On Monday, I was happy to visit Bridge Street (www.9wsyr.com) again to show off some wedding cake ideas.  Below is the clip from the show, followed by some photos of the cakes I took. Follow the link and enjoy!

Wedding Cakes Galore

Don’t forget, the inspiration for your wedding cakes can come from anywhere!  The brown and blue was inspired by some simple s-scroll work and I added the vertical stripes to modernize it a bit.  It went perfectly with the brown and blue Bella Cupcake Couture wrappers we now carry at the showroom.  I’ll talk about those in my next post.  The peacock cake was inspired by a very popular invitation done by Bride Design, you can purchase it on her site.  And the last cake was inspired by a linen I borrowed from The Events Company a couple months ago.  I’ll be visiting TEC in March for one of their Mimosa Saturdays.  More info on that soon as well.  Be creative with your cakes! Or, come see me, and I’ll help you be as creative as possible!

Today marked my first true fall cake for the year.  I love Autumn, the smells, the colors, the leaves.  Who doesn’t love the leaves?  I have a feeling fall will pass quickly this year with all the rain we’ve been having.  Before we know it, snow will be upon us and I may have to resort to hanging a photo of today’s cake on the wall to remind me of all the rich and scrumptious hues of fall.

The bride and groom chose chocolate espresso cake for the bottom tier, and in true fall fashion they chose caramel apple cake for the top two tiers.  Fondant leaves and gerberas adorned the sides of the rough, natural icing in 3 shades of chocolate toned butter cream.  Looked and smelled delicious…just like fall in Upstate!

The ceremony and reception took place at Highland Forest in Fabius, NY.  I love the views from the lodge, no matter what season it’s gorgeous!

My thanks and best wishes go out to the happy couple for including me in their special day!

The photos are awesome, but part of this post is sad.  I still don’t know the whole story, I may never, but one of these cakes was taken down very early in the reception for fear of it falling.  As you can see, there is not an indication of a fear for that when I left it.  As gorgeous as it is, not a good memory for the client or the artist.

That sort of thing happens sometimes.  Rarely, but it does happen.  Cake is cake to some, to others it is a major focal point.  Those are my clients.  The ones who want the major focal point.  So in a nutshell, it stinks pretty bad when something happens like a leaning or falling cake.  I’m not one to stay at every reception, I don’t belong there so I don’t stay.  I have to wonder sometimes if I should stay, perhaps I may now and then after this particular mishap.  It would seem to be the only way to really know how things go along.  I thought about not posting this part of the cake story, but it is a story that can happen to anyone.  And there are multiple ways for it to be handled.  Each story is different, so there is no one way to remedy the situation.  The best I can do is to make my clients happy in the end.  Hopefully, they are, even if I’m not.  It is afterall…all about the bride.

On to the photos!

Coming up next post…some more awesome cakes, without the drama!  Well, at least not this kind of drama.  It’s been super busy here at She Takes The Cake, some new adventures, some new limits.  But as always, some great cakes for awesome clients.  Thanks so much!!

I know…I know.  I haven’t posted in like forever!  Don’t you know it’s in the middle of wedding season? I’ve been a little short on time, but not short on eye candy.  Here are some of the cakes that have been picked up and delivered lately from She Takes The Cake..enjoy!

Plenty more, I’ll try to post later.  I’ve got some pretty great cakes the rest of the summer, and I’m loving working with my clients this year.  Thanks to all of you!

Yes, I know that should be “dear”, but I’m a sucker for bad puns.  I’m also a sucker for brides who let me know they loved their cake.  Check out this amazing email I received today from a fabulous couple from ‘08.

Hey Jen!
One year ago today you made us the cakes of our dreams. I never really had the chance to properly thank you for what an amazing job you did with both the wedding cake and the grooms cake. You just took my vision and ran with it, and that’s what I loved about you. You are a true artist! I followed your instructions closely on how to preserve the top tier so that one year later it tastes just as great as it did the day we got married and you were right on. Tonight we enjoyed that delicious cake one more time, and it was just as moist as it was on our wedding day. Not one ounce of it had dried out or hardened. It was truly amazing! Thanks again for your artistic inspirations, and fantastic baking abilities! Attached are pictures of both cakes in case you forgot what they looked like. Our wedding was on June 7, 2008 at Orchard Vali in LaFayette, NY. Thanks again for making my cake dreams come true!!

Jenn and John’s cakes were a major challenge, the wedding cake was something I hadn’t attempted before and really put my carving abilities to the test.  The groom’s cake was a surprise for John and I still can remember the look on his face - and that of the whole bridal party.  It really made all the hours and hours of carving and sculpting worth every second.

Happy Anniversary to Jenn and John!  Thank YOU for letting me be part of your memories in this way!  And thanks so much for letting me know how much you still enjoy your cake.

The cakes:

Josh and Mallory were so much fun to work with; knew what they wanted, provided a tiny challenge while being easy to please, eager to give their guests some great tasting cake, and just plain fun.  I couldn’t be happier with their cupcakes, and I’m thrilled to know that they feel the same way.  They booked their wedding order last year;  180 cupcakes, a topper cake and a new technique later, all is done and gone.

I had intended to use the edible printer system for their logo when the order was placed.  But along the way, I decided to use screen printing for them instead.  I’ve been wanting to use this technique many times, but never seemed to have just the right job for it.  Too many variables usually, too many individual changes needed for multiple pieces for one order.  I’d love to use it for instance on the awesome cookies that Erin and I offer at Sweet Talk Boutique but I won’t make a screen for every single cookie order that comes in, as they do tend to come in singles.  A one color logo is perfect for this technique!  And low and behold, that’s what this amazing couple wanted.

I took the high res image of the logo that Mallory sent to me via email, burned it onto my food safe screen ~ sunlight baby, no chemicals! ~ and practiced with the ink ~ food coloring of course ~ until just right.  The ink has to be exactly the right viscosity for a great image.  The screen has to be crisp and clean as well.  It takes some skill, but I will be using this more and more.  You can have your own logo screen printed in edible format, just give me a call!

So Josh and Mallory wanted their “L” on half of the cupcakes, I made about 120 logos all together, and the other half of the order was to have the prettiest little ice blue flower on them.  Then the topper cake in White Almond with my amazing raspberry citrus schnapps’ syrup and lemon curd/raspberry filling combo was finished off in fondant with the logo applied to the edible band.  As you can see by the photos they sent to me, it’s a lot of cupcakes!  I’m so thankful to be able to share their photos with you, along with a photo of the  cupcake with logo and a variation or two of complimenting looks.  The logo discs are perfect for application to any edible item, and the logos can also be screened directly onto cookies, etc.  The screen is also shown in the final photo.

Thanks so much to Josh and Mallory for letting me be part of such a wonderful day and thank you for your awesome feedback!! You guys are amazing!

from Mallory and Josh:

Thank you Jen!  The cake was AMAZING.  Everyone LOVED it.  And when Josh and I cut into the topper, we nearly died.  It was like butter and was WAY better than we had remembered.  You really helped make our day special.  (Not to mention, the leftover cupcakes were awesome for the bonfire later that night…and for my colleagues at work!!).  We are so happy with everything you have done, and will be sure to contact you again in the future.  Stay in touch!   Love, Mr. and Mrs. LIttle aka Josh and Mallory

Here are some cakes and cupcakes I’ve recently done for Communions.  I really enjoy doing these cakes.  I hope that they were received well and thought to be fancy enough for the occassion, but not take center stage over the importance of the day.  God Bless!

Here are some cute cupcakes and a topper cake that were ordered for a surprise wedding shower. 

With a honeymoon in the tropics, brightly painted tropical shirts and flowers were in order.  Aren’t they cute?!

The shirts are little hand cut fondant pieces, then I painted them with food colors.  The topper cake also has hand painted flowers on it and then as you can see there are some little tropical fondant flowers as well.  I hope they were enjoyed as much as I enjoyed making them.

Join me for the grand opening from Monday March 30th until Friday April 3rd from 10am until 6pm!  The showroom is located at 8195 Route 92/Cazenovia Road, Manlius NY - just look for my awning out front!

Well, it’s a couple weeks beyond my originally planned date, but furniture is finally all in, most of my finishing touches are finished and I am ready to rock and roll.  I can’t wait to see you there!

First a couple details, and then the photos.  The purpose of the showroom is, well, to show what I can create for you.  But it goes beyond that.  Because I value your time as much as my own and really strive to focus on treating you to the best cake experience you can have, I’ve been coming to you - the client - on a regular basis for tastings and meetings.  That means I’ve visited many a hotel or coffee shop over the last few years and I have grown tired of it and grown out of it.  This showroom will display quite a bit of my work, as well as some of my other favorite event professionals in our area.  You’ll be able to come in and do your tasting in comfort and style, and purchase an item or too and of course plan to contact some of those great companies whose info I’ll have on hand for you.  You can view gorgeous prints from some terrific photographers, browse delicious stationery from Bride Design, enjoy a cup of coffee roasted right here in CNY, and be in the know for networking and seminars or workshops for your event planning needs!

The hours are as planned:  Mondays, every Monday except some holidays, from 9am to 2pm.  Wednesdays from about 5pm to 7pm (ish) and other times by appointment for tastings or cake pick ups.  We’ll add other hours as soon as we can.

Don’t forget, there will NOT be cake on hand ready to go unless you have ordered it ahead of time.  The licensed kitchen is STILL in South Otselic and ALL baking still takes place there.  Plan ahead - typically a week is enough.  And yes…we do all cakes, not just wedding cakes.

What will be on hand though, are some really cute cake themed items, some stationery, and even some tshirts and wearables.  I’ll also have examples of particular designs for holiday gift giving and cakes for your celebrations.

Ok…now, onto the photos!  I can’t wait for you to see it!

The bridal show at The Grande proved to be a tiring day.  I hope you stopped by and picked up a sample box of cake at my booth.  I really enjoyed speaking to so many brides on Sunday.  That is the best part of any show.  Of course taking some great looking cakes and schmoozing with other vendors is always a blast too.  Oh and I’m glad you all liked my new t-shirts too (although I do wish the folks that swiped two of them off the table wouldn’t have done that.)  Ok, on to the photos!  To the right…the fabulous taster box.  Tried a little something new this year.  I hope you all loved it.

And here is a shot of the whole table; just in case you want a reminder or gasp! - in case you missed it altogether.  Don’t forget to schedule your appointment asap, and yes, I’ll email you about the open house when it’s time.  Of course, only if you asked me to and provided your email.  The rest of you…well, you’ll have to call me I guess!