Ep 3. Bugging Out

Texas Cake House is undoubtedly a unique series that brings out creative cake designs and flavors that will leave you salivating. In episode three of season one entitled "Bugging Out," cake artists, Natalie and Dave Sideserf, take on a challenge of creating insect-inspired cakes for a creepy crawly event in Waco, Texas.

The episode starts with a view of a collection of creepy crawlies such as lizards, snakes and spiders crawling in aquariums and display glasses. Natalie and Dave, who love to incorporate artistic and architectural aspects into creating their cakes, are tasked with creating a cake design that captures the fascination of these creatures. They have to create a taste and design that fits each creature to perfection and a cake that fits the overall theme of the event.

Their first cake creation of the day is a green lizard, which is about forty-eight inches long with a body that curves and twists around the table. To get the specific color guests expect for the lizard’s body, Dave and Natalie decide to use airbrushing to get the best blend of tones. They use fondant to craft the cake body and weigh it to prevent it from cracking. Natalie expertly creates the eyes and the claws from rice dough, which is a cake artist’s secret and ingredient to creating intricate designs. They manage to make a sugar paste tongue with a special curve that gives it a lifelike appearance. The final features they add to this piece are the scales, which gives it the final touch.

For the second cake, the duo decides to do a red and black-striped snake. This piece is a simple yet brilliant idea which they will create from chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream. To get the stripes right, Dave and Natalie first dye the buttercream, spread it with buttercream and then roll it over with fondant to get a smooth finish. This cake is about seventy-two inches long and takes up most of the space on the table. To create a striking design, Natalie and Dave use wire mesh to shape and build the body. Cutting the cake pieces into stripes and rolling them to the required thickness gives unique detail to the cake. When complete, the snake looks pretty menacing like it’s about to slither off the table – it’s that realistic.

The third cake they create is a Black Widow spider that will make your skin crawl. They decide to make the body of the cake out of half-and-half chocolate and vanilla cake to get the best contrast and taste. Besides the body, Natalie creates the detailed legs and fangs needed to make this cake standout. The fangs are curved and exaggerated for effect, while the eyes are made from airbrushed sugar balls, which help in creating the design. The body is dark chocolate with the head having piped stitches and glitter spray. This cake is undoubtedly a focal point, from its eight-inch size to the intricate and realistic design.

The fourth cake is a creepy-crawly inspired mud cake. Natalie decides to make this cake with multicolored layers, which guests can scrape off like dirt to get to the cake. The base cake is covered with dark chocolate ganache flavors, with the layer designed with crumbled chocolate or white chocolate cake smothered with ganache. For an added effect, Natalie tries to create an environment where bugs often thrive using Oreo crumbs sprinkled over the mud texture. The cherry on top of this piece is most definitely the crafted sugar beetle adorning the carving shovel working on the cake.

The fifth cake is a cricket cake that is excellently crafted. Natalie uses rice dough to mold the legs and mandibles of the cricket. The cake is made of chocolate and vanilla flavors with textured finish made with back-to-back natural colors to bring out realism. The cake is styled to look like a log with the cricket spanning it. Chocolate chip cookies get repurposed to form a cavity to hold cricket eggs ensuring that the cake is aesthetically pleasing.

In conclusion, episode three of Texas Cake House season one, "Bugging Out," is an incredible watch that will excite and leave you wowed by the creative designs and flavors that Natalie and Dave are able to create. Their love and passion for creating cakes known no boundaries, continually pushing themselves to come up with interesting and intricate designs. It’s a show where you get to learn how to be creative with cake designs and flaunt your artistry.