Month: April 2021

I love my job.  I mean, look at the cakes that we get to create!  And I dare you to look at this cake and not reminesce about blowing bubbles as a child.

This cake was for Miss Charlie’s 8th Birthday Party.  We started with a clean slate – two tiers to serve about 26, which we iced smooth with white buttercream.  Once the cake was iced and stacked, we added the child silhouette in black.  To do this, we printed the image (on regular paper) and laminated it.  Then we cut it out and laid it on top of rolled out black fondant.  Using an X-acto knife, we cut out the silhouette and placed it directly onto the cake.  You can attach fondant to cake with a little vodka or piping gel as the glue.

Once the silhouette of the girl blowing bubbles was in place, we were able to start placing the “bubbles.”  These were a mix of sugar pearls, sixlets, gumballs and styrofoam balls covered in fondant and pearl sprayed.  Once these were in place, we added the #8 topper, which was made ahead of time, so it could dry. The number topper ws made from black fondant and we added black glitter for a little extra shimmer. The topper as well as some of the bubbles were placed on floral wire, so they would stand up and hold their shape.

From the color variety to the pearlized finish on the bubbles, we think this cake turned out pretty stinkin’ cute.  What are your thoughts?  Leave us a comment or ask a question below and we will do our best to answer.  Until next time…happy caking!

So you’re planning your wedding…and your to-do list is loooong.  Well let me help you check something off your list in an efficient, stress-free and delicious way!  Let’s talk about your wedding cake tasting!

Before you can get here:

You have to go here:

Meeting with couples is probably my most favorite part of my job!  I love watching couples interact and communicate about something so simple…cake!  For tastings at my bakery, we let couples taste three flavors of our cake and six flavors of our fillings, which makes up LOTS of combinations.  We like to give couples options, so they can feel free to give their guests options.  We don’t upcharge for any of our flavors and fillings, so pricing is transparent and easy to understand. And couples love that they can have a different flavor and filling combo in each tier.  It means that you don’t have to choose between his favorite and her favorite…you can each have your cake…AND EAT IT, TOO!

But eating cake is just a small part of what happens at your cake tasting appointment.  We also discuss the number of servings that you need and how that translates to cake size.  We actually recommend that you have enough dessert for 80% of your guests, which means that a 150 person wedding only needs about 120 servings of cake/dessert.  And this means 120 TOTAL servings of cake.  Not 120 from the main cake and 60 servings from the Groom’s cake.  120 TOTAL SERVINGS.  Unless you are serving cake to each guest at their seat, you only need 80%. If you are serving cake to each guest while they are seated, you will need a piece for each guest.

Once we know how many servings of cake you need, we can discuss how many tiers that translates to.  If you only want three tiers because you like odd numbers and your design lends itself best to three tiers, but you NEED 200 servings, we need to know that.  You can always supplement your servings with cupcakes, kitchen cakes, a Groom’s cake or other desserts.

On the flip side of that, if you only need 50 servings, but you have your heart set on a five tier cake, we need to know that, too!  This is actually the more common scenario that we see.  Since you only need three tiers of cake, but want five, we can make two of the tiers faux.  Think styrofoam shaped like a tier of cake that is iced and decorated to look like cake, but only you know it’s FAKE!  Your guests will only see a beautiful five tier of cake since the cake is typically removed from the reception for cutting.  No one will be able to tell that part of the cake isn’t actually cake!

So we will taste cake, discuss the number of servings needed, design your cake and provide you with a quote.  It’s important to have already looked at cakes and bring in ideas, so you can make the most of your appointment time.  Bring in any cake ideas and color swatches that you want your design to reflect.  Also, it’s good if you know what your cake budget is, so you can feel confident making a decision on booking your cake.  Are you planning a wedding and have a cake question?  Drop it in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!

Happy Planning!

Nothing says PARTY like colorful balloons, a pinata and a festively delicious cake, right?!   Well, this fiesta was definitely one for the books.  It was for Luke’s 1st Birthday and was planned and coordinated by Farthing Events.  Check out this cake table and backdrop!

For this cake, the client requested three tiers each to be iced a different fiesta color. We, of course, iced these with our favorite icing tool to get a perfectly smooth base to add our accents.  On the bottom tier, we added fondant cacti using this mold.  We prefer to use Satin Ice fondant in the bakery because it’s precolored and just needs some kneading to get it ready to use.  It also has a nice vanilla marshmallow flavor that dosn’t overpower the cake.  For the middle tier, we added a ring of red chili peppers around the base and added pops of floral accents.

Some of the flowers were made using a mold and some were made by layering ruffles circles using this set of cutters.  I am pretty sure I use this circle cutter set on every cake I do…it’s so versatile! Anyway, I added smaller red chili peppers around the base of the top tier.  Each pepper is hand made by rolling a snake of red fondant and tapering one end.  We then added a green cap to each, which is actually a hydrangea cutter!

At the base of the top tier, we added a mexican blanket and sombrero, which were each hand made/sculpted.  For the fringe on the blanket (and on the topper) we used these snips, which come in super handy! And how cute is this pinata topper?!?   He is made of fondant and layered with fringed strips…so fun!  Oh, and be sure to check out the band on the sombrero on top of the cake.  It is stamped with LUKE, for the birthday boy!  We use sugar stampers for this…so tiny, but so worth it!

Since Luke was turing UNO, we made him a simple all buttercream smash cake. The topper was, of course, removed before the little guy dove in.  All in all, we think this cake table was fiesta perfection!  What do you think?  And is anyone else craving chips and salsa now?

Give me all the smooth buttercream cakes.  So clean.  So perfect.  Sigh…

At least until someone sticks their finger in it!  Ugh!  Hopefully when that happens, I’m on to my next delivery, so I don’t have to see it…Eek!

We get our icing so smooth that people often think our cakes are covered in fondant.   Couples come in, guns blazing, saying, “We don’t want ANY fondant…ew!”  To which we reply, “Sure.  No problem!  99% if the cakes on our website are buttercream iced.”

Icing cakes perfectly smooth is a skill that takes time to perfect, but luckily there are some tools that can make the job a little easier.  My process of decorating a cake goes like this:

-Bake layers of cake and level them in the pan

-Wrap cake layers in plastic wrap and chill in fridge – preferably over night

-Center bottom cake layer on cake board and add icing dam/filling before placing top layer of cake

-Using thinned or warmed buttercream, add a crumb coat of icing and put in fridge to chill

-Once chilled, add final coat of buttercream

Here’s where it gets tricky!  When you add your final coat of buttercream, you will want to smooth it with straight sides and a level top.  My favorite cake icing tool will help with this dramatically, but I then use a level on the sides AND top of the cake to make sure it’s good to go.  When I place my level on the cake, I put a layer of Viva in between the level and the cake to protect the cake from the tool.  If there are any pockets or imperfect spots in the second coat of icing, I’ll use the Viva and a fondant smoother to press them out.

The reason I use Viva paper towels (not multi-surface) specifically, is because these have no embossed imprint and are perfectly smooth.  One side of the Viva is smoother than the other and this is the side you’ll want touching your cake.  Some people use a spatula dipped in hot water to smooth their cakes, but this adds moisture to the surface of the cake, which simply doesn’t work in the humid climate I live in.

So there you have it…a perfectly smooth, straight and level cake!  This makes the cake a perfect blank canvas to add florals or other accents to!  This is trending right now in the weddings that we are doing.  Brides are wanting a cake that tastes delicious, but isn’t over decorated or busy.  The smooth trend allows brides to add pops of color with their florals and greenery…and we’re here for it!

Weddings are cool and all, but you can’t tell me you don’t love quinceanera cakes!  These cakes are like wedding cakes, but often times BIGGER!  And you usually get to meet more of the family when planning and tasting and designing these cakes.  They are just all around super awesome!

My latest quinceanera cake was over a year in the making. Anissa and her mom came in to taste cake and discuss design in February of 2020.  We all now what happened in March….sigh.  Anissa turned 15 in August of 2020, but wasn’t able to celebrate until restrictions recently eased. Isn’t she adorable?!

Anissa chose a six tier buttercream iced cake with two jumbo tiers, so it was height equivalent to seven tiers and served over 250 people!  Her flavors included Almond Cake with Raspberry Filling, Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Mousse Filling, Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Filling, Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Mousse Filling and Italian Cream Cake with Cream Cheese Mousse Filling.  Can you say delish?!?

For the decoration of Anissa’s cake, we iced each tier smooth with our favorite icing smoother.  The bottom tier was covered in Tip 1M piped rosettes. So. Much. Buttercream.  The rest of the tiers each had a silver painted fondant band and alternated with quilting and piping.  For the quilted tiers, we used a diamond impression mat and added sugar pearls at the intersections.

When stacking a cake of this size, it’s important that each tier be straight on the sides AND level on top, so that each tier sits centered,  level and straight on the next.  If just one tier isn’t level, the entire cake will lean or look crooked.  So when we stack these cakes, we use all sorts of fun tools including small levels, bubble straws, quarter inch dowels and a rubber mallet!

Once this cake was stacked…it was TALL and HEAVY!  But at that point we were able to decorate it with the silk purple flowers the client provided.  Some people deliver their cakes fully stacked and some stack their cakes at delivery.  For me, living in Oklahoma where the humidity is awful, I prefer to stack in my cool kitchen and deliver the cake intact.  Handling individual tiers at the time of delivery, when they are soft and require additional decorating isn’t my preferred method, but there’s nothing wrong with it!  Stacking at the venue also means that I spend more time at each delivery and can’t deliver near as many cakes in one day.  Saturdays get SUPER BUSY April-October, so shorter deliveries mean I can deliver more cakes!  And more cakes means more revenue and who doesn’t want that?  So my rule is, if it fits in my van, it gets stacked at the shop.  We then box it, so it doesn’t get bumped or damaged.  We also tape it thoroughly to keep any moisture out, which creates a little cooler for the cake to travel in.

The height and weight of this cake definitely tested the limits of my delivery nerves!  It was a two person job, for sure!  But look at the smile on Miss Anissa’s face…totally worth it!!  Happy 15th!!

One of my favorite things about creating custom cakes, is that there is always something new!  Each week, we create cakes for different occasions, birthday party themes and personalities.  When my children were younger, I was in the know about all things Paw Patrol and Wonder Pets and more!  And now that they are older and into gaming, there is a whold new world of popular themes when it comes to kid’s birthday parties.  From TikTok to Fortnite and back again!  Phew!

This week, we were asked to create both a cake and cookies for Among Us parties!  And funnily enough, the cake and the cookies were for separate clients and separate parties.

For the cake, we did a two tier iced in buttercream.  We needed the buttercream to be super smooth and level for the techniques, we were using, so we iced it using our favorite icing tool.  For the top tier, we added a drip in black using a ready-made drip.  Tinting ganache or chocolate can be time consuming and require a lot of food color, so we went with a super black drip that you just microwave and squeeze onto your cake…so simple!

For the bottom tier, we did an imperfect blue and black airbrush to mimic the galaxy theme we were going for.  We painted our number nine fondant topper to match.  For the Among Us characters, we printed them on edible paper and mounted them on fondant and floral wire to make some of them bouncers.  The number topper and the Among Us characters were made the day before, so they could dry and hold their shape.  Also, making these in advance made this cake come together super fast!

For another customer, we made these Among Us cookies in a variety of colors of royal icing.  We used our standard sugar cookie recipe and this Among Us cookie cutter, which we know will come in handy a lot!  We chilled the cookie cut-outs before popping them in the oven to bake, which helps them to hold their shape.  Once baked and cool, we iced them with royal icing using our favorite royal icing mix and tipless piping bags.  It’s such a simple design, but the variety of colors and the black outline really made them pop!

We can’t wait to see what themes our customers come up with next! Have you made any Among Us party treats?  If so, drop us a comment and let us know!  Until next time, happy decorating!