If you’re looking for a cake for the handy man in your life, look no further! This toolbox cake is sure to be the talk of the party!
For this cake, we made all the tools ahead of time, so they could dry and be painted. Some of the tools are free-handed and some can be made using a mold like this one. You just press your fondant into the mold – silicone works best – remove it from the mold and lay it flat to dry. Once it’s dry, you can paint it.
We also made the toolbox handle in advance, so it could dry and hold its shape. We used floral wire and skewers in it, so it could be placed into the cake like a topper.
Once all the 3D elements were made, it was time to start on the cake! We baked 1/4 sheet layers, stacked them and carved them with our favorite sculpting knife to round the corners. We crumb coated and chilled the cake. We were then able to cover the cake in fondant. We covered the top half in yellow and bottom half in black, added the latches, logo and details.
We placed this cake on a larger cake drum, so we had room for all the tools and the “Happy Birthday” message. Who do you know that would love a cake like this?
So simple and so sweet! This baby shower cake was a joy to create!
For this cake, we started by sculpting the teddy bear using fondant. We colored the fondant with our favorite gel coloring and started by sculpting the body. We then added each limb, the head and the ears. Each element of the bear is built piece by piece. The bow was made from a mold – so easy and cute!
Next up was creating the balloons. Some were made from fondant and some were made from lightweight styrofoam craft balls, which were covered in fondant to match the bear. All of these items are made in advance, so they have time to dry and hold their shape once it’s time to assemble the cake.
This cake was a 6″ round jumbo, meaning it was three layers of cake (or 6″ tall.) A standard tier is typically 2 layers of cake and only 4″ tall. These taller tiers are very popular at the moment and this particular design needed a bit more height for the balloons.
This cake was iced in a smooth, white American Buttercream. Once the crumb coat and final coat were chilled, we were ready to assemble this cake. We placed the bear on the board, the balloons on top and connected them fondant strings. We think this cake turned out beary cute!!
There are some color combinations that are simply classic, and black and gold is truly one of them. It can be masculine, feminine, elegant, dramatic and dark. Sometimes all at the same time!
We get requests to create cakes in this color scheme quite often. Most are for birthdays, but occasionally we will receive a request a black & gold wedding cake as well. Many shy away from using black on cakes given that eating black icing isn’t too attractive as it can stain your mouth. There are a few steps bakers can take to minimize this.
First, you can start with chocolate icing, which of course is already brown in color. It will take a bit less black food coloring to go from brown to black than from white (buttercream) to black. Another option is when you make your chocolate buttercream you can use a black cocoa powder, which will turn your chocolate buttercream much darker than regular cocoa powder and will require even less black food coloring.
We always start with a crumb coat of icing on our cakes to lock in the crumbs and moisture before the final coat of icing. Keeping the crumb coat white buttercream will leave a bit of icing under the black icing, so guests eating the cake can avoid the black icing and still have some buttercream with each bite of cake. The final option is to cover your cake in black fondant with a layer of white buttercream underneath. Fondant doesn’t stain mouths near as much as buttercream will. Realistically most people will peel off the fondant and only eat the cake and icing underneath, thus keeping their mouths black dye-free.
The black on all the cakes above is buttercream with the exception of the center cake on the bottom row. This cake is covered in fondant.
The other half of the black and golf dynamic duo is, of course, GOLD! Each of the cakes above use gold in different ways. Adding pops of gold through sugar flowers is very popular. The sugar peony flower and sugar magnolia flower are perfect examples of this. You can paint the edges or centers of these flowers for the perfect gold accent. To paint these accents, you’ll need an edible gold paint. You can use this to paint directly on buttercream or paint fondant accents.
Below are links to some of our favorite products used in the cakes above:
Every once in a while we get a cake request that is unique and incorporates so many fun elements – all into one cake! This week, this was that cake! This was a single tier 6″ round cake that served about 10 people. We started on this cake about a week in advance by making the 3D elements. We made the orchids from fondant. These are made and assembled petal by petal, so they will hold their shape once dry.
Next, we make the balls in white and gold. These were Satin Ice fondant or lightweight foam balls covered in fondant. Some were painted gold using an edible metallic gold paint and set aside to dry. As the cake’s due date came closer, we baked the cake layers and iced the cake in black buttercream. Once chilled, we added the wavy layers of white an pink fondant around the base. We then added white non-pareils and sugar pearls sporadically around the cake. Next came the addition of the balls and sugar orchids to complete the look.
The end result was a modern and beautiful cake for a special occasion!
We are well into the 2022 wedding season and seeing a variety of gorgeous trends emerge! The pressed flower look made the rounds through the Spring and Summer, which featured smooth buttercream with flat, real (edible) flowers placed around the tiers. This bride loved that look, but wanted to keep the design all buttercream and in her color scheme.
We started by icing each tier in white, smooth American Buttercream. We chilled each tier and stacked the cake using bubble straws and dowel rods. We colored our buttercream in the wedding colors and prepped our piping bags to begin piping the stems and blossoms. Most of the tips we used were traditional Wilton round tips: 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7. We piped a few leaves with tip 352 and some of the petals were created using tip 104.
We started with the bottom tier, with a heavier floral pattern and the flowers became more sporadic at the top tier. To keep the flow of the floral design traveling up the cake, we didn’t add a border to the tiers, which would have essentially cut each tier off from the next. While the flowers at the base of the cake are “planted” with stems, the blossoms at the top are almost floating off in the breeze.
This gorgeous four tier cake (about 125 servings) was for an August 2022 wedding at Glass Chapel in Broken Arrow, OK .
Every year from October to New Year’s we create a variety of client gifts for our corporate customers. I love this time of year not only because of the holidays, but because these orders are a festive departure from our typical birthday and baby shower orders. Some clients like to stand out and send their gifts around Thanksgiving, which is a natural time to say, “Thank you” to your customers, clients and employees. Sending gifts earlier in the gift-giving season can also set a company’s name apart from the bulk of gifts received in December. Our most popular client gifts in November are our pies!
Our traditional pies like Pumpkin, Apple, Cherry and Pecan are best sellers, but our Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie is BOMB! It has quickly become a fan favorite. Our pumpkin cheesecake is great seasonal option as well. These come packaged in a windowed bakery box and tied with a ribbon for maximum presentation. We can even add your corporate logo or personalized message plaque on top!
December is the obvious choice when it comes to gift-giving time for employees and customers, so we stay busy this time of year. Cookies are always popular and our logo cookies are a great way to keep your company name top of mind.
These are essentially edible business cards – and who wouldn’t want that? But if you want to step it up a notch, a cookie decorating class is an experience that many of our corporate friends are opting for. We host private cookie decorating parties in our classroom or at your location. These are typically 2-hours long and we include everything you need from the cookies and icing to the instruction. Students go home with their decorated cookies AND fun memories made!In 2021 our most popular corporate gift was the Dessert Charcuterie Tray. These can be created for any theme or holiday and include a variety of sweets, so there is something for everyone. These can also be made for New Year’s and include a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the evening. It doesn’t get more festive than that!
This year, we are seeing an uptick in requests for our hot cocoa bomb cups! These are our take on the hot cocoa bombs, but are shaped like a little travel coffee/cocoa cup. These are filled with hot cocoa mix and come in six different flavor varieties. When submerged in hot milk they melt and turn mix into a delicious hot chocolate drink complete with marshmallows and a built in straw and stir stick!
There are so many unique options to surprise and delight your employees and clients this season. If you’d like more information on our corporate gifting options, please feel free to reach out at info@allthingscakeshop.com.
