week that was...

Hello,

So chocolate season has ended with the passing of Mother's Day, leaving us to a summer/fall of making cakes and more!

Here are some of the cakes that we did this week....two weddings, groom's cakes, congratulations cake, engagement cakes, etc. etc. etc.....

More to come...

Hello,

Sorry for not posting for a while. But here are two cakes we recently finished. The MOCA Takes the Cake submission and a 'whimsical' birthday cake.

Here is a link to another blog about all the cakes that were at the MOCA competition.

Will post more soon!

Best

Cake Week

Hello,

This was a cake week for us....

Our first cake was a surprise anniversary cake for one of our chocolate customers.

Our second cake was cool, it was a birthday cake for Hurley Haywood, a race car driver who is famous for winning Le Mans races. We took the logo from his race car and turned it into a cake. The key I think to alot of cakes like this is the question of going for either sculpted cake or a traditional looking cake. We went for the traditional shape because I have found that sculpted cakes are definitely more for show than for eating. The servings are difficult to plan out and the ratio of actual cake to buttercream is too high for what I think to be a pleasant eating experience.

Our third cake was a Birthday Cake for a young boy who is a fan of Transformers...specially Optimus Prime! Not...BumbleBee...OPTIMUS PRIME!!

Our final cake was a baby shower cake for a client who wanted the theme to be about boats and the sea. Hence the stencils of sea gulls, pier posts, and sail boats. I like these cakes, because less is more. We have a few weddings this summer, where the design of the cake is very extravagant, but they are very cool, because it coheres with the theme, rather than being a bunch of stuff just put onto a cake.

Best wishes to everyone!

The week that was...

Hello,

So this week was filled with a bit of show and tell, cake decorating, and swordplay...chocolate style!

We were happy to play hosts to Girl Scout Troop #748. It's always fun and interesting to teach young people about how we create chocolates and listen to their questions.

In addition, Judy created a chic, petite cake for a dear friend up in NYC to display in her dessert bar/bakery.

And finally, we created over a hundred chocolate sword tablets for the Cummer Ball which was catered by Catering by Liz. This project was very exciting for us as we got to try out new techniques, i.e. creating a mold out of gelatin and using our chocolate sprayer!

Hopes all is well with everyone!

Communion Cake

Hello,

On Sunday, we were commissioned to make a petite communion cake for a party held at a nearby church on the same street as our boutique. The interior is a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. We decorated it with a rosary made from fondant and hand painted with pearl and gold. Also, we included a spray of jeweled dogwoods appliques.

Greatest Love Song of ALL TIME....PERIOD.

Hello,

So this is the greatest love song of all time. Search the web to find out the amazing story about this movie, this song, the writers and singers, etc. etc.

I mean...isn't that life...'take this sinking boat and point it home....we still got time....'

Last Minute Wedding Cake vs. long term planning

Hello,

We just completed another VERY short notice wedding cake for a bride, who first contacted us a week before her wedding....needless to say it became a hectic week! Which brings up the idea of why should you book your cake so far in advance. It breaks down into the following:

1. The NUMBER ONE reason is that the baker could be booked for that weekend. you have to imagine what it is like, a baker has to do as many cakes as possible without losing quality in terms of design and execution in order to run a viable business. Some bakers can do 3 cakes, others can do more...cake decorators like Ron Ben Israel and Duff of Charm City Cakes, can do up to 20 cakes in a week....all probably delivered on Saturday at 5pm!
2. If you wait until the last minute, you are left with what the baker already has in stock, in terms of colors, materials, decorations, and flavors. Most good purveyors are on the west coast, so shipping by ground can take several days, which pretty much means you won't get anything exotic that isn't already in the baker's inventory. We were lucky to have a few signature flavors already in stock for the above cake, i.e. pistachio, champagne, and blood orange. But if we hadn't....well...you get the idea.
   
3. Certain decors take time to create. Namely sugar paste flowers, which need time to dry after being crafted. In addition, coloring fondant to match the decor of the wedding can be prohibited by the fact that fondant, after being colored needs to rest, or it will become very fragile and easy to tear when rolled onto a cake.
   
4. Another element of the decor is approving the final details, etc. For instance, if the fondant is colored the same week, it's pretty much a one shot deal, i.e. if the color isn't what the bride wants, there really isn't much time to change it, due to the fondant needing to rest.

But, the cake was really cool and fun for us to execute because it tested our ability to conceptualize a cake and do a quick turn around for a cake that is rather complicated and exciting:

• We had to color fondant on short notice using the colors we had on hand, mixing blue, white and gray to get a shade of blue slate that the bride was looking for.
  
• Doing a double stack tier, a la April Reed, was something new for us.
• Putting two types of cakes and three types of buttercream flavoring into one cake was intricate and fun.
• Top tier: 8 inch Almond Cake with Pistachio Buttercream
• Bottom tier (top): 10 inch Yellow Cake with Blood Orange Buttercream
• Bottom tier (bottom): 10 inch Yellow Cake with Champagne Buttercream
• Delivering the cake to a boat on the St. John's River was....interesting...to say the least!