Love Birds Meets Ombre High Fashion

Sometimes when I have an order I do not realize how nice the concept is until I actually start working on it. I must admit that when the bride showed me an example of an Ombre cake with a fresh lavender flower on the top I was like sure no problem, not a big deal in my head. After about the  6th hour of working on the ruffles, watching the sun rise as I sit on my work table I realize Ombre is no joke. Matching the ombre style of the cake to the cupcakes was the easy part. Playing with different quantities or electric purple, regular purple and regal purple helped me achieve the shades I needed.
For a quick tip on how to match buttercream to fondant as I did on the project see the end of the post...

The wedding was at the Jepson Center right here in Fredericksburg. I had no clue what the theme of the wedding would be other than they had purple as a wedding color. I was just delighted when I saw these adorable Love birds just scattered around the room and placed at every table...to cute! Here are some photos I managed to take after I set up my little display of sugar.
       

Yes this 6" tier took me over 6 hrs to finish...tedious but worth it 

This little bird watches over the cage for gift cards

Custom table runners, adorable

Flowers by Floral Palette, I met the husband of the owner nice guy. 

So here is the simple but effective tip for matching buttercream to fondant. I had prepared about 9 different shades of purple to white. I had six stands that I needed to get a decent gradient on. I picked 5 shades and one white. I started with white buttercream then slowly made my way to the dark purple. I had three different purple colors. One wilton purple and an americolor electric purple and regal purple. I basically color matched the buttercream to the fondant I set aside. Be patient when mixing colors and do not get frustrated. Don't be afraid to try different he's because you may need different undertones to make the color pop.   
   

Strawberries and Mushrooms

I have been too busy to post lately, but I wanted to share one project I recently completed for a client. Last year I created her a birthday cake in a cupcake theme. This year it was all about fairies with some whimsy. What I love most about this project was the strawberry cake the fairy is holding. Strawberries were an accident but I went with it. For most of my cakes I have a general idea in my head of the clients expectations but the design really happens on it's own as I am working on an order. Another cool feature was that instead of making mushrooms in fondant (which we know is pure sugar) I made merengue mushrooms. Some were vanilla and others had a hint of cocoa for the color and flavor. **I am not sure why the quality is so poor on this post, but if you care to look at a clearer image go here**

Happy Holidays

Thank you everyone for your continued support. This is my signature dessert, gourmet Baklava for two lucky recipients this Holiday season.

Happy Holidays all and have a great New Year!   

Diesal Cake

What a fun cake. Bodybuilders atop this traditional wedding cake. It was a lot of fun but also very challenging making the fondant toppers with some muscle definition.

Wedding Au Natural

What I like most about this cake is how it is not perfect yet beautiful. One of the guests commented how the cake looks like it was made of stone. I think of it as a sculpture too. The flowers are frangipani made of gumpaste. I then hand painted them in the colors the bride and groom wanted. The branches are made out of floral wire and covered in brown floral tape. This was my first request for an imperfect cake. I hope more clients will see that a smooth icing finish can be just as stunning as a rough one. 

Floating Tiers

This cake was a white chocolate mousse filled white cake. I used white chocolate fondant to cover these cakes and piped a design with royal icing. Some red fondant flowers were added for fun. I enjoyed this cake because it was my first floating tiers wedding cake. 

Summer Weddings

July really got off to a great start. First a wonderful fireworks display in Spotsylvania and time spent with the family. This month I am fully booked with weddings for wonderful clients. I am so happy for them all. What I loved so much about this wedding was the flowers provided by Kari from Garden Heirlooms. Flowers always puts me in a great mood. Too bad I can't share the wonderful perfumed scents coming from the flowers. 

The cake topper was put together by Kari, what a wonderful job. The cake is all Red Velvet with a Swiss merengue buttercream.