Panda Cake

A coworker of mine ordered this panda birthday cake for her friend "Panda". An orange baseball hat and a baseball were added when I learned that he is a baseball coach and a San Francisco Giants fan. The panda is the emphasis on this cake so it was great to acknowledge baseball without it being too sporty. The cake board is orange and black to represent the SF Giants colors.

The panda is made entirely of gumpaste. I honestly wanted to have the panda standing rather than sitting but my lack of experience made it impossible. I tried to use rice krispy treats for the body but it still somehow flattened the panda's legs. And yes, even with reinforcements! The bamboo sticks were difficult than I thought to make. I had to figure out how to make them stick on the cake without breaking. After numerous failed attempts, inserting a 30 gauge wire inside the bamboo sticks solved the problem!

It is so frustrating making gumpaste figures. But practice makes perfect and I will continue learning until I master it. 

Hydrangea Dress Cake

I love hydrangeas! They are just so beautiful and these gumpaste hydrangeas are so simple to make. I had a different cake design in mind but decided to go with this design in the last minute. And I'm glad I did! It turned out to be one of the best cakes I've ever made.

The cake is covered with ivory fondant and airbrushed with a pearlized sheen. The top tier is piped with royal icing and the buttons are made of fondant which is lightly dusted with Super Pearl luster dust. The bottom tier has purple, lavender and ivory gumpaste hydrangeas. I applied luster dust on each individual flower to give the color more depth and finished the look with Super Pearl luster dust again.

I learned how to make the hydrangeas from the very talented Jacqueline Butler from Petalsweet Cakes. Here is the link to her tutorial and I hope you try them soon. 

http://petalsweet.blogspot.com/2010/01/hydrangea-tutorial-part-one-by.html