I'm Late..I'm Late...for a very important date:)!

Hi Ya'll!
So I'm not late for an important date...lol...but that little verse does set the tone for my blog post in that I will be talking about Alice in Wonderland! So I adore the original Alice in Wonderland like I'm sure most of you do.. I can't say the same about too many of the remakes that has made their way to the big screen..but I did most enjoy Tim Burton's remake of Alice in Wonderland with Johnnie Depp. I also love how Wonderland is one of the many different worlds in the series Once Upon a Time (oohhh I just love that show). So I thought it would be fitting to do a post on the theme of Alice in Wonderland.
Now if you are into cake decorating like I am then.. you have surely seen the spike in the number of cakes that have popped up on Google over the last year in that theme. I don't know the reason why but I love to see the different interpretations done in cake:)

Now this one for instance (no I didn't do this one...but mine is coming..hehehe) is the typical Alice in Wonderland theme cake you would see...with Alice falling into the rabbit hole and the clock for the late bunny. The stripes represents the Cheshire cat. This cake was done by Lilo Cakes .

Or you will have some like this.. that just takes a few elements like the cup from the Mad Hatter's tea party and Cheshire cat and completely make something different. This cake is ultra feminine while staying true to the theme of Alice in Wonderland. It also has a extra something in that it is in the topsy turvy style. This cake is by Design Cakes on Flickr.

Or you can have great artistic version like this. I saw this one and fell in LOVE with the characters on the cake. I love how the rest of the cake is an elegant background to the detailedness of the characters. I do figures on some of my cakes..but these are extremely well done. I want my figures to look like that when they grow up:) The figures are very Tim Burton in style. This one was done by a designer across the pond, Sweet as Sugar Cakes in the UK is on Flickr as well.

So here is my version of Alice in Wonderland:)

As you can see mine has many classic characters of the movie like the Cheshire cat, the smoking worm and playing cards. This cake was topsy-turvy as well.. though not from this angle of the picture (trying to show off everything on the cake) and I will probably doing a sharper angle next time I do a cake like this but I do love the way everything came together on the cake. This was also for a baby shower which is why some of the colors are on the lighter scale. I also made "Alice" black since the mommy to be was black. I like to take personal elements of the person who the cake is for and put them into the cake. The most fun was making Alice and the top of the cake which is of course the Mad Hatter's hat:) The mommy to be loved the cake and everyone was so impressed with all of the characters I was able to get on the cake. Next time I would like to add either the Mad Hatter himself or the Queen of Hearts. Overall I am pleased and think I did a pretty good job... don't you???

Peace & Blessings

The Perils of Delivering Big Cakes!

Hello Again,
So as you can tell from the title of this post that I had some trouble with a big cake. Well I did indeed have some trouble. That is the problem when you run a business by yourself for the most part, you don't always have the help in the form that you want or need it in. So this past Saturday I had to deliver the biggest wedding cake to date, a four tier square cake covered in white fondant. Yes! White fondant! For those of you who don't understand the the problems with white fondant, let me just tell you this white fondant shows every little mark or dent or even lint that can be in the air..so I get a little paranoid when a client asks for a cake in white fondant. I have to use very clean gloves, wear short sleeve shirts and make sure that my working area is extra clean in order for the fondant not to pick anything up. So I had to be extra careful with all 4 tiers. You can imagine my stress level over this cake. So because the hubby was unable to help me deliver the cake, I had to ask my best friend for some help. With a cake that big and heavy its hard to move by yourself.

So I put the 2 heaviest tiers together and the top 2 tiers together, that way when I got to the venue I could just stack them, put on the flowers and go. If only it were that easy! Well when she comes there were extra people in the car that I didn't account for so I had to have someone hold the top 2 tiers that I put in a box (never have cake newbies hold cake, they don't know what they are doing or just don't care) while I held the bottom 2 tiers and the sugar orchids. Well when I get to the venue Heritage Hills in York, PA (which is a gorgeous outdoor space for a wedding), the person holding the cake didn't hold it right so my purple buttercream dots one side of the cake was smashed! Arrrgghhhh!!! I did bring extra buttercream so I was able to fix that problem. Then the cake table that was provided was lopsided! Lopsided table makes for a lopsided cake stand which makes a lopsided cake..see where I am going with this.... so I had to move the cake around until I got in as level as I could. It looked nice once I put the flowers on but I was soo upset over what happened I couldn't enjoy my hard work :( 

Once I got back home and looked at the pictures, I was proud that I was able to get it to look so nice even with all of the issues I had. Wedding season is great for business bad for the blood pressure. Any whooo here is the cake and some other back pictures that I haven't shown yet. Enjoy!

4 tier white wedding cake with purple buttercream dots and green orchids. 2 tiers are devil's food with butterfinger filling and the other 2 are vanilla with fresh raspberry filling. Delivered to Heritage Hills in York, PA.

50th Birthday Cupcakes- pumpkin spice, whopper, spiced apple, orange dreamsicle flavored cupcakes with the name and age of the birthday girl and pink/brown flowers. 

Star Wars Cupcakes- Oreo Overload, Chocolate, Red Velvet & French Vanilla flavored cupcakes. Toppers were based on some toppers that my client saw on another website. 

Gluten free & Diary Free Chocolate Cupcakes- I provide cakes and cupcakes to children and adults that have food allergies. These are one of many orders I have done. 

Well my lesson was learned and if I can't get the hubby to help me deliver then I will just deliver myself.  Oh and I am getting interns in about 2 weeks! I am soo excited to have the extra help. 

Until next time, 

Peace & Blessings

Kima

Light Week

Well so far this week. I only had one cake to do which is somewhat nice so I can work on the house. Every time I have a lot of cake orders, the things I did to do in the house gets behind. So I am able to check up this week :) The one cake order I had was for a sweet sixteen with a twist. She wasn't girlie at all and the mother said that she liked dark colors which really doesn't work when you are dyeing fondant. I told the mother that black fondant does not taste good when she said her daughter liked black. So we decided on purple and a darker green. The color combination looks a little willy wonka ish, if you ask me but hey I do what the clients want. So jazzed it up some swirls because it looked a little sparse. But you are on your worst critic.When I delivered it the dad was so surprised, he said he liked the way it looked.I did like the way the writing came out. My writer's swing is getting better and better. I also bent the wires this time to do something different, next time I think I will use some curled wire and see what happens. Another successful order completed!

I finished my second decorating class today and it felt great because the cake that I did, came out great! I also learned how to make about 7 different flowers using royal icing. This was something I was definitely lacking so now I am increasing my basic cake decorating knowledge which is definitely valuable especially doing wedding cakes. Below is finally class cake I had to make. It is pound cake with vanilla buttercream. The outside is done in a basket weave pattern with a border top and bottom. All of the flowers I did with royal icing. I signed up for the third class tonight before I came home and can't wait til it starts. I am going to learn more difficult flowers and some more borders. I don't get many orders for buttercream covered cakes, but when I do I want to be able to offer them just as many offers as I have with customers ordering cakes in fondant. I have to do another small cake tomorrow for my husband's friend's birthday. So I will posting those pics tomorrow. I also got my second wedding order for May. I want a small cake and a dessert buffet which is going to be fun for me to do because I get to be creative with the tablescape. I am also doing their centerpieces. Now I know that isn't konfection related but I want to get some aspects of event planning under my belt and I figured starting out small like making centerpieces will give me experience and let me be creative as well. She was telling me her idea for a centerpieces and I came up with a better option which she loved. Part 2 of this post coming tomorrow....