Wedding Cupcake Tier

Ok so it has been awhile once again. My life as a new teacher has kept me busy what can I say. I hope to start baking soon again as I have 2 big cupcake orders this month :) Just easing myself back in.

In the meantime, here is a wedding cake and cupcake tier I made back in September for a friend of mine. I used fresh flowers to garnish each tier of cupcakes. The cake topper is just vanilla cake with a vanilla SMBC that I iced in a rustic way. I was really happy with the way this turned out :)

Golf Cake

It's been quite awhile since I've blogged last!  I finally graduated with my masters of arts degree in teaching and have been actively looking for the right teaching job.  I've also been taking advantage of my free time this summer by planning my wedding for next year.  As for baking, I did my first cake of 2012 a few weeks ago for some of our very closest friends.  

In October of 2010 my fiancee and I introduced two of our mutual friends - Charl and Nicole.  They feel in love and got married this past June 24th.  Since I was in the wedding party there was no way for me to do the actual cake for the wedding, so instead I made a groom's cake for the rehearsal dinner. 

Charl loves golf so we decided on a golf theme red velvet cake.  I cheated a bit and bought the golf cart, but personalized it by painting the South African flag on top (that's where he is originally from). 

Charl and Nicole - It was such an honor to be apart of your special day!!  Congrats!!

Rona & Greg's Wedding

I had the pleasure of making the cake and cupcake tower for my friend's Rona and Greg's wedding this weekend. It was held at Glen Echo Park here in the DC area. What a fun location! It is so rich with history and has that vintage feel. Little fun fact: Glen Echo was built in 1891 and was the premier amusement parks in the DC area until the late 1960s. The wedding itself was held in the "Bumper Car Pavilion."

The entrance to the park with an old trolly from the 1900s

The Bumper Car Pavilion in the early 1900s
(I love seeing old pictures from past history)

The Bumper Car Pavilion today!

The cake and cupcakes were simple and fun. The cake was a basic yellow cake with amaretto ganache while the cupcakes included red velvet and a toasted s'mores cupcakes (a fun cupcake for the fall weather!).

The wonderful beautiful bride and groom

And last, I made a groom's cupcake with the old school Redskin's "R." I am not a skin's fan, but I'll do what I gotta do for my friends ;-) Congrats to Rona and Greg!! I had such a great time and thank you for letting me be apart of your special day.

Indian Wedding Cake

This weekend I did a cake for one of my friend's - Erika and her husband Sam. It was an Indian inspired wedding cake with an alpana design that she created. That puts a lot of pressure on a person (me! who is no professional) to try and re-create it, especially in sugar form. The alpana was used on the invitations, programs, and I had to incorporate it on the cake. I was so nervous!!

The program

To add to the tension, hurricane Irene was threatening nasty weather. I've delivered cupcakes in a blizzard - I can deliver a cake in a hurricane!! lol... In the end, the cake made it safely to the venue - Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. I wish I took pictures of how they transformed this place, but it was amazingly beautiful with red roses and purple hydrangea. The trees were sprinkled with red roses and tea lights. I was nervous my cake wasn't going to do enough justice!! But after I stacked it and added the finishing details it came together. I also got to see the bride and show her the cake - she was happy with the final result so I could finally relax!! Here are a few shots I took... can't wait to see professional pics :)

My cake getting it's glamor shots on ;-)

My favorite shot!

Congrats to Erika and Sam!!! Thank you for letting me be apart of your big day!!

Wedding Cake Inspiration

Been awhile since I've blogged. It's been a busy summer with weddings, vacation and work. So I decided to blog about the upcoming wedding cake I am working on for the end of the month.

I'm getting excited to start working on my friend's wedding cake. Her soon to be husband is Indian and they will be having both the traditional Indian ceremony and a modern one the same day. I will be making the cake for the reception. Here are some of the inspiration ideas I have been gathering the past few months.

One of the main inspirations of the overall wedding is the Alpana she designed. She also designed the invitation for our other friend's baby shower back in May. The Alpana design was used on the invitations and will be incorporated at the wedding. I learned that the Alpana is an important symbol in Bengali events such as weddings.


The flowers that will be used in the wedding are red roses and purple hydrangeas. I think I'm feeling fresh flowers on to be incorporated on the cake :)


And here are some cakes that have caught my eye along the way...

Cake Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

We have an idea sketched out... but you will just have to wait and see! ~Cara Lee

Vineyard Wedding

This past weekend I had the honor of making the wedding cake for one of my best friend's brother's wedding. When it came to the cake, the bride was very laid back and open to all ideas when we were discussing decor. The colors of the wedding were purple and green and It was going to be held at a local winery. So, when I think of a vineyard, I think rustic.

One of the farms near the winery

Entrance to the winery

With all that in mind, this is the cake I came up with. It's quite simple but elegant at the same time. Thank you to Tim, the bride's friend who supplied all the flowers for the wedding and had extra for the cake. I put hydrangea and roses.

I love this pic of the cake on the wine barrel

...and a close up shot of the cake

I love the rustic look. I also love how much less stress it is to put together this kind of cake. The stress came in when I got the weather report for the weekend: 90 degrees with humidity. Did I mention it was an outdoor wedding? We had to keep the cake inside until the cake cutting. Since I was attending the wedding as well it was no problem to help set up everything right before hand. I forgot to mention, the cake was a lemon cake with lemon curd filling and white chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. Yummy! For the guests we set up a cupcake table with assorted cupcakes.

To go with the rustic look, I decided to display the cupcakes on different stands and cake plates. This gave it depth and added to the rustic feel of the wedding.

The flavors were lemon raspberry, chocolate salted caramel, and carrot cake.

It was a beautiful wedding! Congrats Jon & Angela! Thanks for letting me be apart of your special day :)

Rachel and Mike's Wedding

This weekend was the second wedding cake/cupcake tower I did for June. It was for our friends Mike and Rachel and this was my wedding gift to them! I think they enjoyed it a lot...and Mike loved the Redskins groom's cupcakes ;-)

What a great wedding you two :) Enjoy the honeymoon!!

Purple and Orange Wedding

One wedding tower done... one more to go!! Here's a cupcake tower and cake I made for a wedding this weekend. Flavors included: red velvet, chocolate orange, and peanut butter cup :) A few days "rest" and I'll be getting things ready for another wedding for a friend of mine, for next weekend.

PS: Summer heat + cupcakes = NOT FUN!

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!

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 :)

My first wedding cake tasting!

After the engagement party cupcakes were picked up I was off to my first wedding cake tasting! I will be making my first ever wedding cake April 24th for friends of mine :) I'm so excited!! All the cakes I've been making so far are kind of like "practice" before the big day.

The bride actually wanted to try some of the same flavors I had made for the engagement party so that made baking a lot easier. (Oh yea I forgot to mention in my previous post that I had NO POWER when I woke up this morning!! I was freaking out... it came on about an hour and a half later). Any who... I also whipped up some chocolate orange cupcakes and almond raspberry cupcakes.

I have never done a tasting before so we didn't really know where to begin, so I just told them to dig in!! Talk about sweet overload *lol*. I'll know in a few weeks what flavors they choose :)

The aftermath
...and there were still more cake combos to try!!