Italian themed birthday cake

Today I had the opportunity to make a birthday cake for an Italian man turning 88 (wow). It was requested that the cake reflect Italian food because it is his favorite. I started with a white cake with chocolate filling. I then would add a red and white checkered table cloth that would resemble as if the cake was a table with food on top. This is how it started:

I carefully layed each one following my pattern on my fondant mat. I then draped it across the top of the cake.

The next step was to start adding the decorations I made previously this week so they had a chance to harden.

The olives, single French bread and wine glasses were put on a dozen cupcakes along with the Italian flag. 

The rest would go on the cake. The wine glasses were painted silver and then colored to get the wine look in them. 

Here are the completed cupcakes with their fondant toppers and cake. 

The spaghetti sauce was made with strawberry preserves and food coloring along with green sprinkles for spices and shaved white chocolate for Parmesan. The olive oil and spices were made with piping gel with added food coloring. I made fondant pieces look like wood for the bottom border. I made the fondant light brown then painted it with a vodka and brown gel color mixture. All the decorations are fondant. 

Miscellaneous cakes of 2013

Since I started making cakes this past september I had a chance to make other sorts of cakes besides birthday cakes. Some were for family or holiday partys. Here they are:

Penn State cake for football party. White cake with chocolate buttercream filling vanilla buttercream outside and fondant accents. 

This cake was donated to a bake sale were the proceeds went to a charity in our community. It was some of my very first roses ever made. The cake was a butter pecan cake with butter pecan frosting. All accents are fondant.

This cake was another one that was donated to the bake sale. It is a upside down apple cake with caramel frosting. Each cake Layer had a layer of sliced apples baked into the bottom of them. The apples are sculpted out of homemade modeling chocolate with clove centers. The leaves were traced onto parchment paper with melted candy melts and cooled. 

This was a baby shower cake I had the honor of making. They requested this cake after seeing my cake at the bake sale. She requested certain color roses to match the decor for the sower. It was a white cake with buttercream. Accents are fondant and gumpaste. 

Cake I made just because. I had a few layers of cake left over and decided to try my hand at buttercream roses since I haven't made them since class. 

This cake was for a 50th wedding anniversary. It was a white and chocolate layer cake with buttercream. The roses and leaves were royal icing dried then edges painted with edible gold dust. 

This cake was made for a christmas party. The lady requested a picture that she had on a set of dishes in her dining room be put on the cake. After careful thinking I decided to try my hand at free hand painting it onto a piece of fondant then putting it onto a cake. It was a white and chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. This is the plate she gave me to use:

The tree limb sides of the plate were replicated for the cake using fondant. It was a awesome cake to do. It opened a door for me with painting on cakes. 

This cake was made for my familys christmas get together. It was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. All decrations are made from cream cheese frosting. 

 

Birthday Cakes of 2013

Here are birthday cakes I made from 2013. 

Head and bomb are made from Rice Krispies covered with modeling chocolate. Eyes are gumpaste. The suitcase is white and chocolate cake with buttercream icing. All accents are fondant. 

These two cakes are pumpkin spice cakes with spiced cream cheesing frosting. The leaves are made by tracing a leaf template on parchment paper with melted candy melts and letting them dry. Acorns and pumkins are modeling choclate I made. 

This cake is a white cake with buttercream. All decorations are buttercream. 

A man asked me to make a surprise cake for his wife. She is an avid golf player and loves her dog. He requested specific details for this cake. It was a white cake with buttercream fosting. The figure and dog were made out of modeling chocolate and fondant. All other accents are fondant. 

This cake was made for a man that loved horse racing. It was a white cake with buttercream fosting. All accents are fondant.  

First Birthday Cake 2014

This year is already showing to be awesome, starting with this cake which is my first for 2014.The lady requested a white cake with red roses and green hydrangeas for the holiday season. I love making gumpaste flowers. My absolute favorite is the rose and with this cake I got to try a few new techniques I've learned from the cake site cake central. The wilton method I learned is using a flower cutter and just layering them. They are pretty as you can see in this photo. 

 

I made these after my class on roses but I wanted roses that were a bit more realistic. I searched the internet and ran across a site known as cake central, which by the way is the best place for questions or pictures of cakes. The technique they talked about was using a petal cutter and rolling the edges to make it look more real. After practicing a bit seeing as I needed them for this birthday cake I made these.

I used bits of paper towel to hold the petals apart. It worked perfectly. Next thing was to make them red and once again I looked to cake central for advice. I had used red gumpaste but it dried a dark pink not the red I was looking for. So people online said to use a petal dust for making them red and steaming them to set it which makes them look real. After ordering some dust and dusting them I was amazed at the differance.

So now I have red roses. I finished up the hydrangeas and leaves and added a few little white flowers for filler. 

I dusted the hydrangeas light green and my leaves to give them a more real look. Covered my cake in fondant. 

I finished up adding letters and a border along with the flowers and I think this is one of the prettiest cakes ever (besides my moms as she informed me when I said that).