Halloween Roundup

Yes, Thanksgiving is this week, but let's take a trip down Halloween Memory Lane (feels like a long time ago - but it wasn't, ya'll!)

This cake was donated to the United Way fundraiser held at our neighbor restaurant, Acapulco's.  They host a Halloween party every year.  For this year's theme of Casino Night, they erected a huge tent in the parking lot and filled it with gaming tables, a stage and dance floor, food and drink bars, a chocolate fountain, silent auction tables, and my cake! 

I wasn't able to stay for the party, because I had to be back at work at 5 am the next day to finish four wedding cakes and the Tangled cake! 

The Crow Cake:  Gotta love unique requests such as this.  The crow was for an extravagant private Halloween party in Stillwater.  The body is cake underneath (chocolate, of course).  I formed the legs and feet from skewers and wire, covering them with black fondant.  The client brought in the old pizza peel, which made it look even more realistic when I created the pool of blood from tinted apricot glaze.  It cooled to perfect coagulated blood!

The crow was accompanied by these bloody glass shard mini cupcakes.  The "glass" is actually Isomalt, melted and poured onto a Silpat and broken into rough pieces.  Be careful - the sugar can really be sharp!

 

 And just for fun:  My Crazy Cat Lady Costume!  Most comfortable and warm costume EVER.  With gel, half a can of hairspray, and baby powder in my hair, it stood on end all night.  The only thing I had to purchase for this costume was the stuffed kitties!  I mean, my "babies"....

xoxo,
Rachel


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October Weddings - Part 1

First, thank you for the kind words and wishes after my previous post.  Don't cry for me, everything will be just fine :)

October was here and gone in an instant.  It ended up being one of our busiest months for weddings, special events, a holiday, two bridal shows, and on top of everything I had two Le Cordon Bleu interns to corral.  Culminating with a fun night out for Halloween, I don't think I could have picked a more appropriate costume as The Crazy Cat Lady - I was feeling pretty loopy!

As you will see, the weddings this month ran the gamut from bright and colorful to tonal texture...

Photo courtesy of Shannon Marie Photography

Photo courtesy of Shannon Marie Photography

Photo courtesy of Shannon Marie Photography

The monogram was taken from the couple's custom printed napkins.  You may also recognize the vine piping from the jade wedding earlier this year.  The small picture shows the three tiered version with the center band and monogram.  By altering the design to reflect the wedding colors and the couple's preference for square cakes, the new look is summery and bright with a dash of preppy coolness. 

Imagine all white, minimalist, asymmetrical architecture, and floor to ceiling windows looking down into Minneapolis' Sculpture Gardens.  That was the backdrop for this next cake at the Walker Art Center Skyline Room.  It may look like a simple cake, but the getting the piping perfect is still a challenge.  To create the quilted buttercream look on the bottom tier, I have to first etch the lines on hard buttercream with a rounded fondant tool (about the width of a pencil eraser), and then soften the edges with my [clean] finger.  This is a new technique a taught myself just this year.  Prior to, I thought the only way to create quilting was with fondant.

I'm a huge fan of Marah Cole Floral Designs, and you have to see the centerpieces she did for this wedding!  Those are veggies in the water! 

Photo courtesy of Marah Cole Designs

This is a fun little fall two tier that was accompanied by cupcakes.  I met the bride at a wedding show last year.  Leah really liked my dummy cake with fall leaves and pumpkins, and we made it topsy turvy for an unexpected twist.  I really enjoy the subtle texture of the buttercream with the uneven layers - it makes the look less stark and adds movement.

 So, this last cake is from yesterday, so technically it isn't from October, but who cares.  The colors are autumn perfection.

The bands are fondant on buttercream.  This is a tough design to pull off, keeping the lines perfectly spaced, balanced, and clean.  I'm proud of how it came out - go me! - and it would be fun to do it in so many different color combos.  Fresh flowers were the perfect touch of romance for such a modern design, but it could go many directions. 


Part II of October Weddings will include some very unique cakes...stay tuned!


- Rachel

"Dress My Cupcake"

We all know how I feel about cupcakes:  They better taste good, and they better look smashing.  Now that is appears cupcakes are no longer a trend but a bakery staple, I think we will be seeing more and more trends in styles of cupcakes, flavors, etc. (I'm waiting for the $1,000 cupcake that comes encrusted with diamonds.)  One trend I am totally on board with is cupcake wrappers.  Unlike the baking cups cupcakes are baked in, these are fancier, bottomless "cups" the cakes sit in.  They come in all varieties of colors and prints for any occasion you can imagine.

Dress My Cupcake is the leading manufacturer of cupcake liners in the world, and even better, they are made right here in the US of A!  When I found out they were offering samples to local bakers, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on just of few of their designs.  Dress My Cupcake wrappers are available through retailers, but you can easily view their collection of over 1000 designs and order through their website.

It's hard not to be inspired by the changing seasons in rapidly approaching holidays, which is exactly where my head went when I received my dazzling assortment of wrappers.  I started by grouping them into coordinating color schemes. 

Halloween palate using the "Emma" and "Halloween Scream" designs. 

Each are sold in packs of 12 for $9.99.  Decorations are all fondant, made by me!

Cupcakes roasting by an open fire....Fall palate using the "Emma" design again.  Fondant leaves and acorns by me.

Winter palate.  I could easily see these at a black and white wedding, a la Kim Kardashian (I can't believe I just said that).  Styles used here are the "Classic Black Damask" and "Platinum Glitter" in silver and black ($23.99/12).  I really like these because they are grease-proof.  And the silver dragees set them off perfectly.

Christmas is coming...palate.  I really love changing up the expected Christmas green by swapping it for turquoise.  The look is fresh and chic.  These ruffled cupcakes in their "Platinum Glitter" wrappers would be lovely for a sophisticated holiday gathering.  Make your own ruffles by cutting circles of fondant, folding them in half, and then folding in half again.

P.S.  I love Christmas.

 Spring brings a palate of girly pinks and purples, flowers and butterflies.  I think girls of all ages would appreciate these at a birthday party or spring tea.  This first photo finally caught a fraction of how much these things sparkle.  I made the decorations using colored white chocolate.

Thank you again to Dress My Cupcake for this awesome opportunity to get creative!  Cupcakes with no wrappers will look so boring from now on...*sigh*

Love,

Rachel

 

My favorite wrapper off the website.