Safari Adventure

And yes these cupcakes were an adventure..... This weekend, my dad's coworker's daughter was having a safari themed birthday and asked for cupcakes to match. The family actually loaned me an awesome cupcake decorating book where they got the safari idea from that listed directions and the best materials to work with to create the animal effect. I may go buy that book!

The elephants were by far the most difficult to make. The book gave a template for the white chocolate ears and nose but after I stuck them into the sides of the cupcakes they immediately started to sink a little with the weight. Oh, NO! This is a decorator's worst nightmare, when gravity and temperature are against you. Although it was a cooler day in Buffalo then the upwards of 90 degrees we've been experiencing, chocolate is so delicate that even the slightest bit of humidity can be detrimental to your project. So I decorated them, added a little extra buttercream as "glue" and immediately stuck them in the fridge with the hope that once the frosting hardened a little it would keep the ears and nose solidly in the cupcake. As of now, while waiting for the customer to pick them up, they're still together! I really hope the customer has a smooth drive home.....

The monkeys, oppositely, were the easiest of the three animals! That was as simple as frosting the cupcakes and adding other colors and candies to make the face! The most clever part? Cheerios for the ears! The best part about this book was that it gave edible suggestions other than frosting to make the facial features, very creative ideas that I would have never thought of.

I made the lions last which were also not too complicated. The faces were simple enough, similar to the monkeys, but the licorice mane was definitely time consuming. From cutting up the candy to sticking them into the cupcakes one by one, it was pretty labor intensive. I especially loved the colors on this cupcake, perfect for kids!

Hopefully the kids have a great party today and best wishes to the birthday girl!

Cosmetic Cake Creation

A good friend of mine asked me to help her make a birthday cake for her sister, a makeup artist. She picked out the eye shadow you see above and together we worked to create this cake! It took a long time and a little experimenting to get the colors and the cake to look like the makeup but I think we did a pretty good job, don't you?

We started by covering the cake in black fondant. For those who don't know, fondant is what gives the cake the silky smooth exterior, very often seen on wedding cakes. It's a combination of sugar, glycerin, and a lot of other ingredients that you roll out and lay over a thinly frosted cake. We then took a small piece of white fondant and added a small amount of green, yellow, and blue food coloring and gently folded them into the white to give it the marbled look. To create the letters, we added tylose powder to the black fondant to create gum paste. Gum paste has a clay-like texture which is easier to work with when making shapes or 3D figures. After adding a small buttercream border to the very bottom of the cake, it was complete!

This was a lot of fun to make and I hope my friend's sister had a very happy birthday!

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce myself....

Everyone has childhood dreams, things they want to do and professions they want to persue when they "grow up." But discovering my dream came as an accident. I never though about becoming an entrepreneuer or wanting to decorate cakes for the rest of my life, but that's exactly what I'm doing. After college decisions, multiple major changes, and trying to decide on a course of study that would best fit my non-existent professional endeavors at the time, halfway through a business major and a job at a local supermarket later I have decided to simply go for it. My name is Mary Maroney, I'm a 20-year-old college student from the suburbs, and I own Dolly Cakes, the finest cake artistry in Buffalo, NY.

Where did the name come from you ask? When deciding on a name for the company I wanted something catchy and fun, but also personal and close to my heart. I played with the idea of Buffalo as the Queen City, trying to incorporate the city I love, and painstakingly bounced names back and forth with friends and family, attempting to find something that was simply "me." And then one day, while sitting in my dorm room at Canisius College (another place I call home), talking with one of my very good friends, it hit me. Dolly Cakes. As one of the many nicknames my mom had for me as a child and still does, it was personal, had that cutsy appeal, and more than anything, it was "me." And so I had completed step one.

So now what? I had the name, logo was next. I have a very talented friend, Tan Ho, who has produced some of the best digital media art I've seen. And the awesome logo you see as my default picture was created by him, along with the flyer and business cards I will soon be ordering. He took a simple drawing I sketched and turned it into more than I could have ever dreamed of. Once again, it was very "me." Step two, check.

But how do I get the word out there? How will people know I exist? For now it's been mostly through word or mouth, but through one of my favorite developments of the modern world, the World Wide Web, I have created a Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/DollyCakesCakeArtistry, a Twitter profile, http://twitter.com/DollyCakesBufNY, and this blog. Not only is the Internet and Social Media sites one of the fastest ways to reach people, it's simple and most important, free. As the classic struggling college student, free is one of my favorite words. Step three, complete.

The best part? I would have to say is what I make. I have very dedicated taste testers that oh so graciously volunteer their time and taste buds to criticizing my creations. From friends, to family, to my dad's coworkers, I have many people whom I appreciate to tell me what I'm doing great and what I can improve on. I've made cupcakes ranging from Strawberry Daiquiri and Bailey's Irish Cream flavors, to Coconut Lime, Creamsicle, and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Any flavor you can think of, I can create a cake, filling, and frosting to match. I also create event cakes, not only with frosting, but with fondant and gum paste, you know, the fancy stuff we dreamily obsess over on the Food Network and TLC. If you can dream it up, I can create it. I am completely self taught with a little bit of advice and help from friends who have had professional training. I will be posting pictures of each cake and cupcake creation I make and ask for all the feedback I can get! (Constructive criticism only please. )

So there you have it. I'm just a girl who finally figured out what she wanted to do with her life and I'm jumping in head first. As I said before, my name is Mary Maroney, I'm a  20-year-old college student from the suburbs, and I own Dolly Cakes, the finest cake artistry in Buffalo, NY.


Since I have no official store location, I am taking all orders via phone (716-348-8684) and email (dollycakescakeartistry@gmail.com). Spread the word!