Cakes, recipes, parties, crafts, tutorials and aspergers
Last year I shared my Pot O’ Gold cake, but I shared it the DAY of St. Patrick’s day so I figured there was no reason to share the tutorial. But THIS year there is still time so here it is!!!
Even a year later I’m still THRILLED with how this cake came together! This and my pumpkin are easily the best holiday cakes EVER (if I do say so myself) still trying to come up with the PERFECT Christmas cake….
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When I got an avengers cake order for a sweet little boy I was SOOO excited. I’m a total geek deep down and I love all things hero, comic book, etc…
I was given free reign to do what I want and have fun. The only request was to have hulk hands and 3 D effect of some kind. ree reign is always a mix of super fun and very hard! Too much freedom
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When my cousin came over for her wedding cake consultation we spent most of the time talking about what she wanted for her cupcakes! Once we got the the small cake for the bride and groom to cut it was easy. Sticking with the metallic theme she was looking at gold and silver painted cakes, then I showed her a silver leafed cake and she fell in love! We decided to go with GOLD and I LOVE how it turned out!
We added lace to match her dress and offset it with a super large flower! It turned out SO lovely, I can’t wait to try it again.
Start with a fondant covered cake… Now we want to make it tacky. I considered spray painting the whole thing with spirits (clear vanilla or vodka) but in the end I decided to use my travel steamer (best steamer EVER). I usually use it to make a cake shiny (like the lego blocks cake and the 13th birthday cake)when it’s all finished, but it does that by getting it barely damp. if you leave it it will dry a bit and end up slightly tacky, perfect!
The first one I tried to grab the edible gold leaf foil out of the booklet and place it on the cake… FAIL, do NOT do this. it crinkled all up, stuck to my fingers, etc… It just sticks to itself like static cling, it’s worse than plastic wrap!
Instead leave the leaf in the booklet. Carefully open it up to the first gold leaf. I say carefully because the thin leaf is easily destroyed, it doesn’t take much of a breeze for it to fold and crinkle. So CAREFULLY open up the booklet, first hold the bottom of the leaf against the bottom of the cake and SLOWLY roll up the booklet softly pressing the leaf to the cake.
Here you can see how I hold it against the bottom (as well as the messed up first leaf). Once the leaf is stuck on pull the booklet away (careful not to flip the pages and ruin the rest of the sheets) and use a soft brush (this is one of my CAKE ONLY brushes) and softly run it over the sheet, making sure it is all stuck down.
Now for the second layer… This is also a bit tricky, once the leaf is on it’s still delicate. you can see where my knuckle touched the bottom layer and pulled small pieces away… grrrr So hold the bottom of the leaf to the top of the last layer and roll up the page- trying not to touch any of the finished leafing. Mine was taller than the cake itself so I folded it over to start covering the top!
The top was actually the trickiest part, cause I couldn’t flip the booklet upside down so I had to jiggle the booklet sliding part of the leaf off. Once it stuck to the cake I SLOWLY pulled the booklet away letting the leaf come to rest on the fondant., brush it down… once I was done I want back through carefully covered up gaps, holes and mistakes!
TA-DA! do you love it? I love it! How amazing would this look on a full 3 or 4 tier wedding cake???? I used 24 of the 25 sheets the booklet came with to cover this 8 inch cake. It took me about 20 mins to cover the whole thing, so it’s a pretty fast way to go once you get your groove. BUT expensive.
Then the finishing details! The lace and flower! It was actually supposed to be a different flower, but the florist apparently didn’t understand the SCALE we wanted the flower. the one he left was this puny 2 inch bud… so I raided the centerpieces to get this big fluffy hydrangea instead! The cake was a lovely centerpiece for all the cupcakes and most important the bride was happy with it!
Metallic & Turquoise Wedding Cake and cupcakes
Gold Leaf Cake tutorial
Five Wedding cupcakes and recipes
Dye your own sprinkles and sugar crystals
Sometimes you have an event with a SPECIFIC color scheme. For my cousin’s wedding her colors were metallics and turquoise. I always request samples of the colors so I can match them as closely as I can. The silver and gold was easy to get for topping the cupcakes with, but bronze and turquoise was harder. SO I decided to make my own.
Each topping for the wedding cupcakes was not only different colors, but different mediums too. We wanted people to be easily able to tell them apart! White non-perils, Silver dagrees, Gold foil stars… so we decided on Bronze sugar crystals and Turquoise sprinkles!
But they don’t Sell those colors, so I bought them in clear sugar crystals and white sprinkles and bought bronze airbrush paint (I would have used gel if they had it) and turquoise gel
Start by putting your dye in a thick plastic bag. The Airbrush paint is much thinner and I ended up using MUCH more, but better to start small, you can always add more. With the gel I started small, and ended up not adding any at all!
Add your crystals and sprinkles and MIX! My kids loved this part, they shook the bag, massaged the gel in, etc… adding more coloring if you need it.
you can see I got it really close to the samples she sent (the broze is hard to see cause it’s a mesh ribbon – second from the right). they were perfect! And I used the same turquoise to dye the vanilla frosting and the “blue” red velvet cupcakes so they all matched!
Metallic & Turquoise Wedding Cake and cupcakes
Gold Leaf Cake tutorial
Five Wedding cupcakes and recipes
Dye your own sprinkles and sugar crystals
