Weddings of 2012

I was very pleased with the opportunities I had this year for creating wedding cake and cupcakes. Being a fulltime momma and a parttime small business owner has allotted me only so much time to create a handful of wedding cakes and I look back on the year with a thankful heart and excitement in seeing what 2013 will bring.

The first wedding was in the spring for a friend of mine. This was an exciting weekend because I wasn't her planned baker. The baker she chose had a family tragedy and I was asked to make her desserts the week before the wedding. Luckily I had done Mandy's engagement cake earlier in the spring and was familiar with the look they were going for:

        

The couple chose a bird and branch themed cake but only wanted a small cut-in cake and four different flavors of cupcakes for their guests. The bride really wanted a large cake without there being a lot of actual cake. My remedy was to create a three tiered cake with the top tier being actual cake. The bottom tiers are styrofoam covered with fondant. The branches are made of chocolate and the bride and groom bird and groom topper was made by the bride's mother.

 



The next wedding cake took place at the end of spring and was for another friend of mine who loves the fine arts. This was a fun cake to make because she gave me artistic freewill. Here's what I came up with, an ode to the great Henri Matisse:
   

       

The cake is hand painted with Americolor gel food coloring and the flowers are made of sugar.

The third wedding cake of the year took place in San Clemente which was my first traveling cake. Let me just take a moment to say that there is nothing more frightening in this business than traveling with a wedding cake. Of course Murphy's Law would state that disaster may strike on such an important day as this. The cake was a very tall four tier buttercream. I decided to stack the cake at the venue which was an outdoor event during the beginning of the summer. Upon arriving there was no wedding planner (which if I could just give any bride reading this some unsolicited advice, GET A WEDDING PLANNER), which usually means no one knows where the cake is going or who to talk to about such details. Once that was figured out, I was surprised with the cake being situated in direct sunlight for the next 4-5 hours. Luckily, by some miraculous intervention, even though I was told that the cake would be under a covered patio, I decided at the last minute that I would go with a whipped high ratio shortening frosting instead of traditional buttercream. Could you just imagine what a buttercream frosted cake would look like after sitting in the blazing hot sun for 4 hours?!? 

"Frosty the snowman knew

The sun was hot that day,

So he said, "Let's run and

We'll have some fun

Now before I melt away."

                                                                                          

Thank the good Lord the cake survived and still tasted great! The bottom tier is made of styrofoam and all four layers are frosted and piped with the whipped buttercream. the buntings are made with twine and scrapbooking paper. 

The last wedding I got to be a part of happened in mid July when I was already very pregnant. I wasn't planning on doing anymore weddings at that point but the bride was the daughter of a friend from church and I just couldn't resist a country/Kenyan (yes, I said Kenyan like from Africa) wedding. My lovely cupcakes were displayed next to the barbecued goat :-) It was awesome. I leave you with a little peak of just how pregnant I really was and the barbecued goat:

       

Bridal Show at the Sheraton Carlsbad

  This weekend I had the opportunity to attend my first bridal show. I didn't know what to expect so I set my expectations very low, not wanting to disappoint or discourage myself. Well that turned out to be a smart idea because the show exceeded all expectations. It was relatively smaller than other bridal expos in the area which proved to be an advantage as it was easy to meet and talk to people one on one. My booth was stationed in the "caterers lounge" near the entrance of the show which sent us a lot of traffic. I decided to include five cake designs highlighting the different styles of wedding; modern, contemporary, natural, classic, and whimsical.

 I wasn't sure how many samples to include so I went with 250 mini cupcakes in four different flavors; red velvet, banana peanut butter, mint chocolate chip, and lemon coconut.

Here are a few close-ups of each cake:

The Contemporary, with an oyster topper and Tahitian pearls in varying colors.

The Classic, all white with bows, lace applique, and parrot tulips and peony topper.

The Whimsy, inspired by Monet's Les Nuages (The Clouds) with a water lily topper. The cake was hand painted with food gel coloring.

The Natural, Dan (my husband) found the tree branch while hiking and I built a cake stand out of it. The cake is also inspired by artist Astrid Preston who grew up near an apple orchard and who also did a residency at Lux where I work. The apples are real and the leaves and blossoms are gumpaste.

And the Modern, inspired by a friend's dress and all black and white cake with striking red parrot tulip toppers.

This was a great experience which I could not have done without the help of my loving, encouraging, and supportive husband, branch finder, delivery driver, muscle, and salesman. We were a great team and I am so thankful for all his hard work, help, and time he gave to me.

James Rosselle Weekend Workshop

This weekend I had the pleasure and opportunity to learn from one of the world's premiere cake designers James Rosselle of Elle Cakes. A two day workshop hosted by Ro'z Sweet Art Studio provided an inspiring lesson in everything wedding cake from textured fondant to gumpaste florals to lace applique. Here's a pic of the blossoming students hard at work:

The gumpaste flowers were a highlight as my love for flora and fauna was nurtured in the art of sugar. Gumpaste flowers are often a two day process because the flowers need to set overnight. We created two blossoms this weekend, a peony and two tiger tulips. James taught all the tricks of the trade in creating these beautiful blooms by way of cookie cutter, flower veiner, and egg shaped drying molds. James allowed us to experiment with his new line of products from N.Y Cake. A few of which I had to add to my collection of cake tools. The center of each bloom had three glittery isomalt beads which gave each flower a fantastical touch. 

We also learned to create ribbons and bows. Though this was a lesson already learned, I found that James had his own take on doing even the most basic of techniques. I too may originate my own style of composing such details. The bow and ribbon may take a little longer to hone as I found it to be my weakest skill in the cake building process.

The lace applique was a technique I lad also previously learned but had not executed prior to this workshop. The process includes rolling out gumpaste with a pasta roller which thins the gumpaste evenly then running the paste through the roller a second time with a piece of lace on top. The piping side of the lace should be faced down into the paste which will give it that indentation. James suggested using cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes to arrange onto the cake, but I opted out of the cookie cutter and instead cut out my own variation of appliques from the indented paste. I borrowed the idea from my wedding dress which also had cut lace appliqued onto the base of my gown. The designs were very light because the lace itself was petite so I dusted each cutout with luster dust to enhance the embossing. 

Here's a pic of my final product. I'm pretty happy with the end result.