Weight Training

Like the new equipment? Do they look like the real things?

These are my latest cakes!

My amazing friend Erin just opened her own gym, FitMama, where she is offering boot camp classes, yoga, personal training, and more. I am so excited for her and she is such an inspiration! By the way, if you live in the Batavia-Geneva-St. Charles-Elburn area, check out her website and sign up for classes here.

Anyway, I offered to do a cake for her and she chose the opening of her gym as the occasion. Originally the cake was going to be a simple 8-inch round but I thought that was a little too boring. I wanted to come up with something that really truly suited the opening of a gym. Not the usual venue for a big cake, so I wanted to try to be really creative.

This is what I came up with and I think they turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself!

The kettlebell has the gym logo on it. I love the combo of the silver background and the pink logo.

The weight plate was added to make sure there was enough cake for everyone. Originally it was just going to be a basic round. But I wanted it to go with the theme and a basic round is a perfect weight plate!

These cakes were a challenge and a lot of fun!

The kettlebell is made up of 6-inch and 8-inch rounds of dark chocolate cake stacked with the larger rounds in the middle and the smaller rounds on the top and bottom, then carved to make the ball shape with a flat bottom. I filled and covered the cake with dark chocolate ganache before covering it with fondant. The handle is a wire covered in rice krispy treats and fondant, then secured to the cake with wooden skewers. The whole thing is covered with dark gray fondant and then painted with silver petal dust mixed with a bit of vodka. The vodka makes it possible to paint with the dust but then dries quickly leaving the color behind. The logo is cut from fondant.

I have to admit that I had a bit of trouble with the handle. I tried to cover it with a single sheet of fondant, but couldn't get it to work, so I covered it with three panels, one on the top and one on each of the sides. I had trouble hiding the seams. I definitely need to work on that! I think I could have gotten the single piece of fondant to work, but I didn't have enough time or fondant to keep trying it. Next time...

I keep thinking I probably shouldn't point out the faults of any of my cakes because maybe no one but me would notice. But that's not really what this blog is about. I want you all to see behind the scenes, so to speak, and share my struggles as well as my successes. Plus, when I go back and read about this in the future, I want to be sure I remember where I started and how I've grown.

I digress.... Let's talk about the weight plate cake! It is red velvet with cream cheese Swiss meringue buttercream under black fondant. The numbers are cut from white gumpaste then also painted silver. Oh my goodness, this cake was soooo good! Just thinking about it makes me crave that cream cheese buttercream! So much better than powdered sugar based cream cheese buttercream! Yum!

One of my favorite parts of this whole project is the board underneath the cakes. It is covered with fondant. I simply kneaded the three colors I had been using - white, dark gray, and pink - then rolled it out and "glued" it with shortening to foamcore board. I glued a ribbon to the side to finish the edges. I really love how the colors came together! I truly believe that a fondant-covered board gives a more professional look to any cake. A lot of bakeries sell cakes on foil-covered boards or simple cardboard with a metallic finish. I love the look of a board that coordinates with and enhances the cake rather than detracts from the cake's design.

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing my fitness cakes! (Is that an oxymoron?) Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!