Gator Boys

Seems like the majority of cakes that I do are geared more toward the girls than the boys – you know, like polka dots, bows, and colorful zebra prints.

Not this cake. It’s lean and mean and dirty and green.

In a good way.

Meet the Gator Boys.

I hand-sculpted these lovely lizards using a combination of fondant and rice cereal treats.

Take it from me.  There are a lot of little scales on those gators’ backs. It took me about one hour to complete each alligator.

Once I had the gators looking the way I wanted them, I finished them up with the airbrush.

Obviously, the alligators were the focus of this cake, but I added a few swampy details to give the cake some more character.

No swamp scene would be complete without a snake…

…and a turtle.

This was an 11x15 single layer cake that served approximately 30.  The cake was iced with buttercream, and the details were hand-sculpted from homemade fondant.  Except for the stems of the cattails, the entire cake is completely edible.

Lindsey

Cake Canvas

 

Q:  What do you get when you cross a cake with an oil painting?

A:  This…

Recently a friend asked me to make a 40th birthday cake for her husband.  He has black Angus cattle, and she asked if I could incorporate them into his cake somehow.  The challenge for me was to design a cake that didn’t look too cute.  I wanted it to be a masculine cake.

Then I had the idea of doing a hand-painted landscape directly on a cake.

I had the Tool Man stop by and take a few pictures of the cows and the barn to be sure I got everything just right.

This was my favorite cow! I think it looks pretty neat.

As a child I took oil painting lessons and enjoyed painting for many years.  However, I probably haven’t painted any pictures in the last 5 years, so it was quite nice to sit down again with a palette and some brushes and let the creative juices flow.

The entire cake was covered with homemade marshmallow fondant, and I painted the scene with icing color thinned with almond extract.  It took about two and a half hours for me to complete the painting.

The cattle cake was made of 4”, 6”, and 8” tiers.  The top two tiers were white cake with buttercream filling, and bottom tier was red velvet with cream cheese filling. This cake served approximately 35.

Lindsey

Pink and Browning Cake

What good country girl wouldn’t love this next cake?

A Browning camouflage cake done in pink and brown.

Simple and sweet, this cake was a 10” round two-layer, filled and iced with buttercream.  The deer and camouflage were cut from fondant.  The cake served approximately 25.

Lindsey

Forty and Fishing

This weekend I did a fun cake for an over-the-hill fisherman.  His wife contacted me weeks ago wanting to get a special cake to surprise her husband on his big day.  I think the birthday boy really enjoyed his cake.  What’s even better is that, completely by accident, he was dressed to match his likeness on the cake.  Too funny!

 

This cake was 8” round and served approximately 20 people.  The cake was iced and filled with buttercream, and the decorations were hand sculpted from fondant.  The tiny fisherman is seated on a rice cereal treat tree stump covered with chocolate fondant.  The only part of the cake that is not edible is the fishing pole and line.

Lindsey

Wood Duck Cake

Last weekend I had the opportunity to decorate another hand-painted cake.  This year for his birthday, Spencer requested a wood duck drake similar in style to this bass cake I did for him a few years ago.

To make this cake I carved the silhouette of the duck into the top layer of the cake to give it a little dimension.  Then I covered the duck with fondant, and using icing color thinned with vanilla, I painted the details onto the duck.  Not too difficult a task for me considering my background in oil painting, but still this was a very time consuming cake.

Other details I added to the cake include these cattails made from fondant and royal icing…

The grass and borders piped with buttercream frosting…

And these adorable fondant shotgun shells.

I think the shells just make the cake.  So simple to create.  If you can roll a play-do snake, you can make these.

This cake was 9X13 and served approximately 40.

Lindsey