My Little Pony Cake.

So as I have mentioned before I recently had some problems with my health. More specifically and without getting all morbid ;-) I was diagnosed with MS. Even though I luckily have not gotten any major symptoms yet, I have been plagued with some crazy fatigue. I am ALWAYS hopelessly tired. So the thought of taking on a whole kids party was just to much in the heat of summer. A dear friend of mine who just had a little baby suggested that we put two and two together and have one party for our two girls who both were turning 5. Magic.

She provided the location, the garden (it's amazing) and the games. And I brought the cake and desserts. It was perfect. I could focus on what I know how to do and she didn't have to do all that with a newborn plus 5 other kids in the house! Yeah, we both got a big win out of it :-)!!!

Check out her blog where you will find some of the pictures I have here too, as well as plenty more.

Here are some of her pictures and some of mine.  Hope you like them!

Some of the decorations provided by Linda!

Cakepops made of Ballerina cookies, Philadelphia and nutella!

The drinks setup!

The cake! I am personally quite in love with it, if I may say so myself ;-)!

Ellie's favorite MLP, Rainbowdash! As you will also see by her outfit......

 

Details!

The gals! Ellie with her Rainbowdash attire on... of course!

Massacred!!! 

I live the history behind these delights. Spike's jeweled cupcakes and the chocolate raining clouds. Both from separate episodes of MLP.

Some healthy stuff on an otherwise sugar covered table.

Some of the little tags on the food!

Here is my little birthday girl! I love her so much, and there is no way I could ever express it to her.  Maybe one day she will understand. <3

Enjoy!
-J.

Forever&EVER.

I shall call this one my SECOND first wedding cake. The reason? Well even though I loved making my first one, I flew out to Jersey near France for it. It was two friends of our getting married out there, and they preordered ready made blank cakes, that I would then decorate. I only had a carryon so I couldn't bring gum paste, or even half my tools. So it was one I made where it was the best I could do at the time with the restrictions (time and tools) that I had.  And considering all that, I loved that cake! 

This cake however, I had all my tools plus all the tools I had to get to make it. Like Sugarveil, Hydrangea cutters, edible pearl paint... Yeah, I felt like I had everything I needed, plus some extra's to play with. Loved it. And hope you love the result as much as I do.

My sisters happen to be very good at weddings. They know exactly what is needed to give you that extra oomph. They did my wedding 7 years ago, and I am still in awe of what they did with what they had to work with. They know where to be stingy and where to go all out. They know what details matter and which ones don't add that wow factor. They are pretty much awesome!

So this wedding of a family friend of ours ended up being a bit of a family affair. My sisters were the wedding planners, I made the cake and did the hair (I am also a hairdresser) and 3 of my nieces, my Mom and I helped with the serving and kitchen on the night. And let me tell you, we had a blast! I think we should start some sort of wedding or party planning service where everything is included. Yeah, I'm all for it. What is it they say?! Love what you do and you won't work a day of your life? Yeah, I think I would looove that :).

Anyway, so here is the cake. It has 2 different tastes. 

1. Chocolate sponge with a salted dulce de leche and Whipped cream cheese frosting layer, and a light chocolate mousse with chopped up hazelnut truffles layer.

2. Vanilla sponge with a vanilla bavaroise layer, and a lemon curd and  Lemon whipped cream cheese frosting layer. 

I am always worried that people will be disappointed in how it tastes even though I myself thinks it tasted amazing. But there were pleeeenty of people that expressed how much they loved it. And that they ate it even though they were completely full. I even had the wife of a guy come up to me and tell me that he normally never eats sweets but that he had basically licked the plate. So Yeah, I was chuffed. 

So happy with how it all turned out. Hope you like it as much as I do!

Enjoy!

-J.

SO Happy with how the flowers turned out!

This was the sketch I came up with. I'm not great at the sketching bit, but you get the idea ;-)

Forever&EVER.

Super Hero POW Cake.

So I am BACK! With a POW!!! I am in the cake mode again! After a loooong time out it is nice to back, though it certainly is stressful making cakes. I always make sure I have nothing on the day after completing a cake as I am out cold or slouching on the couch recuperating. I really put my heart and soul into it and then I need a day or so to grow a new one ;-)!

By NO means an original design, but a very fun and satisfying cake to make all the same. It was also a blast to take pictures of, that's for sure! Loving the colors! 

As I only make cakes for friends and family, this one is once again for a friend of mine who's son turned 5! I'm not used to making boy cakes so this was fun not making loads of flowers and pink. It can get repetitive ;-). Though.... I can't say I ever want to mix black marshmallow fondant EVER again! That was ROUGH. I had achy arms for days after :-)!

Anyway, hope you like this one!

Enjoy

-J.

A Quilted Knitting Cake

 

Here is another one of my favorites.. And quilted cakes are quickly becoming exactly that. My Favorites!!! After the last quilted cake, a friend of mine wanted one for her grandmother who was turning 80. The requests she had were that it should have something to do with America, as it is her second home after Sweden. Also she wanted a knitting or crafty theme, with some evidence of the missions (yes many) that she has served for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She wanted at least one tier to have a filling that they usually have in their family. This was a banana in one layer and vanilla cream in the other. The other tiers were up to me. So I filled two tiers with the Herrey Family special and the other two I filled with my personal favorite... Chocolate sponge filled with whipped cream cheese frosting and Salted Dulce de leche. Yeah... that one is a definite winner. FOR SURE! 

Now this Lady whom I was making the cake for also happened to have another achievement under her belt ;-). She is the mother of one of Sweden's most famous trio of brothers. In 1984 they won the Eurovision for us with an absolutely great song, that is still sung often here in Sweden. Diggelo, Diggeley by the Herrey Brothers!

My mother told me some amazing facts about this wonderful lady. And even though I only know her as an acquaintance, I am so impressed with how she has lived and is living her life. She has truly dedicated her life to helping others. What a lady! She now has a great huge family that Love her so much. She is truly loved!

Here is about a hundred pictures of the quilted cake and of the sketches I drew to send to the granddaughter. Hope you like them!

Planning the "fabrics"

Sketching

Enjoy!
-J

Hogwarts Houses - Harry Potter Cake

So I know it's been a while, like I said in the previous post. And even though I haven't technically made another cake, I realized that I have two cakes that I made a while ago but haven't posted yet. So here is one of them :-)!

My niece was in charge of a huge youth activity for 12-18 year olds at our church. And she decided that it would be awesome to have a cake for them that was appropriate for the theme. 

The theme was Hogwarts (harry potter)!! and what a great activity it was! They divided them all up into the houses Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherine and had them go to different classes and earn house points. So naturally she wanted a cake where the houses were represented.

After A LOT of research into things that would represent the houses I decided to make 4 tiers and each tier would be the house common room. Here is my sketch:

Here are some of the pictures from the "making of" ;-)!

I love my extra fridge!!!

The cakes had two different fillings. Two of the tiers were Vanilla sponge with one layer a Vanilla Bavaroise and the other a Lemon curd Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting. The other two tiers were chocolate sponges filled with Vanilla Whipped cream cheese frosting and Salted Dulce de Leche.

The biggest success of the evening wasn't that everyone thought it was a lovely LOOKING cake, it was the fact that SOOoooo many came up to me to tell me how AMAZING it tasted. Some of them were even surprised as they all thought a cake like that (a fondant cake where so much effort had been made on the looks) never tastes good, but that it was one of the best cakes in general they had ever tasted. now THAT was success. There was over 100 people at the party. And I felt like I got a thumbs up from all of them. A success all in all!

Here are some more detail pictures. I have written underneath each picture which house it represents :-)! I have also added some extra info about each house from the research I did. Most of the research has been represented on the cake!

This is the Hogwarts crest that I hand painted with paste colors and a very fine brush. The Lion is for Gryffindor, the Snake is Slytherine, the Badger is Hufflepuff and the eagle is Ravenclaw.... But who am I kidding.. You guys know all this already ;-)!!!

This is the Gryffindor common room. Their colors are red and gold. The quote on top of the fireplace says "You might belong to Gryffindor where dwell the brave at heart, their daring, nerve and chivalry set Gryffindor apart..." This is a quote from the sorting hat's song. In the book the sorting hat says it to harry potter as he is trying to decide which house to place him in. 

The Gryffindor House is in one of the towers.

Some words that set the Gryffindor's appart are:

• Bravery
• Nerve
• Chivalry
• Courage
• Daring 

 "Wit beyond measure, is a mans greatest treasure" - Rowena Ravenclaw (Founder of the Ravenclaw house). The Ravenclaws are the intellectual ones. It is quite interesting, in my research I found out that just like the sorting hat had issues of where to put Harry, it also had issues about Hermione, but with her it wanted to sort her into Ravenclaw because of her intellect.

The ravenclaw common room is also in a tower.

"Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,Will always find their kind."

-Sorting Hat 

Some of the words to describe a Ravenclaw are: 

• Intelligence
• Wit
• Wisdom
• Creativity
• Originality
• Individuality
• Acceptance 

 "You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal, those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil" - Sorting hat. The Hufflepuff common room is in the basement, but just high enough for there to be windows to see out over the lawn. It's supposed to be a very earthy place, with wooden details and a warm fire place with a picture of Helga Hufflepuff over it. Helga was the founder of the house.

Some of the words that represent Hufflepuff are:

• Dedication
• Hard Work
• Fair play
• Patience
• Kindness
• Tolerance
• Unafraid of Toil 

 

"Or perhaps in Slytherin, You'll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means, To achieve their ends." - Sorting Hat. This was my least favorite one. Mainly because I made a huge bobo on it... I used the wrong tin for the cake and instead of having one 28 cm for the bottom and one 24 cm for the one on top... instead I accidentally made 2x 24 cm!!! I had to shift the whole cake off it's center, making this cake have a DEFINITE front side... But hey, It's still presentable ;-)! 

Some words to describe the Slytherines are:

• Traditionalism
• Resourcefulness
• Cunning
• Ambition
• Leadership qualities 
• Self-Preservation 
• Determination 
• Cleverness 
• Fraternity
• Power

I hope you enjoyed this in my eyes HUGE project! After this I said that I would wait a long time to make a project like this... only issue... the next week I had another cake to make :-)!!! 

Enjoy!

-J