70th Birthday: Luggage Cake

Many years back, I made a fun Safari-themed retirement cake and this time around, the couple celebrated their 70th birthdays.  They have pretty much traveled everywhere,  so a luggage cake was definitely appropriate.

Taj Mahal Cake

The other week, I had a pleasure of creating the amazing Taj Mahal out of cake and sugarpaste.   The cake was to celebrate a 70th and 80th birthday.  It was so much fun. I love this photo with the antique filter.

I have never been there but after studying all the photos, this is a place that I must visit!

Fabergé Egg Cake

I am not a collector, but if I was... the two things that I would collect would be those cute Russian Matryoshka dolls and these lovely Fabergé Eggs.  I was very excited when I received an order for a Faberge Egg for a 70th birthday.

I also added in 2 handmade sugarpaste dogs for the birthday girl.  The cake was chocolate pound cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.

Here is a cool view from the top.  Now, I sure hope someone orders a Matryoshka doll cake soon!  :-)

70th Birthday Cake: Stacked Books Cake

I get so many requests to customize a cake for someone special, but they don't have an idea what they'd like.  I always ask them to describe the person, their hobbies, profession and whatever you can think of.

Sometimes we end up deciding on one theme and sometimes we can decide on more than one.  An easy way to blend different hobbies is a stack of books.

For this client, the birthday boy was turning 70, he was an Actuary, loved hockey and also wines of France.  He also loved Tom Petty, so I made a sugar version of the Greatest Hits CD which is not in the picture because it was still drying when I took the photo.

 

1950's Cakes: The King is Back... in Cake!

A couple months back, a client ordered a 1950's-themed cakes for her grandmother's 70th birthday party: A bust of Elvis and something poodle-themed.  I have never made a "head" before and pondered for many weeks how I would actually do this.  I wanted it to be realistic, sturdy and not use too many inedible supports.  And I did NOT want the head laying flat.

The party was a few weeks back, I'm happy to say that he was sturdy and I only used three dowels to separate the 2 cake tiers.  He may not look exactly like Elvis, but I was pretty happy with my first "head" - although, I don't like the thought of anyone cutting into it....

My client said the cakes were a hit!  Her grandmother didn't have the heart to cut into it and the poodle cake fed everyone.  As of last week, it is still sitting in her basement cold storage.... which I wouldn't want to bump into late at night because I'm sure it would scare me every time :-)

Elvis "In Progress" -  I started with 5 layers of vanilla cake iced with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Then, I started to carve the cake... yes, he now looks like Chewbacca...

He's starting to come to life with a bit more carving and some more buttercream.

And now sporting a new look - kinda Zorro-ish.... Such a fun cake!

Lotsa C's: Coach Purse Cake

Coach Purses are so popular this year!  Which make it very challenging for a cake decorator as there are a lot of "C's" to add to the design :-)

This special occasion was a surprise 70th birthday party.  I was asked to recreate her coach purse and tote bag with all the things she might have spilling out if it.  Surprises are always so fun - I enjoyed listening to the son trying to think of what is in his mom's purse and then call his dad to ask the same.  It was handy that the dad was able to take a few pictures - see below.

Here are the final cakes personalized with a plane ticket, knitting needles and yarn, kleenex, candies, a wallet and US credit cards.  All the items were handmade out of gumpaste - absolutely everything was edible - not even a dowel to support the cake.

A view from the top - I should mention that the tote bag was Chocolate Sour Cream cake with Chocolate buttercream.  The coach purse was Vanilla Butter cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

The back of the purse... more "C's"....