Wedding Cakes

Meet Callan

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Erica OBrien in birthday cake, Featured, Wedding Cakes | 1 Comment

I am a notoriously terrible judge of character. If I like someone right off the bat, they’re almost guaranteed to turn out to be some sort of sociopath. Every once in a while, however, I get lucky. And in the case of Callan, I got really lucky.

Over the years, I’ve been approached by countless culinary students looking to do their internships with me. Usually, their emails are very generic, and I always get the feeling they’ve just copy/pasted from one email inquiry to the next, replacing Insert Name of Bakery Owner Here with my name. But Callan’s email was different–sincere, heartfelt, flattering without being over the top. I liked her immediately.

Liking someone immediately is normally a red flag for me, a sure indicator that within a very short time she will turn out to be a freak, a serial killer, or both, but in this case it stuck. It quickly became obvious that Callan was not only talented, but also reliable, intelligent, resourceful, and an asset.

This is Callan.

Callan’s internship ended in May, 2012, and I hired her to be my assistant. Callan is everything I am not. Where I tend to eyeball things, Callan takes the time to measure. Where I want to jump headfirst into a project, Callan likes to plan it out. Where I like to rush things, Callan likes to take her time. Where I am inefficient, she is efficient. In short, she is a true gem, and a perfect balance for me.

I’ve always admired people who know from a young age what they want to be (read this post and you’ll know why), and Callan knew from a very young age that she wanted to be a cake designer. Here, a photo of young Callan doing something curiously cake-related.

callans first cake

Callan began entering cake competitions at age eight (eight!). Below, Callan’s first entry at the Durham Fair. (What? You’ve never heard of the Durham Fair is? Neither did I until I met Callan. The Durham Fair is to Durham, CT and all its residents what the Sundance Film Festival is to Park City, Utah, only without all the celebrities. And with a lot more livestock.) Although she didn’t win, she refused to give up, and entered a cake in the Durham Fair every year until her senior year of high school…when she didn’t win and then gave up, making that part of the story far less inspirational and happy ending-ish than I intended. Sorry.

callans first pro cake

I interviewed Callan for this post, and asked her a lot of the questions people frequently ask me.

Erica: What is your favorite cake you’ve ever done?

Callan: I did a Sweet 16 cake with butterflies and pink and black zebra.

Erica: Does it bother you when people eat the cakes you’ve put so much effort into?

[I should mention here that this interview took place a while back and Callan didn't really do much talking for the first year she worked with me.]

Callan: No.

Erica: Are there any cake artists you admire?

Callan: No.

[Really? Not one? Seriously? You can't think of any?]

Erica: So, do you watch the cake shows? [This is probably the question I'm most frequently asked.]

Callan: I watch Amazing Wedding Cakes because I think it’s the most realistic.

[Okay, so maybe this wasn't the most revealing, riveting interview. Journalism is, apparently, much trickier than it seems. Good thing I stuck to cake design.]

It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Callan. I have enjoyed watching her learn and grow as an artist, and have come to rely on her in so many ways. (Those youthful hands in the DIYs I do for Project Wedding? They’re Callan’s.) I look forward to working together for many cakes to come.

Here are a few recent cakes that Callan gets all the credit for.

I love the subtlety of the ruffle on this cake.

erica obrien ombre ruffle

Callan really perfected her chevron technique last summer. This navy and gold cake was a snap for her.

erica obrien gold chevron

I love the movement of the octopus’ legs, and there’s something I love about the sea turtle in this under-the-sea themed cake.

erica obrien under the sea cake

Callan: You know how sometimes you ask me what I’d do without you and I answer, “Find someone else.”? The truth is, I have no idea. Thank you, Callan, for everything.

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Great Gifts for Cake Designers

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Erica OBrien in cake plate, Featured, petalsweet, Wedding Cakes | Leave a comment

Gift giving can be challenging. There are those gifts that only certain people would appreciate (say, a new fly fishing pole) and then those gifts that almost anyone would love. I suppose getting a gift for a cake designer is a lot like that. Sure, I have a whole list of cake design tools that I would absolutely love, but they’re somewhat specific to the kind of cake design I do. There are, however, a whole lot of gifts that would be great for any cake designer, from the passionate amateur to the consummate professional. Here are a few favorites.

1. Cake Design Classes. I learned from Jaqueline Butler that it’s important to continually refine our skills. Like doctors, dentists, hairstylists and other professionals who must stay current with the latest developments in their field, so must cake designers. Of course for aspiring cake artists, classes are the best way to learn the craft. But even for experienced or expert decorators, there’s always something to learn. Thanks to Jacqueline, I now treat myself to at least one class each year. I would love it if someone treated me to one.

Recommend: Craftsy Cake Decorating Classes. Craftsy classes are inexpensive, interactive, and professionally produced. They’re taught online, and students get lifetime access.

2. Cake Stands. The cake stand does for the cake what the high heel does for the leg: makes it appear taller, more regal, and just plain better. Every cake needs a cake stand, and every designer should have at least a few classic stands in her collection.

Recommended: Martha Stewart Whiteware Collection. These cake stands are classic, sturdy, and at around $29 (less if you catch them on sale), a real steal.

3. Gift Certificates. A great one-size-fits-all gift, gift certificates will allow your favorite cake designer to get just what she needs (or, better yet, wants) for Christmas.

Recommended: Global Sugar Art. A great selection with an easy to navigate website. They ship quickly too.

4. Cake Design Books. There are many to choose from, and not all are created equally. Some are more visually appealing while others have more practical information. Spend some time perusing before you choose. You’ll want to keep in mind that while there are many excellent cake design books out of England, a lot of the products they use are not widely available in the U.S. (or must be imported at great expense).

Recommended: Elisa Strauss’ Confetti Cakes Cookbook. I’ve gotten so many great tips from her (scalpels instead of x-actos? Genius!) and I rely pretty much exclusively on her fondant measurement chart. Plus, she’s totally adorable.

5. Cake Design Magazines. Cake design magazines have come a long way since I started decorating 18 years ago, and magazine subscriptions are (at least to me) one of those things you might want but wouldn’t necessarily get for yourself.

Recommended: Cake Central Magazine. A relative newcomer only in their third volume, Cake Central Magazine launched in 2012 and is the product of the popular Cake Central website. The magazine features trendy cake artists,  recipes, and tutorials for everyone from the novice to the professional cake decorator. Gorgeous photos and good production quality.

6. Gifts That Spoil: Massage. This is not directly cake related, but just imagine how great a massage would feel after standing on your feet all day (and often way into the night), or, for that matter, any time.

Recommended: Yelp. Search “massage” and find reviews for local spas.

Thanks so much to my Facebook friends for their input. And Cory, if you’re reading this, I’ll take #6. Have a great holiday everyone!

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Some Recent Press

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Erica OBrien in Featured, photos, vintage, Wedding Cakes | Leave a comment

My husband says I change my mind a lot. I guess it’s kind of true. At some point, I decided not to have a press page on my website. (Read this post–it’s actually pretty funny–and you’ll see what I mean.) Then I guess I went ahead and changed my mind, ’cause now I have one.

I thought I’d share some of our most recent press here (although, of course, you could just look at my website.) I’ll not go into detail on every piece of press. Instead, I’ll just share the magazine cover and the page(s) on which my cake was featured. You’ll get the idea. 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

 


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New Cake Design: Gold Chevron with Vintage-Inspired Flowers

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Erica OBrien in cake design, Featured, vintage, wedding cake, Wedding Cakes | 8 Comments

Somewhere around the late ’80s, I swore off gold. No more gold earrings, gold bracelets, or gold necklaces for me. I also renounced pastels. Pinks and lavenders, mint and seafoam green, and especially mauve and peach were now officially anathema to me. 

Then, almost overnight, I love gold and pastels again. I’m not sure when it happened or how, but I took a look at my cakespiration pinboard, and the majority of my pins were pastels and gold. Check these out and you’ll see what I mean.

And then it’s full speed ahead, with a new pair of gold earrings, a pastel duvet cover, and this cake with a gold chevron and pastel sugar flowers  inspired by my Pinterest boards.

 

 

Special thanks to Brooke Allison for the photos. Damn, she’s good.

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Two New Cakes for the Vera Wang App

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Erica OBrien in cake decorating, Featured, fondant, vintage, Wedding Cakes | 4 Comments

When you get an email from Anne Chertoff asking you if you want to contribute to the Vera Wang app, you jump on the chance and respond immediately with an emphatic Yes! Yes! Yes! Unless, of course, you’re me, in which case you think the email is just some mass marketing form letter and ignore it completely. Then, luckily, Anne Chertoff persists and emails you again to say she hasn’t received anything back from you, at which point you realize this is real and then you respond with Yes! Yes! Oh, if you’ll still have me, yes! And that’s the true story of how I came to make two cakes for Vera Wang’s new itunes app.

Eric Hildebrand, the stylist on the project, collaborated with Anne Chertoff, the Project Manager, and the Vera Wang art director to conceptualize several vignettes that would feature a Vera Wang dress, flatware, china, stemware, and a cake.

Eric sent over photos of the dresses and collages of the concept and asked me to present sketches. The most challenging part for me was creating a design that was true to my style but also worked with Vera Wang’s classic, sophisticated designs.

The first scenario was The Modernist and featured the Fiona dress in white with orange accents and parrot tulips.

The Modernist cake sketch originally featured three square tiers (I ended up adding a fourth tier but I can’t remember why) because I thought squares more contemporary than round. I incorporated the pleating from the dress and pops of orange found in the invitation around the plaque and dots on the pleats and edible parrot tulips.

In the end, the art director nixed the orange dots in the sketch so the pleats were plain white, and my lovingly hand-crafted gumpaste parrot tulips were replaced with real tulips.

Johnny Miller was the photographer on the project. You’ve definitely seen Johnny’s work before in Martha Stewart’s magazines and books, and while he obviously has a gift for bringing food to life through photographs, it is his personal work that really moves me. His photos are artistic and emotional, and the subjects seem so real (even when they’re not). There’s a rawness to his work that makes it accessible and not pretentious. I’m proud to say I’ve had my work photographed by him.

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The Romanticist scenario featured the Hanna dress, shades of mauve, and platinum.   

The cake I sketched was three tiers of ivory with a cluster of sugar roses and platinum scroll work.

I ended up with a fourth tier on this cake too. My sugar roses were beautiful, but were again replaced with real roses. (I still have them though and might need to photograph them in the future.) I do love this photo.

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Special thanks to Anne and Eric for being so easy and wonderful to work with, and to Johnny Miller for capturing my work so beautifully.

Project Manager: Anne Chertoff
Stylist: Eric Hildebrand
Photography: Johnny Miller

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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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