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Ruffle Cakes and a DIY

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Erica OBrien in DIY, Featured, fondant | Leave a comment

It all started with a pillow I saw on Etsy.

It became this cake:

I liked the design so much I did it again:

I almost did another one for The Cake Blog’s Twelve Cakes of Christmas based on this Crate and Barrel pillow (but then I changed my mind):

And then, inspired by this heart wreath by Lasting Memories (and the multi-colored ruffles in the Crate and Barrel pillow above), I decided to make one for Valentine’s Day.

As it turns out, making a ruffle out of fondant is almost exactly like making one out of felt (just without the straight pins).

Want to know how we do it? Check out our DIY tutorial on Project Wedding.

Enjoy!

Billy Balls & Butterflies

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Erica OBrien in Featured | 2 Comments

What kind of cake do you create when Jill La Fleur sends you these inspiration boards for the Jose Villa Mexico workshop?

You create a cake with fondant billy balls, gumpaste butterflies, and hand-crafted sugar succulents.

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And if you’re really lucky, the team from Branco Prata takes the photos. Dying to see more of their work? You can see the complete Branco Prata gallery here. Special thanks to Sofia and Andre for their beautiful images.

Cakes Inspired by Imagery

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Erica OBrien in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

This might surprise you, but I actually don’t like it when a client leaves the cake design completely up to me, giving me the artistic freedom to create whatever I want. I can’t speak for other artists, but I’ve found that this makes it almost impossible since there’s so much that inspires me. When the possibilities are endless–and so is your imagination–the task of narrowing it down and choosing a focus becomes very overwhelming. Instead, I like working within a conceptual framework and using my artistic eye to interpret the design in my style.

Event stylists and even the occasional client often provide an inspiration board–a collection of images intended to convey the mood of the shoot or event–and I find them immensely helpful. (I sometimes create my own inspiration boards. I’m not a graphic designer, so I copy and paste the images into Microsoft Paint. Someone more skilled would use Photoshop. There’s a board builder on Style Me Pretty, and I think some people are now using Pinterest in lieu of building boards.) Being very visual, working with inspiration boards is my favorite way to design. They usually contain a color palette, and many non-cake photos with prints, patterns, shapes, or other designs for inspiration (hence the name).

Below are several inspiration boards and the cakes they inspired. I would love to see how other cake designers would translate the images into cake. I just think it would be fascinating to see how different artists interpret same thing.

Greco-Roman Wedding (stylized shoot). Board and styling by Vanessa Van Wieren of Alchemy Fine Events. Cake photos by Jill Thomas.

Jose Villa Workshop. Board and styling by Jill La Fleur. Cake photos by Jose Villa.

Lavender Inspired Wedding (stylized shoot). Board and styling by Brooke Keegan. Cake photos by Lane Dittoe.

Steel Magnolias (stylized shoot). Board and styling by Amorology. Cake photos by John Schnack.

A Forest Wedding

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Erica OBrien in cake design, fondant feather, forest wedding | 3 Comments

Working with Rebecca Stone of Duet Weddings is always a little intimidating. You see, she’s a true designer. I can tell because I always have to google some aspect of whatever concept she pitches.(I can also tell because I’ve seen her house and it’s gorgeous!) This time, she emails and says that she’d like me to create a cake that incorporates a faux bois pattern (huh?) and guinea feathers (wuh?). “No problem,” I write back, and then promptly hop online to find out what exactly that means and how to execute it.

The cake was for a photoshoot and was recently featured on oncewed.com. I was very excited to work with Jose Villa whose work I really admire (and who, I’m happy to report, loved my cake!).

Here’s the inspiration Rebecca sent over.