Guest Blogging: Real Weddings Magazine

We've been asked to be a guest blogger for the Real Weddings Magazine Blog! Take a look and enjoy!

Day After Thanksgiving Wedding

This cake was for the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally not a wedding day, but perfect for my out of town bride and groom! I have a couple of funny (now... not then) stories to share in addition to the details of this cake.

The bride wanted this graphic to be incorporated into the cake... flowing from one tier to the next, which was a bit of a challenge considering its complexity and the curve of the image, but I was quite happy with the finished product.
This was a relatively small cake (5", 7" and 9"... for 60 guests) but with the proportions of a traditional wedding cake. The lovely silver cake stand under it added another 5 inches and really helped it have a sense of presence in the room.

In addition the all of the piping, we added occasional silver dragees. Because grey and black are difficult colors to make "wedding-y) I suggested adding a fondant ribbon band with the grey as a background color and the yellow in the foreground.

Lastly, after the cake was all assembled I sprayed it with a pearl glaze. I adore sparkles and even though I know it isn't right for every cake, I really do think the pearl really made this cake spectacular.

If you are wondering about the cake topper... the bride is in the Navy... so those are two interlocking anchors with frosted rope. A very nice touch... not what I'd expected, but lovely. This is another example of a surprise cake topper. It was surprisingly light, so it wasn't a problem, but since I had been anticipating florals on top of the cake I left a circular hole in fondant. Had I known there would be a topper I probably would have had a solid piece of fondant. That being said... it turned out just fine!

The cake flavors were pretty seasonal. The top and bottom were spice cake with two layers of cream cheese buttercream and one layer of sauteed apples. The middle was a lime butter cake with two layers of lemon sabayone with fresh strawberries and one layer of lime buttercream. (Can you say ZESTY!!!???)

So, here are the funny stories. As I was getting ready to pipe the middle tier, I sat down on my improvised stool (two milk crates stacked up) and some how, even now I'm not sure, I missed. The milk crates toppled and so did I... it really was one of those slow mo moments. The most important part... I SAVED THE CAKE! I was a little sore, but kept plugging away. I did notice yesterday that I have two HUGE bruises on my thighs (think the size of a man's palm!). Just call me grace!

Next, two weeks before every wedding the balance of the invoice is due, but at that time we also confirm the guest count and delivery time. I guess I'm going to have to confirm location too going forward. Yes, you guessed it, the worst happened. I went to deliver this cake up in Camino (about a 45-50 minute drive from my kitchen) and there was no one there! I'm sure you can imagine my panic! Apparently my darling couple never booked the location they gave me. (Of course at this point I started having heart palpitations and imagining that the reception was closer to Sac... which meant I would NEVER make it in time!) The gal at the "old" venue did have the couple's unsigned contract and offered to let me use the phone (THE DOLL!!!). I called and the auntie of the bride answered and passed off the phone to the father of the bride. What a surprise, but THANK GOD!!! Apparently they had moved to a venue right across the street from where I was... sigh... thank goodness! They were very apologetic, but boy was I happy it all worked out!

Of course these things tend to come in threes! Lastly, after I got the cake set up one of the servers (apparently the one who was designated to cut the cake) came up to me. She had never cut a cake before. YIKES!!! So I told her that this was a great size cake to learn on and proceeded to teach her the Chinese ring technique, where to find the hidden supports, how big the serving should be and what the flavors of each cake were. Sigh, once I headed home I was a wreck... thankfully the cake turned out very nicely and it was set up before the bride and groom arrived!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone... NEXT!

For those of you who don't already know...

I'm a planner. Some call it being anal, other have other uncomplimentary terms for it, but I just like to look at it as being prepared. Surprisingly, I am an optimist, so that mixed with being a planner makes me an optimistic planner. Probably not the best combination!

That being said, I've been stressing out, no, more accurately, gearing up, for the Best of Sacramento party since I was asked by Our Weddings magazine to join them. I was thrilled at the opportunity, but also, always wanting to knock everyone's socks off, a little overwhelmed.

What started out as a little production (a display cake for the Our Weddings gals' table and 2500 desserts for the attendees) has, well, kind of grown. The cake is now six tiers and the 2500 desserts has grown too. Now the menu is: PB&J cake sandwiches, chocolate cupcakes with pink vanilla frosting, caramel cream puffs, haute chocolate mousse, spicy ginger lemon mousse, brown sugar marshmallows, decorated sugar cookies, coconut macaroons, vanilla and peppermint (separately) meringues. Everything is in hot pink and white.

I know, I've gone crazy. I know, it's too much... I KNOW!!! But I love baking... and baking as advertising and baking with a fun color scheme (even better, MY color scheme) how could I really resist????

It's going to be fabulous, so if you are in the area, feel free to stop by, say hi and get your daily dose of hot pink food coloring and sugar!

Blue and Gold!

This is probably the most detailed cake I've done to date. Lots and lots and lots of gold dragees and gold decorations... all hand made. Yeash! The inspiration cake for this wedding was a Martha Steward cake, but we took some artistic liberty including the monogram. The cake had two tiers of white cake filled with chocolate buttercream and raspberry buttercream and two tiers of yellow cake filled with salted caramel sauce and salted caramel buttercream.
I guess it's a testament to my naivety about photography... but I was amazed at the color variation between these two pictures! This just goes to show you... never trust that the color of a cake in a magazine was ACTUALLY the color of the finished cake! (If my mind's eye remembers correctly, the top picture is the closest to the actual color.)

This darling couple wanted some little dessert bites to go along with their cake. So we made some chocolate raspberry tartlets, salted caramel truffles and cab reduction truffles (not pictured). These two trays were served along with the port and cigar station! How lovely!

Special thanks to Allison Stahl Photography for the beyond beautiful pictures and Laurie Schmalzel Events for referring me to her darling clients!

Birthday Shoe!

I got a call a couple of weeks ago from my girlfriend NJ, she needed a cake for her shoe crazy aunt. I asked her to do a little research and give me a sample of what she was looking for...even I need a little guidance!

Here is what we wound up with...some of my favorite details... the buckle, the stitching, the woven fondant, the shiny look of the patent leather, and the marble board... yes, that was made with fondant! Sweet!

Normally I wouldn't post blurry pictures, but when NJ sent me the pictures she said that her aunt was laughing and this is the best she could do. Fine by me, best excuse EVER!

OK, shoe on the table? Ick... don't you just love the comparison between the shoe Auntie was wearing and the cake? I love it!

Last, but not least, the guts! There was so much black fondant... I really hope they pealed it off before they ate it... no one likes black teeth!
By the way, the cake was chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream and a layer of fresh raspberries. Yummy!

Checking in... Check it out!

I did an interview a couple of months ago with Sacramento Chic, but hadn't heard anything in a while... after checking back in today... YEA, I found a wonderful article.

All I have to say is, Flattery... it really WILL get you everywhere!

Artistic License - The Flower Farm Inn

This is the last of the pictures from my Artistic License series and I'm still holding out on getting some better, possibly more detailed shots, to share with you, but in the mean time... here we go!

This cake is a translation of a dress, or possibly just formal wear. The only guidance I was given on colors or theme was that the bridesmaids would be wearing lavender and they guys would be wearing charcoal. With that in mind I airbrushed the whole cake lavender (yes, it does look light blue in this picture, but I promise, it was in face a lovely shade of light purple). The hand made buttons (with the most darling floral detail) were painted silver. (I like using a metallic to contrast a dark color.) The little stitching and the ribbon were charcoal grey. The ribbon was actually a trick... I wasn't able to find a shade of ribbon that I liked, so I used two ribbons... a black satin and a shear grey. To secure them and add more stitching detail I did little beads of icing in the charcoal grey.

I also played around a little with the tiers. Yes, it was a big cake, that being said... I like how the shorter tiers support the standard tiers. I think this would be an amazing look even for a traditional wedding cake, particularly with the standard tiers being white or ivory and the supporting tiers being a bold color... imagine what that would look like from a distance!!! What a dramatic cake!

This was a great, simply elegant cake that not only worked with the space (very Craftsman), but the colors were a nice variation on a traditional wedding cake.

I have to say this Artistic License experiment has been a great success. I've been able to play and experiment and use some tools that I haven't been able to use in a long time. I also had the most darling, sweet and flexible brides out there... I don't care what anyone else says... most brides are not bride-zillas! I can't wait to do this again next year!