My Life of Sin

Recent Cakes....

2011-04-22T12:49:00.004-04:00

Wedding Cakes
Cake Toppers

Kids Cakes

Carved Cakes

we do it all....

Edible Rhody

2011-02-27T22:08:00.001-05:00

This article has been out for a while, but I've just received the online link...

Sweetest Couture

2011-02-18T09:35:00.001-05:00

Check out our latest interview with the blog site Sweetest Couture.

We won, again!

2011-01-25T15:49:00.002-05:00

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Sin as been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Cakes

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Sin stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Sin for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Sin is among the very best Wedding Cakes within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

Vacation and stuff.

2010-12-30T13:35:00.003-05:00

I've been here by myself for the past couple of days. Just like it was when I first started! Every once in a while it's nice to be here by myself. I haven't frosted this much is months! It's good to get my hands "frosty", makes me remember why I love this so much.

We're taking a much needed vacation now thru January 11th. Manuela is going to Colorado for skiing, Keri to Columbia to visit family and I'm going on a short cruise to Nassau.

Boy do we need it, we did approximately 130 wedding cakes and over 250 other cakes, all unique and individually designed and decorated. Plus we did thousands of cupcakes, anniversary cakes, desserts, dummy cakes, events... so much cake!

But, here's looking to next year! Let's double it!!! Yeah!!!

Cookie Video

2010-12-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

From our friend David Bettencourt... check it out here.

Holiday Cakes & a CHITTY CHITTY CHIVA

2010-12-23T16:36:00.004-05:00

Ali won!

2010-12-11T11:22:00.000-05:00

Ali's groupon guess was 220... we sold 214! Yeah!

Groupon!!!

2010-12-09T16:11:00.001-05:00

We've had a groupon coupon today for holiday cookie platters and have been scooping cookies and baking up a storm! We have an in store contest to see who's come closest to guessing the number of groupon coupons sold... so far it seems like it will be between our new intern, Ali, and Ginger. We'll report on the outcome tomorrow!

a turkey & all the trimmings....

2010-11-23T14:49:00.005-05:00

Zombie...Death...& a Dog...Oh MY!

2010-10-28T13:22:00.004-04:00

The Cutest Death Machine Ever...

2010-09-10T13:56:00.001-04:00

An Army of Mini Cake Towers

2010-08-28T14:53:00.001-04:00

Fabulous FREE Facebook Fridays!!!

2010-08-19T14:11:00.000-04:00

Ready for FABULOUS FREE FACEBOOK FRIDAY???

Giving you all 24 hours to respond this week-

3 winners will be chosen at random from all entries received by 2 pm tomorrow.

Share with us your favorite cake memory for (wait for it...)

a chance to win one of THREE cupcake 6 packs!
Flavors are Yellow, Lemon or Old Fashioned Chocolate.

The Making of a TIFFANY Box

2010-08-14T11:06:00.003-04:00

Fabulous FREE Facebook Fridays!!!

2010-08-11T13:51:00.002-04:00

Every Friday on our Facebook page, we will announce a FREE give-away from Sin!
It may be cupcakes, a cake, tartlets, brownies or some other delicious delicacy to fill your belly!

Go to our page- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Providence-RI/Sin/156789608229

"Friend" us, encourage friends to "friend" us and share in the joys of Sinning.

GINGER takes over!

2010-08-05T14:33:00.003-04:00

Hello- Ginger here, Office Manager for Sin. I have been asked to take over blogging for a bit so that Jen can focus on making her amazingly sinful & beautiful cakes.

Summer has been BUSY!

Lot's of weddings, awesome responses to the article in the PROJO & we were recently crowned winner of FOX 64 Cake Off!

My day-to-day existence at Sin is full of emails, phone calls, invoices, filing, ribboning boards but most importantly- eating CAKE! No, I am not a baker or decorator. I am an eater. Yummy delicious cake. My name has become a synonym for eating cake. Especially from a bucket of scraps. Such as- "Yesterday, I totally did a Ginger" or "Are you Gingering?" :)

Okay, gotta go, stuff to do, cake to eat. Until next week!

-GG

Pro Jo Piece

2010-07-03T09:14:00.002-04:00

Sorry we haven't been blogging as much as we did last month, wedding season has hit us! But here's a piece that appeared in the Providence Journal, hopefully that will tie you over until we can get some more pictures up...

City Bride Cake off...

2010-06-21T15:40:00.000-04:00

I know this is late... but we participated in the WNAC Fox 64 City Bride Cake Off Competition last night. And WE WON! Keri came up with an incredible design and we rocked it out.

Check out the Cake Cam shots.... I'll post more pictures later.

Here's the winning cake....

Whew!

2010-06-13T15:10:00.004-04:00

I wasn't sure if I was going to post this. But at the beginning of this blog, I said it would be about the joy and trials of owning a business, as well as a showcase for our cakes. So... here it goes...

This weekend we had our first cake disaster in 5 years. Our delivery person called and said, "Jen, we have a problem. The cake has fallen over." GULP. That's the last thing we want to hear. We know how important wedding days are. Our driver was in tears. She had to swerve to avoid another driver that merged into her lane.

I immediately called the venue and told them what happened, and told them that we would get them cake to serve. We had to make cake to serve 180 people.

One of the staff started a sheet cake of Old Fashioned Chocolate, the other started the Coconut and I made two batches of buttercream and ganache. While that was baking we covered a dummy to duplicate the destroyed cake. The driver came back and we were able to salvage one of the four layers. We frosted and decorated it so the couple would have a cake to cut for photos.

The delivery person left at 9:20 for an 11:00 wedding, we got the call at 9:45. By 12:30 I delivered 2 sheet cakes with 192 slices, a 4 tier dummy replica and a cutting cake. I was blown away by how efficiently, calmly and steadily my staff (and myself) worked. So was the venue. And luckily we had an incredible bride. When I got to the site, the bride came out and the first thing she said to me was "I'm so sorry this happened to you!" See... incredible!

She really wanted to know if we were able to save the custom cake toppers we made for her of her 3 dogs. We did. She was happy, we were happy and so was the venue.

Whew! That was the most stressful day ever. Plus we still had 4 more cake to deliver later in the day!

You never want disaster to happen, but I'm glad to know that if it does, my staff can handle it. Boy can they handle it. They were awesome.

It's not necessarily a good story, but it's not too bad either. Hopefully we're not due for another disaster for another 5 years!

I didn't get any photos of the destroyed cake or the dummy cake. (I was a little too busy to take pictures)

Update: Here's a photo of the original... Cute !

Motorcycles, card reading and Wonder Woman....

2010-05-15T10:00:00.000-04:00

First I want to show you a close up of a chef on a motorcycle that Keri painted. It's a flat sugar piece that's on top of a 10" round cake.... look at the detail... it's awesome. Keri does such a great job.

I think this is another of Keri's.... a dirt bike for an 11 years birthday.

Um... hmmm... this is another of Keri's. A tarot card reader at her desk with all her favorite things....

Really? Yep.... another one of Keri's paintings. This is for my friend Kristen. Her son wanted her to have a Wonder Woman cake. Apparently I need to get to work and frost a cake sometime!

Flying Monkeys...

2010-05-08T15:38:00.002-04:00

Yep, Flying Monkeys.... George to be specific....

And for the older crowd, how about a cocktail?

And Congrats to Rick and Nicole.... this is Rick's grooms cake.
Sorry for the short post!

Other Stuff...

2010-04-27T17:15:00.000-04:00

Here's a mini Cat in the Hat cake

This is just a cute little flower cake (it's actually a gluten free yellow cake) with matching cupcakes.

For a Skating birthday party we did this cute roller skate. It just needs a disco ball now!

For a hair dresser's bridal shower we did this....

And this is what we called the Candy cake... lollipops and cupcakes.

This week at the studio....

2010-04-11T08:50:00.004-04:00

We had a busy week for April.... We hand painted this Rhode Island Favorite....

Ethan's love of snakes prompted this cake.... though all the girls in the studio were a bit reluctant to do it....

Last year we did a spooky hand cake for a birthday party that rents out Monster Golf in Seekonk, this year we did a tilty halloween cake....

This is a replica of another baker's cake. We prefer to do our own designs, but the client really loved this design, so we did it for her...

A baptism cake for a very large baptism party.

and finally our favorite... The reeses' cups. They were so good! Old fashion chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream covered in chocolate fondant. We really enjoyed these scraps.

Other cakes at the Boston Flower show...

2010-04-04T12:02:00.000-04:00

Here are just a few of the other cakes at the Boston Flower show. There were more but I don't have good pictures of them, and I'm sorry, but I also don't have the locations of where they came from! I'm a bad blogger....

Easter flowers and Bunny

2010-04-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

I don't think I posted this. This is the flower cake that Ashley did for the Boston Flower show. It was a beautiful show and for the cake display all they asked for was a flower themed cake. There were so many beautiful cakes. I'll post the other cakes in a separate post.

And this is our cake for the Seekonk Band Auction. They raffle off cakes every year to raise money for the band. And as a former band geek, we always participate! It's an Old Fashioned Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and covered in chocolate fondant. Perfect for a chocolate easter bunny!

Friends you know...

2010-04-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

Here's one you don't know... but he's so cute, you should.

You should know all of these guys... hand painted by Keri.

And of course, a very well known little girl...

I don't usually post flavors of the cakes, should I?

Police and Circus.

2010-03-20T11:09:00.004-04:00

We did a circus tent recently with a tight rope walker, trapeze artist, clowns, lions, the works.

Here's a photo of the tight rope walker close up...

A wife recently thru her husband a baby shower... He's a police officer, so of course the baby had to be in a mini police baby pram.

What we've been up to....

2010-03-20T10:45:00.004-04:00

We've been doing some really cute kids cakes this week...

A Penguin for Pat..

A BumbleBee for Emily...

And we finally got our baby cake done.... This will probably be our cake for our baby ad this year...

Very overdue....

2010-03-15T15:47:00.007-04:00

Last month we were at the Newport Bridal Show, held at Ocean Cliff. Here's a few pictures from the event...

Our table

And our Sea Glass cake (edible glass!)

A pretty pink paisley cake,

This one is an architectural inspired cake with molding.

A cute rose cake

A Newport Preppy cake

We had a great time at the show and met a lot of wonderful brides! We look forward to doing it again next year. Oh yeah, the flavors... we offered our favorite, chocolate chip, the yellow cake with lemon buttercream and our chocolate bourbon.

Staff Favorites: Ginger

2010-03-04T17:00:00.003-05:00

Ginger has been with us for about a year and is a true cake lover. She usually eats cake for lunch. Most of us weaned off cake after about 6 months or so, Ginger is still going strong! Her top picks are... .

Chocolate bourbon, plain buttercream

Silver pound cake with lemon filling

White Chocolate cake with raspberry filling

Princess Cake (the dark horse!)

Chocolate chip cake

and

Guinness Chocolate Cake.

Staff Favorites: Keri

2010-03-04T16:57:00.003-05:00

Keri was my very first official employee. She's been here almost 2 years now. She went to Johnson and Wales and also has some time in at RISD, so she's a double threat!

Keri's top Picks...

Silver Pound with lemon filling and coconut buttercream

Peanut Butter with mexican ganache filling, milk chocolate buttercream

Chocolate Chip with plain buttercream

Guinness Chocolate Cake with Caramel buttercream

Coconut Cake with raspberry filling

and

Hazelnut Cake with nutella filling.

Top runners up...

Chocolate Bourbon with Buttercream

and Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting.

Staff Favorites: Jen

2010-02-21T14:23:00.002-05:00

We were discussing the other day what 6 cupcakes we would pack for ourselves. So in response to that discussion, I'll be posting the staff favorites over the next few weeks. My picks would be:
1) Red Velvet - plain buttercream frosting, no filling, no cream cheese frosting.
2) Chocolate chip - also just plain buttercream.
3) Devil's food with peanut butter buttercream.

This is where it gets hard, the first 3 are easy, Love Them So Much, they're no brainers. The next 3... wow, there are so many good choices... princess, banana or spice cake with ganache filling and caramel buttercream, white chocolate with chocolate mint buttercream, chocolate bourbon with the newly discovered raspberry buttercream, .... Ughh...

4) Silver pound cake with lemon curd filling, plain buttercream. (Or maybe coconut with the same combo?)
5) Hazelnut with raspberry filling, chocolate buttercream.
6) Lime Rum with raspberry filling and coconut buttercream.

There, done. I think.... Maybe the Hazelnut with chocolate ganache and raspberry buttercream (or plain), or Old fashioned Chocolate with mexican ganache. Or guinness with bailey's ganache and chocolate buttercream.....

No. I think I'm sticking with the above, though I may re-post in 6 months with my new favorites...

I heart Providence

2010-02-13T16:55:00.005-05:00

We had a great time Thursday night at the I heart Providence event... here's some of our photos....

Elephant II

2010-02-08T10:48:00.000-05:00

This week we did a different elephant cake based on a child's invite... it turned out really cute!

We also did an updated version of our present cake....

I heart Providence

2010-02-06T14:05:00.002-05:00

Don't miss us this Thursday, February 11th, at this year's I heart Providence event. It's at city hall from 6-8. We'll be giving out samples of our chocolate bourbon, princess, red velvet and white chocolate cakes, and we'll have a few for sale. Hope to see you there.

Drop in and Decorate

2010-02-06T09:46:00.006-05:00

Last Saturday we participated in the Drop in and Decorate Program that was taking place at RISD. Over 160 people decorated 1,000 cookies for the RI Food Bank's Kid's Cafe Program. It was a lot fun and we were happy to help

Here's Jen and Ellie...

Ginger and

Mya...

And Coryndon and Tiffany.

Here's one of Tiffany's cookies that was shown on the Drop in site!

VOTE FOR US!

2010-02-04T16:35:00.002-05:00

The Providence Pheonix is having their yearly best of award. We won one last year and we want to do it again! We aren't officially listed as a best dessert place, so you'll have to write us in. Click here to vote, and remember to go back every day and vote again.

Thanks!

Is it October?

2010-01-30T10:41:00.004-05:00

Last week we did the Twilight Book, and this past week we did a Phantom of The Opera Cake for a sweet 16 birthday.... Phantom's and Vampires... more Halloween than January, but they were both fun cakes to make!

Ashley did an incredible job painting some butterflies.....

And Keri put together this great fish basket (with the help of Ashley) for Colleen Kimmel's dad...

Later today some of us are going over to RISD to participate in a benefit for the RI Food Bank. We'll be decorating some cookies with the Drop in and Decorate team. We'll post some pictures next week of the event!

Twilight Kiss

2010-01-20T13:33:00.000-05:00

We did a Twilight book cake for Courtney's 8th birthday. Courtney is spending her birthday away from home this year at the local Ronald Mcdonald House. We hope you get better soon Courtney!

(Ashley did a great job painting the cake!)

And for Valentines this year, in addition to the heart shaped cookies that we offered last year. (Either large individual cookies for $2.50, or a pack of 6 smaller cookies for $10.50), we are offering a couple's "KISS" cake. Old Fashioned chocolate cake with Bailey's ganache filling all wrapped up like a kiss. You can even customize the sentiment on top! The KISS sells for $35. All orders must be in by February 10th. Call us at 401-369-8427 to place your order.

Hello Daisy!

2010-01-16T12:00:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we welcomed a local Daisy group into the bakery. Each girl had a small cake that they covered in fondant and decorated with colored fondant flowers, balls and other designs. They had a great time!

Grace Ormond Show

2010-01-09T15:53:00.002-05:00

Sin will be at Creative Ambience Event's booth tomorrow at the Grace Ormond Show. If you're looking for a really nice bridal show, check it out. It's one of the most beautiful shows out there. Lisa, from Creative Ambience, is a great wedding planner who does some really amazing weddings.

Hope to see you there!

New Year Resolutions for 2010

2010-01-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

So, it's that time of year... resolutions... Ok. Here we go...

1) To post a blog at least once a week.

2) To add 2 new flavors of cake to the list (if you have any ideas let me know!)

3) To be better organized. Write down all the specifics, don't try to remember things, give my staff all the information they need.

4) Precision, Detail, Perfection.

5) Better time management.

6) Put out new specials for holidays such as mini cakes for Valentines, Gingerbread Men for Christmas, Halloween cookies, better advertise our Thanksgiving and Christmas offerings.

I think thats all I should add right now! It's going to be a hard list to accomplish, but I'll try!

Newport Wedding show

2009-12-30T15:25:00.002-05:00

I have three (3) complimentary Bridal Show tickets available for the Rose Cliff/Ocean Cliff wedding show February 20th. If you're interested let me know. Contact me at jennifer@eatwicked.com.

They are also offering a special Bridal SHOW WEEKEND ACCOMMODATION & OTHER SPECIALS, exclusively for pre-registered attendees of the Newport Bridal Show. After
pre-registering for tickets at NewportBridalShow.net, brides-to-be and their
companions can take advantage of these "Special Deals & Discounts" and plan
a romantic, fun-filled weekend in Newport, February 19-21. For more
information visit:
http://www.newportweddingexpo.com/specials.htm

End of 2009!!

2009-12-17T10:46:00.003-05:00

Wow... the year is about to end. Where did the time go? I look back at the cake pictures from this year and it seems like just last month were were making the AT-AT, but that was April. Last week weren't we making the organic cake for Keri? No, that was this summer. And wasn't the Haunted House a couple of days ago? Nope... October. (Sigh)

This year seemed hard. We had more cakes then ever before, did more charity events then ever, and worked more hours then I ever have in my life. One week in June I worked over 70 hours!! That's a lot for cake!

I'm a perfectionist so, I tend to remember the "bad" things. The hot days when we were worried about the frosting, the "tape" incident, the "crooked top" cake. But when I look back at the pictures and the letters we've received from all the brides, I realize that we had a really good year! We continued to grow (which is great in this economy), we put out some really beautiful and fun cakes, we made a lot of people very happy (even happier when they ate the cake!), we won Best of the Knot for 2010 and even though it was hard work, we had a lot of fun!

So at the end of this year I want to thank the following people:

The Brides, Moms, Friends, coordinators... You are what we work for. We want to make you happy and we're glad that you choose us for such a special day. We hope that you come back to celebrate all the special times in your life... showers, baptisms, birthdays, anniversaries and more!

The other wedding vendors we work with... florist who make our cakes "pop" with beautiful, stunning toppers! The photographers who take the photos of our cakes and then send them on to us with little or no charge! You help us "sell" the cakes. The managers of the wedding venues and caterers. We get a lot of referrals from you. Thank you for believing in us and having such helpful staffs!

My Staff... OMG! I could not have done this without the talent, dedication and hard work from these people. Keri... you can do it all... figures, painting, piping, everything you do, turns out so cute. Travis... Mr. Precise... your fondant work is fantastic, not only that, but you are so fast, it's awesome. Tiffany...your phone call came at exactly the right time. You were a tremendous help to us this summer and I hope to have you back next year! Ashley... you brighten up this space the second you walk in, and your painting talent has pushed us to a new level. Ginger... I really couldn't have done this without you. You get stuck with the phones, the paperwork, all the organizing... and you do it so well. And to all the interns we've had in the studio this year... Emily, Kelsy, Alex, Tara, and Justin... great job.

Lastly, my husband... you criticize, you point out mistakes, you make me work harder, work better, push me to my limits... and when you say good job, I know that it's a really exceptional cake. Thank you for your emotional (and financial!) support and for the patience and love you've shown. I really could not have done this without you!

Goodbye 2009... Here's looking at you 2010!

Things guys like...

2009-12-11T14:22:00.000-05:00

We've done a bunch of groom's cakes... here's just a sample....

Kitt, from Knight Rider

Poker anyone?

Star Wars is always popular with the guys.....

As is music....

Sports and sporting themes are big for Groom's cakes....

Superheros...

And then there's the guys who love their jobs....

Greatest Hits of 2009

2009-12-09T11:09:00.009-05:00

Add Something WICKED To Your Holiday Table!!!

2009-11-19T12:46:00.003-05:00

Don't forget to order some sinful deliciousness for your Thanksgiving feast.

Orders must be in by Monday, November 23rd!

Go to http://www.eatwicked.com/menu_holiday.php for a complete list of items.

Sinfully yours,

Jen

THE KNOT Brides Recognize Sin!

2009-11-13T11:14:00.003-05:00

Congratulations! You have been chosen as a top wedding professional in The Knot Best of Weddings 2010.
What sets this honor apart from others is that it's not just your colleagues (or even The Knot) bestowing this award on your business—the recognition comes from REAL BOSTON BRIDES who were thrilled with the level of service you brought to their wedding day.

NEW THIS YEAR, instead of a separate national magazine, we are including the results in the local Boston magazine on newsstands in December.

This is really a special distinction, congratulations!

Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us!

I have had the pleasure of creating some amazing cakes this past year and look forward to working with the brides of 2010! -Jen

Sin a little this holiday...

2009-11-10T14:45:00.002-05:00

Holiday Menu on the Sin website-

http://www.eatwicked.com/menu_holiday.php

Order early & avoid the rush!

Rhode Show...

2009-10-20T12:10:00.002-04:00

Hello!
I will be appearing on our local FOX Rhode Show, tomorrow, Wednesday, October 21st @ 8am.
Tune in to see me make a delicious Chocolate Cake w/ a Spicy Pumpkin Mousse!
The recipes I will be using are below- so get ready to BAKE!!!
Sinfully, Jennifer

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

8 oz Milk (1 cup)

4.50 oz Butter (1 stick)

2.5 oz Cocoa (3/4 cup)

16 oz Brown Sugar (2 cups)

6.25 oz Sour Cream (3/4 cup)

2 Eggs

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

10 oz Flour (2 cups)

.5 tsp Salt

2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

52 Total

Instructions

1) Heat milk and butter and stir/heat until melted.

3) Sift cocoa into sugar, add cocoa mixture to milk mixture and whisk till smooth.

4) Whisk sour cream, eggs and vanilla together. Stir into milk mixture.

5) Sift flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Fold or gently mix into batter.

6) Pour into an 8" pan. Bake at 325, for approximately 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Seems to take a bit longer to bake than other cakes)

Spicy Pumpkin Mousse

Ingredients

15 oz Pumpkin -- canned

3 cup Heavy Cream

3/4 cup Sugar

1/2 tsp Pumpkin Spice

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

1.5 tsp Cinnamon, Ground

1/2 tsp Ginger, Ground

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 tsp Allspice

1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Ginger Snaps -- garnish

Instructions

1. Combine pumpkin, 1 cup cream, sugar and spices in a medium saucepan.

2. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Cool fully.

3. Whip remaining heavy cream and vanilla to soft peaks.

4. Fold into cooled pumpkin mixture.

5. Pour into a serving dish and crumble the ginger snaps over top before serving.

Best Wedding Cake ever....

2009-10-14T16:43:00.003-04:00

So sorry that I haven't posted in a while! October is surprisingly busy this year! This will be a really short post, but I promise I'll post again next week! If you want to see some more cakes check out the website, I updated it last weekend....

Here's the best wedding cake ever...

Isn't so cool... even though they couldn't get a halloween wedding date, they still wanted a halloween cake, so we did this awesome haunted house for them. We had so much fun doing it!

Summer fun cakes

2009-09-24T18:27:00.000-04:00

So here are some of the fun cakes we did this summer....

A Mardi Gras mask for a very unusual baby shower....

A golf bag with all the golfer's favorite items...

A kids railroad train set....

And for Zoobilee (way back in June! Sorry!) an iceberg with lots of fun penguins....

A car, a purse and another car...

2009-09-19T06:12:00.000-04:00

Lightening McQueen for a pretty awesome 1st birthday.

A coach purse for a shower.

And for a special birthday a 1969 Chevette Super Sport Convertible.

Summer Weddings I

2009-08-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

I know, I've been bad. I haven't been keeping up with my posting, but we've been busy! Really busy.... See....

A beautiful 4 tier red velvet cake with bailey's ganache filling and buttercream frosting. We decorated the cake with sage green teardrops in different style on each layer....

Then there was the 5 tier simple ribbon cake. The cake was alternating layers of peanut butter with chocolate ganache, and yellow cake with peanut butter filling. The bride provided the adorable cake toppers.

And this one we loved.... an adorable small cake covered in a light blue fondant with red flowers. It was topped with cute red converse sneakers and red ballet shoes. The cake was a vegan chocolate and a vegan vanilla cake....

I promise, I'll come back soon with more cakes!

Wedding Cakes II

2009-08-20T16:15:00.003-04:00

Here are a few more of the wedding cakes we've been working on this summer....

This one we call "The Mullet cake"...

Business in the Front....

Party in the Back.

The cake was half champagne cake with lemon filling and the other half was peanut butter with chocolate frosting. The front half had small simple dots and was topped with fresh flowers at the site. The back half, for the groom, had a beer tap, clysdales, red sox logo, ect. A Really Fun Cake!

This is our organic cake. We bought all organic materials from Whole Foods for the couple and used Fondarific fondant and natural food dyes.

The same weekend as our organic cake, we had another natural cake... This was a cake the bride had seen in Martha Stewart and wanted us to re-create. A rough frosting with all natural fruits as decoration. We used figs, grapes, strawberries, key limes, white peaches, pluots (I don't know either, but they were the right size) and pears. The cake was lemon cake with lemon filling.

A few weeks earlier we did an incredible painted peacock cake (Thanks Ashley!) I wish we had a better picture of it, but we're waiting on the photographer. It was stunning. The design came off the invite to the Indian wedding. The whole room was done up in bright pinks, oranges and reds... a visual feast!

Next up we'll show you some of the fun cakes we've done....

What goes into a wedding cake?

2009-08-19T17:16:00.001-04:00

I know what some of you are probably thinking... It's just cake, why does it cost so much?

Well... let us show you what goes into making a simple wedding cake. This is what we did for a recent wedding. It was a 4 tier buttercream frosted cake for 150 people with a bow and ribbon decoration.

Step 1: Mixing and Baking... Total Time 2 hours 25 minutes.

She had 2 flavors, Chocolate Bourbon with cookies and cream filling and Chocolate Chip. 1 hour 20 minutes to mix and bake the Chocolate Bourbon and then 1 hour 5 minutes to mix and bake the 2nd flavor, Chocolate Chip.

24 hours to chill and firm.

Step 2: Cutting, filling and crumb coating... Total time 45 minutes

First we cut the bourbons in half and then fill with frosting and cookie pieces. Each layer is set up with cake, filling cake, middle layer of frosting, cake filling and top layer of frosting. Then we put a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake and chill again till firm. We do this twice for the chocolate bourbon layers and then we do the chip layers, but they don't get cut in half, they're too chunky to cut.

Step 3: Final Frosting...Total time 1 hour
Next we smooth on the final coat to each layer. At this time we also add support straws for stacking. Back in the fridge to chill.

Step 4: Decorating... Total time 1 hour 30 minutes.

When the cake is firmly chilled we add the chocolate fondant ribbon to each layer and make the chocolate bows. Then each cake layer is boxed and set aside till delivery.

Step 5: Delivery and set up... Total Time... 1 hour

Delivery time will vary depending on where the event is located. This cake went to the Providence Biltmore hotel which is close by. Still we have to load the car, unload the car, take the cake up to the ballroom, unpack the cake and very carefully stack the cake layers on top of each other. Then we finish by putting the bows on.

Final Product:

Total time for this cake 6 hours and 40 minutes over the course of 3 days.

This was a fairly simple cake, there wasn't any intricate piping, no fondant covering, we didn't have to make many pieces to add to the cake, but it still took about 7 hours...

So, now our lesson for today is done... You now know what goes into making a wedding cake!

Enjoy!

Management

2009-07-25T15:54:00.002-04:00

This blog isn't only about pretty pictures, I also like to discuss running a small business, the ups and downs...

I've worked a lot of jobs... a lot of restaurant and retail while I was younger. I'd go in, do my job, and leave. If a nice sunny beach day came up... well, maybe once in a while, I'd call out to do something fun. It didn't really matter... it was just a job.

Then, during college, I worked for a restaurant that handled things differently. We had a quick staff meeting before every shift. They would have us taste the specials of the evening, introduce a new wine or cocktail, tell us how much they made the night before and what they needed to make that night. They would let us know how the budget was tracking, whether hours were too high, sales too low, etc. They would have upsell contests to raise check averages, all kinds of things to make us feel a part of the company, and I loved it. I really felt like part of the team. It made me feel important and responsible to the company. If they were slow you knew you could ask for the day off and not be hurting anyone, if you knew they were busy, you went in even if something better had come up. You tried your best to upsell drinks or add on dessert to the check. Knowing all that information made me want to do more.

So, that's how I've decided to run my business. The staff knows how much each cake sells for, how much it costs to make them and what kind of profit we make on them. They know if we're having a bad week or a good week. They hear the praises and complaints of customers. I try to make them feel like they're part of the business. I also hope that it will give them some useful background and insight if they ever decide to open their own store. (Far away and a long time from now ! ;)

Some people don't agree with this style. They believe your business should be yours, your profits or losses should be yours, staff shouldn't know how much is coming in and out. I don't know why they feel this way, but it seems like a common practice.

Personally, I like the open discussion.

Way to make an entrance....

2009-07-24T17:40:00.002-04:00

This takes about 5 minutes... but it's worth it... This couple looks like they're really going to have a fun time together.... (video)

A guy's life...

2009-07-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

So for all you guys out there, here are some fun cakes:

For the rocker:

For the golfer:

For the sandwich and beer guy:

For the Red Sox Fan:

Wedding Cakes

2009-07-07T16:36:00.000-04:00

Here's a few of the wedding cakes we've done in May and June:

"Simply FAB-ulous"

Blue and Green Petal Cake

Galaxy Wedding Cake... a very interesting cake. We airbrushed buttercream for the cool galaxy effect. I would have liked to see the bottom tier more galaxy with possibly the earth or the moon peeking out of the bottom.

We did a similar cake in buttercream a few years ago. Very simple and clean.

A cute 2 tier mini wedding cake with light pink buttercream, chocolate fondant ribbon and chocolate fondant ball.

Light blue fondant with flowers and vine piping.

Gold painted piping gives this a very elegant look.

Down the rabbit hole....

2009-07-01T16:30:00.000-04:00

I am so late with this post! One of our brides, Samantha, wanted a really original wedding cake. It was one of the only things she really wanted, unique and different. She wanted an Alice in Wonderland Cake. Not just the Tilty, Mad Hatter feel of a cake, she wanted actual Alice in Wonderland. So.... She got this...

It's a bit hard to tell exactly what's going on from the photo, we weren't able to get a really good one, but the bottom has the card soldiers, the Cheshire Cat is the 2nd layer, the Mad Hatter's hat is the 3rd and the teapot is the top layer. There was a door mouse on one corner and the half painted roses on another.

She loved it, she said that she thought more people were taking pictures of the cake than of her! (I doubt it, she was a beautiful bride!)

The reception was at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Providence. They have the most helpful staff there, we love going to that venue!

Thank you Sam, it's been the most unusual and most fun wedding cake we've done!

Update: Samantha sent us another picture showing some more of the details....

You can see the painted roses, the watch and the mouse...

Off The Wall

2009-06-30T16:08:00.000-04:00

A Michael Jackson Cake for Kristen....

This was done last month. We're all fans of MJ here, his music gets us working. I had hoped that he'd return to his music glory days, unfortunately that isn't to be....

A Wall... (ok a house, but a wall goes better with the title) for Jason's wedding.

And in case the roof is on fire.... a fire truck!

I thought I was busy, take 2...

2009-06-30T15:43:00.004-04:00

Last week was crazy! That's why there haven't been any posts in a while... coming up are some really good cakes, I promise! I worked a 13, then a 14, then a 15 hour day... whew! We had a bunch of weddings then Zoobalee at the Roger Williams Park Zoo on Saturday. We made 20 sheet cakes for the event and ended up only going thru 5 of them. We had to recruit people to take home full sheet cakes! When told to make food for 2000... only make half that! But even though it cost us a lot in labor and supplies, it was tons of fun and for a good cause. Here are the display cakes we took with us... people really seemed to like them.

I thought I was busy before...

2009-06-11T20:22:00.002-04:00

It's Thursday... and there's still so much left to do. We have 17 cake orders this week, for us, that's a lot! There's Sarah, Tiffany and I baking Monday and Tuesday (and some Wed.), then Tiffany, Me and Keri to cut, crumb fill and frost Wednesday and Thursday. Then Keri, Tiffany, myself and Ashley to decorate on Friday... we have 14 cakes to decorate tomorrow! I'm betting we'll be decorating Sundays cakes on Saturday between tastings and deliveries.

Wow! I'm happy, scared, a lot stress, happy again, and slightly overwhelmed! If this keeps up we'll be hiring, but I don't want to count my cakes before their baked, I'm going to see what happens next month when the wedding side calms down a bit. If we're still getting as many last minute orders as we currently are, then another baker will be added!

Ok... it's 8:30 pm... time to go home and have some dinner. Back in 12!

Jen.

Brides.com

2009-06-05T18:29:00.002-04:00

Brides.com contacted us a few weeks ago asking if we had any beach themed wedding cakes that could be included in their summer wedding cakes feature. Luckily Emily had made a beautiful sunset, beach themed cake, "The Embrace". We sent them the picture and they featured it on their site! Thanks, we are honored to be part of Brides.com.

Hey Kids...

2009-05-11T16:43:00.004-04:00

We had a bunch of kid themed cakes.... Keri (of course!) did both.... First, an an oldie but a goodie... The Cat in the Hat...

Don't you just love Thing 1 and Thing 2?

And here's a front view of Mr. Cat, himself....

Then, I guess an even older one... Hey Diddle Diddle... you know... the cat and the fiddle? The cow jumped over the moon, the little dog laughed and the dish ran away with the spoon?

These are flat sugar paste pieces that Keri painted (except the dog... he's 3-d)

AT-AT your service

2009-05-11T16:21:00.005-04:00

The AT-AT has arrived!

If you're a Star Wars Fan you'll know what it is, the Emperial Transport Carrier from Empire Strikes Back.

It's a Groom's Cake for our friend Jason. We called in a bunch of Jason's RISD alumni friends to come and decorate it. The head and body is cake, the legs and bottom support is wooden and covered in sugar paste. I baked and covered and left the details to the guys... and they went to town!

Look at the details... side and under mounted guns, small painted and shaded details and precision shaped pieces. If it didn't take them 60 hours, I might consider hiring them!

Just joking, it was a labor of love for them and they had an incredible time doing it.

Just look at the details on the legs!

One of the guys even painted a back drop for it.

Here's the AT-AT without it's skin....

And here's a picture of the painting process...

Update.... Catch the At-At at the following sites... it's become an internet sensation....

Great White Snark , The official Star Wars Blog , Haloonthefloor

I'd also like to thank the following people for their incredible help with this.... (actually they did most of the work, I helped! )

Phil Karl, Dave Dimatteo, Joe McKendry, Cutter Hutton, Coryndon Luxmoore, Elliot Clapp and the groom Jason Brockert.

Busy, Busy Week

2009-05-05T09:24:00.001-04:00

This week we have a lot of cakes! So much so, that we've hired 2 people for the summer (and maybe longer) a baker, Sarah, and a decorator, Ashley. Coming up is the House cake for a friend of mine's wedding along with his incredible Groom's cake! I can't tell you what it is in case he reads this, but I'll post the picture as soon as I can next week.

We also have a fire engine, and the much planned Alice in Wonderland Cake.... this one should be cool! So check back next week for pictures!

Catching up.

2009-04-23T19:06:00.004-04:00

There was a period were we were really busy and I didn't get to post a few of the cakes we did. We had a lot of fun with them, so even though they're old, I thought I share anyway...

A dressed up bunny peep for an auction.

A dress cake for a bridal shower I went to... I like the concept, but I think the execution needed some work... I think it needed to be taller and I think we should have really made the waist smaller and tighter, giving the skirt more "poof". I dress looks a bit short and squat in my opinion. But the bride and her friends loved it...

A musical cake for a guitar playing girl...

An 80th tilty birthday cake decorated with jelly beans, the birthday girl's favorite candy.

And skateboard cake.

What's been happening?

2009-04-23T18:52:00.004-04:00

A lot! We've been busy with so many different cakes over the past two weeks (sorry for no post last week!) Here's a couple....

A mini airplane for a flight attendant.

A spooky hand cake for a birthday party held at Monster mini-golf

in Seekonk MA. A really cool place! All black lights with a mini golf course and games... Fun!

Then there was the Martini glass for a girls night out birthday party.

And the Mermaid Cake....

And our favorite of the bunch "The Frog Prince"

May will be our busiest month yet. We're hiring... a decorator and possibly a baker because we haven't gotten any intern applications for Summer yet. We have a ton of groom's cakes, wedding cakes and a big event "The Encore Awards" in May. Plus we're re-organizing the studio, adding a 2nd fridge, more decorator tables and a better tasting area. So... stop back soon and see how we're doing!

Amy's Baby Shower

2009-04-03T14:17:00.005-04:00

Amy, a good friend of mine, who is also giving me a hand at the bakery as my office manager, is having a baby! We had her shower last week, and I have to say, I did a pretty good job!

No, not because we were extremely busy, but because I don't usually accessorize well. Cakes I have down, no problem, I can add all kinds of cute details to the cake. But the rest of life... no way. I rarely wear a belt, earrings, etc.

I wanted to do an all out baby shower... cute evite , matching cake and cookies, color coordinated plates and napkins... the works... where everything coordinated and matched.

My friend, Laura sent me lot of ideas, and then I went shopping. The theme was birds, and the colors green and pink. I bought little bird houses and spray painted them, had feather birds attached to the houses and to some "branches", made the cookie favors in the shapes of the bird from the invite and placed them on a bed of feathers, I had bird cut outs that the guests wrote well wishes on and tied to the branches and I did the cake with the same bird theme. I also had a game... I took the letters from Amy and her husbands names and had the guests write out as many baby names as possible. The winner got a prize (Sin Chocolates!)

And although I'm no hostess with the mostess , I think I did pretty good! It was at 1 pm on a sunday and I served 3 types of quiche, fruit salad, tomato/basil/mozzerella salad, some prosciutto, cheese, lemonade with mint and spike-it-yourself mojito's.

Everything turned out good! Take a look....

Angry Brides...

2009-03-26T09:00:00.004-04:00

or customers.

It's almost the start of wedding season for us. We've had a couple of weddings, but the real busy season hasn't hit yet. I'm looking forward to it, making the weddings is one of the best things we do, each one is different and we know that the cake is for some ones special day! But, inevitably, there is almost always one cake/event per year that doesn't go as planned. Why, well, there's many reasons...

First, let me say, that we try our best. I don't know anyone that is out to screw the customer, especially vendors in the wedding business. Wedding vendors enjoy being part of some ones special day. We like bringing our brand of happiness to their wedding day and we realize how important that day is. We do not want to be the one's responsible for something not going right for someones wedding. In fact, when it does, we're very upset about it. We take it personally. We don't shrug it off and say, oops. We agonize over it for days, and we're upset at ourselves and the situation. That's why we really try to limit any area where problems can occur, we have check lists, contracts, notes... But, sometimes things happen.

As I said before there are a few reasons why something might go wrong. We've screwed up, or something happened beyond our control. Let's take the last one first...

Beyond our control... rain, car accident, flat tire etc. These are types of elements that we can not foresee and, honestly, there's not much we can do about it. If we're in a car accident while delivering your cake or flowers, you probably won't have cake or flowers, and we can't control the weather, if you choose buttercream or extremely delicate flower on a 95 degree July day for an outdoor wedding, there might be problems. As wedding professions we try to avoid these problems and steer you towards a solution where these situations don't present themselves. Listen to us, we've been there and we know what we're talking about.

We've screwed up.... Yes it happens. I'm a very small business and yet I'm meeting with at least 8 brides a week and talking to another dozen via phone or e-mail. Then on the day of your wedding, I'm probably dealing with 3-4 other events as well. We are aware that we're juggling a many thing and have systems in place so that nothing goes wrong. Yet, there are going to be the rare occurrences where something slips through the cracks. We misread a contract, our notes aren't complete, someone on our staff misses an element on the design, or we make a judgement call... Things happen. I can tell you that when something does go wrong, it's unlikely to ever happen again, though that is little relief for the bride.

The hardest one of those is the judgement call. When we (the vendors) make a call about something we deem small, a non-issue. Substituting one small white flower for another in a bouquet, making a cake easier to disassemble because we know it's a home wedding, shooting a photo in black and white instead of color... We make these calls based on our experience, based on questions and experiences we've had with other brides and based on the current circumstances. 9 out of 10 times these judgement calls are correct, we're making the right decision based on the situation, and no one has any problems with it. It's the 10th time, though, when for some reason, this small detail is a big issue for the client. These are the hardest to deal with. Feelings run high with weddings!

What's the solution? First everyone take a deep breath. Don't rush into something, give yourself some time for perspective. Don't make a phone call or send an e-mail you're going to regret. When confronted with an angry or upsetting situation I write the e-mail, but then I let it sit overnight and re-read it the next day when my feelings have calmed down. I then do a lot of editing and then hit send. And e-mail... it can be great because it has no feelings in it like a voice does. But that can also be the problem, you read it one way, the recipient reads it another.

Vendors.... The best thing to do, if we've screwed up in some way and we know it, is to admit it. Apologize, explain what happened and offer some sort of restitution. I think most people will accept a sincere apology. There's really not much more we can do.

Customers.... make sure your estimate/invoice lists exactly what you want. Are the colors specified, is the type of frosting, filling, decoration listed out to your satisfaction. Remember wedding vendors meet with you months before your wedding and see many more brides after they've met with you. They will not remember everything that you talked about. It's better to be a pest and have them edit the contract so it says exactly what you want, then to leave it and rely on their memory. It will also help us if you insist on every detail being in the contract. That way when your wedding come up and we look at the paperwork there's no room for error.

If something does happen and what you received is not what you expected... be calm. It's unlikely that the vendor did it on purpose. Ask what the problem was and tell us what type of response you expect... a gift certificate for another cake, money back, a full refund... It helps us know what to do, and also allows us to judge how upset you are. If you're asking for a replacement bouquet or cake down the road, you like our work, but weren't please with this time. If you want money back, we know you're upset and want some form of restitution. If you're asking for a full refund.... you're really mad. It's unlikely that you'll get a full refund, most places have to cover at least the cost of the product, but we'll probably offer you something significant back.

Hopefully this will help everyone involved.... Here's to a great, problem free wedding season! I'll report back in October and let you know how we did!

Who did what....

2009-03-21T16:35:00.003-04:00

Elijah had his 2nd birthday with Dump Trucks. Keri did the sides with oreo dirt and on the other side is cute building site.

Then John was turning 3 and wanted Curious George to join him...

Bryan, who's a member of the Informals band, had his confirmation...

Then Lexie turned 21 (she's a RISD student)

And finally Nicole got married....

Projo

2009-03-10T18:48:00.002-04:00

I had a big write up in the paper on Sunday, and they even did a Providence Journal Video piece on me... my makeup is horrible! I look so bad, but I didn't know they would be shooting video... what can you do...

Peep Show

2009-03-10T18:13:00.007-04:00

Easter is coming and we're ready! We're taking our cue from the much loved peep marshmallow treats! This year we're offering mini peep cakes...

These single serving guys are available in yellow, old fashioned chocolate, lemon and silver pound cake for $7. Also available in a sheet cake size to serve about 20 for $50.

Next is our take on the traditional chocolate bunny...

These small 4" tall bunnies are solid chocolate... available in white, pink, blue and traditional dark chocolate for $4.

And of course... cookies.... Peep bunny cookies are $2.30 and the traditional Easter Eggs are $3.

If you're interested, give us a call and place your orders by Wednesday April 8th!

Interns

2009-02-25T15:08:00.004-05:00

Interns have helped me out a lot, actually most of my staff is composed of former interns. They work hard, don't get any money and are an incredible asset. Unlike a lot of places, the interns actually do cake baking and decorating. They also do mopping, washing and take out the garbage, but they really get their hands on experience with decorating. Almost from day one they are frosting and doing simple birthday cakes and very quickly move up to wedding cakes and carved cakes. The interns that I've had, have been extremely creative, I feel very lucky.

Keri, my assistant that I lean on for so much of the design elements, is phenomenal with figurines and piping. Travis, who still works here on and off (a lot more on during the summer) can frost a cake as smooth as can be and his fondant work is just as smooth. And Emily... Emily is my current intern, her last day is this Friday and she will be missed. (although I'm hoping to snag her for some summer gigs!) She was responsible for the Sunset cake for her final project (I posted a few blogs ago). I asked for a beach themed cake and was expecting some sort of cake with shells on it. Instead she delivered a beautiful cake that invokes the sea shore, love, relaxation, weddings on the beach... really unique and innovative. I owe a debt of gratitude and a big thanks to the above people and my other former interns, Tiffany and Jess, as well.

Alisha will be joining us in a few weeks and she has some pretty big shoes to fill.

Ocean Cliff Wedding Show

2009-02-25T14:19:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday Keri and I went to the Ocean Cliff wedding show. Wow, this one was so much better for us than last time. We were able to go down and set up the day before, allowing us to get there a bit later on Saturday, so we weren't as tired. We took Keri's French cake and her Blue Sea Shell cake and Emily's Sunset cake. We decided to go with really different, unique cakes to showcase, and I'm glad we did.

The show started off slow because it actually started at Rose Cliff, then people were bussed over to Ocean Cliff afterwards. Around 1:30 it really started to pick up, we were swamped. We passed out all of our cards and gave away every cupcake (a bit of a cupcake problem occured, but we'll discuss later). We could have used about 2 dozen more cards, but we were right on for the cupcakes. We booked 6 tastings from the show and had 4 pages of sign up sheets!

Clean up was a breeze we were out of there in 15 minutes.

There were a few problems, but nothing major... our red velvet cupcakes were dry. We didn't refrigerated the cupcakes this time because (my theory, not proven) is that the wrappers pull away from the mini cupcakes due to the moisture in the fridge, and we didn't want this to happen. So we left them out... the chocolate bourbon and the chocolate chip cupcakes were fine, but the red velvet cupcakes had all the moisture sucked out of them by the cardboard box. The bottom of the box was dark grey with oil. I've never seen anything like it before. Obviously, refrigerating them keeps them moist and holds in the oil/butter. You learn something new every time!

The other problem (ok, not a problem but an annoyance) was the other cake vendor. You know how you have a big sister who was there first, who all your teachers already know, who has a good reputation? You admire her for paving the way for you, you like her, but you also kind of don't like her... You are struggling for your place in this world and are fighting to not be overshadowed by her good name and reputation. You're finally confident in what you do, and she shows up and you start to doubt yourselves again? That's my relationship with another local cake company.

They are good, they are well known, many of my friends had their wedding cakes made by this company (before I was around, of course) and the owner even talked to me personally when I was contemplating going into the business. I have high regards for them, and will refer people to them, when I can't do the cake. But still, I'm trying to make my way in the business and every where I turn, there they are.

When we showed up on Friday to set up, we didn't see a table for any other cake vendor and we were syched! The area is set up so as you walked in the door there is a smaller round room that leads to the main room. When we arrived on Saturday the first thing we were greeted with was the other cake vendors cake dummies... a lot of them. They had that whole front room! They had the same 6' table we had, then a large middle table under the chandelier with 3 or 4 cakes on it and a photo book, then they had 3 or 4 other cakes on the piano. People were walking in and sampling their cakes right away! UGhhh!!!! There wasn't anything we could do and their cake dummies were more traditional than ours, so it was good we decided to go with the unique cakes, but it was frustrating! Oh well, I'm going to run into them time and time again, I just have to get used to it!

I'll post pictures later... until then, eat some cake!

Boxes, I Heart Providence and Cakes

2009-02-12T11:58:00.003-05:00

First, the cakes.... Massie's M&M birthday cake.... (Keri did the M&M guys)

Then Charolette's 100th Birthday Present Cake ...

Tuesday night we were part of the I Heart Providence Event.. here's our table....

The event was ok, we met a lot of people and got our name out there, which is really important when you're first starting out. People loved the samples of red velvet, chocolate bourbon and 2 of our truffles, the coffee caramel, and the raspberry chocolate truffle. Many came back for 2nds and 3rds... but we didn't sell a lot. We had our 4 pack of truffles, some of the heart cookies and 6 packs of cupcakes. We were told that there might be 400 people, so we really baked a lot... 60 cookies, 18 packs of cupcakes and 60 boxes of truffles. I think we sold 1 pack of cupcakes, 8 0r so cookies and about 9 boxes of truffles... I wanted to sell more because 10% of the proceeds were going to the Genesis Center. We'll bump up our donation a little.

And here are our boxes... aren't they cute? This is our wedding truffle box which hold 2. You can use them as place seating holders too.... They reverse to red...

And these are the devil tail box which holds 4-5 truffles depending on the size of the candy.
Devilishly cute.

Lots of Cakes

2009-02-07T14:08:00.006-05:00

Even though it was a slow week for the business we kept busy...

Here are the cookies we're working on for Valentines. These will be available at the I Heart Providence Event on Tuesday as well as for purchase from us during the week.

Here's (finally) a picture of Keri's Oh La La cake

Our intern Emily had her final project due and she did a new type of "Seaside" Cake. I think we'll call this "The Embrace"

Keri did another version of a seaside cake that used sugar paste shells, giving the cake a nice clean crisp look while still giving you the feel of the ocean.

And this is the birthday cake we did for Alexia.

Valentine's Day Menu....

2009-02-03T17:03:00.003-05:00

So I've gotten the Valentine's menu out to most of my customers. Why do I always feel like I'm under the gun! I'll post it here as well if any of you are interested give me a call. Oh... and my good friend Mike Ritz wanted me to mention that many of the following truffles will be available at the I (Heart) Providence event next Tuesday at the State House. You can get more information here....

We are previewing our 7 Deadly Sins and our 7 Heavenly Virtue Truffles line with 4 delicious truffles...

Gluttony - Caramel with Sea Salt

Wrath - Three Pepper Caramel

Diligence - RI Coffee Milk Truffle

Humility - Chocolate Raspberry

A box of 4 (1 of each) in our signature Red Devil Tail gift box is $9.

A large 5" heart shaped, iced and decorated cookie is $4

A 6 pack of cupcakes decorated in pink and white with hearts is $12 and available in the following flavors (1-3 flavors per box) Red Velvet, Chocolate Bourbon, Yellow, Spice, Chocolate Chip and Princess (a pink cake with cherries and almond flavor)

Call or e-mail orders by Thursday 2/12. Pick up available 2/9-2/14.

2009-01-31T17:18:00.002-05:00

A bride of mine, mentioned me on her site... Limoncellostyle... it's "an event preparation company offering custom invitation suites, custom cards and DIY rescue for social events." She does a fantastic job, check out her site and her blog.

Questions...

2009-01-28T15:32:00.002-05:00

Do I watch the cake tv shows? Yes, of course... love them!

Do I watch the theme cake decorating contests? Yes, was actually scouted by a Food Network cake scout, so who knows what might happen!!!

Do I want to throw up when someone make a figure sized between a brick and a bread box out of modeling fondant, airbrushes it and calls it edible? Um... sort of. Technically it is edible, and I think it's cool that things can be made out of this sugar! But yeah, no one really eats (or would want to) eat it. For the most part, I think the majority of the cake, should be cake, I don't mind a few decoration pieces, but at least 75-80% of what is standing there, should be edible.

Pulling the Trigger

2009-01-27T18:13:00.002-05:00

Ugh... I did it. I just spent an exorbitant amount of money on boxes.

Yes, boxes.

I've always wanted to have a signature line of Sin truffles... the 7 deadly sins and the 7 heavenly virtues. So I've pulled the trigger on some small truffle wedding boxes (holds 2) and some medium devil tail boxes that will hold 4 truffles. I know.. not 7, but I don't think I can get 7 separate truffles ready in time! We have a big event for a group called Connect Providence on February 10th. So, I'm going to start slow, build up the line, introduce a few now around Valentines day and go from there.

I'll post some pictures when I get the boxes!

I hate spending money, but I'm excited about the prospect the truffle line!

Slow, Slow, Slow....

2009-01-23T16:28:00.004-05:00

So, it's January. Not a really big month for weddings. We had a couple of weddings on New Years, but that's it, the next wedding is March 14th. We have a few smaller parties and birthdays booked and we always get a few extra orders every week, but it's a lot slower than the summer.

We're filling the time making cake dummies for an upcoming wedding show and making pieces in advance for other cakes. I'm working on duplicating a Vera Wang dress, Keri is making a sophisticated shell cake and our intern Emily is working on really cut beachy cake with a couple standing in the sunset. Then we're going to start getting pieces ready for a Alice in Wonderland theme cake, a Star Wars cake, a house shaped cake and a few others. We'll post some pictures when we're done.

We do have lots of tastings though. We are booked completely for the next 3 Saturdays. Tastings on the hour from 10 till 3 every Saturday! You never know what to expect at tastings. Some brides know exactly what they want, bring in pictures and want that cake to the letter. Other's bring in a few photos and you piece-meal a cake together from their favorite items. Others have no idea. They're the hardest. Sometimes you sketch out a few ideas and one will catch with them then you can expand on it and narrow the sketch down to fit them. Other times you sketch out tons of ideas and because they don't really have a clear vision of what they want, they can't choose any of them. It's frustrating for everyone and I always feel bad when we have that kind of tasting. So we'll see what tomorrow brings! It's always fun though, I like being part of such an important and meaningful event. I like that I can bring a bit more happiness to an incredible day in their lives!

Hostess with the Mostess

2009-01-16T11:26:00.006-05:00

Thursday night my friend Laura and I went to Boston (in the freezing cold) to see Jen and Jen from Hostess with the Mostess website.

There were some great cocktails from Chamboard, I had the French Martini... 1.5 oz of Vodka, .25 oz of Chambord and 2 oz of Pineapple juice! It was yummy. Laura had the Kir Royal, .25 oz of Chambord finished off with champagne. The hotel, Nine Zero, passed some delicious appetizers... scallops in bacon, mini cheeseburgers, lobster salad on brioche... all in a beautifully decorated room. After some drinks and some food the fun was to begin.

Jen got up in front of the crowd and gave some great pointers on how to decorate chic and modern on a budget. Some examples she gave were to use paper from a scrapbooking store as placemats... they come in a variety of colors and designs and coordinate with each other. She then used the same paper to wrap a plain glass vase with, cut out the designs and made napkin rings and put rub on transfers on plates to finish off the look. It was all so easy, yet I would have never thought of it! She also suggested splurging on one big floral arrangement and then using floral pieces in large tall cylinders filled with water and rocks.

Then Chambord did a cocktail presentation showing us how to make the drinks that were available. When they asked for a volunteer to come up as to try the "Boston Creme Pie" drink, my hand shot up! I went up and I think I made the presenter nervous when I mentioned that I was a pastry chef. He rimmed the glass with graham cracker crumbs then mixed up 1 oz of chambord, 1 oz vodka, 1 oz cream and .5 oz sweet and sour and shook well. It was good, though it was more of a raspberry cheesecake, then a raspberry boston creme pie. (Personally, I would switch out the vodka for vanilla vodka!)

We had a lot of fun and I look forward to using their ideas in some upcoming parties!

Blogged by SNAP!

2009-01-16T10:19:00.004-05:00

The photo girls from Snap, Trish and Mariah, dropped by the other day and did a nice little piece on Sin! Check it out here.... Snap blog. Their photography is great! Check out their website too.... Snap!

La Bella Bride Wedding Show

2009-01-12T09:55:00.006-05:00

Yesterday Keri, my assistant, and I did our first bridal show at the Hotel Viking in Newport. It was sponsored by LaBella Bride Magazine. And of course it was snowy, icy and crappy out! Just our luck. It's hard to tell if it was a good show or not, due to the weather, it was slow, but would it still have been slow if the weather was good... don't know. We got about 30 bridal leads (less than I was hoping for) and many of them were for 2010 weddings. We'll contact the brides this week and set up tastings for them. If we're lucky we'll sign about half. We have another show in February, again in Newport, at Ocean Cliff. Hopefully the weather is better!

Not knowing what it was going to be like, we decided to go simple. We had 2 cake dummies, sign up sheets, cards, and 3 types of samples. We did mini cupcakes for the samples so we wouldn't have to slice sheet cakes. And we choose our favorites... red velvet, chocolate bourbon and chocolate chip. Maybe we should have done a white or a carrot cake, but people seemed to like the cupcakes, so I think we were all right.

There were 2 other cake vendors there... Victoria from Toria Dolce in CT, and Scrumptions from East Greenwich. I spoke with Victoria, she's a great person, but didn't talk to Scrumptions, nor did I get to sample anyone else's treats.

Everyone loved Keri's French Chic wedding cake dummy! I'll post pictures later, when I figure out how to do that!

Coming up this week is the Channel 10 NBC wedding on Friday and a small wedding on Saturday, both are getting the glitter cake (these will be the 3rd and 4th glitter cakes in the last 3 weeks... a very popular option for a winter wedding!). We're also concentrating on coming up with some Valentine options and are trying to do a very fancy cake dummy for the next show... I don't know if it will work, we'll keep you updated. Also I'm attending the Hostess with the Mostess show on Thursday in Boston.

Until then... Sin a little!

Welcome!!

2009-01-10T15:34:00.002-05:00

Hi!

This is the first post in my blog. I hope to keep it updated at least once a week. I'll be adding pictures of cakes that we've made, stories from the bakery and information on what I go thru running a small company. Maybe even a few recipes!

I hope you enjoy the show...

My Life of Sin

Recent Cakes....

Edible Rhody

Sweetest Couture

We won, again!

Vacation and stuff.

Cookie Video

Holiday Cakes & a CHITTY CHITTY CHIVA

Ali won!

Groupon!!!

a turkey & all the trimmings....

Zombie...Death...& a Dog...Oh MY!

The Cutest Death Machine Ever...

An Army of Mini Cake Towers

Fabulous FREE Facebook Fridays!!!

Ready for FABULOUS FREE FACEBOOK FRIDAY???

Giving you all 24 hours to respond this week-

3 winners will be chosen at random from all entries received by 2 pm tomorrow.Share with us your favorite cake memory for (wait for it...)a chance to win one of THREE cupcake 6 packs!Flavors are Yellow, Lemon or Old Fashioned Chocolate.

The Making of a TIFFANY Box

Fabulous FREE Facebook Fridays!!!

Every Friday on our Facebook page, we will announce a FREE give-away from Sin!It may be cupcakes, a cake, tartlets, brownies or some other delicious delicacy to fill your belly!

Go to our page- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Providence-RI/Sin/156789608229

"Friend" us, encourage friends to "friend" us and share in the joys of Sinning.

GINGER takes over!

Pro Jo Piece

City Bride Cake off...

Whew!

Motorcycles, card reading and Wonder Woman....

Flying Monkeys...

Other Stuff...

This week at the studio....

Other cakes at the Boston Flower show...

Easter flowers and Bunny

Friends you know...

Police and Circus.

What we've been up to....

Very overdue....

Staff Favorites: Ginger

Staff Favorites: Keri

Staff Favorites: Jen

I heart Providence

Elephant II

I heart Providence

Drop in and Decorate

VOTE FOR US!

Is it October?

Twilight Kiss

Hello Daisy!

Grace Ormond Show

New Year Resolutions for 2010

Newport Wedding show

End of 2009!!

Things guys like...

Greatest Hits of 2009

Add Something WICKED To Your Holiday Table!!!

THE KNOT Brides Recognize Sin!

Sin a little this holiday...

Rhode Show...

Best Wedding Cake ever....

Summer fun cakes

A car, a purse and another car...

Summer Weddings I

Wedding Cakes II

What goes into a wedding cake?

Management

Way to make an entrance....

A guy's life...

Wedding Cakes

Down the rabbit hole....

Off The Wall

I thought I was busy, take 2...

I thought I was busy before...

Brides.com

Hey Kids...

AT-AT your service

Busy, Busy Week

Catching up.

What's been happening?

Amy's Baby Shower

Angry Brides...

3 winners will be chosen at random from all entries received by 2 pm tomorrow.

Share with us your favorite cake memory for (wait for it...)

a chance to win one of THREE cupcake 6 packs!
Flavors are Yellow, Lemon or Old Fashioned Chocolate.

Every Friday on our Facebook page, we will announce a FREE give-away from Sin!
It may be cupcakes, a cake, tartlets, brownies or some other delicious delicacy to fill your belly!