Friday, January 7, 2011

Flower Pot Cakes

I have done at least five flower pot cake designs in my not quite long cake life (10 months and going). It seems that flower pot cake has been a favorite. Here's how my flower pot cake evolved.
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This is my very first flower pot cake  I made for my mother-in-law on Mother's Day. If my mother were closeby (she lives thousands of miles away), I would have made  a cake for her too.

This is a five (5) layers chocolate cake filed with chocolate cream cheese icing. crumbcoated with buttercream and covered in fondant. The three dozen roses were made of fondant. I used popsicle sticks to make the stems which were the only non-edible part of the cake. 

A lot of learning experiences on this cake. I put way too many roses and not enough support. The cake will not support the flowers  - duh!!! LOL! I took this photo right after I assembled this cake. I left it on the table and worked on another cake. After an hour this cake was still standing except that the gap between each flower started to widen. I pulled all the flowers and placed them in a vase and arranged the flowers again when we got to my in laws.  It was indeed a struggle getting this cake to the destinaton which is about 3 hours travel by car and ferry - the cake made it there in one piece, thankfully!

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Sue, a co-worker, saw my previous flower pot cake and ordered this cake for her Mother-in-law's 60th birthday. This is a 5 layer chocolate cake, filled with chocolate cream cheese and crumbcoated/iced with buttercream.

The pot (the cake) is covered with fondant and I used the Wilton Terracota color gel.  The flowers and leaves were made of fondant as well. I really did not have any problem making this cake, the whole process went smoothly, the stress level was low. I think because I really prepared well. I bought styrofoam and dowels to support the flowers. I left this cake overnight on the table and the next morning it was still perfectly assembled, no movement! Yay!!! 

Love this cake!

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Karen, another co-worker asked me to make a cake for her sister's 30th birthday.  Her sister's name is Susan, so she asked me to make black-eyed susan for the flowers instead of roses. This is her sister's favorite flower as well.

It should have been a breeze making this cake since I have done it before. You think? I had terrible experience on this cake. Firstly, I ran out of terracota color gel and then when I started putting the dowels the cake  just crumbled.

So I made another set of cakes, waited to cool, filled, crumbcoated and placed it in the fridge. While waiting I tried to calm my nerves - did the yoga humming (breath in, breath out). Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit...but seriously my stress level was really high. Because it's already 12 midnight and I have to start all over again? Anyway, all's well that ends well...despite the disastrous start, I was very satisfied at the result of this cake.  This is now one of my favorite cakes.  Love the color of the pot, which is really white fondant brushed with bronze luster dust.

I also made the gardening tools out of gumpaste beforehand, except I accidentally dropped the fork and broke (see photo). Oh well, my co-worker still loved it plus really the garden tools are just additional accents I made.

Thanks for the visit everyone.



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