If you're 90, I'll eat my hat. Or maybe yours.

Sometimes, what is most important about a cake is not how objectively beautiful it is, but how meaningful it is to the recipient. This cake hit the bullseye for Al's 90th Birthday. Al's daughter, Janet, contacted me as they were throwing Al a big birthday celebration at Alvin & Friends restaurant. She wanted a cake that would have meaning to him, but what would it be? After some brainstorming, we came up with the idea of putting words from the family describing Al all around the side of the cake. The words included the biographical ("dad," "New Yorker," etc.), characteristics ("punny,", "mentor," "helpful," etc.) and even places he loves ("Paris,", "Maine," etc.). But it needed something more - something with punch. We settled on a hat, as Al is known for wearing his favorite British walking hat. This style of hat is made of woven tweed, and is a bit softer than a felt hat. I made Al's hat -- out of cake -- to go on top of the round cake! 

Both the hat cake and the round cake are made from chocolate cake, with a vanilla bean pastry cream (Al's favorite) in the bottom cake and vanilla bean buttercream in the hat. Both are covered with ganache and then fondant. The hat is hand painted and has some texture to replicate the tweed. As you can see from these photos, the hat was a big hit with Al and his family! (Note Al's actual hat is on the table next to the cake.) Happy 90th Birthday, Al! Looking at these photos of you, I cannot believe that you are 90 years young! May all your days be as happy, healthy and full of love as this day was for you.

Jackson's Christening

Retirement Cake

This cake is boxed and ready for delivery to Rod, who recently retired from a long and successful career as an engineer. His daughter Christa and wife surprised him with this cake, and they suspect that a lot of his free time will be spent fixing up his vintage orange VW Beetle (what a great car - I want one!) The cake is Rod's favorite, Boston Cream Pie -- yellow cake, a creamy vanilla custard filling, and chocolate ganache frosting. The car is made from modeling chocolate and has some depth to it to give it a hint of 3-D. Congrats Rod! Enjoy your freedom.

Golf cake

Here's a golf-themed birthday cake for Nick and John, complete with golf bag, clubs and a few golf balls scattered about on the green and grassy fairway (which may need mowing). Who's counting the number of balls, the number of the hole, or even the ages of the recipients? Not this baker, that's for sure! Lemon cake with raspberry meringue buttercream filling drizzled with raspberry preserves, and lemon buttercream icing the cake. Yum. I hope it was Happy Birthday Gentlemen!

I want to look like Brenda when I turn 50

Happy Birthday Brenda!
Coconut cake with passion fruit curd and coconut buttercream.

Gia's First BIrthday

A Minnie Mouse themed cake for baby Gia's first birthday!!

Gia even got a tiny smash cake to eat all by herself.  

What a beautiful dessert table made by Gia's mom!

Happy Birthday Gia!!! 

Beachy wedding shower

A gluten-free chocolate stout cake (using gluten-free stout!) with chocolate ganache frosting and filling for Michelle and Scott who are getting married on a beach in the Caribbean.   The design is based on a photo from their wedding blog.  A bottle of wine awaits them by their beach chairs.  

Congrats you two!!  May you have many happy years together! 

Pamela's Birthday at the Beach

I love this cake with its edible shells and starfish, and pearls.  The colors remind me of beach glass.  I hope it brought you lots of happiness at your beachside birthday celebration, Pamela!

Coconut cake with passion fruit curd and coconut buttercream.  So summery! 

Custom Car Groom's Cake

I was contacted by Kristen, who was getting married in August.  She was looking for someone to make a replica of a very special car: her fiance Mike's Camry, which was his pride and joy.  He had spent hours and lots of money fixing it up and customizing it, as you can see from the actual photo of the car in the top left corner of the collage.  The sad part of the story is that Mike's car had been "retired" early, due to an accident; fortunately Mike was fine, but the car didn't make it.

Kristen sent me a lot of photos of Mike's car, and decided on a delicious vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla meringue buttercream filling, covered with chocolate ganache.  I took it from there.  Car cakes are a bit tricky to make.  This cake started as a filled rectangular layer cake roughly the size of a very big men's shoe box.  I then took out my sharp knife and began carving to get the cake into the proper size and shape of the car.  The shaped cake was covered with ganache, and some details added into the ganache or with modeling chocolate (yum!).  The whole thing was then covered with fondant, and the windows and wheel wells cut out.  I added details into the fondant, like the lines from the doors, hood and trunk, and well as other subtle shaping; it was a time consuming process.  The car was painted with an airbrush which gave it a nice sheen; the side paint pattern was painted by hand, however.  Finally, the body of the car was raised off the base cake board to make room for the tires, which were also made by hand from modeling chocolate.  At points, I felt like I was working in a bodyshop!

Although Kristen didn't ask for it, I took some artistic license and added some cans from the back of the car and "Just Married!" to the back window of the car.  I figured they wouldn't mind the surprise!

When I walked into the wedding venue to deliver the cake, Kristen's dad was sitting in the ballroom while Kristen was getting ready.  As soon as he saw the cake, he exclaimed, "That's Mike's car!!" But Mike was the real judge, and he didn't know about the cake, and wouldn't see it until after the wedding ceremony.

When I heard back from Kristen after the wedding, she was thrilled.  (That's the best part of my job.  I love my customers!)  She said that Mike nearly started to cry when he saw the cake, and that he wouldn't let anyone cut it at the wedding!!  The guys who had done much of the work on the car couldn't believe their eyes either.  Kristen and Mike finally did cut into the cake at home a day or two after the wedding, but only because they wanted to taste it (they thought it was delicious).  Then into the freezer it went (well wrapped of course) -- Mike wanted to keep his cake for a while longer!!!  That's a great complement to the look of the cake, and it is the second cake I've made in less than two weeks that meant so much to the recipient that it was saved, at least for a little while.  The irony is that I go out of my way to make cakes that taste great too, using high quality ingredients and making everything from scratch. Although my cakes will freeze well if tightly wrapped, I do hope that they unwrap, defrost and enjoy eating the cake before long -- it is delicious cake, after all!!

Best wishes to Kristen and Mike for a long and very happy life together.  I'm honored to have been able to contribute to your special day.  Congratulations!!

Dawn's 40th "Touchdown"!

I've now made 2 Giants helmet cakes, and I wouldn't have expected this, but both of them were for women. The first was a cake for Bat Mitzvah girl Lexa, and the second, shown here, is for Dawn's 40th Birthday. In fact, Dawn had seen Lexa's cake online and loved it, which is how Dawn's good friend Lisa ended up contacting me. The cake was a surprise for Dawn, and I had to deliver it to the Jersey Shore where Dawn and a group of her BFFs were spending the weekend! When presented with the cake at a celebration dinner, Dawn was so thrilled she shed tears of joy, and she wouldn't let anyone near the cake with a knife!! (It is vanilla bean buttermilk cake with chocolate mousse filling and dark chocolate ganache outside, so it should taste pretty good whenever she finally eats it. I delivered the cake a week ago, and heard that as of Tuesday, it was still uncut!) Happy Birthday Dawn! You are blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends. And eat your cake!!

Wyatt's Dinosaur

Here's the full photo of the cake for Wyatt, who is turning 3. He's crazy about dinosaurs, and so for his birthday, he got a very friendly dinosaur who's about to take a big bite of the birthday cake! This silly dino is is ready to party, dressed in his converse sneakers and a birthday hat! The dino is mostly edible (there's some support in there so he can stand up) and his skin is modeling chocolate, so he's very sweet too. The tiered cake is vanilla bean buttermilk cake with a chocolate fudge filling and blue vanilla buttercream outside. Happy Birthday Wyatt!!

Tyler's confirmation cake

Tyler's parents wanted to surprise him with a non-traditional confirmation cake.  They wanted to include both baseball and softball as well, since they're Tyler's favorite sports.

I made a figurine of the very athletic Tyler, and he's got a baseball bat in one hand, a lacrosse stick in the other.  His parents loved the figurine so much, they saved it in the freezer!

The cake is chocolate with oreo filling and vanilla frosting.  Peanut-free since Tyler can't have peanuts.

Congrats on your confirmation Tyler!

Graduation for Steven and Ryan

A graduation cake for lifelong friends Steven and Ryan who are excellent lacrosse players. Instead of a traditional graduation cake (a flat cake with a graduation cap on it), I made them a graduation "scrapbook," complete with photos of the boys from childhood through high school, gum paste lacrosse sticks (those were tricky to make, especially in the rainy weather we've been having!), sugar skis and a mountain too. I love this kind of highly personalized cake; it tells a story.
Congrats to Steven and Ryan!! Best of luck to you both in college. And to their parents, who won't get to see them so much any more, if you're sad and missing your boys, there's always cake therapy!

Yankee Stadium Cake

Yankee Stadium for Jonny's Yankee themed bar mitzvah!

Chocolate cake, oreo and chocoalte ganache filling, chocolate ganache frosting, and lots of decorating.  Notice the LED scrolling message board!  

This cake was a home run!

Mazel Tov Jonny!

Claire's Birthday

 This cake is for a very special girl - my baby girl.  She just turned 15.  I'm not sure how that happened so quickly since I haven't gotten any older... well I don't feel any older.  Claire asked for her favorite cake, chocolate cake with Oreo filling, for her birthday.  She requested a cake with ombre - that's the shading from light to dark in the same color.  I made this ruffled ombre cake for her, and put a pretty pink rose on top.   She's a special person and a terrific daughter, and she deserved a cake as beautiful, sweet and classy as she is.

Happy Birthday to Claire, who regardless of her age, will always be my baby.

Strawberries for Saleeya

Saleeya's 5th birthday was coming up.  Despite her young age, Saleeya has a definite sense of style, and knew what she wanted for her birthday.  Her mom contacted me to make a cake that was loosely based on the children's toy Strawberry Shortcake.  She sent me some images to use as inspiration.

This very cute cake consisted of an 8" tier and a 6" tier.  The cake was vanilla yellow cake with strawberry buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting on the outside of the cake.   I also made a dozen cupcakes (vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream) to go with it.   The strawberries and flowers on the cake are all made by hand from fondant.

On the right above is a sketch I had done and sent to Saleeya's mom so she could see what I was I proposed to make for Saleeya.  I was trying a out new drawing app  (I usually sketch out cakes in pencil).  I think it came out okay in the app, but I think I'm sticking to pencil next time.

Below is the finished cake, and the adorable birthday girl herself, all decked out in Strawberry fashion.  I love that skirt!!  Her matching pink, red and green dessert table is behind her with her cake is right in the center.  I think those pink, red and green candies look so pretty.  It looks like it was a great party!!

Happy 5th Birthday Saleeya!!! 

Romance.

This cake is pure romance.

Lillian and her niece Tracey wanted to surprise Tracey's parents who were renewing their wedding vows after 30 years of marriage.  They had sent me a photo of a cake they liked, a two-tiered square cake with red ribbon roses running up one corner of the cakes.  Lillian and her niece were open to suggestions, and I sent them back a drawing quite similar to this cake, which raised the height of the resulting cake without adding additional servings.  We made a few small changes to the design, and this simple but elegant cake was the result.  The key design element according to Lillian was the red roses.  There had to be red roses.  

Lillian and I had discussed the idea of using ribbon roses (they are a bit more casual, and appear like a ribbon has been rolled up into a flower form) or even fresh roses.  But Lillian and her niece had seen the sugar roses on some of the cakes I had done and wanted those for the cake. I think they made the right decision! 

A better view of the top rose

The roses in the middle of the cake go all the way around the cake.  On top, instead of a bouquet of roses, we decided to put one large extra-large rose with a couple of buds and leaves.  It really made a statement.  

I made all the roses on this cake by hand from gum paste, a sugar dough that holds it shape nicely when dry.  Each petal was placed on a rose one at a time, layer by layer.  It is an amazing process to watch the roses come to life as petals are added and curled just so.  A final dusting with powdered food colors enhanced that beautiful red. 

Detail of the side of the cake

The inside of the cake is also red -- red velvet, that is, frosted with a white chocolate laced swiss meringue buttercream.   

In addition to this cake, Lillian also had a special request.  An avid baker herself, she had made a rum cake she wanted me to decorate. (Rum cake is her specialty - and she gave me a taste and I can attest that it was delicious.  She and I have very similar philosophies about baking, such as making everything from scratch and using the best quality ingredients.) Lillian wanted the rum cake to be decorated like a vinyl record (remember them??)  Specifically, she had a song that the couple had played at their wedding, and she wanted to record label to show the name of that song.  More romance!  

The song was an oldie from 1964 called "The Wedding", by Julie Rogers.  We decided to show the record as a 45 rpm single, with lyrics from the song around the edge.  (My kids weren't familiar with record singles, so just in case someone else isn't familiar with them, here's a little background.  Until CDs took over, records were released as albums and singles.  Albums were the big 12" vinyl records with many songs on their two sides, and they played on a record player at 33 1/3 rotations per minute (rpm).  Singles were hit songs released on smaller 7" records, and they spun at 45 rotations per minute.  There was usually a hit on one side ("the A side") and a second, less well known song on the other ("the B side").  45s often had a big hole in the middle of the record, so you needed an adapter to make it fit the spindle in the center of the record player's spinning platter).  

When Lillian picked up the cakes, she was so happy with everything that she gave me a big hug!  I hope the anniversary couple loved the cake and had a beautiful celebration to renew their vows.  If Lillian is at all representative of the kind of love and care in that family, there's no question that they will have another 30 years of happiness together.  And I suspect that they'll keep the romance alive! 

A glass of iced tea or a cake?

Lisa was turning the big 5-0, and her family wanted to celebrate in grand style.  Lisa's teenaged daughter was excited about planning a surprise party for her mom, and enlisted the help of her dad and her aunt and uncle as well.  They knew they wanted a fun cake for Lisa, but weren't sure what it should look like.  They looked at the photos on this blog and on the Enchanted Icing Facebook page, and saw the Diet Coke cake, which gave them an idea.  Lisa loves Dunkin' Donuts iced tea, and is frequently seen with a glass of it in her hand.  She had a reputation for taking the iced tea with her wherever she went.  Lisa's family asked me if I could make a Dunkin' Donuts iced tea cake.  Knowing that could be a tricky request, I went to work designing and planning.

They needed enough cake to serve 50 people, and so we decided together that I would make two cakes.  First would be the glass of iced tea cake, and second, a Dunkin' Donuts paper bag cake.  That way the iced tea cake didn't have to be very tall, aiding stability.  The cake would be chocolate, with oreo filling and chocolate ganache on the outside. (I had suggested a Chai tea flavored cake, but Lisa loves chocolate.  I can't argue with that.)

Making a cake that looks like a glass iced tea is a challenging task.  Cakes are opaque; iced tea is translucent.  I knew I could get the cake into the shape of a glass of iced tea, but how was I going to make it look like it had ice inside?  The answer was airbrushing.  I painted the cake tea-colored using the airbrush, but left areas lighter around the top third of the cake to give the impression of ice cubes inside the "tea".  I think the effect worked, particularly once I topped the cake with a slice of lemon (made from fondant), a straw (made from gum paste),  and sugar ice cubes (made from melted sugar that had been poured into a mold). 

The paper bag cake was carved by hand from a rectangular cake.  I wanted to add enough wrinkles thrown in to give the impression of paper.  The rolled over top of the paper bag added to the illusion. 

When I delivered the cake, Lisa was thrilled!  She and others at the party were amazed, and everyone had a laugh at Lisa's Dunkin' Donuts habit.  I heard back from Lisa and her family, and they told me that the cake tasted even better than it looked.  That's the kind of feedback that makes my day!

Pinkalicious Cake

Bae just turned 4.  I don't know how that is possible, since I have known Bae since she was a newborn, and it doesn't feel like 4 years have passed by.  Sigh.  Bae has, over that time, become an adorable, precocious little girl who is very outgoing and knows what she likes.  We are all very fond of Bae.

Pinkalicious is one of Bae's favorite books.  It is the story about a girl who loves the color pink, and then turns pink after eating a pink cupcake!  Pinkalicious was the theme for Bae's birthday party.  The cake I made for Bae is based on an image Bae's mom, Phoebe, sent me.  It is a very girly, cute cake with lots of pink.  The cupcake from the story forms the top tier of the cake, and flowers from the story are on the bottom.  (I took the photo before I putting Bae's name on the cake.  Bad baker.)

Happy 4th Birthday, beautiful Bae!  May all your wishes come true!

Giants Football Helmet Cake

It isn't every day that you hear about a 13 year old girl who is such a fan of the NY Giants football team that she wants her bat mitzvah party to have a football theme.  Boys, perhaps.  Girls, not so much.  But to me, it indicated that the 13 year old girl is an independent thinker and has a great deal of confidence at an age when many girls are insecure and just want to look and act like each other.  I admire and wholeheartedly support her doing her own thing.  Very cool.

This cake was made for that young woman, who is named Lexa (Shayna is her middle name), for her bat mitzvah.  The cake is a life sized helmet cake, made from delicious, fudgy chocolate cake, and filled with altering layers of Oreo filling and Nutella buttercream.  The whole thing was covered with a dark chocolate ganache.  Everything is edible, even the facemask (although you probably wouldn't want to eat it because the gum paste used to make the mask has hardened, so it can stand up).  At the event space, Lexa's mom surrounded the cake with tall thin taper candles placed on the board (the football field).  The cake was then used in the candle lighting ceremony, in which Lexa called up family and friends to help her light each of her 13 candles.

This helmet wasn't large enough to feed a whole party (the helmet feeds 30-40 people, depending upon how it is cut), so I had baked additional sheet cakes to ensure everyone got some cake.  One sheet cake was chocolate with Oreo filling and chocolate ganache, like the helmet, and the other was vanilla with raspberry swiss meringue buttercream filling and vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream on the outside.

I received a call from Lexa and her mom the day after the event, and they and their guests were still raving about the cake and thrilled at how realistic it had looked and how good it had tasted.  They told me that one of the guests at the party had suggested sending a photo to the NY Giants!  Others didn't want to cut into the cake, but Lexa and her family finally did, so they could have their cake and eat it too.

Mazel Tov, Lexa!  Put that independent thinking to good use in your life.  I expect to hear great things from you! Touchdown!!!