Recent Cakes
John Cena
This was a fun cake to make – I have been a wrestling fan since I was a little kid. Of course, this wrestler – John Cena – is much more modern than the ones I grew up with. This particular pose was requested by the customer, with the belt over the shoulder and the camo cap. I spent a great deal of time with the belt, trying to make it as close to the actual WWE championship belt as I could. I think I succeeded in making it look metallic and bejeweled… Doing a face is always tricky, and John Cena was actually trickier than most, because other than his muscular body, he doesn’t have many other...
Read More60′s DJ Turntable
This was a cake that I was able to have a lot of fun with. It started as a really simple design – a 1960′s style DJ turntable. The customer requested that a specific record be on the turntable – “Tenderly”. I decided to make the 45 record out of sugar glass, so that the surface of the record would have a different texture than the turntable. I then researched the record and did my best to recreate the label for the record. It took a little more effort, but I think it really made a difference in the cake. One problem with this design was that 60′s turntables used by DJs were generally very unadorned and utilitarian. As a...
Read MoreShark Attack
This was a very fun cake to do – my first shark! The cake was a birthday cake for a boy who is a HUGE fan of all things “Shark” – Jaws, Shark Week, etc. I suggested having an action scene, with the shark coming out of the water and destroying a boat with the “Happy Birthday” written on the boat. I tried to pay special attention to the teeth – putting in multiple rows of teeth, some of which stick out at different angles. I also had to try to make certain that I got the overall shape of the jaw accurate – shark jaws are very distinctive. The...
Read More2011 U.S. Open
This was a cake done for a company who had a group attending the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional in Washington, D.C. They wanted to have the logo for the Open remade three-dimensionally – if you see any of the press or coverage of the event, you can see if I succeeded. The image contained a stylized version of the U.S. Capitol dome, with banner and text in front. I especially liked making a miniature version of the Indian statue on top of the dome, because my Great Great Grandfather was an iron molder and helped create the actual statue. One of the trickiest parts was creating the banner in front, making it stand up three-dimensionally, but still...
Read MoreJMU Duke Dog
This was my first JMU Duke Dog cake, and as a proud alum of James Madison University, I was very happy to be able to make a cake from my alma mater! The cake was for a graduating senior, so I made it a Graduating Duke Dog, who has thrown aside his crown for a mortarboard! The mortarboard was made of gumpaste, and I think it came out looking pretty good, especially for something completely edible. I had the Duke Dog holding a diploma in it’s mouth, much like a picture of a statue I found online. The diploma is made of fondant, with wire supports. I was very pleased with how well a number of the details turned out, such as the...
Read MoreSherwin Williams Logo
This was a very fun cake challenge to work on – a recreation of the Sherwin Williams Logo in cake form! This was one of the largest cakes I’ve made – it stood over three feet tall from the base to the top of the paint can, and the cake itself was 100 servings. The trickiest part was the construction – the lower half of the globe is half of a styrofoam sphere. I used PVC pipe to support the center platform that held the cake, then a smaller PVC pipe to provide the central post for the paint pouring out of the can. I really focused on making the 2 dimensional Sherwin Williams logo as three-dimensional as possible, especially in...
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