Dogwood Flower Cake

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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.