July 2010 Cake of the Month

Photo courtesy of member, Barbara

After all the partying this weekend, treat yourself to a hot soak! This sweetie of a cake was designed by member Barbara, a recreational cake decorator.

Happy Mother's Day!

Photo courtesy of cake designer Arleen Sotomayor.

Member Arleen Sotomayor designed this adorable cake and cupcakes. Arleen teaches the Wilton Method of Cake Decorating at Michaels Craft Store.

May 2010 Cake of the Month

This sweet and bubbly confection was made by member Barbara.

Fondant Mermaid Class Makes a Splash!

Member Silvina Barboza's Mermaid Figure Class made quite a splash! Members created their own cute mermaids from fondant and gumpaste. Silvina is a talented sculptor of sugarpaste. Follow her on Facebook.

Anne Rolley is the creator of this delicate and superbly crafted Marie Antoinette doll which took 35 hours to complete along with a cake. Unfortunately, on the way to the competition, Anne had a mishap with the cake that accompanied the doll. Anne fell in love with sugar approximately 6 months ago. She truly has a long and sweet career in sugar art for years to come.

For all the gumpaste flower fanatics, we had to include this lovely urn of gumpaste roses and orchids.
This sculpted tiger cub cake has such a cute expression, isn't it adorable?

The sculpted bear cake was a crowd favorite. The moccasins were so lifelike that you were tempted to touch them!

An amazing sculpted elephant cake with intricate sugar work on the carpet and headdress.

A crowd favorite in the holiday themed category. The cookie jar cake and sugar cookies look just yummy!
The junior division had some really talented entries like this Christmas light bedecked "youngster",
the cookies and cup of hot cocoa near the fireside,

and this adorable snow couple.

Penguin Treats

This amazing 3D Penguin cake was designed by Iced Gem Cakes.

The sweet little details on these cupcakes created by Blue Cupcake are simply adorable.

Just love these whimsical holiday penguins decorated by MJ Ballinger, Cake Central. Figures on the cake appear to be crafted from fondant.

Snowman Confections

This cake created by Pretty Cool Cakes, just makes you want to smile. Cake covering and snowman and tree figures are made from fondant.

Cute melting snowman cupcake was designed by Dozen Flours.
The detail on this cupcake, from the snowman's top hat to the icing snow, is simply amazing. Sweet things do come in small packages! Created by Sweet Daze.

Think Out Of Your Cake Box!

I am really not the cake decorator to whip out last minute requests. However, a dear cousin was in a real jam and asked me to bake a Mickey Mouse birthday cake for her son on Christmas eve. I couldn't make a 3D cake due to the short notice. I had a vintage Bashful Mickey Mouse pan but I dreaded using the star tip - visions of buttercream caked piping bags and carpel tunnel danced in my head. And besides, decorating the entire cake with the star tip was a bit too predictable. No, no star tip. But how could I design a unique cake within the limitations of the character pan?
Since the cake was needed on Christmas Day, I decided to turn bashful Mickey into a Santa Mickey with a bagful of toys. After crumb coating the cake, I covered the cake in fondant and used a dresden tool to highlight Mickey's head, ears, eyes, mouth, arms, legs, and shoes. Paper patterns for the shoes, pants, jacket, and ears were made directly on the metal pan. Then I rolled out the fondant and cut to fit. Mickey's jacket button and jingle bells were painted in edible gold.
Santa Mickey's bag of toys was made from red fondarific. Fondant candy canes, a teddy bear, and doll also made from fondant are peeking out of the bag. I placed large marshmallows inside the bag to give the illusion of more toys inside the bag. If I had the time, I would have added real candy canes and chocolates.

Dina
Organizer

Happy Caking To All and To All Some Cake Cash!!

Photo courtesy of member, Stephanie.

In behalf of the NYC Cake Decorators Meetup, I would like to wish all our fans and readers a Happy Holiday! May all your dreams come true.

Sweet Regards,

Dina
Organizer

Join Us at our "Best of the Best" Day of Sharing October 10th!

The "Best of the Best in NYC Cake Decorators Meetup" will showcase 5 extremely talented members this quarter. Why not join the fun and learn new techniques, make friends and "talk cake" with other cake and cupcake designers? Make a stunning shoe box cake and gumpaste shoe with instructor Kelly Roimisher!

Photo courtesy of instructor, Silvinia Barboza

Create a 3D Fondant Fayrie Doll with Silvinia Barboza!

Photo courtesy of instructor, Natalie Johnson.

Perfect your piping techniques with award winning cake designer, Natalie Johnson, owner A World of Cakes in Westchester, NY.

Photo courtesy of instructor, Connie DiTomasso

Learn one of the hottest techniques - gelatin flowers--with award winning cake designer Connie DiTomasso!

Chef Janet Ben-Ami featured in our Member Spotlight, will help students create their own "Where the Wild Things Are" 3D Character Cake. Annette Villaverde, our resident cupcake diva, will also teach how to create a winter cupcake design. Annette's cute hedgehog cupcake was selected by Martha Stewart in her 2009 Cutest Cupcake Contest!

For more information about Registration and individual class fees, please email Dina ASAP at NYC Cake Decorators Meetup!

August 2009 Cake of The Month

This outstanding cake was designed and created by member Iva, who is a relatively new cake decorator. Iva is a super talented and creative cake artist.  I can't wait to see her other creations.

Dina

July 2009 Cake of The Month

Photo courtesy of member Silvinia Barboza

This whimsical cake was made by member Silvinia Barboza, a graphic artist by trade who is passionate about cake decorating. Doesn't every lady deserve a spa treatment once in awhile?

Ximena Sempertequi flew in from Miami, Florida to teach our 3D baby and bear class. Ximena is a fabulous instructor as demonstrated by the sweet babies created by members who were lucky enough to take her class.

Carmen Jurjo is a talented cake designer and vendor. Here she is showing Shauna how to create a sweet gumpaste purse.

Vendor Ximena's gumpaste shoes and onesie.

Vendor Ximena's sweet baby in peapod

Ximena sold molds for the 3D baby, peapod babies, baby shoes, onesies, fairies, baby shoes, and also brought in some very interesting sugarcraft magazines from Argentina. Vendor Carmen Jurjo also had a large supply of cutters, pattern embossed rolling pins, and formers. I personally went absolutely crazy shopping and purchased and assortment of molds, cutters, and an issue of Utilisima Especial Tortas: Decoracion Paso A Paso. I'm not fluent in Spanish but the magazine does show everything "paso a paso" step by step, and I fell in love with several cute figurines and special Latin American techniques I want to learn.

Dina
Organizer

Rock-a-Bye Fondant Baby 'n Bear Figures

Baby 'n bear were created by Dina, Sugar Designs NYC

Ever since I learned that Ximena Sempertegui will be teaching how to create a fondant baby 'n bear at our June 7th Day of Sharing, I've been itching to try a mold set I purchased on a whim several months ago. I had some left over fondant from another project and after several attempts, I ended up with the sugarpaste baby pictured above. I used a liner art brush to highlight some of the facial details and cut the hat, shirt, and blankets and fitted directly on the doll. The cap texture was achieved with a nifty rolling pin I purchased from Diane Shavkin at her 3D Fondant Doll class last Sunday. The baby's cheeks were lightly dusted with pink petal dust and a round artist's brush. The teddy bear was made following Lorraine McKay's (Aine2) tutorial. It's still a bit rough but not too bad, huh? I can't wait to meet Ximena and learn her tips and hints of creating these sweet baby figurines.

Dina