LaLaLoopsy Cake "Suzette La Sweet"

 Here I am to  talk a little bit about my latest cake: a Stand up Lalaloopsy Cake, and yes she is cake, and yes she is all sugar, and yes she is edible !!! And  yes I feel so proud of this 4 days job that  I had the chance to accomplish to celebrate my favorite girl ever: My Sweet Daniela (My friend's Daughter) who is as sweet as this cake, who is in love with my youngest son (giggling), who loves The Muppets show, who loves dancing like  Shakira, and who is a girl who refuses to get rid of her Cinderella Dress (she has it since she was 2) She is such a sweet heart. 

    I had a great time at the party, talking about the cake, being freak out thinking the cake would not hold the big head, keeping all  the dancing girls away from the cake table and telling my son to move somewhere else to play with his ball !!!! At least my friend handle me a glass of nice girly wine, and I felt somehow relaxed after all that good wine LOL, and after realizing the cake was perfectly fine, even after 4 hours party, I relaxed and I can say not even a single bit of the cake, moved!!! That is actually the part that really makes me proud; building up a cake is just one part, decorate it  beautifully  is another one, but keep it on its place  all through the party... that is another ONE story!!!

    Since I saw Lalaloopsy's Doll two years ago, i can say I felt in love with anything Lalaloopsy and "Suzette La Sweet" is the ultimate cutie doll ever. Since I love everything Marie Antoinette, and my friend's daughter loves Lalaloopsy and princess, well definitely making this cake fitted perfectly for the party.  I found many beautiful Lalaloopsy's cakes online: some with nice toppers, cut outs, bottoms, patches etc. There is even a beautiful also amazing Lalaloopsy cake from Verusca Walker which I must say gave me all the inspiration and courage to try to make this one. But I wanted it  stand up!!! I love how this sweet doll looks when stands up, those skinny legs holding that head...!!! she looks extremely cute and I love how she is always pointing her feet like if they are kissing each other!!! goshhhhh she is cute!!! 

Many of You wonder How did I make it, Well it is a long process that took me many hours of trial and error. It is funny but few weeks after I killed my brain wondering how to get this cake done, the master of Cake structures, Mike McCarey, launched one of the best classes I have had the chance to follow at Craftsy  , you can easily follow this class  here, by signing up and enjoying the wonderful classes they offer to you

Online Cake Decorating Class

   I must say that even the cake stayed perfectly fine for more than 4 hours,  I breathed relieved once I had the chance to cut and serve the cake. I was way funny to hear all the little girls at the party screaming every time I took a piece out of the cake: one arm: awwww!!!! second arm: Awwwwww! Head: Awwwww! Body: AWWWWWWWW. Best part of the evening!!! LOL  And as Marie Antoinette final fate, This Suzette La Sweet  also lost her head, and We also ate her body... LOL
 

Big Cake Hugs, Joly.

How to: "Fondant Ruffle Roses"

Here I am again making sure I can bring you as much information as I can . You might probably realized I love to figure out stuff, specially stuff (   and I mean Decoration Stuff) for my cakes. So this time I was asked to reproduce in part the details on a Sweet Sixteen dress, and make some few changes, like color and addition of some other details. As I always say: inspiration is everywhere!!! on fabrics, dresses, pictures, paper, invitations etc. I can tell you part of my inspiration board comes from Fashion catalogs I get by mail (I love Black Market, White House's one). Of course when I saw this dress, the part that really catch your eyes is the bottom part,with all those beautiful amazing ruffles like flowers all around.

I decided to pay a visit to our local Joan store to get and see inspiration CLOSER!! I found this kind of fabric in almost any color: pink, lime green, orange, black, white etc so it means: IT"S TRENDY.

 This is the actual dress that I reproduce on bottom tier of last weekend cake. My friend's daughter wanted to change the color combination and add some other details like the bow and some pearls. I of course decided to take some pictures for you,  YIPEEEE!!! Pictures help me a lot, I am a visual person, so I really think it would be also helpful for you too. So let's start. 

I used a 8" round cake, covered in fondant same color as ruffle. For this cake I used around 2 pounds Marshmallow fondant + 1tablespoon CMC (yes, It is a lot) to cover the cake and have all cake covered in ruffles. You can also use Store bought fondant with out CMC. Wilton and Satin Ice's fondant holds pretty nice

Roll your fondant a little  bit so it will be easier to pass it through the pasta maker (if you are using any) you don't really need a pasta maker because we don't really need the fondant to be so thin, but is a time saver and I love mine. I expend around $10 on mine at hobby Lobby using my weekly Coupon.

 

 Now roll your fondant until number 2 on your pasta maker. 

cut your fondant stripes using your ruler as guide. I bought mine at Home Depot for $2.99 and it is a looong one. Not my kid's ruler. 

Start with a simple rosette or tiny roll, this will be the center of your flower. You can wet your fondant so it will stick better

Wet your cake, I made a big circle as big as I wanted my flower to be. Press the center on the cake.

 Now start making your flower,  by going around and around  from the center's flower. Make sure to separate it on each round.We are actually sticking one edge of the stripe.

I used one of my modeling tools to help me to stick the fondant to the cake 

yeah, I know "me- BIG-fingers" :( 

As usual, I get some help from one of my best helpers ever: TOOTHPICKS. Use them if you feel your fondant is not holding or where you want the ruffle to open or keep its shape. I most tell you it took me around 2 hours to finish all this tier (all by myself, no helper at all, except those cute toothpicks) You can mane any design or as many flowers you need. I really got sick of making so many ruffles and once I had as many flowers I wanted, I simply apply the ruffles randomly. You can also make then thinner, like half the size of your ruler and make big flowers and small ones in between. 

  Here is the Final Result,  Thank you for sticking around with me. 

Sugar Hugs, Joly

Tutorial: How to make your Own flexible Molds

For this last weekend I made this beautiful Sweet 16 cake, and I wanted to give the cake a little nice touch on a bow I wanted to incorporate to the cake's design.  My Friend's daughter sent me a picture of her Sweet 16 party Dress; what better place to find inspiration for a cake than from the dress itself? So all this cake was actually inspired by the dress: from bottom ruffle roses, texture on topper tier, bow and pearls.  I realized this is  a great time to show you something I learned on  Cake Central few years ago.  Yes that place is a great place to learn and I have learned tons of good information there. I must say, it used to be funnier and easier but, We still can find amazing great information for almost any cake problem, and yes there are still so many amazing cake friends that DO actually share what they know!!! and that is awesome, Thank you all!!!.

 As you might know, I love saving money of course, and I really hate when I spend money on things I can do myself,  I know  that is imposible to do it all; but definitely sometimes we can do certain things, it is just a matter to give it a try.  When  I found this useful information on how to make your own molds,I couldn't help it but go straight to get this product and start my own production. This molds can be used on food: chocolate, fondant, gumpaste (not so sure about candy) and some other uses like for making soap.

 I started wondering and that is why I wanted to share this with you: Have you ever been at Michael's and find some beautiful brooch you would loove to use on your next cake, but is not anywhere to find it in the cake market???... well you can actually make your own molds!!! yeahhhh and here is how:

This is what you need : the brooch that you would like to get a mold  from, and this product called AMAZING MOLD PUTTY,  you can find all information about this product at their web site linked here. I found it at Michael's and of course I used my weekly coupon :) 

 All instructions are on the box but I will still show you how I made my own mold.This product has two types of putty: A & B; both have to be mixed together in order to has a chemical reaction and produce this type of silicone. One important thing about this product: you need to work fast !!! you have around 7 minutes or less to make your mold.  (This is your Mission Impossible, LOL) So keep that in mind.

 You need to mix them well, I believe they come in two different colors so you can see they are totally mixed when there is no more white trace on the final product.

 Once you have a putty ball completely mixed, push it against the brooch. Just push it, don't move it side to side. We are trying to get a cast from this brooch and if you move it then you might obtain a  misshaped final result.

 

Let dry for at least 30 minutes or more but this is actually a really fast process. 

 Once is ready, trim any excess you find around your mold

Once is trimmed, you are ready to use your custom made brooch!!! I use either Gumpaste or fondant. Gumpaste gives you a sturdier brooch and you can make several of these for future use. Remember to use some shortening when kneading your Gumpaste or fondant so it will come out of your mold easily. Make a small ball and push it inside the mold.

  This is a flexible mold which actually makes it a great mold, because allows you to easily take your gumpaste brooch out of the mold.

 

Tadaaaaa!!!! lovely isn't it?

Some luster Dust will help the brooch to show all its details

Here is my custom made brooch looking lovely on this beautiful cake

I made all of these and some more with 2 boxes of this super cool putty. Enjoy.

Cake Hugs, Joly!!!