Frosting Fruit For A Christmas Cake

 
If your looking  for a super simple yet elegant decoration for a cake or a centerpiece, you should watch this.
The cake is a basket weave two tier. I also used fresh flowers besides the fruit. Enjoy!

Salisbury Breads and Wedding Cakes For You

 A Great Combination

Last summer I was invited at the last minute to a girlfriends 50th birthday celebration. Naturally I told them I would bring a cake for this very special occasion. I literally threw together whatever I could find in my freezer.Thank goodness I almost always have spare cakes waiting to be used for emergencies like this.

 

The cake ended up being a combination of chocolate, and vanilla layers with strawberry buttercream and chocolate mousse. Sort of like the Neapolitan ice cream we used to eat as kids.

We sang the happy birthday song and everyone ooohd and ahhhd, Gloria and I cut the cake and passed all the pieces around. Thank god it was delicious because her brother Bruce, a very high end chef, was in attendance. I had forgotten that her brother was a chef. He was was very, very quiet until he tasted the cake. Suddenly he came alive and started asking me about my recipes. Turns out he was searching for some one like me to come along with a decent cake. LOL He apparently had tasted quite a few in his search.

Long story short I have since made a few cakes for his events and they were well received. So well in fact that Bruce Young and his partner in business Pete Hathaway asked me to partner with them with my cakes. I am very proud to announce that I will be baking and decorating the cakes for them for all of their upcoming events. Check out their website and click on the CAKES Icon at the top.

Cake Decorating Contest To Benefit Icing Smiles

 Cake Is Happiness

Especially for a child with a serious illness. Everyone and anyone who has a photo of a cake you baked and decorated can help to make it possible for Icing Smiles to keep delivering special cakes to special kids and their families. For a small donation / entry fee and a story to go with your picture you can join in. Check out the details and GREAT prizes too for two winners at the end of the 30 day contest form our wonderful and generous sponsors.

Hi this is Lorelie from Wedding Cakes For You website,

Wedding Cakes For You is hosting a fundraiser to benefit Icing Smiles at the website. Wouldn't it be great to know that your cake pictures, stories and a small donation helped to bring joy to a child suffering with a critical illness? Please join in by adding one of your beautiful cakes and sharing a fun story, a recipe, tip or cake decorating technique.

 The donation/entry is $10.00 but you can donate more if you like. Details are at the website.Please let others know about this important fundraiser to benefit a GREAT organization. I appreciate your help in making this a success and so does icing Smiles and all of the kids that they bring smiles to. 

The contest is open to all occasion cakes as well as wedding cakes and there are great prizes too. Starts November 1 2013 ends November 30 2013. http://www.wedding-cakes-for-you.com/cake-decorating-contest-fundraiser.html 

 

Hurry Contest starts on Friday. People are entering as I write this! The sooner you get your cakes up the better. Go to the site, check out Icing Smiles if you have not heard of them before and then SHARE! Thank You Very Much :-)

 ~Lorelie Carvey~

Apple hobo pie recipe

Love this easy and really yummy hot pie over the campfrie. Its a GREAT fall fun activity.
The recipe is on the video. Enjoy!!!!

Square Wedding Cake Surprise Wins The Contest

I love it when a guy makes a wedding cake. Especially this guy Ray. He's a truck driver by trade but when his son said he was getting married, he went all out. 

The wedding cake contest at my website has started. In fact it started last month again after a little time off. It's somewhat of a slow start this time but I'm sure the pace will pick up as it did last year. After a 12 month contest a grand prize is given to the winner. Cake Stackers sponsors this contest with a monthly prize and  grand prize (their fondant mat)  Each month a winner is chosen not only by the picture and design, but also by the story that goes with it.

A Slightly Different View of this Massive Cake 

The story is a very important part of the entries. They need to be either fun and entertaining or contain helpful tips, cake decorating techniques or a recipe. Rays cake is so unique that he was chosen as the September winner. Here is the link if you would like to read his Square Wedding Cake Surprise story and get an idea as to how Ray made the cake and the gorgeous wedding cake stand.

Congratulations to Ray for an outstanding job.

Aloha From Georgia

NEW  Featured Cake Decorator at Wedding Cakes For You

 

Aloha from Georgia!!! Sarah Scott makes Cakes and Cupcakes from her home in Georgia. She is one of those very creative self taught decoartors and has her own unique style. Sarah started coming to the website a few years ago and entered a cake decorating contest with her 4th of July cake.

She Won First Place!!!

 

Because of her helpfullness to others and her talents I wanted to feature Sarah of Aloha Cakes and Cupcakes. Cake decorating is a family affair for Sarah, and her kids love to participate.  You can read her full story on how she started a business doing something that she loves at this link.

 

A Small Wedding Cake With Fresh Flowers

Ok so a small wedding cake and a birthday cake. WE celebrated my son Chads 26th birthday today! and my son Johnathon's recent marriage.This is Chad! Probably his first experience with cake. He spent many hours in the kitchen with mom as she baked and decorated over the years from home.

 Chad Then

Chad Now

So this is Chad now, basically a rock star! He received a new guitar today as a gift from his dad. So many cakes in between. Chocolate being his fave, I made the classic buttermilk chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling.

 

The Small Wedding Cake With Fresh Flowers 

Simple yet elegant, this little mini cake was a sampler for my son Johnathon and his new wife Alexa. They were married by the justice of the peace recently. The wedding party will be held in January. The cake is a coconut cake with fresh pineapple custard filling and butter cream frosting. 

The newlyweds are very earthy and I wanted to keep the cake very simple with fresh flowers. So my garden Hydrangeas and Mums were perfect for the occasion. The goblets were perfect for the champagne toast because they sort of have a Renaissance feeling to them and that is a theme that they have been considering for the party. Everyone LOVED the cakes. It was a wonderful family get together.

See more easy ways to decorate a wedding cake with fresh flowers.

All Sweet Occasions

Truly Talented

All Sweet Occasions is the name of Matthew's business in Newtown CT. which happens to be a short drive from my home. I paid a visit today to taste some of Matt's goodies. WOW!!! You can see my full review at the wedding-cakes-for-you website on his premium All Sweet Occasions business listing page.

 Hand crafted chocolates are one of  the many delicacies offered by All Sweet Occasions

Matthew Kirshner, is truly talented. 

With The Russian Tea Room and The Essex House Hotel in New York City on his list of experiences, and his decade of practicing the art of bread and pastry making, Matt is well on his way to a very successful business and career.

 

Wedding cakes can also be designed and delivered through Matthews business, he has a personal cake decorator on staff.

If you have a business that you want to get noticed, contact me or go to the cake decorating business directory page where you can purchase a full page premium listing for a VERY reasonable rate. I'm talking cheap, but for a limited time only. It includes a free custom video, ads free page and a comment section where your customers can leave their testimonials and rate your business, plus more.....

Happy Baking and Cake Decorating!

A Surfer Celebrity Cake?

I had the pleasure today of delivering two cakes to a special dinner party hosted by Joan Rivers. The surfer cake is for her grandson Cooper and the other cake (not shown) is for a friend. To me the choice was clear between a Lacrosse or a surfer theme cake. The show stopper had to be the surfing cake.

Although the cake looks simple enough it was quite the contrary. I always underestimate the amount of work involved with these types of cakes. In the long run the little surfer guy on top saved the day! The flavor was chocolate with chocolate ganache filling. Nice and solid. The wave was a two layered 6 inch cake turned sideways and shaped into the wave shape. The buttercream on the wave was super easy to do, just swirl the white and blue together and plop it on.

The gumpaste decorations were made a day in advance and shaped using two round objects and then trimmed down to the sizes I needed.

The bottom tier was originally going to be blue fondant but the fondant was not working for me. :-( buttercream actually worked very well with this design anyway. The gumpaste waves were added right before delivering the cake, and little round buttercream bubbles were the final embellishment along with the brown sugar for sand around the bottom. Here is a photo of the whole cake finished.

And another slightly different angle

The ride to Joan Rivers house inn New Preston CT was not fun. Those of you who know about delivering cakes know too well how not fun it is LOL. But the cake made it in one piece and the chef said it was exactly what he had hope I would do and that they would be blown away. Yey!!! I hope it makes the cut of the reality show that they are filming tonight.

Frosting Flowers

Frosting Flowers

The latest wedding cake I made was an old fashioned buttercream cake with frosting flowers. Mainly buttercream roses. So it was the perfect time to make a NEW video on piping the classic flower.

Enjoy!!!
 I love making videos and cake decorating sharing techniques with everyone. But it is quite a challenge to do this on your own with no videographer, so bear with me in the video as I sometimes move out of range.You can see more at the website about making buttercream flowers. Here is the link to the brand new frosting flowers page.

Old Fashioned Buttercream Wedding Cake

Buttercream Makes a Comeback

Buttercream frsoting is still a great way to decorate a wedding cake. It's been a while since even I have done an old fashioned all buttercream wedding cake. 

 

This cake was another small wedding cake. Lately those are the orders I have been getting. The good news is that they are all going to very high end Litchefield County. The prices are naturally higher there and the brides expect a higher price. In fact they may even be frightened away by a cheaply priced cake. 

The cake itself was an almond butter cake. For now you can find the recipe at the website on the White wedding cake recipe page.

The cake is filled and frosted with White chocolate buttercream. A brand new page at the website. Link to it from the filling and the frosting pages.

Happy Baking and Cake Decorating Everyone!

Small Wedding Cake Big On Flavor

A Small Wedding Cake Big on Flavor

This little wedding cake was bursting with flavor. The chocolate buttermilk cake from the my website is tried and true. For almost 30 years it has never failed me. Its super easy too, just dump all the ingredients into a mixer and mix. Nothing fancy. The filling was the luscious white chocolate buttercream and nestled within were raspberries. (you can use fresh or individually frozen fruit.)

The wedding reception took place at the beautiful and colorful Ragamont House in Salisbury CT.  The proprietor of the Ragamont , Peter, has decorated the interior with huge splashes of color and eclectic paintings, statues and curiosities. It's really quite beautiful and there is always something new to see at every turn. 

 

The bride and groom decided on a small cutting cake and a large cake in the kitchen for serving to the guests.  Dotted Swiss is a fairly easy design to replicate, although the frosting has to be pretty perfectly smooth and the dots even. 

See more and get the chocolate cake recipe for this cake.

Happy Cake Decorating !!!

Miniature Cupcakes and Brownies For A Country Wedding

Delivering A Wedding Cake To Four Winds Farm

Delivering wedding cakes can be very stressful as some of you know. This particular cake was extra worrisome, because it was for a very upscale wedding. besides the wedding cake, which was actually a very simple cake with fresh flowers, the chef ordered mini cupcakes and mini brownies, which were to be "elegantly decorated".

Thankfully after hours of nor being sure about these little mini's they came out very well. I have come to the conclusion that brownies are not my thing though and I am sticking to cakes. The mini cupcakes were a pleasure and they came out beautifully. All 200 of them Phew!!!!

The cake delivery was smooth and the cake box worked well, although there will be some changes made.

The wedding cake was just for show and for a photo op. The bride was more interested in the cupcakes as a dessert choice for the guests.

 The Best Part

After the delivery and the decorating, the drive home is sometimes really relaxing. This day in Salisbury Ct was gorgeous, the sun was starting to set and the lighting was so perfect for great photos. Here are a few of them for you to enjoy.

 This photograph reminds me of Italy or France although I have never been to either.

I made a short video which tells the story better. I think you will enjoy it. Check out the cows at the end.

The Bride Wants Miniature Brownies

The Bride Wants Miniature Brownies Too

Is it a new trend now? I have three wedding cake orders coming up and all of the brides want a small wedding cake for cutting and a photo op. Tiny desserts in the center of each table will be the focus. Brownies are not something that I do a lot so I have to say I was nervous about how these would turn out. 

They are wonderful! I'm so relieved. was afraid of under baking them, but they came out perfect!

I would give out the recipe for these but it is not mine to share. Bruce from the Salisbury Breads asked me to use his special recipe. Now I know why. These are melt in your mouth wonderful, especially with the addition of chocolate ganache and a little chocolate drizzle that I did on waxed paper, then sprinkled with sugar crystals for added glitter and glitz.

 

I experimented with two sizes. I like the rectangular, two bite mock up. They will be on a platter with the little cupcakes from the previous posting and they need to be similar in size. If you would like the ganache recipe you can see it at the website. And a video on how to make the decoration is on my wedding-cakes-for-youYoutube channel - link to easy chocolate decoration

Enjoy!!!!

Happy Cake Decorating and Baking :-)

Wedding Cake Boxes

Wedding Cake Boxes

So I asked a friend if he had any ideas for a safe way to deliver a wedding cake. The only criteria I gave him was that it had to have a place for putting dry ice. Here is his design. WOW! I think my cake will make it!

How many of you are tired of stressing about the delivery process of your precious weddig cakes? I know I was. One thing that I realized after years of delivering in a risky manner is that one of these days it will happen. Cake disaster!!!! I would not take that chance on this weekends cake which the bride is paying a LOT of money for.

Ironically the cake is not huge nor is it fancy. Its just that the bakery that placed the order with me is in a very expensive part of town. Frankly the bride would be horrified to pay the amount I used to charge.

Follow me as I deliver this pretty plain but expensive three tiered wedding cake and 200 tiny cupcakes and brownies to a mansion in Salisbury CT. I am very excited to try my prototype out and see if it needs tweaking or not.

Happy Baking, Decorating and now Delivering to everyone!!!!!

You can follow on Facebook too.

Gumpaste Cupcake Decorations

Cupcake Decorations

Baking and decorating wedding cakes is like a piece of cake to me. Pun intended! For almost 30 years I have been creating them and I can whip one off without much thought, but baking lots of little pastries and desserts is another story.

That is the story for this weekends wedding. Lots of miniatures - 600 and possibly more....Yikes! Here is the start of the production. Since I am making tiny cupcakes (probably two small bites worth) and the guests were not going to eat much of the actual smallish wedding cake, the little wedding cupcakes needed some sort of special yet simple decoration.

For the gumpaste flowers and leaves you can use a simple filler flower which comes in a kit. You can get the whole set through my website wedding cake supplies page or at most craft stores.

 

I highly recommend the small fondant and gumpaste roller. It has rubber sizers that you can remove or add as needed for even rolling. I used to use a regular rolling pin, but it is hard to get the paste to roll out evenly. I use the gumpaste mix from Wilton because it's convenient and easy to make. You can also see an example of it.here.

The perfect little wedding cake cupcake. Ready for some cupcake decorations :-)

The easy chocolate cake recipe I use for these yummy little chocolate morsels.

For more information about cupcake designs go to the cupcake section on my website.

Tester cupcake decorations. Buttercream swirl, a sprinkle of coconut, a small gumpaste flower and leaf and gold sugar crystals.

Happy Baking and Cake Decorating!!!!

Wedding Cakes With Fresh Flowers

Wedding Cakes With Fresh Flowers

 

 

 Part of the beauty of using fresh flowers on a wedding cake is that they can be used as a cover up. LOL if you have a crack in the buttercream or you want to cover up some other oops, a small flower or some greenery may be all that you need.

This cake with fresh flowers is an oldie but goodie. I used Nasturtiums from my garden.. They are actually Edible. The colors are vibrant and just by luck matched the wallpaper.

Fresh flowers surrounding a fountain can be a spectacular addition. Use them to fill up the pillared area underneath a cake tier too. 

See more on wedding cakes with fresh flowers at the website. Add your ideas, cakes and stories there if you would like to share. 

Happy Cake Decorating!!!

A Cake Decorating Tip

Cake Decorating Tip 

Stop the annoying cake slide with a simple trick... A damp cloth has always worked for me, but you can also purchase those foam sticky shelf liners at Walmart for this. Sometimes frosting the little cakes is more of a challenge than the larger ones.

Frosting a cake well takes practice. A LOT of practice. Always crumb coat your cakes first, also called dirty icing. This will hold any loose crumbs in place when you go to put the final frost on.

Another trick to keep in mind is to not try to make it look pretty too soon.  This will lead to frustration and a big mess. Put a lot of frosting on, way more than you need then spread it on to cover the cake. This is when you start to clean it up. Go back and scrape the excess off little by little until it is smooth.

If you are a beginner than you may want to try using a comb to make your sides look nice.

 

Happy Cake Decorating!

Cupcake Wedding Cake On The Beach

Cupcake Wedding Cake

 Sarah and Mike's cupcake wedding cake was gorgeous. Better pics are coming. I took this one but the lighting wasn't so good. Well I may be less than happy with the photo but the cake was a huge success. I love the blackboard idea.

The cupcakes needed to be delivered undecorated. Luckily there was a perfect workstation right there by the cake table. The caterers Szabos Seafood were so nice and let me use one of their table linens to do my work on, loaned me a silver platter for the extra cupcakes and helped me carry my stuff to the car afterwards. THANK you Cathy, Dan and staff :-)
 The wedding cupcake tower is made of heavy cardboard. I was a little concerned because it did droop a little bit from the weight of the cupcakes and the humidity in the air did not help. But all in all it looked beautiful.

 

 A close up of the elegant chocolate cupcakes with vanilla, strawberry and chocolate icing.Wilton Sprinkles were used to add some sparkle.

 

 The extras on a silver plate decorated with fresh flowers.

 

Afterwards I took a nice relaxing walk on the beach and caught this photo of the wedding tent on the beach front.My favorite thing about delivering cakes is exploring the area around the venue. This was especially enjoyable. Russian Beach in Stratford CT.