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!