Romantic Wedding Cake with Rustic Buttercream Flowers

02 Saturday Jul 2016

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buttercream flowers, cupcake bouquet, double chocolate cake, rustic wedding cake, vanilla-bean frosting, White velvet cake

It really was an honor to make this wedding cake for such a sweet couple…I’ve been lucky as I haven’t had any “bridezillas” to work with as wedding clients yet!

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Since buttercream flowers aren’t my forte, I was happy when the bride told me initially that she was going to use fresh flowers.

However, after I made her bridal shower cupcake bouquets, she called to ask if I’d do the flowers on her wedding cake as she hadn’t had any luck finding the flowers she wanted. I agreed, hoping the wedding day wouldn’t be too hot for my buttercream flowers to hold their shape. Now the pressure was REALLY on!

As luck would have it, the wedding day was the hottest and most humid in a streak of nice, cool and low-humidity days. But, luckily, the flowers (and cake) held their shape and we got it delivered without mishap!

This was a 4-tiered cake with alternating square and round cakes (12″ square, 9″ round, 6″ square, and 4″ round anniversary cake for the top). The flavors were alternating double-chocolate and white velvet layers, filled with vanilla bean buttercream.

The flowers were more “rustic” than “realistic,” but that’s just my style. I made them in advance and had them in the freezer until I was ready to decorate. I also made some of the leaves in advance so they’d be “puffy” and easier to place where I wanted them than those piped on. I got this idea (and some of the flower designs) from this great tutorial by Cake Style.

In the end, I was really happy with the way the cake turned out. Rustic, but with a bit of traditional sophistication. I also had one of the guests message me to say it was “the best tasting wedding cake she’d ever had…” What more could I ask for a happy ending?

Congrats again to you, David and Stacey! It was such a joy to work with you on your special day …Here’s to your happily-ever-after!

Batman Superhero Birthday Cake!

08 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by Laurie in Cakes

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Batman cake, homemade marshmallow fondant, superhero cake, vanilla-bean frosting, White chocolate raspberry mouse filling, White velvet cake

I got an email from a mom looking for a fitting birthday cake for her SUPERHERO son who was turning 5. She had in mind what she wanted…a 2-tiered Batman cake with the city scape around the bottom tier and the Batman iconic belt and logo around the top tier.

The cake has an 8″ bottom tier and 6″ top tier of white velvet cake and white chocolate raspberry mousse filling, iced with vanilla-bean buttercream tinted blue. The details are made from homemade marshmallow fondant.

I hand-cut the buildings, belt and logo from black and yellow fondant; the letters are cut using Wilton small letter cutters. I also had some little cute punch star cutters I used for the white stars.

The big “5” is cut with a larger cookie cutter from yellow fondant. I laid it on top of the black fondant and hand-cut around it to give a 3-D look. Then I used piping gel to *glue* them together with a wire between to stick into the top of the cake.

I did something similar with the name letters by cutting black ones and flattening them a bit with a fondant smoother to make them slightly larger than the yellow letters, then glued them together with piping gel.

I made all of the fondant pieces a few days ahead of time to allow them to dry and stiffen up a bit (except the belt, which needed to be able to bend around the side of the cake). After doing the final icing, I used a little bit of buttercream to stick the fondant panels, letters and logo to the side of the cake.

This sure was a fun cake to make….hope you had a SUPER birthday, Blake!!

Tiered Rosette Wedding Cake

13 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by Laurie in Cakes

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double chocolate cake, rosette wedding cake, salted caramel filling, tiered cake, vanilla-bean frosting, White velvet cake

A lovely bride-to-be came to me last spring to order a cake for her summer wedding. She wanted the cake to reflect her beautifully designed wedding dress with a skirt of soft, rosette shaped ruffles.

After discussing a fondant rosette cake, she decided on a 3-tiered cake covered with buttercream rosettes (she also needed 2 half-sheet cutting cakes to provide enough servings for her guests).

The main cake is 3-tiered (12-9-6″). The top and bottom tiers have 3-layers each and the middle 9″-tier has 4-layers, just to add some interest in height. Each tier has alternating double-chocolate and white velvet cakes and salted caramel cream filling. The icing is an ivory vanilla-bean buttercream.

After a crumb coat of silky buttercream, I added the rosettes with a Wilton 1M tip. The icing was a mix of sweeter, stiffer American buttercream and less-sweet, silky Swiss meringue buttercream…I decided this was the perfect combo to give the icing the creaminess and stability I wanted for the rosettes to be nice and smooth AND to hold their shape in the July heat.

Although the cake isn’t all that big (12″ base cake and about 17″ tall), it got surprisingly HEAVY very quickly with all of that buttercream! Once it was finished, it was all I could do to move it into my fridge!

The cutting cakes were 2-layers each, same flavors as the main cake. I added a rosette border around the top to mirror the theme and did a rough ice on the sides for a rustic look.

The monogram topper was added at the venue.

Notice the awesome meatball cake pops in the foreground! This was a surprise for the groom, who LOVES meatballs :0)!

Congratulations, Erica and Chris! It was a pleasure to be part of your special day!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

16 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by Laurie in Cupcakes

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custom packaging, Personalized packaging, White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake, white chocolate raspberry mousse filling, White chocolate swiss meringue frosting, White velvet cake

There’s nothing quite as sweet for your Sweetheart as a beautiful, velvety vanilla cupcake filled with luscious white chocolate raspberry mousse and topped with creamy white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream! Add a dainty fondant heart and some sprinkles for the perfect way to say “I love you,” and not just on Valentine’s Day. Think birthday, bridal shower, wedding…any time you want a special sweet surprise! And did I mention that white chocolate raspberry is my new favorite flavor combination…But aren’t they ALL “my new favorite”?

Happy Valentine’s Day!