Archive | September, 2008

Enter our Free Giveaway for a chance to win a Fondant Book and Tool, Cupcake Kit or Phone Call.

30 Sep

Guess what, its time again for a FREE GIVEAWAY!!

Hello my fellow cake buddies like I said previously we are going to have regular givaways. There are 4 different prizes for this giveaway. This Giveaway will consists of

 

Prize one being a Celebrate with Fondant Book and a Fondant Cutter with several attachments.

Prize 2 will consist of a 12 pc cupcake starter kit and the Silicone Cupcake Silly Feet.

Prize 3 and 4 will consist of 2 different people receiving a 30 minute phone call from good ole me!!!  Last month I got to speak with a few of the ones who won a phone call with me and we had a blast talking and sharing cake decorating ideas. In addition I gained a few awesome friends. So I thought it would be a great idea to do this again, to give others the opportunity to chat with me about whatever they choose.

I want you all to know that your info is NEVER shared with anyone. Anything that is emailed to me or on my site is kept confidential. I am one of those people that gets furious when my info is sold or shared for anything that I do not agree to.

To enter the giveaway please post a comment indicating whether you prefer to work with buttercream or fondant on cakes.

 The Giveaway will end at Midnight eastern time on Oct 7th, 2008

The (4) winners will be drawn with via a random number generator.

The winners will be posted on my front page on Oct. 8th by 3pm eastern time.

 I will also be contacting the winners via email.

I must have your email address so that I can contact you and get your shipping details, also I pay for all the shipping cost myself. There is never a cost to you. I have seen many giveaways that give you something that is free but then they require you to pay for the shipping fees, that just doesn’t seem free to me!!

 

 

One Winner will win a Wilton’s Celebrate with Fondant Book, and the Wilton Fondant Cutter with several attachments.

 

Wilton Fondant Ribbon Cutter Embosser SetWilton Ribbon Cutter and Embosser SetWilton Celebrate with Fondant Book

 

 

 

And One Winner will Win A Cupcake Package that consists of a 12 pc Cupcake Decoaring Set and The Wilton Silicone Cupcake Silly Feet.

 

 

Wilton 12 Piece Cupcake Decorating SetWilton Silly Feet! Silicone Baking Cups

 

 

And then 2 winners will receive the free 30 minute phone call with me!

 

Basketball Theme Cake

30 Sep

 

Here is my latest cake

 

 I did over the weekend for a a sixteen yr old who loves to play basketball. I did a sheetcake with a half round basketball in the middle of the cake then created a sugar sculpture of Kyle sitting on top of the basketball. The rest of the cake was laid out to depict the floor area of a gym where basketball is played so I drew the lines to show the layout.

 

What is an Icing Plug and How to make one!

29 Sep

I learned a way to ice a cake without getting your icing bag dirty and thought I would share it with all my favorite sugar buddies. I call them Icing Plugs cause I could not come up with a better name!! They make decorating a cake sooo much cleaner and the nice thing is you can use several colors and not have to have several icing bags. I took pictures so you all could see exactly how to do this.

Start off with your buttercream icing or whatever icing you choose to use.

 

 

Roll out a sheet of saran wrap or any other brand you may have on hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place a few spoon fools of Buttercream icing in the middle of your saran wrap.

 

 

 

 

 

Fold the one side of the saran wrap over the icing and then roll into a tubular shape. Make sure to leave room at the top and bottom of the icing.

 

Knot one end of the saran wrap very tightly.

The other end leave open, but trim the saran wrap off, so that you have just a small amout of wrap at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

Place the open end of your icing plug down into your icing bag, and then twist the top of your bag as normal to push all the icing down in to area where your tip is.

 

 

 

 

 

Then you can begin to ice your cake as you normally would. When your icing plug is empty remove and throw away. What I do is make up several with all the colors I will be using, then store them in the refrigerator until I need them, the nice thing is you will not have to have several icing bags with all the colors and all the mess.  I showed pics using the tip to do the sides of my cake however you can use the icing plugs on any bag with any tip without the hassle of changing bags and colors. Hope this helped and gave you a few ideas to make the decorating job a little easier.

New Video and Cake Topper Website

29 Sep

Hey There Sugar Buddies

I know it has been silent here for the past week, I have been very busy working on a video of my cake topper of the little girl in bed reading with her puppies, it will be available for purchase just as soon as it is finished with editing, I have a new website that just went live that is just about my cake toppers, and is where I will be selling videos and tutorials of some of my more populars cakes and toppers.

My cake Topper with the little girl reading in her bed was a huge hit and after many requests I decided to do a step by step video for those of you who would like to learn to make one yourself. I will warn you it is a very long video with many steps involved however when finished its worth it. I am also putting together a tutorial of how to make the little pink car with the people in it for those who would like to learn to make that topper. They are both alot of fun and can be changed here and there to add your own little touches to them. The website that I am selling my videos and tutorials on is not completely finished however it is live if you would like to check it out. All the basics are there. When the video and tutorial is finished I will be sure to let you know and they will be available to purchase on that site.

Just so that you know this new website is NOT the website that I have been talking about here on my blog that will be a virtual online cake decorating class. This new site is just a place for those people that have been asking me to sell my cake toppers as well as video’s and tutorials. The reason that site is finished and not the one I have been yacking about is becasue this new one was very small and simple. The other website is a major undertaking but you will all be glad to know that things are going great with no major issues. I will be the happiest lady in the world when that one is finished so we can all get the community started and get down to some learning and decorating!!!

The website address for the video and tutorails is at www.sugarbydonna.com just remember there are no videos or tutorials for sale on there just yet but will be very soon!!

Donna

Gumpaste Trick or Treat Figurine Cake Topper

19 Sep

With the feel of fall in the air and halloween just around the corner, I thought I would create this little boy who I call Billy. He is ready for trick or treating with his pumpkin bucket prepared to hold the candy he collects and clothed in a cute little Ghost costume.

I have a new video I posted

17 Sep

I have a new video that will hopefully help you all while baking. The video will show you how to bake a 2 flavored cake in the same pan. I had this problem myself and would bake several cake so that I could fulfill an order for 2 flavors of cake together. So I began playing around with cardboard in the middle of the pan, and that was a mess, I also tried other things. Finally I tried holding up the pan and puring the batter in all the while not realizing my pan was sitting on a towel. Then it occured to me that the towel could help me accomplish what I had been trying to figure out for quite a while so I thought I would share it with all of you.

Donna

Just a little update

17 Sep

Hello all!!

I know it has been silent here on my end, and I wanted to just give a little update on whats been going on in my world. As you all know Hurricane Ike hit the US with a vengenance and then made his way north into the midwest. He paid a little visit to Ohio and left a big mark with winds in the excess of over 70 miles an hour which to us is HUGE!! The greater part of Ohio has been in the dark as well as myself. You never realize just how lucky we are to have electricity until it goes off. It has been tough, but not near as rough as those in Texas and Lousiana have had it, my prayers go out to all of many people in those areas. I am so grateful that things are not worse for us here in Ohio. It caught me by surprise on Sunday, I was taking an afternoon nap and woke up to what sounded like my roof being ripped off. Thankfully the roof was not taken off however shingles were flying all over like birds around our property. Then the siding started to peel off the house as the high winds continued for hours, I did not think it would ever end. We lost a few of our trees but I am grateful they were not close to the house. We live in the country and have a corn field beside and behind us so I think that made the winds thats much worse cause there was nothing to block it. So we will now begin the process of dealing with insurance to get these things taken care of. I am soo grateful it was not worse. I would never want to go through a hurricane ever!! I also had some other family issues that I have been dealing with in the midst of all of this and I am so glad that life is looking up again finallly, thank God!!

Finally today the power has come back on for us, and we are soooo happpyyyy!!! The funny thing is all the times I procrastinate and think I wil do this or that later, then once the power is off you think well I could get this or that done, but without power you can’t do anything. I guess I can now be thankful and get things done that have been waiting for my attention.

I want to thank Elaine for calling today to check on me that really made my day that you woud think about me and wonder why I had not responded to your emails, thanks for caring!! I will be getting down with the computer, I really did miss being online.

I will be back to posting regularly again and sharing some awesome cake stuff with you all!!

Donna

Miniature Fondant Purses make great Cup Cake Toppers

13 Sep

 

I had some extra fondant left over so I thought I would use it up and decided that I would create some miniature purses and a pair of high heeled shoes. These would be great to add as a small scene for a cake topper, but I think what I am going to do is use them as cupcake toppers due to their size. Who would not love having custom designed sugar purses as the theme on their cupcake. They would be perfect for a teenagers themed party. But being a person who loves purses of all kinds I know that I would enjoy them as theme for a party for myself. I love the fact that you can use fondant/gumpaste to create cutom designs for that special event. Now a days you see soo many different parties for all sorts of celebrations and being a cake decorator who has the abilty to create these custom designs you will be in much demand as people love to have cakes and cupcakes that tell a story about their favorite things in life as well as the things that are important to them.

 Cake Decorating is more than decorating cakes it really is an art that uses sugar as the medium to create almost anything that is seen in everyday life. With a little imagination you can create custom sugar miniatures that will be the talk of the party. There are many companies that specialize in sugar miniatures as well as miniature cakes. Some tend to think that purchasing a miniature cake would be a way to keep cost down to a minimum for an upcoming event however that is not the case. If you have ever created miniature cakes you know that it takes much more time than it would to create a regular sized cake, because the smaller the object the tougher it is to get it covered in icing or fondant. So be aware if you are planning to purchase anything miniature in sugar form you can expect to pay more than you would for say an average sized cake.

Since I am talking about minatures I thought I would tell you about a company that creates miniature cakes that are just too adorable to eat. The companies name is Cupcake Envy and they have made a name for themselves and are seen in magazines everywhere as well as all over the internet. You can take a look at some of their deisgns at cupcakeenvy.com. Their designs start at $25 a serving with most of their deigns serving either 1-2 or 3-4. I love all their creations as well as all the details that they add to each mini cake. It shows you the sky is the limit with cakes these days.

My Little Gumpaste Car

11 Sep

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

I am soo excited how this little gumpaste car turned out, I have been working on this for a few weeks. I did not make this little car for a cake I just did it because I have always wanted to try to make a little car that looked like the precious moments collectable car, and I thought I would give it a try. I like the way it turned out, when I got started I did not have a clue of how I was going to do it which is why is took me a few weeks. I kinda had to figure it out as I went along so I guess 2 weeks was not too bad considering. I wanted the boy and girl in the car to look like they were looking up at something what I am not sure but, something. I can’t wait to make another one sometime soon. I did take pictures throughout the process and will be putting together a tutorial which will be available for purchase soon if you would like to learn how to make one yourself.

My Latest Gumpaste Animal Cake Toppers

4 Sep


I created these gumpaste animals for a baby shower cake that I will be doing in a few weeks.
Seems as if more and more people are ordering sugar cake toppers for their cakes. Instead of doing a giraffe that is standing like you normally see, I decided to create a giraffe that looks as if he is laying on his stomach, I think he turned out great!! The other animal is a hippo that was replicated after a little stuffed animal. And the frog, I wanted to create with large bug eyes. I hope you all enjoy looking at my figurines and that they give you some ideas for your cakes in the future. When the cake is complete I will make sure I post a picture of it for you all to see. Happy creating!!

Donna

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