Thursday, July 28, 2011

Gender Reveal

When my client first approached me with this idea, I was so excited! What a creative, ingenious concept!!

A sweet gal I went to high school with contacted me about making a custom cake for her and her husband's house warming party. She wanted a cake to resemble the facade of their new home. Per her request, we would include a similar landscape, stone walkways, and their cute little red shutters.

Now here's the kicker: she wanted to use the party to announce the gender of their new baby! At this point, she did not know the sex of her lil' bun-in-the-oven either. We arranged for her nurse to contact me directly to let me know if they were expecting a baby boy or girl, so it would be a surprise for mom-to-be, too. After receiving confirmation from her baby nurse, we made our Vanilla Butter cake BLUE!!!



It's a BOY!
Layers of our Vanilla Butter cake, tinted blue, stack with Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream.


Now that the nurse fulfilled her job, it was time for mine. The beginnings of our House Cake.

And, complete!
Not only was I thrilled with the outcome of the decor, I could not wait for my client to slice right in! Congrats Jamie and Erik!


Sunday, July 3, 2011

June Brides


As June has now officially come to an end, I wanted to take a closer look at my top 3 personal favorite and most interesting cakes of the season, thus far.

First up, the lovely Gunton/Miller wedding at the Loomis Flower Farm Inn. On occasion, I happen to be honored with the task of creating a beautiful cake for a wedding that I am in attendance. A pair of my husband's great friends were wed late spring. They covered their venue with gorgeous wild flowers and hand-made accents. I even got to play "florist" by arranging the fresh freesias, hydrangeas, peonies, and ranunculus on the cake.

The 4-tier cake had alternating layers of Mocha Spice Cake with Fudge Filling and Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Almond Buttercream Filling. The entire cake was iced in a "home-made" style with our Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream.


My husband was a groomsman, in a crisp gray suit and clover tie. Here is a snapshot of us enjoying the reception.



Along with custom design decor, we occasionally are able to create custom cakes and recipes as well. When a client comes to us with a special request, I see it as a new challenge. My second most interesting June Bride came to us for a 100% eggless cake. This was our first request of the sorts, and ultimately ended in a success! I now can say, YES- we do offer eggless alternatives!

The completely eggless menu only required minor adjustments. At first I was a little hesitant when I soon discovered this meant: NO fondant, NO gumpaste, and NO Italian Meringue Buttercream. My helpful bride guided me to a solution. We used Ener-G Egg Replacer in our standard cake recipes, and they turned out great!



I love, LOVE a great reception venue. In fact, I think that was the very first thing we picked when planning our own wedding. We picked the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria to hold our never-ending guest list for its extra-tall windows, multiple levels, and unconventional wedding location.

Our third cake was delivered to an equally unique venue. The Jay Jay Art Gallery is uber modern, and industrial chic. I love it! What a great idea! Even their current exhibit matched the wedding colors and decor.