Hope that you are having a great summer so far. I've been away from the blog, but there was a lot of baking going on don't you worry.
| | I had so much fun with Christina's bridal shower and there is so much to show you. Her theme was Alice in wonderland, I decided to design our own interpretation of Alice, something softer and bridal. The invitations were the start to the whole look and feel of the party. |
We came up with an idea to make the place cards actual playing cards. I custom designed them so that all the guests had their name on a card and corresponded with the table they were sitting at. I was really happy at the way these turned out.
If you want your own set of custom cards designed please
contact me!
The favors were tea (appropriate and useful) with drink me tags.
The cake also reflected the look and feel of the Alice we created.
To create the heart tree, I cut out a heart shape from gumpaste, attached a bamboo skewer onto it using some royal icing then let it dry. Finished it off by making buttercream leaves created with the grass tip.
(The cards were not edible... :)
I am pretty proud of this custom cake designed for Kathy's wedding. Always amazing to me to see one of my sketches come to life, and I'm thankful for the opportunities to make it happen. Kathy was very easygoing, a pleasure to work with. The bottom tier, you guessed it, is red velvet. The roses are gumpaste and the black swirl pattern is made with fondant. I contemplated using royal icing but it wouldn't work with the curves of the cake. The smaller branch-like curves were piped on with royal icing. Congrats Kathy!
It's becoming more and more popular to have a winter wedding. If you're lucky it will snow the perfect fluffy kind, and your pictures turn out beautifully white. If your not so lucky it snows too much and your guests have to toboggan to your reception.
This bride was lucky.
Congrats Angela and Dan! Their day was nice, especially nice for this time of year. The wedding cake was three flavours: the top tier banana chocolate chunk, the middle was blueberry cake with berry buttercream and the bottom layer
tuxedo. Some winter elements were brought onto the wedding cake: royal icing snowflake toppers and sugar icicles. Here is a little tutorial for both:
How to make royal icing snowflake toppersPrint your snowflake design and place parchment paper on top, tape it to your surface so it doesn't move. Make your favourite royal icing recipe, place it in a piping bag and trace the snowflake.
• Do not pipe too thin. Using #2 tip won't work, it will be too fragile. Pipe using tip
#3 or 4. Or this is what will happen:• For a nice effect while still wet sprinkle
white sugar crystals over your piped snowflake.
• Wait at least 24 hours, 48 is better, for it to dry completely.
• Once dry, flip it over, pipe a line of royal icing on the back and attach a bamboo skewer (longer than a toothpick). Wait to dry.• Make sure you make a lot more than you need, these are VERY delicate.• For a shiny finish, spray
pearl luster spray onto your dried snowflake.
How to make sugar iciclesI used
hard candy mix, pretty much just sugar and corn starch. Follow directions carefully. When the sugar is boiled to a specific temperature, use a spoon to create the icicle shape. Start with a big drop and quickly move your spoon down for the end trail. Do this on top of a greased cookie sheet, not a plate as shown below.
• Be very careful working with boiled sugar, it is hotter than oil and can burn you.• You want to work very fast, the temperature of the sugar gets to a certain point and you don't want it over that degree--it will start to brown.
• To achieve the clear sugar icicle take the tip before this seriously...work fast :)• They harden immediately and can be "glued" to the fondant on the cake using water (brush the back and hold on fondant for a couple seconds).
• You can spray luster dust on them for a shine.
Bringing colour into your winter theme cake can be done with a beautiful snowflake brooch or a satin ribbon. For the edges of each tier you can achieve fake "snow" using
this edible glitter, looks fantastic.
And voila.
A winter themed wedding cake.
I passed by this table and they were all alone.
Wearing bright colours.
Calling my name.
Inviting me to a tea party.
It's the
Kate Spade home collection. I saw it at
the Bay and fell in love. If I ever end up owning these you better believe I'll have a tea party. I'm kinda bummed my
wedding registry is closed, but maybe yours isn't?
library books mug, $24.00
Letterpress invitations can be costly but are so beautiful. Letterpress printing is a traditional type of printing where text is created on a plate, reversed and raised, then literally inked and pressed into a sheet of paper.
Did I lose you?
Anyway It is pretty common and trendy for wedding invites. You should look into it.
Here is a baby shower invite I designed and printed on letterpress...
A bridal shower...
With my camera (or maybe just the lack of real photographer skill) you can't tell too much in these photos how the type is pressed on. Here is a good zoomed in shot to see the effect:
This weekend Connie and Lucas got married, congrats! I loved her idea of an afternoon reception. In Italy it is actually not an uncommon thing to get married first thing in the morning and have a late lunch/early dinner reception. Especially if you want to throw in a fun after party! Any excuse for more than one party. Two themes? Two dresses? Amazing, right?
They know how to do it over there.
Connie is a certified wedding planner and a very talented (I think certified?) floral designer. She had a beautiful vision with her DIY's 'love bird' theme for her wedding. Connie is the owner of
Much Ado About Weddings, visit her site for more info and inspiration. Check out her gorgeous bird cage centerpieces:
She sent me a photo of them to use for inspiration for the cake as well as
this birdcage cake I did for my nonno. And to throw a little Italy love in, the cake had Nutella in it. Her taste keeps getting better.
The cupcake tower you see below I made myself in order to be customizable to any event. You can change up the ribbon, add colour to the tiers with nice wrapping paper, or in this case I came up with the idea to decorate with twigs to symbolize a birds nest. Putting those twigs on one-by-one actually made me feel like I was building a nest. I love how everything tied in together so nicely.
I'm going to estimate 105 little birds will be able to fit on this stand.
This past weekend I worked on two weddings.
I'll post one today, and one tomorrow so check back. For this rose petal cake, the bride sent me the photo below for inspiration of what she wanted.
Click here for the source, look around the site too while your at it! There are many variations of this cake, I am not sure how to source them all. Congrats to Miranda and her new hubby!
The petals were made from gumpaste and 'glued' on the cake using royal icing. Tip, let the royal icing dry for a few hours and it will stick just fine. We came up with the idea to personalize it with the brides wedding colour, peach, and had peach petals faded to white. To achieve the perfect look of a gradient, I dyed a decent amount of gumpaste to get the right peach colour for the middle, made 10 petals with the colour and then added white gumpaste to the left over batch. Made 5-6 petals with that colour, then added white. Repeat this process until your left with white petals.
How did I know how many petals to make? I didn't. But it worked out perfectly.
The only thing that scared the crap out of me was the 40 degree weather we've been having lately. Mother nature, if your listening, next time I am doing a fondant-covered buttercream cake lay off the heat. Thank youpe.
