Gold Gilded Gateaux

When I first spoke to Josephine back in March, she mentioned her love for the simple yet impactful designs of April Reed. And as an April Reed fan myself, I was super excited to sit down with Josephine and her fiance Jimmy to design their wedding cake. They wanted something classic and elegant with three-tiers that incorporated their colors: ivory and antique gold. Below is the sketch of the design we decided on.

Ideally, we would have wanted to display the cake on a cake pedestal similar to the one in the sketch, however Chinese tradition (and the bride's mother) stipulated that the cake be either three or six tiers total to be considered lucky. The height of the pedestal would have counted as an additional tier so to achieve a larger presence, we later decided to increase the middle tier from 8" to 10" tall.

Speaking of the middle tier, I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive about achieving a smooth fondant finish on it. Any cake decorator that works with fondant will tell you that tall narrow cakes are notoriously tricky to cover - the larger the ratio of height to width, the higher the risk of the fondant bunching and tearing in the process. I had a back-up plan to cover the middle tier in two separate pieces of fondant in case things went horribly wrong but luckily, I was able to achieve a fairly smooth covering on the first try. :-)


The 10" middle tier before fondant
and after

Now for the assembly starting with the bottom tier.
With tier 2 added. The post-it note was to mark where the front of the cake should be.All 3 tiers - a total of 21" tall
The bow's loop and the gardenia were left off and added on at the site to prevent damage

Josephine and Jimmy's wedding cake full assembled. The uplighting on the wall adds a nice dramatic touch, dontcha think?

Some artsy-fartsy shots....

Close-ups of the gardenia:

Just speaking to Josephine, I knew that her wedding would be beautiful with lots of personal touches but I was truly impressed by how amazing everything looked. First of all, both the wedding ceremony and reception was held at Casa Real at the Ruby Hill Winery (a brand-spankin' new winery in Pleasanton) and I gotta tell you this place is gorgeous inside and out!! Below is a pic of the ceremony site.

The reception was in the ballroom adjacent to the ceremony. Each table alternately featured tall and low flower centerpieces.
The low centerpieces with gold framed table numbers.

Dinner menu with gold tissue poms

Last but not least, the escort cards on a bed of wine corks.

I'm sure there were plenty of gorgeous elements that were set up after I had left but I was glad to have seen some of the decor and to know that their wedding cake fit in just perfectly :-)

Lien Sanchez

http://www.crazycakecompany.com/

Masked Ball on the Blvd

I had the distinct pleasure last week to participate in a great charity event for a fabulous organization, namely the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra. Now I'd be the first to admit that I'm no great musician - I played the flute in high school but by no stretch of imaginaion would I consider myself a flautist. I do, however, have a great appreciation for music (greatly fostered by my stint with the flute) and recognize the importance of exposing children to music at an early age, a cause that the SPO wholeheartedly supports through their various musical outreach programs **. So it was with a happy heart that I agreed to donate my sweet-toothed services for the Masked Ball on the Boulevard.

As you may have guessed by the name, this charity ball had a masquerade/Mardi Gras flair so the thought had crossed my mind to design a colorful wacky cake that would fatten up any Tuesday, however keeping in mind it's association with the SPO, I decided to go with a decidedly more refined design: A bust of a lady on a pedestal.

Now I'd have to live under a rock to not have heard about the Nigerian bride who commissioned a cake in her own image and the backlash of responses to it, and since my mama didn't raise no rock-dwellers, I gave it some serious consideration before committing to making this edible human likeness. I figured that as long as it was done tastefully (read: not made of red velvet cake) and as long as we don't actually cut into the head, it would be safe.

OK, let's start with some in-process photos:

That, my friend, is 9 layers of my CA State Fair award-winning lemon zest pound cake sandwiched with yummy lemon buttercream. The round tin was a placeholder for where the neck would be positioned.

Carving in process.....
Mixing the right skin tone was by far one of the most difficult tasks in this project. A bit too much pink made her look sunburnt while a smidge too much yellow made her look sickly. After multiple trials, I finally settled on a mixture that I was happy with.

Then there was a few hours where I completely forgot to take pictures. I know, bad blogger! *slaps hand*

The mostly completed bust before I applied a color wash to her hair.
After all said and done, I seriously debated whether or not to actually put the mask on her. I know this is for a "masked" ball so it would only make sense that she wears the mask but you have to understand - In the 15+ years that I've been using makeup, I've NEVER been able to get MY eyebrows shaped that perfectly so it was truly a difficult task for me to completely cover up those brows with the mask, lol. In the end, I did what needed to be done. Well, at least I have these photographs to look back on.

I love how the subtle gold brocade pattern of the dress catches the light.

To set the mood, votives and select pieces of sheet music taken from the actual 2008-2009 season were arranged around the cake. The sheet music was printed on edible paper and airbrushed on the edges for a romantic aged look.

After delivering the cake, my husband and I changed into our party clothes and joined the festivities. We had an absolute blast admiring all the costumes and masks, sampling delectible hors'devours and wines from three different restaurants, and watching performances by belly dancers, fire dancers, and of course members of the Philharmonic. We witnessed the lively charity auction where among other things, they auctioned off the opportunity to be conductor at a live SPO performance. I even had my fortune read by both a medium and a numerologist who told me good cakey things were coming my way :-).

Then came my favorite part of the evening: the beheading, uh....I mean the cake cutting. Amid Marie Antoinette-esque cheers of "Off with her head!" Tony from Enotria (who makes the most delicious butternut squash pumpkin vanilla bean soup, evah) removed her head and served her up.

And yes, we did hear a few requests for "breast meat".... ah, boys will be boys. *shakes head*

**Oh, if you've got young ones at home, I highly encourage you to check out the SPO's Target family concerts where admission is free for children 12 and under and only $10 for the general public.

Lien.

Cupcakes for the Cure

My sister approached me in September about donating some decorated cupcakes for her office's breast cancer awareness bake sale in October. Aside from being a very good cause, breast cancer awareness has a special meaning for me since I was subject to a breast cancer scare myself in my early 20's when I found a strange lump in my right breast. Fortunately, it was a benign cyst that was believed to have been caused by excessive caffeine intake - I had just started a new job and was drinking massive amounts of coffee. Needless to say, that curbed my coffee habit real quick, lol. I, of course, told my sister that I would be delighted to help out.

Since the little pink ribbon is iconic with breast cancer awareness (not to mention adorable in it's own right), my sister and I agreed that they would make the perfect cupcake toppers. I also considered making pink vanilla cupcakes but in the end I succumbed to my obsession with all things red (just ask my friends) and made red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting instead. In the words of Rachel Ray, "Yum-O!"

Don't they look so cute all lined up like toy soldiers? :-D

Top view - sorry for the grainy,fuzzy pic.

About 2 hours into the bake sale, my sister texted to let me know that the cupcakes were a big hit and that they were almost gone! Darnit, I knew I should have made more.....

Lien

www.crazycakecompany.com

Cupcakes a go-go!!

A couple of Fridays ago, I found myself making 4+ dozen cupcakes for two Sat events. I was short on time but still wanted to make some goodies for the parties, so I turned to my trusty friend, the cupcake - quick, easy, and oh so delicious :).

The first event was a dinner party celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving (who knew it was the second Monday of October?) hosted by my husband's friend and the second was my niece's birthday; she was turning 11 and was celebrating with a slumber party with her gal pals. Get this, I wasn't even attending either of these!! Why, you ask? Well, since my best friend's little girl just happens to one of my niece's gal pals and was occupied by said slumber party, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to rally up a few of our own gal pals to enjoy a nice girls' night out :-D. Cupcakes a go-go it is!!!

I make a kick-a$$ devil's food cake (with a strong kick of chocolate) so of course I had to make devil's food cupcakes but my niece (the little weirdo*) is not a big fan of chocolate so I made some vanilla cupcakes for her.

Pic of the devil's food batter all neatly portioned in their cups.

TIP: To make uniformly sized cupcakes, use an ice-cream scoop with a spring release to scoop your batter into your baking cups. This also eliminates those unsightly drips on the side of the baking cups.
Frosted with ganache. Mmmmmm......ganache.......
(I'll do a separate post in November about ganache - so easy yet so versatile)
Vanilla cupcakes with my favorite vanilla cupcake buttercream (recipe below).

The flowers on top are super-easy and were made with a 5 petal blossom veiner <--- the best $15 you'll pay for a veiner, I swear!...also used to decorate this cake. Just take some fondant (or gumpaste), roll it out thin, cut out some shapes using a 5-petal cutter, press the cutout between the two sides of the silicon veiner with a tiny bit of cornstarch (so it doesn't stick) and voila! - fancy flowers without all the fancy work!!!
RECIPE: Vanilla Cupcake Buttercream (Frosts 2 dozen cupcakes)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6-8 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tspn vanilla extract

1) Cream unsalted butter

2) Mix in half of the powdered sugar, then the milk and vanilla

3) Mix on medium for 3-5 minutes

4) Then add the remaining powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time until you reach the consistency you like.

*my neice isn't really a little weirdo, I'm sure this anti-chocolate thang is just a phase ;-P

Lien
www.crazycakecompany.com

What's my tone?

Hi everyone, it's been 4 weeks since my initial post and I've been struggling with something that I'm sure many first-time bloggers have a hard time with (well, at least I'm hoping I'm not the only one). That thing is the tone of this blog.

As a frequent blog reader, many of the blogs that I can't wait to check every morning are quirky, funny, and sarcastic. However, most of the cake blogs I've seen (that are linked to a cake business) can be described as interesting, descriptive, beautiful, and pleasant but certainly not sarcastic in any way. Understandably, business blogs need to walk a fine line so as not to offend any of it's potential customers but I'm gonna try my best to hold true to my own personality and inject a bit of my craziness without completely giving away my lunacy. ;-P Just be forwarned though - my jokes can be quite cheesy at times and I love my emoticons :D and internet slang, lol (oh, I also love parentheses!).

I'm a pretty competitive person by nature (especially when it comes to board games), it's what drives me to keep learning and challenging myself to make bigger and better cakes. So of course when it comes to this blog, I certainly don't want to produce something *lame*. I'd love to hear from you folks what qualities you look for in a blog and what makes you keep checking back for more.

Oh, and just because I believe that all blog posts should have a least one picture, here's a picture of the ginormous sunflower bouquet my husband brought home for our 1 year wedding anniversary a little over a month ago. (Yes, sunflowers are my favorite - they make me smile :-).

Lien Sanchez

http://www.crazycakecompany.com/

My first blog post EVER!!!

Hi!

Welcome to my blog! Those of you who know me know that I have a special relationship with DVDs and like the bonus features on a DVD, this blog is as an outlet to share the "behind the scenes" features of all things cake.

As a blog topic, cakes are FASCINATING!!! Think of it, cakes are usually commissioned for a special occasion, which immediately begs the question, "What's the occasion?" Is it a birthday? a wedding? a going away party? There is always a story behind a cake and oftentimes there's a few stories behind a cake. Then there's the design process, the actual making of the cake, and all the fun stuff involved in starting a cake business. I look forward to sharing with you all of these things and more so stay tuned!!!

P.S. I’m a longtime blog reader but a first-time blogger so bear with me as I get up to speed with all this blogging goodness :-)


Lien.