla bean cream cheese buttercream and chocolate chip with chocolate buttercream. The cookie truffles were chocolate oreo and golden oreo truffles. And the cake pops were strawberry, banana/chocolate, and white chocolate. Yummy!!!

 I will be blogging again on Saturday after the delivery of yet another wedding cake! Vanilla and raspberry cherry blossom... Until then peace and blessings!

Who said websites don't pay off...

So.. my website has definitely earned the price that I had to pay to get it done. So this week has been a great week for me! I have gotten not one, not two, but three local calls this week for orders.. even though they were are last minute they still were local. My biggest concern in starting my business was that it would take forever for me to get some local business and that most of my business would be internet based, but I have been pleasantly surprised. One call was for a granddaughter wanting a cake her for grandmother's 80th birthday. This is order I had to make the same day, but it was only a 6" cake so I told her yeah. My hubby was even so nice as to deliver it for me. The second call was for a sympathy basket... although I don't have sympathy baskets on my site, but hey... for a family who lost a loved one. The woman who wanted to order the basket was so nice and funny, I just couldn't tell her no. So tomorrow I will be delivering a sympathy basket at 12 noon. And the last call is one that I most excited about, a woman wanted a candy buffet for a sister's baby shower in York. Now I normally tell people that the minimum for a candy buffet is 40 people, but I made an exception in this case because the woman was calling from Georgia and she needed something that could be favors as well. She was running out of time and didn't see anything local until she came upon my site :) So of course I told her I would do it since it was in York and I don't have to drive far. The color scheme is pink, chocolate brown and white because the mother to be is having a girl. So pictures will be coming of my set up. This is my second candy buffet order (the other one is in May). I also got a call today for another cake tasting for a wedding in May.. can you say GOD is GOOD! So they are scheduled to come on Sunday ( yes, I said sunday) because they are doing everything last minute.. I'm talking haven't decided on anything yet not even a caterer... so I told them I wasn't free until next week but she really wanted to come in earlier and I know they would love the cake flavors I offer so I told her Sunday please the chance to do another wedding cake is just tooo much to pass on. I also have a cake tasting for a birthday party on Saturday and a delivery for a Princess Tiana cake. This cake will be all buttercream so this is different for me because most of my cakes are covered in fondant. But I know it will come out nice.. A friend of mine also wants a quote for a cake as well so I will be working on that tomorrow. I am getting busier and therefore am tired between baking, decorating and Jayden but I wouldn't have it any other way. When there are thousands upon thousands of people not working, I am blessed to have a talent that I can make money off of.