Cake of the... well, it's been a few months, hasn't it?

       So, it turns out that maintaining a new business AND a regularly kept blog is a real challenge! I apologize for the lengthy delay since my last post. If you want more frequent updates, like us on Facebook and follow our instagram account, I'm on those all the time!
     So, let's do a recap of some of my favorite cakes that I've decorated recently. Now, it should be noted, that some of these are not my original design, so I don't claim real ownership to all them. However, they are almost always tinkered with, if they are not my original concept.
      Without further delay, here are some of my favorite new cakes!

     This pretty little cake was for a classmate of mine. She was celebrating her adorable baby's first birthday! The theme was "Alice in Wonderland" and I loved the idea of doing a cake that wasn't just your every day topsy turvy, mad hatter take. This cake was not an original design, but I did alter it from being a 5 tiered wedding cake, to being a little more suitable for a baby's 1st birthday. I was really happy with how it came out.

      The DJ cake was a cute little birthday cake I made for one of our shop's neighbor's. She was celebrating around Thanksgiving, so the cake was her favorite fall flavor, pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese icing. Sadly, in a sitcom-worthy twist, it turned out that one of her party guests accidentally SAT ON THE CAKE! That's why you always take a photo before it leaves the shop!




   
     These next cakes were made for our Valentine's Day store window. I had a lot of fun making pretty, love-inspired cakes. I adore the simplicity of the pennant cake and I think it could work for a lot of really cool weddings. The "Be Mine" cake allowed me to play around with painting and developing a deep, rich tone of red and gold on the bottom tier.
I even snuck in our initials into the window by "carving" into the birch bark of our rustic wedding cake. It features some of my favorite flowers, peonies and tulips.

    Believe it or not, this brightly colored cake was actually for a baby shower! The mom-to-be has a lot of love for Mexican art and textiles, so her sister selected them as inspiration for the cake. I LOVE the idea of a baby shower that isn't just pastels. I had a lot of fun piping all the details on this cool little cake. Side note: This cake was also ordered by a former classmate of mine. GFS PRIDE FOREVER!

   For my final cake, I wanted to show off one of my super-favorites. I made this cake at the request of a wonderful event planner who found me through the owner of the shop next to ours. She was putting together a big celebration and really wanted the look of multiple cakes and cupcakes for her dessert table. These cakes, including the ruffles, are iced with buttercream and decorated with hand painted gold cake lace.  I made a few purple peonies to garnish the cake and I LOVE how it all came out. I really hope everyone at the party enjoyed them. Just like I hope you have enjoyed this post. If you would like to talk about designing your own wedding or birthday cake, you can contact us through our website at www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com. Also, please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. I promise I am way better at keeping up with those!

Butterfly Baby Shower Cake - Our first cake of the week!

    I'd like to do a feature on this blog called "Cakes of the week" where we can showcase some of our favorite cakes that we have made in the past week. Since we aren't really open in our shop, I've been making cakes from friends and family on an unofficial basis. So, that means I haven't really been making a whole lot of cakes yet. This past week, however, I was lucky enough to work with a great client, a friend of a friend, who was planning her baby shower.
    She contacted me through our Facebook page, then we met to talk about flavors and design about a month prior to her event. She selected our red velvet cake with a cream cheese icing as the filling. She was looking for a pretty tiered cake to serve to a medium sized crowd, so we decided on a two tiered cake with white fondant on the outside. The fondant provides support and a little bit of insulation against our hot Philly summers rather than just buttercream or cream cheese icing alone, which could easily melt!

 

Baby C's butterfly cake

 The color scheme of her party was pinks and oranges and she wanted a butterfly theme for her cake. We decided on a white cake with pearlized fondant borders and a cascade of butterflies flying up the cake going from strong pinks and oranges to more pastel towards the top. The cake would also feature a cute little "baby" banner as well as the family's initial on top.
    I looked into getting some pre-made butterflies that I could alter to fit the cake, but in the end I wasn't happy with my options and decided I would be able to get a better variety of colors, size and styles if I made them by hand. (I admit, it's also a point of pride that I prefer to make my own decorations rather than use pre-made ones, so I was feeling a little weird about using the pre-made butterflies anyway). So, early on in the week I set to work on making the butterflies, some small flowers and the "C" to top the cake.

Allowing the Painted Butterflies to Dry

     I cut the butterflies from colored gumpaste with cutters and by hand to get a range of sizes. Then I wired some of them and allowed them to set up against some old apple pads to get a more 3-D quality. I let them dry for several days, then I dusted them with some different petal and luster dusts for a richer color and hand-painted the black and white details. The last step to the butterflies was using royal icing to pipe their little bodies so that they wouldn't just been a pair of wings! The "C" cake topper was molded by hand and the small cupped flowers were cut and rolled to have a slightly 3-D feel to them. Everything was left to dry until I was ready to decorate the cake.

A close-up showing the "C" topper,
the "baby" banner and butterflies

  I usually finish my cakes the day before they are due. Particularly if they have an early pick up the following morning. I just prefer to work with a little buffer time just in case they are any unexpected complications. So, on saturday morning I iced my two tiers with white fondant (it sits on top of a crumb coat of vanilla buttercream so that the fondant is perfectly smooth and the buttercream serves as the main flavor on the cake.) Then, I assembled my cake, added the borders and made my little banner to go directly against the top tier. Next, I started to apply my butterflies and small flowers by using vanilla buttercream as the glue. The final step was adding the "C" to the top of the cake and perching a tiny butterfly on top.

Butterfly Baby Shower Cake

   I was really happy with the way this cake came out. The hand painted butterflies definitely took a long time to decorate, but I think they were really worth it. I was a little nervous that with the heat and humidity of summer the gumpaste would start to flop in the refrigerator, but it held up strong! I hope the client enjoyed it and had a wonderful baby shower!
    If you are planning an event in the area and would like to get information about ordering a cake from me, get in touch through the "contact us" page on our website. Or, you can message us on Facebook. While we are not officially open and do not have a commercial kitchen at this time, I would be happy to give you some options available to friends. Also, for kindly bearing with us about this, we are offering a discount from our normal retail rates.