Leopard Sweet Sixteen

Oh to be young agian... This cake was made for Kelly, whose family and friends threw a surprise party for her to celebrate her 16th birthday.  She certainly was surprised!!  What a lucky girl to be surrounded with those she loves on her birthday, and what a nice mom and family to organize the whole thing for her.

Kelly's mother requested a 20-25 serving cake decorated with an animal print and "something pink".  This design is what I came up with and Kelly's mom approved - a big pink bow on a hand-painted leopard print cake, with pink pearls around the base.  Kelly's not a chocolate lover (I know, I know...), so this cake is very vanilla.  It's a vanilla bean butter cake, filled with our famous Oreo cookie filling, and frosted with vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream.  It is Deeee-lish -- I hear Kelly was a big fan of the Oreo frosting too!  I know some kids who have offered to buy my oreo frosting from me by the bowlful.  It is that good.  I dare you to try it - but you'll have to buy a cake to do so, since I'm not parting with the recipe for it just yet.  It's an Enchanted Icing original recipe!

Kelly and her friends had a wonderful time at the party. Here's wishing Kelly a happy birthday and a wonderful year ahead.  The best is yet to come!

Camera Cake: Say Cheese!

Say Cheese!  Cream cheese frosting, that is, on carrot cake, shaped into a Camera Cake!  This cake was made for photographer Mike as a surprise for his 40th birthday.  It is modeled after his own camera, although the dimensions are not exact because, don't forget, it is a cake, and I needed it to feed a certain number of people.  There's a lot of detail on this cake - buttons, dials, view panels, and more, both front and back.  Carrot cake is also a good choice for someone who works with his eyes, as this cake is packed with carrots (as well as pineapple which helps keep it really moist).  I understand that Mike was really surprised by his cake, and loved every gigabyte. Bite.

Triple the fun! Triplets Bar Mitzvah Cake

Congratulations to triplets Ethan, Caleb and Louisa!  I made this cake for their b'nai mitzvah celebration (yup, that the plural) which was on a fabulous fall day at the beautiful Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield, CT.

When I make cakes for people, I try to personalize the cake for the recipient.  I like to use colors they like, and I also often incorporate the recipient's interests in the cake design, so that the person receiving the cake knows it was really made especially for him or her.  That's a much harder task when making one cake for 3 kids with different interests, preferences and personalities.  That said, I was pleased with how this cake turned out, and even happier that the triplets and their parents loved it!

On the bottom of the cake is Ethan's tier, which is made of lemon butter cake, filled with lemon meringue buttercream and raspberry jam, and topped with lemon meringue buttercream.  The covering is blue, Ethan's favorite color, and the football (which is 100% edible, made of rice krispy treats and modeling chocolate) and the penant flag reflect his love for his New England Patriots.  He's also a big Red Sox fan.  (I blame their father for this Boston passion. Sigh. They should be Yankee fans, not Red Sox fans.  But what can you do?)

In the middle is Caleb's tier.  Caleb is a soccer player (he plays goalie), and he too roots for Boston-based sports teams.  Caleb's favorite color is orange, but their mom asked me to incorporate the lime green color which was a theme in the party decorations, along with blue and purple (no orange in the party decor).  Finally, on top, Louisa's tier has an edible ipod perched in front of it and handbags around the sides, as Louisa loves to listen to music (James Taylor is a favorite - she has excellent taste!) and she likes to accessorize.  Purple is Louisa's favorite color.  Both Caleb's and Louisa's tiers (the top two tiers) were made of chocolate cake with the crowd favorite cookies and cream (aka Oreo) filling, which has big chunks of real Oreos in it.  The outer frosting was a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  There wasn't a bite left from the entire cake, which was made to serve about 80 people!

On top of the cake is the logo used in the b'nai mitzvah invitations: a modern take on the two scrolls of the torah, although to me they look a little bit like candles too.  As a result, I thought it was the perfect thing to use on top of the cake.  I think the topsy turvy design added a bit of whimsy on this cake made for newly minted teens.

It was a fabulous day for the triplets, and I wish them all the best!  Their parents should be very proud of their terrific trio!  And of course, the triplets should thank their parents for everything they do for them.

Diet Coke and Sandwich Groom's Cake

Groom's cakes have become a very popular part of weddings these days.  They're cakes made especially for the groom, since, let's face it, a great deal of the wedding is all about the bride.

This two-part groom's cake was made for one of my daughter's favorite teachers as a surprise for her fiance.  It seems that he has a rather limited repertoire when it comes to lunch: a turkey sandwich and Diet Coke are his favorites.  And so that lunch was transformed into a cake, making a loving tribute to a future spouse's quirks.  I, of course, as an appreciative parent, was thrilled to be able to make this cake for her teacher and really enjoyed getting to know her a better through the design process.  I'm happy with the way the cake turned out, and more importantly, they were thrilled!

Don't let the photo fool you: this is a pretty large cake, meant to serve 50.  The diet coke cake is almost 11" tall,  larger than a half gallon of milk!  Inside, the cake is a deep chocolate cake made with a pint of Young's Double Chocolate Stout in the batter, and it is really, really tasty.  The stout flavors the cake but it is very subtle; the alcohol burns off and all that's left is a bit of depth and complexity of chocolate goodness.  Nonetheless, the cake has a nice crumb and isn't too dense.  I love chocolate and think it should be its own food group, and in my opinion, this is one of the best chocolate cakes I've tasted.

We paired the cake with alternating layers of chocolate buttercream and mint buttercream as fillings between the layers, and covered the cakes with dark chocolate ganache (a delicious mixture of chocolate and cream, which gives it a fudgy consistency).  This cake is a chocoholic's dream!

I also wanted to take this opportunity to wish Lauren and Tim all the happiness in the world for their future together.

A Wedding in Central Park

Sarah and Rod were married in beautiful setting: New York City's Central Park!  They chose to have a non-traditional wedding, with a picnic lunch after the ceremony, organized by wedding planner A Central Park Wedding.  The weather was fabulous, albeit a little bit warm by cake standards - a sunny 90 degrees.  But there was a nice breeze, and matching white and champagne colored quilts were spread out across the lawn near the Bethesda Fountain and the lake with the boaters.  It was a spectacular setting for a celebration!

The cake was made to match the wedding colors: white, cream, champagne and yellow.  The bride's bouquet was made of yellow and cream colored roses, and the bridesmaids carried cream roses in their bouquets.  I made the flowers on the cake by hand of sugar to match the flowers in the wedding.  You can see an up-close image of one of the roses at right.   Inside, the cake is a white vanilla cake filled with a combination of passion fruit curd and passion fruit buttercream and frosted with the same passion fruit buttercream.  The couple planned to take home the top tier to save for their first anniversary.  

Congratulations to Sarah and Rod!!  I wish you a beautiful lifetime together filled with love and laughter!

Bird Baby Shower

A very pink Baby Shower Cake

This sweet bird baby shower cake was designed based the invitation.  Obviously, a baby girl was on the way.  It is a very spring-like design, with a blushing pink bunny, butterfly, lots of flowers, and a bird in a beautiful, blooming tree.  I took the liberty of turning the smallish bird into a much larger pair of birds - a mother and a father bird who were waiting anxiously for their precious egg to hatch! 

The cake is a double height, 7" round cake, also called a double barrel cake.  This means that it is really two tiers of cake that are both the same size, separated by a hidden cardboard round.  The two tiers are frosted and then decorated as though they were a single, very tall tier!

Inside, the cake was tinted different shades of pink for an "ombre" effect.  If you had a slice, you'd see that the 4 layers of cake in the slice was each colored a slightly different shade of pink in ascending order!  The effect was very dramatic and oh so girly.  I was very happy with how this cake turned out.  I hope you like it too!! 

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