Raspberry, Apple Green and Damask {wedding cake}

Kristina and Justin's were married in April and their cake had it all! It was 5 tiers tall, but was made up of 10 separate cakes. It had a stenciled damask pattern in classic black and white mixed with quilted textured tiers. It had bursts of color with the use of an apple green covered tier and borders and raspberry pearl accents and bow embellishments. And to top it off a very elegant black acrylic initial topper.

 a close up of the topper, provided by the bride.

 I love this close up of the cake. It shows the damask pattern was also done on the cake board, the raspberry colored pearls accenting the quilting and the clean look of the stenciled damask.

 Another detail of the wedding I loved and just had to share was Kristina's bouquet. Not only did she use some of my favorite flowers such as dahlias, kermit mums, and spider mums; the bouquet was embellished with a beautiful crown brooch.

 another look at the amazing bouquet wrap.

 I'm a big fan of kissing balls and these created by Visual Impact Design are fabulous with the addition of the hanging jewels. The kissing balls were also used as centerpieces on the tables and other places through the reception.

the seating chart made it easy for guests to find the name and table. A fun touch was to replace table numbers with movie titles, such as Top Gun and Sixteen Candles.

 color palette for the wedding: raspberry, apple green with accents of black and white damask

Photos by: Siegel's Portrait Design

Flowers by: Visual Impact Design

Featured in Real Weddings Magazine Winter/Spring 2011

viewable online at http://realweddingsmag.com/weddingDetail.cfm?id=145

want to see even more amazing photos of this fabulous wedding check out Siegel's Portraits blog



Super Sweet 16 - Dessert Table

So when my niece celebrated her sweet 16th birthday I knew I had to give her the best cake ever. One problem, she is around the bakery and cake all the time, she has had almost every kind of cake we make and each year we make her cakes bigger and better. So this year we decided to make her a dessert table with a big variety of yummy treats sure to please everyone and most importantly her. We started with a very modern, graphic 2 tier cake and then took the color scheme and made matching cupcakes, mini cupcakes, sugar cookies, caramel covered pretzels, cake pops, and candy filled jars. I started with a color scheme of purple, black and white and then I threw in yellow and lime green. The horizontal black and white stripes are a fun background for the circle discs pressed with different textures. Those textured circles became the unifing theme for the dessert table. While I worked on the cake, Hector started to work on the cake pops and Rose started to make the sugar cookies, which we decided would also be on a stick.

I repeated the textured circle theme to decorate the wall behind the table. I took 12x12 pieces of scrapbook paper and cut various size circles out to be hung as the back drop. We added balloons to the sides and once all of the elements were on the table the finished look was nothing short of perfect!

The left side of the table...

In the back was grape flavored purple licorice whips, sour apple-o's, and giant jawbreakers. In the front was mini cupcakes (yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting), cookie pops decorated like whirly pops, an cupcakes topped with textured discs to match the cake and a pot of red velvet cake pops covered in white chocolate and purple and yellow drizzles.

The right side of the table...we repeated some of the treats for symmetry, but we did add banana laffy taffy, green sour candy and Hector's caramel dipped pretzels (knots and rods) with purple and yellow drizzle.

Details...and more details...

mini cupcakes with chocolate frosting and yellow sprinkles in purple papersclose up of the cake and the texture on the circles

Red velvet cake pops dipped in white chocolate and drizzled with purple and yellow and then arranged in a black pot with green ribbon curls caramel dipped pretzel rods and knots with matching purple and yellow drizzle sugar cookie pops decorated like lollipops vanilla cupcakes with matching yellow textured fondant circles, purple sprinkles and green polka dot papers there was even color matched soda, lima and pineapple Jarritos!

Bridal Showcase 2010 - Cal Expo

This past weekend we attending the Cal Expo Bridal Showcase. The day was filled with meeting newly engaged brides and grooms and thier families and friends. There was so mush energy and excitement and our new display cakes were well received.

This year we decided to showcase cakes that have drama and color. We wanted to show want our abilities are with cake and sugar. We avoided the cake styles that we have done in the past with the thought that you can see pictures of cakes with scroll designs, ribbon borders, and quilting on our website. So we created brightly colored cakes, dramatic cakes, grand cakes, complete with a candy and dessert display.

We had 11 cakes on display, ranging in size from a 2 tier for 36 people up to a 5 tier for 204 people. We also brought for display cotton candy mini cupcakes in specialty papers, chocolate cake pops dipped in white chocolate, rice cereal treats covered and drizzled with chocolate and a variety of color cordinated candies. We also showcased our wide variety of cake stands, apothecary jars, dessert trays and custom made dessert tags. But we didn't stop there we also made sure that we didn't leave our visitors with an unfulfilled craving for cake, we provided tasting samples of white cake with raspberry preserves and champagne buttercream and red velvet cake with a bavarian cream filling and vanilla buttercream. Yummy!

rice cereal treats, cake pops on a tray of sprinkles, candy jars, bowls, and some cakes.

The candy and treats smelled great and really stopped people in their tracks, but the cakes were what captivated guests to stay at our table, engage us with questions, take pictures, and of course sample cakes.

There were a couple of cakes that received the most attention for the day. The first being the cake we placed on the front corner of our table.

This a 4 tier square, serves 172 people, covered in ivory fondant and accented with chocolate brown and apple green details. Then it was finished off with green orchids, orange lotus, champagne dusted blossoms and chocolate brown curls. The table was decorated with sola wood balls.

The next best was the Queen of Hearts of cake:

This 4 tier round, serves 204, was covered in a stark white fondant and then accented with black diamonds spaced perfectly around each tier with red hearts. It was then finished with red red roses and white stephanotis. The cake was topped off with a double sided Swarovski crystal monogram, custom made by http://www.verydifferentcakes.com/

Another popular cake was our dramatic showpiece, it was a little bit vintage, a lot glamourous, and had a romantic pirate appeal to it.

This was agrand 5 tier cake with various height tiers, serves 204. It was covered in white fondant and then had one side stenciled with a delicate damask and the other side draped with horizontal pleats. The two sides came together with a ruffle sided strip complete with diamante studed buttons. The entire cake was given a pearl coat so it had a subtle sheen to it. Then the cake was completed with sterilized ostrich feathers, sugar peonies and hydrangeas. It had 3 beautiful plumes on top that made the cake over 2 feet tall. We displayed the cake on top a silver 18" square stand. It was a sight to see. Look to our future blogs for more angles and close-up photos of this amazing wedding cake.

The cakes are not the only thing that makes our bakery different from the others, its our great staff. We are a family owed bakery and so the show was also a family event. My sister Martha, niece Theresa, sister-in-law Violeta, niece Celia, brother-in-law Joe, my mother Marion, and close friends Vermont and Jasmine attended the show to help Hector and I. They handed out cards, helped answer questions, offer samples, bring brides to the table and give the best support. I can't thank them enough.

I'll finish this post with one more photo of the entire both, a sample display of some of the many things our bakery can create.

Mad Science Birthday Cake

We had so much fun creating a mad science themed birthday cake for an awesome 5 year. The cake was an explosion of color, texture, and it was a feast for your senses. We included a rocket ship made of rice cereal treats, 2 boiling beakers also made of rice cereal treats, and atoms bursting of the cake on wires. There are chemical symbols, atom rings, green slime, and lightening bolts. Then we layered it with swirls of color, stars, and dots. Our inspiration for this design was fueled by the Mad Science party team. (http://www.madscience.org/) They come to your party and conduct experiments and entertain the kids while the teach. They have invitations you can use and also goodie bags for the kids. The birthday message and rocket close up. We cut out letters and then piped over them for extra color. We make our cakes to be viewed 360 degrees, so here is the back side of the cake. It also has full decoration with atoms bursting, atom string and chemical symbols. just another angle of the cake... We also created a smaller version of the cake for the birthday boy. He wanted a chocolate cake so we made him his own chocolate cake and the big cake was a tier of lemon and a tier of marble. We took the beaker from the top of the big cake down to picture with his cake.

Cupcake First Birthday

A couple of weekends ago we created 2 cakes that were very similar. We were requested to create a cake with a cupcake on top to match the baby's first birthday party decorations back in August. Then just about 2 weeks before we are set to make the cake a second request came in to create a cake with a cupcake on top, but this time they provided us with a picture for inspiration. Well the picture wasn't to much different from the cake we were already set to make. So we made 2 tiered cakes for the same day with a cupcakes on top for baby's first birthday. Here they are... you can choose your favorite.