Coco Paloma Desserts

More than just cakes!

2012-01-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

In addition to our fun and delicious cakes, we will be offering dessert bar options. As pastry chefs, we felt like non-cake desserts were missing in our otherwise sweet and charmed lives. Little did I know that dessert tables are all the rage now. These would be a wonderful addition to a wedding or the centerpiece of a bar/bat mitzvah or shower. For every occasion, I'm sure there is a way to fit a dessert table into the mix.

The above pictures are from a French-inspired dessert display. Strawberry mousse parfaits with lemon curd and strawberry gelee add a touch of bright flavor to the traditional French pastries set up of eclairs and madeleines.

Here we have a more rustic set up with whoopie pies, lemon meringue mini tartlets and mini bourbon pecan tartlets. The 3oz dessert glasses are filled with coconut cream cake.

A few other dessert cups we are offering are a green tea mousse with apricot gelee and a chocolate pudding s'mores. Everything is lovingly made from scratch here in the bakery! We've had tremendous fun in testing and sampling the recipes. I hope to have the menu finalized soon. Although we're not designing the tables, we can consult with you on ideas for themes and flavors.
Some of the photos here were taken by GinnyB Photography.

Modern Christmas Cake

2011-12-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a day late for this, but I wanted to feature this simple modern Christmas cake for an almost-Christmas wedding (Dec 22). Since the bride was pretty open to ideas, I proposed a modern take on holly leaves. I wanted to create a traditional motif with a clean and graphic look. I think this may be an idea for Christmas cakes for 2012!
Have a happy new year and best wishes for 2012!

Dogwood Flower Cake

2011-11-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be nice to show how an element from the wedding reception is incorporated into the cake design. We made this lovely dogwood cake in September for a bride who happens to be an interior designer. After talking with her about ideas, she brought up the fact that she was going to have a variety of vintage china sets for the seated dinner. That sounded like a good starting point for the design process since it was more personal to her and unique to the wedding.
After sending me about a dozen photos, she narrowed the patterns down to hers and her mom's favorites. Her mom's happened to be the dogwood pattern. Here you can see the plate and a detail from the cake.

Although the dishes were on the traditional side, the bride actually wanted a modern look for the cake. I took some photos of the tables with the different china patterns to show how she created an updated look with the vintage china. You can see the dogwood plate on the right. The china tea pot centerpieces were a mix of succulents and flowers.

Romantic French Country Wedding

2011-10-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

The next time you go to a wedding or large event, take a second to look around and think about how much effort went into making the event special. I want to mention a couple of amazing vendors we work with regularly. This romantic wedding we did this weekend at the new Salt Lick Pavilion was an example of how much time and talent went into creating this spectacular French country theme wedding for several hundred people.
The talent and brains behind the style and organization are the fabulous ladies of Caplan Miller Events. I think they worked non-stop to make the wedding and reception run seamlessly and look so fantastic. They are experts at making a bride's vision come true.
Kurant Events was the caterer along with the Salt Lick. Just to say they are caterers is an understatement since they work hard at keeping the kitchen and waitstaff running smoothly, while creating delicious and picture-perfect food. The stunning floral displays are by David Kurio Designs. Here are some photos of the tables and flowers:

And now for the cake and desserts! The wedding was large, but rather than do one huge wedding cake, we ended up making 4 smaller cakes and a croquembouche. La Patisserie provided the multi-colored French macarons. Each cake was a different flavor and rested on vintage cake stands. The flowers are all handmade sugar flowers - hydrangeas, roses and peonies. Here are some individual cake photos:

In the future, I will try to post photos of the decor and wedding set up when I can. Sometimes I don't have time to take lots of pictures! Enjoy!

Kyle Field Cake

2011-10-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

This cake is definitely not for the Longhorn fans out there, but if you're an Aggie, enjoy! The groom is a diehard Aggie and even asked me nicely few days before to see if I could change the XII logos on the field to SEC logos. It's kind of hard to see, but you can just barely make them out on the top photo.
I hope he enjoyed the cake and that is was a memorable addition to the wonderful celebration!

Masquerade Theme Cake

2011-09-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

I took a look at my blog today and was shocked to see how long it had been since I posted anything! We're in the middle of wedding season, which explains the lack of focus on the blog. I'm going to TRY to post something new everyday this week. There are plenty of cakes to show - just not enough time.

This masquerade cake was a fun party cake for a 7th birthday. The party was a cross between an Italian-inspired masquerade and fancy tea party. The mom sent me a photo of the tea set to use as inspiration for the cake design. The masks were made out of gumpaste and set to dry a couple of days before airbrushing. I was able to borrow one of the masks so I could get the details right.

The birthday girl had a hard time believing the masks were edible! I heard the party was fun and that the cake was devoured by everyone. Speaking of kid birthdays, my youngest is having her 4th birthday party this weekend. I'll definitely post some cake pics next week. She has some interesting ideas...

Lavender Roses

2011-08-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

We've had a few wedding cakes this summer with handmade sugar flowers. You would think we make roses all the time since it's a popular wedding flower, but we make a lot more hydrangeas and peonies. This recent wedding cake was all about the roses, though, which is a nice change of pace.
Again, this shows that we are just as adept at traditional style wedding cakes as we are modern and unconventional ones. Lexi, my new intern, did a great job with the roses. Although we both worked on them, it's nice to have someone who can quickly pick up the skills needed for this kind of time-consuming and nuanced task.

Texas A&M Rings Cake and Hydrangea Wedding Cake

2011-07-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made a Texas A&M rings cake based on the artwork of Benjamin Knox, whose illustration is shown above. The bride and her fiancé went to A&M and wanted to recreate the art in 3-d form. It all seems so simple until I realized that somehow I had to defy gravity with the upright ring! Despite a steep hill and gravel roads, it arrived intact to the venue.
I ended up using a floral styro ring as the base structure, and then using rice cereal treats and modeling chocolate to build up the shape. After I achieved the shape, I covered it with fondant and added the ring details. Finally, I painted them with a thick layer of edible gold.

Here is a photo of the wedding cake. I wrapped the tiers in a mix of white modeling chocolate and ivory fondant so I could achieve a ruffled edge on each band. We also made the lavender hydrangeas. It's amazing how many hydrangea petals you need to make just one cluster! Thanks so much the Heather and Suzanne for helping out with them!

I'm looking forward to a break from cakes this week. I'm heading to the beach with the husband and kids for a little much-needed vacation!

Fenway Park cake

2011-06-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm becoming the stadium cake lady! Fenway Park is the latest addition to the stadium cakes pantheon. I'll have a new stadium to add in the fall, so I'll keep you posted on that one. I get a kick out of being hyper-detailed. I could have spent another 3 hours on the cake adding more detail, but sometimes I just need to stop myself.
The bride ordered this as a surprise for her fiance who is a Navy Black Hawk pilot from Cape Cod. Popping his head out of the Toyota 4Runner is his dog. I hear he was very touched by the personal details added to the cake.
After spending all week on this cake, I've started thinking in a strong Boston accent. For some reason I sound like the Car Talk guys, but being in TX, that's just about my only point of reference.

White-on-White Textures

2011-05-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

I happened to make 3 lovely white on white cakes this week, and thought since it's so close to Memorial Day, let's showcase the all white wedding cakes. I'm a big fan of texture and love to incorporate it into the designs, whether or not there is color.

The first cake was inspired by vintage milk glass designs that the bride planned on displaying at the wedding. The cake was actually pretty large - the photo is deceiving since it doesn't show the large bottom tier. This cake is all about texture, just like the milk glass designs. Every tier had a different design inspired by milk glass, whether it was the hobnail pattern or scalloped edging.

This cake's design was inspired by the bride's lace wedding dress. The leaf/branch pattern is flat while the flowers are textured, outlined and studded with different size edible pearls. This was one of those cakes where the design evolves as I play around with techniques and technology.

Anyone who has the Martha Stewart Wedding Cake book will immediately recognize this cake. While I prefer to create our own designs, part of the business is recreating wedding cakes found in magazines and websites for brides who request them. Rarely will I showcase them on the blog, but I just really love this design! The ruffles and wrapping add so much texture to a seemingly simple design.

Les Paul Gibson Guitar

2011-05-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

I've never made a realistic guitar cake before, so I was glad to have the opportunity to make one for a wedding this weekend. The bride wanted to giver her groom a cake to replicate his Les Paul Gibson guitar. There's always added pressure when a cake has to replicate an object exactly, but I enjoy these challenges! Fortunately, my brother owns a Les Paul Gibson and was able to send me detailed photos. He lives in LA, but I called him a few times asking to measure parts of the guitar. Thanks, baby brother!

It is life size, and I can thank the nice people at South Austin Music for that. They let me trace a guitar onto parchment paper so I could make it true to size.

The best part was getting to watch the groom's face when he saw it! They happened to walk in from the photos and see the groom's cake.

Austin Children Shelter Fashion for Compassion

2011-04-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's easy to forget how fortunate so many of us are to have grown up in safe and loving households. I hope my kids realize one day how lucky they are to have loving protective parents. Unfortunately, there are many children in Austin who are not so fortunate to have that security. The Austin Children's Shelter provides a safe place for those children and helps them recover from any trauma they might have been through.

I was more than happy to offer our services for the Austin Children's Shelter Fashion for Compassion fundraiser recently held at Saks Fifth Avenue. Our table set up was less about fashion and more about the making of it. The main display is a dress form made from cereal treat and fondant. The mini cupcakes (ancho cinnamon ganache!) were topped with white chocolate buttons and jewels. They were each dusted with a metallic luster dust.

I didn't stay to attend the fashion show, but I was told they raised over $100k to benefit the shelter!

Folk Art Inspired Wedding

2011-04-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

I love it when a bride comes to me not only with a unique vision for her wedding style, but who also wants a special cake to carry out the vision. Emily is one such bride I worked with, who not only was creative, but also a pleasure to work with. She decided on a Scandinavian folk art style for her invites, with blues and gold as her main color palette. There were other accent colors used throughout the venue (you can see some green and hot pink flags behind the cake).
Once I get some more photos from the photographer, I'll post a link so you can see more of the wedding decor. I had a great time designing the cake and was thrilled to see the vision come through.

Austin Bake Sale for Japan

2011-03-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about an upcoming event that is raising funds for AmeriCare's effort in Japan. A few Austin food bloggers have organized a city wide bake sale called the Austin Bakesale for Japan. Although we won't be sitting at the sale itself, our yummy treats will be for sale at the downtown location (Woof Gang bakery on 1204 N.Lamar). I'm thinking green tea marble pound cake. More locations and times are shown here: http://austinbakes.wordpress.com/
Find a location convenient to you and buy a treat from one of Austin's many talented home and professional bakers! Calories don't count if they're going to a good cause, right?

Castle Cakes

2011-03-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Cakes that are buildings are some of my favorites. Maybe it's the former architecture student in me, or maybe I'm just obsessed with detail, but I love to recreate buildings, both real and imagined. I spent a lot of time playing with Lego and Playmobil castle sets as a kid, so I am always eager to make a castle cake.
We've done princess castles a couple of times, but last weekend we finally had a chance to go a little darker and do a medieval knight's castle. Working on the castle was educational - I finally learned the difference between a rampart and a parapet. Now I know.

Black and white cake designs

2011-02-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

A black and white color motif is always a classic. It works well with a variety of styles - modern, traditional, playful - and always looks crisp and clean. The cakes above are some examples of b/w cakes we did in the past year.
You can add flowers to tone down the stark contrast, like the square cake with orchids. Or a pretty poppy flower to break the vertical lines on the cake on the bottom left. The wedding cakes on top were both inspired by the wedding invitation designs. We used the damask and scrollwork as a starting point for the designs.
Look for some fabulous new cakes to come in the next few months!

Valentine's Day Lovebird Mini Cake

2011-02-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is almost here, and we've got the cutest little cake for you to share with your sweetie! What could be cuter than two bashful lovebirds? The cake is available in two flavors: chocolate with a sea salt caramel milk chocolate ganache or almond cake with strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberries.
The cakes are available for pick up February 11, 12 and 14 and are $25 each. They are about 3.5 inches tall and 4 inches wide at the base. Orders must be placed by Thursday, February 10. Please call 512.419.1582 or email info@cocopalomadesserts.com for more information or to place an order.

New Website!

2011-01-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited to announce the new version of the website! It's been in the works a long time, but the wait was worth it. The new site showcases many new cakes as well as a spanking new design! A special thanks to my husband, David, for his mad web skills and the many weekends he sacrificed to get the job done. In addition, I'd like to thank Jen, my former design intern, for beautiful design.
But... there's always a but, right? We're having trouble getting it working correctly in IE 6 and 7, so please bear with us until we get it right. Newest versions of IE, Safari and Firefox are fine.

2011 Best of Weddings from the Knot

2011-01-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

It's great to start the new year with a such a wonderful piece of news! Brides sent in their reviews and voted Coco Paloma Desserts Best of Weddings 2011 from the Knot. It's an honor to be selected, and we'll be sure to use our title for good and not evil. No abuses of power - promise!

Art Cake

2010-12-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

This cake is definitely in my top 5 favorite cakes we've made! Kati, a friend of a friend, wanted to order a special cake for a dear friend of hers who was retiring as an Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) docent, where she had been over 10 years. Rather than just showing any art, Kati selected pieces that they had curated over the years at AMOA and had significance for the docents who would be at the farewell party. What made the cake really special, though, was the figure of Michaela strategically standing in front of the nude painting. The joke is that she would stand in such a way in order to placate the pruder teachers when she was giving school tours.

All the art on the cake is handpainted - no cheesy photo prints here! Kati, who actually has an art degree, wanted to help out with the painting. I'm glad she did because this cake required so much attention to detail, that the 4 hours she put in really helped. You might recognize some of the artists, but here is a link to the exhibition page for the following artists: Lichtenstein, Gee's Bend quilt, Oldenburg, Warhol, Christo, Hodges, Bates, Goldsworthy, and Arenz. I may have forgotten one or two.
From what I hear, the cake was a huge hit!

Austin Kidbits

2010-12-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

I just saw that Austin Kidbits posted a little write up about our holiday treats! Since we don't have photos on the website (we're launching a new look very soon!) I'm going to post them here on the blog.

The Present Cake

The present cake is a 6" square and serves about 15-18 people. It's a great centerpiece for a holiday party table or intimate Christmas Eve dinner party. It is $100 ($90 with Kidbits discount).

Santa Set

Ornament Set

Winter Set

Cookies! These adorable decorated cookies, which have been featured in the Austin-American Statesman, make wonderful gifts for adults and children alike. They come in sets of 3 and are $9 per set, or $8.10 when you mention Austin Kidbits. Oh, and did we mention that these are the most amazing sugar cookies ever?

We do need 48 hours for the cakes and 24 hours for the cookies. We accept credit cards as well as cash. You can also order the cookies a la carte for parties with a minimum order of 30.

Happy holidays!

Cheerful wedding cake

2010-12-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

Since we are officially done with weddings for 2010, I wanted to show you one of my favorite wedding cakes from this year. It's simple, sweet and elegant. The bride and I had to work on the design over long distance since she lives in Minneapolis.
Her style for the wedding was relaxed with a little vintage chic thrown in. It was at Mercury Hall, which I just love. You can see the whole table set up with the clapboard background. The gerber daisies and leaves were made out of sugar paste.
I think our collaboration was a success and hope you like it, too!
Photo is by Magic Spoon Productions.

Dr. Who and Alice in Wonderland weekend

2010-11-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had a nice break from wedding cakes and had a blast making these 2 childrens' birthday cakes. The first was for a 9 year old Dr. Who fan. Fortunately I was sitting at my computer when his mom called, otherwise I wouldn't have known what a tardis looks like. The last time I saw Dr. Who was in 1988 when the long curly-haired guy played the lead. I think the cake cost more than their special effects budget. I added a dalek (again, thank you google) to give it some color contrast.
I had no problem getting all the details of the Alice in Wonderland cake, though. I enjoyed reading the book and watching the Disney movie when I was a kid. I recently read an abbreviated version of the original to my 6 yr old. Hopefully when she's older we'll read the whole text together. This cake was for a 4 year old, so I wanted to keep the design straightforward and lighthearted. Although I generally like Tim Burton movies, I was not a fan of his Alice in Wonderland, so I opted for the Disney look. I also think it's more appropriate for a little girl, anyway. The teapot is cake, too, although the handle, spout, dormouse and lid are gumpaste.
Have a happy Thanksgiving! We're closed this week, so it's all about baking pies for me. Can't wait!

The Knot Austin Guide

2010-11-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

I'm going to make this a quick post since I'm wiped out from a cold. A few months ago I was asked by the Knot if I'd like to be the featured wedding cake designer in their Insider's Guide to Austin. A couple of the wonderful ladies from the NY office were on hand and were a pleasure to meet. I had a great time and am glad to see that I came across as somewhat coherent and focused! (Not too many "ums" and "uhs")
Here's a link to the video: http://wedding.theknot.com/local-wedding-vendors/austin-weddings.aspx?MsdVisit=1
Scroll down halfway and you'll see it. And yes - they REALLY loved the cake samples! After the shoot was over, the videographers and Knot ladies ate up the rest.

Fun Halloween Cake

2010-10-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

Hope you had a fun Halloween! Since my oldest daughter was born on Halloween, I leave it up to her whether or not she wants a Halloween themed party. This year she wanted to all out for Halloween, so naturally the cake had to be a little spooky. As the guests were all 6 and under, I designed the cake to be more cutesy than scary.
I used a mix of cutters and freehand to create the imagery on the cake. The bats are piped on and the 3-d figures are gumpaste. I gave the Frankenstein monster a birthday cake to hold just to make sure the cake was obviously a birthday cake, too.

Big Bat Mitzvah weekend - Part One

2010-10-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

This is part one of a 2-part posting. We made cakes, cookies and desserts for a huge bat mitzvah weekend in San Antonio early this month. The cakes I'm showing today are from the Saturday synagogue luncheon. The theme of the lunch was a fun festive candyland setting. We were asked to design a cake that embodied a fantastical candy filled cake. I designed a set of candy gift boxes and candy bags overflowing with iconic and easily recognizable candies. The cakes are actually 2 tiers each and were huge. The bags are fondant covered rice cereal. And the candy and lollipops? It's ALL handmade by us out of sugar paste!

Here's a close up of the spilled candy. Each piece was painstakingly copied by us. The candy bars, Tootsie rolls, kisses, dots, etc. Not one is real. Yes, I know we're crazy.
I was still in Austin working on the Saturday night cake and wasn't at the lunch, but my assistant told me that kids and old ladies were trying to sneak the candy thinking it was real! Next post will be the Saturday night party cake and cookies.

Longhorn Wedding

2010-10-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

What better way to show you're a diehard Longhorn fan than a UT/burnt orange wedding cake and groom's cake? I never actually met the bride since she lives out of town, but she sent photos of ideas and knew exactly what she wanted for her cakes. Sometimes people order wedding cakes and custom cakes from out of town, sight unseen. I think it takes a brave and trusting person to do that!
The groom's cake is the iconic tower on UT campus. I love spending time on architectural details, so I had loads of fun with this cake. Add the stadium, trees and students, you've got an idea of what UT Austin is like. The windows are hard to see in this photo, but some are colored burnt orange to make an "R" for the initial.
The bride's cake is the traditional topsy turvy cake design with a burnt orange, brown and ivory color scheme. The roses are fun fondant ribbon roses to give the cake a lighthearted look. The reception itself was tastefully decorated with beige linens. The burnt orange was mostly in the cakes, which was a relief since that color can be a little overwhelming in large amounts.

Día de los Muertos Wedding Cake

2010-10-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

A fun wedding cake for the Halloween season. The couple planned a lighthearted Día de los Muertos themed wedding and wanted a cute cake to match the overall theme. The skeleton topper was provided by the bride. The wedding started out as a family reunion but was turned into a wedding when the bride realized she could take advantage of all her family being in town at once. I'll post a pic of my daughter's Halloween birthday cake on Sunday!

Garden theme wedding cake

2010-10-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

I know it's been an awfully long time since I've posted any cakes - or anything for that matter. We had our busiest month ever this October making cakes for weddings, birthdays and bat mitzvahs. Now that wedding season has officially slowed down in Austin, I can take a moment to catch up on some photos. I downloaded a ton of pics today from my camera (ok, about 100 were from my daughter's birthday party) so I've got a lot to sift through.

I'll just go backwards and start with this past weekend. We've been doing more cakes this past year with handmade sugarpaste flowers. In order to make sure the flowers look real, it takes a lot of patience and time to form them and dust them to achieve the right look. I think the most we've done on a cake recently was about 18 roses. This cake was on a whole new level of complexity. I think in the end we made 50 roses, 6 peonies, 4 hydrangea clusters, budding branches and about 60 leaves. Each peony has between 11 and 25 handformed individual petals, and each hydrangea cluster has about 7 handformed petals.

We started about 2 weeks before making the flowers so we wouldn't be stressed about them right before the wedding. Good planning paid off! They were all done and ready to go a few days before. Since it was our last delivery of the day, we were able to take our time arranging the flowers on the cake onsite at the Four Seasons.
The traditional design was an important factor for the bride. Her grandfather used to be a wedding cake decorator in the days when all cakes looked like this. She asked for traditional piping techniques and lots of flowers in pinks, magentas and whites.
My goal is to post a new cake a day - let's see if I can manage that! We did so many beautiful and fun cakes the past 2 months that I want to share!

Mini cake madness and moving in

2010-09-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I didn't really go anywhere, but between moving into the new bakery and working, I haven't had much time to keep up with the blog. So, to start with, we FINALLY moved into the new bakery space! I haven't had much time to pretty up the front meeting area yet, but that'll come soon. It was challenging enough to get the kitchen ready for inspection, move in over the weekend, unpack and set up and then get ready for... 300 mini cakes. Yes, 300. Mini cake. With lots of detail. The top photo is a close up of each one.

Here's a lovely photo of all 300 plated on site. The event was a fundraiser kick-off for the Belton Children's Hospital, which is about an hour north of Austin. The venue was an idyllic yet luxurious ranch. It was a long drive, but my assistants and I had to all drive in our own cars because we ran out of room! I think we ended up with 30 boxes of cakes! I can't thank them enough for all the time and effort that was put into making this little cakes truly stellar.

I'll post some bakery shots once we get the front area ready. And I will definitely try to be more consistent with the blogging! I'll post some cake highlights from the summer on the Facebook page.

New bakery and farmers market, coming soon!

2010-08-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we're getting so close to finishing the new bakery! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the end of August, but we'll see. You never know how inspections are going to go. If you haven't heard, Coco Paloma Desserts is moving to a cute little stone building on 6701 Burnet Rd, right where the Travis County Farmers market used to be. We won't be selling anything retail - it'll still be by appointment only - but we'll have our very own bakery, cake studio and consultation area. Oh, and enough room for all of us to work so we're not fighting over every square inch of table!
It hadn't been a farmers market in years, but today I met the new farmers who are taking over. There's going to be a farmers market again! They will be open Wednesday through Saturday, offering gardening supplies and produce. They'd like to add other products as well as classes and demos. I'm excited to see the complex being put to good use, as well as the opportunity to come home from work with fresh veggies. While you're checking out the market, be sure to take a peek through our windows. It's a mess right now, but give it a few weeks for it to look spectacular.

Charming cakes for babies to teens

2010-07-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Girls of all ages adore cakes (including their moms)! These are some samples of cakes we've done for different girls, ranging from prenatal to 15, for a quinceañera. As kids get older, the cake takes on more of their personality. First birthday cakes tend to be cute and somewhat neutral. By 2 they know exactly what they like and you'd better make a cake with their favorite character or toy!
The quinceañera or bat mitzvah cake is the perfect opportunity to showcase the girl's maturing personality and style. I enjoyed doing this particular quinceañera cake because the girl did not want a typical pink frilly cake. She's a basketball player and felt like a simpler blue cake was more her style.
On another note, we're moving into a new space (hopefully in mid August) and will be documenting the progress of the remodel on our Facebook page.

Refreshing cake colors

2010-07-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Weddings are a great time to have fun with your favorite colors, but many brides feel compelled to stick with white and ivory, whether due to tradition or association of the cake with the dress. White cakes are lovely and convey elegance, but for some brides color is the way to go. The cakes above use colors we don't see very often in bride's cakes - coral, lime green, lilac and sea green. They also do a great job reflecting the season of late spring and summer. The colors are refreshing and evoke summery breezes, flowers and fruits. The lime green cake actually had a lime curd filling.
These colors might not work so well with a fall theme, so color decisions should take into account the season. Above all else, the cake should be a reflection of the bride's personality and style.

Captain America Cake

2010-06-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

I love surprising my friends with fun cakes! Recently when my friend's husband turned 40, she asked if I could make a cake to represent his love of comic books. The Captain America cover looked like a classic example of an old-school comic book - bold colors and clean graphics. We got a little cheeky, though, with the theme. Instead of the shield, we thought it would be cute to have him holding a huge glowing birthday cake.
It's hard to tell in the photo, but the cake, wings and figure are all applied on to the cake to give it a 3-d relief look. Besty painted the figure and gave the wings shadow and depth. Needless to say, Stephen was thrilled with the cake.

Purple Poppies

2010-05-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

We've been having fun making all kinds of sugar flowers this spring. The latest ones are these gorgeous dark purple poppies. The flowers and cake design were inspired by the wedding invitations the bride selected. I kept the rest of the cake clean and modern so that the flowers would really pop out. You can see in the close up shot that the scroll design was embossed rather than piped. The lines on the shorter tiers mimicked the lines inside the envelope.

I think you'd be able to see more detail on the cake itself if it hadn't been so humid that day. Humidity and fondant do not make a good match.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

2010-05-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

I feel like when I show off a cake like this one, I ought to give a well-deserved shout-out to my talented staff. For the past 8-9 months, I've been lucky enough to have several gifted women on my team. Whether it's painting (see this cake!), sculpting, piping or just getting everything done, all these women have contributed in some way to the high level of craft expected from a Coco Paloma Desserts cake.
This Mary Poppins cake for twins Jessica and Melody also demonstrates how it takes a team to create a cake that truly wows the client. I'll generally "art direct" the cake, but I also need to divvy out certain tasks to fit people's strengths. Not everyone here bakes and ices cakes, but everyone is artistically gifted in different ways, whether it's painting, sculpture, piping, making flowers, etc. The best part is that we all learn from each other and gain new skills along the way.

Fresh Spring Cake

2010-05-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Somewhere mixed in among the Godzillas and trophies are the lovely wedding cakes of spring. Everything about this last wedding was just lovely. Again it was at the Lady Bird Wildflower center (third wedding there in less than 6 weeks!) and the weather was AMAZING! The bride really lucked out with the breezy sunshine. The only thing missing were all the bluebonnets, which are no longer around.
She wanted a classic, vintage look to her cake while emphasizing the floral details of her wedding. We made light blue hydrangeas, white peonies and ranunculus for the cake. I think it has a really fresh and clean look and am thrilled with how it turned out. Simple can be refreshing.

Only in Texas...

2010-04-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

When I conjure up a picture of a trophy in my mind, I visualize the standard wood base with a person in the middle of an activity - swinging a bat, golf club or tennis racket. I never won one of these things, but that's the limitation of my trophy imagination. And then there's the trophy for the Terlingua International Chili Cookoff. It clearly represents the nature of the competition - a chili-shaped earth - but it's also pretty funny.
Having been to Terlingua on a Big Bend road trip, I can vouch for the eccentricity of the town in the middle of nowhere. I never would have known about the trophy, though, unless the husband of a 2 time winner hadn't emailed a photo to me and asked me to replicate it to surprise his wife. I think Jen, my design intern, and I did a pretty good job, but the crowd at the Texas Ladies Sate Championship cookoff in Seguin thought it was awesome! I only wish it hadn't been so humid - the fondant got so glossy. Oh, and thanks, Floozie for the water bottle.

Spring kick-off

2010-04-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

We initiated spring with this adorable wildflower wedding cake at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It couldn't have been a lovelier day! The sun was shining and the wildflowers filled in every nook and cranny in the fields. Since the bride wanted the cake to have a more casual handpainted look, I layered the colors on loosely and with bigger brushstrokes. We also made a sugar paste replica of their pet dog, Izzy, and her favorite dog toys.

We hadn't made a baseball hat before, so I was excited that they wanted a Red Sox hat for the groom's cake, complete with shamrocks! So Boston! (You'll have to click the photo to see more detail). Getting the brim just right was definitely the most challenging aspect of the cake.
We're about to get slammed with lots of weddings and parties, so I'll try to be as diligent as possible in keeping up with the blog.

More Godzilla pics

2010-03-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

The Godzilla wedding was featured on the Weddings Unveiled Austin blog as a top 5 for the week. The photographer got some great shots of the cake with better detail.

When cakes attack

2010-03-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's not everyday that a couple shows up to a tasting and says "We'd like our wedding cake to be attacked by Godzilla and Mechagodzilla. Oh, and can you make a topper of the bride carrying the groom? And maybe make the cake look likes it about to topple?" I love challenges, so of course I was on board with the idea. What's even funnier is that the mother and grandmother of the bride were there, too, and seemed nonchalant about the idea. I'm sure they had finally warmed up to the idea by the time we did the tasting.

The godzillas were both created the same way. I started with a PVC armature that I screwed into a square mdf piece. I started with a layer of rice cereal and then covered it with modeling chocolate to give it a defined form. After that I layered on the fondant. Godzilla was easier since his skin went on a few pieces. Mechagodzilla was another story due to all the "metal" plating that had to be pieced on. The spikes on both were hand cut out of gumpaste. Afterward, they both were airbrushed to match their coloring. Since it was a wedding, I thought it would be cute to make them each a bride and groom. The real bride wanted Mechagodzilla to be the bride.
The cake itself was a classic design, skillfully decorated by my assistant. She couldn't bear to watch me cut into it and make scorch marks with black food coloring, but she felt better about it after seeing it all set up on site in its Godzilla glory.
Although this may be the wackiest wedding cake we've done so far, I'm looking forward to more eccentric wedding cakes in the future. Maybe King Kong climbing the Empire State Building?

Six pack of yummy

2010-02-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

I recently had to two orders involving beer and birthdays. This one was for an event planner who wanted to get a cake for her Lonestar-loving boyfriend. I suggested we make a 6-pack design, partly because I'm intrigued by the packaging design. It's modern in a retro sort of way. I like how the Texas icons - the Alamo, SF Austin, WB Travis, and even the state itself- are merely satellites of the main attraction - the Lonestar beer logo. Could Lonestar beer have existed without them, or is their historical importance merely a reflection of the awe that is Lonestar beer? It must be a Texas thing.
Don't think too hard about it. Go get yourself a beer and relax.

Vintage Bowling Bag

2010-02-10T10:26:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, we celebrated my friend Susan's birthday at the uber-cool Highball. It's a throwback to the 60s with vintage lanes, a rat-pack style lounge and people who are definitely hipper than all of us combined. Thankfully my husband knew how to keep score manually (no monitors here!). Although I suck at bowling, I always have fun and manage to squeeze in a strike or spare in.
I've known Susan for almost 10 years, and she has always been a generous friend as well as very artistic and creative. I made her a vintage bowling bag cake, not only because I knew she would really love it (which she did) but also to show my appreciation for her friendship. It was partly for her mom, too, who was in town visiting. Like Susan, she is a very warm and generous person and LOVES sweets. I hear they enjoyed the leftovers for breakfast!

Valentine's Day Cake

2010-02-05T05:30:00.000-08:00

This year for Valentine's Day, we going cute and colorful. There are "Sweetheart" messages scattered around the cake to bring a smile to your friends, someone-special, kids, or just yourself! The flavor options are chocolate cake with either raspberry buttercream or white chocolate buttercream.
We will be taking orders on the cakes until Wednesday, February 10 and will have them ready starting Friday, February 12. We can also arrange for delivery.
The price is $60 for the cake, and we'll be donating $10 from each cake sold to the Red Cross.

Teenager Cakes

2010-01-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

In December I had 2 different people order cakes for teenage boys, one week after the other. I don't recall ever making a cake for a teenage boy besides a Bar Mitzvah cake, so this was going to be a fun challenge. I guess I'm getting old - I have no idea what teenagers are into or think is cool these days.
One cake was for a book lover, so we made a stack of some of his favorite books. The other boy is an avid skateboarder. What I know about skateboarding could fit into a thimble, but thankfully the mom was able to give me some insight into his favorite brands. We made the cake a halfpipe and plastered it with fondant logos and handpainted images. I'm not sure I get any street cred points, but the mom said he loved the cake, which is all that really matters.
Valentine's Day cake coming soon!!!

Poppy Wedding Cake

2010-01-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a wedding cake in a while, so here's a cute one we did for a small New Year's wedding reception. The bride wanted a contemporary design that wasn't necessarily "wedding cake-y" looking. I had a photo of a cute poppy vase she had given her mom which they thought would be a great inspiration for the cake design.
I knew I got it right when I delivered the cake, and everyone said it reminded them immediately of the bride and her aesthetic. I hope she loved it, too!

Junior League Tea Table

2010-01-04T21:18:00.000-08:00

I tried to take a little break from any work the past 2 weeks with the exception of the few cake orders I had. That meant no blogging, too! I realized that I hadn't posted the cake I designed for the Junior League's Tearoom Topper. The tea service is one of the events they had lined up for the Christmas Affair they do every year.
This year's theme was "Wild in Africa". I'm not going to get into the fact that most tables were safari/animal themed or crack any jokes about Africa being a country. I may be tired right now, but I can stay neutral. What I did design was a cake that was representative of the beautiful arts and crafts of Africa. I found gorgeous fabrics and jewelry made with shells and beads as well as intricate baskets. Some of the artisan baskets are stunning. These are not the baskets you find at Pier One and World Market. Most of my inspiration came from Mercury Design, an amazing design store on 2nd Street in downtown. In early November they had a display of African arts and crafts that the sales guy was gracious enough to let me photograph.
I'm not sure what this year's theme is yet. If I do it, it will be my third year participating. As for the next few weeks, I have lots of cakes saved up to show you.

More Holiday Cookies!

2009-12-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Even we're still busy making Hanukkah cookies, the Xmas cookie madness is beginning. This year we added a Santa set - tree, Santa and stocking, in addition to the ornament set and winter set. We'll also have the present cakes again, too. (Some of the designs are slightly different from the photos shown) Best of all is that the cookies taste like cookies and not cardboard! They are baked frequently, so they're always fresh when you receive them.
All these items are available until December 24th. Please allow 3 days for order fulfillment.

Hanukkah Cookies

2009-12-04T12:05:00.001-08:00

Hanukkah is in just one week! It's the one time of year I'm ok with frying and smelling like I swam in a vat of oil. Yes, I make lovely cakes and cookies, but I also fry up awesome latkes. I even hand grate the potatoes and onions, which is a labor of love right there.
Although the traditional Hanukkah dessert is sufganiyot, which are like jelly-filled donut balls, my contribution to the Hanukkah dessert pantheon is cute decorated cookies. Why should gentiles have all the fun!?! At Coco Paloma Desserts, we package them in sets of 4 tied with a blue ribbon.
For anyone interested in ordering the cookie bags, we'll have them available through December 18. Christmas cookies will be available until December 24. (I'll post those next week)

Cherry Blossom Cake

2009-11-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

Even though we're known for more nontraditional designs, I like to throw in a classic now and then. The cherry blossom cake is becoming a popular design for brides and would be a beautiful centerpiece for a spring or summer wedding. It's easily adaptable to any color scheme or even shape - round, square or even hexagonal.
Next week I'll be posting the Junior League Christmas affair cake we'll be doing. The theme is "Wild in Africa", but don't expect any animal prints from us!

Modern Indian Wedding Cake

2009-10-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

I love bright colors and unique designs on a wedding cake, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to have a bride requesting a pink/orange color combo and traditional Indian motifs for her Indian wedding. Rather than opt for a traditional take on the design, we went for a contemporary interpretation of the paisleys and scroll patterns. Using the hexagon shape and dome top added to the playfulness of the cake.
The set up of the ballroom was fantastic! You can see the sequin fabric hanging behind the cake, which was actually on a stage. The whole room had a wonderful pink and orange glow.

Halloween Cookie Class

2009-10-25T20:17:00.001-07:00

After many requests, I finally decided to offer my first class - Halloween Cookies. We'll focus on learning different royal icing techniques, such as piping, flooding, using sparkle sugar, and marbling. All the techniques can be applied to any cookies you make in the future, whether it's cute butterflies for a shower or dinosaurs for a birthday.
Date: Thursday, Oct. 29
Time: 6:30 - 9:30
Cost: $50
All supplies as well as cookies and recipes provided. Please email me at info@cocopalomadesserts.com for more info or to sign up. The cookies you make Thursday will still taste wonderful for Halloween on Saturday!

Pirates and Baby Shower Cake

2009-10-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

More fun kids' cakes! Technically, the Cat in the Hat (don't sue me estate of Dr. Seuss!) is a baby shower cake, but it would be a fun birthday cake for any Dr. Seuss fan young or old. The pirate ship was for a VERY happy five year old boy. He couldn't believe the ship was cake! Seeing a kid's joyful reaction is really the best thank you.

Pirate ship detail - peg leg mate and one-eyed captain.
The sails and rope ladders were edible, too.

Thing One and Thing Two running around the cake.
Everything was edible!

Cake Wrecks - Wrecked!

2009-10-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Cake Wrecks grand super-duper world book tour was going to make a stop in Austin this past Sunday, but John and Jen of Cake Wrecks both got seriously ill in Dallas on Saturday. John even ended up in the ICU! Hopefully they'll recover swiftly. Unfortunately, this means the book tour is canceled for now, but it's more important that they get better.
It would have been awesome to meet them, especially since I was going to be providing cake for the 500 fans who were expected to show up at Book People. Nicole of Wicked Cakes was also going to be there with cake on hand for the hungry fans. Here's the cake that we made for the book-signing. If you're at all familiar with Cake Wrecks, you'll get the references. If not, go NOW to Cake Wrecks! Laugh, cry, shake your head in dismay... just go.
So what happened to the cake? My husband and his coworkers devoured it. Software developers plus free cake = gone.

Baby's Birthday Cake

2009-09-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

We had a little party for my youngest daughter today. She's going to be 2, s0 I guess she's not really a baby anymore (sniff). Even though she has no clue what a birthday really is, she knew right away that the cake was for her and was very proprietary about it during the birthday singing. It probably didn't help that the little duck figure on the cake is a replica of her much beloved DuckDuckDuck, whose head she subsequently demolished.
The stacked present cake idea is a pretty versatile design and would work for any age, gender or celebration. I could see it as a fun over-the-top cake for a teenager (bar/bat mitzvah, sweet 16) or a cute version for a baby shower. It would also make a whimsical bridal shower cake, incorporating champagne, rings, and bridal fashion. The colors and design are what will set the tone for any cake in the stacked gift motif.
My other daughter's birthday is at the end of October - stay tuned for her cake!

Ann Richards Birthday Bash Fundraiser

2009-09-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

Although it's been busy with weddings and other fun cakes, I particularly enjoyed making a cake for the Ann Richards Birthday Bash fundraiser. Every year the Ann Richards for Young Women Leaders gets a boost from this fundraiser. If you don't know much about the school, it's worth learning more about.
The nice thing about donating a cake is that I have free artistic reign and use it as an opportunity to try out new design ideas. This design would work nicely for a modern wedding cake or an elegant birthday cake. I arrived early to deliver the cake, so I didn't get a chance to see what the other pastry chefs had brought.

LSU Tiger Stadium Revisit

2009-08-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Way back in October of 2008, when I made my first blog posting ever, I showed two groom's cakes -an LSU stadium cake and an armadillo. This past weekend we had another LSU stadium cake and a rainbow trout cake. I'm always amazed at how much I learn every year in regards to cake decorating skills and feel like the new LSU cake really blows away the old one. This is my third stadium cake, so I would hope that with each one, I expand my skill set. Since my first major in college was architecture, I feel like I'm carrying over the model-building skills over to cake decorating.
The fish was just plain fun to do! I don't know if it creeped out the guests, but I'm guessing they got a kick out of it.

"Cheese" Cake

2009-08-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

We do create a lot of fun groom's cakes, but every once in a while we get to make one that is just truly unique. This groom had a quirky sense of humor and had actually been in the cheese business, so making a Parmigiano-Reggiano wheel made perfect sense. The two mice crashing the wedding were a cute touch to the cake.
Capitol Stamps in Austin created the rubber stamps that I used to imprint the "rind" of the cake. I brushed on brown food coloring for each stamping, and then airbrushed the whole cake to match the color of the actual cheese wheel. Hopefully the guests realized it was a cake and not a giant wheel of cheese (which would have been delicious, too)!

The Red Furry Monster

2009-08-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

I don't mean to be evasive about the name, but my friend Tony put the fear of copyright infringement in my mind a while back. I'm pretty sure that the folks over at CTW aren't going sue me (I'm not exactly mass-producing these cakes and selling them on Canal Street), but just to be safe, I will refer to this cake as the Red Furry Monster cake (RFK).
That being said, RFM was for a 2 year old's birthday. He loves basketball, so we incorporated a cake one into the design. I also added RFM's pet and a gift box for festiveness. I wish the photo were a little better - I should have turned the cake around for the photo.
His slightly dilated eyes, nose and party hat are rice cereal covered in fondant. It's a little hard to tell, but his mouth is really open - I cut into the head to create the open mouth. Even though we had a lot of fun working on RFM, we started to get loopy applying the fur! I got the idea to use the meat grinder attachment on the Kitchenaid from last week's Food Network challenge. Sesame Street cakes, of all things! Perfect timing.
Cue in piano... la la la la, la la la la, RFM's world... RFM loves his goldfish...

Burnt Orange Cake Craziness

2009-07-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'm actually surprised it's taken this long for someone to order a UT stadium cake. It makes a great groom's cake - which this was. I'm not even sure how long it took to decorate, but the architectural details of the stadium are permanently embedded in my brain. The whole thing is edible except for the 5 turrets, which were PVC pipe covered in fondant. The lights and screen are sugar paste.

"Cupcake" Cake

2009-06-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know cupcakes are all the rage right now - they're cute, portable and easy to make. But, they don't make for particularly grand wedding cakes. Unless the cupcake is 7 inches tall and can feed 10 people. The bride's whimsical style called for a cake that was fun and festive without being childish and overdone. She also really liked cupcakes and wanted to incorporate that into the cake design.
The bride and her guests loved the cake, and the lucky couple got to save the giant cupcake for their anniversary. I think this cake design would also work really well for a birthday or bat mitzvah.

Peony Cake

2009-06-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

The peony cake was for a couple that wanted to incorporate traditional Chinese motifs in a western style wedding cake. The bride, who is from Taiwan, had a pink peony design for her stationery. The sugar paste peonies were SOOO time consuming to make, but I think they turned out stunningly, all thanks to my new assistant! I'm hoping to do more sugar flowers now that I have someone else on staff who has some experience with them.
More fun cakes to come!

In the Knot

2009-06-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

I picked up the lastest the Knot the other day at Target since I knew that one of my past brides was going to be featured. (Here's her story) I didn't realize that I would have a couple of other mentions, too. In a cake q&a article, the white Jonathan Adler-inspired cake was shown as an example of a different take on white-on-white. This cake is one of my all-time favorite designs.
There was also an article about planning an eco-friendly wedding in Texas, giving brides advice on how to be more green in their selection of flowers, catering, etc. Coco Paloma Desserts was highlighted as an all-natural cake shop! Their exact words were: "Pastry chef Paloma Efron couples earth-conscious baking practices with her graphic design background to make one-of-a kind cakes. Though her designs ranged from traditional with a twist to colorful and modern, every creation is made from exclusively natural ingredients."
I've got some fun wedding cakes coming up for June, so stay tuned!

Unconventional Wedding Cake

2009-06-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I made a wedding cake that looked like a lighthouse on a cliff. The groom proposed to the bride at a lighthouse in Hawaii and wanted to recreate that memory with the cake. The cake is a replica of that very lighthouse. The sand at the base is turbinado sugar and the base itself is covered in poured sugar. I created the cliffs by packing some rice crispie treats around the cakes. (I think every bakery is now stocked with Rice Crispies thanks to the Food Network)
The bride and groom are gumpaste and admittedly a little out of scale with the rest of the building. How did they fit through the door? Hmmm... something to ponder.

French Macarons

2009-05-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

Discovering new foods and sweets on my travels is often the highlight of the vacation. I come back home hoping I'll be able to find a recipe or restaurant with the newly discovered dish or food. In 2000, a trip to Paris led us to Laduree, a beautiful if somewhat stodgy Parisian icon. I tried the macaron for the first time and have never let go of the memory of the chewy almondy texture.
In 2000 no one in Austin was making them and recipes for true French macarons were hard to come by. I did learn in pastry school how to make them as well as recognize a quality macaron.
Thankfully Luxe Sweets stepped in and began making beautiful and delicious real French macarons! Soraiya Nagree, the owner, also discovered them on a trip to Paris. Hers have the right chew, are shiny, and have the distinctive "crusty" edge around the base of the cookie halves.
The 2" round cookies and the fillings are paired to match. Some of her offerings include passionfruit, chocolate, cardamom honey orange and rose. They make wonderful wedding favors and hostess gifts. More info about ordering can be found on their website.

More Kids' Cakes

2009-05-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

I always have fun making cakes for kids. It's an opportunity to use bold colors and have fun with my imagination. Oliver's parents have ordered cakes from me before - I'm the cake lady according to their kids. For his 4th birthday, the theme was bug catching. I'm not a fan of insects, but I had fun making cute and innocuous little sugar bugs for the cake. The wings on the bugs are cut gelatin sheets. The books and basket are cake.

The tropical fish cake was for a Bar Mitzvah - not quite a kid anymore, but young enough to want something vibrant and fun. Sam is really into tropical fish, but I wanted to make sure the cake didn't look like a Nemo cake for a 3 year old.

Wedding Dress Inspiration

2009-05-05T19:36:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was one of the busiest we ever had - 8 cakes! That's not a big deal for larger shops, but it's just me and my intrepid assistant, Chree. My friend Carri, who used to work at the Driskill with me, helps out on weeks like this. Also keep in mind that most of the cakes we do are very detailed and time-consuming, so 8 cakes is quite an undertaking.
Two of the wedding cakes last week were inspired by the brides' dresses. The first cake had 3 tiers of scalloped lace, each with a different pattern. On a small budget, we were able to incorporate some of the detail of each layer on each tier of the cake. By impressing the fondant with a pattern and piping royal icing, we were able to add detail and depth.

The second bride's dress was an ivory satin with lots of folds and ruching. We recreated the folds of the fabric with fondant and then airbrushed the whole cake with a pearl sheen. The camellia flower is made out of sugarpaste and was also airbrushed. All that extra fondant added several pounds to the weight of the cake - it was heavy!

Cakes for Dudes

2009-04-21T12:41:00.001-07:00

Most weekends we make beautiful wedding cakes and birthday cakes with lots of pretty colors and girly stuff. This weekend we pumped up on testosterone and created these manly man cakes. Grrr. Talk about putting hair on your chest.
The Ford GT-40 was for the special manly man in my life - David. His fascination with this vintage Ford sportscar began after he got to sit in one at his mechanic's shop. (Maybe he rode in it, too?)
The NY Giants helmet was the groom's cake for a NYC couple getting married in Austin. The shiny blue was achieved with an airbrush and metallic blue food coloring. I hope the guests didn't end up with blue teeth! The face guard is made out of gumpaste and miraculously survived the journey to the reception.

I can't believe it's not cake!

2009-04-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

I know it's hard to believe, but I love eating all kinds of sweets EXCEPT for cake. I guess after 4 years and 100's of cakes, I've developed an aversion to eating it. Since I don't have much going on this week, I thought I'd start writing about other great desserts and sweets in Austin. I'm always on the lookout for something beyond the standards available at all the bakeries around town. We live in a city with an infatuation with cupcakes, red velvet, Italian cream cake and chocolate chip cookies. Some bakeries do a great job with these treats (we do too!), but I yearn for something more magical. Isn't that what dessert should be?
This week I was lucky enough to try two stellar desserts, one sophisticated and fancy, the other homey and simple. I happened upon the first one at the Austin Food Bloggers potluck this past Sunday. It was a perfectly sized (read finger-length) eclair from Cissi's Market. My French chef instructors at Le Cordon Bleu in London would have approved of its daintiness. The pâte á choux was the perfect cradle for the smooth, lightly sweetened Early Grey pastry cream. The cream was just firm enough to hold its shape without resorting to corn starch overload. I think I ate 3. (You can see pics on Thai Cooking with Jam)
Today my daughters and I shared a platter sized Whoopie Pie from the Cookie Lounge. (see above pic) I'd heard they starting making them recently and have been looking for an excuse to head over there and say hi to Mark. I will eat anything with chocolate and marshmallows, and this was heaven. The "cookie" part was soft and cakey, and most importantly, not too sweet. It's the fluffy marshmallow filling that carries all the sugar shock, but in a good way. I think it was gone in about 30 seconds. And they go pretty quickly, too. We got the last one and it was only 4:30pm. Considering they're open late, that's a quick turnover.
I'll plan on writing once a month about sweets and desserts around Austin. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Origami and bamboo

2009-04-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

It's not every weekend that I have 2 cakes with bamboo as part of a cake's design. On the first cake, bamboo is the main design element. The clients' wedding not only had a "green" focus, but it was designed to be a bit retro and mod. The bamboo design fit in with the cool tiki lounge bar and Eames furniture (the house was so cool!). The cake is actually a simple straightforward round design iced in Swiss buttercream. It's the handmade sugarpaste bamboo stalks and leaves that make it unique. I also made the base look like faux wood to carry over the natural theme.(Sorry the pics are not great - the kids messed with the camera settings)

On the other cake, bamboo is just one design element in a cake inspired by origami paper designs. The bride wanted to have a cake that was a nod to the groom's Asian heritage. She also wanted to incorporate flying paper cranes since there were going to be paper cranes used as decoration throughout the reception (which was at the gorgeous One World Theater). The colors were also an important design element - they had to be just right. Fortunately, I have my old Pantone book from back in my graphic design days. I don't even know how many hours I worked on just decorating this cake, but it's one of my faves. Again, kids + camera = blurry shots. Now I know to check the settings.

Now I have to think if something yummy to bring to the Austin Food Bloggers potluck this Sunday. Hmm...maybe vanilla bean ganache cupcakes?

Vegan Wedding Cakes

2009-03-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Apparently we're the only cake shop in town that is willing to make vegan wedding cakes. You would think that in a city like Austin, you wouldn't have much trouble finding a traditional bakery that could accommodate a vegan diet. Not so according to my vegan brides. I have 2 weddings this weekend with vegan cakes - and they are surprisingly delicious!
A little bit of Internet sleuthing and a few tests in the kitchen yielded some delicious cakes. By far the best vegan versions were chocolate and red velvet. They were almost impossible to tell apart from the nonvegan version by my panel of experts - my husband and his soccer friends. The vegan carrot cake is also a good sub for the real thing. Here are the sources for the recipes, de rigueur food porn shots included:
Vegan Red Velvet
Vegan Chocolate
I find that oil-based cakes are better equipped for the transition to vegan. The white cake I made using Ener-G egg replacer had a good crumb, but it was a little too sweet for my taste. If they could find a way to recreate a vegan Swiss buttercream, then we'd have the perfect buttercream to accompany a vegan cake. I'll have some pics of the cakes after the weekend.

Austin 360 Food and Wine Blogger Bash

2009-03-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

I'm usually not cool enough to get invited to exclusive invite-only parties, especially those involving SXSW, but somehow I managed an invitation to the Austin 360 Food and Wine Blogger Bash. It was held at Whole Food's culinary center, which I'd only seen from the outside, and sponsored by WF and Addie Broyles of the Statesman.
In addition to sampling delicious food and taste testing a variety of wines, there were chef demos by Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due and Tyson Cole of Uchi. I also got a chance to meet some hardcore Austin foodbloggers. I just blog about my cakes and other wedding/cake related stuff - and not on a regular basis. These people are really in touch with the food scene in Austin. We're trying to get out more,though, now that the baby is a bit older.
Even though I am a cake designer and deal primarily with dessert, I've always been a foodie. I plan entire vacations around my meals. I even shopped at Central Market on opening day way back when I was in college. 1994?95? But, I still judge a restaurant by its bread and desserts, so maybe I should just stick to showing pics of pretty cakes. Maybe it's also way past my bedtime.

A blue trend?

2009-03-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

It's not too often that brides pick blue for their wedding colors, but this past week we had 3 wedding cakes in which blue was the primary color. They are all very different in style and design except for the shared medium to dark blue tones. Most wedding cakes tend to be pastels, ivory or white, so it was nice to bring out the vibrant colors.
I also enjoyed working with each bride in that they were both enthusiastic and openminded about the cake designs. I didn't have much experience with the brush embroidery technique (on the third cake) so I referenced my Colette Peters books - she has easy and detailed instructions on all sorts of cake decorating techniques. Even the pros need to pick up tips here and there. Here's a detail shot of the technique.

It involves piping and then brushing royal icing to create an embroidered look. Yes, that's why they call it "brush embroidery". Very time-consuming.
Next week we have lots of fabulous wedding cakes and groom's cakes. I'll be sure to post them when I recover from exhaustion!

Southern Weddings Blog

2009-03-11T18:07:00.001-07:00

One of my past brides, Sarah, had her wedding featured recently in the Southern Weddings blog. When I show up to a wedding for cake delivery, it's usually about an hour before it starts, so people are still scrambling around to set up the decorations and flowers. I love looking at photos of clients' weddings - especially when they cut the cake!
I'm also glad to see that the cake was listed as one of the wedding highlights! Unfortunately, the photo looks like it was taken from the back, so you can't see any of the handmade sugarpaste flowers. I posted a detail shot.
This cake was different from most other cakes I design. The buttercream was purposely "spackley", and it had an pleasant old-fashioned look (which is what the bride was going for). Trust me - there is a fine line between rustic and sloppy. It still took some time to neatly achieve the right look.
I've got a couple of brides who will have their weddings featured in the Knot later this year. I'll be sure to post the articles.

"That Takes the Cake" Competition

2009-03-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

The Capital Confectioners Cake and Sugar Art Show and Competition was held this weekend in Austin. I entered this cake in the Professional Wedding Cakes category and came in First Place! Wow! I was bummed that I didn't sign up for any of the interesting classes that were being taught by well-known cake artists. Maybe next year I'll get my act together and sign up early. It's still cool that I got First Place, though. I wasn't expecting that!
The cake design was inspired by a really cool vintage table linen I bought at a flea market in Wimberley about 8 years ago. I loved it so much I made a tote bag out of it. Now that the bag is frayed and on its last legs, the design will have a new life as a cake.

Deck Cake

2009-03-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

The guy who worked on our deck in December wanted to order a cake that looked like a, well, deck for his birthday. The posts and rails, picnic table, grill, cooler, etc are all made out of gumpaste and are edible. I used toothpicks for the rails because I couldn't imagine anything edible that would have worked. The deck was then "stained" with brown food coloring.

Austin Chronicle write up

2009-02-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

I don't have any pictures ready to post for this week, but I wanted to share the "aw shucks" write-up in the Austin Chronicle about me and Coco Paloma Desserts. I met with Virginia Wood a few weeks ago and had a wonderful time talking about food, dessert and the craziness of working in kitchens. She seems to know everyone in the Austin food scene and does a great job of staying connected with them as well as sharing their talents with the Chronicle readers.
Next week is Valentine's Day, so I'll be busy with the lovebird cakes. I'll have some new pics up by the end of the month.

Valentine's Day Cake

2009-01-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is coming up in 2 weeks! This year we are making an adorable lovebird themed cake to celebrate Valentine's Day. It's a 6 inch chocolate cake layered with vanilla bean ganache and vanilla bean custard buttercream. The cake is covered with chocolate fondant and decorated with the 2 lacey fondant birds. There's enough to save for leftovers the next morning!
Please contact me at paloma@cocopalomadesserts.com for more info.

Winter Cake

2009-01-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

The couple wanted a wintry cake design for their early January wedding that evoked the clean iciness of winter without being too obvious. Who knew it was going to be 85º on their wedding day? Hopefully their guests got a little chill as they walked by the cake.
The cake is an icy blue with pearly white sugar flowers and royal icing dots cascading. A few silver dragees are scattered around the flowers.

Math Cake

2009-01-05T14:39:00.000-08:00

The holidays were super busy with decorated cookies and random cakes. January isn't slowing down, either. That's good for business, but I am looking forward to a 3 week lull coming up.
Part of this surge in business is due to an article about my business in the Austin-American Statesman in December. "Putting the Wow in Pastries"
The math cake was ordered as a mini wedding cake by a woman who had read the article. Her daughter and son-in-law are both math PhD's so she wanted to surprise them with a cake with a math theme. Yes, that is pi on top, in case you were wondering.

Holiday Goodies

2008-12-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

I used to create truffle boxes for past holiday seasons, but they were so time-consuming and a hassle. This year, we're going to offer cute holiday cookie bags and fancy present cakes. The cake flavor options are Egg Nog, Chocolate Hazelnut or Chocolate Mint. Hopefully people will enjoy eating and giving these for their holiday parties and dinners!

Junior League Tea Room Table

2008-11-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

Every year, the Junior League of Austin throws together a Christmas Affair where you can go shopping and have lunch in the tea room. I was asked to design a table setting for the tea room incorporating the theme of Christmas in Paris. It ended up being quite an endeavor! Even though the cakes weren't real (it was going to be sitting on the table for 5 days), it still took days to complete. Everything on the display is edible - the roses, the handdrawn base, the bows, etc.
There were 30 tables overall, some with just amazing table displays. Here are 2 tables that I thought were just stunning.

Bird Cake

2008-11-10T07:39:00.001-08:00

Often a client will want to incorporate a single element from the invitation design into the cake design, such as the swooping bird above. I found the pillow design by Thomas Paul and thought it would work well in a cake design. If you don't know about Thomas Paul, he is one of my favorite designers! http://thomaspaul.com/
The couple also wanted to keep the cake clean and modern while maintaining an element of whimsy. The birds and leaves are all fondant. The 3-d leaves are raised to give some depth the design since the birds are flat. The lighting was a little dark in the ballroom, so please forgive the weird shadows.

Backyardigans Birthday Cake

2008-11-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

My daughter's obsession with the Backyardigans led me to create a Backyardigan-themed cake for her 4th birthday. She wanted a cake with Tasha and Uniqua hanging out in their mermaid garden. It was a fun cake to create, and my daughter and her friends were thrilled with it. It was kind of sad to see it get demolished so quickly. She even started to eat the gumpaste figures I made. (I had planned on saving them!). I can now sympathize with the people who pay big $$$ for my cakes, only to experience the heartbreak of watching them get cut up and eaten.

Yummy Cookies!

2008-10-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Today I want to mention a great new addition to the Austin dessert scene - The Cookie Lounge. My friend (and former boss at the Driskill Hotel) Mark Chapman has opened a wonderful little cookie boutique where you can get a freshly baked, custom cookie. You pick your cookie dough and then your mix-ins. Your 10-15 minute wait is rewarded with a hot delicious cookie, oozing with your fillings.
The Cookie Lounge has a fun and modern lounge-like setting, with bright orange built in sofas and a large wall of windows. You can also peek into the bakery next door and watch the bakers at work. It's in West Campus, so parking on the street is tight. I discovered that the parking garage is only $2.00 for an hour, so save time and go for the garage.
http://www.austincookielounge.com/

Seasonal cakes - Autumn

2008-10-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

We designed two fall-themed cakes this month, both using a 3-d leaf format. The first one was based on a previous cake I had designed with climbing branches. Instead of flowers, I applied hand-made fall sugar leaves. For the second cake, the bride showed me a picture she liked and asked me to incorporate a falling leaves design. Each leaf was painted with a copper luster dust to give it some shimmer as well as to coordinate with the linens.
Another thing I like about these cakes is that they show how wedding cakes don't need to follow the convention of the round stacked look. The tiers on the top one are rotated 45 degrees, and the second cake had a little riser under the top tier to give it extra height. Also, the second and bottom tier are intentionally shorter to give it height variation.
Later this month we'll be making two 3-d pumpkin cakes - one for a Halloween party and one for a little girl's birthday. I'll be sure to post some fun Halloween treats!

Fun Groom's Cakes

2008-10-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

Although the bride's cake is usually the focal point of a wedding, I thought I would inaugurate my first blog post with a little chat about fun groom's cakes. I live in a southern state, so about 3/4 of the guys want a groom's cake of some sort, whether it's cookies and cupcakes or an elaborate sculpted cake.
In the past month I had opportunities to make some fun and challenging groom's cakes. (It's not really a worthwhile week without a design challenge!)

Yes, this armadillo was a red velvet cake. I might email the bride for some pics of the poor guy butchered. It was a challenge to finish, though, since I hadn't done one before. I ended up cutting out each scale individually in fondant. It was also the first time I had done a stadium, so I had fun (and frustration) figuring out how to make the different elements, especially the stands. It was a surprise for the groom - I can't wait to hear what his reaction was!