Wedding Cakes with Fresh Flowers

No matter how much a cake decorator wants to make/sell gumpaste flowers, many brides only want fresh flowers.  I have found that most of the time that it's not about the price, but the a overall look.  Fresh flowers are just soften the entire look of the cake.  

The logistics of fresh flowers on wedding cakes can be tricky.  A wedding cake should not be at a wedding too early.  If the venue is air conditioned, I recommend not delivering a cake earlier than two hours before the reception.  Most often, the florist has already completed their set up by the time you arrive with the cake.  That leaves you at the mercy of the florist.  Did they leave you enough flowers?  Are they the right kind that the bride wanted?  Do you know how to arrange them?  These are all very real world problems that I have experienced MANY times.  In fact, I had a bad feeling once this year and gathered flowers and herbs and brought them with me.  I had plenty for the grooms cake but the bride completely forgot the succulents for her wedding cake and they were the entire decoration on the cake!  They were giving mint julip cups with succulent cuttings as wedding favors.  With permission, we had to take a few apart and wash them really well just to get something on the cake.  Honestly, it was not how I wanted to leave the cake, but that's all we could do.  I should have trusted my spidey senses and brought some succulents too! 

Easy Cake Finishes

Oreo, yum!  You know the easiest way to finish a cake?  Smush and smash something yummy all over it!   Oreo's,  chopped nuts, sprinkles, shaved chocolate, coconut or sanding sugar are excellent choices for covering cakes.  When I worked in a production kitchen environment I was shocked to learn how much faster it was to cover the sides of a cake and just add some rosettes on the top.  If you only want to cover the sides, you have to be a little brave and hold the cake that is on a cake board over a sheet pan and start taking handfuls of your yummy side finishing material and press it into the cake.  You want the cake to be chilled so that it doesn't yield too much to your hands pressure or slide around but you need a light fresh coat of icing so there is something sticky to grab your finishing material.  If you want to cover the whole cake, you can put your turntable inside a sheet pans and follow the same instructions above, just start with the top first.  I hope you will try this technique and really impress your friends with a look that is secretly super easy!  Happy decorating!

Pearl Dragee Finish	Sanding Sugar Finish

Purple Orchid Wedding

I hate purple, well at least purple wedding cakes. It's so hard to match, with some purples having lots of blue and some shades having lots of red.  Not to mention the super dark colors like these orchids.  It takes a lot of food coloring!  Also, you have to have a good photographer or all the purple throughout the wedding decor will photograph as black.  Well  that isn't so bad, right? Well after you kill yourself to get the right shade of purple, any UV or natural light fades the colors!  This fading happens fast! We recommend keeping all your purple covered with something light cannot penetrate like foil.  The one thing I have found that helps in painting your items with petal dust.  You can start with dark purple and just paint over it.  We heard about adding some baking soda to the fondant would keep it from fading, but in our experiments it didn't make a difference.  Stupid purple!

There where some interesting colors on this cake, but as usual when we get it to the venue with all the other decorations, cloths and flowers, it was perfect! It is hard to tell, but the top and third tier has sanding sugar all over it.  It's pretty and adds a little texture and crunch to the cake.  The monogram was done with Fondarific.  We used a stencil to trace the letter with a wooden tool and then really "carved" it in and then painted it with petal dust.  The stencil was done with buttercream and on buttercream.

So today's project?  Making dark purple flowers for this weekend's wedding! Argh!

Texture on Buttercream Cakes

Almost all my customers say "I don't want fondant!" and they mean it, so I've worked hard at coming up with buttercream alternatives. Since we make a bunch of all white wedding cakes, texture seems to be a huge trend that I'm seeing.  Brides don't want very busy or piped cakes, but they do want some design.  They are bringing me pictures of rough iced cakes, stenciled cakes, combed cakes, and sugared cakes.  I want to go over a few options they you may want to consider when designing a cake for any occasion.
I've blogged about stencils before, so please give it a read.  It's a great option in all one color for texture or two different colors for more detail.  It's also a good idea to add pearls or extra piping on the stenciled design.

Buttercream ruffles are very trendy and you don't have to do the entire cake.  Just a few rows will give you lots of  femininity and texture.

Diamonds and lines are are classic and easy.  Use a bench scraper and blow torch or super hot water and melt the design into the cake.  Sanding sugar or pearl dragees are great on buttercream for sparkle and opulence.  Covering a cake in this material also keeps you from having to get a cake perfectly smooth.  If you a beginner, give it a shot.  Just keep in mind, it gets everywhere!

Lastly, buttercream combs are a great way to add a side design and it's super easy!  Wilton and many others sell all kinds of different designs.  Just get your cake level, basically smoothed and chilled.  Add another thick layer of buttercream and quickly run your comb through it and poof! You have a design.

Tell me about any great ideas you have for buttercream texture!

Happy caking!

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!

Roughed Up Buttercream Wedding Cake

This is the second or third "rough textured" buttercream cake that I have done in the past couple of months.  I hope this isn't a new trend, as you all know I like to get my buttercream nice and smooth.

But this bride specifically asked for this texture on her cake.

I spoke a little last week about trying to prop my cake photos a little more and since this cake was on the simple side, I thought it would be a good candidate for some background opportunities.

I started the propping by putting up a piece of burlap fabric.  I thought the rough fabric of the burlap would compliment that rough buttercream.  I wondered outside and grabbed a couple of branches off my crepe myrtle tree and placed them in a vase in the background.  I think it adds some visual interest without interfering with the cake itself.

Have a great weekend!