Kristi Rapp

In the last several months I’ve decided to dig up some of my work from the past. I went back to the beginning when my passions and studies first started showing themselves. I hunted down my artwork from college. In high school I took mostly designing and beginning freehand drawing classes. Assignment were basically; draw a leaf, draw this person in this pose, make a sunset with these paints. In college my assignments were much broader: fill this paper with any subject(s), but don’t leave any negative space. Another was, make a collage of different images you find using various mediums. My mind started to create using some of the skills I had learned and I came up with some very very interesting pieces! One of my favorites is this one:

I titled it LOVE. SHHHhhh, I actually made this when dating one of my first loves and his name is hidden in the elements. Can you guess what assignment this was? The entire picture was done with Conte crayon… and so began my love with Conte Crayon.

So awhile back we were invited to a pig roast, only problem is… I don’t eat pig. I don’t eat any red meat actually no matter how “white” people claim it to be. Well, my husband, being the encouraging force behind most of my creations, thought it would be a great idea to volunteer me to make the deserts for this festive event. I mean, what a great way to show off my developing skill and practice more techniques? Well, what we didn’t know was that there would be close to 80 people! At first we were only expecting 30 or 40… but as time went by and more people found out about it, more and more people wanted to witness this epic pig roast.

I decided to bring 4 different deserts: a banana and strawberry triffle, a tres leches cake, a chocolate cake with chocolate bailey’s (baked at Cinderella Cakes), and a white cake with lemon cream cheese filling (one of Cinderella cakes ready to go signature cakes).
The triffle was eaten up so fast, especialy by all the children and the Tres Leches cake???? Well, let me just tell you about MY Tres Leches cake. I don’t follow just anyone’s recipe, I adapted a couple different parts of recipes and added my own special twist. I added a rum filling inbetween two layers of cake; and if that isn’t challenging, I don’t know what is! Tres Leches is a white cake soaked with a combination of three milks and secret spices. So you tell me how hard it is to layer a cake soaked with milk? But it was well worth it and everyone just dove into that one too. I must say, I’ve tried other Tres Leches cakes, but I like mine the best.

One of my proudest accomplishments was the icing and decoration of my “pig roast” cake. It was made with chocolate cake and chocolate bailey’s filling; DELICIOUS! I choose the decoration to go along with the pig roast theme and opted to make it funny. SO I redrew part of a cartoon I saw on the internet… tell me what you think?

It’s for us vegetarians attending the party and those who just don’t like the thought of picking out a live pig and slicing him up to roast yourself. It was the favorite desert to look at!

My husband even helped by cutting out the red and blue fondant stars so that I could glitter them and put them on the cake. I think he helped because he felt so bad volunteering me to make deserts for 80 people and it was much appreciated! Here are his fabulous stars.

So Once those three deserts were made, we decided to make sure everyone would have desert and bought a signature cake from Cinderella Cakes. Cuz… you never know when someone wants to try more then one desert!
Over all the even was a huge success… the deserts were at least. The pig was placed in the pig roasting box around noon but still hadn’t completely cooked by 10:00pm! It was much bigger then they though. I guess some of the guys had gone to a pig farm and actually picked out the pig when it was alive and running around. They were only given an estimate on how many pounds it would be cooked. Well, it was much MUCH bigger then anyone guessed. But from what I could tell, it was mostly worth the extended cooking time. Most of the guests had left and we served desert first (which was fine by me… Life’s uncertain, Eat desert first!). But those that stayed were VERY VERY happy with the taste of the cooked pig!

In my former life I’ve never been known for my timeliness. So when I post this picture you’ll understand that I’m still not ALWAYS on time with my holidays and congratulations… but I ALWAYS deliver.

I wanted to share some delicious cookies I decorated for Father’s Day. Working at Cinderella Cakes has it’s benefits, Im learning new ways to decorate using royal icing and many other products. Most of my gratitude goes to Beth. She was on The Ultimate Cake off on TLC in February and won the challenge. Her cake was an amazing six foot Sweet Sixteen design. You can look it up on youtube if you’re curious about the episode. I get to work with her almost everyday and learn what to and not to do when I decorate.

I love working at Cinderella Cakes. Every day I witness new and creative ways to make delicious tasting treats look fabulous. One of my favorite things to watch is when our artists create figures out of fondant. (We call our decorators “Artists” because they are more then just following directions, they are creating and it takes an Artist to create no matter what media they are using). I’ve seen everything from large hot pink bows, glittered 4th of July stars to babies, elephants, and even little people. It is amazing to watch. So when I was given the opportunity to help on one of these magical cakes I took it and didn’t look back!

Little did I know, I’d be creating ROCKS!!! I started with three to four different colors of fondant and instead of blending them together, I stretched them and pushed them together in order to keep the colors distinct. It was fun and easy! Then I took bits and pieces apart from and formed them into the shapes and sizes we’d need. But the best part was???? I did such a great job I was asked to make rocks again for another cake! I know this sounds really silly… and it is, but I love my rocks! I am so proud of my rocks I took pictures! and soon I’ll post a little spoof video of the “Epic Rock”. ~music will be added soon…hehee~
Epic Rock!
So in the future… if you find yourself in need of some edible rocks… you know who to call.

Drums Drums and more drums!!!  A friend of ours has an adorable little boy who is turning three and just idolizes everything about his dad.  And most significantly he love when his dad plays the drums.  This little boys LOVES the drums so much that everything else boy like in the world comes in a distant second.  SO what a better way to make an impression on a drum loving little one then to replicate a drum set on his favorite kind of cake; CHOCOLATE with vanilla cream center and icing!!!

But for this Artist who barely knows what a single drum looks like carried by a man in a marching band, it was quite the challenge! So diligently I searched the internet for pictures of drum sets until I found one I thought I could replicate on a 1/4 sheet cake. This was tricky too! Ever tried to make a straight line without a ruler? With a couple tricks I learned and read about I carefully attempted my first design transfer. I mixed a couple colors and used a paint brush to draw on the movement lines. Voila! My first drum set, A very very Happy and Ecstatic Three year old who couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear while he looked at it! The most personal touch? I put his name on the Drum in a rock and roll style that made it all HIS!

For the guests that didn’t like chocolate cake, my friend and I made yellow cupcakes with whipped cream frosting and fondant decorations that spelled out Happy Birthday Silas! Those went super fast too… well the frosting did, you know kids!

All I can think is… it’s just gonna keep getting better and I love the creative part of making the cakes!

So I’ve just finished my second class in cake decorating and think I’ve created more royal icing flowers then I thought existed!  WOW!  Daisy’s, Pansy’s, Cherry Blossoms, Daffodils, violets etc…  And this is my finished product.

This was a fun project.  The hardest thing was transporting the cake home from class.  The cake ended up being so tall after I put the flowers on that the carrier lid smooshed the top of the cake a little.  It was beautiful when the flowers were a little more propped up, but it still looks pretty and I’m happy with it.

The other fun thing I did with this cake?  I used banana flavoring instead of butter or vanilla in the icing and filling.  It was delicious!  So refreshing after weeks and weeks of straight butter cream.  Then I took an ordinary yellow cake recipe and added some allspice and cardamom.  WOW!!! What a cake!  I’m saving this one for my portfolio!

Check it out!  My friend and I got a little creative and decided to help out our pastor and his wife by making one of their son’s a birthday cake.  The only request he had was that their be lots and lots of dinosaurs.  So once we got those covered we put our heads together  and asked what else is a do little boys like?  and of course the answer was DIRT. lots of DIRT so we added the dirt with a little explosive element, a volcano, for good measure.  We made this with 24 cupcakes, one 6 inch round, and the top of a cupcake mold cake pan.    See what you think?  Did we do a good job?  Tomorrow we find out for sure if boys go wild for this and gobble it all up!

So I’ve been taking two cake decorating classes this month; one on fondant and one floral gumtext.  The combination of the two of them is enough to make me get confused and a little crazy at times.  Well, lately I’ve been playing with fondant and creating roses.  At first we were told to use one color, but if you know me, I like to experiment a little and so I added a couple of colors to give my roses a variegated look.  They actually look really pretty!

I guess they looked so good, my cats decided to give them a try too.  SO in the morning when I woke up I noticed some of the petals had been broken off.  I guess they look better then they taste <little grin>. You can check out “Cakes I Make” for a couple more pictures.

So I haven’t made any cakes lately, but I did go on a field trip to the Getty with my loving husband and we learned so much about the architecture and landscaping.  It is funny to think, that every little piece of limestone, every tree, flower and all the colors were precisely planned out!  Have you been there?  Did you know that all angles were planned to be 30 degrees of multiple of?  Look at the rows and columns… none of them are curved… all straight lines and all the slabs are divisible by three.  Amazing.  the small tiles are 9 inches, the larger ones are 30 inches, the number of  steps to the Getty, everything was purposefully calculated!  Now that’s what I call obsessive!

Water trough or irrigation?

Sun Dial of Sorts

Then we went in side, and my world was not only shook but woken up and spun around!  So often I fear imperfection.  I hesitate to put that paint brush in the paint and start making strokes on yet another canvas.  Yet looking at these great artists and their work makes me realize, they were a little afraid too!  DId you know Monet was more then likely obsessive compulsive?  He would continually paint and repaint the same subject 30 times or more.  Or that Van Gough probably had manic depression?  Have you looked closely at the works of Leonardo DeVinci?  All of them kept trying to recreate reality, yet their art spoke worlds to us with it’s emotion, not it’s accuracy!

So, now I’ve decided… I MUST put that paint brush on that canvas and just let out the emotions that I feel in the things I see.  SO what if it isn’t as perfect as a picture.  So what if it isn’t how someone else sees it.  IT is ART and it is suppose to tell a story, give an emotion, transend the world I see into a world I create.

Over the next couple weeks, I hope to put up lots of tests!  Lots of drawing just to get the art flowing again!  I hope you like it, but if you don’t… oh well… lol… It won’t make a difference to me.  I’m just getting started again and I”m not stopping for anyone  So I might try and be a little obsessive with my art, just a little bit until I feel the groove coming back again.  Or then again, maybe I’ll never stop!

So my latest cake creation is a sweet pea flower spray over a 1/4 sheet cake.  I used easter colors and make a fresh lemon cake.  Delicious!!!  I dropped it off at my cousins house so that she could use it for their easter brunch and also as a birthday cake for one of my Hawaiian cousins.  I’m hoping to find out soon if the cake was as good as it looked!