Periwinkle Takes the Cake!

This weekend was Montreal's first annual cake show. To see what I was up to on Saturday, check out my last blog post. On Sunday, they announced the winners for the cake expo entries. It was insanely nerve wracking, but it turned out much better than I expected. Aside from the cupcake challenge (where I won Finest Looking Cupcake!), I entered 3 other categories in the expo. Overall, I ended up taking home prizes for 3 out of my 4 entries! Amazing results! 

As Halloween was on its way, and I was way too consumed with my caking to do our usual candy giving madness, I needed to get my zombie fix elsewhere. So, for the sculpted cake category, I decided to enter a zombie cake. I had so much fun making a zombie head for an order a while ago, so that was  obviously what I had to make again! I was super excited... until I reread the rules and realized my cake had to stand at least 24" tall and be made entirely of cake. Yikes! As scared as I was, I changed my zombie head to a zombie body, and went ahead with it. Being so huge, no part of making this cake was easy. Not the carving. Not the masking. And definitely not covering him in giant pieces of fondant. What a nightmare! 

He turned out great in the end, but when we brought him in to the expo, and looked for our number on the tables, my heart sank. Right next to our spot was this beautiful, multicoloured owl sculpture that totally drowned out my zombie. Chef Zombie looked dull and unimpressive next to THAT! So, when they didn't call out my name for 3rd place, or 2nd place, I really didn't expect it when I got called for FIRST! I was stunned! AMAZING! Chef Zombie look home the GOLD in the advanced sculpted category! 

My last winning entry was my Valentino inspired shoe. It's something I've made a couple of times before, and I keep getting emails, and comments about it. Its something I was very confident making, and knew I had to enter into the sugar shoe category. So I did, and of course, it came home a winner too! 

So there you have it! My winning entries! I also entered a wedding cake, but with all the amazing talent in that division, my cake didn't win :( But that's a-okay... I'm already planning my cake for next year ;) I'll share pictures soon! 

A Pretty Cake for a Pretty Lady

It was my sister-in-law's birthday last week, which meant it was time to whip up something special! After much humming and hawing, I decided to make something that included her most recent shoe purchase -- a pair of gorgeous Valentinos. Since a sugar shoe figurine was something I had done one too many times already, I thought I'd make a cake with elements from the shoe rather than the shoe itself. These are her hot hot beauties,

and here's how I replicated it on the sides of her cake. I used some hand-cut fondant, with the edges piped in royal icing.

My sister-in-law also recently got some very sexy business cards. So, I decided to use the pattern from them for the top tier of the cake. 

Business card: 

 My cake interpretation:

Et voila! A pretty cake for a pretty lady! 

If the Shoe Fits, Eat It!

This weekend I got an order for my first shoe cake. I had so much fun making it! The birthday girl, a fashion blogger and style enthusiast, was super easy to work with. She made me this Pinterest board to give me an idea of the Valentino shoes she wanted me to base it on. I especially loved making the lace, all hand painted of course! 

I had no idea how I was going to make that floaty lace stuff from this shoe, so a little experimentation was in store. I used the same lace, formed it into some loops and twists, and tada!  In the end, I think it worked out great! 

I was also asked to include her name on the box instead of Valentino, surrounded by some gold Valentino studs. 

Check out what she thought of my cake here.