Back in the Clay

After the sewing I did 2 weeks ago I got busy with a VERY large clay order.  A wonderful customer of mine will be attending a Barbie convention/event later this year and commissioned me to make 4 dozen Barbie sized cupcakes in both Halloween themed designs as well as Christmas ones. She also asked if I could remake this cake in Barbie scale.

I loved the design and couldn't wait to get started on it.  I started by making a bunch of tiny stars in both gold and white pearl.  (As a side note I LOVE that Luster Dusts exist in the culinary world!  I love being able to make shimmery foods! ;-) )

Then I made the larger gold star, and oh about a zillion tiny pearls for the star trails.  Each pearl is smaller than the head of a pin, oh and yeah I actually made THREE sizes of pearls!  Each white clay pearl was shaped, then stuck carefully onto a needle tool and dipped into white pearl powder and rerolled.  After I made the requisite zillion I baked them.  Thankfully the pearl powder kept them from sticking together.

After baking all of the decorations, I sculpted the large cake shape. My customer decided to go with a large banquet size cake.  I baked the inner core of the cake first after shaping it.  I also poked several holes in the base to prevent any trapped air bubbles from distorting the shape. (Thankfully that worked! LOL)

Next up came a pristine layer of white pearl clay, which after smoothing down carefully got a dusting of pearl powder.  I baked this layer as well to prevent any damage or discoloration when I added the red ribbon design.  The baked stars and pearls were added onto the raw red clay and then the whole cake was rebaked.

My customer loves it! :-)

I love to create my own designs, but there is something rewarding about recreating something that is 10 times larger in real life, in miniature.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the cupcakes I've been making! =D