My mother stitches my family’s history together one quilt at a time. My childhood bed at my parents’ house — the one my daughter sleeps in now when we visit — is covered with one of the first quilts she made.
When my sister, and then my brother, and then I got married, she made each of us a quilt. She marked the arrival of each of her six grandchildren with a baby quilt. And as each of those grandchildren turns five and start kindergarten, she makes another quilt.
When I see one of her new quilts, I always look for fabrics that she has incorporated from previous quilts. My wedding quilt has some polka dot fabric from my niece Elli’s five-year cat quilt.
The pinwheel baby quilt she made for Eliza includes fabric not only from my wedding quilt, but from her cousin Elli’s quilt as well. Tessa’s penguin baby quilt has fabric from all of these quilts.
Eliza’s five-year cottage-by-the-sea quilt, complete with ferry boats, Orca whales, and raccoons jumping out of dumpsters, includes so many fabrics that I keep finding–by surprise–pieces from many of the quilts my mom has made over the years.
My mother stitches my family’s history together one quilt at a time. My childhood bed at my parents’ house — the one my daughter sleeps in now when we visit — is covered with one of the first quilts she made. When my sister, and then my brother, and then I got married, she made each of us a quilt. She marked the arrival of each of her six grandchildren with a baby quilt. And as each of those grandchildren turns five and start kindergarten, she makes another quilt.
When I see one of her new quilts, I always look for fabrics that she has incorporated from previous quilts. My wedding quilt has some polka dot fabric from my niece Elli’s five-year cat quilt.
The pinwheel baby quilt she made for Eliza includes fabric not only from my wedding quilt, but from her cousin Elli’s quilt as well. Tessa’s penguin baby quilt has fabric from all of these quilts.
Eliza’s five-year cottage-by-the-sea quilt, complete with ferry boats, Orca whales, and raccoons jumping out of dumpsters, includes so many fabrics that I keep finding–by surprise–pieces from many of the quilts my mom has made over the years.
My mom rocks.
This summer, my family planned a get-together in Minneapolis, MN, where my brother lives. A couple weeks before the trip, my brother asked if I’d make a cake for our mom’s birthday. I loved the idea of a birthday party for my mom. As far as I know, my parents have attended every single one of their grandchildren’s birthday parties. This might not seem like a big deal, but my parents live in California, my sister lives in New Mexico, my brother lives in Minnesota, and I live in Washington state on a small island accessible only by ferry or small plane. Birthdays are a big deal, and my parents always make them special.
Coming up with a cake ideas for kids has never been a problem because kids always tell you what they want. This surprise party had me stumped, though. Finally my husband pointed out the obvious: make a quilt cake.
Now that I had an idea, I needed a plan. Should I drape a quilt over a cake and add scissors, a needle, and thread, or should I try to create a bed? Whatever the plan, this cake would come together in an unfamiliar kitchen. I shipped icing colors to my brother’s house because I didn’t want them exploding in my suitcase. I also sent a variety of geometrically-shaped cookie cutters for good measure; quilts involve lots evenly shaped fabric pieces, and I certainly didn’t want to cut all those fondant shapes by hand.
When I checked in with my brother about pans and spatulas, he told me he’d mentioned the cake project to a colleague at General Mills. She offered to share some decorating stamps that she had.
He asked if she could come watch, saying, “She bakes cakes but has never tried fondant before.”“Sure,” I said as I suddenly understood what he meant by “bakes cakes.” I had just invited Betty Crocker to watch me put together one of the more complicated cakes I’ve ever attempted in an unfamiliar kitchen. “No problem,” I said, hoping those words would come true.
The night before the party, I decided to create a tumbling block pattern using one of the diamond cutters. When my husband started sketching rows of diamonds on the kitchen chalk board, I asked Meg, my sister-in-law, if they had the tumbling block quilt my mom made for my brother when he was in high school. Meg brought it downstairs, which helped with the logistics of the fondant quilt. I had a pattern, but I still didn’t know how it would come together.
In the end, I turned a sheet cake into a mattress by frosting it with butter cream and wrapping it in white fondant.
I mixed three shades each of blue, teal, and yellow to create a repeating pattern of three different colored blocks.
Then I rolled and cut the backing for the fondant quilt that would top the mattress.
Meg raided a watercolor set of some paint brushes for gently dabbing water on the back side of each diamond to help it adhere to the fondant backing. This worked well as long as I used almost no water at all.
As the tumbling block portion of the quilt neared completion, I realized the impossibility of attaching a border around it as I had planned. I eyed the unfinished quilt sadly, feeling relieved that Betty Crocker, AKA Sue, had left for a roller blading date. To distract myself from the problem, I made some fluffy fondant pillows. When I dropped them at the head of the bed, I felt better. The thickly rolled fondant diamonds offset the quilt from the white fondant backing, and it looked, in fact, just like a bed skirt.
I wish I could say I planned it. While I rolled deep blue fondant cording to trim the quilt’s newly defined edge, Meg snipped up extra fondant diamonds and pieced the miniature shapes together on two amazing throw pillows. The bed needed one last thing, and I tried my best to make a teddy bear.
I know, I know, the blue lips look weird, but at this point, I just couldn’t mix another shade of fondant. And the belly button, well, my niece Elli said it should have one, so you can talk to her about it if you disagree.
As we neared project’s end, we unleashed the kids on the leftover fondant. They busily formed snow people, complete with carrot noses and scarves. Eliza called her first effort “Sticky White Mess.”
Amazingly, the kids asked permission before scarfing up their artwork.
“After dinner,” we promised, gathering up their small army of snow folks onto a clean white plate, which later provided a fine centerpiece for a balmy Minnesota birthday dinner.
As we brought out the cake, my mom beamed like a little kid. Tessa, three, who always defends one of birthday party etiquette’s more important rules, made sure Grandma got the first slice.
Chocolate Espresso Cake
From Foster’s Market. Makes one 11- by 13-inch sheet cake or two 9-inch cakes.In the past, I haven’t included recipes for decorated cakes. The entries seem more about the decorating, which any baker could apply to his or her favorite cake recipe. But while we ate cake at my mom’s party, my brother talked about professional bakers he’d heard of who doctored box mixes when making wedding or other fancy cakes. This surprised me, an amateur baker who always starts from scratch. This time, I asked my mom, who has eaten many of the cakes I bake, to decide which one she wanted. I wasn’t surprised by her choice; she loves her coffee. I love the irony of a caffeine-filled bed.
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 7 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 4 large egg
- 3/4 cups canola oil
- 4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup brewed strong coffee or espresso, cooled
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 11- by 13-inch pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper. Flour pan lightly and set aside.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
Place chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Meanwhile, combine eggs, oil, and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until well blended. Stir in the melted chocolate.
Mix the sour cream and coffee in a separate bowl and whisk until well blended.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, alternating with the sour cream mixture. Blend until just combined. Do not over mix.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until the cake is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in to the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan. Carefully transfer cooled cake to serving platter. Frost with your favorite butter cream recipe and decorate.
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This is so incredible, Suzanne! I can imagine your mother was delighted. What an homage to her own art and craft.
Can we invite you over for our next family birthday party? Wow. 🙂
Such a beautiful cake!!! And thank you for the delicious recipe, I am definitely going to try that this weekend, can’t wait!!!
So creative and beautiful! I didn’t even notice the blue lips on teddy, I thought he blended perfectly! And I love that it was such a family effort, as well! Thank you so much for sharing! This is what a blog should be!
Now I’m craving cake….and a homemade quilt…
I’m so glad that Carrie shared this with me! Our family has lots of quilts and quilt traditions. We actually decorated the barn for c and C’s wedding with our family quilts. What a wonderful gift for your mom!
Me too, Charl. Great to hear from you. I’d love to hear about some of your quilt traditions!
What an amazing cake, Suzanne! A perfect complement to your mom’s amazing quilts. I particularly love Eliza’s ferry boat quilt!
btw, I see the teddy bear with a nicely proportioned deep blue nose – just how a bear should look, imo.
I found your comment on TheKitchn and just wanted to tell you how spectacular this cake is! Congratulations!!! Just so beautiful. I’ve baked lots of cakes but have never attempted fondant. I totally want to, now that I’ve seen this!
Elise, definitely give it a try. I’d love to see what you come up with!
This is the most adorable cake I’ve ever seen. Nice job!
I love this idea for rendering quilts! Thanks for sharing 🙂
This cake is just adorable! I love how deceptively simple the diamond pattern is – I’m definitely pinning this for later decorating inspiration.
As you mentioned, I was surprised as well when I found out that a lot of professional bakers use box mixes. Maybe that’s why I’m never really bowled over by wedding cake? The reason I was given was that box mixes give more consistent results than a from scratch recipe, and it takes some of the work out of the job when so much effort is already being put into the decoration. I guess it makes sense… But I still love scratch cake 😉
Thanks, Stephanie, for your sweet comment. Building a wedding cake is a big job! Guess I’m glad I only do it for fun so I can take extra time to make my cakes from scratch.
I LOVE THIS QUILT CAKE!!! ????
Our church group is having a quilt a thon in Aug and I’d love to make
this cake for the quilters. I have never worked with fondant. I found a
recipe to make buttercream flavored marshmallow fondant. Do you think
it will work?
Were all of your quilt pieces diamonds? Were they all the same size?
I can’t believe I found this post on the internet. I would love to hear
back from you with any tips, tricks, ideas, or hints on how I can make a
a quilt cake like this for the dedicated sewers at church!
Thanks!!! Sandy
All the diamonds were the same size. It’s a standard tumbling block pattern. If you are a quilter, this cake would be easy as it’s just like piecing a quilt. I have never added flavoring to marshmallow to fondant before, but it would probably work. Good luck! I’d love to see photos of your cake!