One of the First

Years ago...well, 9-10 years ago my mom offered for me to make a wedding cake for her friends, daughter. I was happy to try.

This is one of the first wedding cakes I made. My mom helped me and we had a wonderful time making this cake. It took us one day to bake the cakes and another whole day to make the white chocolate curls. We experimented a lot with different tools and getting the chocolate to different temperatures.

I just recently found this picture and thought I would share it. I have great memories of that day, standing in my tiny kitchen that also included our washer and dryer and laughing with my mom and my husband as we worked to figure out how to get those curls on the cake.

Thanks mom for all the things you have taught me and all the time we have spent laughing.

A New Recipe...Chocolate Raspberry Genoise

In the past few days and weeks, though I have not been updating my blog, the wheels in my head have been spinning, turning, creating and imagining. I have been trying to figure out how to approach the cake world.

So far I have been concentrating on decorations and fondant work. I have experimented with frosting and a few cakes, but I have kept it pretty simple until now. My cakes have all been from scratch, but I was thinking I need to take it to the next level.

The problem with that is, what is the next level? So to answer that question, I went to the library and found cake books. Wow! Who new cakes could be so different. I did do a little research before going to the library and found that most professional cake decorators endorse author Rose Levy Beranbaum. She is the author of "The Cake Bible" and "Rose's Heavenly Cakes". She also has authored many other books I plan to purchase or borrow from the library:) But those will come in time.

I have spent the last few nights studying her books, the recipes and especially her tips on how to bake the perfect cake. I always loved chemistry in college, and I new baking was more science then art, but I am in awe of the information stored in these books. I have so much to learn, but I am up to the challenge...and the tasting:)

So on to the cake!

I decided to go with a new kind of cake, one I have never heard of or even knew how to pronounce, but yet I did it. It took me all day today and I had some great help from my son and my daughter. My husband even came in and kept me company while I worked. Finally after 6 hours my creation was complete.

I had made the Moist Chocolate Raspberry Genoise! That is pronounced GEN-WAH. It was intensely chocolaty, the entire cake contained 5 bars of Ghirardelli Chocolate, but also spongy (since it is a sponge cake). I was amazed at how fluffy it was. It almost had the texture of Angel Food Cake.

This cake is also different for me because instead of my regular method...make a cake, slap on the frosting and then decorate, I also had to make a Cocoa Syrup that was brushed on each layer along with an amazing Raspberry Sauce that I made to put in the Ganache Recipe.

I also learned more about liqueurs. Now I am not a drinker, in fact I don't drink at all, but I love going into liquor stores, because I LOVE cool bottles! It just one of those things, they make me happy and the best place to find cool and interesting bottles is of course...liquor stores. This recipe called for Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur and I was so excited when I saw the bottle, I just had to show you!

Chocolate and raspberries are an amazing combination. I think they were made for each other!

I wish I could share this cake with all of you! And Rose says it tastes better the second day. Yea for tomorrow!

Dirty Martini anyone?

It has been a while since I updated my blog, sorry for the long delay. We have had family visiting a lot this month and we spent 4 days in Disney World. We have had a great time and now we are ready for summer!

On to cakes!

Just as my family came into town, I made this dirty martini cake for a lady turning the BIG 40! And she was celebrating in style! She loves Dirty martinis so she asked for it in cake. The cake was a white cake with almond buttercream icing and covered in fondant. Don't worry I didn't put in Green Olive flavoring! I hope she enjoyed it.

The "40" was covered in edible glitter to make them shiny!

Enjoy!

The Florida Day of Sharing

Yesterday was such a fun day!
I went with a friend to the Florida Day of Sharing Event in Ft. Lauderdale. Through out the day there were sugar art demonstrations on how to make amazing flowers: orchids, poinsettias, and many others. I met some great people and enjoyed getting to know them.

As part of the event anyone could bring a display to share. I decided to try a new technique and take a cake to display.

I decided on this design because it reminded me of some beautiful cupcakes I tried to ship once and they were destroyed during shipping and the poor bride had to scramble to find cupcakes the day before her Engagement party. So this cake is dedicated to Kate and Ryan. Congratulations you guys!

Here is one of the cupcakes before they were shipped.


After the demonstrations, there was a drawing and 9 people were picked to come up in 3 groups and do a Cake Challenge. So guess who got picked, Yep...yours truly!

I was so nervous, I was shaking. I knew the competition was just for fun but to be up there in front of all of those amazing artists and to know they were all watching me was terrifying!

The Cake Competition was 30 minutes and each group was given 2 8in. rounds, some spatulas, a bucket of buttercream icing, one bag and one...count them....ONE tip to try to decorate the cake. Luckily since my brain wasn't working correctly, a bunch of people not in the challenge surrounded our table and started helping us by giving direction.

My teammates were great to work with. I wish I could remember their names now, but I have forgotten them. I was kind of in a frenzy. So we whipped out our supplies and started working. After 15 minutes they told us to stop and that one person from the team had 5 minutes to make a bow out of fondant for the cake. I kept working on the cake while one of my teammate made a beautiful bow.

After the challenge was over we stood around nervously waiting for the results. After a gruelling 5 or so minutes they announced that OUR TEAM had WON!!!! Yea!!! We were so excited and surprised. All three of the cakes were beautiful!

It was so fun to laugh and work with others that enjoy the same passion for the sugar arts. I really enjoyed myself. Thank you to everyone that made the event possible!

Here are a few of the other displays at the Day of Sharing. I did not make these, but thought I would share them with you.

Rock On!!!

I had a fun challenge this week!

I made this cake for a girl turning 16!

She loves music, so we designed a cake that tried to incorporate her love of music. The iPod is made of gumpaste, the guitars are made of royal icing.

The cake was covered in buttercream icing with fondant tiger stripes. On each tiger stripe was the name of some of her favorite music groups and the titles to their songs.

I loved the way this cake turned out! It was fun and very personal, which makes it even better!

Happy Birthday to Me!

So call me a dork or a geek, I am okay with it. This year I decided for my birthday that I would make a cake for myself. Don't worry my husband offered to make my cake or take me anywhere I wanted to go, but I decided I don't really ever get to make a cake I want. I love the cakes I make, but then I always take them to someone else's party.

So this year I made my own Birthday cake! It was actually very fun, and I loved working through the process because I got half way done with the cake and changed my mind about the color scheme.

So my husband and kids decided that I needed 32 candles on my cake, now keep in mind that this cake was very small, only a 6 inch and a 4 inch, so 32 candles is a lot of candles and my 8 year old and 3 year old helped put the candles in. Well one of the candles got pushed in too far and POOF! who knew...Fondant is flammable. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the cake actually on fire, but it surprised me so much I hurried and blew it out. We were laughing pretty hard though. After changing out a few of the very melted candles, we finally lit all 32. And yes I actually blew them all out in one breath....My wish will come true!

I love my family!

An Elegant Wedding

I have had so much fun this week building and baking my tallest cake yet. The cake stood over 3 feet high! I met with Mark an Mila a few months ago and we instantly became great friends. I have enjoyed getting to know them and spending time with Mila. She even asked me to be her wedding planner. So this week I have been baking and planning for the wedding all at the same time.




The wedding was beautiful, the reception was on Mila's parents estate, which is one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. Mila's parents are both incredible artists, and their home is full of art they have created. I loved being there because I walked into their home and I immediately felt like I knew them. There was no facade, or a feeling of "keeping up with the Jones'". Their home was uniquely theirs and it was refreshing to see.









So back to the cake, each tier is 6 inches tall. The 4", 8" and 12" are Vanilla cake with Almond buttercream, and the 6" and 10" are Coconut Cream Cake with Pina Colada buttercream icing. The whole cake is covered in fondant with gum paste Stephanotis and fresh red roses. Also if you look close there is a delicate hand piped design on each tier.




I loved this cake, it was so fun to make and I appreciate Mark, Mila and the whole family. I had a wonderful time working with everyone.


Congratulations Mark and Mila!

Coach, Coach and Coach!!!

Everyone loves a Coach purse!

A few months ago I had a new client contact me about making a Coach purse for her sister that is turning 23. She had found the picture of Olivia's Cake that I had made and wanted it as a Coach purse, shoe and shoe box.

At the cake tasting and design session, it was fun to see how excited Stacy and her friends were to surprise her sister. I am glad I could be a part of this fun occasion.

The "C"s on the purse and the shoe are all hand painted and I must admit took me FOREVER! But I learned a lot in the process. Everything on the cake is edible, even the silver buckles.

Thank you Stacy! I hope your sister's party in Miami was a BLAST!

Gumpaste shoes

As I am learning more about the sugar arts and cake decorating, i am learning that I have a lot more to learn, not just about sugar, but also photography, sketching, and art in all forms. Every kind of art is intertwined if you want to become proficient at one. So I am trying to develop lots of hopefully hidden potential. Only time and a whole lot of work will tell, but I think I am up to the challenge.


So with that preface, here is a not so good photo of a few gumpaste shoes I have made. I am working on photography at the moment, I have now decided...

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

I know these are a little late in coming, but they could be used for Halloween or Thanksgiving.

So Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey, now I am really early!
And Yes, I am an optimist!


Actually, I made these cute "Thanksgiving" cupcakes with a great group of young girls from church. I am a teacher for the 12-13 year old girls on Sundays and on Wednesday nights we meet and learn crafts, cooking, do service projects and all sorts of other fun stuff. It is really fun working with my group of girls. They have been wanting to learn how to work with Fondant, so I thought these cupcakes would be a great place to start. They did a wonderful job too, I just wish I had remembered my camera, so I could show you all of their cute pumpkin patches.
So, I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.

Happy Thanksgiving!