I don’t think there is much to say about this project since it’s the same ad from last time. If you want to learn more about this ad, you can access my old post here.

GIVEAWAY

I “soooo” love cake stands (I’m a hoarder)! Every time I see one, I must get it or I will die wishing. Collecting them can be so addicting! Several of my favorite cake stands are made by a company called Mosser Glass. Their milk glass cake stands are quite heavy, super solid and extremely durable. I’ll be giving away a brand new 9 inch milk glass cake stand to one of my readers!

I purchased mine at Cambria Cove (just closed) but you can also check them out at the My Sweet and Saucy Shop.

HOW TO ENTER

Just simply answer my question by leaving a comment:

I love cake stands and tableware. What type of things do you love? 

You can also enter a second time by clicking the “like” button on the Art and Appetite Facebook page. If you have already done that, it still counts. Leave another comment here (on this blog post) letting me know you’ve liked our Facebook page for an additional entry.

One winner will be picked through Random.org
Contest ends on Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 11:59 pm PST
Open to international readers
Your number may change due to deletion of spam comments and addition of pending comments

Congratulations #239 Debbie Nguyen! I will contact you shortly.

For updates, you can subscribe HERE, follow me on Twitter or join me on Facebook. Good luck!

Okay, so I’ll keep this post as short as possible so we can proceed with the giveaway. You can scroll down at the end of this post if you really can’t wait. GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. Check below for winners.

Here are some of my recent works:

Cake Central Magazine October-November Issue

This black and white cake was featured in the Now & Then article on Cake Central Magazine. I was asked to recreate Rod and Kathy’s vintage wedding cake and make something a little more updated. The vintage cake had the traditional pillars that were very common during that time. Since I wanted to challenge myself, I decided to incorporate that element in my design. But instead of using the actual pillars, I asked my dad to build me a cake stand that would mimic the architectural details of the columns. I think he did a fabulous job! What do you think?

Honestly, this was actually my very first square cake. At first, I could not get the edges look as sharp as what I envisioned. After many attempts, I had to settle down with the paneling method (think of laying tiles). Once the panels were attached, I spackled the seams with royal icing. It was so time consuming that I would never do square cakes again!

As you can see, the birds have finally evolved its wings and ready to fly away from my mind. Maybe those eggs will hatch one day and once again appear on one of my cakes. The bands and ribbons were made of  gumpaste while the monogram was painstakingly hand-cut by hand. Now, does anyone want to send me a Cricut Cake Machine?

I was also asked by Cake Central Magazine to create an Asian inspired cake for their issue. I wanted to think outside the box (too much, maybe?) and stray away from the bamboos and cherry blossoms. So, I came up with this design using handmade, silicone molds of Chinese coins and ornate carvings. Again, I used a paper puncher over gumpaste to make the scalloped trellis border and then used a fluorescent light cover to leave the quilted impression on the bands. I wished the camera captured the actual shade of yellow but unfortunately, it didn’t. The magazine got it close with editing, though.

Last but not the least, the book finally came out! Two of my cakes were featured in the book 1000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies and Cakes by Sandra Salamony and Gina M. Brown. The cake pictured above is one of the two cakes that were printed. It was such a pleasure working with the authors! I’ll be giving away two copies of this book to two lucky winners! Take a look below for details.

GIVEAWAY

To enter, just simply answer my question by leaving a comment below:

What do you enjoy making the most? Cupcakes, cookies or cakes?

Two winners will be picked through Random.org
Contest ends on Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 11:59 pm PST
Open to international readers
Your number may change due to deletion of spam comments and addition of pending comments

Congratulations #126 Elena and #18 SheBakesCakes! I will contact both of you shortly.

For updates, you can subscribe HERE, follow me on Twitter or join me on Facebook. Good luck!

I’ll keep this post short and simple. All you have to do is guess how many pieces of chocolate chips are on the photo above. You can enter by leaving a comment on this post and/or leaving a comment on the Facebook page (look for the official “status” post). I will pick TWO winners; one from this blog and another one from the Art and Appetite Facebook page. You may only enter twice; once on this blog and once on Facebook. Yes, you may ask anyone from your household to enter. Prizes are not redeemable for cash. You must have a valid email address to enter (so I can contact you).

The winner on this blog will recieve four books:
Wedding Cake Art and Design by Toba Garrett
Sugar Orchids for Cakes by Alan Dunn, Tony Warren and Tombi Peck
Sugar Roses for Cakes by Tombi Peck, Alan Dunn and Tony Warren
Satin Ice Sugar Craft by Mercedes Strachwsky

The winner on Facebook will recieve two books:
Wedding Cake Art and Design by Toba Garrett
Satin Ice Sugar Craft by Mercedes Strachwsky (autographed copy) 

Contest ends on Friday, October 22, 2010 at 11:59 PST. CONTEST IS OVER. WINNERS  ARE ANNOUNCED BELOW.

What a close match! Thank you everyone for participating! The chips are triple checked by two people for accuracy. The total number of chocolate chips is:

968

Congratulations to the winners! Blog winner Lily #227, guessed the correct number of 968 chocolate chips while the Facebook winner, Valentine Chandra was the closest at 969 chocolate chips.

For updates on future giveaways, you can subscribe HERE, follow me on Twitter or join me on Facebook. Good luck!

A few months ago, I worked with Jackie Shaffer of Cake Central Magazine to create a cake for their August issue. The magazine has monthly trends, where they feature different cakes of the same theme. This time, they wanted something Chandelier inspired. Here is what I came up with.

I went with something simple yet clean. Simple isn’t always easy because there is very little room for mistakes. A huge chunk of my time was actually spent on getting the fondant smooth and clean. I barely cover a cake at night because there is very little light to spot the flaws. The sun is definitely my best friend when it comes to cakes. The black accents in the other hand were done using molds found here. I then enhanced them by brushing a couple layers of confectioners glaze.

This cake was featured in the summer section of the magazine. It was actually my first topsy turvy cake and also my first experience with giant roses. Thanks to my good friend, Jacqueline Butler for her guidance. Comparing my roses to hers, I wish I could have done a better job. She is a flower empress!

Oh, and I used this mold to create the floating effect on the bottom tier, while the other elements were done using  custom molds.

For this next cake, I worked with Victoria Smith and Suzanne Shade for the Minted Ad they were working on. This beautiful ad is featured in Town and Country Weddings Magazine Fall/Winter. Also, check out the Minted website for beautiful invitations.

Victoria wanted a cake similar to my signature “birds and buds” cake. With very little time on creating this cake, I was glad I kept the extra buds I made from my last project. This is one actually turned out to be my favorite version. Check out Victoria’s beautiful blog to see the behind the scenes.

You know, I really missed blogging. To celebrate my come back, I will be posting a book giveaway next week! So stay tuned!

For updates on this giveaway, you can subscribe HERE,  follow me on Twitter or join me on Facebook. Thanks!

This cake is inspired by my other competition cake that didn’t make the trip back home (it broke into pieces). I wanted to make a cake that looks fresh and soft. This is the reason why I chose this particular shade of blue (it looks a bit teal-ish in person). 

I achieved the floating effect on the bottom tier by elevating it on a small seperator. Those curled pieces were made out of gumpaste using a modified hydrangea leaf cutter. I made the fleur de lis using a custom mold and then made the flower buttons (altered) using a purchased jewel mold. I’m telling you, mold making is addicting! 

The topper is actually a foam egg covered in the same pieces as the ones from the bottom tier. If you want the whole thing edible, you can make a giant chocolate egg. One of my favorite part about this cake are the feathers. I hand cut it from gumpaste and then attached them on the sides (I really love the flow). Finally, I then used a  frill cutter to give the board a finished look.

I’m pretty much satisfied with the cake. It’s something I a bit more different than what I usually do.

Happy birthday Minnie, Tita Jovy and Tita Airline!

Fact of the day:

Iron Chef Cat Cora (my favorite) was pregnant the same time as her partner. The boys were born 3 months apart.

I had to travel this cake stacked for 5 hours. Yes, it was nerve-wracking and super cold (we had to turn the AC on high the whole trip) and raining. I also brought my dog, 6 gigantic boxes, plus a week worth of luggage. Not to mention, we were driving a 98 Honda Civic–yes, we had to take the passenger’s seat off. I can already imagine the 18 hour drive to the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show…oh my.

Anyways, I incorporated my signature buds and birds (again) on this cake. Don’t be surprised, the magazine cake also had a similar look. Hehe, I’ll make sure my next cake won’t have any of those. The standing trellis were made by rolling a rectangular piece of gumpaste and punching out squares using a square cutter. I let it dry on a curve (I used a dummy) and then filed the edges. The lace appliques were molds I got from Jennifer Dontz while the stripes were done with a ribbon cutter from Sharon Zambito. One of the most time consuming part was covering the cake in fondant. It literally took me 12 hours to cover and recover all the tiers. I was being so meticulous that I made sure every square inch was smooth.

This year, there were celebrity judges from the Food Network Challenges, TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off, WE TV’s Amazing Wedding cakes and other Master Sugar Artists. I was pleased with their comments on my cake, saying that it was flawless and clean.

In the end, it was all worth it. I am still surprised I won! I can’t believe it!

To see some of the cakes from the competition, check out Casey Wither’s amazing shots.

Tip of the day:

Don’t have a scrub pad to clean your dirty pans? Use scrunched up foil instead.

I’m not sure what to call this cake. Country Elegance? Organic Sophistication? Hmmm, how about Woodsy Wonderland? Would Modern Rustic work? Ahhhh, whatever it is, I am definitely inlove.

It’s actually our Thanksgiving cake–odd right? I really wanted to do something different rather than using the traditional fall leaves and shades of orange. Since I always think outside of the box, I made this cake. It may look like a wedding cake, but it truly fits our Thanksgiving theme.

Of course, everything is edible, from the flower buds to the tiny eggs. As always, I used Jennifer Dontz’s chocolate fondant. The buds, birds and eggs are made of gumpaste. I didn’t want to make the birds and eggs look too realistic because I wanted to give it that contemporary-modern vibe. The lace appliques are fondant rolled onto an impression mat and individually cut out with an exacto knife and some cutters. I molded the fleur-de-lis from a mold I had made . The branches and the nest are wires covered in floral tape…okay, so I lied, not everything is edible.  

Overall, I am very happy with this cake. It speaks my taste and my personal style.

Tip of the day: If you want to make your cake denser, just add a box of pudding mix. It works great on orignal recipes and box mixes. The more you add, the denser it is.

If you are new to Art and Appetite, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed for updates. You can also click the subscribe buttons on the upper left corner if you prefer.

Many people ask me how I get sharp edges on my fondant cakes. Other than sharing my smoothing techniques, I also tell them that I use ganache under fondant (check tutorial below). Although you can perfectly achieve sharp edges using buttercream under fondant, I find that it is easier to use ganache to achieve that perfect sharp look. Note: The picture of the cake above has nothing to do with ganache. I just felt like putting it there–but all my cakes in my gallery has ganache under fondant.

Ingredients:

Heavy whipping cream

Semi sweet or dark chocolate

Nope, I did not forget the measurements. It depends on how much you will need. You should always follow the 2:1 ratio of chocolate to heavy whipping cream when making this type of ganache. That means, if you use 2 pounds of chocolate, you will have to use 1 pound of  cream. So, if you have 5 pounds of chocolate, you will use 2 1/2 pounds of cream–you get the drill. It is important to only measure by weight. If you are planning on using white or milk chocolate, you will HAVE to follow a 3:1 ratio of chocolate to cream. Milk and white chocolate tends to be softer.

Directions:

Let your cream simmer below medium heat for a minute or so. When that is done, turn the heat off and throw in the chocolate.  Let it sit for a minute (to soften the chocolate). When ready, stir and keep mixing until incorporated and smooth. You should not have any chunks of chocolate. You may have tiny bubbles but that is okay. Check below for the microwave version.

Your ganache at this point will be runny and thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would  usually set in the fridge for about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

I would like to thank my friend, Michelle Rea of Inspired by Michelle Cake Designs for making the video tutorials below. I do it exactly as she does it, except for the microwave part (which I think is so clever). Oh, and check out here lovely blog: Michelle’s blog

How to make ganache using a microwave:

How to cover cake with ganache:

How to finish a cake:

As of the cake, here it is.

Nope, no one is getting married this fall–it is actually my mom’s birthday cake. My mom is such a very special person. She was there for me through thick and thin (literally), she is very supportive and her efforts are outstanding. To reward her, I made this cake.

I was inspired by Ron Ben Israel with this cake. Of course, I gave my own little twist, but thanks a to Ron, he is such an inspiration. The flowers are all handmade from sugar except for the four petal flower of which I bought. The flowers are extremely time consuming, it took me at least 12 hours to make all of them. For the fondant, I used my ultimate favorite, Jennifer Dontz’s and also used Dark Chocolate Satin Ice and Fondx. I used an impression mat to imprint the design on the lace and individually cut it out by hand. The pendant is molded out of sugar and the white accents are painted with luster dust to give it a nice sheen.

Happy Birthday Mama!

 
Thanks to Marian of Sweetopia for my blog ideas.

This week, I came up with a black and white cake for a very good friend of mine, Katie. She is not a fan of the color black but I had to do it because I have been anticipating a particular design for a very long time. It was a risk but it was totally worth it. She loved it so much, she almost cried.

As you can see, the cake is three tiers. The bottom tier is actually a styrofoam dummy while the rest are chocolate cakes with layers of fudge and cappucino filling. I used Jennifer Dontz’s semi homemade fondant, tinted black, and the rest is Fondx and Satin Ice. I would have made the sugar flowers but since I didn’t have enough time, I had to use pre made ones. The whole cake is basically edible, from the drapes to the stripes. The flowers are made of sugar, but since it has wires, it shouldn’t be eaten.

At the end of the day, I’m glad that she loved the cake as much as I did.