Leave of Absence

So you may have been wondering what happened to dear ol' Shelby and why is seems as though I've fallen off the face of the earth. So the reality is that I have to work a regular day job and as much as I would love to devote myself to Edible Art I have bills to pay and children to feed.

On the upside I got a promotion and we're relocating to Big Bear Lake. On the downside I have to prepare my office for the my replacement and pack up my entire house in 2 weeks. So sadly I'll be away for a few weeks or at least until my Internet gets connected in our new home.

I'll make it up to you all I promise...

Artist Spotlight:Sweet Bouquet

"Give your eyes a feast and your sweet tooth a treat"

So the Artist I've chosen for today is the talented person behind Etsy's "Sweet Bouquet"- I can't say that I know a lot about this artist other than what you can find in her profile which is that she's 35 years young and previously hails from the Ukraine.

What really amazed me about these flowers are the fact that they're made completely by hand out of Royal Icing!! I can't even imagine how's that's done!?!?! I had to re-read the description so many times. I'm in shock at how absolutely amazing these flowers are- mind you the stamens are un-edible, but just look at the detail.

Next on the agenda is to totally find out how these are made and what other wonderful things one came make out of Royal Icing so I can share it with you :) Until next time.....

Artist Spotlight: Cakes and Kids

This July is Hayli's 4th Birthday and she has decided that she'd like a ladybug party ( I love a good themed party) so while doing so research I came across "Cakes and Kids" - Where Fondant meets Fun and instantly I fell in love.

Aren't these Cake toppers adorable!! I could just eat them up ...literally.

Julie is a mother of 3 who like me started out just wanting to make beautiful and unique creations for her own children, friends, and family. While she has had some mild training it would appear that she's mostly self taught and practiced.

Now she writes her own blog where you can view her work, learn some new recipes and some great ideas and tips for working with fondant. Even more exciting is her Etsy store where you can purchase toppers like the ones shown above for a great price ( a dzn lady bug toppers goes for about 9.95) if you buy in bulk she offers discounts AND as an amazing bonus to an already amazing artist is that she also does custom work! Just email her with your party theme and design ideas and she mold you a sample topper and send you pictures FREE OF CHARGE!

Seriously does it get much better!?!?!
Nay- I think not. I urge you to check it out!




http://www.etsy.com/shop/KidsCakes
http://www.cakesandkids.com/

June

June is one of the few months out of the year when I don't have many upcoming birthdays, anniversary's, baby showers, or events.

So what could I possibly write about?

Well since this month I'll have very little of my own creations to post I figured its a good time to start spot lighting some of my favorite artist's edibles. As well as some helpful tips for working with fondant and gum paste and some of the How-To videos/podcast/articles that I love best.

So if you know and artist who works with edibles and you'd like to spotlight them- I love to hear about them.

Day 9 Justin's 21st Birthday

Justin is a close family friend, our children play together, we spend holidays, birthdays, super bowl parties together. So in honor of his 21st Birthday I really wanted to make an amazing cake- I mean your 21st is a big birthday- the final frontier before you start hating the idea that your yet another year older. Being that Justins nickname is Poo ( I don't know why he had the name long before I ever knew him) and because the end of ones 21st birthday one usually ends up kneeling before one- I wanted to make Justin a toilet cake
.................Yep you heard me ( or read rather) that correctly....
.................A toilet cake
....with poo :)

Kinda like this:

From 'The Cake Designers"
But then there was Ed...
.....Ed another family friend whose a long time ( much longer then us anyways) friend of Justin's convinced me that while he( Justin) appreciates my work as an artist he hates fondant. Who was I to question this? I mean Justin and Ed are far closer friends than Justin and I so... I heeded his warning and set out to make a 'Great Tasting cake'

* All of my cakes taste delicious, but in case you don't already know Fondant is sickly sweet and not so great tasting. In my humble opinion the best looking cakes are in fondant and the best tasting are in butter cream*

The cake was a Red Velvet Torte then keeping with my great tasting theme I used my famous creme filling in between each torte. After adding a tablespoon of half&half I whipped the creme filling until light and used it to frost the entire cake. For garnish I sliced up Justin's favorite fruits and layer them on top. Originally I wasn't going to make a topper of any kind because my toppers usually consist of gum paste- but it looked so plain so I eventually added the '21' gum paste topper. I wish then I could have been decisive earlier on because I would have mixed up multiple colors to decorate the gum paste topper with rather then just a gender lending blue

In the end I thought it came out as planned and tasted wonderfully...sadly at Justin's actual party my original plan was reveled and Justin was shocked to know that Ed had talked me out of making what he thought would be an incredibly amazing cake..... Sorry Justin! Maybe next year :(

Day 5

So today is 'The Bug Man Day'- he going to come spray our little house and outside so we'll be bug free for the next 6 months and we'll be gone all day :(

On the upside my new PC Tower is being delivered today ( Hurray!) - So I may not post tomorrow because I'll be customizing my new set up. ( ...Did I say Hurray already???...)

So until Friday- I bid you ado

Day Four- Cake Wrecks

I feel like its time to introduce you to one of my all time favorite blogs...ever.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

What is a Cake Wreck you ask? Jen the blogs writer describes it as... "any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places."

Let me tell you this girl is hilarious!! I check out her blog everyday and depending on the day of the week I'm either Ooohhh and Ahhh ing or laughing so hard I can't breathe.
So as if a Blog is not enough Cake Wrecks also has a book out which you can find here on Amazon.
Its FULL of all your favorites plus more that you don't get to see on her blog- defiantly worth checking out.

SOOOO I told you all of that to tell you this: Cake Wrecks is doing a book signing in La Jolla CA, next month on the 27th!!! Not only are these books signing fun and incredibly entertaining BUT.......

{ Drum Roll}...................



...............Are you Ready for This???

A Cup Cake Contest!!!! Yes.... For each of her book signings they have a cupcake contest where fans recreate their favorite cake wrecks in cupcake form. I'm way Excited!!!!

The Plan is to recreate the story of Amber in a cliff notes cup cake version....
You should check it out - The Story Of Amber
I would post it here but its some pretty Adult Content and I failed to get permission to do so.

Rummage through Cake Wrecks and if you find a better cake wreck than 'The Story of Amber' I should make for the contest then write me a comment and let me know!!!

Day Three Pixie Party

Have you ever watched the Food Network's extreme cake challenges where some esteemed cake decorators create something amazing and then they have to move it to a table about 5 feet away. Sometimes they go crashing to their doom but mostly they make their voyage safe and sound.

Source: About.com /simpCakeAction
I think for the next Extreme Cake episode they should have them transport their cakes about 20 miles and see how it holds up.
Transporting this cake was a nightmare -
I tried to find some pictures so that I could acutely describe the roads MANY twist, turns, and dips, but unfortunately I couldn't. Needless to say I learned some lessons about how NOT to transport a cake and how fragile gum paste grass can be.

So here's the cake before the move- Notice my bad piping skills?
Let the record show that I admitted that flaw on day one-
But I've been practicing....

So aside from the piping I used gum paste to make the grass, mushrooms, and roses. I knew from the moment I received the request that the cake would center around a Tinkerbell figure or candle so my only job really was to create a little grassy knoll in which one would expect to find Tinkerbell. There was a long debate between Bryan and I as to wither or not Tinkerbell would in reality be shorter than the grass but taller than the mushroom....I won because Bryan couldn't remake it himself :)



You can see where the grass broke off in pieces. I did my best to repair all the damage cause by the car ride but all I had was a piping bag with icing. I honestly didn't even think about making a few extra pieces just in case. All and all- Kylie was really happy and that's what makes this all worth while.

A special Thanks to Justin, Crystal and Kylie. Kylie is a perfect model for my cake :)
Happy 3rd Birthday Kylie! We Love You!

Day 2 Sleepy Sundays

Being that today is Sunday it is officially my day off from...just about everything- since our relationship is relatively new I wanted you to know up front so there was no hard feelings and so that you wouldn't feel like " Already day 2 and Shelby is flaking out!"

Nay, not I. I simply need a day just one day a week for the sake of my sanity to stay in my pajamas just a little bit longer- to watch movies with my husband and color with my children. You understand right?
{ Waiting for approval..yes?}

Brilliant I knew you all would understand.
{ Echos Emptily}
...Yes Brilliant.

A preview of tomorrow you ask? To be perfectly honest I hate surprises so I'll tell you- earlier this month I was privileged enough to be asked to create the newly 4 year old Kylie (a pixie-ish child in her own right) a Tinker Bell cake. I was delighted at the opportunity and I learned some important lessons about winding roads, gum paste grass, and traveling cakes. So tune in tomorrow for a winding misadventure :)

Day One

I'm an Artisan, a Handicrafter, a Do-It-Yourselfer,and a Mother- In other words I make stuff. All kinds of stuff as random as facts on cereal box. Right now that 'stuff' is cake, I have no training, or education on the subject (unless like me you think YouTube is both instructional & educational) but apparently I have a knack for it ( or at least my friends think I do).

So for the next 365 days I'm going to go spelunking through the world of edible art and just for the fun of it I'm going to take you with me!

Sounds fun right? Yes! I knew you would agree.

But in addition to the joys of edible art I do other stuff too. You didn't think I was lying when I said "random"..Did you? So don't be surprised to see paper crafts or party plans splash across your screen because I love that 'stuff' too.

So lets start off with my latest project.
Scene: Me and my daughter Hayli eating corn dogs in Wienerschnitzel when suddenly my cell phone rings its my bestie Megan

Hey lovie, whatcha doing??

Right Now?? A Red Bull just exploded in my purse and I'm trying to clean it up. You?

Well, actually I need a favor-Some of my friends are getting married in Vegas this weekend and I wanted to surprise her with a cake, and you made fondant sounds so easy and well its not...

(( Note: I'm smiling at this point, because unbeknown to most I've thrown whole cakes away because learning to work with fondant off the back of the Wilton's box sucks. But in attempt to maintain the " Shelby is Naturally Awesome" title I remain silent))

....... I need you to make me a cake it doesn't have to be amazing just something nice- And small since its only for the four of us

Sure. {muffled} Hayli eat your corndog not just your ketchup- I've got some left over gum paste I'll work something out...... Drop the supplies off this afternoon and I'll get started...

Then I rattle off some kind of grocery list. while it may seem like my head is in the game in reality I'm distracted by Bobby Flay on the Food Network (Why do fast food chains think 4 star television will make up for 2 star service?? - The world may never know) and sticky from my exploding Red Bull and off offhandedly I agree to make some poor brides wedding cake because its Megan asking and I can't say no.

What was I thinking?!?!?! This could not turn out well... I've never made a wedding cake and most women see this as the best day of their lives and their is a lot of room to mess up. Yikes!

Feeling the pressure I rushed home and baked a chocolate cake, filled it with my secret creme filling wrapped it in fondant and set out to make a dozen or so hand molded ( not a press or cutter) flowers out of gum paste. Viola! Cake....

It turned out well. My biggest weakness is piping- so I really tried to take my time and make it as neat as possible. So in pale yellow I piped " Love, Honor, Cherish, Obey" in a ring around the edge of the cake- With Mr & Mrs Carter at its center. I used a small bouquet of gum paste flowers ( and fake plastic leaves....honesty counts) for the top center of the cake. I had some base fondant issues at the bottom of the cake which I cover up with fondant pearls that I dusted with a edible gold luster dust. Originally the bow was also made out of fondant but it wouldn't keep its shape so I started over and made it out of gum paste. In hindsight I should have used a different plate because it looks rather hat like and with some forethought into my design I probably would have given it a trendier feel- in my attempt to go Vegas turned out a little Vintage-lesson learned.

Did you notice the Hand Painted "Mr. & Mrs. " champagne flutes? Yep that's just the kind of random stuff you can expect me to post here. I saw the flutes in a discount store and loved the crystal flute look that matched the knife and server set and the colored sphere at the top of the stem. I hand painted Mrs. or Mr. on each glass and a ring of "Love, Honor, Cherish, Obey" around the edge.

I hope to post a happy bride in a few days....wish me luck.

{ Thanks Lovie for all your support. It means the world to me :) }