Cake thread for the new forum!

[black2002ls]

I got the final images for my logo today! I'm quite excited. I'm hoping to have a store front in the next 12 months.

[black2002ls]

The facebook page is up. "Like it" if you do the social media thing.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Russells-Confection-Perfection/195906347108523

[black2002ls]

A good friend of mine turned 30 this week. His wife decided to have his birthday party at the Johnny Cooper Concert in Commerce. This was perfect. The owner's birthday is soon as well so I doubled it up and made a cake to serve about 300 people. GREAT advertisement! I made a big beer tub cake. This thing is 100% edible. the bottles and ice are poured sugar, the bottle caps were cast in white chocolate. I made the silicone molds and designed the beer labels myself. The venue was The Drunken Mule, hence the Mule Light, and My friends name is Charles and loves Shiner bock, therefore, Charlie Bock. There were a few flaws, the fondant started to sag, and the NU-Silver, is New to me so I didn't get the Silver I wanted, but all in all, I think it turned out great. Everyone loved it, a few flipped out over it, Hopefully it made an impression. People were freaking out when my friend was walking around chewing on the Charlie Bock bottle.

[black2002ls]

Here are a couple that I did this week. Basic stuff, but some pictures none the less

Basic quarter sheet for a girl I work with



This one is one of my favorites so far. I like the way it looks and turned out. The scrolls are black and metallic silver. I love the way Nu Silver looks!

[Cooter]

the beer bucket is choice!

[black2002ls]

Here are a couple more that I've done the past few weeks. The browning cake was the first time working with gum paste. My template stuck a little bit, I also forgot to work in a support to stick into the cake so that it would stand on top. It turned out ok with it pressed against the top tier.



This was for a baby shower with a jungle animal theme. It was my first time working with fondant to make animals, as well as my first time with extensive gum paste work (palm Trees)

[black2002ls]

This one was for a friend of mine who graduated with his Industrial Engineering degree this month. A pair of old school text books stacked with a graduation cap on top, and he drinks Dos Equis beer, so I did a play on Dos Equis and did an IE label. The only thing not edible is the Tassel. Not real happy with the blue border around the book, and the cap, but other than that, I'm quite pleased with it:

[black2002ls]

2 of the wedding cakes I did this weekend.

This one was for a good friend







This one was for a good friends daughter

[GE]

Have you used the Viva paper towel trick at all? heh.

[black2002ls]

is it that obvious? lol. The cake with the blue ribbon was iced and stacked in about an hour and a half. I was in RUSH mode for that one. And I feel terrible as it was for a good friend. However, everyone at the reception loved it. I am a perfectionist. So those bubbles and waves really upset me. I'm still working on getting my surfaces smoother. This is the last time I commit to 2 stacked birthday cakes, and 3 wedding cakes in one weekend, working as a one man operation!

[gonzoss]

mmmmmm I want cake now....

[black2002ls]

I will be making up cake bites this week. I've got a few orders to fill. French Vanilla, Chocolate, and Mint Chocolate. I should have some time to get use of the Kitchen.

[black2002ls]

Here are some other ones from recent weeks:

Another zoo animal themed cake. This one for a first birthday party. The "smash" cake is a bit big at 6", I need to get some 4" pans for these occasions. He also had some food allergies, so the cake was egg protien and lactose safe.







This one was for my niece:



A Toy Story themed cake:







A birthday cake for a girl at a local dentist office:



Anniversary cake for my older brother and his wife:

[GE]

Overall you've got a good thing going. I think you've got the writing down, as well as your technique insofar as piping anything in the buttercream, i.e. shells, roses, etc is pretty great! Anything else I think you've already picked up on. I did notice that a couple of the stacked cakes, it didn't look like they were torted/leveled very well... people will pick up on that when you start charging high dollar for your stuff. I think you mentioned getting an airbrush soon, so that should take care of the inconsistency in the spraying of color. That Wilton stuff only goes so far and you can tell when you're spraying large areas of color. When you go up to Cake Carousel, get on their mailing list, they now send it out about once a quarter via email. I know they offer an airbrush class, just can't remember when the next one is. Don't forget your punch card, lol! They aren't the nicest crew up there, but they definitely have a shit ton of cake related stuff. Good job man!
Oh yeah, I'd also recommend in shooting all of the cakes with the same/decent camera. Esp if you're trying to build your portfolio... try to get the cakes out of the kitchen, or at least frame your shots so there's nothing else that's a distraction in the picture.

[black2002ls]

Thanks for the comments. I've got an airbrush. An Iwata HP-c attached to a smart jet compressor. Its been 4 years since I've sprayed with cake colors. they are like water compared to the paints I've been spraying during that time. I've only been to cake carousel once, as I'm now ordering directly through bakery craft for everything, and their fondant, I really like this stuff! The layers are pretty much the same height and level before I ice them. I get so involved in getting a smooth surface, I undoubtedly always pull too much off of a corner and don't realize it until it has crusted. As for the pictures. I picked up some back drops this weekend, and shot the 2 most recent wedding cakes with a Cannon EOS rebel. I took tons of pictures, just haven't had time to rotate and sort them. I need to get some batteries for my fuji, it would be worlds better than my camera phone!