Abs of Cakes: September 2011

Happy September! This month, I will be putting in some frequent flyer miles to travel to Hawaii and New York (maybe I'll score some orders during my visits! how cool would that be?) This unfortunately means I had to turn away a few cake orders...but come October, I will be back on the grind and anticipating the Holiday orders, so if you're interested, let me know right away so I can reserve that day for you.

Early last month, I finally had the privilege of doing a wedding cake order for a couple that I had just met. Amber Mason and Erica Weathersbee tied the knot on August 6, 2011 but I've been working on their order for a good four months. I hosted a Great American Bake Sale during Long Beach's Art Walk back in February where Amber happened to pass through. She lived around the area, noticed my table of CUPCAKES, and inquired about a wedding cake. It was definitely a right-place-at-the-right-time moment! From then on our communication consisted mostly of emails before finally meeting up for a (cup)cake tasting and consultation. Amber's bubbly mother also attended and had a lot of input on the design of the cake. Our productive meeting offered ideas for the cake sketches.

This was the first design I came up with. They requested for a tiered topsy-turvy cupcake cake and their colors were Red, Black, and a Light Grey. I incorporated the colored ribbons to symbolize Amber and Erica while adding a touches of feminine/masculine. The cherry on top was added for its color...Red needed to be somewhere else to create that balance. Amber loved it! The only revision she had was to add a third tier to increase the number of servings. This was the final concept.

For the (cup)cake tasting, six different flavors were requested: Vanilla, Chocolate, Lemon Sponge, Strawberry Grand Marnier (orange liquer), Red velvet, and S'mores. Out of the six, there were three chosen for the cupcakes: Chocolate, Strawberry Grand Marnier, and S'mores...she liked the Red Velvet for the cake. Because Grand Marnier is a high end liqueur, I went with a more cost effective substitute, Cointreau...still providing the orange liquor flavor.

Booze and Berries for cupcakes = DELICIOUS!

Stiff Peaks for the Marshmallow Frosting...one of the most time consuming, yet favorite frosting to make.

Besides eating them, the funnest part of a s'more cupcake is using the torch!

The CUPCAKE for the "Cupcake" Cake...with a cherry on top :)

The final product

The cupcake display. I wrapped and arranged those boxes to create different levels of display.

Close up shot of the chocolate cupcakes.

The cake table

The restaurant's painted wall added a colorful backdrop.

The reception was at Yamashiro Restaurant in the Hollywood Hills. It was definitely one of the most beautiful places I've delivered a cake thus far. I just had to snap some pictures of the breathtaking view.