Lingerie Cake

Lingerie Cake

October 2007

(Sarah's Bridal Shower)

This was a really fun cake to make. Chocolate ganache filled genoise cake covered with white buttercream and a draped fondant chemise nightie. I love how fun and flirty the pink and black is!

Here is a detail of the bust. I really wanted to put cupcakes under it for a little "lift", but alas and alack, I was chatting it up in the kitchen and let the fondant dry. (But then we ate the cupcakes- no harm, no foul!)

The two tone pink is a watercolor effect using Cinderella Pink/Rose gel coloring brushed on the fondant with a little silver petal dust.

They say genius thrives in clutter. I was clearly drawing a lot of "smarts" from this counter top during the process!


Sarah, as your personal pastry chef, I wish you every happiness from these days of wedding planning- to the many celebrations you will share together in marriage! And don't forget to keep that fire extinguisher handy. Just in case.

A cupcake and a hug.

A Cupcake and a Hug

October 2007

"When you look at a cupcake, you just have to smile." - Anne Byrn

Vanilla bean cupcake stuffed with chocolate ganache.

Great idea Annie- you represent Hershey well!

Pink Bow Cake

Pink Bow Cake

October 2007

Victory is mine. I am feeling much better after last week's cake-tastrophy. I took a fondant and gum paste refresher class this morning and made a few practice runs. I realize that I may be the only person in the world who thinks fondant tastes good, but it sure looks pretty!

The Wilton bow with curly q's and a daisy:

First I added a few white polka dots, which gives it a new look.

Finishing off the bow gave it a more dramatic look. I balanced the added height with a pink border at the base.

Life is all about the accessories. Here goes with green dots and double daisies. This one felt more like a birthday cake.

Things I learned from this activity:

- Bows and dots are the way to go!

- It's all how the pieces fit together, so be creative with the mix n' match

- To evenly coat a board for rolling fondant (or pie crust) use a dusting pouch / tied coffee filter to spread the sugar

- Use piping get at the base of the cake to "glue" down fondant edges, so you don't see the extra icing smoosh out the bottom

- Everything looks better with glitter (but I already knew that because I am from NJ)

Cake-tastrophy

Cake-tastrophy

(a.k.a. The Franken-cake Incident of 2007)

October 2007

Last week I made a decadent chocolate butter cake with strawberry filling and real buttercream icing using the recipes from "The Whimsical Bakehouse" book. I was very excited because the house buttercream from the Whimsical Bakehouse really will change your life. The lightness and balance between creamy and sweet is wonderful.

I iced it as a standard layer cake even though the architectural feats of the WB cakes look and sound very approachable on the pages. Off to the Delaware beaches we went. When we arrived- CAKE-TASTROPHY! The top layer slid right off the bottom and smooshed itself up against the side of the carrier. Whoops. What went wrong? Did the buttercream warm up to a slippery goo and undermined the integrity of the layers? Did the tall layers of cake require wooden doweling to hold together on the long journey? Was the traffic on 295 too much for the previously sheltered cake to bear? We may never know.

But the show must go on! We have birthdays to celebrate and yumminess to devour. With a small spatula, my nimble assistant Kate and I were able to lift the top layer and re-form the basic cake structure. We then scraped off the remnants of pink swags, green scroll work, and white daises from the sides of the cake and restored the snow white base coating. The next step was to re-create a pink-tinted tie dye of colored icing on the vertical sides. By re-piping some of the colored icing into a message on the top and sticking on some well-placed sugar sprinkle flowers we created a whole new design that would have made MacGyver proud.

My one regret is that my camera batteries died and in all of the excitement I did not get a photo of the Franken-cake at any stage to share with you. However, we DID get to honor a wonderful woman's birthday with candles, chocolate, and song. And THAT is what this is all about.

There is a good lesson here. You can't control everything, but it is what is underneath that counts. With a little ingenuity, creativity, and grace you come away with a few extra laughs at the party.