Wedding Cake at The Mill

During this past weekend I was lucky enough to do a wedding cake for a lovely couple at The Mill in Chattanooga, TN. What a beautiful event hall!

This cake was inspired by the bride's dress. Her dress featured overlay lace, and I used an impression mat to achieve a very similar pattern on the second tier. On the top tier, I molded a ornate plaque and hand painted the couple's monogram. I used the buttercream flavored Fondarific and the extended work time allowed me to get a really nice effect.

In case you were wondering, the floral arrangements were done by Divine Designs by Amanda and the table linens were provided by The White Table.

The spotlights made a hot spot on my photo, but click on the picture to see a close up picture that show a lot more detail. Thanks for stopping by!

Head in the Clouds!

When you do as many cakes as we do, you sometimes find yourself using the same techniques over and over. Recently I was asked to come up with a design for a fellow's 75 birthday. He liked Cessna-type planes, but they didn't want a sculpted airplane cake. We didn't feel as though we could make a gumpaste plane, so it was off to the hobby store to find a small model. It was harder to find the plane than it was to put together!! The cake was a 3-tier buttercream cake and we used fondant to make the trees and mountains.

The clouds are where the "new technique" comes into play. I made a batch of marshmallows and piped them into pillowy cloud shapes on a bed of powdered sugar. They came out so perfect! They were fluffy, cloud-like, and delicious!

Tennis Cake, Anyone?

This week is finally over and Thank Goodness!! I had a couple of weddings on Saturday and even one for today. This tennis racquet cake was one of them. I'm always so excited when a couple can step outside of tradition and really go all-in for a cake that REALLY showcases their interests and personalities. I made the racquet full size (using a real tennis racquet and some butcher paper to make a template. The handle was made from crispy rice treats; I have done 2 racquet cakes previously and used cake for the handle. The cake is so high and so thin that it wants to sway a little. The rice treats work SO much better. For the strings, I used a clay gun to extrude small fondant ropes. I had to mix in a little Sweetex to give me extra working time, but it was worth it. I needed the extra working time so I could weave the fondant ropes for a more realisitic look.

The tennis balls were made larger than real size and are all fondant covered cake. I sprayed the balls with a new product I got called pearl sheen and I just loved the look. I ordered more of it tonight. I used a small fondant covered Styrofoam riser so that one of the tennis balls would set a little higher. I hope you enjoy the cake and I hope everyone has a great week!

Brown Modern Wedding Cake

This is a cake I did this weekend. Another bakery in Torrance CA designed it, so I can't take credit for the elegance. I am so happy that a bride was so brave to go out of the box and do something completely different for Dalton, GA! We delivered it to the Farm Clubhouse in Rocky Face, GA. Her colors were pink and brown. She even made homemade apple butter as favors for the guests. It was packaged beautifully.

Anyway, to the cake. It was a 4-tier white cake with raspberry preserves (seedless of course!), my house buttercream and chocolate fondant. The lines and roses were made from white chocolate fondant. Super tasty, but I find it's very hard to work with, especially for these flowers. It is just so floppy even after I added some tylose. I found the crystals in the floral section at Wal-Mart. I attached wire through the hole in the crystal and built the simple rose around it. Not all had crystals. I had to let them dry in a clean egg carton so they would hold some of their shape. Another trick for a cake like this is that I made about a 1/4" well in the layers that help hold the preserves, that way they next layer sits on the outside 1/2" of cake and doesn't go sliding off. I don't think I'm explaining this as easy as I see it in my mind. Can you just get inside there? Well, maybe you don't want to do that! Anyway, if you just make an icing dam and fill it with the preserves (or other slick filling) your layers will slide. Some fillings don't ever change consistency with they get cold and that makes keeping the layers lined up a challenge. Lastly, my husband is still not allowed to lift anything over 25lbs and this cake was well over. It had 12lbs worth of fondant! My mom offered to help me and she tried, but she was so scared she was going to drop it that I ended up having to grab it and run. A little scary! She and I have learned that there are things she can help with, but at 67 with bad knees, carrying cakes will not be one of them. She did keep me very good company and made friends with all the staff while she waited on me to take pictures. We had a good time!