Rustic Peacock Wedding Cake

One of the brides, Lindsay asked us to make her a wedding cake. She informed us her ceremony and reception venue will be outdoor, surrounding with live peacocks. We brainstormed ideas of what her cake will look like and came up with the following: a three-tier, cream cheese frosting with vertical textured stripes, two little peacocks (we found a pair from Michael's) on top tier, and a couple of peacock feathers.

Lindsay's fiance, Marilena, doesn't like buttercream frosting and requested a cream cheese frosting that could withstand the Oregon heat. Originally, we weren't keen with the idea of cream cheese frosting for an outdoor summer wedding. But apparently, we are having a late summer here in Oregon, which reassured us that the cream cheese will not melt under heat. We had to come up with cake flavors that would go along with cream cheese: hazelnut, devil food, and of course, red velvet.

We simply thought of adding natural hazelnut flavor into a white cake recipe, however, the search for hazelnut flavor was a struggle, so we came up with a back-up recipe: hazelnut liquor! Several of the top hazelnut cake recipes recommended Frangelico Hazelnut liqueur. But who wants to spend more than $20 for a bottle when everyone is just going to eat cake, not drink booze? Dekuyper liqueur hazelnut was the most affordable one we could find in our local liquor shop. Should we sizzle this recipe up? Absolutely!

In our trial run of making the hazelnut cake, we added ground fresh baked hazelnut (thumbs up to the Winco bulk section!) and the result... DELICIOUS! Sadly, Linds remembered a couple of her guests had nuts allergy, so we ended up not using this recipe. Hazelnut liquor alone gave a weak taste. We still needed something that would bring out the hazelnut flavor, without using real hazelnuts. While shopping for cake supplies, we spotted Lorann hazelnut oil. Thank you, thank you!!! It highlighted the true nutty flavor of grounded hazelnut, without the nut risk.

At the end of the day, the most important thing to us is that the guests, especially the brides, liked the cake.

The reception was filled with a lot of sugar goodies: Voodoo donuts and Cookies from Portland Cookie Co:

Congratulations Lindsay and Marilena!

Fourth of July Sparkle & Cupcakes

Congrats Angela and Matt (i.e. Mr. and Mrs. Bryant)! We wish you the best of luck in your new life together. Thank you for letting us be a part of your special day.

1st Birthday Cake - Out of the Doghouse!

What did little Sylvie accomplished lately? She turned 1! The proud mom of this girl asked for a custom made birthday cake that incorporates her favorite animal - dogs. We made her a 12-inch vanilla cake with strawberry frosting, covered with green marshmallow fondant to mimic the color of grass. We topped the cake with a dog house (after attempting to make the house out of cake itself, which failed, we opted for rice krispie treats), four variety of dogs (we weren't sure what kind of dogs they are, but they sure were cute!), and some accessories.

Sylvie got a piece of cake for herself to munch in her mouth. Happy 1st birthday girl!

Later in the day, the mom said, "The CAKE is AMAZING!! We love it so much!!" Thanks Amy!

Dan and Michelle's Wedding Cake

The gorgeous bride, Michelle, asked us to make a vegan wedding cake and cupcakes to celebrate her and Dan's special day. It was our first vegan request. We searched for a few recipes for both chocolate and vanilla cakes and frostings, modified the recipes to taste and ran multiple kitchen tests to finally get the best combination. We were a tad skeptical on how vegan baking would work, but to our pleasant surprise, everything came out perfectly! Of course, the wedding consultation would not be complete without a complimentary cake tasting for the bride and the groom...and a few of our co-workers (we had to taste them, too)! Alas, we settled on the recipes that we will forever keep in our secret baking book.

This was also the largest order we've had to date. Besides hours of baking and hours of decorating, we also spent hours on building a cupcake stand out of scratch! We were able to find different size pre-cut round wood pieces at a local cake decorating shop and bought a long board of MDF from Home Depot, which we cut into pieces.

(This is Amelia cutting with a kiddo saw attached to a stabilization board. She sure knows how to use a power saw!)

When all the cutting and drilling was complete, we painted all pieces white with Sherwin-Williams Duration Home Interior Acrylic Latex environmentally-preferred paint (It's GreenSure designation - low VOC and low odor formula).

We pre-made all the edible decorations that matched their wedding colors (black, white, green, and purple) and themes (calla lilies, orchids, roses, and lucky bamboo) a week in advance and had them completed by the morning of the wedding. Are we procrastinators? No, we both hold full-time job, so please forgive us :-)

On Thursday evening, we baked a 8-inch cake for the topper. The next day, we baked 100 cupcakes and covered the cake with fondant. Then we loaded all the delicious cakes/cupcakes and all he supplies we needed to complete the centerpiece at the venue in a car and drove to Albany, Ore. for a night. On a bright and early Saturday morning, we drove to The Inn at Diamond Woods in Monroe, Ore. for the Bowden's wedding ceremony and reception.

When we arrived there, we anticipated working in a kitchen or least a large countertop space to make the fresh frosting for the cupcakes. The event coordinators directed us to a small corner in the reception area where the cake would actually be set on a display table. There wasn't a lot of working space, so Amelia took a chair from the reception space outside to place her vibrant red Kitchen Aid stand mixer to make all the frosting (a bit of flour, powdered sugar and cocoa all spilled onto the floor to eventually get cleaned), while Clarissa struggled to assemble the cake stand (the holes on boards didn't align properly - blame Amelia's bad drilling skills!)

We glued all the ribbon bows onto the cupcake liners, placed a decoration on each of them and arranged them on the stand. The centerpiece turned out perfectly, despite our race against the clock (3.5 hours! It was completed 20 minutes before the wedding ceremony started). We felt like we were on Food Network's Cupcake Wars, sans the camera and judges.

Amelia is such a sweet-tooth person. Naturally, she isn't a huge fan of specialty desserts, but she was proven wrong in this case! The couple said earlier, nobody would notice the difference, it was indeed true! We were able to trick their guests into thinking these were regular cupcakes, the carb-loaded ones, and for us, that was a great sense of relief and success!

Thank you Dan and Michelle for having us to be a part of your wedding! We were absolutely honored to make an important centerpiece for your special day.

Bubblebee Car

Our aunt asked us to make a small cake for her son's upcoming birthday. We know he has a passion for cars, so a car cake was perfect for him!

Later in the evening, we got a call from our cousin thanking us for making him an amazing cake. But further into our conversation, he informed us that the today wasn't his birthday! Oh, should we or the mother be embarrassed? Nah! It is never wrong to celebrate a birthday early (or late) as long as there's cake involved!

90th Birthday Cake

Two months ago, our friend Carmin decided she would call Amelia about an upcoming cake for her grandma's big 90th birthday (this is the same gal that was so floored by our pink baby shower theme cake that she had to be a repeat customer!) A week ago, she finally called and asked for a 6-inch white cake with lemon frosting. It had to have grandma-like decorations (a.k.a. plenty of flowers). The flowers were made out of gum paste. We used putty to make a silicone mold of lace, then impressed a piece of fondant into the mold. As the deadline quickly approached, we didn't have time to mold sugar pearls, so instead we added a chain of plastic pearls around the base of the cake to give it a finished look. We added a final touch of lavender shimmer dust to give it a beautiful glow...just like Grandma!

Sports Theme Baby Shower

The soon-to-be mom, Michelle, requested a sports theme baby shower cake. These were 6, 8, and 10 inches round butter yellow cakes, each filled with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry buttercream frosting. We dubbed it out "Neopolean" flavored cake (just like the ice cream, only better!).

We pre-made all the sports memorabilia with a combination of fondant and gum paste a week in advance to ensure that all the decorations were dry and hardened in time for the shower. We tried to replicate the actual sports items by including as many details as possible, but obviously not to scale (as you can see, the baseball and basketball are the same size:-o). The baseball cap was shaped with rice krispies and then covered with fondant.

We wanted to incorprate a feeling of the "baby theme" into this cake. The quilt pattern on the top and bottom cakes was molded by a diamond impression mat from Earlene's Cakes. To further the baby related decorations, we added white and brown strips on the middle tier. For whatever reason, the entire ensemble of colors reminds Clarissa of a warm, cuddly bear!

The hardest part was to transport the cake to the actual shower destination. They got slightly beaten up in a ride to the shower because of some unavoidable pot holes, sharp turns and wobbly carriers. We were able to repair some of the damaged surface before they were assembled with separator plates and plastic dowel rods (actually, they were fat bubble tea straws) for support.

Here is the finished product in all its glory!

The baby shower was quite fulfilling with a lot of fun and food. Amelia won the belly size contest, too! The hosts and soon-to-be parents were very satisfied with the outcome of the cake. Even the soon-to-be father Chris stated he played all the sports that were found on the cake! Afterward, they froze all of the decorations in their refrigerator so that someday baby Ryder would be able to see them.

*Michelle and Chris welcomed a healthy baby boy (Ryder) on July 2 by C-section at 8:30 in the morning! The tot has his dad's dark hair and his mom's brown eyes...all encased in a cuddly 6 pounds, 5 ounce package with long legs (great for the future athlete that we know he'll be). Congratulations guys!

Trail Blazers Lego Cake

Richy, the birthday boy requested a Lego and Portland Trail Blazers theme cake. Together. In one cake. Seriously.

There were many first-time lessons in making this cake. First, we shaped the cake into Lego blocks (actually, this was the easiest thing we had to do). We baked two 8" x 4" cakes, topped with a 6" x 6" chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and then covered with fondant. We used a round cutter to shape the Lego toppers.

Second, we airbrushed white, red and black food coloring for each block. We figured airbrushing would save us a lot of time (do you know what it is like to dye red and black fondant?) We haven't tried to airbrush before and were unaware that if you airbrush too much, the color drips and an unavoidable mess ensues. Patience is essential - airbrush a layer at a time and allow it to "dry" to build up layers until you get the color you desire. If you want to airbrush, we recommend doing the work outside or cover the work area with a lot of newspaper (so it won't dye your kitchen counter red and black).

Third, mold the Lego man with gum paste. We haven't work with gum paste for over a year. We molded each body part, let them dry and then assembled them with toothpicks. In retrospect, we should have bought a Lego figurine and shape it proprotionally to the actual Lego man! But, when we assembled the parts, the gum paste cracked. What a disaster! Oh, but it doesn't end right here. As soon as we repaired and assembled all parts together, the Lego man wouldn't stay upright. Our original plan was to place the man on top of the cake, but because the hunchback and crooked neck man wasn't able to support himself, we had to place him on the board, leaning against the two bottom cakes.

As we were preparing to stack the cakes, Amelia realized she forgot to drill two holes on the top cake board for dowels to go through from each of bottom cakes. We grabbed a couple of plastic straws from our local coffee shop and inserted them on the bottom cakes for support and spread frosting to glue the top cake to the bottom cakes.

Delivering the Lego cake wasn't easy either. There were many turns and bumps on the way to the drop site, so we were relieved when the cake was still in one piece. Lastly, we left Richy's mom with detailed instructions (don't feed the kids the hidden straws, please grip the platform with two hands, etc., etc.) and wished the birthday boy a wonderful day!

Although this was one of the most time consuming cakes we've ever made, almost to the point of throwing the whole thing out through a window, our determined attitudes (and perfectionist mindsets) ultimately guided us to make it work even though it meant many late nights. We hope the birthday boy enjoyed the cake, and that this is something he will always remember. Happy birthday, Richy.

*Update* The birthday boy's mom brought Richy to work one day and told him that Clarissa (and Amelia) made his birthday cake. His replied, "No, Albertsons made the cake!" Aw, kids:-)

Bird Theme Baby Shower

A good friend, Carmin, hosted a baby shower and asked if we could make chocolate cupcakes for her long-time friend who is expecting her first child, a girl, this summer. Carmin didn't provide a specific color, theme, or ideas for the cupcakes. Bascially she said, "You are so talented, I trust what you can come up with." And then she added, "I was wondering if you know how to make cupcakes that are gluten free?" Thank you Carmin for making our brains work harder!


Mom-to-be Amy was registered at Target and that was how we found out the baby's nursery room theme: birds. We googled for bird theme cupcakes on Cake Central. The website is the best place to look if you need ideas for your cake. It is also a community center for cake decorating and non-cake decorating folks. We share advice, ideas and recipes. Now, isn't that sweet?

Speaking of the cupcakes, these were chocolate and gluten-free chocolate. Thank you Betty Crocker for one of the most simplest methods (all in a box) to make gluten-free goodies. Actually, the cake mix we bought was to make a yellow cake. We adjusted it by adding dutch cocoa into the mixture. We handmade the cupcake wrappers by using reversible polka dot gift wrap from Target. All you need is to print a cupcake wrap pattern and use scallopped craft scissor to cut the top edge and then attach both sides with double-sided tape.

We used our Cricut (Have you seen Cricut Cake? It is specifically made for cake decorating = awesome!) to get a bird and twig pattern. All birds and twigs were hand-cut with fondant by us!

Some of us prefer vanilla cake, we couldn't resist to include a small cake on the top. This was a vanilla cake with strawberry filling. The colors are perfect for a baby girl.

A display of the cake and cupcakes at the shower.

There was quite the spread of good food. All of us ladies had a great time eating, playing fun and silly games and socializing. Amy (and baby Sylvie) were undoubtedly showered with lots of love from all of us!

Pink & Green Polka Dots Cake

Someday, when you only have a day to bake, frost, assemble, and decorate a cake, a box of cake mix can be very convenient. Our favorite is Betty Crocker. We have tried every possible flavor: white, yellow, butter yellow, milk chocolate, chocolate fudge, triple chocolate fudge, devil's food, lemon, and recently we had party rainbow chips for our birthday girl, Emily.



One cake mix box can make double-layered 4" and 6" cakes.


(Yes, that is our Retro oven in the background.)


This is the first cake post in about a year... well, to be exact, 9 months. We were on cake hiatus for so long that we forgot how cakes can be time consuming. Actually, we made fondant, dyed the fondant and cut the fondant 3 days in advance. We baked the cake, made white chocolate frosting, assembled, and decorated on the day before it was to be delivered. Unbeknownst to us, the remaining fondant was only enough to cover the 6" cake. So, what should we do with the 4" cake? It was an hour before midnight. Problem slightly solved - smooth crusted frosting on side and top with wax paper and add as many decorations as possible. This is far from a perfect cake, however, we are pleased with the outcome. Lesson learned: plan ahead!


The finished product:

No, she was turning 27, but we decided to celebrate an inside joke and relive our younger years!

As you can see from this blog, we make many more sweets that are NOT cakes. We are expanding our desserts and as a result, you will see a new name in this blog. Thank you for visiting Cake Devine. We will bring more excitement in the upcoming year!

Mother's Day Surprise: No-Bake Cake

So moms everywhere deserve a day off and that day is tomorrow! So celebrate your mom, grandmother, sister, wife or aunt with a no-bake answer to a great dessert.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
	1-pound cake mix
	1 box of instant pudding (light, if desired)
	1 cup whipped topping (light, if desired)
	Fresh Fruit (bananas, canteloupe, peaches, strawberries and the works)
	Chocolate syrup or candy melts

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Slice the pound cake into three horizontal slices about an inch thick.

2. Prepare the pudding according to package directions. Mix the pudding with the whipped topping.

3. Chop up the fresh fruit.
4. Layer the cake, fruit, and a little less than 1/3 of the pudding mixture in a loaf pan. Add a layer of cake, repeat with the fillings and add the third layer of cake.

5. Put the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours. When it's chilled, decorate it.
6. Squeeze on a greeting with chilled hot fudge or chocolate candy melts. Serve mom a sweet treat on her special day!

Traditional Cakes

Theme Cakes