Lauren's Engagement Party

My beautiful niece Lauren is engaged to be married!!! 

Lauren is such a loving, caring, talented, giving, faithful and beautiful woman, I am so proud to call her "niece".  It seems like only yesterday she was little.

She's a Charleston cutie!

Now she's all grown up and she found her love and is ready to take a leap into married life. 

Jason is one LUCKY guy!  I have only met him once, but I can say his skill at finding a perfect woman is impeccable!

Here is the lovely couple at the party

Here is a great engagement photo session 

The wedding is going to be on the other side of the country so I can't make the wedding cake.  :(  ...of course I jumped at the chance to make a special cake for her engagement party when she came home for the holidays.

The cake is a vanilla almond sour cream and a triple chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and raspberry fillings. 

Iced with buttercream embossed with a scroll pattern and adorned with pearl dusted gumpaste snowflakes.

Love you Lauren! 

Congratulations Lauren and Jason!

Modern Wedding Shower

I was given no limitations or instructions on what the cake needed to be.

A wedding shower, no specific decorations at the party (because everything was decorated for Halloween), the colors of the bridesmaid's dresses were 2 tone brown. 

When I asked if the wedding was modern or more traditional, she said more modern.

Okay....

2 tone brown....

modern.....

oh and throw the monogram in for the couple......

And this is......

what I created.

Buttercream iced with modeling chocolate accents and rose.

I really like how it turned out! 

Sometimes I struggle when I don't have a lot of direction for the cake, and vice versa....sometimes they have TOO many specifics and it can cramp my style. 

Tell me what things do you struggle with when it comes to cake???

Black and White Wedding Shower

Black and White!

Classic color combination, so classy, so versatile. 

Black and white are the main colors for the wedding, so for the shower she decided to keep with the wedding theme. 

Wedding cake cookies as favors.

I went with 2 different designs to mix it up a bit.

And a simple white buttercream cake with cornelli lace and a fondant bow.  The new bride's monogram is done in dark chocolate. 

(I love that new pearl spray in a can....shiny, shiny bow!)

Best wishes to the bride to be!

Burnt Orange Calla Lilies

These Calla Lilies are made from gumpaste.

Gumpaste (sugar paste) is edible, but the main reason to use gumpaste vs. fondant is that fact that you can roll it much thinner (giving you a more realistic look to flowers and leaves) and when it dries, it dries quite solid (allowing you to make your items well in advance without worry of spoiling). So while it's not really the best thing to put in your mouth, it is the best thing to use when you want realistic looking flowers!

This is the top view of my lilies after I placed them on the cake. I made a coordinating bow and green spirals to give it depth and texture.


I started with an orange base color of gumpaste.
I used my Arum Lily Cutter Set from FMM. This cuts the shape you need and also gives a veining texture to the flower making it appear more realistic. I created yellow stamens the day before and then wrapped them with the flower body and formed them into the shape I wanted. Once they were completely dry (overnight) I then shaded them with petal & luster dusts to add even more dimension. I used ruby, sunflower and sage green.

The theme for the party was sage green and burnt orange. I used a scrolling pattern on the sides of the cake and a nice message of love for the intended bride and groom.

(The cake was quite stunning ~ too bad I don't have a nicer camera to really capture the details and true colors.)