The River of Life

Laura was my first roommate in college.  We lived together for two and a half years, until we each spent a semester off of campus.  We are very different but we just kind of clicked.  I was very fortunate to have her as my "roomie."  We still call each other that even though we haven't lived together for almost ten years.

Laura asked me to make the groom's cake for her wedding.  Now it has come to my attention that many people don't know what a groom's cake is.  It is more of a southern tradition now (Laura is from Texas), but it started in Victorian England.  Back then, they would cut the groom's cake and give slices to the bridesmaids.  If the bridesmaids slept with the cake under their pillow (um, gross??) they would dream of the man they would marry.  Now I'm not a big fan of the bouquet toss, but this tradition seems a bit messier.

Now it is more of a chance to give the groom something at the bride-centric wedding.  It is usually a more "fun" cake than the more traditional wedding cake and tends to showcase something about the groom.  If you are curious, here is some more info on the subject.  

Laura told me that Joel, her groom, was a big fan of Minnesota and especially the woods and canoeing.  Something along those lines would be great.

So I decided to be extremely adventurous.  The cake would be Laura and Joel, in a boat of some sorts, rowing down a river, through the woods.  

Yikes.  People are hard and I was going to make them for someone's wedding!?!?!?!?  Crazy.

So naturally I started with the trees.  I found an awesome tutorial that made it super easy.  You start out by rolling some green fondant into a shape like this:

Then you take scissors and make small little snips into the cone.  The tutorial said to use curved scissors, but since the only ones I had were used nail scissors, I thought that was a bad idea.  I just used small scissors instead.  Either way works.

The tutorial also said to put a stick into the cone before cutting.  But I wasn't planning on putting the trees on the cake until I brought it to the wedding in a few days.  So I didn't stick anything in the cones.  I just cut some parchment paper and put them on that so they didn't have to sit on my hand while I cut the snips.  I made a few different sizes.

Pretty snazzy!

Next I had to make the boat.  I decided to go for a rowboat type shape.  I used chocolate fondant and gum glue.  You can see the plastic wrap under the planks.  They are there to help it dry in the correct shape and not fall down.

In retrospect, I should have made the boat a little bit bigger . . . .

I made the boat a few days in advance so it would dry before I put the people in it.  The day before the wedding, I made "Laura" and "Joel."

There are a lot of good tutorials out there for people.  I didn't want to make them too realistic because I knew it wouldn't look very good.  So I went with a slightly cartoonish figure.  First I started with the bride's legs.  Then I made the body without the arms.

I wrapped the body in white, then added the arms.  The body was on a toothpick so I could add the head on later.

I made some shoes and put the legs into the boat.  Now I should have flattened the legs where they are on the bench, but I didn't.

Next came the skirt.  This was unbelievably hard to get in there.  I should have wrapped it around the legs before putting it on the boat.  But it turned out ok.

Next I added the body and a sash to connect the top of the dress to the bottom.  Those hands look pretty good!

Again, looking back, I should have made the body lean forward.  You'll see why later.

"Joel" was a little different because he was wearing a suit.  I used gray fondant because black is really expensive.  Imagine my surprise when he actually wore a gray suit at the wedding!  Score!

Again I put the feet in first and I should have flattened it on the bench.  But I didn't.  I added the body without the arms.

Here you can glimpse the coattails in back.  And also now Laura's head is attached.  It's really hard to make these fondant people proportional . . .

And then the arms.  You can start to see the problem here.  The bodies and heads were very heavy, so they started to lean backwards.

They were just trying to balance out the boat, right?

Then I had to make Laura's hair.  I wrapped yellow fondant around a toothpick to get this look.

Joel's hair and beard were a littler harder.  It's difficult to make hair look realistic and not completely ridiculous.

I was trying to make it look the way he actually wears his hair.  Not really sure if I succeeded.  But it works.

The eyes look kind of creepy without the irises.

I put the hair on Laura's head and it looked great, but it was so heavy, I was terrified the head was going to fall off.  And the wedding was not until the next day!!  So I took her head off and decided to just add it once I got to the wedding.

Finally, I had to make the cake.  Chocolate sheet cake, covered in green buttercream frosting with a lovely blue river down the middle.

I always put parchment paper or aluminum foil under the cake when I'm frosting it.  That way it keeps the cake board underneath clean and frosting free.  Unfortunately, when I pulled out the parchment paper this time, some of the cake decided it wanted to come too.

This is not pretty.

I didn't panic, but stuffed the cake back in and covered it with a border.

Front side.

Back Side.

All fixed.  And if you are wondering why the frosting isn't smooth, that's on purpose.  I wanted it to look like water and grass.

WEDDING DAY

A hot day in July (at least I think it was July, it's been so long, I could be remembering incorrectly).  I loaded everything in my car, cranked up the air conditioning and prayed that none of the fondant would melt.  I headed to the reception hall where my trusty assistant, Rachel (she helped me with my first wedding cake), helped me unload the car.  She took pictures while I finished the cake.  She also continued to reassure me that I would finish in time and that the figures would not fall off the cake.  The people who made the wedding cake were there too and that was kind of fun as we both were working to finish.

I added some rocks along the side of the river and then the boat with the people in it.

You can see "Laura's" head in the plastic wrap on the table there.

And "Joel" looks like he is sliding down into the boat . . .

Next I added the trees.

And "Laura's" head.  Tense moment . . . Would it stay?????

It held.  Whew.

Then came the oars.

And I was done!  So cute!

The problem was that the wedding reception was outside.  So I would still have to move it after the wedding ceremony.  And it was very hot.  And I was worried that the fondant would melt and the bodies would fall over.

Solution?  Take lots and lots of pictures so there is evidence that it once looked awesome.  Just in case.

So the cake survived the journey from inside to the table under the tent.  Here it is displayed along with the wedding cake.

But as the evening wore on, things started to happen.  Joel eventually lost both hands and arms.

Look Ma, no hands!

You can see here that even the oars are melting and bending.

And although a little bit of hair fell off into the water - Laura never fell off the cake.

I know that's hard to believe - especially with this picture.  But she hung in there the whole time!  Joel, on the other hand (haha), did topple out of the boat.  But just the top half, leaving his legs sitting on the bench.  I was able to plop him up again, but that's when he lost his arms for good.  I guess he wanted to go for a swim to escape the heat.  Or maybe Laura pushed him . . . .

So the cake (basically) survived until it was cut.  It turned out great, but I would do the people a bit differently the next time.

Congratulations Joel and Laura!  Thanks for letting me be a part of your special day.  I love you Roomie!

Do you Sudoku??

I'm really behind on posting my cakes, but I have to do James' cake next because every I see him, he asks, "Did you write my post yet?"  Thanks for keeping me on my toes, James.

Now one day at church, James came up to me and started to ask me to make his birthday cake.  He wanted a book cake and he thought that since I have the book pan, that wouldn't be too hard for me to do.

"Wait, how do you know I have the book pan?"  I asked.

"I read your blog," he said.

Now James is only 9 years old.  So I wanted to clarify some things.  "Do you mean you looked at the pictures or actually read it?" I queried.

"I actually read it," he said matter-of-factly.

As the conversation went on, James kept saying things that were straight out of what I had written on my blog.  Later his mother confirmed that he had indeed read my ENTIRE blog.  All on his own.  I think I found my biggest fan.

So of course, I wanted to make him a great cake.  James' mom emailed me his list of requirements.

Hello Joy!  I've made two lists of things for my cake:

THINGS I DON'T CARE ABOUT
I don't care if my cake is regular flavor or chocolate.
I don't care when you get it done (I'd prefer you finish before the end of the year though)
I don't care what the title of the book is, but I'd like it to have the word James in it.

THINGS I DO CARE ABOUT
I want it to be a book.
Can I have Orange frosting? Not the flavor, but the color.
I'd like to have some fondant on my cake. (I like fondant.)
I'd like it to have strawberry filling (the kind mixed with something like you used for Kingston's cake).

Ok, so a book made of yellow cake with strawberry filling . . .

Check.

Orange frosting, the color, not the flavor . . . .

Check.

Title with James in it . . . . .

Check.  

I don't remember if he came up with Boy Wonder or if that was my idea.  I'm sure he will let me know after he reads this.

I asked James what other kinds of things he liked to do, besides reading.  He suggested Sudoku.  So I made a solvable fondant Sudoku puzzle, complete with numbers to fill in the blank spots.

Fondant?

The numbers

Check.

But the cake needed a little something else to make it really special.  I knew that James likes Legos (I mean, who doesn't) and I had this Lego mold I had been dying to try out.  So I melted some candy and filled in the molds.

 They turned out great!

 Then I just had to add the Lego bricks and the rest of the numbers.

 

James, thanks for being so patient waiting for your cake!  I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  Happy Birthday!

A Cake Fit for a Princess

So for some reason my Rubik's Cube post has just blown up and is now my highest view post by over 100 views!  Craziness!  Thank you to all the math nerds making my post so popular.  Just thought I'd share that.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd back to your regularly scheduled program . . . .

My niece Elisa turned four in April.  (Yes, I realize that was months ago, I'm a bit behind).  She loves princesses.  She knew all of their names even before she had seen a single Disney movie. She loves dressing up and pretending all sorts of things with that fantastic imagination of hers.  So I made her a cake worthy of a princess - one of her favorites, Cinderella.  (Although I've been informed that now Cinderella is much lower on the list, trailing Rapunzel, Snow White, and a few others.)

I made this Cinderella cake using a character pan.  I bought it on ebay because this one is no longer available in stores.  Character pans are great because you don't have to use a lot of brain power to decorate them.  You just outline, fill in, and get to go to bed relatively on time.  They even have instructions on what tips and colors to use.  The only problem is that they are usually only good for one thing - and so your pantry quickly fills up with specialty cake pans . . . . .

I made a yellow cake and frosted the outside with white buttercream.  You don't want to cover the whole thing because then you can't see the outline.

Now usually adding a border is something you do last, when the cake is fully decorated.  This time, I did it near the beginning.  I wanted the border to be white, but I also didn't want to have to make a TON of frosting.  So my plan was to do all the white parts so I wouldn't have to save any for later when I mixed the colors.

So next, I did the eyes, teeth and nose.  Then I added some cream colored frosting to make the skin.  Pipe Outlines.

It looks a little creepy at this stage.

Next, add lips, blue part of the eyes and the necklace and headband outlines.

I need to work on my lips . . . .

Then I piped in the skin and added the eyelashes.  Cinderella's got a heavy hand with the mascara.

Starting to look more like Cinderella.

I needed two different blues for the dress, which I thought turned out pretty well.

And last but not least, the hair.

To get this affect, you use a big tip, like number 12.  Then you pipe out big blobs of icing.  Finally, smooth with a finger dipped in cornstarch.

And then finally, I added the scroll and piped the words, Happy Birthday!

Done and done.  No drama, no crazy balancing acts required, no fondant.  And it still looks beautiful.

You can appreciate the 3-d effect from this angle.
She looks ready to jump off the cake.

And here's my favorite little princess, posing with her cake.

She's four going on sixteen.

Happy Birthday Elisa!  I know you are already thinking about what next year's cake will be.