Beautiful Roses Can Make the Cake

We delivered a wedding cake to Lindsay Street Hall in Chattanooga this weekend.  It was one of those simple pearl dotted wedding cakes.  I've done many like it before.  In fact, before leaving the shop I didn't even take a picture of it.  I just had to drop it off at the venue and put some fresh flowers on it.

When I got to Lindsay Street Hall I found the flowers that the florist had left for me.  Before I could even remove them from the container I couldn't help but notice that these were the largest, most beautiful pink and peach colored roses I had ever seen!  As I started putting these gigantic roses on the cake I began to really fall in love with it.  I checked the label on the container and saw that Humphreys Flowers had provided the florals.  I don't know the names of these roses YET!, but I will be speaking with someone from Humphreys soon to find out more about them!

It just goes to show that sometimes you can take something perfectly elegant and with just a simple addition turn it into something spectacular.

This Knot Helps No One

At least twice a week I get calls from salesmen wanting me to advertise in their publications, usually a bride-centric or wedding-themed issue.  I almost always say "No", and for two reasons.  First of all, I rarely see any leads from print media.  Maybe that's my fault for coming up with goofy ads, maybe it's the publisher's fault for not getting it into enough hands, or maybe it's the reader's fault.  I really don't know - let's just say I've tried it and not been happy with the money I've spent.

But my biggest problem has to be with the content that these magazines come up with for their "Wedding" issues.  I once advertised in a local magazine that said "Bridal cakes are all the rage these days and prices have gone up; be prepared to pay anywhere from $1 - $2.50 per serving for your cake."  Say what?!?  At the time, I was about the cheapest cake vendor in town (tied with Publix) and my prices started at $3.00 a serving.  I literally had a fit on those people.  I told them I had basically just paid a tidy sum for them to announce to their entire readership that my prices were WAY too high, when that was FAR from the case!  No one at the magazine could even tell me where they got their information for their Wedding Cake article.  Maybe from their grandmother's archive of old magazines?

Another time I found out that I had been voted "Best Bakery" by our local "Your Hometown Magazine".  I decided to run a small "Thank you" ad in the magazine just so people would have my number handy after reading it.  When I got the magazine, I opened it to find that they had done a huge article on a competing bakery across town!  I was floored by the lack of planning on the magazine's part.  It wasn't long before their salesman called wanting to know how excited I was to run some more ads in their publication.  I told them about my disappointment and the only thing they could say was "Yeah, I guess that was bad timing, huh?"  You betcha!

This weekend I was in Atlanta and stopped in a book store and a quick coffee break.  Someone had left a copy of the Georgia version of The Knot laying on the table next to ours so I decided to thumb through it.  I have advertised with The Knot in the past and I've had my share of issues with them, but they generally give out good information to brides.  So when I found a "What to Ask Your Baker" section, I thought I had better read it so that I could be prepared for these questions.  I almost spit out my latte when I read that brides should ask me if my "buttercream is made from imported Italian butter!"  If I get asked this I am going to respond "No, but I have an imported Italian cow that I milk everyday, just to make butter!"  Seriously?  I consider that my time as well as the bride's time is valuable and asking crazy questions like this does no good for anyone.

So brides, if you happen to read this, make sure that you realize that all these great articles you read in Bridal magazines are usually written by someone who has little to no knowledge of the actual service they are advising you about.  Decide what's important to you, make a list, and ask your baker (or other vendor) those questions instead.

And bakers, have you noticed this type of silly or downright misinformation in publications before?  What was the worst cake "advice" you've seen in print?  And do any any of you use imported Italian butter in your buttercream?

Mad Hatter Victorian Cake

 Some nights I sit in bed waiting to get sleepy and I wind up trolling Pinterest on my iPad.  It usually just gets me wound up.  I see some new cake or craft idea and my brains explodes trying to think of some way to incorporate it into a new cake design.  When I saw this mini mad hatter tutorial on Seeing Things That Aren't Really There, I knew I would have to make one for a cake.

I made this cake for my friend Amanda's birthday.  I decided on a romantic Victorian design with a hint of steampunk.  For the bottom tier, I did buttercream ruffles.  for the second tier, I used edible image sheets to recreate a layered ruffle design.

For the top, I used some molds I got from Kara Buntin along with some button molds to make a small Victorian collage around the monogram.  I added a lace mold to to give it little more of a feminine touch.

I really wanted to make the hat edible, but time ran tight and I just just used the paper template directly from the Seeing Things... blog.  It went together pretty easily and I have have my sights set on doing it again, but out of gumpaste or modeling chocolate.

I really appreciate each and every one of you that stops by here and visits the blog.  I hope you have an awesome week!

Buttercream Comb Cake and Comb Tutorial

 You guys know that I'm all about some buttercream cakes and when I can duplicate a fondant design in buttercream, well I'm just about the happiest girl on the block!

I made this dummy cake a few weeks ago (so this is actually royal icing, but it still works with the good stuff) and I wanted it to have the look of fondant strips.  It took me a while studying a few I found online in order to figure out just how I needed to make my "grooves" to give me the exact shape I needed.  Then on my first pass I used it upside down!  But it still looked neat, so I realized that I got two looks from the same comb.

So How Do You Make It?

Well, I had several freebie plastic bowl scrapers that I picked up at a food show a few years ago.  They are flexible, but still still sturdy enough to mold buttercream.  At the time of this writing I haven't found a source for you to get these, but I will keep looking and update the post if/when I find some.  UPDATE:  Amazon has this for 39 cents each - looks like it would work.

From there I just used a T-Square to cut the side straight (the bowl scraper was originally very curved) and used a ruler to measure each of the indentations on the comb.  Then I used a Sharpie and my ruler to complete the cuts.

The possibilities of this technique are only limited by your imagination.  You could do waves, or even something like dental molding, just keep in mind that you want your design to remain fairly shallow, as we are taking away buttercream, and there's still cake underneath that really needs that buttercream.

What design would you make if you made your own buttercream comb?

Rough Iced Lemon Swag Cake

I found this lemon floral swag on clearance at Cal Java a while back and it was so cute and such a great deal that I bought it right away and figured that I would find something to use it for eventually.

The rustic look has been so popular here that I wanted to create a rough-iced "buttercram" dummy cake to show my clients and I immediately turned to my lemon swag.  I actually used royal icing to cover the dummy - it looks enough like buttercream, but it will hold up for a long time.

This rustic look is a great option for the budget conscious bride.  Wouldn't this little wedding cake look super cute in a small barn venue?

AND THE WINNER IS...

A couple of weeks ago I teamed up with Craftsy to offer a giveaway for a free Craftsy class.  Yesterday we chose a random winner and the lucky cake designer is... Christine from Cakes by Christine!  She informed me that she just started her business back in January so stop by her Facebook page and give her a LIKE!  Congrats Christine... I hope you enjoy your class as much as I did!!  And special thanks to Craftsy for sponsoring the giveaway - I look forward to working with them again soon!

Stag Head Woodland Wedding

Click to Enlarge

I made this dummy cake recently for a bridal show.  My goal was to make a very elegant cake, but I also wanted to give it a really rustic feel, since those seem to be all the rage these days.

My inspiration for this cake was a necklace a friend got a while back on Etsy.  I borrowed it from her and Chaddy used it to make a cut file for the Cricut.  From there I took the 2 half height tiers and used an impression mat to give them a good wood graining.  I know it's hard to tell from the photo, but if you click on it to enlarge it, you should be able to see it better.

For the borders, I used some leftover rhinestones for a punch of bling on the wood grained tiers and I used a twig mold on the plain tiers.  When I was finished I really liked the monochromatic look.  The cake got a lot of response when it debuted at the Chattanoogan's Wedding Showcase.

Have your signed up for our Craftsy giveaway yet?  This is the last week to register to win Mike McCarey's Advanced Sculpting Class; don't miss out on your chance for free cake training!!  Click here to see the post!!

Review of Mike McCarey's Advanced Cake Sculpting Craftsy Class

Full Disclosure:  The review of the following Craftsy class is purely my own.  I am not being paid or compensated for my review, but Craftsy is offering my readers a chance to win a free class.  Read on to find out how!

MY HISTORY WITH MIKE
There is all levels of skill for cake artists.  People that are just trying the Wilton Courses, some that have been to culinary school, and some that learn "on the job".  I  started with Wilton Courses, then self taught using great books, then on the job as an Assistant Pastry Chef.   I still have a lot to learn and a great desire to learn more.  However, I might want to know how to make a botanically correct garden rose, but my customers don't ask for or want to pay for them, so I focus on learning things that I can actually use in my business. 

Like every other cake person, I used to love Food Network's "Cake Challenge".  There were many great competitors, but my favorite by far was Mike McCarey.  His work was always flawless, well thought out, and perfectly executed.  He was one of the few contestants that would make the cake BEFORE the show and work out all the kinks.   There was no drama or stressing, just perfect execution.  Can you tell that he is my cake idol? 

When I saw that he was teaching a two day modeling chocolate class in Atlanta, I came up with $1000 (give or take, it's been 3 years) and took that course.  I learned so much!  It was worth every penny!  So when he came back to teach a cake structure class/Big Bird, I scraped the money up, again around $1000 (OK, I charged it and dealt with it later...) and skipped down to Atlanta.  Again!  The most-best-awesome class I have taken.  The things I learned help me every week.   I also bought his car making video and it's awesome too!  On the downside, I had to "close" my business while I went to school, had to get accommodations, food, travel and the cost is a lot.  I still think those classes were worth every single penny! 

So when I saw that Mike McCarey was offering a class on Craftsy, don't you know that I jumped right on it!  He is my cake hero and favorite teacher!  That being said, I'll try to be objective and give you a little review on the class. 

THE REVIEW
I think this is truly an advanced class.  This is a hard cake for most people with a lot of techniques.  If you are just a cake hobbyist and Wilton Classes are your current skill level, then this is maybe not the class for you, just yet!  You should have carved some cake in your life, worked with real butter-buttercream, have some ability to use tools.  Mike doesn't go over basics, like how to cover fondant.  Thank God, because some of that "filler" has put me to sleep on other classes.  If you have never done a cake with structure in it, this is a great place to learn.  He does this great thing where he blows up the picture to the size that the cake will be and draws in the exact size hardware that he needs.  It's a great learning tool, and it makes the sculpting SO much easier!  I have brought a blown up picture with me to Lowe's and sat in the aisle of the plumbing department trying to find the exact right pieces. 

Mike goes over everything you need to know to make a great Bobble Head Style cake.  It's the most entertaining Craftsy class I have seen.  He is just so comfortable in front of the camera and talks just like he does in person.  I didn't get bored at all, even though I have been taught a lot of the information before.  I still picked up some great new tips and refreshed my memory on structure building.  When someone teaches me something, I'm that type that wants to know "why" and not just how you do it.  Mike helps me truly understand so that I can carry those lessons on to other situations.  His bobble head cake strategy can be used for making so many things.  If you learn these techniques of planning, blueprints, patterns, structure, refining, and finishing you can use them on every cake that isn't a traditional stacked shape. 

My favorite thing about Mike's style of making cakes is that it's very well planned, which will lead to good execution.  Carving cake is very scary, but when you have an exact blueprint that will get you 75% done, it becomes less scary.  He doesn't take chances with a cake structure and that's a really good thing.  I would hate to have 4 days worth of work fall over during the delivery.  Learning his methods are like having "cake insurance". 

I've heard of a little complaining because the head doesn't actually "bobble".  He does go over how you could make that happen if it was important to you.  But, if people aren't impressed that you made a birthday boy into a bobble head "style" cake then a extra spring isn't going to impress them either.  A cake doesn't have to move or shoot sparks to be awesome!  Please!

I am not bitter....but this class will pretty much teach you what I learned in a two day/$1000 hands on class....only it's not $1000!!!  It will take 292 minutes to watch it all!  It's a long time, but it's a lot of fantastic, non repetitive material.  After watching the entire video, I can't find one thing that it's missing compared to the Big Bird class I took (other than his awesome assistant, also named Mike.  I missed him!).

Mike does recommend that you take Lauren Kitchens "Modeling Chocolate" class.  I haven't taken it yet, but since they are big buddies, I'm sure that it's similar to what he taught me in the two day/$1000 class.  So, run and take it!  Modeling chocolate knowledge is the single most important thing I've learned for making sculpted cakes.  I could NOT make a clean, well executed sculpted cake without it.  Learn about modeling chocolate! 

As with any video, please watch the whole thing before you leave a comment or questions.  I don't know how the man is so patient with some pretty crazy questions.  I'm sorry to be harsh, but man,  if you can only ask "The great and powerful CAKE OZ" one question, do you really want to waste it on something silly or that has already been answered three questions up?

As you can tell, I highly recommend this Craftsy class.  I am so excited for all of you to be able to learn from Mike McCarey.  His is the BEST at what he does and is a FANTASTIC teacher.  I cannot wait for more classes!

The best of of all this is that the fine folks at Craftsy have generously offered to gift Mike McCarey's Advanced Cake Sculpting class absolutely free to one of my readers!  How cool is that? Use the link below to register for the giveaway.  In order to give everyone time to enter, we are going to run the giveaway from now through  Sunday April 21st.

http://craftsy.com/CupaDeeCakes_CraftsyClassGiveaway

 Don't forget to enter and have an awesome week!