Cadillac Lovers

Anyone out there love Cadillacs?  This customer’s husband does.  In fact, he has a Cadillac CTS-V.  I’m not a car person but it is a sharp car.  So my customer ordered a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing.  She said he loves layers because it allows him to eat more icing!  So the cake is torted for more layers of icing.  She also wanted the icing to be tinted to a similar burgundy color of his special car.  And the cadillac V emblem would be fantastic.

I hear he was so happy with it that he made everyone wait until he took a picture before cutting it!  That’s what I like to hear.  He also enjoyed the many layers of icing.  Love that!

Happy Halloween

How about a fun cake for Halloween?  I decided to make a chocolate cake and decorate it for Halloween.  I tinted some vanilla buttercream violet and iced one 6 inch and one 8 inch cake.  I used black tinted buttercream and put some webbing onto the cake.

I made 3 spiders out of a black fondant/gum paste mixture and placed them on the webs.

I dusted the spiders with gold shimmer and gave them eyes.

Happy Halloween!

Cake Challenge

Yesterday was the Cake Challenge at Michael’s here in Colorado Springs.  I’ve never competed in a cake decorating contest before and it was just amazing.  The cakes had to consist of at least two tiers.  They could be iced or covered in fondant prior to the contest but not decorated.  Up to 50% of the decorations could be made prior to the contest too.

First I will tell you about my cake.  I made a half sheet chocolate cake and iced it with chocolate buttercream.  I also made an 8 inch round of chocolate cake covered with chocolate buttercream.  I made pumpkin chip muffins in the shape of pumpkins for the top.  I covered them with orange tinted vanilla buttercream.

Prior to the competition, I made the pumpkins and gourds with different shades of orange fondant.  I used green tinted fondant for the tops with some moss green coloring to enhance the “real” life look of the pumpkins.  I also dusted the pumpkins with green shimmer dust and the gourds with gold dust.  I also made our family ahead of time.  I just rolled out fondant in different shades depending on who I was making.  I decided to personalized the peeps with our favorites colors.  Mazie is wearing blue jeans with pink shoes and a pink shirt.  Jamie is wearing purple and brown.  Jacob is wearing green and blue jeans.  Jeremiah is wearing a brown shirt with blue jeans and I am wearing red and brown.  I didn’t have molds to make my peeps so everything was by hand!  Oh, and I made a rake for Jeremiah to have.  I was happy with how they turned out…

At the contest, I “starred” the pumpkins and added the stems and vines…

I put a shell border around the bottom of the half sheet and round cakes.  Then I placed my family around the round cake.  I placed the gourds and pumpkins.  I also rolled out red, yellow, and orange tinted fondant and used small leave cutters for the leaves.  I placed them around the gourds and pumpkins and filled in around the top pumpkin cakes.

I ended my decorating 90 minutes with writing “Be Thankful” on the cake because that’s how I feel.  I am very thankful for my family!

Now on to my competition!  This is my friend and classmate’s cake.  She did an amazing job on her cake.  With a mummy, spiderweb, and skull for her cakes, she paid amazing attention to detail.  The spider, bats, Frankensteins, and finger pillars are all fondant.  I was very surprised she did not win!  It is a very spooky cake.

This one is amazing too.  I love the marbling of her fondant on the lower two tiers and the fire flames.  In the cauldron was a green swirly fondant that looked like some kind of crazy brew.  This is a great Halloween party cake.

And this one was the winner.  It’s a cute cake with a fun Halloween theme.  It was very well done!

It was fun to see what competing felt like.  I was nervous but not crazy.  It’s nice to know I can work under pressure and still turn out a nicely decorated cake!  So what are your thoughts?

Computer Birthday Cake

A customer asked if I could make a birthday cake for her husband who works at Hewlett Packard.  He fixes computer, servers, etc.  I asked what his favorite color is and went to work.  I started with a chocolate sheet cake with vanilla buttercream icing.  I placed the Hewlett Packard logo in the middle and used red tinted buttercream to fill it in. 

I made a laptop using graham crackers for the base.  I covered it with fondant and made the screen look like it had exploded with wires coming out…

I also used graham crackers to make a tower.  Again I covered it with fondant and made some wires to look like they needed repairing…

It was pretty fun to make computer parts for this cake.  Happy Birthday, Mr. A!

Yummy Fall Treats Sale!

The Fall season is bursting with lots of flavors!  In this house, you know it’s Fall when pumpkin chip muffins are being made.

Pumpkin whoopie pies with chocolate or vanilla filling…

Pumpkin bundt cake with a streusel filling and a chocolate glaze (or citrus, if you prefer)

Pumpkin chip muffins (regular sized or mini!)

There are also pumpkin pie and pumpkin fudge to choose from in the pumpkin catagory.  There is also shoo fly cake for those who love the flavor of molasses.  Apple pie, apple crisp, and pear oatmeal cookies are some Fall fruity goodies that we offer. 

So why am I telling you all about our Fall yummy-ness?  I’m so pleased that you asked ;-)!  We are having a Fall sale.  You can buy one item and get another item half off!  The items do not need to be the same either.  Say you want a pumpkin bundt cake to serve for an office party but need some pumpkin chip muffins because they are that good.  You can order a dozen muffins and the cake and only pay full price for one.  Or say you really like the muffins and need 2 dozen (or 3 or 4) the second (or 3rd or 4th) is 50% off.  I think you’re getting it now! 

This offer is good until the end of November!  You can email or call with questions or to order.

Elmo Gallore

I had an order for Elmo cupcakes.  My customer wanted 3 dozen of them to look “fuzzy” and each one to be the same.  Her daughter was turning 2 and, as all of you know,  2 year olds need everything to be the same. 

The cupcakes are marbled chocolate and vanilla cake with red tinted buttercream icing.  I used white fondant for the eyes with black tinted buttercream pupils.  I used orange fondant for the huge noses and black tinted buttercream for the mouths.  I used the grass tip to make Elmo look furry.

I think they turned out nicely.  I hope Little A enjoyed them at her party!

A Shower of Hearts

I had the pleasure of making a baby shower cake this weekend. I was told the mama-to-be is very girly and is having a baby girl. My customer picked this cake saying it was perfect for her!

The cake is chocolate filled with light pink buttercream. Fondant square of pastel baby colors (yellow, blue, green, purple, and pink) applied to the sides of each cake in a patchwork fashion. I used the leftover heart cutouts as the topper.

It’s a fun cake and very girly!

Wedding Cakes

I am so excited to start advertising wedding cakes! After learning a few tricks to tiering cakes, I figured it was time to put it on the blog.

 

This cakes is a 14 inch round topped by a 10 inch round topped by a 6 inch round.
It’s certainly tall and heavy!
 
So how do you go about ordering wedding cakes or anniversary cakes? I’m so glad you asked!
Contact me through email (stahrscakes@gmail.com) or by phone (719.482.5308). We will set up a time to meet so you can sample cakes in flavors of your choice. We will put some ideas together for your cake, basically creating exactly what you want for your special occasion. I ask that you give at least 2 months notice. Also, unless you are super traditional, I will make you a top tier cake for your first wedding anniversary as part of the cost of the wedding cake. It will be fresh for you to enjoy on your anniversary instead of a whole year old and it will match the top tier of your original design!

Are you ready for some football?

We are football fans in this house. We enjoy going to the AF football games and catching scores of other college and pro teams. So when my husband signed me up to make a dessert for our tailgate cookout, I was so excited to be creative.

I made chocolate cupcakes and filled them with vanilla buttercream. I tinted vanilla buttercream to make skin color (using copper) and royal blue for the helmet.

Then I tinted vanilla buttercream kelley green for the grass and royal blue for the sky…

Then I used vanilla buttercream and swirled the cupcake. I sprayed it with Wilton icing spray in blue.
I had so much fun making these. They were a hit at the tailgate too. Happy Football Season!

Cake Project

Yesterday was my last cake decorating class. I’m sad it’s over because I loved meeting the people in my classes plus I learned some really great things! This class I learned to work with fondant and gum paste. I had tried my hand at fondant before and realized that I had no idea what I was doing. Now I know how to work with it and manipulate it to do what I want. It’s pretty cool stuff!

This is my final cake project. We needed to bake a cake and have it ready to cover with fondant and decorate with fondant, gum paste, or a combination of the two. So I chose to bake a chocolate cake, torte it, and fill and cover it will chocolate butter cream. In class, I covered it with pink fondant…

Then applied light pink leaves…

And inserted dark pink gum paste roses which I made earlier in the week so they were dry. I also added some fondant/gum paste leaves to make the arrangement real. I placed the finished cake on the cake board I made with my imprint mat the week before. And my project was complete.
I had fun in this class and look forward to working with fondant and gum paste again!
***I apparently never gave credit where credit is due. I was fortunate enough to find a class at Michael’s. My instructor was Charity St. John who was awesome! I totally recommend taking a class with her. But if you are not in this area you should check out your local Michael’s or Joann’s. Good luck!***