iphone cake

One of my friends turned 30 over the weekend and I knew she would appreciate a fancy cake, so I decided on the iphone cake.  She is kind of in love with her iphone and I knew I would have fun making the icons on the screen.  It was a great way to add personal touches.  I made the calender icon with her birthday and made up some of my own apps.  I had one to represent her puppy, and one for her dance team.  I even made one for her red bull!

I made a sheet cake and frosted it black.  The silver edging was made with gum paste.  I colored it gray and then cut the strips.  To make it look silver I painted it with the silver powder stuff from Michaels.  I put the strips on before they dried completely, so they would form to the cake.  All of the icons were piped the night before with royal icing.  They were so detailed and time consuming I decided to make only one of each and pray that they didn’t break the next morning when I pulled them off of the wax paper.  My prayers were answered!

My favorite thing about this cake was how much my friend loved it.  She knows enough about baking to appreciate the time that went into making it.  And it was just a fun surprise!  We took pictures of her talking on the cake and checking her e-mail on the cake.  Then we actually cut it up and ate it.  She wanted to keep it forever, but it was chocolate and smelled so good we had to eat it.

Tradition

As I have mentioned before I am a stickler for tradition.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are full of wonderful family traditions.  One that I invented shortly after my first daughter was born is our Christmas card tradition.  We put our Christmas cards with pictures and letters in the mail the day before Thanksgiving every year.  This ensures that our card arrives the day after Thanksgiving.  For our family, this is the official start of the Christmas season.  We don’t decorate or listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but the day after… look out!

This year I fell a little behind in planning the Christmas card.  My grandmother passed away about a month ago and then I think time stood still.  It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I realized how quickly Thanksgiving was approaching.  I mentioned this to a friend at church and he said, “So, do you have your picture yet?”  That’s when panic set in.  No!  I did not have my picture yet!  Nothing about the Christmas card was planned and I needed to allow for processing, shipping, stuffing, and addressing the cards.  So, the internal dilemma began.  Of course people would understand that I have had a difficult month and there is no reason that my cards need to arrive the day after Thanksgiving.  Or is there?  Somehow, the death of such a close relative just makes family traditions that much more important.  So, Tuesday I got on the computer and ordered my cards.  I received my e-mail yesterday that the order has been shipped and I am back on track.

After all, what’s Thanksgiving without turkey?  The day after without my Christmas card?  A family without tradition?  Call me crazy or call me old-fashioned, but the fiddler on the roof had it right.  Tradition!

Pac Man Cake

I am noticing that the cakes are taking over this blog, but that is partially because the cakes are starting to take over my life!  Not really, but I am making a lot of them these days.  My latest creation was a pac man inspired cake.  I had a lot of fun with this one because I didn’t have to mess with fondant or gum paste.  I just relied on my piping skills, which I am actually quite proud of.

The biggest challenge with this cake was the black frosting.  I made a chocolate buttercream with melted squares of unsweetened chocolate.  I didn’t want to use cocoa powder because the color would be so light.  Starting with a dark brown was helpful and I didn’t have to add too much black tint.  I recommend this technique because it worked quite well.  It was challenging because the recipe I used did not make enough frosting to cover the whole cake.  Yikes!  So, at about 10pm my husband had to run to the grocery store to buy more unsweetened chocolate so I could make more icing.  And then I had to try to match the color!  When coloring frosting, you should always make way more than you think you need.  Dumb mistake.  The other nice thing about black frosting is that it gets darker with time.  It looked fairly gray when I made it, but the color was perfect the next morning.

I planned the cake on graph paper, so I would be sure to have straight lines and the right spacing.  Then I made a bunch of royal icing and piped all my characters and walls for the maze onto waxed paper.  These dried perfectly and I didn’t break any while transferring them to the cake.  I always make extras just in case, so I had a little pile of pac man guys and ghosts left over at the end.  Aren’t they cute?

                                                                                                                         

Once the cake was frosted I carefully put all of the wall pieces on and used mini M&Ms for the dots and four regular sized M&Ms for the big dots in the corners.  The cherries are two red mini M&Ms with little frosting stems.  I put pac man and the ghosts in play and that was it!  I did not miss sculpting, rice krispies, fondant or gum paste and I loved the way the cake turned out.  I see more simple cakes in my future… I hope!

Finished Product