The Scooby Doo Cake - Part 4: The finished work!

"ZOINKS, like Happy B-Day SHAGGY!"

The finished product! The ultimate MYSTERY MACHINE birthday cake for a 23 year old SCOOBY-DOO fan! And get this... the birthday boy's name is SHAGGY too! This was my first cake made as a free agent, working from home and for myself! It took some serious prep but now my kitchen is set up and it was an excellent first challenge. Now I know what I can offer and make from home! I was very happy with how it turned out. What was really important to me was that I wanted to avoid the typical issues you see with car cakes... it was very handy having my boyfriend Tim help with the planning of the project. Since he is an engineer, he designed and built the chassis and he also helped get the scaling and sizing correct! Important details when trying to make the best replica cake you can, FROM CAKE and SUGAR!!! ;)

Building the Scooby Doo Cake - Part 3: Decorations

I pre-made some of the decorations like the Scooby-Doo and Shaggy figurines and the Mystery Machine van logo a day or 2 in advanced from fondant.

Building the Scooby Doo Cake - Part 2: The CAKE

Baked sheets of chocolate cake are now cut, stacked with layers of chocolate ganache, cooled, then carved and covered with a thin layer of vanilla butter cream over it. The cake is cooled for about 1 hour and then trimmed and then covered with blue and green fondant.

Building the Scooby Doo Cake - Part 1: The Chassis

My boyfriend Tim is an engineer... and I called on his expertise to build/rig up the chassis for the Mystery Machine! I really wanted the van to look like a van and not a lot of other car cakes and or Mystery Machine cakes I had seen online. It had to be authentic! the chassis is made from foam board, duct tape, wooden dowels and pvc pipe.

Tim Burton Commercial!

Commercial featuring Tim Burton inspired cakes made by Sweet Things and Zoe Gottehrer. Tim Burton Promi for Chello/UPC by Champagne Valentine.

http://vimeo.com/12106639

MACAROONS and OLIVE OIL CAKE (YUMMY!)

My first attempts at making French Chocolate Macaroons... They were really good, but a bit meringue like (flakey outside with a chewy inside) and less on the french Macaroony side... i used a recipe from Martha Stewart's website actually. I think because i live in quite a damp and wet climate i think i'll have to reconsider the rations of almond flour... making them a bit more cakey cookie like. They were filled with chocolate ganache.

The OLIVE OIL CAKE on the other hand was a success! DELICIOUS... not as heavy or as oily as i had thought... i added lemon zest instead of orange zest... i think this would be a wonderful desert for people who aren't the typical desert or sweet lovers... i'd serve it with a rosemary home made ice cream or a lemon rosemary drizzle syrup or lavender syrup.... to close that gap between sweet and savory.

but it's an excellent breakfast cake and or tea cake as well.

OLIVE OIL CAKE from CHOW.com

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10760-olive-oil-cake

JW and Marjolein Emmes Wedding Cake

Wedding cake made for friends of friends ;) JW and Marjolein Emmes.

He is really into beetles and has a ground beetle (japanese stag) like this one tattooed on his inner forearm. and she loves cats and they both appreciate the asian aesthetic...

so we came up with this design together. I really like the color of the cake... it's was from their wedding invite! The 3D beckoning cat on top is also made of cake.

TIM BURTON INSPIRED CAKES!

SO, this week was dedicated to making dummy cakes for a TV commercial. We were sent designs from a agency and asked to make these Tim Burton inspired cakes for a movie promo spot... LOOK WHAT WE DID WITH THE IDEAS/DESIGNS they sent! about 20-25 hours of work... but AWESOME! these are the types of challenges that i love! They were all dummies... except for the back of Beetlejuice's head... that was real cake! Apparently in the commercial the RED QUEEN will cut a piece of his head and eat it! YUMMY!

oh yeah... and cake decorators ARE the new ROCK STARS!

CATERPILLAR ROLL!!!

Caterpillar sushi ROLL! YUMMMMY! Eel wrapped in soft rice and melt in your mouth avocado!

http://www.wasabichi.com/

Wasabi

located in NYACK, NY

ICE CREAM CAKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy_WqicWcHg

the greatest commercial ever! seriously!

and more versions...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIwqQwztx0E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTGVNaeo4Ow&annotation_id=annotation_604438&feature=iv

ORIGINAL PAINTING BY ALICE DU BOIS

Whilst I was away in the US of A a package arrived... a wonderful ORIGINAL acrylic on canvas painting "Bleu Deers" by Alice Du Bois! INSPIRING!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistalice/

YET ANOTHER PICTURE of my new cupcake stand

glamour shot of my cupcake stand, one that's magazine worthy!

:)

TEA CUP cupcake cake stands!

okay, so i've started a new hobby, i am collecting old mismatched plates, tea cups, egg cups and saucers and gluing them together to make decorative kitsch cup cake stands. i'm always seeing things and saying, "i could make that...", well this time i did... i shamelessly stole the idea after seeing some fab ones at a stores called RESTORED on the Haarlemmerdijk in Amsterdam.

http://www.restored.nl/

somehow now feeling better about giving them a shout out... AND if i couldn't make it my self and or could afford their prices, i would buy the WHOLE store!

SATURDAY IJ HALEN MARKET BOOTY!

MY market booty! every month at the NDSM old shipping wharf area in Amsterdam there is a BIG indoor/outdoor Flea Market! I scored big this month and wanted to share! All this goodness and all for around 50 Euros!

GIBSON GUITAR CAKE MAKING 101

BELOW is the finished product... all in all about 5 -6 hours of work... I could have spent 20!!!

I love making 2D and 3D cakes and really working out all the tiny details. This one is one of my greatest show pieces and cake i am really proud of! See the process backwards by scrolling down..

This is after airbrushing... with orange, red, dark red and brown... to give it that little bit of a sun burst guitar effect, also that sheen from the vodka and a touch of pearl-izing sheen spray :)

and here is the neck and head stock...

for the neck i rolled out, swirling and mixed together 2 shades of brown marzipan for a little bit of that wood effect. the neck and head stock are cake, but with out fillings, it's really only for decoration and not really for eating, but one could...

Here are all the bits and bobs... tuners, pick ups, knobs and what now, I made these about 3 days before finishing deco on the cake... it helped me with my timing, also so I wouldn't have to do everything in one day, therefore taking my whole day up. I spent about an hour cutting these, molding them and brushing them with silver powder and they were dry and easy to handle when I did my final deco.

and here is the cake after I covered it with red fondant. I used fondant because it takes to airbrushing much better than marzipan.

GUBSON GUITAR CAKE MAKING 101

And here is begins... after I built the cake, by cutting out the guitar body shape from sheets of vanilla sponge and filling the layer between them with whipped cream, raspberries and jam... I then set the whole thing in in the freezer wrapped in plastic to firm up and then crumb-coated it with the a strong layer of butter cream.

on mondays, i usually spend the day procrastinating going to the gym and trolling the internet researching for cakes that i have to make this week and or cake ideas for future cakes that i might make.

this week i will be making a life sized red Gibson ES hollow bodied guitar for a wedding. the cake will feed about 30+ people... i downloaded a bunch of photos of close up details... i would like to make it as close to the real deal as possible just to test myself.

photos of the finished product to come.