Precious Metal Truffles

Each bite is sinfully delicious!  These truffles are cakes balls taken to the ultimate level of luxury. 

Ginger Gold:  Homemade gingerbread with rich molasses drenched in dark chocolate.  Topped with a drizzle of butterscotch confectioner's coating.  Each truffle is then delicately brushed with 24K gold.  Decadence to the max!

Peppermint Heaven: My favorite white cake laced with just the right amount of peppermint.  Double dipped in white chocolate and premium dark chocolate.  Crushed peppermint adorns the top and makes your mouth water when it hits your tongue. They glisten like a fresh Alaskan snowfall  after a dusting with red pearl.

Silver Dollar Chocolate Bliss:   This rich and moist chocolate cake holds chunks of dark chocolate.  This truffle is covered in smooth chocolate, and drizzled with more chocolate.  The top shimmers with silver and fine french dragees finish off this work of art.


Enjoy!

Santa Taking a Bath

Santa's tub is a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate chunks.  I torted the cake with my homemade buttercream and then covered in fondant.  I used gumpaste to create Santa and all of his accessories. 

This cake had a few surprises for me during construction.  After I carved the cake and crumb coated it, the thin end of the tub started to collapse!  I had to roll my fondant a little thicker than I prefer in order to help stabilize it.  After the fondant went on it started sagging again but there was nothing I could do about it.  So, I used a small piece of fondant as a wedge under the bottom of the tub to level the top.  It worked like a charm!  Then came the bubbles.  Each and every bubble is a hand rolled ball of fondant.  I grossly underestimated the amount of bubbles I would need.  I wont be using fondant bubbles again anytime soon!  But, they do look great shimmering with pearl dust!

Santa is getting ready for his big night!  Who doesn't love a little luxury?

Merry Christmas!
Amanda

Sugar Magnolia

The flower and leaves are gum paste!  This beauty makes me think of the sunny south.  Magnolias have always been one of my favorite flowers.  My first attempt turned out well.  There are a few things that I would have done differently but they are mostly time savers. 

I did not design this flower for a cake so I took it outside for a quick photo shoot in natural light.

Birthday Cakes

Of course my girls did not want the same birthday cake decorations so I made two!  O picked Little Mermaid and M picked Cinderella.  The inside of the cakes were pink and purple to satisfy my very picky little customers ;) 

This cake was tricky!  The bottom is a 12" round with a butter cream crumb coat and fondant.  The castle is a rice crispy treat!  The castle walls are fondant but all of the detail work is done in gum paste.  I piped butter cream for the grass, vines, flowers and bottom border.  M LOVED her cake!  I did not attempt to create Cinderella out of gum paste because I knew my daughter would want to keep her.

Ariel is sitting upon a 4" round that is stacked on a two layer 8" round.  I thought I would finish this cake quicker than Cinderella but I was wrong.  The gum paste coral and seaweed were time consuming.  Mostly because there were so many colors.  Each color has to be kneaded by hand until the color is consistent throughout.  I always try to decorate my cakes so that they are beautiful from all directions and this one was no exception.  Needless to say, O was thrilled with her cake.  She got to eat the entire top tier!

Here are the happy birthday girls waiting to blow out the candles and eat some cake!

Cupcake Fun

I made a quick batch of cupcakes to send to school with my girls tomorrow to celebrate their 3rd birthday.  The only took a few minutes and they turned out well.  M & O picked the color and the flower.

Snowman Village at Blue Lake

My twin 2 year old daughters (almost 3) and their dear friend Natalie had a blast decorating their houses and trees with colorful candies.  Janie (Natalie's mom) and I decided to enter them into a local gingerbread house contest that the Chamber of Commerce was hosting.  To our GREAT surprise our little girls won first place in the youth division and the people's choice award!  We are proud mommies!