Changing the cake...

So, I talked it over with B last night, and I think we're changing the cake style. I love that we can do this, and we only have to consult each other.

While the plumeria are pretty, B was worried that the white on white icing wouldn't show up well. Plus, with the exception of the yellow on the inside of the flowers, they don't really pull out our colors very well. Plus, the BRIGHT green leaf next to the white on white was really popping... good, but in a distracting way too.

So I think we're going to paint (food coloring) the flowers one of our bright colors (orange or red) and then have their centers be the opposite color (orange or red). So, we'll end up with orange flowers with red centers or red flowers with orange centers. We'll put a few yellow stamens in a few flowers just to tie it all together, or we'll have yellow ribbon dividing the layers. It will be a BRIGHT cake, but it will match us a LOT better. We'll still have some green leaves, but they won't pop quite so much because they will be under loads of flowers. And, we will still have the vanilla beans, but they will be sprinkled throughout, and in nest-like piles on the bottom and in a next on the top for the birdie cake-toppers.

We're going to play around with it this weekend, but I like the idea. Oh, and our flowers will be similar, but all different. I got some new flower molds so it won't just be plumeria-shaped flowers. We'll have big and small and in-between. I love it. I think B does too, because he seemed very excited. He was the one who brought some of the problems to my attention, and I appreciate that SO much. It's a joint effort, right? He told me what he liked and disliked, we realized I felt the same about some of them, and we worked together.

Photos will be posted when I have them!

Cake flowers and leaves

I am very excited this morning.
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Last night, instead of getting up to organizing (I put it off because I took the bus to work on Thursday, thus 80% of the boxes are at my office), I folded 1 basket of red petals for lanterns AND... drumroll... made my first batch of cake flowers!

It should be noted that my darn camera (we're hopefully getting a new one soon) flash totally heightened the yellow and made it look very bright. That said, I will be diluting the yellow in the future with water so it sort of melts into the white, rather than you being able to see brush strokes.

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Here's what the live ones look like:

I've never used fondant before, and that's what they're made out of. I have a silicon mold (the flower) and a plastic mold (the leaf). I've been reading up on working with fondant and molds, and I finally felt ready last night. QUITE FUN!

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The plastic mold was more difficult to use than the silicon mold. I eventually had to spray then wipe it to get the fondant to mold in and then be able to come back out. The silicon was much easier.

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Fondant is great because after it comes out of the mold, you can easily tweak it about, take off petals, make a petal flipped, roll a leaf, etc etc. And, for the most part, it stays in the position you tweak it to (unless gravity is really NOT on its side).

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Changes in future rounds... I think I will add a pointed backing to the flower (the real ones do anyway-- see below to see stems), which will give me more of a base to put a toothpick in. I think I will dry the flowers therefore on a cookie rack, that way I can stick the toothpicks in and have them danglign below and the petals of the flowers won't get mussed up. I think I will paint the flowers and leaves after they dry, but I have to experiment to ensure that the fondant will still take the paint after it is dried (for paint, by the way, I'm using food coloring... no wackiness in real paints, don't worry).

With all these changes, I think I will have a final product that is ready-to-go onto the cake and won't need tweaking. I will be able to not fret about it! The toothpicks on the flowers (and I think I'm goign to put a toothpick on the bottom of each leaf-- at one end) will ensure that I can work them into a vertical surface. I will have icing, but if it's warm, the icing won't always hold much weight on a vertical surface. Icing + toothpick will work. And honestly, if it doesn't, at this point there's not much else I'm willing to prepare for to make this work. It either does or doesn't, and if I can't use vertical surfaces, then, well, we won't! It will still look pretty.

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The green was still drying, so I couldn't take pictures, but I laid a few vanilla beans next to the leaves and flowers and moved them closer together. Oh my gosh! So pretty. The vanilla beans just hit the plumeria spot-on. They really look like branches!!! I mean, of course they aren't, but still. And oh gosh, they smell SOOO good. Right now I have the plate in my cabinet with two vanilla beans and the flowers, and whenever I open the cabinet door, this fresh vanilla sent comes out. Ahhhh....

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99 days left.