The Philadelphia Zoo hosted a cake decorating contest as part of their Wild at Heart Valentine’s weekend celebration. The only stipulations were that we needed to decorate for 4 hours on site at the zoo. Anyone who decorates cakes knows that 4 hours can go by in a blink of an eye. (It would be a struggle to bake and decorate a simple birthday cake in that time frame.) Immediately, we began brainstorming ideas for a design. We felt that a monogamous animal choice would work best for a Valentine’s Day themed cake, so we started our research there. We wanted our design to be realistic and we wanted it to cause people to question whether or not the cake was really made out of cake. Parrots ended up being our top choice on our list because we felt that they would be the most complicated animal to make. The Zoo also has three hyacinth macaws, so we felt this was a great animal to focus on.

Here’s a progress picture of the cake. The body of the zoo keeper and the birds were all carved and given a basic fondant/chocolate covering. (Yes, we used all cake for this design. There are no rice cereal treats and the only styrofoam used was for the head of the zoo keeper.)

Here’s a picture of Liz working on the feathers. The parrots were given a base covering and then individual feathers of varying sizes were made and applied to the base. This took a long time… but who’s counting when your having fun!

Here’s a picture of Mindy and Liz during the competition at the Zoo!

 Ta-da!! 30 something hours later!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little over a week before Jackie’s 30th surprise birthday party, Jim (Jackie’s boyfriend and AKA- “Boyfriend of the Year”) contacted us about making a cake.  Jim was in need of something special for his leading lady.  He wanted a cake to reflect both Jackie’s alma mater (Notre Dame University) and a luau theme.  Immediately, Liz (my wonderful sister and fellow cake decorator) and I began working on sketches.  As soon as my sister heard the words luau, she immediately thought of the painting “The Wave” by Hokusai.  Here’s the famous painting:

 Here are the sketches….. We were rooting for design #2.    

 

And the winner was….. Design #2! As soon as we finished cheering, we immediately got to work.  Many of the details in this design needed a lot of drying time.  Here is the beginning of the sunset background-

 This piece needed to be completely dry before being hand-painted.  It took two days to dry.  We made two of them…. just in case.  

Guess who?

Every luau themed party needs hibiscus flowers!

 Oops… naked cake!

Almost done….

Ta da! 

To all the gentlemen out there- diamonds are over-rated!  Try something new and consider getting the love of your life a custom cake!

Dawn’s co-workers wanted to surprise her with a cake to help with celebrating her 50th birthday.  The idea for a “finger” cake won unanimously!  (I would love to know what goes on in her office!)  In addition to getting the finger, she was also presented with traditional birthday cake.

I get inspiration for my cakes in many different ways…