Piped Lace Wedding Cake

I'm going to post a little quick entry today.  It's the first week of May and I have a BUNCH of cakes to work on!  We are getting a lot more requests for colored wedding cakes and I think that's great!  This a khaki color which isn't always the easiest color to achieve.  I sure wish I had one of the paint color mixing machines at Home Depot!

I used an Evil Cake Genius lace stencil and the piped an outline with a #1 tip.  I really like the look of the lace with that extra step.  The people at Evil Cake suggest putting a piece of tulle fabric  on the cake with the stencil.  I guess it's just to have a more realistic texture.  I personally don't think it's worth the effort, but that's just my taste.  My tip for the week is to add your edible pearls and silver dragees to your cake a few house before the cake is due.  If you put them on the day before they will break down and not be pretty.  OK, bonus tip!  Only make your pearl borders with Fondarific or modeling chocolate (or add 50% to your fondant).  The fat in those products will let you put the pearls in the freezer for just a couple of minutes and they will harden.  Then unmold them and they won't get all stretched out and disfigure.  When you see a really pretty cake with stretched pearls, it makes me a little sad that the decorator didn't know this tiny thing that makes a big difference.

Chattanooga Lace Wedding Cake!

Domed Wedding Cake with Lace Doilies

Sometimes we are lucky enough to have a bride that really has a vision. They know they want a cake to blend into all the reception decor as well as the venue. For this particular event the venue was the Tivoli Theater in Chattanooga, TN. There are dark red curtains, gold and silver fixtures and lots of pretty marble. The bride chose darker shades of orange and purple to accent her Fall wedding.

It is really a challenge to add a lot of color to a bridal cake while ensuring it doesn't look like a fancy birthday cake. A baker can add tons of tonal details and the cake rarely looks busy, but color really changes things.  The "easy" part of this cake was the bottom stencil and the drop strings. For the bottom tier we used the "princess lace" stencil from Designer Stencils. This is the largest design in the set.

My tip here is that we air brushed the gold while the stencil was still on and in place. We also cheated a little and used a little swag marker for all the drop strings. It keeps things so consistent and easy. The cake is all buttercream with a little fondant for accents.

There is a cake all over Pinterest that shows a beautiful cake with a domed top tier and the same lace doily design. When the bride presented me the picture, I thought "holy moly that is a lot of intricate piping!" and therefore a bunch of money. She was on a budget and I wanted to help. I got so lucky and found the the lace was all done with a SugarVeil mat and SugarVeil.

I found the same mat on Etsy for a lot less money that Sugar Veil was charging. It worked great! After I removed the lace, I dry brushed it with gold luster dust and immediately applied it to the dome. It really did cut down the work while still looking like we had done a lot of hand work. I was really happy with the final product and the Bride loved it too!

Pearl Encrusted Wedding Cake

With this cake I think I may have beaten some sort of "most dragees on a cake" record.  This cake was designed using several inspiration photos the bride provided during our consultation.

I really liked the softness and texture that the various sized sugar pearls added to the design.  When it was finished it reminded me of a winter themed cake

Getting all those dragees on the cake was actually easier than I thought it would be.  I placed each tier on a smaller inverted cake pan, and then placed that smaller cake pan into a very large cake pan.  I would take a handful of mixed size dragees and apply them to the sides of the cake.  The ones that didn't catch would just collect in that larger cake pan for me to scoop up and use again!

One last thing that's not cake-related, but I wanted to ask for your help on...

Our friends Ayesha and Zach have been selected as finalists in the StiVectin "Power to Change" program.  If they win, they will use the grant money to overhaul an Airstream and make a mobile art station in Chattanooga, TN.  They have worked very hard on this project and it only takes a click to vote.  Just click the link below:

http://bit.ly/NCH2Yo

And then click the yellow "Vote for This" button.  Thanks for your help, and we'll see you back here next Tuesday!!

Brown and Blue Ribbon Wedding Cake

Thanks for taking a break from the Royal Wedding to stop by!!

Simple and elegant wedding cakes are all the rage these days!  And this cake is about as elegant as they get!  I layered blue and chocolate colored ribbons to give a nice border and then scattered silver dragees on the tops of each tier.

This cake was delivered to Niko's Southside Grill.  It was the first time I had been to their upstairs reception room.  It was a very nice space to host an event.  I even got to ride on the dumb waiter!!

Speaking of Niko's, I once had dinner with Jane Seymour and her husband James Keach at Niko's.  Yes, THE "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" Jane Seymour!  It was years ago in my previous career.  She developed a line of bedding and home accessories for our department store.  She made personal appearances to all our larger stores and in my role as regional visual director I got to join her and our executive staff for dinner.  She was very nice with just the right amount of "celebrity kookiness".

Since she's been named as an ET correspondent for the Royal Wedding, it's like I have an inside track to William and Kate's wedding...  OK, maybe not!

Simply Elegant Wedding Cake

I think this wedding cake is a perfect example of how a cake that isn't too technically difficult can still be beautiful and elegant.

Now, don't get me wrong, I spent a lot of time getting that buttercream as smooth as glass, and placing all of those dragees on the cake didn't happen by itself.  But other than that, it's just some simple ribbon that bride brought to me and a plastic monogram that they bought.

I will give you my secret tips regarding ribbon and those pre-purchased monogram toppers though, but you can't tell anyone, OK?  LOL!!

When I use "real" ribbon on a cake, I always make 2 (or sometimes 3) passes around the cake with it.  A single layer of ribbon will begin to show the buttercream through it and look messy or even greasy.  The second layer of ribbon makes all the difference!

And for those monograms, the little legs they provide for you to stick in the cake are never long enough for me, especially if you are sticking them into a small floral bouquet sitting on top of the cake.  So in my traveling cake kit I keep skewers and floral tape so that I can extend them out enough to suit me.