Christening Cake

At long last, another cake post!

A few weeks ago, my friend's darling daughter Charlotte was baptized and I had the pleasure and privilege of making the cake!

Pink. Pretty. Just right for a little girl.

I am so grateful that this cake came together! A little more than a week before the party, I came down with the flu. I was sick for about 3 days, then started to feel better so I thought I was out of the woods. Instead, I was hit with a sinus infection and two ear infections! And when I say hit, I mean it! It knocked me out! The doc said my ears were "angry with me." I thought that was so funny. And true!

I love it when something unexpected makes me laugh when I'm feeling pretty crappy otherwise. Those little moments are the best!

Thanks to some antibiotics, I was feeling well much better when it came time to bake and decorate. Also, I was no longer contagious, which is really important when you are baking for someone else! Just in time!

Want the details of this cake? Of course you do! :)

Both tiers of this cake are vanilla bean cake with milk chocolate ganache. They are fondant-covered and also decorated with fondant details.

The top is a white fondant plaque with a cross made by forming ropes of fondant into loops, then pinching and connecting them in the middle. I added the tiny pink flowers for dimension and to pretty it up a bit. They also serve a functional purpose. They hide the joint. Nice! I love it when things come together like that!

"I love it when a plan comes together!" Come on now - I know I wasn't the only one thinking that! And no comments about how old I am to remember that quote! :) Points to anyone who knows where it comes from!

I quilted the sides using a homemade quilting marker/impression mat, then made the actual lines with Wilton's little quilting wheel. I saw online one time a homemade mat that could be used to mark spaces or lines. You can buy these mats, too, but they aren't cheap! Click here to see an example.

I'm sorry, but I cannot for the life of me remember where I first saw the homemade mat, so I can't give proper credit. I will say, though, that I didn't copy it exactly but rather just used the general idea of a homemade mat to figure out how to do mine.

In case you are interested, this is what I did. I bought an inexpensive plastic cutting board, the kind that is flexible and that you can see through. I was looking for a clear one, but couldn't find it, so I opted for a pastel blue, which I could still see through. You could also use a flexible plastic placemat. After I made mine, I found plastic sheets in the quilting section of Hobby Lobby. They were clear and would have been perfect for this project. They were by the self-healing cutting mats.

So, I had my plastic. Next I bought little plastic sticker dots in the scrapbooking section of Michael's. They are simple raised dots meant to be used to decorate a scrapbook page. Mine are very small, white and very smooth on the top. I cut my plastic sheet lengthwise so that I had a long piece that was 4 inches wide. This is because the cakes I make are generally 4 inches tall. The cut long edge will be the top of the mat. I placed the dots on the plastic sheet in a grid pattern using the pre-printed grid on my own self-healing mat. You could also use a ruler. You want them in a diamond pattern. I ended up making two of these mats, one with 2-inch diamonds and another with 3-inch diamonds. I used the smaller one on this cake.

Don't they look cool? And all for just about $3.00 total!

To use them, align a long edge with the bottom of a fondant or buttercream covered cake (fondant works best). Very gently press the dots into the cake, just enough to make a small mark with the dots. Be careful not to move the mat out of alignment! Once the marks are made, very carefully pull the mat straight out from the cake. Line up the last row of marks with the dots on one end of the sheet and press the rest into place. Continue until you have marks all around your cake. Then simply connect the dots with the wheel tool or small pizza cutter (though it might be difficult to get all the way to the bottom edge with the pizza cutter). Make sure you don't cut into the fondant, but simply mark the lines very lightly.

Easy peasy, right?

I hope you enjoyed seeing Charlie's christening cake!

The news is out that I recently made a pretty spectacular fishing-themed cake. I'm so humble, aren't I? :) Well, that cake is coming up soon, so come back looking for it! I know that you will love it! And hopefully it will live up to this hype!