1936 Ford Cake

Our Shop was commissioned to create a birthday cake for a gentleman who owns a 1936 Ford. I've created a few car cakes over the years, but never a vintage one like this. It was going to be a lot of fun.

I started by going a little "Duff Goldman" on the cake stand itself (minus the fireworks and power tools). I used cardboard, a hot melt glue gun, and my creativity to put it together, complete with curvy fenders and bumpers. I created a full set of vintage whitewall tires and the spare. The plan was to have the lower part of the car be the stand, holding the upper body (cake). I painted piping gell all over the armature and covered both sides of it in rolled fondant -- sealing it for the cake it was about to hold.

Now it was time to torte the cake with buttercream, carve it down, crumb-coat it, cover it in fondant and place it onto its custom base. This was all relatively straight forward. All together, it really started looking like an old car.

After creating the various details and giving it a final paint-job (with black food coloring), the finished cake really came together.

When the customers arrived, they saw it and were thrilled. Great Job Team Clarencedale!

~Dev

HOT 101 E-QUARIUM CAKE at the EASTWOOD MALL

The management of Eastwood Mall in Niles, Ohio contacted our shop with a Valentine's Day request -- they needed a high-profile cake for the HOT FM 101 Wedding Cake. The challenge was to create an edible work of art which captured the spirit of their new "E-Quarium" exhibit. Eight couples would be sharing the event, and the cake on-the-air. Pretty cool!

Our shop got busy creating concepts and throwing ideas around. We all agreed upon a design that would utilize three fish bowls stacked, one on top of the other. They would be covered with thin illustrations of tropical fish, fondant seaweed, a gumpaste octopus, a fondant treasure chest, and a fondant shipwreck. The topper would be whimsical -- hand-sculpted tropical fish, kissing, with a heart shaped bubble between them.

Once we got our sketches finalized, everyone got to work baking, creating vats of buttercream, mounds of homemade fondant of various tints, and hand-painting/sculpting the artistic elements.

Onlookers that saw our cake at the mall were amazed by it. And those who tried a piece thought it was absolutely delicious. Way to go Team Clarencedale!

~Dev

Nothing Says "Happy Birthday" Like a -- ZOMBIE HEAD CAKE?!

Well... our shop is now in "Valentine's Day" mode. The last thing we would expect to see on our customer request list this time of year would be a ZOMBIE HEAD -- naturally, I was THRILLED! We had created one before a couple years back, so this would be a walk-in-the-park. So, like some madman on a mission, I carved/crumb-coated cake, and layered fondant into what you see here. The cake itself was designed to serve around 25-30, and was made with entirely delicious, edible materials (even the finishing touches were painted on with food coloring).

It turned out cute, don't you think (complete with a pucked-out eyeball/"Happy Birthday" message)?!? I can only imagine what we'll be doing this Halloween... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

~Dev

Defying Physics: The Chef's Hat Cake

Recently, a customer wanted a chef's hat cake that was standing upright, in glorious 3-D. Very cool!

The challenge we faced was to create a tower of cake that was stable enough to support a billowy, oversized top -- giving the illusion of a "Chef Boyardee" style hat. The problem... it's extremely top-heavy!

We decided to go a little "Duff Goldman" on it (Duff, for those few people who don't know, is the creative genius behind "Ace of Cakes" and the chef of his own world-class shop, "Charm City Cakes"). He often employs unorthodox methods to achieve awesome results (he and his staff, respectively).

We used a wooden armature, complete with dowel rods, screws, and plastic cake tubes. The result was one stable cake.

With some final detail work, the cake was complete. I'm proud of how it turned out -- GOOD JOB TEAM CLARENCEDALE!

~Dev

"The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" Cake

Last week, we got the chance to create a sculptured cake based on one of my all-time-favorite movies: "Monty Python & the Holy Grail". The client's daughter was turning 17, and happened to be a huge Python fan (a girl of good taste... no doubt!)

Her mother was tickled by my enthusiasm during our phone conversation -- I even quoted dialogue from the movie to prove my knowledge of it, and my excitement over the theme(... and that I'm a complete movie NERD). It was a once in a lifetime cake to do -- I mean really... how often do we get a call for "The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" at our cake shop?!

It came together, and looked awesome -- I was really proud of it. The girl's mother was thrilled, and even gave me a hug in our shop's parking lot (my first customer hug). Awe...

"It's just a flesh wound"
~ Dev

The First Post

Good morning everybody!

We all thought it would be a cool thing to offer a 'blog -- a companion piece to our popular "Clarencedale Cake" website.

For those of you who have ventured over to our shop at 332 Tenney Avenue in Campbell, Ohio -- THANK YOU! We hope you left happy, wearing a buttercream moustache & a smile.

Best Regards,
Papa Dev (Co-Founder/Co-Owner, "Clarencedale Cake")