Opening up another session of the FNCC! Everyone is welcome to come share their week, share photos of their work, ask for help or provide help if they can!

Cat

Hi everyone!

Well, I thought I was going to have a cake to share this week since we had dinner out at a friends the other night and I was supposed to bring dessert...then I cut my hand open. UGH. My husband says there are easier way of getting out of the dishes than hurting my hands! LOL!  So no photos from me tonight.

As for last week. I do want to apologize for flaking. We had a full house of people and while that usually doesn't stop me from checking in and getting things going (because my family loves seeing your photos as much as I do!) but I just got all involved and simply forgot! 

So share the last two weeks with me and let us all catch up on your work!

Cat

My first post for FNCC! been following every week :) - So sorry to read about your hand :( I hope you recover soon

I'm quite a newbie at cake decorating, and I've learned so much from all of you; I've taken a few classes where I live, but truth be told, it's practice what really teaches you. 

Whenever I'm decorating, I get the most anxious when covering the cake with fondant. That moment is a make it or break it for me, I don't know why I get so nervous :P I still get some superficial cracks on the shoulders, even when I knead in some vegetable shortening before rolling, how can you avoid that? 

Here are my links from the past weeks, remarkably busy for me :P I work full time at a boring office, and cake fun is on my spare time.

http://cakecentral.com/g/i/3203435/monkeying-around/u/904262/flat/1/ 

http://cakecentral.com/g/i/3208251/a/3464363/garden-puppy/

http://cakecentral.com/g/i/3208256/a/3464364/corona-beer-cap/

TFL!

Cin :D

Cin, you really do have a knack there so do NOT give up learning! As for your fondant, do you make your own? What I do is "under" sugar it when I'm making it and then add more powdered sugar the next day when I take it out and kneed it for rolling. This helps it not be so dry. I also roll it out on shortening rather than powdered sugar. This helps too. 

I love all of your cakes but my husband walked through the room when the Corona cake came up and gave it a BIG thumbs up! I, personally, LOVE your bananas with your Monkey! SO cute!

As for my hands. Oh my gosh. It's been a bad 5 months for my hands. Mid October I slammed my hand in the front door and broke my middle finger up past the 2nd joint and have nerve damage in my last three fingers of my right hand. The dr. says that we won't know how much is permanent for 6 more months but he's beginning to think I will have some sort of issues no matter what. And now, on the left hand, I manage to cut myself! Fortunately not bad enough for stitches but badly enough that I have to wear gloves to cook and can't pipe without pain with either hand. Fortunately I'm ambidextrous so I can use both hands to make one good one...except for piping! I have two fun cakes coming up (mostly fondant) and then 3 serious cakes, each with two weeks between them, starting mid April. 

I totally get what you mean about fondant. I've been working in it almost weekly for 5 years now and I'm still a nervous wreck until I get it onto the cake! The thing is that I've never had any real issues covering a cake but it's like I'm waiting for my number to come up and disaster to befall me. So I totally get your nervousness!

Thank you so much for posting and for sharing your gorgeous cakes!

Cat

AOh no!! The first class I took was very intensive on the piping, so for many saturdays all we did was piping with Royal Icing. Two of our old teachers had gone through arm surgery, due to muscle an nerve damage from piping. Just like many hair stylists do too, from the cutting motion with the hands. I really hope the pain goes away eventually girl! Thanks for the comments :D and yes I make my own fondant, I will follow that advice on the undersugaring, makes sense :D ty

Two cakes I did yesterday. Top one, for a Baby Shower, inspired by Splendor Cakes.Vanilla with Strawberry filling and Vanilla buttercream. The bottom one is for a birthday.The mini cupcakes are for the same baby shower, to match the cake.

ACat! What are you doing?! You need to insure your hands.... They are drama prone! Bless you, hope they get better and are accident free for a long time, surely that's enough pain for you? Had an interesting one this week - a half and half cake (all chocolate inside but half/half decor). It was for a father and son, one liked Caribbean holidays and the other skiing holidays. The niece/granddaughter is gluten intolerant so can't have any of it, so I made Olaf especially for her, without my usual spaghetti support. It's hard when there's no front and back to the cake so there are a few pictures to take. This was also my second attempt at ruffles/waves. First time I failed miserably, but after lots of research and coming up with a technique to make it easier, this one turned out miles better. Really pleased actually! Here it is from various angles. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3208383/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3208384/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3208385/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3208386/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

So I made this for my daughter's 3rd birthday. I used modeling chocolate for everything except the star and the rope and band around the hat. Those are gum paste. There are certainly things I would do differently next time but for a first try I was pretty pleased. What do you guys think? -Tracy

AAwesome work on the hat! I need to start working with modelling chocolate...

AThanks! The hard part of working with modeling chocolate for me is that smells so good I want to eat it all! -Tracy

Anaelisabethlee, I love that cake - such a clever concept!

Here's my latest - a dolphin cake for my daughter's birthday:

I had seen a cake in the gallery with the ruffles, and also a picture of the cake from the Craftsy modelling chocolate class, and thought I'd do something like that.  My initial plan had been to make modelling chocolate corals and ruffles of sand on the bottom tier, but changed my mind half-way through when my daughter insisted she wanted the dolphins on the side.  That's why the bottom tier's fondant isn't very smooth - I'd intended to be able to cover it up with corals and seaweed.

I was also trying for an ombre effect with the ruffles and fondant, but it didn't really work out very well.  I also ran out of modelling choc so the ruffles on the bottom are smaller than they should be.  But she was a very happy girl, and that's all that matters :-)

AI love your dolphin cake, Lizzie!

Rosie, your cakes are just lovely! Perfect for a Baby Shower! So delicately colored..love that.

Ana...I know, I know...my husband is beginning to think I'm doing this on purpose. Both injuries happened when I was arguing with my 12 year old son so I think I'm catching onto the pattern here, right? LOL!

I just love your shack...beach on one side and snow on the other! Just an awesome way of doing that! And your Olaf is adorable! I'd want to keep him! 

Texas...question for you? How long does it take for modeling chocolate to set up for something like a hat and how does it stand up to heat? I really love your "cow" cake...that is just SO cute! I think you did a very good job on it.

Lizzie! I'm a beach baby so you know I adore your cake! My favorite color too! LOL! I totally understand about the whole "I was going to cover it up" for the bottom tier thing. I purposefully look for the most imperfect side of the cake to use as the front if I know I'm covering it up. Happy Birthday to your little girl!

Thank you all for sharing! It's always great to come in here on Saturday mornings and see what everyone has put up!

Cat

ACat, Thanks so much for comments. As far as the modeling chocolate with the hat, I let it dry about 3 days before messing with again. I followed the tutorial on Rosebakes.com but used modeling chocolate instead of fondant. The modeling chocolate responds to heat pretty quickly. For example, even after several days of drying when I moved the hat off to cut the cake I left a little thumb print on top bc of the heat from my hand. But that can be a good thing too in terms of smoothing.

I was wondering the same about the ruffles on the dolphin cake. Lizzie, how did you create the ruffles on your cake in terms of drying time and them not drooping?

Wonderful cakes everyone! I love Friday nights!!!

Texas, I just rolled out the circles, and by the time I'd cut it out and ruffled the edges the modelling choc was firm.  It set like that straight away and I didn't need to support it at all - no drooping.  But I'm in Scotland so it's not very warm.

Made an engagement cake this weekend!