Summer '10 Wedding Cakes (and other tales)

It's happening all over again, folks. The beginning of the Fall menu planning has begun. This time around will not only be better because I learned a thing or four from the school of hard knocks, but I also have the help of a co-worker who is at about the same level in her career as I am. So while we have only sat down once last week to actually discuss menu ideas, we've come up with some very fun ideas to anticipate the new season. It'll be exciting to plan out, experiment with and finally roll out - once we get a rough draft put together, I'll put it up here to give you a better idea of what we're planning. (Plus, it'll give me time to think of a clever pseudonym for my co-worker - you can't just make up these things on the spot people. It takes time...)
Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to showcase a couple of the wedding cakes I've done over the past few weeks. Would I be lying if I said that I am proud of them all? Yes. I would most definitely be lying to you. But the imperfections I see may not be quite as apparent to you - so I'll refrain from pointing them out and explain them briefly.

Remember in my last entry how I was explained the atrocious experience of having the cake not ready and delaying the opening of the doors - then having a portion of the cake fall off during the reception? Here is a picture of that cake in all her glory.

These top two are what it looked like after the set-up. The second picture isn't the best quality, but I wanted to include it to show what the other sides looked like. This next picture is what we did to cover up the massive chunk of icing that fell off of the cake. It may seem like a cop out or maybe you don't notice a huge issue at all - but the options were incredibly limited at that point. Imagine, if you will, 12 people standing around the cake while Mothra and I were trying to fix it... with large butter knives because we didn't have our decorating tools handy. To say it was a mess of a night is an incredible understatement.
Moving on...

This next cake is actually a lovely design. The bride was inspired by actress Alyssa Milano's wedding cake. So we took the concept of the draped, rippled look and did this design. I think Alyssa Milanos cake may have been fondant, but we did buttercream with this design. My only main complaint was with the flowers - not only were they small and didn't fit well with the theme of the cake, but the florist gave me an incredibly small bunch to work with. I feel I did well considering, but here are some pictures of that cake.

Finally, this past weekend, I had the pleasure of doing the wedding cake of the bride and groom I had met with a few months ago. It was so strange to think how fast time had flown by - but suffice to say, I felt an attachment to this cake since I was the one who helped them design it. The cakes are both round and square tiered and the bride and groom wanted a meshing of their cultures: hers being Indian and his being traditional American. So we alternated a henna design (matching the color of their invitations) and kept the other tiers plain and simple. The flowers are also fairly simple, but a gorgeous color. I'm including pictures of the final product - and then showing the cake topper they wanted to go with it.

Am I somewhat tactless in the fact that I decorated the cake with flowers on top to take pictures before I put their cake topper on? Yes, but feast your eyes on this gem of a cake topper:
I could write paragraphs - nearly another blog - about cake toppers and my distaste in them. But I will not go on here - I do love fresh flowers and I'll reiterate how much I love the color of these flowers on their cake. I was also happy with the henna design - it was my first time attempting this type of piping and I felt I exceeded my expectations. The only problem I had, which was told to me by Mothra, was that I need to increase my speed on piping. I agree with her and feel that I will be able to pipe faster in the future as a result of the experience I gained on this cake.

As an added bonus, I'm going to include a few pictures of fun projects I did and fun experiences that I had over these past few weeks.

Here are some chocolate cupcakes that I did for a baby shower that was in the hotel. They didn't know the gender of the baby, so they requested something neutral and I thought this might be a fun non-gender specific way to celebrate.


These are cookies that were made for a (you guessed it) and Notre Dame themed party. While I'm not a fan of football in general, I am a fan of the what food color, powdered sugar and water can do. It's amazing to me that something so simple can be piped into these types of designs... we do a variety of cookie designs on a regular basis, usually depending on the clients needs. I'm looking forward to the holidays because the cookies we do will be focused on the various symbols and icons of the holidays/seasons. Exciting stuff for a pastry geek like me.
And finally, I had the tremendous pleasure of having the Watters family visit the hotel and have a fun afternoon decorating cupcakes.

I blogged about this experience on my Definitions blog - sadly, the day after I posted that blog, Benny passed away. Meeting him and his family is something I'll always cherish and keep very dear to my heart. I'll be attending his funeral services this weekend and I asked his mother, Lisa, if there is anything I could do or bring to their gathering following Benny's service. She asked if I could bring something that her and Benny used to make - chocolate dipped pretzel sticks. She even included this picture in her message to me:

It goes without saying that the Watters family will probably have more chocolate dipped pretzels this weekend then they would ever care to have.

There are moments when I sit back and think how much I love what I do for a living. Sometimes it's after an incredibly long and productive day and I think about all that I accomplished. Sometimes I'm involved in a fun project and I feel a little guilty that I'm actually getting paid for it. Sometimes it's when I look at the pictures on the train ride home after I've set up a wedding cake I'm proud of. But it isn't anything compared to experiences like ones that I've had with my nieces decorating a cake or decorating cupcakes with Benny and his family or volunteering at a cancer wellness house and teaching a cooking class. There is few times I've felt that much joy in what I do for a living. It's moments like those that keep me so involved in what I do and give me the motivation to do and be better at my profession.