Purple Poppies

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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?