Happy Easter Sunday! This week brought a Hawaiian Themed Bridal Shower Cake. The Happy Couple are being married next month on Oahu so the Bridal Shower was all Island themed. She did such a wonderful job with the shower I thought I'd share some of the tips here as well as her cake so you can get an idea how it fit into the whole look of the party. 


First off, the cake was a soft vanilla cake with strawberries and cream filling. Then covered in vanilla fondant and decorated with fondant "bamboo" that was handpainted and topped with fondant hibiscus. The handpainting of the bamboo takes time so make sure you are not leaving that for the last minute. I used a green with yellow added for the first coat and then while still wet I went over that with a brownish yellow and then while still wet went over that with a brown. To do this so it really looks like bamboo you want to paint it like it is a watercolor and make each layer of color heavier in some places, lighter in others so that it is not all a solid color in the end. 

To make the bamboo I used a mold. You form your fondant into a small snake, press it into the mold that has been dusted with powdered sugar. Then I trimmed the excess away and used water to glue it onto the cake. 


The flowers were a bit of a challenge. I had never made a hibiscus before and none of the cake shops had any sugar hibiscus that actually looked like hibiscus. So I studied some photos and then just sort of winged it. I did get some help from a teacher when I found it hard to join the petals together. She suggested using a shallow cup and then place a marble size piece of fondant in the center and stick the stamen into that. It worked beautifully! I then used luster dust (like paint in the centers and dry dusted the petals) to add a bit more depth to the flowers. They matched her colors perfectly.

 Here is a photo of me and the Bride to Be at the Cake Table. You will notice a slight difference in the cake shown at the beginning of the blog and the one in the photo here. I ended up having to move a flower to cover up a spot where the strawberry filling was beginning to break through the soft fondant! This was due to the "dam" breaking. You want to make a ring of stiff buttercream around the filling to help stop this from happening but, I'm guessing in this case, the dam was softened up by the fresh strawberries in that one spot. Once I moved the flower the cake looked perfect again and no one noticed!

 Here are the matching water bottles that my business partner Tory made for the party. SO cute and they matched the drink cups just perfectly! Exactly the right shade of fuschia that was on the cups!

 They did SUCH a wonderful job on the food table. There were tea sandwiches (chicken and tarragon, roast beef with horseradish, egg salad and cucumber with dill) which were all amazing! Then there were scones and little appetizers as well as fresh fruit, salad and fruit dip. Later there were the Brides famous appetizers as well as lumpia served. After the cake everyone was definitly "rolly" as they left the party!

 These adorable favors are actually hair clips! Each guest was given one as they left the party...mine went straight into my hair! Too cute! 

 One really adorable touch was this His and Hers Towel Cake. The closest I had seen to this idea was one made from kitchen towels for a housegoods themed shower. This made such a cute centerpiece for the food table.

These just-to-cute Bride and Groom bears were the topper for the towel "cake" and just such a little adorable and perfect detail. Simply romantic. 


My thanks to the Bride for allowing me to stay after I delivered the cake. Since she is a friend of Tory's, I didn't need to be invited but I'm certainly glad I was. We both had such a great time and it was fun to hear that everyone loved the cake and to be able to have a slice of it! Yummy!


Next week brings me a carved cake as well as our grandson's first birthday cake. I'll be featuring the carved cake in this blog and you'll get a photo of the other one in our "Cherry" blog on Monday next week. Then I'll go into detail about the cake and cupcakes in the cake blog the Sunday after that. Lots to talk about with both of these cakes so I'll spread them out!


See you next week!

Cat