Beach Cake

This weekend I also had a cake order for an old high school friend. She was celebrating her anniversary with her boyfriend and wanted something special. I feel so honored she chose a cake from ME :) They love the beach so I came up with this design based on what she told me. It was a lot of fun to make. I love the beach myself so I love making these cakes. The flavors she wanted were pineapple and coconut. I've never done that combo before. I ended up making a coconut cake and filling it with a pineapple filling and coconut swiss meringue.

I really loved how my palm tree came out! First I had to figure out how to attach the leaves to the trunk - that was fun. Then I was nervous it was going to fall over. But it worked out fine :) I added a little heart on the tree, which I thought was SO cute... that was until I delivered it. I put the WRONG initial for her BF. I felt terrible and I still feel bad as I'm writing this. So remember: always get the facts straight before hand!! Sorry Terry!! I hope you had a wonderful anniversary besides my mistake :(

Professional Pics

My friend Erin (the one I made my very first wedding cake for) received her professional pics from the wedding photographer! What an amazing difference the picture quality is... if only I had one of those cameras ;-)

All pics were taken by Franz de Leon Photography.
Thank you Erin for letting me post the pictures!

Vacation!

I'll be on vacay for a whoooole week. Hopefully I come back with a nice tan! I leave you with a pic from some beach cupcakes I had made for my friend Allie's b-day awhile back :)

Can you guess where I'm heading off too??

Erin and Karl's Wedding

The big day finally came and the wedding cake was a success!

It was my very first wedding cake I've ever done. Leading up to the big day I had a cake consultation with the bride to decide the design and a cake tasting with over a dozen different flavor combinations. I was so nervous up until they cut the cake! It such an important center piece to a wedding which is added stress and nerves.

The bride ended up deciding on a three tier cake with blue flowers and swirly pipe work around the flowers on the cake. For the top, she wanted something beachy but would also reflect each others personality and things they enjoyed. And this is what we came up with...

Cake Details

Bottom Layer: Almond cake with raspberry jam filling and vanilla bean frosting
Middle Layer: Chocolate cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting chocolate frosting and raspberry cream filling
Top Layer: Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting
Flowers/leaves: Gumpaste
Fondant to cover cake: Homemade marshmallow fondant
Topper details: Everything was hand made with fondant except the chairs. On her chair- Roxy towel, Diet Dr. Pepper, and a book. On His chair - MP3 player with head phones and a towel with his favorite band's symbol. Both had a pair of flip flops. Sand is made with graham cracker crumbs with a little pixie dust mixed in to give it a little shine.

Groom's Cupcakes
(and Spongebob Birthday Cupcakes one of her friends)

Cutting the cake!

All the cakes I've been making so far have been "practice" for the big day. Some things have learned in the last year about getting ready for the big cake:
1. Prepare prepare prepare! For example you can make all the gumpaste flowers and fondant accessories well in advance. Bring as many tools with you to the venue and be prepared for anything.
2. Always try a new technique. For all the cakes I have been done leading up to the wedding cake, no matter how minimal, I always tried something new - a new technique, flavor, design, etc.
3. Try really hard not to sweat the small stuff. As a cake designer we see the smallest imperfections that the client would probably never notice or have any idea. Enjoy their happiness :-)

Congrats Erin and Karl!
You had a beautiful wedding now go and enjoy that amazing honeymoon :)

Island Cake

So for my friend's birthday I wanted to make a big cake and practice my fondant skills (and to see if the homemade fondant I made a few days ago held up and would work). Marshmallow fondant - did not work so well, but the traditional rolled fondant worked pretty well. It was hard to roll out big enough to cover the cake, with out it getting too sticky, and it broke a few times, but i got it! Just need some more practice rolling it out. I'll use the marshmallow more for figures and cut outs. Overall I'm very happy with the result of my first fondant cake :) We accompanied the cake with island and shark fin cupcakes. Forgot to get a pic of the shark fin cupcakes :( Special thanks to my "sous chef" for the evening Ashley for helping me!

(Click image to see details)