NYC Cake Girl

It is official – wedding season is upon us.  I have printed all of the packing slips and gathered all of the details for the staff for June and the orders are still coming in.  I have my organized piles on my desk and I don’t think I have room for any more.  For me this is the most challenging time of year, we get the most appointments in May and June and we are very busy with cakes each weekend.  How do I manage it all?  First I take a deep breath and remind myself it’s only cake, not the end of the world.  Second, once I have the calendar written and the packing slips printed and handed to the design crew, I constantly check that everyone has the same pieces of information.  Is this tedious? Yes it is, but well worth it.  Because my volume of details for the next two months is so great, me double and triple checking myself allows me to catch whatever mistakes I have made early on, so I still have time to fix them. 

Apparently I only have room for 3 piles…

PS:  I feel I have neglected all of you and I apologize for that.  The one thing about working here is that it gets really busy and it’s hard to step away for 10 minutes to write a little something for the blog. I will try to post more!

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Yesterday Ron went to school at PS 59 in Brooklyn to participate in City Harvest’s Cooking Matter’s for Kids program to give a few hours of his time.  This program engages elementary school students in cooking healthy meals and promoting a healthy lifestyle.  Ron was there to celebrate their graduation of the program and share his healthy fruit crisp recipe and cooking tips with the students.

What a great group of kids - these happy faces greeted us for an afternoon of cooking fun!

Ron and the kids worked together in the school cafeteria cutting apples and mixing a delicious streusel topping made with corn flakes, oats & chocolate chips.  Ron assisted the students in cutting, mixing and measuring.  I think what impressed us the most was the information the students were being taught.  One of the many things these students learned is how to read labels on boxed foods you find in the supermarket.  Knowledge is power people – these youngsters take this information home to their parents and help them food shop, bringing a healthy eating lifestyle to the whole family.

Ron and the kids whipped up a delicious apple crisp together. Ron was there to assist the kids in cutting, measuring and mixing. While the crisp was baking, the students also made a greek salad and had one last nutrition lesson before enjoying dessert.

After the crisp was baked, Ron dished out bowls to the kids so the could taste the fruits of their labor. The kids loved their dessert!

Here is Ron with the graduating students and instructors from City Harvest. It was a fun afternoon of cooking and learning and Ron and myself had a great time!

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I think this year my favorite thing to design are the 1 year old birthday cakes.  There is so much to be inspired by.  Our client Ashley came to us a few years ago for her bridal shower cake.  She recently came back to design a cake with us for her son’s first birthday.  The inspiration she gave us?  One of my favorite children’s books, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.

One of my favorite kids books!

Not only is this book a great story, but a visual feast for the eyes with its bright colors and textures on each page.  We were more than happy to be inspired by this beautiful and original artwork.

Visit Eric Carle’s website here http://www.eric-carle.com/

There was a lot of texture and painting that went into the over look of this design.

Here are the details that our client Ashley wanted to see on the cake. Her son's favorite pictures from The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Here is our finished cake. Happy 1st birthday Davis!

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How do you keep your gum paste flowers fresh? I recently was cleaning out some flowers I had made last summer and prior to throwing them away, I smelled them, and they smelled like rancid shortening. Do you go through your stock so quickly that they don’t have a chance to get like that? I had used Wilton fondant and gum paste for my flowers. Not sure if that makes a difference. Miss Tori…

Thanks Miss Tori for reading and bringing up an excellent question.  I brought this question to the staff and this is what they had to say:

“All of your sugar flowers should be dried completely before storing them away.  We have never had this kind of a problem before as we always make sure the sugar flowers/objects are dry.”

Keep in mind that we also work in a very dry environment.  If you work in a humid environment this could also have an impact on your sugar flowers.

Here are some of our sugar flowers and buds in various states of drying. They must be completely dry before stored.

Once the sugar flowers are completely dry, they are stored in plastic container. We try to keep our kitchen and production room as cool and dry as possible.

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Tonight is the night!  Ron’s second season of Sweet Genius premieres tonight at 10pm (EST) on the Food Network.  Will you be watching?

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Today’s project – making the rose petals that you see gently placed on the ledges of our cakes.  This is seems like a simple project, but really it’s not.  Each rose petal goes through it’s own process and like in nature, no two things look a like.

So these delicate little rose petals go through a lot of different steps just to get to there final shape.

One of Jason's responsibilities here at the bakery is monitoring the interns work and instructing when necessary.

Here is a great example of how the petals are used on a cake.

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This is a hard decision.  How am I going to decorate the outside of my cake? (Again – it comes down to inspiration, the one thing I always seem to mention.)

Here are some things to consider:

Location: Always keep this in mind when designing. You don’t want to put something ultra modern in a very traditional ornate room or vice versa. This particular cake was inspired by the wedding couple location for the reception - Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Color: Don’t be afraid of it. Adding color can add drama. (And it doesn’t cost you additional $$$)

Fashion: This is around us everyday. This is a great source of inspiration for design. The confectionary surface design was inspired by the brides gown from Oscar de la Renta.

Architecture: Clean and sleek or gilded and ornate. There are lots of elements here that can be brought into the design of the cake. This cake was made for a wedding at The Plaza Hotel.

China/Dishware: Be different; be inspired by the china that the couple picks out together. This cake was inspired by Hermes chine.

Invitations: There is always something in the invite that we can be inspired by. Maybe it’s the over all look of the invite or a few details that would look fancy in sugar. The invite was designed by Ceci New York.

Flowers: Almost all weddings use flowers in the final design. This can be a wonderful source of inspiration. We make everything out of sugar so this now makes a wonderful keepsake as well.

So there you have it – some different things you can think about when designing a wedding cake.  Don’t use all of these things on a cake, that would be way to much.  But these suggestions will help you narrow down your options for confectionary surface design.

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The finished cake. Many delicate sugar flowers were applied to create the wreath affect that around each tier. The topper was created with wired flowers.

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Sometimes a man just needs a snack.

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