Scribble Roses

A few months ago I saw a good guide on Arty McGoo's blog on how to paint scribble roses onto royal icing coated cookies. I decided I had to try it and did so with pen and paper (well actually with a finger on a drawing app on my iPad).

Anniversary Cake, con't

Various views of the finished product

Okay I lied before, I'm not just leaving you with one photo! Here's another montage:

The cake at various stages of not-done-ness

Anniversary Cake

As I mentioned, my mom and I volunteered to make my a cake for our cousin's 40th anniversary. We decided on an impressive, 4-tiered confection. You can see the baking process, as well as a generalized timeline for making a large scale cake here. In addition to that guide for making a wedding cake, I'd like to share some thoughts specific to making this cake:

The cake that inspired me

Sugar Dahlias

A finished dahlia.

Sugar paste dahlias, as it turns out are made with daisy cutters of varying size. They aren't terribly hard, but then again they are quite tedious. You have to work quickly but still carefully and relatively precisely when you are frilling the petals. You have to brush each layer with petal dust before you put them together and then touch up the whole thing at the end (unlike roses which are typically dusted at the end only). But they aren't as difficult as roses, since the petals are all attached to each other and you just have to put on layers of them.

In the process of making the outer petal layers.
Notice the parchment between the petals to hold them
in position as they dry.

How to Make a Wedding Cake

As I mentioned, I'm making a wedding-style cake for my cousin's anniversary party. Making a large, tiered, fondant-enrobed cake takes time and planning; the key to a successful large-scale project is making a schedule. At culinary school, we had to make schedules that accounted for every minute of class time. At home I don't get so granular, but I still need a general, but still relatively comprehensive schedule.  I personally prefer to devote large chunks of time to working on the cake with days off when needed, rather than working on it for small amounts every day. I also like using buttercream when it's freshly made (when I can, at least). Given those preferences, here's the schedule I worked out:

My final sketch

Sugarpaste Practice

My cousins are celebrating their 40th anniversary quite soon and my mom and I volunteered to make the cake. We want it to be really special so I'm practicing making gumpaste/sugarpaste flowers (I haven't made any since my wedding cake and final exam showpiece at school so I definitely needed practice). Right now the plan is a 4 tier white fondant covered cake with brown accents. We want a few, large, hot pink flowers for a pop of color, so my plan is to try a bunch of different flowers and decide on one type to make.

I made a ranunculus (pictured at the top of the post). It's rather like making a rose, but you don't have to frill/curl the edges so it's a bit easier. Of course you also have to put on a ton more petals so it's much more tedious. I really happy with it, especially for my first try. Unfortunately they are a little small for the cake because we want a few larger flowers not clumps of smaller ones.