Fairyland Club Wedding

This is such a simple, elegant cake that there isn't much to say but it's pretty eye candy. The texture was done just with a small offset spatula. It's not hard but not easy, so practice ahead of time. We delivered this cake to the Fairlyland Club on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga TN. The florist was The Clay Pot, and they did some WONDERFUL arrangements for this wedding. He gave me these roses, ranunculus, peonies and some rosemary and I arranged them. He was so busy and I was very happy to help. I asked him to check my work and I got a thumbs up which meant a bunch considering the source!

Great florals from The Clay Pot

Now, enjoy more awesome cake photos!

Mickey Wedding & Pet Peeves

We will make this week's blog short and a little sour..... Is there something you see in your line of work that bugs the fool out of you? We all do I'm sure. In cake decorating we all start as beginners and I never judge those people. If you charge money, and sometimes a lot of money for a cake then it should be well executed. Piping should be neat and consistent. I'm not the best at piping so I use a small paint brush to even out and blend in my lines. Sometimes, I need to scrape things off and start again . One of the most popular borders are fondant pearls. If you will pay attention some decorators don't use the right product (it needs to be partially modeling chocolate or Fondarific so it will harden in the cooler) and stretch them out when unmoulding or applying them to the cake. It's a minor thing to most, but a pearl border that isn't rounded pearls is not clean work to me.

Last pet peeve is disintegrated dragees. Whether pearl, silver or gold those little balls cannot be applied and then put in the fridge. They break down and loose their sheen all together. This really does stink because you can't apply them ahead of time. I'll give you two things that I do. First, I put them on ahead of time when the icing is a little soft so that they will not just sit on top of the buttercream. If the cake gets room temperature and those dragees aren't pushed in a little, they will slide down the cake. Trust me, we stayed almost until a wedding started just gently pushing those things in before they all slide down. Did you catch that I just told you I do what I said you shouldn't? Well at the last minute, I take the bad dragees out and add fresh ones. Yes it takes more time, but I don't have to measure last minute or get a cake soft before adding the last minute. Oh! Get a gem/rhinestone setter for applying these and not leaving tweezer marks. They are just a little wad of wax on the end of a stick. It is easier to pick them up and apply them (but not removing, stick to tweezers for that). Yeah! I got those things out of my system!

Walnut Hill Fresh Flower Wedding

 

How could I ever make flowers this pretty!?!?  I arrive at the venue, Walnut Hill Farm, and the florist has left me the MOST gorgeous bunch of flowers!  Ranunculus, Peonies, perfect roses, hydrangeas and some lambs ear for greenery.   I was in love with all of them!!!  Here are some "professional baker tips" for the week.

1,  Allow yourself PLENTY of time when fresh flowers go on the cake.  If the florist is gone, it's up to you to finish the cake (my opinion and also I agree to this ahead of time).

2.  Allow wiggle room for the type of flowers and their arrangement in your contract.  This cake was supposed to be all hydrangea.  You can see how many I had and I could not have achieved this look with a small amount or with one kind.  I still get sick-at-my-stomach when I knowingly deviate from the contract.  I never want to be the vendor that blames in on another vendor.  "They didn't leave me the right kind or enough".  I should have called the florist and emailed them a sketch/size of the cake they knew what to plan.  I ask the bride to give the extra copy I provide to the florist, but that doesn't seem to happen

3.  If a customer wants to "float their cake on a bed of flowers" this is the easiest way to do it.  Just allow for a bigger board and stick them in the cake.  You could put a smaller piece of Styrofoam under the full cake for the flowers are truly UNDER the cake, but that is not nearly as stable.  Charge extra for that!

4.  Be friendly to everyone at the venue, even when you are stressed out and in a hurry.

It took me a full hour to put all these flowers on the cake, while at the same time fielding questions from the wedding party that was mulling about and grabbing a little girl's hand right before she poked it right into the cake.  I don't want to ever be unfriendly because people remember rude.  But don't you think that very early guests should give a vendor the space to do their job?  They are always on us like we are on a cake show, asking "is that fondant? I hate fondant!" or "how did you do that?".  Like that's an easy questions in the allotted time.  It would be nice if we had nothing else to do but to visit with guests and answer questions, but vendors just don't have that luxury.  Our work, food-flowers-cakes-venue-photography, is very time sensitive and we have to get in and get out.  So please don't think us rude.  We are really sweet :)

Golden Inspiration Wedding Cake

Edible sequins are one of the new big trends in cake design, at least with Chattanooga wedding cakes  We shared one a few weeks ago that had "large" sequins but now we have one with tiny sequins.  I'm just going to say it, I used A LOT of gold! But it's SO pretty! We baked and iced a 6/8/10/12" combination in all buttercream.  We created the lines with a little pairing knife dipped in warm water every few minutes.  The borders were fondant and the sequins were colored quinns painted gold.

 

You can get a five pound container at Pfeil and  Holing.  Don't kid yourself, 5 pounds is a big container; it should last you a while!

We bought a bunch of these flowers to make the cake more economical for the bride.  As usual, my favorite flowers are the big pretty garden roses from Cal-Java.  They are SO big and pretty and they really popped against those gold sequins!  I hope you get a little bit of golden inspiration from this pretty cake!

Our Cross Country Cake Adventures

 A few months ago I was approached with a rather odd request... make my nephew's wedding cake.  Now I know that upon first read that doesn't seem terribly odd, but let me finish... his wedding was going to be in New Hampshire, and I live WAYYY down south in GA.  Yeah, see?  But Sean and his fiance Kirsten were such a cute couple that I just couldn't turn them down.

Delivering a fully decorated wedding cake 17 hours and and little over a 1000 miles away can be a daunting task and honestly one that I didn't feel I (nor my cake) was up to.  So several months ago I started formulating a plan to actually make the cake there.  The venue where the wedding was held was an absolutely gorgeous working orchard named Allyson's Orchard.  I spoke to Fran, the venue manager about my dilemma, and she graciously offered me their kitchen space to work on the cake all week long.  The kitchen had the essentials, oven, sink, and refrigeration, but any other tools I needed I had to bring with me!  GULP!

So I went back to the drawing board, because everything we were bringing (Chaddy and I, a weeks+ supply of clothing, and all the components we needed to make a cake had to fit in our Honda CRV.  It's not a compact car mind you, but it's no stretch limo either!  So I made the decision to bake the cakes and make the icing before we left and freeze them.  That way, the only "major" appliance I would need to bring would be a Kitchenaid mixer to re-whip the icing.  I would place all the wrapped frozen layers in our big marine cooler along with some disposable ice packs (the kind I get when I order chocolate) and we would just stack, fill, ice, and decorate on site.  Theo couple had chosen a mud cake, which is very dense, so I really did feel that the frozen layers would hold up to the drive.  I also began the process of making the gumpaste flowers and wrapping them to thwart the nastiest, kickiest delivery driver.

 

Well, Sunday morning came and we packed everything up in the cooler, along with our 2 suitcases, and our Rubbermaid tote of kitchen goodies and we left the sweltering Georgia heat on our way to New Hampshire.  We left late because we were up late the night before, so we made it to Frederick, MD (my sister and the groom's Mom's home) really late Sunday night.  I was somewhat worried about the contents of the cooler, but the outside felt cold, so I decided to not risk opening the lid and letting any cold out and just let it ride.  We visited with my sister for a few minutes and hopped in bed.

We awoke (late) the next morning and after a quick shower and breakfast, we were back on the road to New Hampshire.  We drove at a good clip, made a few stops for food anf fuel along the way, and reached our hotel late Monday evening.  I thought I had never been SO tired of being in the car!  We stayed in Keene, NH and was a pleasant surprise it was!  We were within walking distance to downtown and we explored it pretty extensively during our off times.  But I digress...

Tuesday I called Fran at Allyson's orchard and she agreed to meet us and show us the kitchen.  It was a very nice catering space and I knew it would work well, as long as everything had fared well in the cooler (which had STILL not been opened since Sunday morning at this point).  We got the cooler inside, opened it, and believe it or not, everything was still VERY cold.  Those disposable ice packs were still mostly frozen.  The cake gods had indeed smiled upon the work I was trying to do.

I made gumpaste blueberries!

We pulled out the layers and let them thaw a little more while we unpacked our kitchen and got setup for the week.  Over the course of the next few days we worked on the cake a little each day, just like normal, stacking, filling, making the textured bands, and coloring those gumpaste flowers.  When we left the orchard on Thursday the cake was all done and we had the whole day Friday to spend with the rest of the family. who had now joined us at the same hotel in Keene.  It was like a mini family reunion.

I made an extra trip over to the venue on Saturday to set the cake out in the venue space (just a few steps away from the kitchen space I had been using) so that the caterer's would have all the cooler / kitchen space they needed.  A quick trip back to the hotel for a freshen and a change and it was ceremony time!

Now I go to a lot of weddings, but we're there while the linens are going on and the DJ is setting up; We rarely get to see ANY of the wedding, and especially not the ceremony.  It was nice to get to witness all the love and all the pieces of the puzzle fit together so nicely.  Sean and Kirsten had a beautiful ceremony outside by the lake and then the reception with a crazy good BBQ dinner.

When you start adding up gas, mileage, and all the other expenses, this was definitely the "most expensive" wedding cake I have ever made, but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. The new Mr. and Mrs. Seymour loved it, and I loved seeing the smiles on their faces all throughout the night.

And even though I like to preach that other decorators shouldn't take orders they don't know how to do, the lesson to be learned is that it's OK to stretch your wings and go outside your comfort zone on some occasions, just as long as you have a good game plan!

A very special Thanks to Fran and the entire staff at Alyson's Orchard for extending their hospitality, sharing their beautiful facility, and making my task much easier!

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!

Gold Sequin Wedding Cake

I'm so glad to make a cake that is new and not made from someone else's design.  I can't even tell you how this design came about.  I think the bride liked so many popular wedding cake trends that we just used them all.  All tiers were buttercream and about 5" high except for the gold tier which was about 3.5". We used an Evil Cake Genius lace cake stencil and outlined each piece with a #2 tip.  We then added some pearls and silver dragees on top.  The bottom tier was buttercream with fondant "fabric ruffle" look.  We didn't want to  cover the entire tier because it would have been too heavy looking.  It was a 20" tier, so it took a long time!  We made the fantasy flowers with gold button centers and the fondant teardrop shapes. 

I'm sure you have seen lots of tutorials on how to do a tier with a sequin-like look.  There are so many ways of doing this and since I've only done it once, I can't speak to the other techniques.  I used some very large quins.  I highly recommend buying them from  cakedeco.com because the 5 lb carton is a LOT and cheap!  These were 1/2" big and I tried to push a handful into the buttercream covered cake and it was just a mess!  I ended up having to put them on one at a time and that was big fun......not!!  So I then chilled the cake really well.  Some people use a paint brush to get these completely covered.   I then airbrushed this old gold and bronze over the entire tier.  I had to cover the neon colors and it took a while.  You want to do this is several coats and not in a couple because you will have drips.  Now, my complaints.  It looks a bit like scales, probably somewhat because I'd been looking at it a long time.  I may do it in smaller quins next time, but I've got 4 lbs of the giant ones left!   I was happy with the look of the cake, but I couldn't stop wondering what people must have thought of "the baker" if the were served a piece of the gold tier.   The quins were NEON COLORED on the backsides!  They aren't very tasty either.  I'm just saying, the more I thought about it, the more embarrassed I was.  I am not judging anyone that does this technique.  I am not saying I won't do it again if time is a factor.  Next time  I really want to make my own sequins out of fondant or something else.  I just don't want the wedding guests to think that the baker is crazy when they bite into the cake :) 

Naked Cakes

 

We were asked to make a "naked"cake last year.  I was pretty excited until we actually did it.  So I had a culinary student as an intern for 11 weeks.  The cake was a 6/8/10/12" combination.  The first time it was baked, I think the oven was opened way too much, cakes were jiggled and batter wasn't whipped enough.  So Friday afternoon, I decided to bake it again, only doing it myself this time.  The picture above is the exact same size cakes and number of layers, they were just fluffier on the cake I baked.  I thinkshe learned a big lesson that day!

I had a lot of holes and inconsistencies that I wanted to "fill" on the skim coated cake.  Is that a term?  If not, what do you call these different styles of naked cakes?  Maybe the skim coated cake has her undergarments on?  I wanted the look on the left, but I worked with the cake too much and once you have that skim coat of buttercream on, it is on.  After baking the layers again, I put my buttercream in a piping bag with a #12 tip and piped the ooze onto the side of the layers before I stacked the next tier on top.  It wasn't a real "organic" ooze of buttercream, but I was happier than the first attempt and there would not be another!

 

 

 We did brush all the layers with simple syrup to try and keep them moist.  The family said it was yummy!  I wouldn't bake it or put in together until as close to the event as you can comfortably stand it to help it not drying out.

 

Once at the venue, we had to put on the fresh flowers and it took no less than an hour!  I guess it felt so unfinished to me that I needed to keep adding flowers.  The bride wanted lots of flowers and the florist left me a big bucket of gorgeous blooms so I had to use them, right?  I don't know where I stand on this trend yet, but maybe it will be out of style by the time I decide.

Y'all have a great week!

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 :(

Border Knot Wedding Cake

We were asked by a very good friend to make a cake for his employee. The company was buying it and gifting it to the couple.  Wow! That's a nice gift!  They were going for an Art Deco theme and wanted to carry that through with the cake.   The knot fabric effect was the most challenging part of the whole thing.  I've even made a little video about it and posted that on our Instagram page.  I found it a little easier to work on a square cake dummy that was turned on it's side.  That way, the pieces were measured correctly and dry fit perfectly before we attached them. They would have stretched and deformed if we worked with them horizontally for the extended period of time that I needed.   The flower ball separator was styrofoam covered in fondant.  I didn't want to build a structure just for that tier so it was easier that way.

The etched lines and jewels on the top tier were kind of a nod to "The Caketress" and her designs.  The lines are easy to do as long as you use a tool that won't cut the fondant, so a dull wooden clay tool works great.  The jewels were done out of isomalt, which is sugar and that was a mistake.  They did a little bubbling or something due to the moisture of the refrigerator.  Next time I would mold them with melted chocolate and then paint silver as normal.  It takes a bunch of them so the time to apply them all was about two hours for that one area.

For the vertical stripes we just used a texture mat and embossed the fondant, then we cut them.  When doing any stripes and strips of fondant, it's better to chill the fondant a little before applying it so that it won't loose it's shape.  The flowers are basic, meaning we cut them, press in a flower veiner and let dry in a cup shaped form.  Once dry, we used a little royal icing and added a sugar pearl for more opulence.  We enjoyed getting to make a cake with lots of texture and jewels!

See our Flipagram video below!

Fabric knot effect with fondant.

A video posted by Jenniffer White (@cupadee) on Oct 10, 2014 at 10:43am PDT

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!

Ruffles and Lace Wedding

My area of the country follows trends, but about two years behind New York.  Currently we have a lot of brides wanting two main colors, but both neutrals.  Shades of ivory with white and shades of grey with cream both seem to be very trendy. Khaki, tan, ivory and champagne are the hardest colors to make in my opinion.  I've had art class, but I see.med to have forgotten that lesson.  if you just use the ivory color, it's too yellow.  Adding a little brown coloring in you icing makes a weird color, but it's not tan.  If you are short on time, know this:  GOLDEN YELLOW + PURPLE = TAN.  You can add some pink for more champagne of green for more of a khaki, but starting out with a nice tan instead of  a weird yellow is key.  I could give you many great articles on coloring, but here is one great one with links to other great ones.  Don't get mad at me if I send you down a wormhole of learning!

This is talking about royal icing, but we all know it's just the same to make fondant.  If you are coloring real butter-buttercream, take in to account that it is already pale yellow.  What I like to do is make a "color concentrate".  In this instance, I made a cup of a really dark khaki.  Then you can make a formula that is more controllable like "1 TBL color concentrate mixed with 1 LB buttercream".  This is handy because we often guess how much colored icing we need for a cake.  If we make too much, we are stuck with a color we may not need again for a long time (mix it into black!) or we run short and can't match the original shade.  You can also freeze leftover concentrate for later uses or just throw it away and you have only wasted a little.

I have been talking about color because there is not much exciting to say about this cake.  Sorry "my bride" if you are reading this but in the cake world this was not new or exciting.  It's classy and pretty just not AWESOME.  I made this cake before, so that was my "inspiration" but we changed the base color and broach color.  The advice for a fellow baker is to let your lace pieces chill before you un-mold them and maybe again before you apply them to the cake.  If you are pressing a soft piece of fondant firmly, you will loose some of the detail due to squishing.  I love Fondarific or these pieces because they get firm very quickly in the cooler.  Also, don't overfill the mold or the lace will be thick and that's just not attractive :)  Now go make some tan icing!

Gray Tux Groom's Cake

When I have a consultation with a couple, I never know how involved the groom will be.  I have had grooms come in with their own sketches and I have had groom's that put their head on the table to take a nap.  No matter how involved they get, sometimes they just can't come up with a good idea for the groom's cake.

This tuxedo themed groom's cake is a great option for that groom that is having trouble coming up with a great idea for his cake.

This 2-tiered cake was buttercream with minimal fondant accents and made to coordinate with the wedding party's colors.

Isn't that little bow tie the cutest?

Calla Wedding for Out-Of-Town Bride

We recently had a bride from Texas contact us.  She was getting married the Monday after the 4th of July holiday weekend.  There was part of me that thought "this just can't be right".  The Mill was kind enough to recommend us and she said they spoke highly about our work.  I believe she got most of her vendors by other vendors recommendations.  She was so sweet and EASY to work with.  She sent me a picture of almost the exact cake you see below.  It didn't have as many calla lilies and wasn't iced as pretty :)  She picked basic flavors and booked the cake.  Like I said she was easy to please.

We deal with a lot of out of town brides.  Far more than I would have guessed since Chattanooga, TN isn't a real tourist destination.  Many people move away for school and careers and want to come home to marry with their families.  The holidays are a very busy time for these brides as they all are home anyway.  I try to save weekend openings for out of town brides too.  I don't even list them on my online calendar because in towners would take them all.

If you have a bride that will do everything over email and phone, you would think that is easier but it's not.  All the information I go over in a consultation, almost two hours, is a class on wedding cakes.  They leave much more informed and understand how their particular cake is constructed and designed for them.  They get to know me and hopefully like me which leads to trust.  I really prefer sitting down and getting to know them and their event.  Sometimes the cake they want, just doesn't go with their event and you need to lead them in the right direction. 

I suppose this cake was "easy money" but I feel like we both missed out on a experience that would have added to the specialness of the wedding day.  Unfortunately, this poor bride had some other mishaps and bad vendor experiences like the hair/makeup person cancelling the day of the event.  That is just horrible!  Much less her grandmother got stuck in an airport across the country and a groomsman broke his nose in a car wreck the day before.  I'm glad that I spent some extra time making the cake a bit better than she was expecting.  I know it didn't make up for the rest of it, but I sure didn't let her down either.  Maybe I'll still meet her one day?

Raspberry / Blackberry / Succulent Wedding

Sometimes a bride enjoys picking out her wedding cake so much that she does it three times.  Luckily the final choice was one that I really wanted to make.   This cake is very different and "natural".  I was given the picture and asked to make a few minor adjustments like the colors on the succulents, vanilla bean specks in the fondant, and two layer had a royal icing texture that was very subtle with a bit of gray to lightly mimic river birch.  I went very light on the gray because I didn't want it to stand out and take away from the focal point.  To keep things clean and simple, I put a little bean specks in some royal icing and "caulked" the tiers together instead of any kind of a border. 

For the "Hens and Chicks" or succulents, I really didn't have the time to make them since the bride changed the design fairly close to the wedding date and I was too busy to learn and try (or maybe just tired...).  I ordered them all from "A Cake To Remember VA".  Kara was absolutely great to work with on these!  She changed the color to just a pale grey and I used petal dust to make them match the wedding colors.  She was so helpful and VERY quick in getting them to me.  If you ever need pre-made decorations, molds, supplies or great tutorials check out her Etsy store. 

We made 80 raspberries using silicone molds that I also found on Etsy. I bought six kinds of raspberry molds but I think this is the one I used the most,

We started out by using a little tool and making the natural indentation on the top but then there wasn't enough to poke my wire into!  So no hole!  Ron Ben-Israel would not be proud of me :)
The most realistic raspberry mold that I purchased was this one. 

The reason I didn't use it is because it is impossible to get the berry out without distortion unless you use a material that will get hard in the freezer, like Fondarific or modeling chocolate.  I did not have time to do that 80 times!  If you are making five, cool, but not 80!

The "blackberries" that were "purpleberries" to match the wedding colors were much more challenging even though there was only ten!  They are not hard, just require some patience.  Make a grape size piece of gumpaste/fondant mixture, dip your wire in tylose glue and insert.  Let these sit up a few hours.  Now make a TON of tiny, varied sized, balls and let the dry.  When you are ready to make them, make a few fresh balls so they will squish and make a more natural look overall.  paint the "grape" with tylose glue and stick all the balls on it.  I tried rolling it and that will just get you a few and then fill in all the spaces.  Poof!  You have a blackberry!  I enlisted my friends to help me and it took four of us 90 minutes to roll all of the tiny balls.   That's six hours!   I was glad there was only a few!

If anyone knows the original artist for this cake, please list them in the comments.  I would love to give them credit for the beautiful design!  Now go cover a cake with summer berries! 


TIEREDCAKER GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

OK folks, we a A LOT of people register to win the Tiered Caker app giveaway.  I can tell that there's lots of interest in the product.  Special thanks to Calculated Cakes for sponsoring the prizes.  Chaddy put all the comments into the randomizer and picked out 2 names:

I have heard from Thelma already, but we are still waiting to hear back from Judith.  Once we have proper contact info from both we will get the information sent to Calculated cakes for your prize!  Congratulations!

With a Little Help From Your Friends....

Congratulations Chris & Nancy!

For many years Chad and I have had a very special friend.  We treasure the time we get to hang out and chat because he's a fancy lawyer and works a million hours a week.  Luckily he found love in his own office and married his paralegal of fourteen years!  Some say that it was a long time coming!   We really didn't know his bride, Nancy, and had only met her briefly a couple of times.  She's fantastic though!  It's been especially challenging trying to help since they live an hour away.  When he told us they were engaged, I begged him to bring her up early and let me guide her in the planning process.  They did not come until a month before the wedding so that they could have a cake consultation.  At that point there was a plan in place, just incomplete.  That day, she was so overwhelmed with all she had to do that she almost didn't come.  By the end of the night, she had a good plan in place and finally started looking forward to the wedding.  I volunteered to help find some decorations, make the cakes as our gift, help decorate the tents the day before, to help figure how the food was going to be placed and to cut the cakes.  They had no decorations for the tents, so I talked to my favorite florist for some ideas and started ordering goodies.  Luckily Nancy was very easy to please and was so grateful for the help that there wasn't a lot of back and forth.  I'd send her some pictures and she would say, "great! buy them!"

I wish that I could say everything was smooth and easy.  People just don't understand how much is involved in throwing the most expensive "party" of your life.  The world sells this "magical time" kind of thing when it's NOT.  It's stressful and expensive and stressful.  There are power struggles between families, friends and bridesmaids.  There are vendors that forget orders and don't deliver what you had in your head.  The weather does not care that you are getting married, nor do the bugs!
For this wedding we had a special view of the process.  I hope that if you are getting married or know someone that is walking down the aisle soon, this may help in some small way.   Here is SOME of what we learned. 

The first challenge in helping the couple was the wedding was in a town that I don't have vendor friends and don't know who is good or bad.  Anyone can have a good website or fake good reviews, but word of mouth from fellow vendors is truly priceless.  Read online reviews on Facebook and WeddingWire.com.  They can be a great resource.

The second challenge was that they were holding the wedding at their home.  It wasn't necessarily a money saving decision, but partly so everyone could see their new home and so they could make memories there.  Chad and I also got married at our home only a month after we moved in.  I cannot stress this enough, don't do it.  You can't get a minute of peace, the house is a wreck and it's hard to get people to leave when all you want to do it go to bed.  It's a crazy time in your life and you just added the stress of cleaning the house and presenting it to everyone you know.  If you pick a hotel, for example, you can get a room to get ready in and get away from all the family.  Also, most of the extras are already there.  Tables, cloths, food, drinks, and rooms for out of town guests are a "given" instead of an "unknown"

The third challenge was that I didn't know anyone that Nancy was relying on to complete wedding tasks.  I didn't know if these people were dependable, had good taste, or if they had egos that I didn't want to step on.  I admit, I'm an "alpha" and have no problem taking lead on projects.  That is my default way, but when you come into a situation where you don't know anyone and really don't want to peeve anyone off that you just met, it's a little tricky.  Chad and I just did our thing, decorating our little buns off, and if people asked us if they could help, we gave them a task.  It wasn't my place to boss their people but after about eight hours with no break, I really wanted to, but I didn't...mostly.  There were several people that were fantastic and it was great to have them help! 

The fourth challenge was having no wedding planner.  I advised the couple to get a "day of" planner and sent a few names that I found.  I never asked why they didn't hire one, but let me tell you how it would have helped.  The day before, while everyone was gathering for a rehearsal one family member was late and it held everyone else up.  The DJ was running things and needed to leave thirty minutes before he did.  A planner could have been the "bad guy" and said we need to go ahead without her and fill her in on the details later.  The planner would also have a crew that could have helped with all the last minute set up details, like how to place tables.  The day of the wedding, a planner would have organized everyone and kept things on schedule.  Ten minutes before the wedding, the punch concentrate was still frozen and the food wasn't out.  I think a planner keeps things running on time, but not too fast also. 

The fifth challenge was that all the major "helpers" they were counting on were in the wedding party.  They were all dressed up and had places to be and stand.  Getting the dark purple punch out was not what they needed to be doing.  If you are getting married, your friends are there to enjoy the day with you, especially your close friends.  Do not make them work.  Hire people through the caterer or a planner.  Even just to pick up trash and refresh the food.  Who do you think is going to do that?  The day of was extra hard for these reasons.  Guests are busy being guests.

As a baker, I was sad that the couple didn't get 30 seconds to look at their cakes before they cut them.  They didn't get to eat either, but I didn't make the food :)  It's just one of those things that happens on the wedding day that I'm glad I don't normally witness.  I'm glad they have pictures afterwards.  My advice is to not have an outdoor wedding, too many variables and hot weather stinks!  This wedding was fine, but it rained the morning of and things were squishy and muddy.  The wedding cakes we delivered this weekend were at a "fancy" barn.  It was a beautiful OVEN.  My poor cakes and those poor guests.  How is that a fairytale?

After all was done and we were unbelievably tired, we were glad that we could help make their special day better.  I want any bride and groom to be able to enjoy the day while soaking in the love from everyone that wishes them well. 

Mint Green and Lavender Wedding Cake

Last week you read about our Bender cake, well this is the wedding cake that went along with it.

I was so jazzed about the bride's choice of color's on this cake.  Our color palette here was a light mint green and lavender.

This was a great cake to remind me about how colors and icing can mess with you.  I had the perfect color of icing made up for the cake and even let the colored buttercream sit for a day for it to darken a tad.  Everything was just right... and then I iced the cake.  And the icing darkened... a lot actually.  I wound up giving the entire cake a heavy spray of pearl dust, which gave the cake a beautiful sheen and toned that color back down to where is should have been.

When will the Home Depot develop a color matching system for icing!?!

I did find another shot... thanks Jim!

Actually, one of the best features of this cake didn't make it into this photos, simply because they were made at the absolute zero hour.  I printed some dragonfly wings on wafer paper and used them to make little edible dragonflies.  They really were cute - if I get one of the shot s from the wedding, I'll come back and include it here.

Ruffle Ribbon Rose Wedding

We were asked to recreate an almost exact copy of a cake from the Pastry Studio.  I have been getting involved with some more FB groups and noticed people saying that you should ask permission before recreating a design that you copy.  I guess in a perfect world with lots of time and super polite people that may happen, but this is not that world.  I'm not going to lie and say that I ask other cake people, wrapping paper designers, or invitation designers for their permission when I draw inspiration from their designs.  I have friends that say they WILL NOT recreate another person's cake or even their own.  I have tried many times to sway a bride to my design but many times they are insistent on a certain cake with NO changes. 

I try to alter it but I can only push so much.  I don't want to lose the sale!  I would if I told them "No, you can't have what you love and dream of."  Does that mean I am an awful thief? I just can't accept that.  If you put your work out there to inspire brides and decorators, you shouldn't be mad when they want it.  I see copies of my stuff all the time, especially in my local area.  What I hate is when a local competitor knows your price for your cake and tries to undercut you to get the order, but that's a whole other topic.  I make sure to verbalize and have in my contract that my work will differ from another baker even when I'm trying to be exact.  I still feel guilty about using someone else's design and I won't be using these types of cakes on my new updated website in the future.

Please weigh in and feel free to tell me your thoughts on the matter.  We can have varying opinions and still be friends, right?

Quatrefoil Wedding Cake

There are not a lot of really new cakes out there these days.   Occasionally I find cake goodies and I want to purchase them all!  This was the case when I found sugarartstudion.com.  Their pictures of gumpaste flowers make me want to make a flower half as pretty!  They are unbelievable!  Gumpaste spider chrysanthemums, really?... I mean really?!?  Just let those flowers inspire you and you will soon spend way too much money, unless of course you book the cake first and then buy the tools.  That's what we should do....

This little cake was made with the Ali quatrefoil cutter to make impressions on the bottom tier.  I really wish I could find a way to use these on buttercream cakes.  We were asked to make a simple display cake for one of our favorite venues, The Grandview on Lookout Mountain, Georgia.  They have a great cake room when you first come in the door of this beautiful old house.  The display cake is going to be there for all the brides that tour the facility as well as being there for a hopefully unneeded cake emergency.  That's one of the reasons I made the cake all white.  It should fit into anyone's decor, should any baker not arrive with the bride's cake.  

We used some garden roses from Cal-Java and the rest of the flowers came from wholesalesugarflowers.com.  I hope you like it and that we inspire you to give your favorite venue an emergency cake.