Equestrian Bat Mitzvah Cake

We've been lucky to make some fun Bat-Mitzvah cakes lately!  They are way more fun than birthday cakes because they are MORE!  They are bigger, sparkly and more sophisticated than most birthday cakes.  Our birthday girl is a fantastic equestrian and took her favorite theme into her party.  I wish we had picture of the fantastic barn they decorated and used for the party.  It made me want to be the birthday girl!
  
It's hard to tell but each tier is an oval shaped tier. We did not taper the tiers inward but we did angle the tops of each.  The cake was buttercream with modeling chocolate cut outs.  We found the silhouettes off a background website and Chad converted them to use in the Cricut.  We printed out a couple of pages of edible images for the pennant flags.  The riding hat on top was hard only because I had to come up with something to go under it so that it wouldn't sit flat.  That was a customer request.  The pink, coral,blue and navy was very pretty in the barn and the cake looked great there.  Looking at it now, I would liked to have had more color on the cake as a whole, but I don't take liberties with the conditions of the contract. I know it's not always ideal, but I would hate to add stress to a family the day before an event.

That's when it's

great to have longtime customers that can trust you enough to change the design when needed. The blue ribbon, hat and riding crap were all made from fondant with a little tylose to firm things up.  I hope you can draw some inspiration from our little cake!

Valentine's Party

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day! We just had our third annual Valentines's party for our trivia team. It's a small group of super great people. It is a good time of the year for me to bake new things and have a good time trying new recipes. We make a dinner, appetizers and lots of desserts. The desserts included white chocolate pots de creme with strawberry compote, tiramisu, cheesecake balls, bourbon caramels, strawberry pavlovas, peanut butter fudge, and on and on.

The cutest idea by far was one I found on Bakerella's site!  I fell in love with these tiny cookies on tiny stands! Sqeeeeeee! By far those cookies, as well as the other cookies, took more time than everything else combined. I used the cookie and icing recipe she recommended and they were pretty good, but I'll keep looking for THE recipe. I hope you guys take some inspiration from these and make them for someone super special. My guests ended up taking the stands home and giving them to others to brighten their day (and hopefully never be eaten).

Worley Rustic Wedding

 

Barn weddings are everywhere!  If they are not as popular in your area, you are a little lucky.  Don't get me wrong, they are pretty in a rustic or fancy rustic (trademark pending) and make for nice pictures.  Most are not air conditioned, which means fondant icing is the best idea so that sawdust doesn't stick to the buttercream.  Some brides just won't do fondant, so here we have a buttercream cake in a barn. Pretty!  We added the little gold dots with a paint brush that I cut to be a flat circle. I know it's super hard to tell, but the bottom tier had lines scored in it, a little like a tree pattern.  The pendent banners were purchased on Etsy and the flowers were real.  The result was rustic, pretty and tasty!  

Pleated Fondant Wedding Cake

We have done a few cakes like this, but I do have a little advice and "new thoughts" on the technique of the pleated fondant.  I've noticed on some of the FB cake groups I'm in that a lot of people ask how to do this look.  Many people are doing a version of it by cutting several angled pieces of fondant and layering them on top of each other.  It's a much flatter look.   There is nothing wrong with that version, but it's not the same as trying to make the fondant look like pleated fabric.  If you are brought a picture like this cake but don't make it the same way, out of one piece of fondant, the look will be very different.  BEFORE you sign a contract saying you will do it , try it on a cake dummy so that you can prove to the bride and yourself that you can get the same look.   If you are a customer and you aren't SURE your baker can do something, offer to pay for a small trial run, like a top tier size. 

This cake was made using 3" styrofoam  cake dummies in between the tiers.  I painted all the flowers with an airbrush ahead of arranging them.  The flowers we stuck in if they had wire, but most were "glued" in place with royal icing.  My advice here is use as many different size flowers as you can so that you don't have blank spaces.  I  have been known to make a few roses petals and squeeze them in when the are soft so it looks very full.  We also airbrushed the dickens out of this cake when it was all stacked and ready to go!  My bride wanted a pearl finish so she got it!

Anytime you have a tier of cake floating above flowers you have to deal with hiding the edges of the cake boards.  For me, ribbon is the answer because it is not heavy and you can pull it tight so it doesn't sag.  Buttercream borders can fall off due to gravity, as can fondant pearl borders if they are large.  Have you ever noticed that when the bakers in Europe make this type of cake, they still have a larger cake board under each tier?  So a 6" cake would have an 8" cake board, then a 10" cake and 12" board, etc.   I don't like the look myself, but it sure would be easier! 

                                                  

*I owe you a close up picture.  I accidently deleted it :(