Cake Story

Last week wasn’t super busy as far as the number of cakes, but I did have to make lots of little figures and details for the cakes, especially for Nick’s groom’s cake. Liza wanted to surprise Nick with a golf-themed groom’s cake at their wedding. Most groom’s cakes are a replica of an item that represents one of the groom’s interests, such as a jersey from a favorite sports team or a game system. But Liza wanted this cake to tell a story-Nick winning a Masters tournament.

Liza wanted a Leader board that showed Nick in first place, beating Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and a few of Nick’s family and friends.

She wanted to include lots of little details; the Masters flag, golf cart, sand trap, the spectators in the stands and even Nick’s blond hair and plaid pants. When I came in for dinner on Saturday night I told my husband, “I sometimes have a very strange job. I just finished painting pink and green plaid onto tiny sugar pants on a tiny sugar golfer.”

Here’s Nick in his polo shirt and plaid pants:

Tiger Woods is not too happy that he lost to Nick…

and Phil Mickelson is pretty angry:

Congratulations Nick & Liza!!

Just Peachy

When Peter arrived alone for his wedding cake consultation I was a little surprised. Usually the bride and groom come in together, often with a few parents and/or bride’s maids along for the ride. After all, it’s free cake!

This was a second marriage for Peter & Angie so they were pretty low-key about the details. Peter wanted to surprise Angie with a cake that celebrated her Georgia roots. He came in with the idea to have a cake shaped like a peach. I suggested that we use the peach as the top of a tiered cake so it would still look wedding-cakeish. The plan was to have the tiers covered with peach-tinted fondant with air brushing to match the blush of the peach. We left the final details open to interpretation as the cake was being decorated (my favorite way to work).

I decided to make some peach blossom branches for the lower tiers. I thought this would tie the lower tiers in with the peach theme, and add a lovely and traditional detail to the cake.

I was worried after I put the peach fondant on the tiers. It seemed a bit garish and just too much of one color, but the airbrushing came out pretty and toned down the overall effect. I think the blossoms added just the right touch by breaking up all the peach color and highlighting the pink blush.

I was quite happy with final product but was still a little nervous because it was definitely not your typical wedding cake. I was so pleased when I got to the Hilltop House in Devon for the delivery. The room was beautifully outfitted with crisp white and peach linens, and the color of the cake fit perfectly in the décor.

Surprisingly, the cake inside was vanilla with vanilla buttercream. You might expect a peach filling, but Peter wanted to keep the flavor simple.

Building Business

Last Tuesday I delivered a cake for the opening of the Translational Research Building at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. This is the third "building" cake I’ve made for U Penn.

The first cake was for the school of Engineering. The cake wasn’t actually a replica of an entire building, but was a representation of a courtyard which was being named for a major donor to the Engineering School. The cake on the left was the real cake, which was served to the guests at the event, and the small cake on the right was a fake-cake, which was given to the donor as a memento.

The second building I made for U Penn was a replica of the Pereleman Center for Advanced Medicine for the opening event in 2008. This cake was so big we had to take the frame off the door of my kitchen to get the cake out for delivery. Lesson learned: A 36” cake board won’t fit through a 36” doorway without taking off the frame…

The Translational Research Building is located right next door to the Pereleman Center. As I did for the Pereleman cake, I went to the building site to see the structure and it’s surroundings, and to take photos to work from. The client just wanted the top portion of the building represented, so this was going to be a very tall and narrow structure. I knew delivery was going to be a bit dicey. (Well, delivery is always dicey when I have to drive the Schuylkill Expressway.)

Here’s the finished product. I needed to decorate the board, but since I was only representing the top portion of the building I decorated the board with just a general “street level” design. The flavor of the cake was vanilla with vanilla buttercream.