Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Austin Cake Show results are in.

Well, the annual Austin cake show "That takes the cake" is officially behind me once again. It's always my busiest time of year as I spend months planning and then weeks creating my cakes for the show. This year my wedding cake didn't place, but I'm alright with that. It was stiff competition and I moved up to the Adult Intermediate category this year. However, my 'buttercream only' cake got first place again this year. That was fun.

Here are some pictures:
Here I am with the two cakes I entered this year.
Purple ribbon for 1st place.
The buttercream cake can only be decorated with buttercream icing. So everything on this cake is piped on. I used frozen transfers again this year which enables to me to get a lot of detail. There are 8 frozen transfers as well as piped mini roses.
This cake was entitles "Once Upon a Time".

Next, my wedding cake:
My wedding cake was entitled "Resplendent in Rose".
It took 41 hours to decorate.
It is definitely the most complicated cake I've ever decorated. The topper is a Victorian inspired hat with white and pale pink roses, a gold fabric flower with a pearl button center, and a feather on top. The entire thing is made of fondant except for the sugar pearls in the center of the fabric flower. I've been working on getting my rose petals very thin, and I'm super happy with them this year.
The first (top) tier is covered in the darkest pink fondant and then decorated with royal icing, two different colors, piped in a lacy pattern around the entire tier and then adorned with pale pink and ivory sugar pearls that were placed one by one with a pair of tweezers.
On the second tier I attempted to make the fondant look like fluffy fabric and between each segment are jewels made from fondant and lots of luster dust.
Following that, the middle tier is covered again with lots of lacy patterns and then cinched like a corset with a white patterned ribbon.
The forth layer has a ruffle pattern that I piped on with buttercream frosting, and then the last layer is a hexagon tier covered with over a hundred individual heart shaped pieces of pure white fondant that are shaped and ruffled to create a fabric skirt appearance along with more pink jewels.

I call it my dress cake. I wanted to give the impression of a dress without actually making it look like a dress. I still wanted it to look like cake. It didn't place at the show, but I rather like it. What do you think?

If you would like to see more pictures you can view all the pictures that my friend took for me at her website here: C's Photos of my cakes.

And if you would like to see all the winners at the cake show you can view them at this site: http://thattakesthecake.org/

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Also, I have been getting quite a few emails from friends wondering how I made that cake while having my 8 month old around and so I would like to thank Elin so very much for watching Nathaniel for many hours over the three week period that I spent decorating, including the 11 hours I put in the last two days before the show when she not only watched my son but encouraged me to finish my buttercream cake which I was planning on giving up on because I was too tired and Nathaniel had been sick and not sleeping at night and everything was crazy. So, thanks very much Elin!

And thanks to my husband who also put in lots of man hours each evening and weekend to help me out. Thanks honey! We don't have to worry about the cake show for another whole year...and by then we'll have a toddler. :)

8 comments:

It's Not a Tuba said...

That's pretty fabulous, if you ask me. We've been watching Cake Boss lately, and you're right up there with that kind of fancy stuff. (Have you seen the one where the manic-depressed girl tells him she hates it and then pipes colors all over the beautiful white cake when he leaves the room? Wow.)

It's fun to have a friend with amazing skills like you have.

Michelle said...

Seriously amazing Cassandra! That wedding cake blows my mind. I can't believe how many different techniques you combined onto that one massive cake! Wow!!!! It's a shame no one can use it for their real wedding!!! You are incredibly talented!!! Ummm also, I can't believe you did that WITH a baby around. You are super woman!

Lastly, it was fun to see a picture of Nathaniel at the top. I've been wondering how you guys are doing. Miss you! :)

Michelle said...

Also, I'm really curious how you carried that cake in the car without it getting squashed! I bet that was a scary drive!

Jared, Miranda and Max said...

Soooo I'm no expert but I do watch a lot of cake shows on the Food Network, and I think that wedding cake is the ACE of cakes :) Love ya!

Janelle said...

Just lovely - well done!

kimmalee said...

Wow Cassandra! Those are absolutely beautiful cakes! Well done and congrats!

kim e said...

Your cake is SO so beautiful!! It just reminds me of a southern spring wedding! You are such a grand artist and your baby is adorable. He reminds me so much of you and Jonathan when you were little.

Bridgette said...

What amazing work you do!!! Seriously wow!!!