Hats off to Downton

Well boys and girls in the blog world, here it is, my fabulous hat cake. I know, I am horrible at this blogging thing but hopefully I can make up for it with really cool cakes.

I seriously had doubts the ENTIRE time I was making this. On the Thursday night I rolled out the gum paste used to make the brim of the cake and proceeded to try and set it up somehow to make the shape I wanted once it had dried. It was probably the most ridiculous thing ever. I had plates stacked up and the perfectly shaped lid of my garbage can (which I cleaned thoroughly) leaned up against those and balled up newspaper and Saran Wrap and tea towels and cardboard and all this ridiculous stuff all carefully placed to make the perfect shape. It looked ridiculous and then some. But miracle of all miracles, it somehow worked! And I am quite proud of it.

Oh, one final thing. To complete the awesomeness of the cake, the cake on both the top of the hat and at the bottom of the stand was a delicious red velvet cake. Not only was it delicious but it was just so classy! Thank you red velvet for your classiness and for completing the awesomeness of my beautiful Downton Abbey themed cake.

Downton Abbey - the cake version

I have a great love for television. It probably isn't the best thing to love but let's face it, I love my tv boyfriends. One of my latest loves has been Downton Abbey. Downton is my new fantastic soap opera type show but don't you dare judge me and this is why you cannot judge me. Downton is set in the early 1900's so it's okay that that plot is so ridiculous because A) they talk in English accents and B) it has a faint relation to and/or feeling of Jane Austen and Jane Austen books are classics, therefore there is nothing wrong with watching Downton Abbey. Justification - check! Haha! (Welcome to the ridiculous mind of Randi.) 

Anyways, what does this have to do with cakes you wonder. Well, let me tell you. I have decided to challenge myself this weekend. I've had a stressful week and it is time to destress by making another wonderful cake creation. So, this weekend I have decided to make a cake based on the ladies hats from Downton Abbey. Probably something along the lines of this: 

Yah.... It is going to be epic. Or a complete failure. But, now it is out in the blogosphere so it better be a success or I will be slightly embarrassed. Cross your fingers for me! 

Inspiration

I've had many people ask me how I get inspiration for my cakes and my answer is often pretty lame... Google. Haha! (Isn't that where all ideas come from now a days?) Anyways, it is pretty simple with me. When people ask me to make a cake they usually have some sort of idea or picture in mind. I do a bit of research (Google Images and CakeCentral.com), build a concept based on ideas or pictures of cakes I find, and then add my own flare to the thing. My flare usually involves a lot of small detail that takes painstaking hours to complete but truthfully, that is hands down my favorite part.

I have one cake that is kind of my pride and joy when thinking about how it was inspired. I love it so much for the following reasons:

1) It is just plain awesome.
2) I came up with the idea completely on my own... mostly because I was hungry and really wanted Fruit Loops but the point is it is my idea and I love it.
3) I made it on a pleasant Sunday afternoon with my roommate, Alexis, and we had a complete blast doing it.

Sometimes with my cakes I start to feel like I am pushing the boundaries of "borrowing ideas" from other cake designers which I really don't like. To be truthfully honest, sometimes I duplicate other people's designs. For example, Aimee brought me a picture of a Martha Stewart cake for her wedding and said, "I want this." I guess I like my Fruit Loop cake so much because my worrywart self doesn't worry about that aspect at all. Granted, I guess I did get my inspiration from the old school Cheerio commercials with the strawberry falling gracefully in slow motion into the bowl of cereal. Maybe I just need to accept that you can find inspiration everywhere and that really I need to look for inspiration in my day to day life. Wow... this cake blog post is getting much too philosophical. Let's just post the pictures and ooh and ahh because let's face it, that's why cake blogs exist.

Yay cake!!

Oh, and here are some pictures of Aimee and JB's wedding. Please note, the design is Martha Stewart's, not my own. Haha!