Archives for August 2011

Goodbye, California

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Erica OBrien in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Today is my last day before I move to Connecticut from California after almost six. I’ve met a lot of wonderful people, and I’ll miss them all, but I wanted to say a special goodbye to some of the friends and family who mean the most to me here.

My Father-In-Law, Pat
Pat is generous to a fault, ridiculously tolerant of others, and extremely forgiving. Over the years I’ve passed no fewer than four of our pets on to Pat, and he’s loved even the most unlovable amongst them. My daughters love him wildly. I would not hesitate to call him if I were stranded somewhere, and the last time I flew back to California from Connecticut, he picked me up at LAX at 1:30am even though he had to work the next morning at 5. He’s not the type to say “I love you” or “I’m proud”, yet there is something so warm and loving about him you just know without a doubt that he does.  So thank you Pat, for being a wonderful father, grandfather, and father-in-law. I love you. And what’s not to love about this?

My friend Christina
Christina has a very special talent that enables her to complain about just about anything. Comment on the beautiful weather, and she’ll complain that she can’t wear her hoodie. It’s actually a rather endearing quality and she has a good sense of humor about it. She’s the most dedicated teacher I know, and I have tremendous respect for her professionally. Plus, her husband is on my highly regarded Top 10 Funniest People I Know list. She has twin boys now, and I have two kids, so things are a little different, but she’s been a really good friend. We couldn’t be more different, but I love her just the same. I’ll miss you so much Christina.

Right: Christina–wearing her hoodie, of course–with her twin boys.

My friend Megan
Megan pushes me creatively and challenges me intellectually. She’s the Lucy to my Ethel (albeit a post-Little Ricky Lucy who couldn’t get into too much trouble), and she’s way more hip than I’ll ever be. Her house is sort of like a museum, filled with interesting things you’re just not cool enough to have in your own house. She and her equally hip husband have a cat, Abigail, whom they’ve not only assigned a very human personality but also a very human voice. It’s too bad I’m moving, because although Megan currently refuses to do the Abigail voice for me, I’ve been inching closer and closer to persuading her to do it. All I needed was a few more months and the aid of a few margaritas, and I’d be having a very intellectual exchange with Abigail.

Frank
Frank is the guy you call to ask if he knows a guy that knows how to: fix a dishwasher; replace an alternator; repair termite damage; move your entire household across the country; etc., but instead of referring you to someone else, he’s over in an hour to do it himself. He’s one of the warmest, most generous people I know. He’s got two solid, grounded sons and a baby granddaughter who is sure to adore him and incredibly lucky to have him. He’s everything you would want in a friend, in a dad, or in a repairman,. My husband and I are eternally grateful to him and will miss him immensely. Thank you Frank, for everything.

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BRIDES Magazine’s Most Beautiful Cakes {Part II}

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Erica OBrien in brides magazine most beautiful | 9 Comments

Back in May I wrote about two of the sketches I submitted to Bride’s Magazine for their Most Beautiful Cakes issue that were ultimately rejected. I was sworn to secrecy on my two other design submissions, but now that the issue is on newsstands, I’m free to share.

I love interior designer Jonathan Adler. His Nixon rug, left, is a favorite of mine, and I thought it could be fantastic on a cake. I wanted to juxtapose the edginess of the geometric print of the rug against something soft and romantic, like garden roses. Below right is the mood board I submitted.

And the sketch of the cake I envisioned:

My second concept was also based on interior design elements. I really like Ethan Allen’s starburst mirror (below), and thought it would work well against a neutral color.

Here’s the starburst mirror sketch:

The next step in the process once the design was accepted was to submit a sugar “tile”–a flat piece of fondant (I backed mine with foamcore board) approximately 8″ by 8″. Brides editor Maria McBride–yes, that’s her real name–wanted to see the Adler cake with both the garden rose and the starburst mirror.

For the Adler pattern, I commissioned a stencil which I airbrushed onto the fondant tile using a custom-mixed color. Below left, my sugar tile with the Adler pattern and starburst mirror (yes–it’s broken. I realized after I packed it that I hadn’t taken a picture and as I was taking it out of the box, I smashed it), and below right my rather un-gardeny garden rose, a work in progress.

Within a week or two of submitting my tile, and to my great surprise, I got an email from Ms. McBride saying that they wanted me to create the Adler cake with the starburst mirror for the BRIDES Most Beautiful Cakes shoot on May 10th in New York. There was still no guarantee my cake would make it into the magazine, since shipping disasters and design difficulties have been known to render even the most perfect of cake concepts unworthy of print. I wasn’t taking any chances: I booked my ticket to New York and delivered my cake personally. After waiting for what seemed an excruciatingly long time, Maria McBride emailed to say the Adler cake had been accepted for print. I’m proud to announce that our cake is now one of BRIDES Most Beautiful Cakes! Below, the cover and inside of the September, 2011 BRIDES Magazine.

And an individual shot of our Adler cake as seen on the BRIDES website:

Thank you to the wonderfully supportive people in my life who rooted for me, got their hands blue for me (my husband Cory and friend Megan of Honey and Poppies), watched my kids for me (Mom, Pat), and insisted on driving me, paying for all tolls and gas, and saying she had fun (my sister, The Soup Girl).
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On Purple Fondant

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Erica OBrien in fondant, tips + tools, Wedding Cakes | 13 Comments

If you work with fondant–and since you’re reading this you probably do–you’ve likely found that purple fondant quickly fades to a shade of blue that barely resembles its formerly purple self. I was researching the issue and came across this Flour Confections blog post which I read with fascination.
The post begins:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
My purple fondant is fading
Is this happening to you?
With their permission, I’ve paraphrased the rest of “Why Is Purple Making Me So Blue?“ here:
When the FDA banned Red Dye No. 2 in 1976 after it was linked to cancer, the FDA-approved Red Dye No. 40 took its place. Compared to Red No. 2, Red 40, as it’s known in the industry, is less stable, more expensive, and requires anywhere from 30%-50% more color to achieve proper saturation. Red 40 is UV intolerant, so any UV light (including bright lights) will cause it to fade. Because purple is a mix of red and blue, when the red fades, the blue remains, and your purple fondant turns blue .
To prevent fading, store purple fondant and gumpaste out of the light, in a dark bag or container and in a cupboard. Keep finished cakes, flowers, decorations, etc. in a dark place for as long as possible. According to Lisa of Flour Confections, cakes that are airbrushed purple do not fade, so consider airbrushing your fondant purple instead of kneading in purple food coloring. You can also use a more stable colorant. SugarFlair colors are more concentrated than other food colors and their Grape Violet contains E122, a more stable red than Red 40. [Note: Sugarflair colors are not FDA approved for food use. I couldn't find them for sale in the U.S., but they are widely available in Australia and Britain.]

Finally, when the pH of your fondant or gumpaste is not balanced, the red can fade out. To balance the pH, you can add an alkali such as baking soda. A good ratio is 1 tsp of baking soda per 1 lb of fondant or gumpaste.
 
This brings me to my blog post. I wanted to see for myself the effect of baking soda on purple fondant, so I conducted a little experiment.

I used both Wilton’s Violet and AmeriColor’s violet to test whether they fade differently. I colored a small amount of Satin Ice fondant. (I specify the fondant brand because I didn’t test to see if different fondants react with the color differently and fade differently.) The Wilton (on the left) is more of  a true purple while the AmeriColor (right) is more of a periwinkle with a strong blue appearance.

I then added 1/4 teaspoon baking powder to 14 grams of each color (a much higher ratio than that recommended by Flour Confections) and left the remaining purple unaltered.

To ensure that the fondant would dry evenly, I rolled each piece to the same thickness using my KitchenAid pasta attachment.
The baking soda didn’t change the Wilton color at all at this point, but as soon as I kneaded the baking soda into the AmeriColor purple, the most fascinating thing happened! The AmeriColor turned from a periwinkle into a true purple. I couldn’t believe it!
 

I then set them directly in the blazing sun for an hour to see what would happen. (Note where the shadows from the food coloring containers are. These areas did not fade as much as you will see in the final photo.)

After an hour (give or take–I kind of forgot to time it), these are the results.

The unaltered AmeriColor purple (far left) actually retained the red (and remained more purple) than the AmeriColor with added baking soda. The Wilton fondant with added baking soda (far right) remained more true to color than the fondant without baking soda. For both brands, the fondant that was in the shadow of the food coloring containers held up way better than the fondant in the direct sun, demonstrating the importance of keeping purple fondant away from UV light.
Conclusions. Keep purple fondant away from UV light to prevent fading. Always do a test strip both with baking soda and without to determine the best way to retain the purple color. Note that other brands of fondant might react differently with purple and might fade differently. Know that some fading is unavoidable. And, of course, hope for the best!
Thanks so much to Lisa and Flour Confections for doing all the research and for allowing me to paraphrase their post. Their efforts have helped countless cake artists.
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East Coast Bound

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Erica OBrien in wedding cake | 10 Comments
I could go on and on about how we came to this decision and why, and I probably will at some point, but for now I just want to officially announce that we are moving back to the east coast on August 25th. I will greatly miss my friends and colleagues here in California, but I’m also excited to be near my family and lifelong friends back home. We’ll be setting up shop somewhere around New Haven, Connecticut.

Over the next few months, as I establish my business in our new location, I’ll be working on a few special projects, getting organized, and blogging. Lots and lots of blogging. I look forward to sharing this next chapter with you.

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Our New Website!

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Erica OBrien in for the baker, for the bride, wedding cake | 1 Comment

I’ve waited a long time for this. Our new website went live on Friday, July 29th. It took a day or so to work out some kinks, and I might have gotten a little overzealous on the image sizes in the galleries, but it’s here and I love it. I’d like to thank Joe Renteria of Webpage Dynamics, who held my hand through my first website five years ago and exhibited tremendous patience and understanding this time around too. Thank you Joe! Also, I am extremely grateful to my friend Alison Neuru, who translated her skills as a post-production photo retoucher into website designer. Lastly, thank you to Monica Majors of Paper Cut Industries who skillfully designed our new logo. I am fortunate to have such wonderful (and talented and savvy) friends.

Here’s a screen shot of the brand spanking new Erica OBrien Cake Design site. (To see the rest, please visit our site.) I hope you love it as much as we do!

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