Sunday, July 27, 2008

40th Anniversary Cake


Hello,

Here was the last cake of the week for us. A 40th anniversary cake. Our parameters were, 'beach theme.' So we created some orchids to give a kind of tropical feel and then a series of overlapping bands textured with shells and cut to look like waves of into the horizon.

And a note, of course.

Best

Work Scenes



Hello,

Here is a couple of work scenes from the weekend.

Got to make sure everything is straight!

Best

Saturday, July 26, 2008

I WANT THAT CAKE IN THE WINDOW!





Hello,

When we first planned on doing wedding cakes out of our boutique, we purchased a series of display cakes in our window. But one day I decided to put the undecorated drums in the window, while we waited to get a shipment of fondant in. A fun loving and chic bride pulled into a shop next door to us and saw our 'display' cakes in the window and immediately came in to ask, 'Are you a cake shop?!'

She wished for a chic modern cake and flowers. We created the above, the bands are a champagne luster dust, and the flowers are all completely handmade made out of sugarpaste.

The groom's cake was for an avid hunter/fisher.

That lead to the above! Enjoy

An email from the wedding planner, Danielle Gregory of First Coast Weddings and blogger of oh happy blog.


I wanted to let you know that everyone RAVED
about how wonderful the cakes were. I can't
even begin to count how many times I heard
that the guests were pleasantly surprised
by the taste of the fondant/butter-creme
combination .... and the carrot cake was
a favorite of the evening.The
guests also loved hearing the story
behind the table numbers and were
all deciding their favorite chcolates
(sampling one anothers)... I believe
that most of them have the address to
your studio now so hopefully
you'll be seeing them soon.

As for the cake topper- Mrs. Turnage
decided to take it home with her
last night but should be stopping in your
studio either today or tomorrow.
Let me know if you need any further contact
information on her.

Thanks again-

the bride was so very happy!

Sources of Inspiration







Hello,

We created this cake for a truly lovely bride, who also ordered chocolate favors (dark chocolate with cocoa nibs + honey cardamom caramel) to serve as part of a dessert plate, provided by Catering by Liz. The cake took it's inspiration from the bride's dress. We used silicon molds to approximate the type of lace on her dress, in addition to creating the overall flow of decor from her dress as well, for example the waist of her dress and the middle tier of her cake being complimentary.

Something Old, Something Blue




Hello,

This week has been very busy with some major changes on the horizon with Etiquette of Chocolate, but mostly we have been spending many a late night baking, filling, covering, and decorating three wedding cakes.

This cake was commissioned by a lovely mother and daughter who were seeking something lovely for the daughter's wedding reception. After going through some designs, they decided on this style of cake from a previous cake we created. The bride provided a color swatch of off white for us to approximate with fondant, and a light blue/green for the bands/ribbon. In addition, they took a brooch from the daughter's grandmother for the something old, to go with something new, a sleek modern wedding cake.

The Mother of the Bride's response:

The cake was ABOLUTELY gorgous. the cake was the first thing Mallory looked for as she walked in the front door - and she jumped up and down like a little girl- it was so sweet.....
Everyone LOVED the cake - and the Blood Orange is by far my favorite flavor - unbelievable. I am praying that I do not have another wedding for quite a few years-but be assured that if and when a cake is needed I will call you again.
congratulations on your business and best wishes for continued success.


Best

Monday, July 14, 2008

Celebrating who We Love!




Hello,

We have recently created a few cakes to celebrate the people our client care about in their lives. Above is a series of examples.

Our turtle cake, a la Johnathon Adler, drew this reaction from our client. The cake is a yellow cake with a salted caramel buttercream.

Thanks again Jaycel. I took Erika with me to pick it up.
She freaked.
The cake looks amazing. Absolutely perfect.
She started emailing
photos of the cake to her girlfriends
immediately. Thanks for helping
to make our anniversary a
little bit more special I knew I could
trust the
etiquette of chocolate vision. Tell Judy how pleased we are.



Monday, July 7, 2008

The Etiquette of...Cake





Hello Happy People,

After being in business for nearly a year with our very own boutique, learning about the environment that we are now in, after being in NYC, has allowed us to develop through trial and error our own philosophy of craftmanship and hospitality as we have gained commissions to do numerous cakes for a wide variety of clients. As a result, we wanted to display the principles and the expectations that you should expect of us when commissioning us to create the Centerpiece of Your Celebration. In the end, it all comes down to making people Happy!

  • All cakes from Etiquette of Chocolate are made from scratch. Betty Crocker did not bake your cake! Jaycel Adkins, graduate of the French Culinary Institute and former intern at Ron Ben Israel Cakes did, period.
  • Our icing is a Swiss Meringue Buttercream, which is a very light and smooth which floats on your tongue and retains the ability to carry an infinite number of flavors. Rather than blending confectionery sugar and butter/shortening, which creates a too sweet taste with a grainy mouthfeel. Sadly something EVERY bride has nodded in agreement with during our tastings.
  • We work at your convenience, NOT at our own. Meaning, if you need for me to stay late in order to meet you for a tasting, no worries. If you cannot make it out from the beaches to Orange Park, let's set up a time when I can come out to the beaches to meet you, instead.
    (My civic gets great mileage!)
  • Our training allows us to show our brides a far larger and more modern range of techniques that can be used to express the message they want their centerpiece to give. From sugarpaste flowers and notecards, which can be saved for years into the future as remembrances to stencils that recreate scenes from children's books.
  • The consultation and tasting: We do not charge for consults/tastings. At our meeting, we will sample a cake with a variety of difference buttercreams based on your likes and dislikes. In addition, the overall concept and budget will lead to a general outline for a cake. Once you select us, we will create a very detailed proposal and then a sketch, showing you the concept that we are going to create. From there we can go back and forth, fine tuning the concept until it meets with your desires and vision.
In the next month, we will be creating a new series of display cakes, but we still love the ones we have now, to illustrate other techniques that we will be offering our customers, including sugarpaste flower bouquets, elaborate stencils, and story telling through cake with new flavors, such as the exquisite cherry blossom.

Please click on the labels down below to see the cakes we have crafted for our clients, thus far and browse through the blog....

Anniversary Cake


Hello,

One of our best customers commissioned a petite anniversary cake for herself and her husband to celebrate such a special occasion. She gave us free reign to come up with the entire design and flavor profiles. We decided to go with a nod to Asia with a golden cherry blossom tree than we embedded into the fondant with cherry blossoms emerging from the branches.

Keeping with the theme, we flavored the cake with Champagne Buttercream, in addition to Cherry Blossom Buttercream, which is a new flavor for us and one that was a success, as our client's email response to our cake attests:

Hi there,
The cake was WONDERFUL! The flavor of the cherry blossom was something that I can't even describe and it tasted so exquisite. That, coupled with the champagne buttercream - it was just a fireworks display to the mouth:) The InnKeepers of the B&B enjoyed a slice of it as well!
The decoration was gorgeous. I have saved the cherry blossoms to shadowbox to remember the occasion.
Thank you, both, so very much for making yet another gorgeous and delectible cake to remember such momentous occasions with.

The Cake is Out There....



Hello,

After creating birthday cakes for little kids, we got the chance to make a fun cake for a 'big kid,' who turned 18. Our client's daughter is a major X-Files fan, so the younger brother suggested that theme and we came up with the idea of having the birthday message as part of a 'top secret' folder on top of the cake. We also air brushed the logo of the X-files on the side of the cake with black airbrush spray and utilizing a negative stencil technique.

The flavor of the cake was a chocolate butter cake with chocolate buttercream and cookies and cream buttercream.

Storybook Cakes




Hello,

When we do cakes where the occasion is the birthday of a small child, one technique/theme we recommend is to take a favorite book and translate that using our talent/technique into something special.

Here are some examples.