Summer Weddings I

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

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?

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

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....

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...

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

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.