Figures and Cupcakes

Frog Prince

Hello Kitty

"Smores" Chocolate cake with Graham Crust and Marshmallow frosting

Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese frosting

"Smores" Chocolate cake with Graham Crust and Marshmallow frosting, Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese frosting and Maple cake with Maple frosting topped with Bacon

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween was yesterday and there was a baking contest at my work! :) Of course I had to do something Disney.. So here goes another Nightmare Before Christmas cake! :)

 

 And the cake after...!

 

Thanks for stopping by! Follow my blog by joining on the side ;) ---->

<3 Mon

VOTE FOR PEOPLE'S CHOICE!!

The Gourmet Experience has decided to open up a People's Choice Voting for the Confection Artist Competition! VOTE for the Wicked Cake Ladies of the North!!! Thanks!! <3 <3 <3

http://www.thegourmetexpo.com/index.php/confection-artist-competition

<3 Mon

Wicked Cake Ladies of the North takes 1st Place in Confection Artist Competition!!

The Gourmet Experience was this past weekend Oct 8 and 9 and was the craziest cake weekend of my life! It was the funnest experience I've had with so many talented cake artists, and to top it off the Wicked Cake Ladies of the North WON!!!

The Judges were Laurie O'Brien from For the Love of Cake and Charity George featured on TLC's Ultimate Cake Off and appeared on TLC's Fabulous Cakes. The event was Emceed by Ro Zinniger of Ro Z's Sweet Art Studio.

A BIG THANK YOU to Fast Forward Events for producing The Gourmet Experience event and inviting us to share to the public our love for cake decorating in an exciting competition! Chef Works for providing all of the cake artists with beautiful Pink and Orange Chef Coats! Satin Ice for providing us with our Fondant and Gumpaste ingredients for the competition! And Ro Z's Sweet Art Studio for donating all of the icing and isomalt ingredients! And of course THANK YOU to the Judges, Laurie O'Brien and Charity George, and Emcee Ro Zinniger! I cannot thank you all enough for this amazing opportunity and making this fun event possible!

I also want to thank Leah the leader of the Wicked Cake Ladies of the North, for being an unbelievably organized, diplomatic, approachable leader who cared for the needs of each and every member of this team, and used our individual talents accordingly, this win and execution of our cake could not have happened without you in charge! And for the rest of the team Angela, Shelley, Cathy, Veronica, Jen, Debbie, Amal, Tanya, Sandy and Heather, for dedicating your time, talents and team work to help us bring in the WIN for the Wicked Cake Ladies of the North!!! And Ro Zinniger for supporting all cake artists and helping plan and organize this event with Fast Forward Events, your support and encouragement for helping San Diego be more aware of the amazing talents of cake artists are greatly appreciated by us all!!

And last but not least, THANK YOU to all the family and friends who came to support and cheer us on!

So.. now that I am finished with all the Thank You's... :) I can talk about the event!

It all started early Saturday morning around 8am. Both teams met with the Judges and went over rules, they counted all of our pre-made items (50% was allowed to be made at home, 50% had to be made onsite-everything must be used on the cake), and we then set up our workstations. Although we have 12 members to a team, only 4 members were allowed to work on the actual cake, 2 members were allowed as "runners" to help clean and assist. The rest of the members were waiting on the sidelines, cheering us on! The competition started at 10am, it was definitely nerve racking at first, not knowing what to expect, having all the people from the event watching you and a photographer snapping away pictures of your progress. We got off to a slow start, kept to a steady pace later once we got used to things, then hustled a lot at the end! After Day 1 was finished at 4:45pm, we got together again to discuss our progress and game plan for Day 2. Day 2 started off meeting with our team onsite 9am, further discussing what we learned from Day 1, and how we can make things flow better. Competition started at 10am, we definitely knew what to expect this time, had an outline of how much time certain things should be accomplished in, had members on sidelines constantly remind us of time, and cheering us on! We knew that whatever timeline we scheduled or planned, things would still go off track, never did we panic when obstacles came along, we worked so well in encouraging each other to keep on going and to hustle!! And we accomplished getting almost all the elements we wanted on the cake done! Its amazing how our sketch of the cake looks EXACTLY like the real cake. That almost never happens! We had to not only clean and clear all of the workstations and sidelines by 3:30pm, we also had to move the cake to the front table, and everything went smoothly! The Emcee and Judges announced the explanation of the points system and final tally of points for both teams and we WON!!

The South Team had an amazing spooky Halloween cake and did an awesome job!!! We took a different approach on interpreting the Halloween theme. We wanted to honor the history/culture of Halloween and also incorporate elements of what Halloween evolved to in America, while adding many different cake techniques.

• http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

• http://www.history.com/topics/halloween-around-the-world

Here is a picture of the final cake! The cake was fully viewable 360 and spun, we had a fog machine going at the bottom, strobe lights illuminating through the piped sugar skulls, 'floating' Ribs, lit tea light candles, and LED eyes for the Skull head at the top. Techniques included Gumpaste flowers, packed sugar skulls with Royal Icing piping, Rice Krispie and Fondant modeling figures of candles, pumpkins, gourds (hand painted and airbrushed), Gumpaste and Piped modeling figures of skeleton cats and mice, "Lambeth" spiderwebs, Royal Icing piping borders, Royal Icing color flow witches and owls, Gumpaste/Disco Dusted bats and spiders from molds, Airbrushed multi-colored tiers, Skeleton Vertebrae/Ribs, Rice Krispie Skull covered with Fondant/Gumpaste and Piped with Royal Icing, and Gumpaste Skeleton hands.

More Pictures and Video of the Cake to Come!!

<3 Mon

LIVE CAKE COMPETITION at The Gourmet Experience

 

October 8 & 9, 2011!

http://www.thegourmetexpo.com/

The Gourmet Experience is a two-day cooking and home entertainment showcase featuring the best in culinary solutions, appliances, culinary travel, home products and specialty foods for the gourmet lifestyle.  The Gourmet Experience is not your average tradeshow, it's a chance to discover, test out and taste the latest products and innovations for your gourmet lifestyle.

  

O'Brien Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds

General Public: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

In two action-filled days, consumers will have the opportunity to:

• Test out and purchase kitchen equipment and gadgets
• Review the latest in home and outdoor entertaining products
• Plan their next dinner party
• Learn new trends in casual and fine china, flatware and crystal
• Get up close culinary instruction from some of San Diego’s most celebrated chefs & presenters
• Research new destinations, resorts and hotels catering to gourmet aficionados
• Taste from among the newest gourmet foods available today
• Sip on a selection of luxury wines, spirits and craft beer
• Explore appliance purchases and kitchen remodel options 

So besides meeting different Celebrity Chefs, watching their demos, and checking out all the awesome gadgets, there will be a LIVE CAKE COMPETITION!

Watch as haunted houses, spooky ghosts, and pumpkins adorn professional cakes at the first annual Confection Artist Competition. On October 8 and 9, two teams of 12 contestants will gather at The Sweet Discoveries Pavilion to decorate elaborate Halloween themed cakes to impress a panel of judges with their confection craftsmanship and creativity. Bring your whole family to enjoy a day of fun, education and excitement!

Check out the bios of the Wicked Cake Ladies of the North Team! (me included ;) )

and bios of the South Team!

If you love food, entertaining, and CAKE DECORATING this won't be an event you want to miss! Buy your ticket now at http://www.thegourmetexpo.com/index.php/purchase-tickets !

Single Day Pass is $25 and "The Weekend Gourmet" Pass for both days is $40.

Free Admission for 12 years of age and under.

and.. because you are my friend ;) enter the code CAKECOMP15 at checkout for $15 OFF!!!!!! 

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! 

<3 Mon

Carlsbad ArtSplash 2011

The Carlsbad ArtSplash was this past Sunday! It was such a fun event from seeing some AMAZING cakes to awesome demos, this year definitely surpassed last years event. The cake booth attracted more than 1,200 people!!! and a total of 1,125 Peoples Choice votes were counted! Congrats to all the winners and entry's!!

A BIG THANK YOU to Ro Zinniger, all the talented girls from the Creative Confection Club, the Carlsbad ArtSplash for having us and all the friends and family who came out to support us! LOVE YOU ALL!!

All the blood, sweat, and tears (okay maybe not blood... but definitely some burns.. cutting styro foam with a hot knife is a challenge! for future advice, wear a good mask.. makes you dizzy/lightheaded from all the fumes lol) and after a month of planning out, prepping, making gumpaste flowers everyday, the obstacles of making part of the cake spin and play music, it all PAID OFF!! 

I WON 1st place from the Judges Vote!! I have to say I feel super accomplished and I'm actually really proud of this cake :P I try my hardest to up my game and challenge myself after every cake show I enter.. This was the first time I used a motor to make a part spin, made music play, made hibiscus and plumeria gumpaste flowers, aaand used an airbrush.... I can't wait to learn more techniques! 

To all my friends (Ang & Shay my BFFs yes its cheesy but I love you guys, Jackie for helping me color fondant!), my Mom (for all the Sh*t I put you through ;) and believing in me), all my cake peers (Leah you frickin rock, thanks for dealing with my late night texts LOL, so much talent from all my cake peers you help me strive to be the best I can be when I look at the amazing work you guys do), Ro (for starting it all and helping me discover my love for cake!), and anyone who has complimented my work or has said anything nice to me :) THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support and encouragement!!!!!!!!! I'm definitely my biggest critic so you have no idea how much it means to me to hear good things about something you put your heart and soul into. I feel so blessed to have so many of you in my life!

I will post more pictures up and video soon... (I'm trying to edit the video... now THAT's a challenge lol definitely don't have a career in video editing..) 

3 CAKE CONTESTS ENTERED. 3 WINS IN A ROW!! :D

Whats Next?? THE GOURMET EXPO Oct. 8 & 9, I will post more info later!

<3 Mon

4 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!

till... the Carlsbad ArtSplash!!

 The event is this weekend, September 24 & 25, and located on Armada Dr. above the Flower Fields. 

It is a FREE non profit family event that promotes and benefits arts within the community. Come check out the crazy awesome chalk art street paintings, dozens of talented artists showcasing their art and the Creative Confection Club booth (Sunday only)! Go to carlsbadartsplash.org for more info!

On SUNDAY September 25 from 10am to 5pm is when the Cake Competition and different cake demos will be held every hour or half hour starting at 10am to 3:30pm at the Creative Confection Club booth. From cookie decorating, to gumpaste molds and flowers, if you are a cake enthusiast or just have an interest in seeing some of the technique and tricks of cake decorating come by and check it out! 

Winner for the Cake Competition is chosen by judges but there will be a People's Choice Award! 

*hint hint* come vote for my cake!! ;) Winners will be announced at 4pm on the main stage.

Hope to see some of you there!

<3 Mon

Hibiscus!

My first gumpaste Hibiscus flower :)

And started airbrushing some leaves for the Plumeria Flowers..

Flowers flowers flowers...

and more flowers! Plumeria and Hibiscus flowers to be exact... These flowers are one of the elements to my Art Splash cake! I've never really done gumpaste flowers before, except for roses, so I looked online for instructions and so far it seems like they are turning out okay!

Here are the links to the instructions I followed :

• Plumeria: http://www.wilton.com/technique/Plumeria-Flowers 
• Hibiscus: http://www.duskyroseveiners.co.uk/page_1511102.html

I also invested in an airbrush machine!! Duff from Ace of Cakes is now selling an airbrush machine at Michaels and you can use the 40% off one item coupon on it! (If its not on sale) I've never used an airbrush machine so I'm not a great judge on what to look for, but I thought it worked really well! The only thing that I thought could of been better is the different settings, there's only high medium and low. To me I didn't really see a big difference on the amount of airflow on each setting therefore it might be harder to do detailed work in my opinion, but for the price who cares! Another con would be there are no instructions! so surprising... I had to look online on his website which kind of gave me more info and tips on how to use and also how to clean... Its actually very easy to clean and very easy to use, so overall I'm really happy with it and it seems like a good basic starter airbrush machine. We'll see how long it lasts!

Plumeria Flowers

Before Airbrush

After Airbrush

Hibiscus Flowers

Before Airbrush

After Airbrush

So hopefully I'll be able to complete these Hibiscus flowers soon, and start on leaves... lots to do but so fun!!

pizza pizza!

My best friends sister introduced me to cornmeal pizza crusts and now I've been obsessed with making pizzas this past week! They are called Vicolo Cornmeal Pizza Crust and you can buy them at Jimbos. I topped the pizza off with some mozzarella, ricotta, feta cheese, chives and spinach.

And with the left over ricotta cheese I decided to make some Italian Ricotta Cookies, Here's the recipe...

Italian Ricotta Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 ounces ricotta cheese
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk

 Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• In a medium bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and ricotta cheese. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the cheese mixture.

 

• Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
• In a medium bowl, cream together the remaining butter and confectioners' sugar. Beat in vanilla and milk gradually until a spreadable consistency is reached. Frost cooled cookies.