Navy Damask Bridal Cakes

I was so excited when I was asked to do Abbie’s wedding cake! She was an absolute dream to work with. She basically let me do what I wanted to which is always the most fun for me! Her colors were navy blue and apple green. In the beginning, she thought she wanted a lot of piping with ribbon around the base, but it evolved into using the most wonderful stenciled damask cake I’ve had the opportunity of creating! I know I said the other one was my favorite, but that was before this even came close to entering my mind!

I combined square, hexagon, and round tiers to put together the shape of this beauty. The sides are stenciled with navy blue royal icing on top of a buttercream iced cake. I used the Elegant Cakes cartridge with my Cricut Cake to make the monogram from navy blue gumpaste. I’d finished the cake the night before the wedding but when I woke up the next morning, I decided to add the swirly piping to the top of each tier. I really think this took the cake from pretty to a little over the top – in a super good way! I hope you enjoy viewing the pictures!

I was also honored to make one of her bridal shower cakes. Again, I was just given the colors and was told to do whatever I wanted! I decided I wanted to use my Cricut Cake for this project. This is similar to the prior Cricut Cake post, but with a few differences, of course. I think if you look at my first attempt and this one, you can see I’ve come a long way. I used navy gumpaste for the damask design & then apple green buttercream for the solid side. I added what seems like my signature scrollwork to the sides because it just needed something to make it pop! The flower is also made of gumpaste.

First Big Cricut Cake Project

As soon as I heard about the Cricut Cake machine last January, I knew I HAD to have one! They didn't go on sale until May though, so I waited, impatiently waited, for this wonder machine to become available...I stayed up until midnight the night before the Home Shopping Network offered them and bought it as quick as I could!
I tried it the day I got it and took it out of the box...unfortunately, it was a little trickier than expected. I tried fondant paisleys for a little birthday cake box...they worked a little, but not nearly as wonderfully as I'd hoped. I wasn't ready to give up yet though. I blamed it on the thickness of my fondant...surely that was the problem.
Next project - my nephew's awesome 13th birthday soccer cake! Surely I could make awesome things this time. Maybe I just need to use the icing sheets that came with the machine? Yeah - those didn't work so well AT ALL! But I was in a hurry and didn't really have as much time as I wanted to make it spectacular. So, I still didn't give up!
Over the next few months I "played" with it here and there - a name on a groom's cake, some butterflies on something else, even tried another soccer cake. I got more comfortable with it, but still not so comfortable that I could count on it. At the beginning of January, I was bound and determined to get the thing to work for me! I studied online blogs about what worked best for others and tried their suggestions. I had a cake opportunity that would be beautiful if I could make it happen. Would it work when I really needed it?
First try - mix tylose with fondant (store-bought black - duff's brand), roll it out and freeze for 1 hour. This cut beautifully, however, I couldn't get the pieces off without destroying them. Never fear, I have another "practice night" before I have to resort to a very cramped hand from all the piping I'd have to do if I couldn't get it to work.
Next attempt - mix black fondant, gumpaste, and some extra tylose and black gel coloring. Rolled it out very thin. Heavily loaded the mat with crisco (well more than I had in the past). I added the rolled out fondant to the mat and hit cut!!! I watched as it cut each piece close to perfection....but is it going to come off the mat? OMG it worked! I have all these pieces still intact! It worked it really worked!
After several more cuts for the decorations, I was ready to decorate the cake. I was pretty happy with the results :-) Can't wait for my next opportunity to use it!

My favorite favorite wedding cake ever!

Or at least so far! My friend sent me a picture of this cake and said it was perfect for her daughter. I was a little concerned since i'd never used the icing strips before, but they turned out to be wonderful! They look like a million bucks and were so easy to work with! woohoo!