Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Wayback Wednesday

So I don't think I've posted these pictures before and they're pretty old, but since I've made something of a theme out of it I thought I'd share. The hubbin works at TCTMNBN and they had a company softball tournament a few years ago. So I made cupcakes.





Pretty cute right? And leave it to me to have the one right in front missing some of the little string thingys. And the hubbin even caught the ball once when it was hit to him!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Since the NBA is back to doing something other than marrying Kardashians...

I had a request for a birthday cake for a 'bout-to-be 11-year-old who is a big fan of basketball. And the Miami Heat in particular. Did you know that's where Lebron James plays? I totally learned that because of this cake. :) Seriously...



I had grand intentions of making a 3D basketball with my ball pan, but one half of the cake had apparently become quite attached to the pan and who am I to argue with confectionery true love? So I ended up with a 2.5D ball. And since basketball is played on hardwood (yes, I Googled that too), I added some to the cake too. But it was really dark in color and I ran out of yellow Americolor gel. Sigh. This cake turned out pretty awesome for being such a pain in the butt. So here ya go:



 The Spaulding logo ended up looking pretty wonky. But I was freehanding it with a marker, so you can't be too picky, right?



Tiny little Heat logo and a look at the wood grain. I actually really love doing this technique.





Did you notice the awesome texture?



I regretted it by the fourth dang little dot. All done with a little round piping tip. That actually took longer than the rest of the cake combined. The fondant was playing nicely for once. Then again, wasn't summer here in AZ when I was doing it either. Have I told you about how I crank up the A/C when I do fondant? And the buttercream smoothed pretty well over the weird shape and crusted just enough to smooth it some more.  I guess the rest of the cake made up for the baking issues.




Happy Birthday William!