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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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Lichtenstein-Inspired Pop Art Cake for Connecticut Bride Magazine

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Erica OBrien in Featured | Leave a comment

A few months ago, The Connecticut Bride magazine asked me to create a pop art cake inspired by Roy Lichtenstein’s 1962 “The Kiss II”.

I had actually done another pop art cake a few years back, also inspired by Lichtenstein, and I wanted to make this one completely different. I really like the color block trend, and thought a 1960s mod design would work well with the primary colors Lichtenstein is known for. Here’s the design I came up with:

The editors liked my original design and didn’t change a thing. Here’s the cake in the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of The Connecticut Bride.

And a few shots that I took with my camera:

This was definitely a departure from my usual style (it really stands out in my consultation studio among  the pastel and white display cakes) and very unconventional for a wedding cake, but I liked it just the same. (In fact, I kind of loved it.)

Thanks to Connecticut Bride for the opportunity to make such a fun cake.

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New Introduction to Cake Design Class

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Erica OBrien in cake decorating, Featured | Leave a comment

We’ve listed a new Introduction to Cake Decorating class! This one runs for four consecutive Sundays from 10am to 1pm and begins on January 20th, 2013.

To register for the class, simply visit our website and follow the instructions. If you’d like to give the class as a gift–and what aspiring cake designer wouldn’t love a fabulous cake design class?–you can contact us to create a customized gift card.

{Photo: Lane Dittoe}

We will also be adding a new sugar flower class in the near future featuring our dahlia and ranunculus, so keep an eye out for that class as well. And since sugar flower classes are quite small and tend to sell out quickly, you can contact us to request to be put on our notification list. We will email you as soon as we list the classes.

 

 

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DIY Ombré Monogram

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Erica OBrien in DIY, Featured | 1 Comment

I love ombré. There. I said it. I’m not even the slightest bit sick of it even though it seems to be everywhere. But I’m particularly enchanted with  dip-dyed silk ombré, like this dress by Gypsy 05.

For my fourth DIY for Project Wedding, I wanted to create a cake inspired by the dip-dyed look, but because fondant is so sensitive to liquid, dipping it really wasn’t an option. Instead, we painted it using varied shades of food color. Here’s the how-to.

1. What you’ll need:

~approximately 1 ounce fondant

~square cookie cutter

~round cookie cutter

~letter cutters or (xacto knife if hand-cutting letters)

~flat, food-use only paintbrush

~two colors paste food coloring with increasing amounts of white food color added to achieve three shades of each (light, medium, dark) plus additional white food color. (Can also be done with several shades of a single color.)

~fondant board or mat

2. Roll fondant thinly on board. Be sure that fondant is not sticking before proceeding to Step 3.

3. Cut fondant into a square about 3″ x 3″.

4. Use round cutter on corners.

5. Mix food coloring.
6. Dip paintbrush in one of the darkest colors. Using a single stroke, paint on fondant. Repeat with medium and then lighter color, then white, followed by the light, medium, and dark shades of the other color. Fondant can be repainted only AFTER paint has completely dried. Avoid the temptation to repaint while wet.

7. Cut initials using letter cutters or by hand-cutting.

8. After paint has dried, moisten back of letters with water and adhere to fondant cutout.  Apply a small amount of water to fondant cutout and adhere to cake.

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You Might Be a Cake Artist If…

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Erica OBrien in Featured, for the baker, for the bride | 3 Comments

It occurred to me only after I’d colored the fondant navy blue that perhaps, with one of my best friend’s weddings only days away, I should have worn gloves. How many people at the wedding–some of whom I hadn’t seen since high school–would assume I’d been furiously coloring fondant for a disco-themed birthday party? Or, the more likely scenario, how many would wonder if I’d contracted some pigment-changing contagious disease?

If this sound familiar, then this post is for you.

You Might Be a Cake Artist If…

~your two-year old calls Play-Doh “fondant”

~when people ask you whom, living or dead, you’d most like to invite to dinner, instead of Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King, you answer “Ron Ben-Israel”

~you thought 50 Shades of Grey was an ombré cake design

~you think nothing says “I love you” like a new flower cutter

~the staff at Jo-Ann fabrics knows you by name

~you get most of your news from The Food Network

~Cake Central is your Maxim Magazine

~your husband knows the difference between gumpaste, pastillage, Mexican paste, and modeling chocolate and can offer a thorough explanation of their uses, benefits, and pros and cons

And a few favorites from my facebook friends. To read the rest of their absolutely hilarious comments, go to my facebook post.

~manicure? What’s a manicure? {Nancy}

~you have suffered more cake related ailments than standard ones: ruffler’s fingers, ganacher’s shoulder, decorator’s ankle, stacker’s wrist and buttercreamer’s lung {Royal Bakery}

~you pipe shells on your toothbrush with toothpaste {Brigitta}

~you break a drawer pull and the first solution you think of is to make a new one out of gum paste {Tamatha}

And since no post would be complete without a few cake photos, here are just a few recent cakes that we’ve done.

Callan made over 300 hydrangeas for this buttercream cake. Photo by Darren Wagner.

I love working with chocolate fondant. It’s just dreamy.

And finally, sweet and classic.

Until next time, keep on caking, and wear that food coloring proudly!

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Revisiting Stained Glass Cookies: Stained Glass Cookie Monograms

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Erica OBrien in Featured, fondant | Leave a comment

I’ve written about stained glass cookies before. My family has been making them for years. Below is a copy of the original recipe we used as kids. We first saw it on the 1970s PBS show “Zoom” and my mom sent away for the recipes, as per the show’s instructions and long before email, with a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

I’m glad to see she made some adjustments to the recipe (add an egg, change the amount of honey), presumably in an effort to improve it, but truth be told the cookies were pretty hopeless. The dough was tough, and the cookies, which always ended up a brown several shades darker than golden, took on a puffy appearance. The candy pieces always seemed to bubble up over the cookies and look burnt. And, since it was before Silpat, they stuck relentlessly to the waxed paper.

Last time I wrote about stained glass cookies, I started with a new recipe that required molasses in lieu of the honey and an oven temp of 375. I changed the recipe a bit and swapped corn syrup for the  molasses, yielding a cookie that was lighter in color. I also lowered the oven temp to 350, so the cookies wouldn’t puff as much and my candy bits wouldn’t burn or explode.

This time around, I reworked the recipe even more. After my dough was rolled and cut and placed on the baking tray, I popped the tray in the freezer so the butter could chill, further preventing it from puffing up. I realized that the candy takes less time to melt than the cookies take to bake, causing the candy to brown when they’re all baked at the same time. So instead, I par-baked the cookies for about 7 minutes in the oven without the candy, then filled the cavities with candy and returned them to the oven. The resulting cookie was exactly what I wanted: a cookie that was golden brown with a candy filling that looked like glass.

Here’s what you’ll need:
1 recipe stained glass cookie dough (recipe at end of post)
Rolling pin
Letter cutters in various sizes
Heart-shaped cutter (large enough to accommodate letters)
Mallet or hammer
Lollipops or hard candy in the colors of your choice
Small plastic bag
Silpat or other non-stick baking sheet liner
Baking sheet
Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit

 1. Working on Silpat or non-stick baking sheet liner, roll out dough approximately ¼” thick.

2. Cut dough using heart-shaped cutter.

3.  Remove excess dough. (Excess can be frozen for future use.)

4.  Using letter cutters, cut out monogram from dough.


5. Place on baking sheet and freeze for 15-20 minutes to firm. Bake in pre-heated oven until dough is partially, but not completely, baked and just barely beginning to turn golden, about 5-7 minutes.

6. While cookies are baking, place lollipops or hard candy into small plastic bag. (We used the dulce de leche Dum Dums, and had to buy two giant bags to ensure that I had enough since there were only about three dulce de leche Dum Dums per bag.  I’ve since learned that you can buy single flavor Dum Dums on their website.) Use mallet or hammer to crush candy into very small pieces about the size of gravel, but not powder.


7. Fill cavities with crushed candy until it is slightly above the cookie line, taking care not to get any crushed candy on the cookie part.

8. Return to oven and bake until candy is just melted, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven. If you plan to hang your cookies, make hole large enough for a ribbon using a toothpick. Allow to cool.


9. Wet a small piece of fondant until it is very sticky. Gently adhere to cookie in several spots, avoiding candy part, and use to affix cookie to cake. Here, we added fondant blackberries and leaves for extra impact.

 

Stained Glass Cookie Recipe
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Method
1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add corn syrup and vanilla extract, mixing until incorporated. Add egg and mix until light and smooth, about 1 minute on medium speed.
3. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold dry ingredients into wet mixture. Use electric mixer to blend just until flour is incorporated. Divide dough in half and flatten into two disks. Wrap disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least an hour and up to 2 days.

Enjoy!

Special thanks to Brooke Sforza of Brooke Allison Photo for her generosity, talent, and photographs.

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Orange Ombré Sugar Hearts Cake

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Erica OBrien in Featured, ombre cake | 1 Comment

I had no way of knowing when I did this ombré sugar hearts cake for the Wedding Chicks that it would resonate with so many people. It’s got over 89,000 Pinterest pins and even caught the attention of the editors at The Knot. They asked me to replicate it in an orange-into-yellow-into-white ombré. It appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of The Knot Magazine. You can also see it on their website. (The cover shot, below, is by Elizabeth Messina. She’s the one who photographed my interesting-yet-oddly-beautiful-in-the-way-that-only-a-mother-could-love mushroom cake).

Much thanks to my wonderful assistant Callan, who worked so hard on this cake (and the purple one before it).

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The Return of the Bench (or: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up)

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Erica OBrien in Featured | 1 Comment

When we purchased a bench for the front of the shop, both my husband and Scott, my sister Jessica’s husband, suggested that we bolt the bench to the ground. We refused. “Who’s gonna steal the bench?” we argued. That was April.

In June, Kate, our front-of-the-house assistant, noticed the bench missing. It was a Wednesday. Jessica immediately went next-door to the bank to ask if they had the surveillance video from the night before. They did, but the bench wasn’t in it. Rewind the tape a few days to Friday, and there’s the video of the bench-stealing in progress. Okay, so it took us till Wednesday to notice it missing. Whatever. That’s not the point.

An actual photo of the crime in progress, courtesy First Niagra Bank.

We called the Hamden Police Department and they immediately dispatched Officer Manning. We excitedly told him that this would surely be a boon to his career and more than likely lead to a major promotion, as we had the actual video surveillance of the crime in progress. Officer Manning went next door to the bank, watched the video, took a report, refused a cupcake, and left after promising to keep an eye out for the bench.

And that was that. Or so we thought.

Jessica, Mayor Scott Jackson, and me at our grand opening. Behind us, the bench in happier times.

Enter Frank. Technically Frank should not be in this story at all. A year ago when I was leaving California, I wrote a blog post about Frank and how much we’d miss him. Frank can fly a plane, goes prospecting for gold, and can easily fix your alternator with a glue stick and some duct tape. Add the cute British accent and the fact that he follows up almost all of his zany ideas with “mate”, and he can convince you that even the most outrageous scheme is a solid plan. So when Frank offered to buy a truck and drive all of our belongings from California across the country to Connecticut last summer “in under a week, mate. No problem”, we thought nothing of it.

Once he arrived (two new tires, a replaced fuel filter, and a brand new ignition, all done by him, later) and saw what a wreck our new house was, he offered to stay for a week or two to help out. The sun porch that we planned to tear down became “No problem, mate, we’ll just build new walls, put in a new bathroom, move the laundry upstairs.” August quickly turned to December, and we had a new housemate, mate.

It was around this time we noticed that Frank and my mom were spending an awful lot of time together, and before long he had moved in with her. Frank is now here permanently, being all mushy-gushy and in love with my mom. They’re perfect for each other and we couldn’t be happier.

Anyway, Frank bought like a few hundred or a million of these vintage metal things (he told me what they do but I forgot) and wanted to get them polished. So last week he drove to a local metal shop, pulled into the parking lot, and there, right there in the back of the metal shop, was our bench!

Jessica called the police to report the return of the bench, but wasn’t sure of the name of the officer. She spoke with dispatch: “Hi, um, yes, we reported a stolen bench to, um, I believe it was Officer Manning?” The man on the other end of the line responded with an assured (or was it amused?) “Oh, yeah, it was Manning alright,” and said Officer Manning would meet us at the shop.

The next day, after Manning failed to show up, we called the police again. This time we arranged to meet them in the parking lot at the metal shop. Frank and Scott parked in the lot with a full view of the inside of the metal shop, and sat in the car doing some sort of stake out. “Frank!” said Scott “That one has a gun!” And he did. Scott called 911, and within seconds several police officers showed up. They immediately arrested the one with the gun (it turned out to be a BB gun, but he had other outstanding warrants) and all but one officer left with the arrested guy to settle the bench issue. The non-arrested guys at the metal shop said it belonged to the kids next door. The kids next door came down, examined the bench at length (we’re not sure what they were looking for), and said it belonged to one of their brother’s friends and that they didn’t care what happened to it. And with that, the bench was returned to us.

Below, the bench on the day of its return disassembled in Frank’s truck.

Our bench, fully assembled once again, in the back of the shop.

Welcome back bench!  We missed you (even though we didn’t notice you were gone for a while) and are so happy you’re back.

P.S. The bench is now bolted to the ground.

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DIY: Chevron Cake

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Erica OBrien in DIY, Featured, sweet and saucy | 12 Comments

I get many emails inquiring about the chevron pattern that’s so hot this year, so when it came time for my next DIY project for Project Wedding, the choice was obvious.

I am certainly not the first cake designer to use the chevron pattern on a cake, ad I have to give a shout out to my predecessors. This peach and navy chevron cake by Vanilla Bake Shop is the first one I remember seeing, years ago, and I love the preppy colors and contrasting heights of the two tiers. I love the clean lines and muted tones of this one by Sweet & Saucy. And finally this one by Carrie Sellman of The Cake Blog, because it is so incredibly neat and accurate.

I don’t know how other cake designers do their chevron, but here’s how I do mine.

You will need (clockwise from left):

water
tapemeasure
paper
cornstarch
fondant in the color(s) of your choice (We used a citrus-inspired palette here.)
Xacto knife
scissors
food-use only paint brush
pen
rolling pin
fondant board

Measure cake’s circumference. Determine the size of the chevron by dividing circumference into even segments the size of your choosing, usually around 1″ – 1.5″, to . For example, our cake had a circumference of 26″. We determined that each segment would be 1.3″ for a total of 20.

Create chevron template. Measure segment size on paper and mark with pen. Holding paper horizontally (landscape), fold into accordian so that each fold measures the same size as the segment. (Each of our folds measured 1.3″)

Cut paper at an angle. For a deeper chevron, angle scissors more vertically. For a more shallow chevron, angle scissor more horizontally.

Using the same angle as first cut, cut the other side of the paper. For a wider chevron, move scissor further from first cut. For a narrower chevron, move scissor closer to first cut.

Unfold. Your chevron template is complete.

Create fondant chevron. Roll fondant thinly. Place template on fondant and carefully cut with Xacto knife. (Avoid paper sticking to fondant by rubbing it with cornstarch.) Remove excess fondant.

Score cake. Use template to gently score cake to guide placement of fondant chevron.

Create pattern on cake. Use water to wet cake. Apply fondant chevron to cake. Continue pattern around entire cake.

Lay second color directly above first. (Optionally, use the template to guide placement of another row evenly spaced above first row.)  Repeat with additional colors.

Complete the look. Add fresh flowers, or use sugar flowers like the sugar ranunculus seen here.

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Fondant Ice Cream Pop Cake

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Erica OBrien in birthday cake, Featured, fondant, images for inspiration, kids party cake | 3 Comments

Having a display window means I’m constantly in need of new cake inspiration, so I often head to the local crafts store to look for ideas. When I came across these mini popsicle sticks, I thought they’d make an adorable ice cream pop cake for a summer-themed window.

I turned to Pinterest (of course) for some cute popsicle ideas and found this image from eatdrinkchic.com. I liked how the popsicles are all different.

Pinned Image

I also found this image, (whose source I can’t find. I hate when I do that!), which gave me the idea of using sprinkles on some of the pops. (I love sprinkles.)

This photo just screamed ice cream to me, so I knew it was the perfect color palette. (Source: themeadowbrookblog.blogspot.com)

And the cake. Everything is edible except the popsicle sticks. I made the sprinkles out of fondant too. My husband took this photo.

           


And Brooke Allison took this one.

Thanks for stopping by!

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