Retirement Cake

This cake is boxed and ready for delivery to Rod, who recently retired from a long and successful career as an engineer. His daughter Christa and wife surprised him with this cake, and they suspect that a lot of his free time will be spent fixing up his vintage orange VW Beetle (what a great car - I want one!) The cake is Rod's favorite, Boston Cream Pie -- yellow cake, a creamy vanilla custard filling, and chocolate ganache frosting. The car is made from modeling chocolate and has some depth to it to give it a hint of 3-D. Congrats Rod! Enjoy your freedom.

Golf cake

Here's a golf-themed birthday cake for Nick and John, complete with golf bag, clubs and a few golf balls scattered about on the green and grassy fairway (which may need mowing). Who's counting the number of balls, the number of the hole, or even the ages of the recipients? Not this baker, that's for sure! Lemon cake with raspberry meringue buttercream filling drizzled with raspberry preserves, and lemon buttercream icing the cake. Yum. I hope it was Happy Birthday Gentlemen!

I want to look like Brenda when I turn 50

Happy Birthday Brenda!
Coconut cake with passion fruit curd and coconut buttercream.

Custom Car Groom's Cake

I was contacted by Kristen, who was getting married in August.  She was looking for someone to make a replica of a very special car: her fiance Mike's Camry, which was his pride and joy.  He had spent hours and lots of money fixing it up and customizing it, as you can see from the actual photo of the car in the top left corner of the collage.  The sad part of the story is that Mike's car had been "retired" early, due to an accident; fortunately Mike was fine, but the car didn't make it.

Kristen sent me a lot of photos of Mike's car, and decided on a delicious vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla meringue buttercream filling, covered with chocolate ganache.  I took it from there.  Car cakes are a bit tricky to make.  This cake started as a filled rectangular layer cake roughly the size of a very big men's shoe box.  I then took out my sharp knife and began carving to get the cake into the proper size and shape of the car.  The shaped cake was covered with ganache, and some details added into the ganache or with modeling chocolate (yum!).  The whole thing was then covered with fondant, and the windows and wheel wells cut out.  I added details into the fondant, like the lines from the doors, hood and trunk, and well as other subtle shaping; it was a time consuming process.  The car was painted with an airbrush which gave it a nice sheen; the side paint pattern was painted by hand, however.  Finally, the body of the car was raised off the base cake board to make room for the tires, which were also made by hand from modeling chocolate.  At points, I felt like I was working in a bodyshop!

Although Kristen didn't ask for it, I took some artistic license and added some cans from the back of the car and "Just Married!" to the back window of the car.  I figured they wouldn't mind the surprise!

When I walked into the wedding venue to deliver the cake, Kristen's dad was sitting in the ballroom while Kristen was getting ready.  As soon as he saw the cake, he exclaimed, "That's Mike's car!!" But Mike was the real judge, and he didn't know about the cake, and wouldn't see it until after the wedding ceremony.

When I heard back from Kristen after the wedding, she was thrilled.  (That's the best part of my job.  I love my customers!)  She said that Mike nearly started to cry when he saw the cake, and that he wouldn't let anyone cut it at the wedding!!  The guys who had done much of the work on the car couldn't believe their eyes either.  Kristen and Mike finally did cut into the cake at home a day or two after the wedding, but only because they wanted to taste it (they thought it was delicious).  Then into the freezer it went (well wrapped of course) -- Mike wanted to keep his cake for a while longer!!!  That's a great complement to the look of the cake, and it is the second cake I've made in less than two weeks that meant so much to the recipient that it was saved, at least for a little while.  The irony is that I go out of my way to make cakes that taste great too, using high quality ingredients and making everything from scratch. Although my cakes will freeze well if tightly wrapped, I do hope that they unwrap, defrost and enjoy eating the cake before long -- it is delicious cake, after all!!

Best wishes to Kristen and Mike for a long and very happy life together.  I'm honored to have been able to contribute to your special day.  Congratulations!!

Dawn's 40th "Touchdown"!

I've now made 2 Giants helmet cakes, and I wouldn't have expected this, but both of them were for women. The first was a cake for Bat Mitzvah girl Lexa, and the second, shown here, is for Dawn's 40th Birthday. In fact, Dawn had seen Lexa's cake online and loved it, which is how Dawn's good friend Lisa ended up contacting me. The cake was a surprise for Dawn, and I had to deliver it to the Jersey Shore where Dawn and a group of her BFFs were spending the weekend! When presented with the cake at a celebration dinner, Dawn was so thrilled she shed tears of joy, and she wouldn't let anyone near the cake with a knife!! (It is vanilla bean buttermilk cake with chocolate mousse filling and dark chocolate ganache outside, so it should taste pretty good whenever she finally eats it. I delivered the cake a week ago, and heard that as of Tuesday, it was still uncut!) Happy Birthday Dawn! You are blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends. And eat your cake!!

Tyler's confirmation cake

Tyler's parents wanted to surprise him with a non-traditional confirmation cake.  They wanted to include both baseball and softball as well, since they're Tyler's favorite sports.

I made a figurine of the very athletic Tyler, and he's got a baseball bat in one hand, a lacrosse stick in the other.  His parents loved the figurine so much, they saved it in the freezer!

The cake is chocolate with oreo filling and vanilla frosting.  Peanut-free since Tyler can't have peanuts.

Congrats on your confirmation Tyler!

Yankee Stadium Cake

Yankee Stadium for Jonny's Yankee themed bar mitzvah!

Chocolate cake, oreo and chocoalte ganache filling, chocolate ganache frosting, and lots of decorating.  Notice the LED scrolling message board!  

This cake was a home run!

Mazel Tov Jonny!

A glass of iced tea or a cake?

Lisa was turning the big 5-0, and her family wanted to celebrate in grand style.  Lisa's teenaged daughter was excited about planning a surprise party for her mom, and enlisted the help of her dad and her aunt and uncle as well.  They knew they wanted a fun cake for Lisa, but weren't sure what it should look like.  They looked at the photos on this blog and on the Enchanted Icing Facebook page, and saw the Diet Coke cake, which gave them an idea.  Lisa loves Dunkin' Donuts iced tea, and is frequently seen with a glass of it in her hand.  She had a reputation for taking the iced tea with her wherever she went.  Lisa's family asked me if I could make a Dunkin' Donuts iced tea cake.  Knowing that could be a tricky request, I went to work designing and planning.

They needed enough cake to serve 50 people, and so we decided together that I would make two cakes.  First would be the glass of iced tea cake, and second, a Dunkin' Donuts paper bag cake.  That way the iced tea cake didn't have to be very tall, aiding stability.  The cake would be chocolate, with oreo filling and chocolate ganache on the outside. (I had suggested a Chai tea flavored cake, but Lisa loves chocolate.  I can't argue with that.)

Making a cake that looks like a glass iced tea is a challenging task.  Cakes are opaque; iced tea is translucent.  I knew I could get the cake into the shape of a glass of iced tea, but how was I going to make it look like it had ice inside?  The answer was airbrushing.  I painted the cake tea-colored using the airbrush, but left areas lighter around the top third of the cake to give the impression of ice cubes inside the "tea".  I think the effect worked, particularly once I topped the cake with a slice of lemon (made from fondant), a straw (made from gum paste),  and sugar ice cubes (made from melted sugar that had been poured into a mold). 

The paper bag cake was carved by hand from a rectangular cake.  I wanted to add enough wrinkles thrown in to give the impression of paper.  The rolled over top of the paper bag added to the illusion. 

When I delivered the cake, Lisa was thrilled!  She and others at the party were amazed, and everyone had a laugh at Lisa's Dunkin' Donuts habit.  I heard back from Lisa and her family, and they told me that the cake tasted even better than it looked.  That's the kind of feedback that makes my day!

Giants Football Helmet Cake

It isn't every day that you hear about a 13 year old girl who is such a fan of the NY Giants football team that she wants her bat mitzvah party to have a football theme.  Boys, perhaps.  Girls, not so much.  But to me, it indicated that the 13 year old girl is an independent thinker and has a great deal of confidence at an age when many girls are insecure and just want to look and act like each other.  I admire and wholeheartedly support her doing her own thing.  Very cool.

This cake was made for that young woman, who is named Lexa (Shayna is her middle name), for her bat mitzvah.  The cake is a life sized helmet cake, made from delicious, fudgy chocolate cake, and filled with altering layers of Oreo filling and Nutella buttercream.  The whole thing was covered with a dark chocolate ganache.  Everything is edible, even the facemask (although you probably wouldn't want to eat it because the gum paste used to make the mask has hardened, so it can stand up).  At the event space, Lexa's mom surrounded the cake with tall thin taper candles placed on the board (the football field).  The cake was then used in the candle lighting ceremony, in which Lexa called up family and friends to help her light each of her 13 candles.

This helmet wasn't large enough to feed a whole party (the helmet feeds 30-40 people, depending upon how it is cut), so I had baked additional sheet cakes to ensure everyone got some cake.  One sheet cake was chocolate with Oreo filling and chocolate ganache, like the helmet, and the other was vanilla with raspberry swiss meringue buttercream filling and vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream on the outside.

I received a call from Lexa and her mom the day after the event, and they and their guests were still raving about the cake and thrilled at how realistic it had looked and how good it had tasted.  They told me that one of the guests at the party had suggested sending a photo to the NY Giants!  Others didn't want to cut into the cake, but Lexa and her family finally did, so they could have their cake and eat it too.

Mazel Tov, Lexa!  Put that independent thinking to good use in your life.  I expect to hear great things from you! Touchdown!!!

Camera Cake: Say Cheese!

Say Cheese!  Cream cheese frosting, that is, on carrot cake, shaped into a Camera Cake!  This cake was made for photographer Mike as a surprise for his 40th birthday.  It is modeled after his own camera, although the dimensions are not exact because, don't forget, it is a cake, and I needed it to feed a certain number of people.  There's a lot of detail on this cake - buttons, dials, view panels, and more, both front and back.  Carrot cake is also a good choice for someone who works with his eyes, as this cake is packed with carrots (as well as pineapple which helps keep it really moist).  I understand that Mike was really surprised by his cake, and loved every gigabyte. Bite.

Triple the fun! Triplets Bar Mitzvah Cake

Congratulations to triplets Ethan, Caleb and Louisa!  I made this cake for their b'nai mitzvah celebration (yup, that the plural) which was on a fabulous fall day at the beautiful Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield, CT.

When I make cakes for people, I try to personalize the cake for the recipient.  I like to use colors they like, and I also often incorporate the recipient's interests in the cake design, so that the person receiving the cake knows it was really made especially for him or her.  That's a much harder task when making one cake for 3 kids with different interests, preferences and personalities.  That said, I was pleased with how this cake turned out, and even happier that the triplets and their parents loved it!

On the bottom of the cake is Ethan's tier, which is made of lemon butter cake, filled with lemon meringue buttercream and raspberry jam, and topped with lemon meringue buttercream.  The covering is blue, Ethan's favorite color, and the football (which is 100% edible, made of rice krispy treats and modeling chocolate) and the penant flag reflect his love for his New England Patriots.  He's also a big Red Sox fan.  (I blame their father for this Boston passion. Sigh. They should be Yankee fans, not Red Sox fans.  But what can you do?)

In the middle is Caleb's tier.  Caleb is a soccer player (he plays goalie), and he too roots for Boston-based sports teams.  Caleb's favorite color is orange, but their mom asked me to incorporate the lime green color which was a theme in the party decorations, along with blue and purple (no orange in the party decor).  Finally, on top, Louisa's tier has an edible ipod perched in front of it and handbags around the sides, as Louisa loves to listen to music (James Taylor is a favorite - she has excellent taste!) and she likes to accessorize.  Purple is Louisa's favorite color.  Both Caleb's and Louisa's tiers (the top two tiers) were made of chocolate cake with the crowd favorite cookies and cream (aka Oreo) filling, which has big chunks of real Oreos in it.  The outer frosting was a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  There wasn't a bite left from the entire cake, which was made to serve about 80 people!

On top of the cake is the logo used in the b'nai mitzvah invitations: a modern take on the two scrolls of the torah, although to me they look a little bit like candles too.  As a result, I thought it was the perfect thing to use on top of the cake.  I think the topsy turvy design added a bit of whimsy on this cake made for newly minted teens.

It was a fabulous day for the triplets, and I wish them all the best!  Their parents should be very proud of their terrific trio!  And of course, the triplets should thank their parents for everything they do for them.

Diet Coke and Sandwich Groom's Cake

Groom's cakes have become a very popular part of weddings these days.  They're cakes made especially for the groom, since, let's face it, a great deal of the wedding is all about the bride.

This two-part groom's cake was made for one of my daughter's favorite teachers as a surprise for her fiance.  It seems that he has a rather limited repertoire when it comes to lunch: a turkey sandwich and Diet Coke are his favorites.  And so that lunch was transformed into a cake, making a loving tribute to a future spouse's quirks.  I, of course, as an appreciative parent, was thrilled to be able to make this cake for her teacher and really enjoyed getting to know her a better through the design process.  I'm happy with the way the cake turned out, and more importantly, they were thrilled!

Don't let the photo fool you: this is a pretty large cake, meant to serve 50.  The diet coke cake is almost 11" tall,  larger than a half gallon of milk!  Inside, the cake is a deep chocolate cake made with a pint of Young's Double Chocolate Stout in the batter, and it is really, really tasty.  The stout flavors the cake but it is very subtle; the alcohol burns off and all that's left is a bit of depth and complexity of chocolate goodness.  Nonetheless, the cake has a nice crumb and isn't too dense.  I love chocolate and think it should be its own food group, and in my opinion, this is one of the best chocolate cakes I've tasted.

We paired the cake with alternating layers of chocolate buttercream and mint buttercream as fillings between the layers, and covered the cakes with dark chocolate ganache (a delicious mixture of chocolate and cream, which gives it a fudgy consistency).  This cake is a chocoholic's dream!

I also wanted to take this opportunity to wish Lauren and Tim all the happiness in the world for their future together.

Spiderman Takes The Cake

THWACK! Spiderman spins a web in a (vain) attempt to save Manhattan from a cake knife!!

This Spiderman cake was made for an avid Spiderman fan named Rohwan, who was turning 4.   I had a blast making this cake.  The cake is vanilla with chocolate frosting, and the whole thing is covered with fondant (sugar dough) for that lovely smooth finish.  The cake is constructed with the top at an angle to create the impression that Spiderman is climbing or perhaps clinging to the side of a building.  Flat just didn't seem right for Spiderman.

I made Spidey himself from another type of sugar dough called gum paste - the advantage is that it gets much firmer than fondant as it dries.  The buildings are also made from gum paste.  And by the way, both Spidey and the buildings are 100% edible! 

I got to use my brand new airbrush machine on this cake (being the cake geek I've become, that was really exciting and fun for me!)  I hope you can see the hint of pink between and behind the buildings (the gaps between groups of buildings represent the avenues which run east to west in Manhattan).  

Rohwan's mother wrote me that the cake was a huge hit with not only Rohwan and his friends, but also with the parents who attended the party!  She wrote to me:  "Loved the spiderman cake! Lots of oohing and aaahing from kids and adults!"  

I hope it was a great birthday Rohwan!  

Cobra Cake - I Ate Snakes

Have I ever told you that I don't particularly love snakes?  They slither and have no limbs.  They don't greet you at the door when you come home, offering you a ball to throw for them to fetch, their bodies shaking with excitement.  No, snakes are cold, indifferent to hostile in temperament, and look like they should be slimy to the touch.  And some of them can kill you.

Last week, your Fearless Cake Artist (me) had an order for a snake  birthday cake for Wyatt, a six year old boy who thinks snakes are just the icing on the cake, I mean, the greatest thing ever.   And he's not just into any snake -- he particularly likes cobras, especially spitting cobras.   Yup, a snake that spits venom at its intended victim. A poison loogie.  Could it get any more disgusting?

Seriously.  Take a look at a real red spitting cobra at right.  He looks mean. Is that an open venomous spit-launching tube in his mouth?  I don't want to get within 100 yards of that guy to find out.  Do you?

The good news is that a cobra cake is an entirely different beast from a real cobra.  You can eat a cobra cake.  You can't eat a real cobra (unless you're Bear Grills, that guy from TV who gets dropped off in the back woods somewhere and has to make it out alive with no food or water or anything.  He eats all sorts of disgusting stuff.)

This cobra cake was made from chocolate cake and vanilla bean buttercream frosting, and covered with fondant textured to look like scales.  The sand he's sitting in?  Brown sugar.  His teeth are made from marshmallows so they don't hurt.  The rest of what you see is fondant, hand colored and sculpted to be as scary as possible, just so I could give a bunch of six year olds a thrill.

According to Wyatt's mom, the cake was a big hit with the Wyatt and his pals!  She wrote to me after the party:
"Thanks for the awesome cake! The kids loved it, although there was a major squabble over who got to eat the tongue. The birthday boy ultimately got to the tongue and teeth. The cobra's head now looks like a toothless old man ;-)".


You never know what will make a six year old happy.  I'm glad I was able to help Wyatt achieve total domination over the deadly red spitting cobra.  Happy Birthday, Wyatt, and many more to come! 

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is the first book in a young adult trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  The books have been extremely popular among the middle and high school set, and so it is no surprise that the movie, which opened a week ago, has become the must see film of the spring.

I received an order from Michael's mom to make a birthday cake for his Hunger Games themed birthday party.  The kids were going to see the movie, then retreat back to Michael's house for pizza and a surprise birthday cake.  The plan was set - I was to make a cake with the logo (a "Mockingjay pin") on the cake.  The pin appears on the cover of the book, and plays an important role in the plot.   (My husband joked that a Hunger Games cake was an oxymoron.  I think he's got a point, don't you?)

The first step was to make the logo pin, as it needed to dry a bit in order to hold its shape.  Everything was sculpted by hand - every feather on the wings and tail, the body and head.  Then the whole thing got two coats of food-safe gold paint, which also needed time to dry.  (This may be a sculpture, but everything is 100% edible!)  Just before the cake was ready to be delivered, the Mockingjay pin logo finally was placed upon the actual cake.  

The cake was a delicious yellow (vanilla) butter cake made from scratch, filled with oreo frosting and chocolate buttercream.  The outside was covered with more chocolate buttercream, which has a delicious chocolate flavor and is ideal for those who really like chocolate but aren't card carrying chocholics like me.  The whole cake was then covered with black fondant (sugar dough) and a black ribbon was placed around the bottom edge of the cake.  I took this photo before I put the cake on the board I used to transport and serve it.  I'm sorry I don't have a copy of the whole thing on the cake board because it looked cute.  I put writing on the board in the same font that is on the book's cover saying "Happy 12th Birthday Michael! May the odds be ever in your favor".   (That's a quote from the book, and I thought it was appropriate for a birthday celebration).   

I hope Michael and his friends enjoyed the movie and the party and that Michael liked his cake.  I wish Michael the happiest of birthdays.  May all his wishes come true. 

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?

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.