Ace of Cake...Mix!

I realize that I promised three days ago to fill you in on one of my other amazing birthday activities but neglected to do so in a timely manner. OOPS. Life got in the way - AKA, seeing Book of Mormon and preparing to bridesmaid it up at another wedding and getting my hurrr did. 

But now we can talk about it! And by it, I mean CAKEMIX.

Please raise your hand if you are a lover of the Food Network and thereby obsessively watched Ace of Cakes, starring one Mr. Jewish chef Duff Goldman, when it was on several years ago. I am raising my hand! Which is why when he opened up Cakemix, I knew I had to go. Decorate a cake made by Duff and his band of merry bakers? YES PLEASE. So when my mother surprised me on my birthday with the news that we were going there I was so excited!

We walked into the shop and were greeted by a friendly server who handed us a form to fill out to select a cake or a cupcake set, fondant or buttercream, and of course, flavor of our dessert. We went for a lemon poppyseed cake with vanilla frosting. I immediately started drooling over the jars of sprinkles and candies displayed on the counter:

Look at the amazing icing colors. So pretty!

We were given aprons to protect our dresses...

And gloves to protect our hands. Martha Jewart was pumped.  

Here is the cake when we got it! An empty canvas.

We got started by mixing some food coloring into our fondant - obviously I wanted pink, and my mom talked me into a pink/white "tie-dye" combo. Then we put it in a little machine that flattened it out all the way so we could spread it over our cake.

Here it is looking like a little pink dress for the cake!

Once the fondant was on and all smoothed out, it was time to start decorating! I wanted to go nuts with rainbow sprinkles and hearts and a J stencil but Martha Jewart insisted we create a classy cake. So we started with some basic polka dots...

And added some more in a different color...

And then topped it with some beautiful stenciled flowers and a LITTLE bit of rainbow sprinkles. And then, voila!

Look how beautiful that little cake is! We were so proud!

The most fun afternoon ever, right? And rest assured, the cake was delicious. We tasted it for the first time after coming back from Palm Springs and it was fantastic. I already have plans to go back with a few friends in a couple of weeks, and totally see this as being a great spot to take a visiting out-of-towner.

Team Duff forever! I can't wait to go back!