Monday, September 26, 2011

Our First Wedding Cake- Japanese Red Blossoms

We finally did it! Our very first wedding cake.
A Japanese red blossoms inspired 3-tier wedding cake for a simple, intimate wedding.
One request from the bride-- "Keep it simple sweetie." She co-designed this with me, using the invitation with the Japanese red blossoms as inspiration. Her idea was falling flowers from the tree..."no branches," she says. The wedding is very intimate, only 80 people invited. Congratulations Olivia and Christopher- best wishes! Thanks for making Jessicakes Project a part of your wedding! :) The cakes are 10", 8" and 6". Each has 4 layers of cakes. The 10" tier is made of chocolate devil’s food cake and vanilla buttercream, while the 8" and 6" cakes were made of yellow butter cake and chocolate buttercream. All were frosted with white chocolate ganache and covered in gluten-free, vanilla fondant made from marshmallows.


For more photos, check the Weddings & Special Events tab. 






Sunday, September 18, 2011

Transformers' Fondant Cake- Optimus Prime

In one of our most ambitious cakes ever-- a Transformers' cake like no other. This cake shows an embattled Optimus Prime rising from the rubble. Lots of firsts in this cake. This was the first time we made a figure using homemade rice krispy treats (RKT). It took us a couple of weeks to get Optimus Prime to come to life. We used marshmallow fondant to mold his face. This is also the first time we used LED balloon lights used at weddings and other parties. This was one of the toughest cakes we've done. Lots of lessons learned on this cake. 
Transformers Optimus Prime cakefront view. Photo copyright by JessiCakes Project. Please do not use without obtaining permission. 

Tranformers' Optimus Prime cake top view. Photo copyright JessiCakes Project please do not use without permission

Hey, Mickey You're so Fine!

We've been so busy these past few weeks that blogging was almost impossible. In the past months, aside from baby showers, most of our cake orders were for kids. We were fortunate also to do three Mickey Mouse themed cakes for three adorable young boys.

Mickey Mouse is such a popular birthday cake not only for boys, but for girls too. Unfortunately, we couldn't make cakes using licensed characters that are copied exactly the same due to license issues. We also do not want to plagiarize. Fines could run in the thousands (read more about it here). Fortunately for us, our clients are so understanding when we told them about this. What we have done is to create Mickey Mouse themed cakes without using Mickey's face. This way, we honor the character without running into licensing issues.

The first Mickey themed cake was for a boy named Daniel. His mommy said that he just loves Mickey. True enough, when we delivered the cake and cupcakes, the first thing that greeted us was his black-and-white photo hanging on the foyer as a young toddler with a Mickey Mouse plush animal. His mommy requested that we make a rectangular cake in vanilla flavor and cream cheese frosting. She also requested that we don't cover the cake with rolled fondant and that we use Styrofoam on the decorations. We were only allowed to use fondant in the decorations. Any fondant that would be eaten has to be gelatin-free. We also make chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes to accompany the 12" x 9" three layers of cake. All made from scratch. We decorated the cake with non-edible parts to create the Mickey Mouse Club House using mostly styrofoams. Then, used fondants to cover them. The client also has the Mickey Mouse and friends characters she bought from Disney store to use as toppers. She also furnished the cupcakes toppers.

In addition, the client also ordered cake pops (15 in Minnie Mouse silhouettes and 15 in Mickey Mouse silhouettes). Photos below.


Daniel's Mickey Mouse themed cake


Cake pop favors in Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse silhouettes.

The second Mickey themed cake was for a boy named Nicholas (Nick for short) who turned 1. The mother of this boy thought that a cupcake tower with the topper in Mickey's hat would work just fine. She requested grandness, which we hope that we have provided using our acrylic cupcake stand. We used the three tiers, with the top one wide enough to hold a 3-layer 9-inch round vanilla cake with fruit preserve filling (strawberry flavor) and vanilla buttercream. We covered and decorated the cake with rolled marshmallow fondant. We used Styrofoam to create Mickey's hat. The balloons were made of marshmallow fondant as well as the other details such as Mickey;s silhouette using cutters to form the shape.

The cutout starts with the celebrant's name are edible along with the balloons and the round balls that decorated the bottom of the cake. There were 50 cupcakes in four flavors-- chocolate (with choco mousse frosting), strawberry (with cream cheese frosting), green tea (with vanilla frosting) and purple sweet yam (with cream cheese frosting). The cupcakes were topped with fondants shaped in Mickey's hat.

Nick's Mickey Mouse themed cake

Closer look at some green tea cupcakes with vanilla frosting and topped with green jimmies and Mickey Mouse hats. 

Lastly, another customer requested a simple cake with cupcakes for another boy who turned 1. His name is Mason. The mom wanted just a small cake plus 2 dozens of cupcakes. So, we created a 2-layer 9-inch round chocolate cake with chocolate mousse fillings covered in rolled marshmallow fondant. We also decorated with Mickey's Clubhouse; however, this cake was much smaller in scale than that of the first Mickey themed cake that is why we were able to make every decoration edible. Although this cake was the smallest of the three, we made the scenery around the cake pop out, as if you're driving along the scenic spots of hills, valleys and trees until you reach the clubhouse. We also used 5 cupcakes of same flavor, which we provided as extras to put the letters to spell MASON, which we placed in front of the cake.

Two dozens of cakes were requested-- 1 dozen in strawberry flavor and 1 dozen in honeydew flavor. Each one topped in Mickey Mouse silhouette, which you will see in one of the photos below.

 Honeydew cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting topped with green jimmies sprinkles and silhouette fondant of Mickey Mouse.
Mason's Mickey Mouse themed cake.