Black and White

This wedding cake was very emotional for me. As I met this young women mother 25 years ago while working in an environmental laboratory. I was the office manager and her mother was the human resource director. While eating lunch one day we were talking about my growing up in the catering industry and she asked me to make a cake for an upcoming birthday. Well here we are 25 years later. I bake full time and her little girl who is now 23 is getting married.

The first picture shows the plastic gumpaste flower and leaf cutters as well as three filagree cutters and a number of shapes that I made from cookie cutter tin, all to create the shapes needed. The second picture is a number of the pieces cut from mexican paste. I let them dry approximately one hour to make them easier to apply to the buttercream.

The last picture is the finished cake at the reception. It featured chocolate cake with fresh raspberry compote, white cake with strawberry mousse and chocolate peanut butter cake with peanut butter mousse. The flowers are gumpaste white poppies with a black eye.

On a personal note: This reception was one of my top 5 favorites. I cannot express just how breath taking the room was. The flowers that filled this room were nothing short of amazing. The food was excellent and everyone truly enjoyed the day.

25 years ago that very first cake, made me realize my purpose, my joy, my passion to create. I left the work force and remolded my kitchen into an industrial kitchen (you will see parts of the kitchen in the background of other pictures).

This family has three daughters, the oldest daughter was married 2 years ago (I did her cake as well. ) The youngest daughter is in her Masters program. This wedding was the middle daughter.

I have done almost all of the birthday, graduation and special event cakes for this family. My art is a GIFT and I express my thanks by creating cakes.

I am truly thankful to my first customers.

Joe's Paw

This is the grooms cake from the above wedding cake. It features a pina colada cake with pineapple compote and toasted coconut.

The bride explains: "Now I am told that the way to tell a Clemson paw print from any other paw print is that the Clemson one has the little indent in the bottom right of the biggest part of the paw. SO... that would be something that would be important. I learned that early on in our relationship and was told to never forget it!"

I was very glad she pointed this out as I took the mark as a copier flaw, oops!! I hope we did the paw proud.

Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh. I made this little guy out of mexican paste and then the order was cancelled. He technically is not finished. I will add honey to his pot and a few bees. The cake design was to have Pooh leaning against a tree (the cake) eating honey. I will store him away for another time.

Buttercream Roses

Its graduation. A small celebration for a college graduate. 13x9 Almond cake with raspberry compote.

I recently had client who said "I didn't know you knew how to make flower in frosting". I had to giggle as every baker learns to make the buttercream flowers first. The gumpaste flowers are much more difficult to create and take years to perfect; therefore I thought I feature a cake with buttercream flowers

Pretty in Pink

18"- White cake/Raspberry compote filling. 14" - Red Velvet cake/cheesecake filling. 11" - White cake/ Bailey Irish Cream filling. 7" Atomic cake (a layer of banana cake with banana custard, a layer of white cake with fresh strawberry compote and a layer of chocolate cake with fudge. I call it atomic as this flavor will blow your mind ) This cake will serve 225 guests, and features buttercream filagree in pink and black, as well as gumpaste roses.

Texting

No the spelling is not wrong!!!

I met a group of five women several years ago when they were planning a bridal shower. They have all become repeat clients.

One of the ladies ordered a birthday cake for another and said the other women was always on her phone texting so could we write Happy Birthday Sue as you see pictured. They all had a good laugh, and a great evening out with Sue.

At the Movies

Several months ago I did a circus cake for this family and now another child was celebrating a birthday. It was being held at our local movie theatre. The cake is a 13x9 and the popcorn, movie reel, tickets and action board were all made of mexican paste. I airbrushed the edges for dramatic effect.

Petit Sweets

These little gems where for a 50 Birthday party. The client was throwing her own birthday celebration all around the theme of "Ding Dong this Witch is not DEAD". She requested sweets that party goers could grab and go (instead of the traditional piece of cake) So I made witches hats of mexican paste to set atop a mini dark chocolate cupcake filled with fudge. The hat was held on by green buttercream. The witches fingers are almond cookies with an almond fingernail. After the cookies were baked I used a very thin flesh colored almond sugar wash to represent the skin and a tint of red for the finger nail.
The spiders were sugar cookies with a black crystal sugar and a red chocolate diamond on their back.

I also had two other petit sweets (my computer deleted them as I tried to upload.. there was an error with the file???)

Well they were very cute if I say so myself. One was a cake ball shaped as the witches broom and the other was a mini cheesecake which featured a black sugarveil spider-web. All 250 mini treats were placed in a coffin at the party.

Calla Lilly

Calla lilly grow in a multitude of colors. This is Aubergine.

First you make a narrow tube of gumpaste with a 32 gauge wire inserted for the stem. This must dry completely. I then add the pollen with colored sugartex (most calla lilly stamen are the same color as the flower). I then cut the flower petal and wrap it around the stamen.

When the flower is completely dry, I then dust it with the petal dust inside and out. Note the finished flower is a rich deep color. Finally, I wrap the wire in floral tape. This bride is using a silver accent in her theme, therefore, the throats of these flowers are silver.

Matt and Bri

Wedding season 2011 has begun.

This cake features buttercream with fondant ribbon at the base of each tier and gumpaste rose petals.

The couples monogram was supplied by the bride and is highlighted by three gumpaste roses.

As the couple choose sheet cakes for cost effectiveness, only the top two tiers of the display cake are edible. This is a great way to help cut cost, yet give the appearance of a full size cake.

The weather may have been very VERY rainy, but the sun was shinning on the happy couple, friends and family. "Congratulation"

Cole

Birthday cakes come in all shapes, this was for a young mans bowling birthday party. This cake features a 1/4 sheet that has been airbrushed in brite blue. The bowling pins, ball, alley and stars are fondant. The cake is covered in buttercream and is white with vanilla custard. It serves 20-25 guests.

65th Anniversary

I recently purchase some new cake pans in unique shapes, triangle (seen here), comma and teardrop. This will give my clients more options for their cake design. Now I offer, the three shapes above as well as round, square, heart, petal, rectangle, and diamond.

This cake was in celebration of a 65th wedding anniversary. The sides of the cake featured buttercream stenciling and filigree. The flowers were blue and green hydrangeas. The bow was dusted in luster dust with edible glitter representing 65th anniversary "diamond".

Stargazer Lilly

The four pictures here show the process of creating the Stargazer Lilly.

In the first photo I have taken a small piece of gumpaste and rolled it down a 32 gauge wire that I have bent slightly. I then make three very small balls to attach to the end finishing the pistil.

Then I took six 32 gauge wires and six small pieces of brown gumpaste to mold the stamen and while the paste is soft, I dip it in sugar tex to create the pollen of the flower.

Once the Pistil is dry it gets its color from petal dust and is all taped together along with the stamen, creating the center of the lilly.

The six white gumpaste flower petals are cut and dusted before setting in a curved tube to allow the petals to hold this shape. Once the petals have rested an hour or so, they are now firm enough to hold shape and yet soft enough to tape together and bend into final shape for the finished flower. Small spots are added as the last step.

Hello Kitty

A long time customer requested a cake for several birthday being celebrated at once and featuring Hello Kitty. The 8" cake was Chocolate with a peanut butter mousse filling. As winter has been quite long in the North East, this just said spring to me....

Super Bowl XLV

This years Super Bowl is Pittsburgh v. Green Bay. This cake is for a half-time party of Pittsburgh fans. It features a White cake with fresh strawberry compote. As the teams colors are black and yellow. I airbrushed the black over the white buttercream and then trimmed it in black and yellow food coloring, so their guest won't have stained teeth; however, their tongues will be colored for a few hours, showing there true team spirt. HERE WE GO STEELERS!!!

Jon

My husband is an avid golfer. For his birthday I did an ice cream cake trimmed in whip-cream with a fondant golf bag and clubs. I used edible pearls for the golfballs and the writing is done with piping gel. Happy Birthday Honey!!

To the Death of Sue's Youth

This lovely lady was turning 50. Her husband placed the order after seeing this coffin cake a few years ago at another birthday. As this was to serve only 10, the coffin is chocolate cake and the under-skirting is styrofoam with a fondant ruffle. The mini white calla lilly are made of gumpaste as well as the 49.

Rick

This is a standard size birthday cake. It is 8" and serves 12 people. This was Chocolate cake with a Chocolate mousse filling. It features chocolate buttercream piping and blue airbrush accents.

This particular cake does not have any additional art work, per the clients request; however, most birthday cake have a theme and edible art work is applied.

Holiday cookies

Holiday cookies of 2010. The gingerbread men are hand piped and the sugar cookies are airbrushed. I offer approximately 45 different kinds of cookies. Most are ordered for weddings and Christmas; however, I do have a few clients who want to be called when certain cookies are ordered, so that they may get a dozen of their favorite.

Under the Big Top

A first birthday is a big occasion and this family celebrated in a BIG way.

The cake was 4-7" round cakes for the big tent. The top was made of pastillage several weeks in advance. The second tier was a 12" round and the football shape was special order

cut styrofoam. The bottom was covered in buttercream and airbrushed with clouds, the train cars were made of gumpaste. The animals, clowns and ringmaster were brownie pops covered in fondant (cover of Wilton 2010) The Big Top was covered in fondant.

Nice in Ice

This unique wedding design was chosen by a couple who were married in December and used the ice and snow as their theme.

It features several layers of cake ranging from 4",6",7" and 8" square in a reverse pattern giving a narrow bottom and wide top.

It was white cake with fresh blueberry compote filling. The crystals and pearls were wired into gumpaste white roses. The top and bottom are adorned with appliques dusted with pearl dust and sugar crystals. Congratulations Pat and Deb

Second reception

A couple had a destination wedding and the grooms family held a second reception for the couple a few months later for those that could not make the trip. ]

These four cakes were to feed 30 guest each. The first cake is a representation of the original wedding cake. It features buttercream with piped filagree and white gumpaste roses.

The basketball is a favorite sport of the groom is carrot pound cake carved (regular cake is far to tender to hold shape) and covered in textured fondant, airbrushed for shading and letters were also fondant.

The basket of fall flowers was for the bride and her sister, it featured buttercream with a fondant ribbon runner through the pattern, all flowers and fall leaves were gumpaste.

Finally the Missouri logo was for the couples college, again this is buttercream and the logo was made in advance to allow the fondant to dry.

Cookie Bouquet

These jerseys represent the girls high school soccer team. It is the senior year for these players and this was ordered for their athletic banquet.

I used a sugar cookie dough cut in a shirt pattern. They are then frosted with a smooth drying frosting. I cut the numbers and shirt trim from fondant and piped on the names.

Congratulations ladies on a great season!

40 Birthday

A lovely woman contacted me about a cake for her daughter's 40 Birthday Surprise party. She asked for it to serve 50 guest and to have a fall theme.

This cake features a 10" square, 7" round and 4"square. The square cakes feature a panel of fondant in a woodgrain to create a box, the round tier has painted grass symbolizing the end of summer.

The flowers were gumpaste tiger lilly, acorns, wheat, mums, cattails and leaves in all stages of fall. The party was a great success and I have gotten a few future orders from the guest for their upcoming events.