More Florida I.C.E.D. Pics

So I apologize for the lack of new cakes, but I have to go to school sometimes.  Oh yeah, and my apartment is finally reasonably cleaned up after the I.C.E.D. competition so I need to enjoy it for a little bit before I dirty it up.  Don't worry, I'm not out of ideas yet.

Here are some of the professional pics from the competition, courtesy of Elise Kersey Photography.

My cake, clearly.

Here are some detail shots:

Did I mention I loved the floral tier on this cake?  And did I also mention I have nowhere to store this cake, so it's currently my centerpiece on my dining room table??

I feel my stringwork could have been just a little cleaner, but I was still happy with the results.  Except for the part where I broke one whole section after turning the cake right side up.  I wasn't too happy about that result since I had to redo it, cramped hand and all.

Strings and brooches.  I liked this separation concept, but I wish I had made the bottom tier a little bit bigger.  Lessons learned...

Here I am receiving one of my awards from my blog buddy, Melanie Judge from Mel's Cake Walk.
This was the first time we actually met in person, though we've been corresponding via email for about a year-- she was relieved that I was at least mostly normal in real life. :)  Thanks again to Melanie and her mom for being great hostesses!

And finally, here I am with the judges: Edna De la Cruz, Mercedes Strachwsky, and Rebecca Sutterby.

Overall, a great experience!  Lots of fun and lots of lessons learned. :)

Orange Birthday Cake

I was asked to make a 30th birthday cake for a fabulous lady who's favorite color was orange...

It was an interesting challenge to come up with a theme and color scheme that incorporated orange that would not look like Halloween, so here's what I came up with. 

First of all, this was my first gluten-free cake, so I learned a few things, like don't use Pam Baking (with flour in it!) when you're making such a cake. FYI.

I covered the cake in Swiss Meringue Buttercream, which I colored orange.  However, I found that it was hard to smooth it and keep the color consistent, so I ended up airbrushing it with some orange and pink pearl shimmer to even it out.   I piped the scrolls with white royal icing and painted them gold, then the strings and letters I piped with burgundy royal icing.  However, it was super humid when I made this cake and this was the first time I ever saw color start to run.  If I had it to do over again, I would have let the cake thaw from the fridge longer (because it was sweating a little) and let the airbrush color dry longer before I had done the piping.  I finished the design with buttercream borders and purple isomalt gems.

My friend who requested this cake said they ate the whole thing, so I hope it was tasty! :)