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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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