Icing Smiles Part Two!

In a previous post on the blog I spoke about the amazing organization called Icing Smiles. In a combined effort with bakers across the country, Icing Smiles provides birthday cakes for critically or terminally ill children and their siblings. Please read my first blog to understand why this organization is SO important to me. I had been called upon a few times to provide a cake, but I kept having conflicts with my schedule... until Mia. 

Mia was born on December 20 with a congenital heart condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and in short, the left side of her heart was severally underdeveloped. You can read more about Mia's journey on her mom's Facebook page. She's seriously a trooper and I couldn't wait to meet her. 

Mia was going to be celebrating her second birthday on December 7 and once I confirmed my availability I was put into contact with her mother, Christi. She informed me that Mia is in LOVE with the show Paw Patrol and the character Skye. Once again, I had never even heard about this show so I spent a few hours online researching to get an idea for her cake. In my research I discovered that Skye was a cockapoo and if you've read my very first blog entry you'd know that my sweet puppy dog, Sophie, is in fact a cockapoo! I immediately messaged Christi about Sophie and offered to bring her along when I delivered Mia's cake. Christi and Mia were 100% on board. I think that Christi and I were actually more excited about the whole thing than Mia... And Sophie for that matter. Sophie HATES wearing things. Coats, costumes, bows, you name it. She will literally stand there and look at you as if you just de-stuffed her favorite squeaky toy.

Skye wears this pink get-up so I had to make Sophie wear her pink coat for the delivery! 

Sooooooo getting back on subject!!! The design of the cake was actually pretty simple. There are six puppies on Paw Patrol, so I made each of their badges to go on a side of the cake. 

They were made from gumpaste that I then colored with edible markers. I also made Mia her own personalized badge that had a gold heart with her name in the center... and I forgot to take a picture of it. 

The front had the Paw Patrol logo and a bright, pink '2' for Mia's birthday. 

The top of the cake was a different story! I made Skye by carving/sculpting Rice Krispy treats, which is the most time consuming part for me when I'm making 3-D figurines. I'm really a perfectionist and if one part looks 'off' to me then 9 times out of 10 I'll squish up the figurine and start over!   

Once I had Skye's head and body made, I covered them in a layer of buttercream, smoothed them out, and then covered them in fondant. I then added all of the details including her goggles and aviation hat, backpack, tail, ears, eyes, arms and legs. I was so happy with how she turned out!

On the day of Mia's party, I got Sophie all dressed up in her jacket and we made our way down to the hotel where her family was having the event. I unfortunately couldn't bring Sophie into the hotel but Mia got to meet her in the entry way of the lobby and Sophie had kisses for everyone. Wouldn't be an issue if she didn't have such stinky, puppy breath! 

When I opened the cake box to show Mia her cake, she immediately started smiling. She recognized Skye in an instant and couldn't contain her excitement. I picked her up and showed her Skye and the different parts of the cake and we got a few pictures together. 

As I started to leave, my emotions got the very best of me and I started crying. Christi thanked me over and over again for the cake but I told her the honor was all mine, and it really truly was! Mia is such a little fighter and has been through more battles in her first 2 years that most people won't even face in their lifetime. I just kept thinking to myself how miserable I was when I was sick and then diagnosed with Lupus and how much I needed a distraction from all the doctor's visits, lab tests, and hospital stays. Mia's condition is SO much more critical than mine, so I could only imagine the break they all needed from the medical hustle and bustle they go through each day. I was honored to be part of the distraction that day and doing her birthday cake put so much into perspective for me. Life is so precious and so many people take it for granted. I often ask myself, "Are you doing enough? Are you making the world better by being in it? What else can you do to make a difference?" And it dawned on me as I was writing this blog that hopefully by sharing this story, it'll inspire others to have the same mindset. I wish that I could spend the rest of my life providing cakes for Icing Smiles, but unfortunately I do need to make some sort of income haha. But can you imagine how much better our society would be if each day, every single person did ONE thing to help someone else. Ask yourself if YOU are making a difference, and if not, what's stopping you? 

Thank you for reading! Always,

Sarah 

An Evil Minion took over my kitchen!!!!

So the last few weeks probably went down in the books as, "The Weeks of Unthinkable Hell." I've been tested in so many ways and really had to get my act together and my head back into my business. There was no better way to do that than with the Evil Minion cake! This cake was for one of my most loyal customers. She has three little boys and we have so much fun coming up with each of their birthday cakes.

For anyone that is unfamiliar, a Minion is a character from the movie, "Despicable Me," and the Evil Minion joined in the sequel. Below is a picture of a normal minion on the left and evil minion on the right. Game on!

I started the cake by stacking two 8" cakes. I probably doweled the bottom cake more than necessary...umm better safe than sorry? The top cake needed to be rounded to help give the illusion that the Minion's hair was sticking straight up. I applied the buttercream and smoothed it out with my handy-dandy scraper. Where can you find one of these little guys, you ask? Home Depot, my friends! The cake had to then be refrigerated for a couple hours to chill the buttercream.

Next up, I mixed the fondant to match the purple of the Minion. I used AmeriColor Violet and Regal Purple, and honestly it's just trial and error with color matching. P.S. that's the reference picture that I used throughout the process to make sure my colors,  dimensions, and placement were all correct. 

Making the eye was actually a lot easier than I expected. I made the white background from gumpaste and then marbled the purple with a darker shade of purple for the center. Then I added the pupil and a small white accent for a little jazz. Next, I did the little eyeball compartment...is there a technical term for this jammer? Hmmm.. either way I used silver luster dust spray that's made by Duff Goldman (aka the Ace of Cake's dude) to make the compartment look metallic. I really love Duff's product line which you can find at Michael's and Walmart. 

 At this point I started to slack on taking pictures, mainly because I like to work quickly through the Final Scrape/Roll Out Fondant/Cover Cake in Fondant/Trim Fondant stage. I consider all of that one, big stage! It's essential to move quickly through these steps to avoid the buttercream from softening and the fondant from cracking.

Above, you'll see the steps where I added his teeth, lip, and the base of his overalls. My go-to adhesive for decorations on fondant cakes is chocolate. I try to use a color that is similar to the fondant covering the cake, so I ended up using Wilton's Lavender Chocolate Melts. The bond is almost instantaneous which is huge since I don't have the patience to stand there and hold decorations against a cake while the royal icing or piping gel dries. 

Then I attached his arms and hands! His arms actually face backwards and he only has three fingers. I used the purple fondant for the arms and black fondant for his hands.  I finished the smaller details of his overalls, adding "stitches" along the borders, buttons, pants, and his feet. Every part of his lower body was made from the black fondant. 

I used the chocolate to adhere his eye, then added the band and hinges for the eyeball compartment. I used piping gel to get the band to stick around his head. I'll use piping gel when the decoration is lightweight and doesn't have to support any other decorations. 

The very last element of the cake was adding his crazy hair! I used very stiff royal icing and used a star tip to pipe the icing all over his head. I had to work in sections and layers in order to get the height I wanted. I would pipe a layer, let it dry for about 15 minutes, and then add the next sections. I seriously just kept piping until I ran out of icing haha and I was pretty satisfied with the final product. 

This cake was SO much fun to make and it really did knock me out of my funk! Hope it brought a smile to your face, as well! Thanks for reading and for all of the support! 

Always, 

Sarah