My Latin Lady

Here she is…my Latin Lady!

I made this cake for my husband’s school auction last night! The theme of the night was “Bailamos” (which is Spanish for “Let’s dance!”) It sold for just under $600 and fed a CROWD! It was huge…the size of my five year old daughter!! This is my biggest and toughest cake to date! I have never attempted anything like this and had no “how to” instructions, so it was a learn-on-the-fly cake! But, I’m happy it turned out so well, given these last few days! I’ll explain at the bottom…life events always fall in weird times…when it rains it pours! But, onto the cake….

She was 15 layers of vanilla butter cake with alternating filling layers of oreo buttercream and chocolate ganache. The top torso (from the mid-boobie up) was molded rice crispy treats. I had to use 3 boxes of cereal and 3 bags of marshmallows for that 7″ tall section! I’m sorry I have no progress pics (I’m kicking myself) but I had some serious back issues and just wanted to get the cake done…so, no pics. We added a whole bunch of gold disco dust to the black fondant for the bodice, so it had some glimmer to it! The flower was a random invention that I came up with because I wanted something funky and ruffly to go with the dress.

The board was fondant pressed with a wood grain impression mat, then scored to make the planks, then painted to look like wood.
Here are two of the sweet ladies from the table that bought the cake. It also shows how big it was…Thank you STM!!!

I’m sure I spent close to 40 hours overall working on this cake. There was so much design work done trying to figure out what type of mechanism to use, how to carve it, stack it, etc. So, needless to say, I’m glad it’s over! Now I can get back to my family!! I’m glad the cake did so well at the auction and blessed Ben’s school…they have been so good to us and I wanted to give back to them…so, I’m thrilled I had that opportunity!

So, onto the back story! I have to give huge props and a HUGE hug to my friend Summer Stone who saved the day! – Literally!!! I hurt my back really bad Friday afternoon. I’ve struggled with back issues since college and had herniated disc surgery about 12 years ago. Well, I think I herniated another disc Friday about 2pm moving the cake around. I was in so much pain I could hardly move. My husband had to come home early from work and I was crying like a baby because of the stress, the pain, and the chance that I was going let people down! I couldn’t work on the cake at all the rest of the day. I had the board done, the shoes done, the flower done, the cake carved and crumb coated, but she had no clothes on! – All the final details were missing. So, I put a call out to my sweet sweet friend who’s been dabbling in cakes with me and she came over at 9am Saturday morning. Her husband came too to help us roll out fondant and do what he could. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me…It was amazing! Summer stayed until we finished the cake at 3:30pm! I had to rest a lot so wasn’t much help, but grinded through the last few hours and we got her done. Then, the other challenge began…
My neighbors came over to help Ben move the cake into the van…we needed to get the cake downtown by 4pm! It didn’t fit!!!!!!! It was 3″ too tall!!!! I didn’t even consider that…not for one second!! And we were left standing there dumbfounded! Then, my daughter said, “What about Summer’s van?” Summer has a lowered van for her wheel chair and the cake fit in there perfectly…but then, she had to drive it downtown with my husband…nope…she couldn’t go home yet! So, she drove it downtown and gave up her entire day for me and for this cake!! Summer, you are an angel and I pray the Lord blesses you a thousand fold for what you did for me and the school!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Now, back to the couch…I’m so sore today and need to rest! Thanks for reading! And, if you think of Summer, say a prayer of blessing on her!