Cake in the disguise of a Snapper

Since the last post was a pig shaped cake, I wanted to share this other carved cake I had a blast making. It is not a birthday cake... but this was for one of my closest friend's wedding. People often refer to the wedding cake as the bride's cake so a groom can get his own cake usually during the wedding or at the rehearsal dinner. These cakes are usually a novelty cake, something fun that represents the groom. Our groom, Alex, does not eat fish. He does however have steak as often as three times a week. The initial thought for the groom's cake was a cake shaped as a piece of steak (think Peter Luger's with a chunk of bone in the middle). But a piece of brown meat didn't seem as interesting to make. During the bachlorette party one of our friend's recommended I do a fish! It was brilliant. A little sick in terms that Alex hates any seafood but if I had filled the cake with oreos, Alex's favorite cookies, all would be forgiven. I chose to replicate a red snapper because I didn't want to do any old boring silver fish. Thus three layers of red velvet cake was filled with oreo buttercream then carved and got a final coat of chocolate ganache because I really like to use ganache during the summer time for its sturdiness. After covering the cake with white fondant I made impressions of the scale using a round cutter. Then I painted on pearl iridescent powder mixed with lemon extract and highlighted the top and bottom of the flat laying fish with pinkish pearl coloring. After explaining to the dinner guests at the rehearsal dinner on why I chose to do a fish cake for the groom, everyone had a good laugh. So for those who plan to create a cake that is fun and meaningful for that special person, take some time and think about an occasion for a memorable event that reminds you of them. Then I am sure you will come up with a great idea for a cake that is meaningful yet fun for everyone to enjoy.

Roasted Pig Cake

A proper luau deserves a whole roasted pig. But on the rooftop of my rented apartment in New York City, I think it's illegal to dig a pit or have a grill big enough to do a DIY roasted pig. My solution, a birthday cake imitating a perfectly roasted miniature pig. Inez, the birthday girl, was turning 28 and we agreed that it would be one of our last birthdays where we could celebrate like children. There were inflatable palm tree, parrot pinata, flamingo straws, hula skirts, hibiscus ornaments and leis for everyone. And in the center of the festivity, the pig cake was dressed in a edible lei made just for him. (I will call this cake a him because it's more boy-like than a girl.) He was my first carved cake. This means that I made a basic pattern for the cake and stacked them up after filling each layer with chocolate ganache in this case and carved it with a knife. Then I covered the whole pig with chocolate ganache and covered that with rolled fondant. To achieve a look of a perfect roast, I used airbrushing to give a slight sheen and variation of color to emphasize the areas where a roasted pig will be cooked more (tips of ears, nose and top part of the body). My tip for carving a cake to make it real is to exaggerate the slopes and curves of the shape you are carving the cake into. But only carve little at a time and chill the cake completely before attempting to carve. Since this birthday party took place in the middle of summer, I used ganache as a filling because I find it to be much sturdier than buttercream. And the chocolate filling seemed to be a good match for the banana cake. I'm hoping that this cake was an addition that made the Luau birthday more festive and special eventhough there was no whole hog to munch on.

Perfectly Lit Candles

It's uncertain of the origin of this story but I remember hearing that if you drop your ring through a birthday candle and blow the candle out after making a wish, the wish will come true. I probably have a partial of the story remembered but couple years back when this photograph was taken I remembered the story clearly and told my friends. When it was time to blow out the candles, couple of my friends dropped their rings, hoping the birthday girl would make their wishes come true as well.

Last post I shared how to turn a simple cake seem more special and today I wanted to show you how candles could make a big difference. Although you cannot see the details on this white meringue buttercream covered cake, if it weren't for the candles I think the cake would have looked more plain. This white cake had pink iridescent gumpaste ribbon with the same colored pearl shaped balls scattered around and the number "22" piped in royal icing then sprinkled with pink sanding sugar. It was an inspiration from a Cynthia Rowley dress I wore that night. The lighting in the restaurant was terrible so I wasn't able to capture the details but I feel the blue and white candles brought out some warmth to the otherwise washed out looking cake. Next time when you spend hours making a cake, remember to spend some time choosing the appropriate candles instead of just picking the multi-colored dull ones from your nearest grocery store!

Simply Green Cake

Until recently, I had not experienced much gum paste experience. I was a home caker who played around with gum paste but had no formal background or knowledge of making gum paste flowers. So I tackled the simplest forms of flowers or flower like shapes. I had just returned from a week long trip and had little time to make a cake for Bo. And I had bought these Juliska cake stands that I was dying to use. So I killed two birds with one stone. My small simply green cake was presented on the Juliska cake stand thus making the humbly simple cake look more special. A lot may depend on the cake but I think presentation carries a big weight as well. If I had put this cake on a plain cake board or even worse on a plastic plate, this cake would look sloppy and boring. The delicate glass stand made this tiny cake look more extordinary. If you have a great cake stand or find something special always remember that that could be the special touch that would make your cake from ordinary to extordinary. It doesn't necessarily need to be a cake stand, anything could be substituted as a cake stand so I stress again to be creative and think outside the box. Did you know that the Thirty Cake's stand is actually a piece of mirror bought from Ikea placed on top of a flower pot?

Character Cake

For some reason I prefer round cakes. That is why most of my cakes... almost all my cakes are tall round cakes. I then design within this round surface. My friend B who was turning twenty-three, has the cutest smile. She's the quintessential happy person who always has a grin on her face. Because she is such a happy person she reminds me of cartoon characters. No one in particular but just general cartoon figure. Thus I made a small gum paste figure to resemble B and her outfit for the night. She had told me that she would wear a white lace dress so I dressed her mini-me in a white lace dress with glittery red shoes. Then I put a small basketball by her side. The inside story is this- couple months before her 24th birthday she met this perfect boyfriend. To congratulate her on her birthday and meeting the perfect boyfriend for her I added a basketball because his nickname is from a comic book called Slam Dunk. And to prop the figure I added a crystallized ribbon and on the sides I placed simple ribbon flowers made from gum paste. The side walls of the cake was painted in pink shimmer and I piped royal icing to separate the colored from the non colored areas and made it look like some sort of wallpapering. The flavors of this cake was white-choc-white sponge with vanilla buttercream. I loved the simplicity of this cake with its very squared off edges. So my advice is this, even the simplest cake should begin with a cleanly cut cake where the edges are crisp and sharp. This will make your cake look more professional and make any decoration look even better.

A Birthday Brunch Cake

Last Summer I joined a large group of just female friends for a Sunday Brunch in the West Village. I am blinking out so I cannot remember the restaurant's name but it was very suitable place for a Sunday brunch birthday celebration. So unlike my bright and fun cakes I like to present for birthday celebrations, I decided to go for a low key but something lovely and sweet for Audrey's 25th. The cake was a mildly sweet banana sponge with honey-cinnamon buttercream. I thought that a banana cake was the most breakfast-like cake and I didn't want to overwhelm the other guests with something overly sweet so banana cake in my opinion was the way to go. And instead of fondanting I chose to buttercream the cake with the same buttercream I filled the cakes with. When Audrey told me about her birthday brunch I automatically thought of large windows and a room filled with sunlight. I wanted to work with a soft palette of colors and make a cake that was natural and just lovely. You see, Audrey is very lovely, sweet and down to earth. So I wanted to portray a cake with blossoming flowers that were natural but pretty so I tried out dogwoods. Dogwoods are one of my favorite flowers, the way it lights up a dull tree with flowers is so enchanting. They may be less vibrant and familiar than cherry blossoms but the woodsy and lightly hued dogwoods are my favorite. The abundantly topped dogwoods went naturally with the cinnamon specked ivory buttercreamed cake. I piped some green tinted buttercream to make vine-like growth on the sides of the cake and added the same hued leaves here and there. This would've been almost like a wedding cake top tier but in my opinion I thought I had created a lovely cake suited for my lovely friend on a very lovely Sunday morning.

Little Prince Cake

I've got to admit that I am really bad with recording my work of cakes. It's been a recent routine that I take pictures of my cake and I still do it with my cell phone (at least iPhone takes good quality pictures). This Comet Cake was actually a Little Prince themed cake. Is everyone familiar with the children's book? I baked a cake in an oven-proof bowl then tinted my white fondant with black to make a gray color and added some blue and some black gel food coloring and created a marble look to it. The cake was chocolate and the buttercream had chunks of Oreo which gave a rigid covering to the cake and when fondanted the fondant didn't need much tackling to get the rough look of the comet. Then I stuck some small silver and gold dragees to imitate the comet Little Prince is usually seen on. My friend had asked me to make this cake for her for her boyfriend, Alex. Alex is tall and has fair hair and he had always reminded her of the Little Prince. To complete the theme of the cake, my friend printed an image of Little Prince on regular paper and laminated it and we stuck a toothpick to insert this figure to the Comet Cake. Too bad I don't have the finished cake to share with you all but the cake and a book of Little Prince completed this themed birthday party for Alex's 30th.