Truffles and Shoes (Christian Louboutin)

This post is dedicated to Christian Louboutin.  He is a household name so I don't have to explain how he is the shoe master.  Here's a bit from Wiki...

Louboutin helped bring stilettos back into fashion in the 1990s and 2000s, designing dozens of styles with heel heights of 120mm (4.72 inches) and higher. The designer's professed goal has been to "make a woman look sexy, beautiful, to make her legs look as long as [he] can."While he does offer some lower-heeled styles, Louboutin is generally associated with his dressier evening-wear designs incorporating jeweled straps, bows, feathers, patent leather, red soles and other similar decorative touches. He is most popularly known for his red-bottom high heel shoes, commonly referred to as "sammy red-bottoms." Christian Louboutin's red-bottom colour code is registered as Pantone 18-1663 TPX.

Despite being known for his celebrity clients, he rarely gives shoes away – offering discounts instead to his high-profile fans. This policy also extends to his personal family, because he feels that giving shoes away as gifts is unimaginative.

His single biggest client is Danielle Steel, who is reputed to own over 6,000 pairs and is known to have purchased up 80 pairs at a time when shopping at his stores.

Wow,  I want my own Pantone color!  And Danielle Steel, can you start buying some cakes please?!;)

These are everything!

I love these too!  Stop looking!;)

His men's collection is fun.  I will take a pair of the red and the green;)

And these babies above are 8 inch heels.  I think you have to be Black Swan to wear them!

Here is the one that sealed the deal!!!... love those studs!!  It's like shoes with rainbow jimmies (or sprinkles...whichever you call it)

So as you can see....amazing style with lots of detail.  I really am digging the studs.  And I think I know just the thing to make.

I started with a company called in2food (and yes...it's supposed to be lower case) in November as their creative guy.  I get to travel around and put on presentations using our products....sweet gig (pun intended).  We import chocolate, chocolate decorations, and many other pastry products from Europe and Asia.....things you couldn't just find in an American store.  One of the lines we carry is called Pavoni.  They are a company based in Italy with some seriously awesome molds!  

The shapes are fun and inventive...this is a dessert made from the Pavoflex molds.  I need something small though, like a truffle mold to create my studs (well... over the top studs).

This truffle is not the shape I am looking for but you can see how unique the shapes come.  Here are some splatter paint truffles I made for a presentation last month......

Pretty fun!!  The mold I used is called Formaflex Micro Savain Quadrato.....sounds fancy;)

Okay let's get started....

I chose this mold (Praline Mold Diamante) because I love the shape and I think it will look cool as an exaggerated stud.  I melted some white coating chocolate and dyed it pink.  I don't like to add gel or liquid color to chocolate because it will start to thicken.  I used this pink powder color and add a small amount of oil to make a paste.  The oil works great because it will not thicken the chocolate and it also allows all the color to "bloom".  If you were to add just the powder to the chocolate, it would have little pink flakes.

Now that the truffles are made, we can start on the cake.  I only want one tier with the studs, so I need to make the other two something fun, but not overshadowing.

I have always wanted to make a cake that looks like this.... speaking of black swan...I bet she's wearing those 8 inch heels!

Yes....it's McQueen...of course;)  Since I am using chocolate, I decided to use another medium that is used in desserts (you know, something other than gumpaste or fondant).  Coconut!!! Note here....you have to use the large flake coconut to achieve this look.

I start by smearing an area of the cake with royal icing and then patting it with my spatula to get a rough effect...

Good.  Now I push handfuls of the coconut shavings into the royal icing.....this is a little messy but super fun!

As you can see.....it doesn't look like the swan dress....but it's a start.  I do this first to get a good base and then I add pieces to get the look I want.....

I am also using rice paper (wafer paper) to add larger pieces.  I cut various strips...

Then I pull them against my scissor blade to curl them....it's like curling a ribbon....but be super gentle!!

Now I am going to add the curly pieces and more coconut by hand.  I pipe bits of royal protruding out....this will give a bit of volume to the texture....

Then hand place my pieces....I know...I am ridiculous...I like tedious work;)

Now that looks way better.  I left the space at the top to add a crystal ribbon and then work my way up to it.

Let's glue the truffles...one at a time with royal.  You can see I added some texture to this tier.

It looks really fun but not enough...this is Louboutin....it's got to be over the top.  I am going to add some white truffles where the texture is...

YYYEEEEESSSS!!!

Here she is all together!!  Drum roll please....

  It's a bit of a departure from my piping and throwing gold on everything!

If you wanna see more from in2food just visit the online store here.  Oh, and I will be doing some "how to" videos next month for our Youtube channel.  I will keep you posted. 

Don't forget the "Craftsy Classes" button at the top.  And also, if you wanna get updates just add your email to the top right corner.....or follow we on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Flikr.

That is all for now!  Bye!

Velvet and Valentino

Can we just talk about this photo for a minute?  Perfection!  This is one of the many reasons I love the work of this man.  Valentino Garavani.....or as we know him...just Valentino. He became known in his early design years for this bright and rich color red.  The color now has it's own name....Valentino Red.

Here are a couple of my faves...

This already looks like a cake!  I love the piping.....surprise, surprise!

I love this look too....

And THIS is everything....

Here is the latest fashion show.  There is a ton of cake inspiration here with the color blocking, large scale patterns and clean lines....

This is the look that became my inspiration....

I am a sucker for a photo that looks like it is in motion.  I love the movement in the garment!

It's a dramatic statement in a simple way.  So I will definitely be using the red color, the ruffles, and maybe add a touch of gold.....I am putting gold on everything at the moment!...even my desserts...

Yes...that's a golden blackberry! I'm obsessed.

Since the fabric of this piece is not a pattern, I need to create some sort of texture to break it up a bit.  This brings me back to A Cake Fit for McQueen.....

Remember this texture from the top tier of the cake?  I never showed the technique and now is the perfect time.  

I will start by covering both of my cake tiers in red fondant.  I was going to mix my own red but Fondarific has a great red with the same bright color as Valentino....

Also, because we are doing a texture treatment on one of the tiers, we need a fondant that will not dry out so fast.  So this will work great.

We are going to work on the bottom tier right away because it has the texture treatment.  Using a patchwork cutter, I will emboss the cake in a...well..."organic" way;)  

This is the cutter....it's the Large Daisy Patchwork Cutter.

Push the cutter into the cake just until the lip touches the surface.  Then pull away.....

Then continue along.  Keep in mind, this is not a "perfect" application.....it should look wild and spontaneous!  As you can see in the photo above, I have a fondant smoother to hold the tier in place while I use the cutter.  This will allow you to push in without the cake sliding, or getting any hand prints on top.

Okay now for the gold.  So usually I mix my gold really thick like paint so I can guild my piece and get an amazing shine.  This, though, will be a color washing....so I mix it every thin...

So the idea is that, you run the brush over the cake and the gold mostly gets trapped in the nooks of the cutter marks....looks like fancy wrapping paper;)

Now I put the tiers together and add some ruffles to the top tier....

We need to make the ruffle "pop" though.  I am going to mix some thicker gold to detail the ruffles....

YES!  A couple extra touches and we are done!  I added some piping and a butterfly to round it out.  

She's finished!!

Now a couple of announcements....

• If you want the latest updates and posts, subscribe by adding your email in top right corner of this page.
• Also, you can follow me on Facebook or Instagram or Flickr.  And for more dessert inspiration, you can follow my new company in2food on Instagram.
• I have a tool line coming out this year that I am super excited about.  I will post links when they arrive through Country Kitchen Sweet Art.
• If you want discounted classes on Craftsy, you can use the "Craftsy Classes" button at the top of the page.  I will update that list as classes are released! 

Lastly, I will be teaching in Canada in September with Karen Portaleo....

These are the cakes.  Click on the picture for more information.  It's gonna be fun!!

Bye!