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.

Let Them Eat Cake 2011

The theme for this year’s competition was “Historical Romances, Love in any Age”. I liked the theme and set out researching great romantic couples in history. I decided to illustrate the love story of Scheherazade and King Shahryar from the ancient stories of “1001 Arabian Nights”.

I chose this theme because A--I thought it would be fun to create a cake with an “Arabian” design and, B-because it was an excuse to reread the tales from “1001 Arabian Nights” (in addition to being a “cake-nerd” I’m also a “book-nerd” Lit major). It’s always fun when I get to combine two of my favorite activities; baking and reading.

Well, despite all my great intentions I wound up getting side-tracked by many other projects (and re-reading those stories) and didn’t put quite the time into the cake that I should have.

I was happy with the end result and thought the design was pretty, but I felt going in that it probably wasn’t a winning cake. I knew from previous years that there are always some truly spectacular cakes at the event, and this year was no exception.

Here’s a close-up shot of Scheherazade and the King—she’s telling him her mesmerizing stories and he’s falling in love…

I’ll admit I held out great hope for a “best tasting” win because I was serving the killer “Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake”. The guests at the event loved the cake and were gobbling it up faster than we could serve it. We ended up cutting the samples in half so we wouldn’t run out half-way through the show. Unfortunately, we didn’t get “best tasting” either. Oh well, better luck next year.

I always enjoy this event because it’s a chance to meet-up with my fellow cake designers and mingle with other “wedding pros”. Many, many thanks to my friend Maryanne and my intern Amy for making the day even more fun…

How Many Servings??

Until now I’ve mostly used this blog to showcase the design and decorating process behind some of my favorite, most interesting cakes.

But there is another side to my job that I really enjoy; meeting with customers and discussing not just the flavor and design of their cake, but also how the cake will be displayed, cut, served, etc. I find that many of the same questions are asked over and over again. So I thought it might be helpful to write a series of blog posts that address some issues that are consistently raised by my customers.

Today’s blog post will address a question that comes up at virtually every wedding cake consultation: “How many servings of wedding cake do we really need?”

The reason I address this question first is that I often read or hear misleading information about how to save money when ordering a wedding cake.

I realize that some of this advice may seem self-serving, since I am in the business of selling wedding cakes by the portion, but I can tell you that most of my business has been built on referrals and I (and I believe most other cake designers) am not willing to compromise my reputation by pushing a customer to over-spend. There are ways to save money on the cake, and most cake designers are willing to work within a reasonable budget. But you should be aware of the realities before deciding “How much cake?”.

Q: “A lot of people don’t eat wedding cake, so do I really need enough cake to serve everyone?”

A: Much as I am loathe it admit it, there are wedding guests who don’t eat the cake. Some people simply don’t like dessert (gasp!), or maybe the dry, awful wedding cake that used to be the norm has convinced them that they don’t like wedding cake or, as is often the case, by the time the cake is cut everyone has been drinking and dancing and either don’t know the cake is being served or are too busy having fun to stop, sit down, and eat cake.

Most weddings in our area feature a sit-down dinner where each guest is served at their seat, and the wedding cake is served the same way. So, if you order a cake that is 50 portions short, how do you decide who will get a piece of cake and who won’t? You can’t know ahead of time who will want cake.

I’m sure it’s frustrating for the bride and groom (and/or their parents) to pay hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for a cake that is not completely eaten. But there are ways to mitigate this.

One option is to not order extra desserts in your catering package. Since the cake is so traditional, most people are not willing to totally forgo the wedding cake in favor of other desserts and end up paying for both, only to see the cake go uneaten because it’s served as an afterthought. You can use the cake as the main dessert and maybe save a little money on the dinner package.

When a slice of cake is set down in front of your guests, it should look tempting enough to make even those who think they hate wedding cake want to take a bite. Order a cake with interesting flavors, fillings and textures to make it as appealing to the taste buds as it is to the eyes. I’ve had brides tell me after their wedding that the venue staff couldn’t believe that all the cake was eaten. Work with a cake designer who is as focused on the taste of the cake as they are on the look and I bet you’ll find you have less uneaten cake.

Of course, even if the cake is meant to be dessert, it is often not treated as such. Dessert is eaten right after dinner, not 3 hours later. I always recommend to my customers that they schedule the cake service for right after dinner (when their guests are still eating) not after hours and hours of drinking and dancing.

Q: “I read in a bridal magazine (or on-line) that I can save money by having a very small cake for display and the rest of the cake served from sheet cakes in the back.”

A: First of all, I caution that you understand what is meant by “sheet cakes”. When I offer “service cakes”, a service cake portion is exactly the same as a decorated cake portion; all the same layers, fillings, etc. Be sure that “sheet cake” doesn’t mean just a slab cake with icing. You’ll want all the servings to look the same on the plate.

So, of course this means that “service cakes” are not labor-savings as far as the baking and filling of the cake. But, they can be labor-saving if your decorated cake has a very intricate design. E.g,, if you want a fondant finish with detailed brushwork as a part of the design. By eliminating one tier from the display cake you are reducing the decorating time. In this instance you may save some money by using a service cake.

But keep in mind that the cake is also a part of the decor for your wedding and should be in proportion to the reception venue. If you have 200 guests at your wedding you’re going to be in a large, open room with tall ceilings. You can get away with a decorated cake for 150p and a service cake for 50p, but if you have a decorated cake to serve 50p and service cakes to serve the bulk of the guests, that small two-tier display cake will look out-of-proportion in the setting.

Q: “I read in a bridal magazine (or on-line) that I can save money by having fewer servings and using ‘fake’ tiers to make the cake look bigger.”

A: Just as a wedding dress is not simply fabric and thread, and a photograph is not simply a piece of paper, a wedding cake is not simply butter, sugar, eggs and flour. If that were the case then, yes, eliminating the butter, sugar, eggs and flour would save you money. But the fact is that a great deal of the cost is in the business overhead (insurance, utilities, etc) and the labor (and years of experience) involved in stacking, decorating and transporting the cake.

Actually, by the time you pay for shipping, the styrofoam dummies that are used for fake cakes cost about the same as the cake ingredients, and the same effort is expended in decorating a dummy as a real cake. In fact, the dummies can actually be more difficult to decorate because they’re so lightweight they move all over as you work on them.

Servings are servings, whether they’re made of cake or styrofoam.

Q: “My catering package includes dessert, so we don’t need cake for everyone.”

A: As I mentioned above, one option is to not have the dessert included in the package. But if you do have additional desserts and your cake will be served as a part of a dessert buffet (and not at each seat) then you could order fewer servings since not everyone will take a piece of cake from the buffet. But again, remember to keep the proportions of the room and the number guests in mind when deciding on the size for the display cake.

Q: “We can cut smaller pieces to get more servings than we ordered.”

A: If the standard cake portion was as big as a “diner wedge” of cake this might be true, but the standard cake portion is 1”x2”x4”h. Trying to get extra servings by cutting smaller is unrealistic.

Jessica’s Doppleganger

Halloween came a little late at the Cake Art Studio, because this week I made my all-time creepiest cake.

A little background is probably in order. My dear niece Eileen (she has a lovely name, doesn’t she?) and “Jessica” go way back. “Jessica” is a favorite relic from Eileen’s childhood. I won’t go into the entire history here, but I will say that I’ve always found Jessica to be slightly more than a little scary.

When my sister decided to throw a surprise birthday party for Eileen’s 30th birthday, someone, I’m not really sure who started it, thought we should have a cake replica of Jessica for the celebration.

I'll admit that I had way more fun than is probably healthy making this cake. I stacked up 8 layers of pumpkin cake (yes, Jessica is a punkin-head) with cream cheese frosting and carved the shape of the head. The features were too fine to carve out of cake, so I added a base for the features with fondant---Oh, sorry, did I scare you? Obviously, the original Jessica is on the right and the half-finished cake is on the left. Next, I added the eyeballs and covered the cake with buttercream. Just keeps getting creepier, doesn’t it? Finally, I covered the entire head in a layer of fondant, shaped the features, worked in the creases and details, and put on her lipstick. Jessica was ready for the party…But wait, first she had to spend a night in the refrigerator. So this is when things got really bizarre. My husband quipped, “this is like Tony Soprano’s refrigerator…open it up and find a head on a plate wrapped in plastic.” I told you I had more fun than is probably healthy. I’ll spare you the photos of the cake cutting….

Electric Lollipops

Shortly after I booked Corinne and Dave’s wedding cake, Corinne contacted me because she wanted to surprise Dave with a special groom’s cake at their wedding. She sent me a photo and asked if I could possibly create a cake to look like a Tesla Coil. As soon as I read her email I was excited about the possibility of making the cake. I responded to her immediately and told her that, through an amazing coincidence, she found probably the only baker in the area who actually has a Tesla Coil in her basement, and that I could definitely make one out of cake.

My son, the science-guy, built a Tesla Coil for fun when he was in middle school. You can click on the link above if you want to know how it works but, basically, it’s a big contraption built to produce electricity. When you turn on a Tesla Coil giant bolts of lightening shoot out of the flying-saucer-looking-thing on the top (you can tell my son didn’t get his scientific aptitude from me). All I can tell you is that it scared the heck out of me every time he turned the thing on.

Not only did I want to produce a 3-d version of the Tesla Coil, but I knew that the cake had to have the bolts shooting out of the top.

The plan for the cake was pretty obvious from the start, the black box at the base would be all cake (chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream), the column would be PVC pipe covered in fondant, and the flying-saucer-thingy would be made from Rice Krispie treats, so it would be lighter and firmer than cake. How to make lightening bolts? Hmmmm. Of course, LOLLIPOPS!!!

I made silicone molds in a squiggly line shape, poured in blue melted sugar and then set a wooden skewer into the base of each piece…lollipops. The skewers were shoved into the flying-saucer-thingy and there you have it:

Here’s the finished cake on site at the gorgeous Brandywine Manor House

I hope Dave enjoyed his groom’s cake, I sure enjoyed making it!!

Buttercream Beauties

If you watch all those cake shows on TV (and if you’re reading this there’s a chance that you do) you would think that no one does buttercream cakes anymore, or that buttercream cakes are so boring and old-fashioned that they’re not worth a second look. I’m even guilty of this myself. I mostly post photos of fondant cakes on my Facebook page, figuring they’re more fun to look at.

So…I think it’s time to showcase some beautiful buttercream cakes.

When I met with Kim regarding her wedding cake she showed me a bunch of photos of cakes she liked. The cakes didn’t have a lot in common other than the fact that they all had clean lines, were not overly ornamented and were covered in rolled fondant. But Kim absolutely wanted buttercream icing.

Now, there are definitely certain design techniques that can not be successfully replicated in buttercream (see one of my favorite blogs, cakewrecks.com, for many hilarious examples of buttercream cakes gone wrong), but having a buttercream finish still allows for a wide variety of design details and styling.

I love the way Kim’s cake turned out and I think it’s a great example of a modern and sophisticated buttercream wedding cake--with nary a column, swag or rosette in sight:

Here are a few other buttercream beauties:

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Adventures in Baking

So, a few months ago a local production company contacted me about possibly being featured in a new cake show for TLC.  While I wasn’t particularly interested in being on a reality show, the exposure would be great for business. They came out to see my kitchen and shot some audition footage.  Although they liked me and really liked my work, they decided to use a bakery with lots of employees.  Since I work mostly alone they figured that a big bakery would be more interesting for TV because of the interaction among the employees (i.e., drama).

Well, if the cameras were with me this week they certainly would have captured plenty of drama.  It was a week that would be a reality-show producer’s dream.

As you can imagine, June is one of the busiest months for me (brides and graduates) and this weekend was the busiest of the month, so of course this is the week mother nature decides to send a freaky thunder storm my way.

I don’t make each cake from start to finish, one by one. I work assembly line style. I bake all of my cakes for the week on one day (usually Wednesday or Thursday), make all the fillings and assemble the cakes on the second day, and ice and decorate the third day.

So, I was humming along on Thursday afternoon with only two cakes left to assemble.  It was an incredibly hot and humid day, but I was nice and comfortable in my air-conditioned, de-humidified kitchen.  About three in the afternoon the sky darkened, the thunder rumbled, the wind whipped through the trees and the rain started pouring down. The lights blinked once, twice and, the third time being the charm, stayed out.

I quickly collected up all the cakes and fillings and put them in the refrigerator.  I went into the house to wait out what I hoped would be a brief interruption in my schedule.

About two hours into the black-out I a got a little worried that the refrigerator would get over the food-safe temperature.  My husband ran to Home Depot and brought a giant generator to hook up my work refrigerator and freezer (hmmm…so much for this week’s profits). I went back to work for a few hours, but by 8pm it was just too dark to see what I was doing so I called it a night.  By now my refrigerator was packed with two wedding cakes (each four tiers), a three-tier graduation cake, a two-tier birthday cake with a smash cake, three additional single-tier cakes and another smash cake. I had a total of 18 cakes in my refrigerator. I definitely could not afford to let the temperature go over the danger zone (40 degrees).

The generator is huge and really loud, so I didn’t really want to run it all night.  Since I work from a separate kitchen on my home property, I do have to be sensitive the the fact that I’m in a neighborhood and don’t want to inconvenience my neighbors.  So by 11pm we turned off the generator.  At midnight, 2am and 5am I had to roll out of bed, collect my flashlight and make my way out to the kitchen to check the temperature in the refrigerator.  By 6 am the temperature was inching up so I re-started the generator and got back to work.

By now my normally organized work area was a disaster area. The refrigerator and freezer were pulled out into the middle of the kitchen so they could be plugged into the extension cords (which were criss-crossing the entire length of the kitchen), I had no lights, no hot water and stacks of greasy dishes piled up from Thursday. 

Well, there are no excuses for the self-employed so I just had to deal with the situation.  First, I had to ice all the cakes in the refrigerator.  I plugged in my 20 quart mixer to make a batch of buttercream, flipped the switch and the entire kitchen went dead.  Aaaarg!!  I called my husband and asked him what to do (thank God for Michel; my webmaster, fix-it guy and general sounding board for all Cake Art Studio emergencies).  So now I have to unplug everything in the kitchen, make my way through the maze of extension cords, go outside, restart the generator, come back inside and plug all the equipment back in. I learned that each time I wanted to use the mixer or the burner I had to un-plug the refrigerator.  Also, every time I blew the circuit on the generator (which, because I am impatient and do not understand anything about amps or other electrical matters, happened too many times) I had to restart and re-set the air-conditioner in addition to all the the other unplugging and restarting.

By Friday afternoon I was in the weeds and knew it was gonna take a feat of super-human efficiency to get all the cakes done, and done well, and delivered on time.  So I recruited my number-one assistant, my son Joseph.  My dear son came through for me by making dozens and dozens of tiny lady-bugs and hundreds of blossoms and daisies out of fondant.  Thank God for him as well.

About 1pm on Friday, HALLELUJAH, the lights came on. 

The rest of Friday (until 11pm) and Saturday (13 hours) are a blur of icing and decorating.  I finally sent the last cake out at 5pm on Saturday and the best husband in the world came out to wash my dishes and floor.

I love my job, I really do, but I’m very glad to see June come to an end.