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This was a very exciting project for us.  The editors of Brides magazine came to us in February and asked us to recreate a specific cake for them.  The cake that they asked for was the wedding cake of Princess Victoria of England and Frederick William of Prussia from 1858.  There are no photographs of this cake, but only a sketch.  WE jumped at the chance to be able to recreate this intricate work of art that was inspired by the St. Bride’s church in London.

Here is the sketch that Brides Magazine presented to us and asked us if it was possible to recreate this historical cake.

When we start a project, we dissect it to get the proportions right and then enlarge it so we can make sure our confectionary decor will be to scale.

As in the original design, Ron strives for a cleaner, 3-dimensional execution of the sugar elements. We used 42 different molds to create the intricate details you see throughout the design.

This was the first wedding cake to ever use columns in the design. In these photos, Robin is putting together the very top of the cake.

12 pounds of sugar paste were used to achieve the decor of this cake.

Here is the finished cake. You will see in the original design that there were some posed people and cherubs that are not present on our cake. We find making people out of sugar a little creepy, so we opted to put sugar flowers on the cake instead. Our cake stands 42 inches tall.

It took 5 people and 160 man-hours to assemble this cake. In order to achieve the intricate details of the original design, many of the sugar molds used on the cake were overlapped with each other.

Tip of the day…

Sometimes when you look at our cakes and there are elements on the cake that are “shiny”.  And then you ask yourself – how do we do that?  It’s simple really; we use a clothing steamer with distilled water. (Distilled water can be purchased in any drugstore.)   The sugar flowers don’t stay under the steam for too long, but when steam is applied to anything made out of sugar, you get a very shiny surface.  It’s a nice way to add dimension to any cake design. (Please note – the steam will only last for a few days and than go back to the flat fondant look. You can always re-steam if necessary.)

The newest intern to our crew, Christina, holds the leaves under the steam. Not too close to the steam though, if any droplets of water should get on your finished sugar piece it will melt. So be careful when applying this technique!

Here are some examples of cakes that we used the steam technique on. It really does give the cake a nice glossy finish.

Sometimes I forget where I work and the things we execute here.  I am still amazed at how life like our sugar flowers really are. Over the weekend, I was talking a walk in my neighborhood and one of my neighbors has the most beautiful peonies in her garden.  Of course I happened to have a camera on me (as I usually do) and took a few shots of the lovely blooms.

Here are the lovely peonies I came across in my neighbors garden.

One of the many things Ron teaches and expects of his staff, is research then a follow through in execution.   I see this in our sugar flowers time and again.  Ron’s crew really takes the time to look at pictures and handle real flowers to figure out how to execute the curves and the many nuances you see in nature.  The staff makes hundreds if not thousands of sugar flowers each year.  Ron still takes the time to go over each flower with his staff to make sure he is happy with the result.

These are peonies made out of sugar by our very talented staff.

The peony is a beautiful flower on it's own or arranged with other blooms.

Field trip!!!

I have to say that one of the loveliest bits of my job is meeting our clients.  Ron and I took a field trip last week to Hoboken, NJ to visit our clients Autumn and Michael and their two adorable twin daughters Stella and Olivia.  Ron made Autumn and Michael’s wedding cake in October 2006.  Since then we see this wonderful couple at various events throughout the city each year.  Michael has always talked about us going over to Hoboken for dinner.  Well after 3 years of us talking about it – we finally went!

The evening started off at the Hoboken fire department where Michael is Captain. Of course Ron let his inner child loose –  he tried on a helmut, sat in the truck and asked many, many questions…

Ron had fun at the fire house. Thanks Michael for the tour!

Then it was off to their apartment.  It was really a fantastic evening of meeting their little girls and catching up with our clients. (Friends now really…) They made a delicious homemade Italian dinner.  (Which is no feat by the way – I am gluten free and Ron is Kosher – but Michael did it!)

What fantastic hosts! Thank you for inviting us over to meet your family!

And for dessert we were treated to Carlos bakery treats!

We can't forget Scout!

It was the perfect way to end our workweek. Excellent company, delicious food and lots of laughs! Thanks for the fun Autumn and Michael!

I always show you our most recent cakes. So Ron let me open up the vault. For those of you that are really fans of Ron’s work, I thought it might be fun to show you pictures of some his cakes from a few years ago…(between 2004 – 2006).  So enjoy!

This is Ron's most copied cake. We have seen many variations of this design from cake bakers all over the world.

COLOR.  There, the secret is out.  Color isn’t expensive.  Changing the structure of your cake or adding full coverage of confectionary lace is.  By adding color your cake feels lush and looks expensive.  Here are some cakes we did for clients that had very strict budgets and they wanted a more opulent feel to their cake design. Color is a great way to achieve this without killing your budget.

Today’s post is not really cake related – but more of an appreciation for all things sweet and delicious.  For the holiday weekend I went home to New Hampshire to visit my family. As always it was fun to see my family and friends.  Saturday night we went to this new little cafe on Hanover Street in Manchester, NH called Planet Marshmallow. (Remember last year when I went camping and we made gourmet s’mores with the homemade marshmallows http://wp.me/p1wSvL-8K?)  Heather the owner has now opened a cafe!

It was a chilly Saturday night, but we warmed right up with our delicious coco drinks in Heather's new cozy cafe! Visit them here: http://planetmarshmallow.com/.

Planet Marshmallow Cafe is a cozy little spot that offers delicious coffee and hot chocolate selections (with their famous marshmallows of course) and desserts.  Joining me on the field trip was one of my best friends Stephanie and her wonderful boyfriend Ken (these are my fellow camping s’mores crew).  Ken ordered the S’mores Hot Chocolate; it was served in a nice big shallow mug.  His hot chocolate was topped with homemade graham crackers and of course the all-natural vanilla Planet Marshmallow.  I was of course a bit more difficult.  They had a latte drink made with coconut and coffee, but not being the coffee enthusiast, I asked Harrison (our happy waiter) to make me the same drink but with hot coco.  I had a delicious mug of steamy hot chocolate with a shot of coconut flavoring and the toasted coconut Planet Marshmallow.  That was a tasty drink!

Hot chocolate on a chilly evening.....

To go with our delicious mugs of hot coco, we of course had to order a few desserts. All of the desserts are baked by Gabby and we were more than happy to try a few. Ken ordered the Crusty Apple Pie baked with cinnamon sugar and Granny Smith apples.  It was topped with a homemade scoop of Jake’s vanilla ice cream.  He said it was delicious and not a crumb was left on his plate.  Stephanie enjoyed the Salted Caramel Cheesecake.  A homemade vanilla cheesecake with a vanilla cookie crust, dripping with Suss Sweets salted caramel and a sprinkle of sea salt.  This dessert is a must try if you are ever in the area.  The cheesecake was smooth and creamy and was the perfect compliment to the caramel.  Now we all know the irony of me working at a bakery is that I am allergic to wheat, so our very accommodating waiter Harrison whipped me up a little of that Jake’s homemade vanilla ice cream drizzled with a bit of Nutella. Now in the words of my Dad, “That didn’t suck.” (My Dad says this if he REALLY likes something.)

On the left is the apple pie and on the right the caramel cheesecake.

If you are ever in the Manchester, NH area, give this little café a try.  The staff is friendly, the atmosphere cozy and the marshmallows are delicious!

Here I am with Gabby, Jess and Harrison. (Heather the owner had left earlier, she had worked all day...sorry I missed her!)

We are going camping again this year – of course we are buying more marshmallows and trying different variations of s’mores. (The new one we want to try? The Planet Marshmallow Raspberry Chocolate Chip, Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Raspberry Square and a little spread of raspberry jam on a homemade graham cracker.  Who wants to come camping?)

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