Science and Religion

The past couple weeks have been stressful with the sheer volume of work that has been coming at us, and I think I can look forward to another crazy week coming up soon. So, I'm taking the weekend to recharge my batteries and remember some of the projects that really had me excited.

The Buddha sat 14 inches from the lotus flower base to the top of his head. The bronzed wood box added about another 5 inches. The whole statue is made of modeling chocolate, brushed with edible  powder pigment to get a bronzed effect. The wood box is in fact a huge block of Rice Crispies. Time taken: approx. 18-20 hours.

This order was for a group of geneticists who study fruit flies. I actually had the rare opportunity to meet the clients who ordered this cake. When they told me what they had in mind, I let them know there would be fighting amongst the sculptors to get to make this one. Its sciencey, its anatomical, its creepy, cute, and gross (all at once,) and it freaked out the decorators, so I loved every second of this project. The little hairs are bits of floral wire. The same wire runs through the legs are the silhouette of one of the wings. The rest of it is solid white chocolate. Time taken: Approx. 16 hours.

Happy Birthday Spiderman

 The season finally of Cake Boss finally aired, so I can post these pictures now. I have to say, this cake had to be one of the funnest to work on. We had to put in extra hours to get all the characters done, but no one complained because we all wanted to do it. We even added some bonus characters that hadn't been asked for.

Kraven the Hunter, getting punched in the face.

Flail-Spidey on a string. He's gonna jump from a ledge and web-sling into action!

 

Venom! Oh, hey, and me back there... behind the blind guy.

A little blue sheen added to the skin to make him pop. (Mary Jane and Spidey making out in the background.)

Everybody's butts look so nice!

Mary Jane and Spiderman sharing a moment. I love how the whole idea of the cake was to tell a story. These two get placed on an actuator and rise up out of the mini subway and rubble. Seriously: The funnest cake ever.

Crouching Leopard, sparkly shoe

I thought this one turned our pretty cool. This leopard was about 10 inches long from tail to shoe. Sometimes... we get some really cool cake orders.

Fancy Nancy was complicated. There were so many details, she has about 5 dozen different outfits, CRAZY hair, and a giant head, but it turned out almost exactly how I wanted.

This is the most common type of order: a portrait piece, usually incorporating the customer's favorite thing, or something that represents them. We get photos of what they look like and what they're supposed to be wearing, and we sculpt them about 6 inches tall. I thought this one turned out especially nice.

Finally, its safe.

The season finally of Cake Boss and The Next Great Baker are finally over, so I can share some pictures of my favorite sculptures from last year that might have been seen on TV.

check out the concept art in the back.

All the guys couldn't stop staring at my bunny... not sure why.

I don't think this was ever shown, but the bunny was meant to go on a sample cake for NGB.