October 21, 2012
I made this cake for my restaurant’s nacho-loving chef/owner.  I made the flecks in the chips by kneading some chocolate cake crumbs into fondant, and the olives, tomatoes and jalapenos are made of white modeling chocolate.  The nacho cheese and sour cream are buttercream, and I made the refried beans by mixing red velvet and chocolate cake crumbs with buttercream.  As I was putting all the decorations onto the cake, I couldn’t help but laugh with every step, because it was transforming from cake to nachos right before my eyes.  Such a fun cake!

I made this cake for my restaurant’s nacho-loving chef/owner.  I made the flecks in the chips by kneading some chocolate cake crumbs into fondant, and the olives, tomatoes and jalapenos are made of white modeling chocolate.  The nacho cheese and sour cream are buttercream, and I made the refried beans by mixing red velvet and chocolate cake crumbs with buttercream.  As I was putting all the decorations onto the cake, I couldn’t help but laugh with every step, because it was transforming from cake to nachos right before my eyes.  Such a fun cake!

August 28, 2012

The Story:  I made this cake for the exec. chef of my restaurant, John, who loves bulldogs!  I was excited to make this cake, because it required a lot of sculpting, which I haven’t done much.  The biggest difficulty making this cake was finding time to make it— I kept having to wait until John left every night, and he works pretty late!  As soon as he left, usually around 11pm, I quickly worked on the cake before going home, haha.

The Cake:  The body of the bulldog is chocolate cake soaked with bourbon (another favorite of John’s) layered with chocolate icing.  The head, feet and tail were made of rice krispie treat.  (I’ve seen cake designers like Elisa Straus make sculpted dog cakes using styrofoam for the heads instead of cake.  But styrofoam ain’t tasty, and I think it’s cheating, and it’s a pain to work with anyway, so I went with rice krispie treat, and it worked beautifully, and deliciously!)  The cake and rice krispie were decorated with fondant.  Love the smile. :)

August 28, 2012
The Story:  This was a fun cake that I made for our restaurant’s 4th of July staff party.  I didn’t want to do the typical cheesy ultra patriotic American flag cake a la Martha Stewart or moms on Pinterest.  Instead, I was inspired by this great local graffiti art in Philly that I’ve seen of Ben Franklin holding a boombox.  So I made the boombox Ben image out of white chocolate, and then set him against an abstract American flag, whose red stripes look like brick wall.  I was pretty happy with the design!   The Cake:  I went all American and went with boxed Funfetti cake and American buttercream!  I also made the 3 layers red, white and blue, which was a fun surprise.

The Story:  This was a fun cake that I made for our restaurant’s 4th of July staff party.  I didn’t want to do the typical cheesy ultra patriotic American flag cake a la Martha Stewart or moms on Pinterest.  Instead, I was inspired by this great local graffiti art in Philly that I’ve seen of Ben Franklin holding a boombox.  So I made the boombox Ben image out of white chocolate, and then set him against an abstract American flag, whose red stripes look like brick wall.  I was pretty happy with the design!  

The Cake:  I went all American and went with boxed Funfetti cake and American buttercream!  I also made the 3 layers red, white and blue, which was a fun surprise.

August 28, 2012
The Story:  I made this cake for a co-worker’s girlfriend, whose birthday party was a private cheese tasting at a local cheese shop.  At first my co-worker Joe wanted a topsy turvy cake, similar to one than I had made in the past for a Sweet 16.  After thinking about it, I suggested making a cake that looked like a cheeseboard instead, and Joe loved the idea!   The Cake:  The cake is actually made of 4 different flavors of cake, inspired by the birthday girl’s favorite desserts.  The board is carrot cake, and the cakes on top were coffee buttercream, creme brûlée and chocolate chip-cherry.  Joe requested caramelized sugar bits in the brulee cake, and I’m glad he did, because it challenged me to figure out how to make that happen.  And now, thanks to some chef friends’ advice, I now have a GREAT recipe for creme brulee cake, complete with caramelized sugar bits, and it’s DELICIOUS.   My favorite part of the cake is the look of the brulee cake, whose look was inspired by La Tur cheese… I covered the cake (which was sponge cake layered with creme brûlée sprinkled with caramelized sugar and covered with a little buttercream) with fondant I tinted ivory, and then I coated it in a mixture of cornstarch and powdered sugar, and “wrapped” it in edible rice paper.  

The Story:  I made this cake for a co-worker’s girlfriend, whose birthday party was a private cheese tasting at a local cheese shop.  At first my co-worker Joe wanted a topsy turvy cake, similar to one than I had made in the past for a Sweet 16.  After thinking about it, I suggested making a cake that looked like a cheeseboard instead, and Joe loved the idea!  

The Cake:  The cake is actually made of 4 different flavors of cake, inspired by the birthday girl’s favorite desserts.  The board is carrot cake, and the cakes on top were coffee buttercream, creme brûlée and chocolate chip-cherry.  Joe requested caramelized sugar bits in the brulee cake, and I’m glad he did, because it challenged me to figure out how to make that happen.  And now, thanks to some chef friends’ advice, I now have a GREAT recipe for creme brulee cake, complete with caramelized sugar bits, and it’s DELICIOUS.  

My favorite part of the cake is the look of the brulee cake, whose look was inspired by La Tur cheese… I covered the cake (which was sponge cake layered with creme brûlée sprinkled with caramelized sugar and covered with a little buttercream) with fondant I tinted ivory, and then I coated it in a mixture of cornstarch and powdered sugar, and “wrapped” it in edible rice paper.  

August 28, 2012
Avengers cupcakes!  My favorite: HULK SMASH!

Avengers cupcakes!  My favorite: HULK SMASH!

July 10, 2012

I was asked to make two display wedding cakes for a photo shoot.  Instantly I got excited, because I practically never have complete control when choosing the design.  I personally really like clean, modern cakes, with less traditional silhouettes (I love them tall and narrow), and big exaggerated flowers.  If I get married anytime soon, my cake will look something like this!  (And yes, I would make it myself.) :)

June 13, 2012
The Story:  This was a birthday cake for a one year old girl, a co-worker’s niece.  My co-worker wasn’t sure what she had wanted the cake to look like, but she was set on the flavors of honey and toasted almond (delicious!).  I initially suggested a cake that looked like a beehive, but then I remembered a Winnie the Pooh design that I had seen on Pinterest.  (Yes, I am a huge dork and sometimes spend my free time looking at cake designs!)  So it’s the Winnie the Pooh cake that we went with. The Cake: Sponge cake with honey buttercream and a toasted almond mousse filling, with some toasted almonds for crunch.  The figurines were made of white modeling chocolate, and the dots on the cake were painted straight onto the buttercream cake.  It was requested that I not use fondant.  I wish I had received the cake order sooner, because I would have covered the cake in marzipan— I think the overall look would have looked cleaner.  Maybe next time!

The Story:  This was a birthday cake for a one year old girl, a co-worker’s niece.  My co-worker wasn’t sure what she had wanted the cake to look like, but she was set on the flavors of honey and toasted almond (delicious!).  I initially suggested a cake that looked like a beehive, but then I remembered a Winnie the Pooh design that I had seen on Pinterest.  (Yes, I am a huge dork and sometimes spend my free time looking at cake designs!)  So it’s the Winnie the Pooh cake that we went with.

The Cake: Sponge cake with honey buttercream and a toasted almond mousse filling, with some toasted almonds for crunch.  The figurines were made of white modeling chocolate, and the dots on the cake were painted straight onto the buttercream cake.  It was requested that I not use fondant.  I wish I had received the cake order sooner, because I would have covered the cake in marzipan— I think the overall look would have looked cleaner.  Maybe next time!

June 13, 2012

The Story:  This was a very important cake to me, made for my best friend of over 25 years, Tanjay.  Tanjay and her husband Tony had an amazingly stylish and intimate wedding at the Long Beach Museum of Art in Southern California.  She enlisted her friends to help her put the wedding together— the photography, the music, the flowers, the invitations, the decorations, and my part, the cake were all services provided by friends!  Everything came together BEAUTIFULLY, and it was obvious that so much love went into the wedding.  

My big challenge for this cake was transporting it!  I live in Philadelphia, and the wedding was in California.  I packed the actual cake layers on dry ice and overnighted it to Cali, and on my flight I checked in suitcases filled with tools and buttercream, and I carried all the fragile parts of the cake as my carry-ons onto the plane!  When I got to Cali, I took over my dad’s kitchen and worked on the cake for a couple of days.  Luckily, everything went as smoothly as I had planned.

The cake went with the wedding’s travel theme, as well as the color scheme of navy blue, gray and magenta.  The cake was further personalized by the luggage stickers on the cake, representing locations important to both Tanjay and Tony.  (Those cities were also the cake table names— so cute!)  I hand-painted all the fondant with food coloring, using in some cases actual vintage luggage stickers as inspiration. 

The Cake:  It was important to Tanjay that the cake stood apart from your average bland wedding cake of just cake and icing, and she wanted something fresh and seasonal.  We went with a light vanilla pound cake with a vanilla cream filling, packed with fresh strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, all finished with italian buttercream.  Everyone loved it!

April 15, 2012
The Cake:  I made this cake for my very first cake competition!  Let Them Eat Cake, a yearly event whose proceeds benefit the City of Hope, happens every year in Philly.  This year’s theme was a circus wedding cake theme.  As soon as my boss suggested that I participate, I knew that I did not want a wacky red, yellow and blue cake.  I decided instead to try to go with a vintage circus feel with a more muted, subtle and sophisticated color palette, and I knew I wanted a modern, funky silhouette.  And because I love elephants I decided to focus on circus elephants as my inspiration.  I had a ton of fun working on the cake, but finding the time to work on it while helping to run a busy restaurant was a huge struggle!   My favorite details in the cake are the circus “love” letters, the circus peanuts (which I molded out of white modeling chocolate), and, most of all, the nearly microscopic teeny tiny mouse on the top tier, next to the girl elephant.   At the competition, it instantly became obvious to me that the other competitors had dedicated far more time to their cakes than I; my cake looked so simple next to theirs!  I was amazed and humbled by their workmanship, and I was once again reminded that I have much to learn.  I did not win any awards, but it was still a great experience… I stayed true to myself and my style, I accomplished my goal of making a believable circus wedding cake, and the end product was very close to my initial vision— for those reasons, I felt that my cake was a success! The Cake:  I was very proud of the taste of the cake, and I was really hoping to win the “Best Taste” award.   (We lost to a bakery that made a cotton candy buttercream!  So fun.)  We made a moist chocolate cake with chocolate icing and caramel corn mousse.  The idea of incorporating the circus theme into the cake flavor was my boss’ awesome idea.  I made caramel corn, then infused it into cream and made it into a mousse.  For texture, I folded in chopped caramel corn before letting it set.  The little bits of crunchy caramel in the mousse were a delicious surprise!  

The Cake:  I made this cake for my very first cake competition!  Let Them Eat Cake, a yearly event whose proceeds benefit the City of Hope, happens every year in Philly.  This year’s theme was a circus wedding cake theme.  As soon as my boss suggested that I participate, I knew that I did not want a wacky red, yellow and blue cake.  I decided instead to try to go with a vintage circus feel with a more muted, subtle and sophisticated color palette, and I knew I wanted a modern, funky silhouette.  And because I love elephants I decided to focus on circus elephants as my inspiration.  I had a ton of fun working on the cake, but finding the time to work on it while helping to run a busy restaurant was a huge struggle!  

My favorite details in the cake are the circus “love” letters, the circus peanuts (which I molded out of white modeling chocolate), and, most of all, the nearly microscopic teeny tiny mouse on the top tier, next to the girl elephant.  

At the competition, it instantly became obvious to me that the other competitors had dedicated far more time to their cakes than I; my cake looked so simple next to theirs!  I was amazed and humbled by their workmanship, and I was once again reminded that I have much to learn.  I did not win any awards, but it was still a great experience… I stayed true to myself and my style, I accomplished my goal of making a believable circus wedding cake, and the end product was very close to my initial vision— for those reasons, I felt that my cake was a success!

The Cake:  I was very proud of the taste of the cake, and I was really hoping to win the “Best Taste” award.   (We lost to a bakery that made a cotton candy buttercream!  So fun.)  We made a moist chocolate cake with chocolate icing and caramel corn mousse.  The idea of incorporating the circus theme into the cake flavor was my boss’ awesome idea.  I made caramel corn, then infused it into cream and made it into a mousse.  For texture, I folded in chopped caramel corn before letting it set.  The little bits of crunchy caramel in the mousse were a delicious surprise!  

April 15, 2012
The Story:  This is a cake I made for my chef’s birthday.  He plays the banjo and loves it, and therefore loves this peanuts cartoon.  I found the cartoon on the internet, copied and printed the image, and then traced the image with white and dark chocolate on acetate.  After the chocolate set, I simply peeled off the acetate.  The image was not as perfect as I would like, but it still turned out nice, and my chef loved it! The Cake:  Vanilla and chocolate cake layers with American buttercream, vanilla cream filling, caramel sauce, cookie crunch and caramel sugar.  The snoopy figurine was made of white modeling chocolate.

The Story:  This is a cake I made for my chef’s birthday.  He plays the banjo and loves it, and therefore loves this peanuts cartoon.  I found the cartoon on the internet, copied and printed the image, and then traced the image with white and dark chocolate on acetate.  After the chocolate set, I simply peeled off the acetate.  The image was not as perfect as I would like, but it still turned out nice, and my chef loved it!

The Cake:  Vanilla and chocolate cake layers with American buttercream, vanilla cream filling, caramel sauce, cookie crunch and caramel sugar.  The snoopy figurine was made of white modeling chocolate.