Justice League Cake

I do apologize for the delay and not posting last week. We had a horrible time up loading this post and then other priorities prevented from loading soon. We do apologize again and the updates will be back to their normal uploads.

The Long awaited JUSTICE LEAGUE CAKE!!

I have decided to do a dummy cake. What is a dummy cake you ask, well it is made out of styrofoam. Then covered in fondant like a regular cake but the best thing is it last for a long time! One of the many reason why I love styrofoam so much.

So my first dummy cake I decided to do was The Justice League (of America) for all the nerds out there! It is a six tier cake. One tier for each original member....BUT not only is it the members of the Justice League, there is also their number one villain on the back side. Yup that is right half super hero and half villain.

Superman Vs. Lex Luthor


Superman side is His color with the "S" logo on front. The logo is made out of yellow fondant and the "S" is hand painted on. The red cape is on top, is thinly rolled fondant placed to look like Superman is flying. Superman's belt is at the bottom of the tier, its hard to see behind Batman's cape.

Lex Luthor is on the other side of Superman. Not most would recognize this as Lex but the symbol that is on this tier is from his krypton suit that he wore to keep from dying. Apparently too much krypton exposure for anyone is bad. Haha little superman humor. Everything on this tier is just to mimic Lex's suit, and made out of just fondant.

Batman Vs. The Joker

Now for the Dark Knight!! The bat symbol is a tad more 3-D. At the bottom of his tier the boarder represents the utility belt Batman is always supporting. Pretty sure one of those compartments is infinite, where else is he going to get everything he needs when ever he conveniently needs it?! His black cap is draped over the top of his would be shoulders.

On the opposite side of Bats is the infamous Joker!! From the bright green color to the purple belt boarder. His mouth was actually carved into the fondant. All the teeth that make up his famous smile were made one by one. All of them were petal dusted to give the dirty grimy look of his teeth. You can't help but SMILE when seeing this tier.

Green Lanter (John Stewart) Vs. Sinestro

Green Lanter is up next. Since there are five total green lanters from earth. I know what your thinking, WOW so many I didn't know about!? The one from Justice League is John Stewart. Each Suit is different thats why there is a significance to get it right. Also I made a Green Lantern ring to go along with the costume (not shown). Nothing special, just constructed all out of fondant.

 Sinestro who used to be a green lantern is now yellow, the opposite of green and not to mention bad. Yellow is fear and green is will power. Sinestro was the creator of the Yellow corp. making him the strongest. Anyway It is just a mimic of his suit. His symbol is hand drawn on his suit everything else is fondant.

Flash Vs. Captain Cold

Flash is up next on the cake. His suit is very basic. So he just has the symbol in front with lighting bolt belt, and lightening blots on the side of the cake to mimic his head piece on his suit. It's simple but yet screams flash.

For the Villan I choose Captain Cold. The only reason I choose him was because he is Flash's number one villain. I felt like Captain Cold compliments Flash better than say gorilla grodd. It just the basic ice blue suit with the white ice shawl on top and his yellow belt.

Martian Man Hunter Vs. Ma'alefa'ak J'onzz

Next up is Martian Man Hunter. This shows his bare chest with the red straps that hold his cloak on. The cloak is draped over the rest of the cake. The reason his cloak is straight and less wrinkly than Superman and Batman is that when every you see Martian Man Hunter in the series not a single ripple is to be found, BUT it did mimic the collar to give it some life.

On the other side you will find his brother Ma'alefa'ak, if you fide yourself struggling on the name its ok I don't think any one really knows how to pronounce it properly. If you can, congratulations to you!! This is to mimic Ma'alefa'ak coat. From the chains to the rips. I do enjoy it!

Wonder Woman Vs. Cheetah

Lastly we have Wonder Woman. It was created to mimic her suit. With the blue and stars on the bottom to the red on top. She also has the Wonder Woman symbol hand painted in the front.

For her villain I choose Cheetah. For a couple of reasons. She was shown more in the series and for the fact I wanted to show off some of my free hand withe the Cheetah print. Yup! That's right no stencil here all free hand.

To complete the whole cake the watch tower from the first season of JLA will be the topper for the cake. It is made completely out of rice crispy and fondant. With hand painted marking and details.

This cake is more on the 2-D side but I am constructing some 3-D cakes for the future! I hope you enjoyed if and will give you some cake ideas for the future and come order them. Any idea is welcome for a cake no matter how impossible you think it is. I will try my best to make it happen to the best of my ability. Also if you have any crazy ideas for a dummy cake let me know, I'm always up for something new!!

**Don't forget we have a post again on Friday!!** 

Creations of the future

So this will be about some awesome cakes I have coming up in the future that I can not just keep to myself. I am so excited about them!!

We will start off on the dummy cakes that I am working on and potentially working on:
First is the awaited justice league cake that will be featured in next Tuesdays post!! I will reveal all then! Hope you are all excited and ready to get nerdy!

Next up will be a dummy castle cake. I'm super excited with all the details I have planned with this cake. I 3D figure on one of the castle towers. He is going to be a deep crimson red and breathing fire. The fire will be made out of sugar! Exciting! BUT that's all I'm going to reveal to you right now.

After that I will be working on TARDIS from the TV show Dr. Who! Which is, for those who don't know, a police box from England.

I'm super excited for my cousin's wedding cake. It will be Shimmering Sugar's first wedding cake and we will make sure that it's fantastic. I don't want to give away all the details, but it will be a three tier cake with daisy's and nonpareils. The cake will be completed by the second week of June, so I will have pictures posted then.

I'm also making the cake for her bridal shower. This one will be a shoe box embroidered with their last name. On top of it will be two shoes that embody the personalities of both the bride and the groom. The box will be made of cake and covered in rolled fondant, and the shoes will be made of gumpaste. Since this one will be fresh cake and not a dummy cake, it will have to be made within a day or 2 of the bridal shower, so I won't be able to post pictures until afterwards.

Official Flavor!!

As promised here are the list of our OFFICIAL flavor and names!!

Amaretto Delight - Almond

         It is an almond cake with home made amaretto mixed into the batter a long with minced toasted almonds.

Banana Foster - Banana (Of Course)

         This is created from the traditional breakfast dessert. The batter has rum and banana along with substituted brown sugar and cinnamon. Drizzled with a rum syrup.

Bubbly - Champagne

         This is a fantastic refreshing cake with Brut Champagne inside. Perfect for any celebrations and weddings! Its a light but flavorful cake. Soaked with a champagne reduction for added for a splash more flavor!

Midnight Dream - Chocolate
     
         Is our delectably rich chocolate, moist cake would be any chocolate lovers dream. Chocolate chips added to the batter to give you that added chocolate flavor and texture.
 
Tropical Wonder - Coconut Cream

         This is our tropically wonderful coconut cake that includes coconut oil, milk and shavings to give that coconut cream taste with a splash of pineapple juice to give it depth.

Double Shot - Coffee

           This is every coffee lovers dream. Made with home made from scratch a hazelnut coffee liqueur.   Hazelnut added for depth and flavor, BUT upon special request we can make the double shot hazelnut free for all those allergic.

Lemon Meringue - Lemon

           Our home made lemon cello is added to the batter to give it the add lemon flavor, along with lemon zest. What makes it Meringue is what we top the cupcakes with toasted meringue. The meringue and be added for filling in cake form.

Swirls - Marble

            This is a cake that is best of both worlds. Mixture of our delicious Vanilla and our delectable chocolate.

Nutty Butter- Peanut Butter

           The peanut cakes is crafted with creamy peanut butter. Along with honey rosted peanuts and just a hint of local honey.

Raging Raspberry - Raspberry

          Our homemade raspberry puree added into our tasty batter to give you a subtle but sweet raspberry flavor. It doesn't or will not taste like those artificial cake flavors. We will always use natural raspberries.

Red Velvet -

         Our own twist on the classic Red Velvet. Rich but moist with a creamy texture.

Shimmering Sugar- Vanilla

         THIS is our signature cake flavor. The amazing flavor of vanilla moist and sweet waiting for your enjoyment.

Carte Blanche - White Chocolate

           Lastly our white chocolate cake, this is another of our light feeling cake. The best tasting white chocolate in the batter along with white chocolate chips for that add crunch!

Hope this gets all your mouths watering. Frosting will be out shortly. We do apologize for not having the blog up yesterday. SO for all your disappointments about that I will have ANOTHER blog out later tonight!!

Food Truck

I have decided to start my business with a food truck! WHY a food truck you ask? Well, it will be;

• Cheaper to operate
• Don't have to pay rent
• Mobile
• Don't have to pay zoning permits
• One Utility, gas
• Travel and sell  

Since it's just me it will be rough at first to produce product and managing the truck. I think it will be worth while in the end. I am ready and willing to work this hard. 

My goal one day is to have a fleet of food trucks! How amazing that would be to go out and reach many people!! With that fleet of food trucks I would like to have them in several major cities. Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Miami, LA, Austin are just to name a few ideas for now. Since its not set in stone just yet they are subject to change.

Also I will have a store front in each city to produce fresh product to the food trucks. I will not allow partial backed and shipped across the country product. Thats not what I will allow my customers to eat like other chain establishments. They will get FRESH baked goods daily, that IS my promise to you!!

As of right now I am waiting for the Health department to get back to me on what I will properly need to operate a food truck. I'm hoping I won't need a commercial kitchen so soon. If so, there are some options.

I can see what needs to be done to make my kitchen right now legal and able to produce product, which is VERY SLIM chance, I know. Next option is to lease a building in the surrounding area, which will cost a bit more and is most likely. After that there is buying a building, which will cost way more than I would like, so that is a last resort. Finally, perhaps I could make a deal with one of the hotel kitchens around here. I would love to do the last one since we are just starting up but we shall see how everything goes.

This could be what my food truck looks like. Without the logo and everything!

I have found this awesome little site where you can customize food trucks and vending trucks a like. Mine will only be equipped with fridges to store the cupcakes and keep them fresh. I am hoping to make it solar powered so that it is nice to the environment and saves money on gas for the generator. CROSS your fingers!!

***Also Justice League Cake is coming up soon!! Make sure to CHECK it out!!***

  

Business Plan

Ok all you small business dreamers out there!! It is information time on a major item you should have when starting a business ( that I forgot about an then remembered):

A BUSINESS PLAN 

Again I can thank my schooling (which at the time I thought was just another worthless part) I am well prepared in opening a business. Yes, I may be young but the knowledge that was pasted down to me by Chef Mark and my Cost Control teacher prepare me beyond my years. Those two among a few other teachers that shaped me into the business knowledgable person I am today, Thank You.

 List Update: I am now looking up everything documentation I need to start a small business. By the end of this endeavor I should be a pro, shouldn't I!! I am now working my butt off in finding out all permits, license, business planning, Justice league Cake!!, and costing still. THOUGH I am getting things checked off on my list!!

Any who any starting business need a Business Plan. What is a business plan you ask?! Well I will tell you. It is a complied portfolio of documentation about your business. It is supposed to bring your dream to LIFE ( like a mad scientist!) I will basically take with me to everywhere I got to get permits and licensing AND of course loans and such!

I have found this fantastic link ⇒ http://www.sba.gov/sba-direct/article/2815 ⇐ This will help you formulate your plan if you already don't know how to. It has all sorts of fun things to look at if you are starting up. This website is most helpful, I give it an A+!

I will say that I haven't been working as hard because I've been having melt downs per say, BUT I am back in the right state of mind with all cylinders burning. SO watch out world here I come!!

I may have mentions permits and license a lot in this post but not it is very important to have all of what you need for several simple reasons:

1. Not getting shut down
2. No fines are good fines
3. Make nice with the City and County 
4. Make connections and networking
5. Prosper and Profit 

Other wise it will be incredibly hard to build your business. Work nice and respectfully with the city or county and they will treat you well. They aren't evil they are there to HELP you! I wish you the best of luck!


Also stay tuned for my up coming Justice League Cake!! I will be AMAZING!!

Emotions of a Cake Decorator

There is a list of emotions that happens when I do cakes that are not dummies.

 Before I bake them I get extremely excited and happy to do them. All the ideas start flowing, I plan every little detail out how I am going to do what. Then comes the baking part. After the batter is made and in the oven that is when the anxiety sets in. Thoughts pop in my head like will it turn out? will it even bake? am I even capable of doing this? All of this self doubt happens.

I guess it's because I strive for perfection on each cake the I make. Its my name going out there and I want this to be perfect. My heart and soul goes into every cake I make. They are like my children, that are meant to be eaten, but minor details. I have a lot of self doubt.

After the cake is out of the oven a relief set in. Seeing the cake in its perfection calms the doubt for now.

After it cools and is inspected to make sure that it is still amazing I stack it. Taking lot of time and effort to make sure that it is completely level. Nothing's worse than an unstable cake that's leaning.

Then the anxiety returns when the frosting stage sets in. I'm ok with frosting but I always get nervous to make sure the sides are parallel and the top level. Not to mention trying to get it as smooth as possible to look like fondant. Which I am amazing at. Fondant is the only thing that I am 100% confident with.

After it's covered in fondant or just iced. I have a little moment of relief, if it looks good. Which I'm told it always does, but I always find at least one or two things I think are bad but no one ever notices. The way I look at it is, The day I don't find I mistake or something to work on is the day that I stop striving for perfection.

Then I start to decorate which gives me the most joy because I know the hard parts are behind me. I really do love to decorate it gives me a feeling of accomplishment and happiness. You can always find me smiling unless the cake is giving me attitude then I am frowning but that rarely ever happens.

Yes, cakes do have a personality; each one is different. Most are very pleasant but you will always get that rotten egg that just doesn't want to cooperate. It tries your patients and your sanity but in the end they are the most magnificent work you have ever done because you try your hardest.

Though I do that with every cake I bake. I feel like each is an extension of my self. I strive to show that passion to every one and hopefully they will appropriate it as much as it do.

Update!

To All of you that are graciously reading this I will try to upload new and exciting information on Tuesdays and again on Fridays if you just can't get enough!!

Also in between those times you can check out my FaceBook page Shimmering Sugar Cakery and we are now on Twitter https://twitter.com/Shimmeringsugar !!!

Hope to be seeing your awesome comments or suggestions or quite possible ORDERS!!

If you have any question or want a topic addressed just let me know and I will see what magic can happen!!