Purse Cake

Yesterday was my first attempt at the increasingly popular trend of "purse" cakes.  The birthday girl wanted a pink and purple color scheme with lots of cosmetics!  I made the make-up from modeling chocolate (both white and dark), sugarpaste, sugar glass (I sculpted it to look like nail polish and a lip gloss tube), and fondant.  I wasn't too happy that stamping the child's name on the fondant made it ripple, but hopefully she didn't care!

The cake was marble, three layers, filled with cream cheese, and iced with vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream, per request.

Let Them Eat Cake!

Cakes 

• Orange
• Butter Yellow
• Genoise
• Key Lime
• Chocolate
• Dark Chocolate
• White
• Almond
• Italian Cream (pecans)
• Coconut
• Banana
• Strawberry-Lemon
• Carrot
• German Chocolate
• Red Velvet
• Applesauce Spice
• Marble
• Irish Cream

Fillings

 

• Lemon Curd
• Lime Curd
• Raspberry
• Blackberry
• Mascarpone-Espresso
• Dark Chocolate Ganache
• White Chocolate Ganache
• Cream Cheese
• Sticky Coconut-Pecan

 Icing

 

I use (homemade) Italian Meringue Buttercream as my primary icing.  I can then flavor it as follows:

• Almond
• Vanilla
• Strawberry
• Blackberry
• Chocolate
• Peanut Butter
• Lemon
• Key Lime
• Coconut
• Orange
• Oreo Cookies-n-cream

or American Buttercream:

• Mint
• Cream Cheese
• High Humidity Vanilla or Almond
• Orange
• Chocolate Ganache
• White Chocolate Ganache
• No-Dairy White (marshmallow-like icing)

Decorations

 

My fondant is made fresh from marshmallows and is delicious!

• Vanilla
• Almond
• Lemon
• Orange
• Raspberry

 

or

Dark Chocolate (modeling chocolate)

Milk Chocolate (modeling chocolate)

White Chocolate (modeling chocolate)

Royal Icing

Vanilla

Almond

Bittersweet Chocolate

Sugarpaste

 

 

Other

 

 Pies

• Pecan
• Coconut Cream
• Key Lime
• Lemon Meringue
• Chocolate
• In Season Fruit

 

Dessert Bars

• Key Lime
• Lemon
• Raspberry
• Magic (coconut, pecans, chocolate, and butterscotch)
• Pecan

 

Brownies

 

Cookies

• Lemon
• Sugar
• Peanut butter
• Chocolate chip
• Oatmeal raisin walnut
• Macaroons
• Walnut-date sandwiches
• Pecan shortbread crescents

 

Candies

• Chocolate-covered strawberries
• Chocolate-covered cherry cordials
• New Orleans pecan pralines
• Fudge
• Divinity
• Lollipops

 

Is that a toilet? Why, yes! A toilet!

Seven and a half years ago, the week of my wedding, to be exact, I found  myself staring down the cranium board at my intended.  He and I were facing off against his sister and mother and the game was nearly over.  I pulled the putty card and had to mold a toilet.  I did.  A very respectable (blue, I think?) and realistic toilet in under a minute.  I joked, "If only I could get paid doing this.  I mean, come on, how useless is this skill?"  Well, turns out, if you love to bake and decorate cakes, it's pretty useful after all.  Don't remember who won that game, though...