Monday, June 28, 2010

Last Minute Spongebob


So all of you know about my wonderful boyfriend Andrew, well he is definitely one of my biggest fans/PR/Mgmnt/and order taker. This week he sends me a text saying he took an order for a cake and needs me to make a handmade sugar Spongebob along with a cake for Sunday (mind you he told me on Friday night via a text message). This worried me since I never really watched Spongebob and couldn't exactly picture him [for those of you who have NO CLUE what Spongebob looks like here is the photo I went by ...


(although I did remember he lived in a pineapple under the sea..thank you catchy theme song) and I still had company here from NY AND I was filling an order for a few dozen truffles. But how could I say no now?! Easy, I couldn't so I got to work and started sculpting him and he actually came out PERFECT...another one of those moments where I just didn't want to give him away.

The actual cake was Chocolate fudge cake with Chocolate Mousse and all the pieces on the cake are made of sugar.

The Birthday girl was absolutely adorable and I am so glad I didn't say NO to this order!




Sugar Stumps & Baby Bumps



What a week. One of my beautiful best friends and her gorgeous coworkers came to Vegas for the week. I sure miss New York and seeing them brought a little NY attitude to my life this week. Unfortunately they were here Monday thru Friday and this week was way busy. Jam-packed with final exams, final projects, a few cake orders and even an interview or two I survived the visit although I sure wish there were more hours in the day so I could have spent more time with the girls!!!
While they stayed up til 6am dancing and drinking I woke up at 6am trying to balance my work and cake orders. One of the orders was a BABY BUMP for a baby shower. Super cute and I had to give her some pearls to add some bling!



The other major project this week was my sugar showpiece. It came out beautifully and even survived a 20 minute car ride. Beautiful! This entirely made from sugar using various techniques. Poured sugar, blown sugar, pulled sugar, bubble sugar and rock sugar. Not bad for my first sugar piece and I successfully made it thru the week without burning myself...SCORE!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Bowling Birthdays and Baby Showers



Ya know, it is becoming habit now where I just want to keep every cake I make, only for a moment though! I mean, I just love these adorable, unique, colorful and even classic cakes and for a brief moment when I finish the order and the details are in place I just want to put it in a glass case and stare at it...then I come to my senses and realize that doing this would be cake abuse, after all underneath all this beauty is one super yummy cake! No really its soo good! Also my favorite part of the cake making process is definitely the faces on the receiving end!...which brings me to the Neon Bowling Birthday cake..! What and adorable little girl who made the BEST face when she saw her cake, I wish I captured it on camera! (unfortunately I was holding this very large, EXTREMELY heavy bowling ball cake!)







The bowling ball being crumb coated in buttercream




After buttercream
Her mom ordered her cake and said her two favorite things are hot pink and zebra and since they were cosmic bowling I thought making a marble pink bowling ball on a zebra base with yummy edible mini bowling balls and bowling pins would be awesome...and I think awesome is the best word to describe the final cake! And not only awesome but entirely edible!!! The bowling ball was chocolate cake with peanutbutter buttercream and the bottom zebra tier was three layers of golden yellow cake with fresh sliced strawberries and Chantilly cream...yum!!!







The day before this bowling birthday cake was an order for an Elegant Black and White Baby Shower cake, this cake is super pretty and can definitely be the centerpiece for any wedding as well. Everything of course is edible from the bow to the ribbon and it was all handmade. The bottom tier is 3 layers of lemon poppyseed cake with fresh raspberry preserves, top tier is 4 layers of chocolate fudge cake with layers of whipped cream and vanilla buttercream, the entire cake is coated in a neat, smooth layer of vanilla buttercream!









Friday, June 11, 2010

8 Cakes in 7 Days


EIGHT cakes in Seven Days...sounds like a bad movie where someone is stranded in a locked room for 8 days with nothing to live on but cake and the nights are long and the days pass slow....OKAY, Sorry but I am just incredibly sleep deprived and I LITERALLY cannot feel my feet from standing in the bakery for 7 days straight from 7am to 4am (YES-you read that correctly). I may have to adjust my prices upward to pay for new, titanium legs since mine are surely ruined from the longs hours of working...
...One thing is for sure though...You will never work as hard as when you work for yourself. This is soo true for me because my name goes on every cake and product that comes out of the kitchen and it is beyond important for me to love each cake and be proud of each one so that I can deliver it to you with a smile.

Okay, on to the cakes...the week started with a Double Cake order for a Friday Night wedding reception on the strip. The order was for a Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Icing and the bride also wanted a Grooms Cake to suprise her 'husband to be'. The theme for the Grooms Cake was the The Seattle Mariners...she sent me a photo of what she imagined and we created it. The Wedding Cake was a 2 tier, square red velvet, we used our Red Velvet Fudge recipe (soo good, so good in fact he executive chef at the restaurant where the reception was held made it a point to let me know it was the best red velvet he has ever had). NOW...I don't know if that would be everyones opinion, afterall I am from New York and I am not sure I am known for my Red Velvet (Southerners are squirming in their seats since Im sure the South makes one Hell of a red velvet..and some mean cornbread..(I watch Paula Dean and so I trus her judgement).
So here are Fridays cakes.









Saturday was our next cake order and I, unfortunately, do not have a photo to share at the moment. This cake was a Graduation cake ordered by the mother of the graduate. This mom was soo sweet and this cake meant so much to her you could tell she wanted it just right for her daughter and she really wanted to personalize it. Her daughters favorite colors, her favorite books, a replica of some of her sketches made out of edible materials. It was great but unfortunately the weather was so incredibly hot and our refrigerated car broke down mid-delivery. Las Vegas Summer HEAT + CAKE = Disaster. While the cake was not entirely ruined it was not as beautiful as it was when it left the bakery. The delivery was still well received and they liked the cake but lesson be learned...have a better rescue plan for a cake emergency like this...I will find a photo and post it ASAP. The cake was made up of two GIANT tiers, bottom chocolate fudge with peanut butter buttercream ad the top was yellow butter cake with strawberry mousse and strawberry buttercream.








SUNDAY SUNDAY Cake 4
Its funny how New Yorkers stick together, especially out here in the Desert, it is like, once you find a fellow New York transplant you can't seem to be happier to talk to them! Anyway, this next cake was an order or an 18th birthday. She LOVES Sushi and is going to be traveling to Japan in the near future so this cake order was perfect for her. A Wooden Sushi platter with had made, edible (sweets not real sushi) sushi, sashimi, ginger, wasabi, chopsticks, all the works. This is one of my favorite cakes and I really have to say that these pictures do NOT do this cake justice (and I don't mean there was bad picture taking, its just the cake was THAT cool!!)The cake was White Vanilla Cake with Lemon Mousse and Vanilla lemon buttercream.








Monday was a day of regrouping for the next round of cakes, massive amounts of butter were used on this day to make several delicious cakes and buttercreams.




Tuesday was an order from a repeat customer. (Which is always a good sign). A French Vanilla Butter cake with Strawberry buttercream and fresh sliced strawberries was transformed into a gorgeous Cello. I know nothing about this instrument but found a few good photos and took the measurements and scaled them down so I would have a perfectly configured Cello. (I knew my Genius Math skills would still come in handy!). All the details were made and painted silver and the Cake was hand painted to look like wood and again I really loved this cake and did NOT want to give it away...but the best part is the delivery and seeing how happy  something as little as a cake can make someone!!!
Here are a few photos she sent to me.







Wednesday ... HUMP DAY ... Delivery of another Graduation Cake. This cake was really cute. School colors, textbooks of the graduates favorite classes topped with a graduation cap with matching tassel. The cake was white vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. Every single thing is edible from the books to the cap (which is red velvet cake) to the pencil and note...all edible.





Thursday...yes, another graduation cake but I unfortunately did not even have a fraction of a second to snap a photo. Large square cake filled with Vanilla Mousse and frosted with whipped Chantilly cream topped with an edible graduation cap.

Which brings us to today Cake 8, my las cake of the week ( I actually have 4 days off before the next order). This cake is a baseball themed (more specifically Angels vs. Dodgers) baby shower cake. The bottom tier, DODGERS is chocolate fudge cake and peanut butter buttercream and the top, ANGELS, is Yellow Buttercake with Vanilla Buttercream and fresh strawberry preserves. The cake features the mommy and daddy in their respective team colors sitting in front of a scoreboard. This cake is traveling to California and will be stacked by the customer there so I will be awaiting final pictures...but here are all the components.















This next picture was sent from Nikkol who ordered the cake and bravely drove it to California!
Thank You!




Now...to prepare for a day of chocolate and candy making and then to catch up on my sleep...hopefully I won't have anymore cake nightmares.



I just have to add these two photos since I did not add them to my previous post and they are two of my favorites!