Thank you... and I'm not Lion!

My friend, Patty, asked me to do another cake. Her husband works as a janitor at Heritage High School, and wanted to show his appreciation for the office staff that have helped him out throughout the year. The school colors are red and black, their mascot is a big lion, and their motto is "Welcome to the Pride".

The cake itself is an 8" yellow round, iced in vanilla butter cream icing. The lion was first a 7" black circle, then the red face overlaid on that, then white accents for the mane. The thank you banner is also fondant with my best paintbrush-calligraphy.

I've been busy...

I've been working on the little details for three cakes due in the next couple of weeks. I actually had to stop baking last night because I ran out of eggs. So while the cake is in the oven, I'm working gum paste things for on the cakes I'm making. Last night I finished possibly the most difficult piece for the temple cake - the Angel Moroni (for more information click here). It took 30 minutes to form him, over night to dry, and 20 minutes last night to paint him with a light yellow wash and dust him with gold pearl dust for that shiny metallic look. This little guy is only 2 inches tall and will sit atop a 28" tall cake representation of the Washington D.C. Temple.

Viking Ship

Alex likes anything Viking, or so I'm told. Considering his stature, I could see him as a Viking from long ago with the horned helmet, pillaging the country side or on a ship similar to this one... The original thought was to make the ship out of cake, but after researching long boats, I found that they are very long, very narrow, and very shallow. Let's face it, these dimensions are not very cake friendly. Instead we decided to make the "ocean" out of cake, carrot that is, and the ship out of gum paste. The cake was a home-made, from-scratch recipe I decided to try for the occasion, and the cream cheese icing as well. No store-bought here!

I made a negative mold for the boat out of cardboard, fashioning the head, tail, and hull with carving tools. I took a knife down the length of the ship for the boards and painted away. I decided to cheat a little and made the sail out of some white fabric and a bamboo skewer. The ropes are out of #10 cotton yarn in the natural color.

I got a call to say that Alex loved his cake, and the beautiful part about it all is that he can keep the ship for his collection!