Cherry Blossoms

I remember being a little girl and a door-to-door salesman came to our house. He was selling wood-cut pictures: tiny shaved pieces of wood stained in different colors pieced together to create a picture. I fell in love with a photo of a bird in a tree in full bloom of cherry blossoms. I wrote on the back that the picture meant that seeing a bird in a blooming cherry tree was a sign of good luck. I still have the picture (in a drawer upstairs- maybe I'll go get it out). I still love cherry blossoms. Have you seen them?

I was looking for some inspiration to make a birthday cake for a dear friend of mine. I typed in "cake modern dance" to find ideas (BTW, my words were not very helpful to find ideas for a dance cake; most of the pictures were either of dancers or wedding cakes, or "congratulations on your performance"-type cakes). See, my friend is so awesome that she's teaching an adult dance class. We moms bring our children to the dance studio where the kids run around as we move and follow the choreography that she teaches. It is SO AWESOME! I love her for many other reasons, too. Anyway, I thought I might get some ideas for a dance cake. I thought about making a figure to put on top, but I still needed some ideas.

Then I came across this picture:
Isn't that STUNNING!?!? The kanji (I believe it's Japanese, but it could be Chinese characters... anybody know?) means "Happiness". It's (obviously?) a wedding cake. Wow.

So, thinking I could probably try something like that, I started to work. I found this picture:
(Now, looking back I see that they are labelled "plumb blossom" (oops!)

And, I set to work. White fondant, pink fondant, brown (chocolate) fondant. Some twisting, rolling, etc. and some cutting and shaping and this is my end result:




I actually painted the centers of the flowers after this picture, but I didn't like the way they turned out quite as much. I wanted to use rose dusting powder, but I didn't have any on hand at 10pm on Saturday night. Next 40%-off coupon I get for Hobby-Lobby, guess what I'm buying?

I think if I'd used gum paste (and had given myself more time) I could've made the flowers thinner and as pretty as the cake in the first picture. BUT, I think my wood is better looking. Dare I say that?

At any rate, I was VERY pleased with how well the cake looked. I am pretty sure my friend was happy with it, too. She sure deserves something super nice!

Taste? Well, it was a white chocolate vanilla cake (a little dry because I only made a half-box, and it called for 3 eggs... I didn't know how to put in 1/2 an egg) and strawberry frosting (which was runny and sweeter than I would've liked, but I added twice as much fresh pureed strawberries; I think their scent went to my head). It was yummy (even considering the complaints in my side notes) and we Bailey girls enjoyed our cake*. Yup, I made a second smaller cake so we could decorate it and enjoy it at home. Here's what the girls and I put together for our "Happy Birthday" cake:Here are some other sweet blossoms from this afternoon. They are also a little silly (this was, actually pre-sugar high!):









So, I wonder what's next... I am wondering how inexpensively I could ship a cake. My sister-in-law's birthday is coming up. I've never made carrot cake, though.

*Travis is at a conference for work in Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, uh-huh. He's got it rough. Eight ours sitting inside a freezing air-conditioned building listening to people drone on about subjects even the "squints" find boring while outside there are sandy beaches and crystal clear water. Yeah, he's in a world of hurt.