A sweet plastic lamb Pez dispenser is the centerpiece for this quirky, colorful cake sculpture called “Candylamb with Bunnies”. The dispenser is embedded in the center of a blue vintage plastic candy basket and is surrounded by plastic rabbits (these came from England) with little pink plastic babies riding on their backs. The bunnies are wearing small faux icing bows under their chins. This cake is brightly colored with combinations of red, orange, blue and pink faux icing decorations.
All my icing is created from high quality acrylic artist materials, from a formula I’ve developed over the last 30 years, and the colors are hand mixed by me and extremely colorfast. My cake sculptures are a time consuming process as I start by tracking down interesting vintage cake toppers, plastic toys, lucite and celluloid decorations, and anything else that I like that is washable. I then ice the sculptures (starting with a dense styrofoam base) by layering multiple layers of faux icing over several days, or weeks – and I make all the faux sugar roses, or other faux icing decorations, like medallions, in advance. The sculptures are washable with soapy water and a hand sprayer.
I have a shop in Phoenix (and on Etsy) called Kooky Krafts and we are definitely into keeping the kitschy sensibility alive. All our crafts are handmade by local artists and crafters, and I make quite a bit of it myself. I’ve been involved in the art scene in Phoenix for many years.
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Allee Willis
Wow! I love all the details. This is my kind of crafts project, it never stops! Can you tell us what it’s made out of? Is it fabric? But then all the little flowers look like actual dollops of frosting. Details please!
Really love the little babies taking rides in the bunnies.
Are there Pezes in the lamb?
kookykrafts
Allee – All my cakes are made out of faux icing so they last FOREVER – but I decorate them with the same tips and icing bag you use to make real cakes. The icing is a formula I developed over the last 30 years and is made out of high quality artists materials (all acrylic) including very colorfast acrylic paint. The icing is applied over a dense styrofoam base so the cakes are very lightweight. I like to put them on display motors so that they are constantly turning and you can see all sides; or a cool retro cake stand. I’ll send you a picture later of the one in my shop window which is about 6 feet tall and very elaborate (and kitschy)!
There are no pezes in the lamb since after it is attached to the icing you can’t insert from the bottom of the dispenser. But the head moves open and closed! The little plastic retro bunnies came from a shop in England…
Allee Willis
Love that they’re all made from actual frosting? Is that the same for the other things you submitted (which I’ll post over the next few days, one a day)? They’re so great!!
Would LOVE to see the 6 footer.
kookykrafts
They are iced with a faux frosting – that is not made out of anything eatable. But applied just like real frosting. And it looks like real frosting. When people see them in person they want to touch them becasue they think the icing IS real! I’ll get a good picture of the big cake and send it along in the next couple of days : ) .
windupkitty
I”m in heaven….please kookykrafts, post more!!!!!!! This cake is insane and it lasts forever??? That’s completely cool…..
windupkitty
ok, I just checked out your etsy pages and i am losing my mind….so many years wasted not looking at your creations!!! wow, wow, wow….i’m overwhelmed!!!
kookykrafts
Thanks for checking out my Etsy site windupkitty. I started listing there in November as a supplement to my bricks and mortar store in Phoenix. The nice thing about the cake sculptures is that they are FUN to make (and I love the scavenger hunt for great vintage plastic cake toppers) – which is not true of all the art I do. I’ve painted for a number of years and that is a lot harder, and ultimately not as much fun as the more crafty projects I’ve undertaken. I like them both but they are definitely different…
windupkitty
Oh yeah, I”m a huge fan of vintage cake toppers, though sadly, my favorite supply store closed down years ago…I lovelovelove them! SO nice to see them here and I truly love your projects! I agree about doing something for the sake of expression and fun….I like to paint and collage too, but it’s a different vibe…it’s nice to do something to blow off steam and produce smiles all around…these days, for me, it’s been sock monkeys : here’s a very old vintage cake topper creation of mine…nowhere as beautiful as your glorious cakes! https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2009/11/19/bedroom-slippers/
Allee Willis
And what STUPENDOUS sock monkeys those are! It’s crazy that those aren’t posted here. I should probably do a quick post of me, Charles, Prudence and Mark with our sock monkeys just so everyone can see them here. I figured everyone saw them on Facebook but they certainly deserve to be at AWMOK. I will get that together in the next couple of weeks. Going insane on deadlines right now but the monkeys deserve their props!!!
windupkitty
hahahah you are too kind to me, Queen of Kitsch! Don’t build them up cause they really aren’t that goo! JUst for fun and definitely at kindergarten level(which is sadly my artistic maximum)…won’t stop me form making them though….there are several in the works as there are some awmokers here who are getting sock monkeyed whether they like it or not! :D
Allee Willis
Untrue! I stick with stupendous.
kookykrafts
I left this on your page but swill repeat here, as I don’t know how things are checked on people’s pages: These are so funny (and fun)! A great use for cake toppers. I completely covered some converse tennis shoes recently with pom poms (they looked like clown shoes) for a fundraiser here in Phoenix (artist-designed converses). And although L.A. tops Phoenix in most things, we probably have one of the best cake decorating stores (ABC Cake supply). However, the kids took it over recently and the cake toppers are definitely not as neat as they used to be. Part of it is due to the fact that cool cake toppers are hard to find and they just don’t make some of the great designs anymore : ( .
Allee Willis
Whoever’s page you leave a comment on has the comment emailed to them. That goes for their own personal profile page as well as for the pages of every piece of kitsch they’ve put in the museum.
kookykrafts
Windup I left this on your page but swill repeat here, as I don’t know how things are checked on people’s pages: These are so funny (and fun)! A great use for cake toppers. I completely covered some converse tennis shoes recently with pom poms (they looked like clown shoes) for a fundraiser here in Phoenix (artist-designed converses). And although L.A. tops Phoenix in most things, we probably have one of the best cake decorating stores (ABC Cake supply). However, the kids took it over recently and the cake toppers are definitely not as neat as they used to be. Part of it is due to the fact that cool cake toppers are hard to find and they just don’t make some of the great designs anymore : ( .
Douglas Wood
Love this! What a wonderful piece of folk art, and spectacular use of color.
kookykrafts
Thanks Douglas. They are definitely fun to make – except for the rare occasion when a wet swan-body-in-progress accidentally rolls onto the floor and gets mushy faux icing all over the place) They are somewhere between art and craft – that’s why I like to call many of my crafty projects “city folkart”. They are not done without artistic intent, but wallow in a love of very traditional crafty materials and concepts, but twisted into non-traditional, quirky versions of all those things we grew up loving, or have nostalgic memories of.