March 11, 2013

WHOOO HOOOO!! I am finally done with my Senior project. I reached 30 hours a long time ago, but today I finished my 5th cake and its ready for my presentation tomorrow! I modeled this cake out of The Essential Guide to Decorating Cakes, here is the picture from the book.

I decided to leave off the bottom layer because a 4 tiered cake is sooooooo much cake and my middle tier with the daisies is foam to make it lighter and to help with the structure of the cake. The cake I made is a vanilla cake with a chocolate butter cream frosting.

Making this cake took a while because all the detail work is made with fondant which I had to dye, roll super thin and lay over the cake with out messing it up. Then I had to cut out the stripes, polka dots, and daisies pedals and centers.

 The bow and the daisies were the hardest part of this cake. Fondant is like the play dough of cake decorating and it takes a while to dry but to help speed this up and to made your fondant not stick to  your rolling surface you can use cornstarch and kneed that into the fondant. The bow after i cut it into the right length strip had to dry with out collapsing so I put two spoons upside down in the bow's loops to keep them up while it dried.

 The daisies were easily the most time consuming this about this cake. I had to us a cookie cutter tool to cut out the pieces of fondant and they were super tiny. So when I went to place them on the cake I had to use tweezers. I spend probably two and half hours placing the daisies on the cake.

Now that I am done with my project i feel relieved, but at the same time its a bittersweet feeling because I  really enjoy decorating cakes and cupcakes. I hope to continue working on cake after my project. My brothers birthday is in about a week so hopefully he will let me bake his birthday cake. Thanks for checking out my Senior  Project blog!!

February 9th, 2013

The Sports Auction was a success! Thank you to Rich Skalbania's table for choosing my cake!! they loved it and had plenty of still to take home!

February 9th, 2013

Tonight is the annual Roosevelt Sports Auction and I finished my cake for the dessert dash last night as well. This one was tricky but with the help of my mentor Andrea Manca we were able to make a very convincing replica of the cake shown in my book. The table who chooses my cake at the auction will receive a feedback card I am very excited to see what they think!

P.S If you parents are going to the auction tell them to pick my cake and give me feedback!

This is the picture in the book!

February 9th, 2013

Yesterday I finished my heart shaped cake for the ACC Josephine McDermott Circle Cake Walk. On Thursday I frosted it and covered it in pink fondant then on Friday I came home and iced it. I completed the cake with royal icing and delivered it to the event yesterday night. And while it doesn't look exactly like the plate my mom made for my dad, it was still perfect for the theme and they all really enjoyed it. I was told it was the second dessert chosen! A close second to the trophy cupcakes that were donated.

February 6th, 2013

The cake I am making for the ACC Josephine McDermott Circle Cake Walk is a valentines themed cake! I modeled it after a plate that my mom painted for my day at Paint the Town one year for Valentines Day. here is what the plate looks like;

it is pale pink with black writing and indented hearts and swirls.
SOO... following a heart shaped cake model in my book The Essential Guide to Cake Decorating and carved my cake. I chose to do a four layer vanilla cake so that I could dye each layer a different shade of pink to create an ombre effect.

Tomorrow I will crumb coat it and frost it, then cover it in a pale pink fondant.

February 6th, 2013


AHHH!! I have my next two cakes due this week! one on Friday for the ACC Josephine McDermott Circle, Cake Walk for a Cause, in which all proceeds benefit the Association for Catholic Childhood. MY mothers friend is a part of this group and I asked to donate a cake. my second cake is for the Roosevelt Annual Sports Auction, I am making a cake for the dessert dash. Today I started molding the sugar paste flowers and leaves for the Sports Auction cake. I started by rolling out white fondant ( a icing-like substances used to decorate or sculpt pastries) I cut them into pedal shapes and pinched them together and placed them in an egg carton to dry. Next I dusted them with pedal dust to look like yellow pollen. For the leaves I used the same cutter and this kneaded in some "avocado" green food coloring for a base green. I used a leave veiner and then let them dry in another egg carton. After that I mixed some green and brown food coloring with water and painted the leaves to make them darker. Now I must wait for them to dry (should take 2-3 days). Here are some pictures to give you an idea!

January 26th, 2013

I finished my second cake today. I made the Jungle Cake of our my The essential Guide to Cake Decorating. This is what it is supposed to look like:

This time I baked my cake a head of time and froze it, this saved me time when I started decorating. I also made some of the sugar paste molded figures last night to give them time to dry. 4 hours later I'm done! here is what it looks like:

January 5th, 2013
I finished my first cake, and it truly is a winter wonderland! It took 4 and half hours but its done. Its a chocolate cake finished with a buttercream frosting, decorated with white chocolate trees.  

January 5th, 2013

Introduction: My name is Adrienne Leonard and my Senior project is learning how to decorate 5 cakes out of The Essential Guide to Cake Decorating. I am using this blog to post pictures and commentary about my progress. Today i am starting my first cake. Hopefully this is what it will look like.