Happy Sunday! Here we are in June already! How did THAT happen? My summer season is here and I'm fairly booked up. I do have a few free weeks that I will be grateful that I scheduled in for myself but other than that I am having fun creating a new cake each week.


This week I got to make a cake for someone who is leaving their community after about 20 years of living there. All of her friends and neighbors decided that she needed a proper send off. She's a very "girly" girl so it was decided that flowers and swirls would be perfect for this small cake for 15 guests.


Free form swirls or filigree can be a real challenge. I know this comes easily for some but not for me. Fortunately I'm not alone in this world and they have made cookie cutter type presses that you gently press into the surface of the cake and they leave a template that you then follow over with your icing. It makes it SO much easier and worry free when you have a cake like I did this week. Now I started with a #4 tip for the main swirls and then went down to a #2 for the finer swirls. Those I did do freehand. 


The "flowers" on here are fantasy flowers. Sort of like hydrangea but not really. I cut them out of white fondant and then, while still soft, I used pink and purple luster dust to color them. Then I used a hydrangea press to form the flowers with lines and depth and then let them set up a bit while I decorated the cake.  I did use two sizes of flower cutters. One for the larger flowers for the large rosettes on top and one for the flower trim. By the time I had smooth frosted the final coat of buttercream on this strawberries and cream cake and then used the presses for the filigree, piped all the green swirls and edging, the flowers were ready to go on the cake. 


I want to take just a minute to talk about trim. For this cake I used the same tip, an open face star tip, to create the bottom edge trim as well as the top edge trim. But on the bottom edge I made little rosettes and on the top edge I used looping swirls all the way around in two bands. I did an outer band first and then, slightly overlapping, an inner band of swirls. Along with the large rosettes on the upper sides, this allowed for a nice base for the flowers when it came time to add them to the cake. The point is that you don't have to use the same pattern for each edge of your cake. You don't have to use the same pattern all the way around your cake. There are plenty of tip tutorials online that will show you many different patterns you can make with all of your tips so you can mix and match as you please. One of the reasons I do so rarely use a "shell border"...there are just too many others that you can play with instead!


The last step was adding the candy pearls to the center of the flowers with dots of green buttercream and then to write the salutation. I'm pleased to say that I actually know Rosie and am one of those who were sad to hear she was leaving us. But how's this for a turn of events? When I arrived to deliver the cake I was told that she had changed her mind and was staying after all! How much fun to be able to eat the cake and be happy she was staying at the same time! 


Next week is Grad Week! I have pieces for one already drying for the cake topper that I will share with you all next Sunday!

Cat