Take Me Out to the Wedding

No doubt about it, this groom is a Yankees man through and through. Showing off his love of New York and all things Yankees, this groom's cake took the vintage Yankees logo and popped it up in 3-D style.  The hat and bat are sculpted from crispy rice treats then covered in fondant. The cake itself is a 10" round by nearly 6" high German Chocolate with milk chocolate and buttercream flavored fondant.

Vintage Ruffle Flower Wedding Cake

When a friend came to me while planning their wedding reception in a historic hotel in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona, I knew there was a wonderful opportunity to incorporate a vintage aesthetic into their celebration. Plus, I've been eager to do a design with a sugar versions of those lovely vintage ribbon flowers. I couldn't be more pleased with the result in this fanciful and elegant cake.

White Almond Sour Cream with red raspberry jam make up the bottom 14" and the 8" tiers, and Red Chile Chocolate Molè with whipped red chile chocolate ganache were int he 10" and 5" layers. The cake was frosted with All-American buttercream that had a light almond flavor. The gumpaste and fondant flowers are dusted and painted in luster and disco dust and are accented on the cake with a deep purple ribbon that matched the bridesmaids' dresses.

All the best to my wonderful bride and groom, Melody and Michael. Thank you for the opportunity to make my new favorite cake!

Red Chile Chocolate Cupcakes

The name says it all, yet doesn't even begin to describe it. Dark Chocolate cake laced with New Mexican red chile and cinnamon, topped with an equally enhanced dark chocolate buttercream. Finished with a pinch of chile powder, just for fair warning.

Tasting Cakes

It's time come clean with a crush I've been harboring for a while now. While some girls swoon over the big, flashy show stoppers, I have a real soft spot for these cute little guys. Whether you call them "centerpiece cakes", "counter cakes", or a "bottle-of-wine-and-a-tearjerker-movie-and-a-fork" kinda cakes: with 4-8 servings, these are just enough cake to celebrate either a night with friends or the sweet side of life for a few days. And they are also the perfect size to bake up and sample flavors.

White Almond Sour Cream with Red Raspberry Jam and Cream Cheese Buttercream

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake with Whipped Red Chile Chocolate Ganache filling and frosting. A blanket of Cream Cheese Buttercream drop flowers cover the ganache finish for a slight peek-a-boo effect.

Breakfast in Bed

Once in a while you hit it right on the nose! Ring the bell on the first swing! Loop the golden ring!  This is one of those times when the stars align, flavors merge, and you get to say, this one was all mine! (Like most modes of art--fine or culinary-- it seems that there are no new ideas, just new ways to say the same things. This I have to say wasn't informed, built upon, or borrowed from anyplace in my conscious mind. My subconscious? That's a different and altogether stranger story.) 

This is a fresh banana cupcake with cinnamon-sugar, velvet buttercream, topped with frosted flakes. Big surprise that you wouldn't have guessed from the night before. . . this breakfast is vegan. Though you wouldn't guess that considering this egg and dairy-free morsel is lacking any level of sinful goodness. The cake is moist and golden, bursting with fresh banana flavor and the velvet buttercream is silky and decidedly not too sweet--all the better to showcase the vibrant Vietnamese cinnamon. And crunchy frosted flakes? Well, who says vegan baked goods have to take themselves too seriously?  

A Cool Blue Birthday Cake

Happy daisies and swirling scrolls combine to celebrate a double birthday treat. Cakes are a 9" and 5" white almond sour cream with milk chocolate buttercream between the layers. All American buttercream provide the smooth base for a garden's worth of purple and light blue fondant daisies. White on white buttercream scrolls and dots fill in the blanks, giving the design depth and movement. The birthday girls' names are incorporated into the scroll work on the top of the base tier. 

Coconut Times Two

It started with a coconut birthday cake ~ just a sweet little present for a best friend on her mid-week birthday (on a cute cake plate, too). The perfect size for a small party (or for hoarding away for yourself with out too much gluttonous guilt), this 6" cake is about as tall as it is wide done in three layers. I adapted the recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Southern Manhattan Coconut Cake, a delicate white cake made with cake flour, egg whites, and thick coconut milk. 

The frosting is a fluffy, coconut buttercream with just a hint of cream cheese. The cream cheese keeps it from being two sweet, which when paired with the natural coconut flavor keeps it from putting the sweet glands on lockdown like some coconut candies sometimes do. The layers were first brushed with a coconut simple syrup then a generous layer of buttercream with extra flake coconut added. Keeping the focus on the cake itself, it is finished with subtle upward strokes that mimic the infill of flaked, sweetened coconut on the crown. An petite triple ruffle borders the bottom. 

Because 6" cakes don't just happen, and the smell of that delectable batter begged for immediate consumption, a dozen cupcakes came out of the mixing bowl.  They received the same treatment as the cake with a brush of coconut simple syrup before being topped with a generous dollop of coconut buttercream and a dip in flaked sweet coconut. They are the kind of delicious that makes me want to break up short sentences with periods: they. are. that. good.  If ever there were a time for scratch and sniff computer screens, this would be one. But for now, a picture will have to do.