Crossword

Well, It is a new year! 2010 is upon us, and great thing will happen this year........ that's what I'm hoping anyway.

This cake was done for a lucky lady who was born just 2 days into a new year, back in 1930. That's right, she just celebrated her 80th Birthday!

I was honored to be the person selected to make such a special cake. This would be a surprise party for this women, she had no idea her family was planning this party!

The cake itself is very personal. It's made to look like a table with a lavender tablecloth draped over it. This Birthday girl loves crossword puzzles, so this Kansas City Star page was made with gumpaste and hand drawn with black edible marker- by my hubby- handwriting extraordinaire.

The cup is a coffee cup, again made with gumpaste. I used the outside of a small cup as the mold, and did the handle separately. After this dried a couple of days it was filled with chocolate, then I put some caramel on top of that. I mixed in white with the caramel to make it as realistic as possible. The end result was lovely- a cup of steaming coffee with milk.
The client asked for a Rosary, so I researched a bit on how these are made and why. I couldn't make this one exact but I did try to get the idea of the different prayer beads, separation and meaning in mine.
The puzzle pieces were again made of gumpaste. Cut and colored, then once dried, labeled to be the names of her already gone son, daughter and husband. I can't even imagine he loss, but hopefully this cake helped them be honored at her birthday as well.

Last was the bead work added to the center of the flowers embossed on the tablecloth.
I love the end result and I'm sure she did too!