Magic Maple Syrup

Isn't this amazing???
This fondant-covered cake looks so real, and the bottle of syrup seems to be suspended in mid-air.  The bottle, syrup and butter are made from modeling chocolate, but we're not giving away the secret of levitating syrup bottles!   


This cake is one of the reasons why I love taking cake classes.  I made this cake at a class taught by the fabulous Lauren Kitchens, a Texas-based cake artist who has been on a number of Food Network cake shows and challenges.  She was a great teacher and shared her tricks about making incredible cakes like this one.  Now I can make a waffle cake for you for  Father's Day, or perhaps as a Groom's Cake, or even as a birthday cake.  And I can do a lot more along these lines.  Imagine a floating watering can pouring 'water' onto a pot of flowers, or a mid-air can of beer pouring into a frosty mug, or some spaghetti dripping into a bowl off a levitating fork... what kind of magic cake do you fancy?

Guy Smiley or Nancy's husband?

Nancy made this Muppet version of her husband, Andrew, out of modeling chocolate and fondant.  Isn't he cute? She is anxious to Muppetize someone else!  Are there any volunteers?

Mazel Tov!

When Chelsea was planning her bat mitzvah, she and her mom decided they wanted Nancy to make the cake for the party.  They had tasted the cake at Claire's bat mitzvah, and loved it -- and that's saying something since Chelsea isn't a big fan of cake in general.  The top and bottom tiers are made from chocolate cake with chunky Oreo filling and chocolate ganache frosting.  The middle tier is a luscious lemon butter cake filled with raspberry jam and lemon swiss meringue buttercream, and frosted with the same lemon buttercream. (By the way, Nancy is a card carrying chocoholic, but this lemon-raspberry cake is one of her favorites.)

Chelsea is a lovely and fun girl who is very sporty; she wanted a cake that wasn't too "girly" and didn't have a specific theme.  This design, with its happy colors and geometric patterns, got both Chelsea and her mother's enthusiastic stamp of approval.  The rose on the second tier and the bow on top are both made by hand from gum paste, an edible sugar dough that dries hard, and so can hold its shape.  The bow was dusted with a sparkly blue edible glitter which doesn't really show in this photo but was clearly visible in person.

The candles around the perimeter of the cake were used in a candle lighting ceremony at the party.  The 13 candles were lit one by one with help from family and friends who are important to the bat mitzvah girl.  There were a lot of photos from the candle lighting ceremony with the cake surrounded by Chelsea and the candle-lighers.  After the ceremony, the cake was cut up and served for dessert.  We are thrilled that our beautiful and delicious cake helped add to the happy memories of a special day for a very special girl! 

Baseball Jersey Cake

This was for the 11th birthday of our favorite Mets fan.  Chocolate with Oreo filling, of course.

Harley "Hog" Cake

Nancy received an order from a bride-to-be who wanted to surprise her fiance at their rehearsal lunch with this motorcycle cake, which Nancy modeled from a photo of the man's own vintage Harley Davidson. The couple go riding on the weekends, and when they were planning the wedding, they kept joking about having a Harley Davidson wedding cake.  This cake had lots of details the groom appreciated, including the red piping from the groom's bike, a working headlight, rear-view mirrors on the handlebars, and a speedometer.  When Nancy delivered the cake, he joked that she had gotten the suspension and brakes exactly right, with the disk brake in the back but not in the front. 


The groom's favorite dessert is carrot cake, and we had just the cake for him: A delicious, moist carrot cake subtly flavored with crushed pineapple and coconut, filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting.  Mmmm.... 

And here's the very satisfied biker (still licking his fingers)!  Insert your own hog joke here.