Cake Dreams Blog

Cake Dreams says "Good-night!"

2012-01-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

IT'S BEEN GREAT!

I have been so happy to be a part of so many celebrations. But, the time has come to move on to new adventures. I have been blessed with a great family: lots of children (eight to be exact) several who are now married. And now I have five grandchildren with one more due in a few months. It's time for me to take the time to be the "Grammie" I want to be.

My Family - We just keep growing!

Some of you also know that I have had quite a time of it since my diagnosis of breast cancer in September 2009. I have fought a good fight, and so far I am hanging in there. But, situations like this really help you stop and think about what is really important in life.I just want you to know the reasons behind the decision.

June 2011 - Our Second Annual Susan G. Komen Walk

Celebrating my 2nd year as a Cancer Survivor

SO HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS

If you are a former bride or customer, and you have a relative or friend who is getting married or celebrating an important event, I want you to say to them, "hey, I know a lady who makes fabulous cakes!". I will still consider making the occasional cake on a referral basis only. Still the same moist and delicious cakes and fillings you came to know by the name of Cake Dreams by Sally; still beautiful cake art; still a warm and friendly experience--but now, I am just the "cake lady". Hey! That's what my license plate says!

You can still contact me with the same phone number that you have in your records. Or, you may email me at sallyplautz@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you.

ANNIVERSARY CAKES

If you are one of my 2011 brides, and are looking to order your complimentary 1 year anniversary cake, just send me an email at the address above or give me a call and I'll make sure I get your cake ready for you to celebrate. Just give me at least two weeks advance notice; name the flavor you want the cake to be; and then we'll arrange a time for you to pick it up.

REMEMBER
As of February 5, 2012, the Cake Dreams website will no longer function. From that point on, the domain of www.cakedreamsbysally.com will continue to point to this BLOG instead of the website. There are lots of photos of cakes for you to look at, and eventually, I will create other pages to showcase some of my favorite cakes from over the years.

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!

July 24, 2010

2010-07-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

Susan and Rick were married at the historical setting of Berry Hill Plantation in South Boston, Virginia. Located just over the North Carolina border, off Hwy 501, South Boston is a quaint little town with early American charm.

Berry Hill Mansion

Berry Hill Plantation Aerial View

For us, it was a 100 mile drive from Fuquay-Varina, NC to the Plantation. We had a lovely drive, in spite of the 100 degree reading on the thermometer. Ordinarily, I request that cakes going this far in the heat of the summer use rolled fondant for the icing. However, the bride was certain she wanted a traditional delicious buttercream iced cake. I discussed the potential risks, the things that can happen, but that do not necessarily happen.

Having recently discovered some new tricks to protect the back windows of the Jeep from having the sunshine streaming in through the tinted glass, we set on our way with a simply styled three tier wedding cake that serves 150 guests. Triple sugar pearl pattern is used with a custom made pearl edged "monogram" plaque. Beautiful fresh pink and white roses crown the top tier of the cake

Susan and Rick

It was a lovely day for a very lovely bride and her family.

July 10, 2010

2010-07-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Lauren and Steve were married on Saturday, July 10th and celebrated their wedding at TPC Wakefield Plantation in North Raleigh. This is one of my favorite venues. The special event coordinator, Jaclyn Parks, always makes sure that every detail is attended too. The staff is pleasant and the ballroom is always beautifully decorated.

This garden themed wedding cake is a simple, but detailed design. Iced in vanilla buttercream, the tiers are piped with dimensional leaves on vines. The fresh flowers on the cake topper are absolutely beautiful.

The photo is courtesy of Craig from Luster Studios. Check out his work from Lauren and Steve's wedding, he is a wonderful photographer!

Lauren and Steve

Catherine wanted her wedding cake to reflect the lace from her wedding dress and pearls like the ones that went down the back of her gown. She also loved ribbon bands and tiny scroll work. This original custom design was my inspiration after several hours of contemplating all her favorite things.

Below is my original drawing

And now, here is how the completed cake looked.

Catherine

You may notice that in my drawing, the lace panels were not as large as they ended up. When I ordered the lace mold, I had no idea that it would be so large. Additionally, Catherine really wanted to use fresh flowers on the top of her cake. Several varieties of brightly colored roses with white stephanotis really pop! The bride and her sweet mom, Phyllis, loved how all the elements of the cake came together to create Catherine's dream wedding cake.

I welcome all comments and hope that you will also follow my new Cake Dreams Facebook page as a quick way to see what's new.

A New Look for the Cake Dreams Blog

2010-07-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Highest praise goes to my talented daughter-in-law, Mary, who has created a custom design for my BLOG. I love that the new design is in complete harmony with my website design. She has started a Blog design business and many have already reaped the benefits of her keen eye for design.

Inspired by a photo collage of white on white wedding cake designs that Mary used as a sample entry during the design process, I have reviewed the past years of my own white on white wedding cake designs and created a collage of my own.

There is nothing that screams “I AM A WEDDING CAKE” than a tiered cake iced in white with white designs and flowers or accessories. The simple designs are just as elegant as the more “artistically inspired” cakes.

White on White Wedding Cakes

From the top left to right, row 1 then row 2

Michelle – Classic scroll patterns in vanilla buttercream with white roses

This is an example of a “basic design” which is one of the most value priced cake designs. It just shows that the simplest designs stand the test of time.

Dionne – Swiss dots on buttercream with white roses

The most simple of designs, yet it’s simple understated elegance is obvious. This is another example of a Basic Design

Dabney – Buttercream iced with added sugar paste embellishments

I love the combination of squares and rounds to add interest to the design. Here is an example of combining three different design elements on the same cake. The quilted pattern on the bottom square, combined with the vertical fondant ribbon strips and simple sugar pearls are all quite cohesive because the eye moves up the cake as the design elements become lighter on each tier. My favorite part of this cake are the hand shaped fondant bows. I used a pasta machine to roll the sugar paste very thin so the bows and ribbon would drape just like a fabric bow. This is an example of a Basic Plus Design.

Amy – Buttercream iced with sugar paste designs

Cut out diamond shapes airbrushed with pearl luster make a harlequin diamond design on the bottom tier. Triple Swiss Dot patter on the middle tier and thin fondant ribbon strips on the top tier show once again that combining three distinct patterns on one cake can create an interesting and eye appealing look when the design elements are white on white. This is another example of a Basic Plus Design.

Aimee Lee – Custom design based on embroidery and piping of bride’s wedding gown

This four tier cake is iced in vanilla buttercream. Long tubes of fondant form the borders at the base of each tier. Using an extruder, thin round strands of sugar paste were formed in the same shape of the petals embroidered on the bride’s gown as well as the long piping with loops from her dress. Small sugar pearls and pearl tipped stamens are added where in the fashion as the beading on her dress. The entire cake was airbrushed with a pearl luster so that the sugar paste piping would pop and shimmer. This is an example of an Original Custom Design.

Elizabeth – Custom design based on design elements of bride’s wedding gown

This three tier cake starts with hexagon shaped tiers iced in vanilla buttercream. I hand cut daisy shaped sugar flowers in two sizes patterned after the floral embroidery designs on the bodice of her wedding gown. A sugar paste bow tops of the cake. This is another example of an Original Custom Design.

Liz – Sugar paste flowers on buttercream icing

Alternating random scrolls and sugar pearls create a simple background for several varieties of handmade sugar paste flowers. White roses, orchids, gardenias, stephanotis start at the top tier of the cake and cascade down three round tiers to the top of the bottom tier of the cake. The square first tier has a pearl edged oval monogram plaque with the bride and groom’s initials. This is an example of a Custom Buttercream Design.

Kristin – Sugar paste flowers and fondant drapes on fondant iced cake

Five tiers completely iced in a delicious European rolled fondant create the basic canvas for this French Inspired design for my newest daughter-in-law, Kristin. Fondant was rolled ultra thin with a pasta machine to create the 30 draped swags that are placed at the top edge of each tier of the cake. Hundreds of handmade sugar paste flowers and leaves (roses, apple blossoms, white leaves and stephanotis blossoms) are place on the steps and top of each tier of the cake. A small Swiss dot pattern is piped in royal icing where the swags join together. This is an example of a Custom Fondant Design.

Please check my the PRICING page on my website for more information about wedding cake pricing.

From time to time I think I will feature cake designs in a thematic way like the White Wedding cakes above. Perhaps one of the collections will inspire you for your upcoming wedding cake.

Enjoy!

Catching up!

2010-06-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

For those who follow my blog, I am sure that you have noticed that I have not posted for several months. There have still been wedding cakes created and delivered, although not as many as in previous years. The shortest story is that I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in late September and so I had to go through chemotherapy, 2 surgeries and radiation. Today, I am cancer free, and more importantly, I AM A SURVIVOR!!!

I am not posting all the cakes that were made since November, but here's a sampling of some newer designs.

Whitney's cake was very personalized. The designs piped on the top and bottom tiers came from her Noritake China pattern. On the middle tier was a monogram plaque with the couple's custom designed lettering. This monogram was used in the invitations and on all the table decorations. Fresh flowers--stargazer lilies, roses and hydrangea accented this simply elegant cake. Her reception was at one of my favorite venues: Sister's Garden and Catering on Millbrook Rd. in Raleigh.

Whitney

OK, this next cake HAS to be one of my favorites of all 2009. It's the kind of cake you make a simple sketch of and then are amazed when you finally see it come alive in 3-D and it is even better than you imagined. I made the sugar pasted flowers with a large 5 petal rose cutter, and then folded in the petals to create a point. Once they were dry, I buffed in some sapphire luster dust to give them sheen, and then steamed them to set the luster dust. A bright lime green royal icing was made to create the dots in the center for the stamens. Since this was a week that I was having chemotherapy, my wonderful daughter-in-law, Mary, helped cut and shape the 72 leaves that were added to the navy scroll work. I used the small hole on my extruder to create the lime gum paste border around the monogram plaque and to create the letters with the left over navy sugarpaste from the flowers.

Brooke

The following cake is the one that I created for my newest daughter-in-law, Kristin. My son Michael and Kristin were married on December 19th, 2009. Kristen's cake was covered in white rolled fondant. Fondant drapes were created from the top edge of each tier around all sides of the cake. Various white sugar paste roses, apple blossoms and white filler flowers and leaves decorated the steps and tops of the tiers. The cake dimensions were 18-14-10-7-4 and served about 275-300. It was one HEAVY cake.

Kristin (my daughter-in-law)

Christine was married in early January. She wanted a winter themed cake. The design was simple, but still had a nice impact. I hand piped royal icing snowflakes from patterns I found online. Three sizes of silver dragees were placed randomly on the sides of cake. A sparkly silver ribbon was wrapped around the base of each tier. At the base of the cake I wrapped royal blue beaded wire several times around.

Christine

Later in January, I made this next cake for Kourtney and Derek, who are good friends of my son Mark. More handmade snowflakes were used on this offset square design with royal purpled ribbon. A few silver dragees added a nice pop and complimented the silver monogram.

Kourtney

Anita selected this popular design of alternating tiers of random scrolls and pearls. I really loved the contrast of the kelly green with the bright pink gerbera daisies. The custom made cake topper is one of my all-time favorites. It is a heart with the bride and groom's name formed from continues silver wire.

Anita

Frances' cake was a more complex design than usual. I loved the concept of the scroll-work with more dimension. I hand rolled "snakes" of fondant and shaped them in different scroll shapes and attached them to the rolled fondant icing. Then I hand painted silver luster on all the scrolls. It took six hours to roll, shape and paint the scrolls. The bride's choice of monogram lettering was perfect to compliment the design.

Frances

Roslyn LOVES dragonflies. She wanted her wedding cake to reflect that. Her 6 year old son had given her a brooch as a gift last year, and so she asked if there was a way to create something that included the design of the brooch. I made a photo copy of the pin at our consultation and then pondered during the following months about how I would do this. I ended up enlarging the scale of the pin and hand cutting and contouring gumpaste into the shape of the three dragonflies of the pin. I used different shades of green and gold luster dusts to copy the pin exactly. I piped outline shapes of dragonflies on the bottom and top tiers. The lime/apple green ribbon around the base of the tiers tied it all together. She loved her wedding cake.

Roslyn

Anna's cake design is a throwback to classic designs from a decade or more ago. Ruffled borders at the base with shell trim and C-scroll borders at the top edge of the tiers with single sugar pearls created a very traditional cake design.

Anna

Chelsea's cake starts with a square tier on the bottom with three round tiers stacked on top. The vertical fondant ribbon strips on the square add a contemporary edge to compliment the very popular sugar pearls and quilt pattern on the round tiers. Beautiful green hydrangea blossoms with a combination of bright and light pink roses make for a beautiful spring wedding cake.

Chelsea

I hope you like the new cakes. I always love to hear your comments about the ones that you like the best. I hope to post more frequently now that it is summer and there are more cakes to create during the peak of the wedding season.

Susan and Rich

2009-11-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

November 7, 2009

What a lovely day it was for a wedding! The weather was spectacularly beautiful. The location was the bucolic Barn at Valhalla just east of Chapel Hill. Susan and Rich are a delightful couple who were just so fun to work with. Susan wanted her cake to be inspired by a graphic of a simple sketch of tree from their "Save the Date" invitations.

She also wanted a touch of the eggplant accent color from her wedding colors. This is what I came up with.

Susan

closeup front view

The cake was iced in a very light ivory buttercream icing. I used an extruding "gun" to make long tubes of the eggplant tinted fondant to place at the base of each of the tiers. Ivory sugarpaste was cut into the shape of the trunk of the tree and branches and placed like appliqué on the front of the cake. The leaves were cut from a leaf cutter and then hand contoured to be dimensional and then placed on the branches of the tree. A small heart with the initials of the bride and groom were placed at the base of the tree, simulating the carving of two sweethearts. The graphic only had one branch on it and no top of tree. So I placed a branch extending opposite directions on the middle and top tier and then carried the theme over the top edge and filled in the top of the cake with several branches and leaves.

Rich's birthday was also the same week as the wedding, so they decided to do a birthday themed groom's cake to celebrate his birthday. They chose a simple package style cake.

Happy Birthday Rich!!

I hope that they had a wonderful celebration and a lovely day!

"Fall"ing Into October

2009-10-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

I knew that October was going to be much busier than the two previous months simply because there were more cake orders each week. The first week added the impact of moving to a new home, and therefore a new home for Cake Dreams. It was imperative that I make sure that I had everything I needed all at one single residence to create the first wedding cake for the month. All went well, and now the move seems like a distant memory now that we are all comfortable in our new abode. The great thing is that now I have a fantastic kitchen to work in. This makes me very happy.

October 3rd

Chrishaunda wanted a wedding cake that made a statement. She brought me a photo of her inspiration cake. From there we made some adjustments to make her cake uniquely hers. Four square tiers with fondant drapes cascading down the front of the cake. Bright color sugar flowers and a crystal studded monogram accessorized her cake.

Chrishaunda

October 10th

The first cake for this weekend was for a bride named Abigail. It was a pleasure to work with her family. She opted for classic and simple elegance with black ribbon bands and single pearls with a simple silver monogram. I think her choice of table covering and bright color flowers really makes this cake presentation pop.

Abigail

Kelly also wanted simple elegance by choosing the very popular quilted diamond impression pattern with single pearls. Her cake was adorned with about 32 butterfly orchids made from sugarpaste with bright pink accents. Her reception was at the Alumni Club at NC State.

Kelly

October 17th

Melanie had her wedding and reception at the lovely Shady Wagon Farm near New Hill, NC. For the rustic venue, she selected winding vines with leaves piped around her cake. A sugar paste cake topper with autumn color calla lilies and roses crowned her cake.

Melanie

I did not have the pleasure of meeting the bride for this cake until I delivered the cake to the Rock of Ages winery in Hurdle Mills, NC. Shawnteal and I worked together over the phone and email to design her cake. With two photos for inspiration, I was able to create her dream wedding cake. Three offset square tiers with two layers of ribbon and scrollwork really worked in this lovely setting. Fresh flowers top her cake.

Shawnteal

Jessa's cake design is my most popular design. Sage green ribbon bands with sugar paste orange tiger lilies and red lillium compliment her fall color palette. A custom made cake topper, based on a private joke between the bride and the groom brings whimsy to Jessa's otherwise classic cake.

Jessa

October 23-24th

Three cakes were scheduled for this weekend, with the first on Friday afternoon at the Sunset Lake Lodge in Holly Springs. Kirby is another bride whom I have never had the pleasure of meeting, but worked via email and telephone to create her wedding cake. Kirby selected the design elements of her cake from another cake that I had made last year, but chose to add height and presence to her cake by separating the cake tiers with pillars for the placement of sugar paste flowers. A variety of sizes of calla lilies with white filler flowers with bright claret ribbon make her cake a stunning centerpiece for her lakeside wedding.

Kirby

Cheri was having her reception at the beautiful Duke Gardens. What better design for a garden wedding than a cake that is inspired by a flower garden. Cheri personally selected the sugar flowers for her cake, using bright gerbera daisies, purple petunias and dogwood sprays. It is just so lovely.

Cheri

Tara's cake was inspired by the cake on my business card. Simple apple green ribbon bands with sprigs of green hydrangea and white roses make her cake a classic.

Tara

See you next month!!

Ahh...A Slower September!

2009-09-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

September was greatly anticipated as a month to slow down and "regroup and recoup". This was especially important because on a more personal note, we are preparing to move to a new house in Fuquay-Varina. Moving requires a great deal of preparation to make it less agony when the actual moving day arrives. I really needed the extra time to sort through items and determine what we really wanted to move with us. But, wedding cakes were ordered and needed to be made. Some were more traditional, and others more unique.

September 5th

Marisha Thompson is a former piano student of mine. She spent about three years at my bench during her high school years. I love Mishy. She and David love anything Disney. They went to Disney World for their honeymoon. I made a seemingly traditionally decorated wedding cake with some subtle and not so subtle Mickey Mouse touches.

There are actually three design elements associated with the beloved rodent. The cake topper is obvious. The hand made sugarpaste silhouette of Mickey's face where a monogram would go is not so hard to find. But, if you look carefully, I took a triple sugar pearl pattern and adjusted it slightly to make what I call "Mickey Pearls". I used a larger sugar pearl and then two smaller pearls set up as the ears. Very cute!

Marisha and David

September 12th

Kim and Mark held their reception at one of my all time favorite venues, TPC Wakefield Plantation. You will receive the best service and the most delicious food at Wakefield. Jaclyn Parks, who is the event manager will take very good care of you.

Kim selected three stacked square tiers with simple scrollwork and sugar pearls. A few roses and green berries, and you have a classic and elegant cake.

Kim and Mark

September 19th

This week gave me the opportunity to create another Louis Vuitton Monogram Handbag. This was a true to life replica of the Carry All style bag in the 15x10x6 inch bag. These kinds of cakes take hours and hours and more hours to create. But in the end, all were quite pleased with the result.

Louis Vuitton Handbag

Jamie wanted simplicity and classy. She did not want any design element piped on the sides of the cake. This puts a great deal of pressure on me to have very smooth buttercream. But, with the icing airbrushed with a pearlized luster and strands of handmade sugar paste pearls along with two fresh green cymbidium orchids with leaves and a single silver monogram, this cake makes a wonderful statement: I am simply lovely. Jamie's reception was held at Gregory's restaurant in Cary.

Jamie

September 26th

Liz and Russ came to me only a month ago for their wedding cake. Liz wanted something reminiscent of a Ron Ben Israel design. Simple white on white...well, not SO simple. Three round tiers on a square base (which has been very popular this wedding season) is the foundation for scrolls, pearls and a simple monogram plaque. But the real stars of the cake are the variety of sugar paste flowers in roses, cattleya orchids, apple blossoms, stephanotis and gardenias cascading from top to bottom of the cake.

As I was placing the last flower on the cake, the groom came into the reception hall and said to me "I think you nailed it?" I knew the bride would love her white floral garden. Their reception was at A Step to Gold Ballroom at the Pleasant Valley Promenade shopping center in Raleigh.

Liz and Russ

September's cakes are completed and October is right around the corner. October will be much busier, but nothing like June and July. I will have an awesome new kitchen to work in and I can't wait to see the cakes that new space will inspire.

Thanks for reading and for your comments. They are always encouraging.

Jaqueline's Cake

2009-09-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am posting the photo of Jacqueline's cake from July 11th. The photographer is Heather Swanner of Heather Swanner Photography Studio. She does fabulous work!

Jacqueline

A Well Deserved Vacation

2009-09-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

August's wedding cakes began on the heels of Friday, July 31st's wedding cakes. That first weekend was very intense! I can't even total all the time that I spent trying to figure out the most efficient delivery order and routes for the cakes. I think I may have earned a degree in time managment and engineering for all the time I spent thinking about it.

After the last cake was delivered on August 1st, Doug and I stayed for the reception, since the cake was for the daughter of a family we know from church. It was nice to sit, relax, eat great food at Sister's Garden and dance a bit with a big band. On August 2nd, we were officially on vacation for 10 days. We actually had a "stay-cation" as we did not have a specific destination. We stayed home for part of the time, and just enjoyed the time together. We also drove to Beaufort for a few days, where we spent time with our oldest daughter and our two adorable grand-daughters. We went to the beach and the aquarium. I didn't answer emails for work or take calls. It was a well deserved vacation.

August 1st
Hannah's cake was inspired by another cake that I had made last fall. The original cake was much smaller, was iced in rolled fondant and had fresh white orchids on the cake with branches of curly willow. We adapted the design for buttercream and used sugar paste green dendrobium orchids with the curly ribbon. Her cake was so lovely in the beautiful setting that Sister's Garden creates for the presentation of the wedding cake.

Hannah

Lindsay wanted a groom's cake in addition to her wedding cake. The groom is a big NY Mets fan. This was a German Chocolate Cake with half the filling traditional coconut pecan filling and the other half of the cake with white chocolate mousse. I used my edible image printer to create the classic NY Mets logo graphic.

NY Mets Groom's Cake

Lindsay's wedding cake epitomized a summer wedding cake. Sugar pearls on buttercream, turqoise blue ribbon and blue and green hydrangea accessorize her cake. Lindsay's reception was held at the historic Crenshaw Hall in Wake Forest.

Lindsay

Brittany's wedding was held at the Page Walker Hotel in Cary. I love this venue. I used to hold my piano recitals there. Brittany's choice was simple and lovely. Lavender sugar pearls place on offset stacked squares. Sugar paste orchids were place on the cake top and steps of the tiers.

Brittany

August 15th

Laura's cake seemed simple. Offset squares stacked with smooth iced buttercream sides, fresh strawberries and a monogram. Well, let me tell you a secret. One of the reasons we decorate the sides of buttercream cakes is to hide all the imperfections of a buttercream iced cake. This is one reason rolled fondant became so popular - because it is SO smooth. Well, I worked very hard and it took very long to get the sides of this buttercream iced cake smooth and the corners all straight and even. This is when the skills of a cake decorator (or lack thereof) are truly exposed.

Laura

Sheila is a bride for whom I made a wedding cake last fall. Sheila's daughter, Yasminah, was celebrating her 16th birthday this month. Yasminah loves the Victoria Secret's PINK designs. This cake design came by way of using graphic printed on my edible image printer in conjuction with rolled fondant and hand-made sugar paste art. My favorite part is the "tissue paper". I have a pasta machine that is dedicated to rolling sugar paste and fondant. I put the sugar paste on the lasagne setting and kept rolling it thinner and thinner until the sugarpaste would drape just like tissue paper. That was fun!!

Yasminah's Sweet 16 Victoria Secret "Pink" Cake

August 22nd

Brittany is a very good friend of the family. In fact, Brittany and my son Eric dated for quite a while during high school and then for a short period of time last summer. We would have been quite happy to add Brittany to our family, if it had been in the cards. But, alas, she found her true love with Marcus. Brittany selected a simple square with the tiers off-set with triple swiss dot details and fresh red roses. Simple and romantic.

Brittany

Seth is the son of my good friend Amy, and one of my son Mark's best friends. We have been friends with the Winsors since 1992. I made a groom's cake for Amy's son Adam, when he was married in October of 2007. It was a Halloween themed "topsy turvy" style cake. Amy wanted another whimsical style cake for Seth and Jeanette's wedding open house. I was only given two instructions aside from it being a topsy turvy cake: the theme was Sunflowers and the colors were gold, green and brown. The rest was up to me to design and create. Very fun! This is what I came up with.

Seth and Jeanette

August 29th
The cake that I made for Lynn was inspired by the same cake as Hannah's cake on August the 1st. The changes were that it would be square and the ribbon would be a dark steel gray. Fresh orchids and curly willow accented the fondant cake with off-set tiers.

Lynn

August started off a little stressful, followed by a well deserved vacation. Then, several weeks where there were only one or two cakes. It was nice to slow down for a bit. September will also be more calm. But, you know what they say about the calm before the storm...yes, October will be back to business as usual. Plus, we are buying a new home and moving the first weekend in October, so that will add a nice little stress factor to the mix.

I am all caught up with my blog posting. Stay tuned, because the end of September will be here before I know it, and it will be time to post photos again.

Thanks for your comments about July. I look forward to reading what you have to say about August's cakes.

A record breaking July!

2009-09-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

July was exhausting! I have never had a July before that had more cake orders than a June or April. July was also HOT! I had to try to schedule the deliveries so that I wouldn't have to have more than one cake in the Jeep at a time. We'd deliver a cake, come back and get the next, etc. etc. Well, it didn't work all the time, but we did it whenever we could. It made for much longer delivery days, but my goal is to make sure that my cakes arrive in perfect condition.

July 2nd, 3rd and 4th
We had three wedding cakes for the the first week of July; one each on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This first cake on Thursday the 2nd, was for a great family. They were so nice to work with. Ashely wanted a very traditional cake with beautiful flowers. And that is exactly what she got. Her reception was at one of my favorite venues: The NC State Alumni Club. Wendy is the event manager and always makes things easy for the couple and for me.

Ashley

Friday, July 3rd took me once again to the Carolina Inn, the Old Well Ballroom. It is the favorite room for brides at the inn, I presume because of its history. It is the largest ballroom that is part of the original hotel.

Lydia wanted one of my most popular designs. If you are one my regular blog-fans, you'll recognize this design. She and her finace are also huge Carolina fans, so Carolina Blue was an important part of the cake. With blue hydrangea and my custom tinted fondant ribbon bands, this cake was a edible tribute to the Carolina Tarheels.

Lydia

July 11, 2009
I ended up with four cakes this week, because one bride contacted me fairly late in the season when her previous baker had told her that she was no longer able to make her cake. I always feel so bad for a bride in this situation, so I told her "sure", I'll make your cake.

Krystle's reception was at the very lovely Sister's Garden in Raleigh. I provide cakes at this venue quite often. The staff is just wonderful, and the food is delicious and the service is wonderful. Krystle selected a design that ended up being very popular this year. A square foundation tier, with three rounds stacked upon it. She opted for the pearl bordered monogram plaque on the bottom tier and single sugar pearls on the sides. She had green cymbidium orchids with baby's breath for me to put on the cake. And, if you can believe it, the orchids were silk flowers. They looked so real.

Krystle

Kelly's cake took my most popular design (which I should just call the Cake Dreams signature design) and had me tint a mint green fondant ribbon band which complimented the incredibly beautiful fresh lavender orchids which I placed randomly all over the tiers of the cake and on the cake top.

Kelly

I had so much fun designing this next cake for Khrystal. She loves butterflies! She just said that she wanted pink butterflies going from the bottom of the cake and cascading to the top, like they were flying away. The rest was up to me. I created scrolls from ropes of sugar paste to make a pathway for the butterflies. I also airbrushe the entire cake with a pearl luster, which you can tell by the shimmer on the cake. Her reception was my 2nd trip to the fairly new Rigmor House in Chapel Hill.

Khrystal

The last cake on the 11th went to the Doris Duke Center at Duke Gardens. It also had butterflies on the cake. However, Jaqueline's mother wanted to place the butterflies on the cake, and since she wasn't able to be there at the time that I delivered the cake, I do not have a photo of the completed cake. Check back again, and I will have a photo and additional comments about Jacqueline's cake. (note: below is the photo of the completed cake 9-17-09)

Jacqueline

July 18th
Melody selected the hexagon shape for her cake, but with very traditional designs, by using the classic patterned scroll and a variety of fresh garden flowers. We didn't have the official camera, so I used the camera on my cell phone. Not a bad photo from a cell phone. A note on Melody's cake: Hexagon cake pans are not available in very many sizes. For the servings that were required, I had to hand cut the hexagon tiers from regular round cake layers. The challenge is having perfectly vertical sides and corners. I just wanted you to notice how straight and true my edges and corners are. :)

Melody

I just loved how Mary's cake turned out. It's so simple, and yet so lovely. Mary had her reception at the MIllennium Hotel, which I have already been to several times this year. The bright turquoise ribbon, pearls and sugar calla lillies on the cake top make this four tier cake a classic design.

I also made a groom's cake for the wedding. I do not yet have a photo of the cake. It was my Andes Chocolate Mint cake with chocolate buttercream icing. The design was selected by the groom. A white gazebo with bride and groom PEZ candy dispensers standing inside. I can't wait to see the photo. I'll add that when I get the photo from the groom.

Mary H.

The third cake on the 11th went to the Raddison Governor's Inn. Mary G. was another bride, whose baker dropped them at the last minute. So, with one week's notice I addd her cake to the day. She wanted white rolled fondant with a different design on each tier, but very traditional. She let me select the designs. They had asked me to put red sugar paste lilies on the cake. I have to say, this was a very pretty little cake.

Mary G.

July 25th
This week, my best friend from college came to spend the week, so I only took one cake order. Shekitta wanted a cake that made a statement. Her colors were lapis purple, ivory and gold. Her cake was also the large square bottom tier with three rounds stacked upon it. the icing was tintied ivory. Sugar pearls were placed on the sides of the cake, lapis ribbon was wrapped around the base of each tier. Handmade sugar flowers (roses in different sizes and filler flowers) cascaded down the front of the cake. I hand painted the leaves with an edible 24KT gold luster dust and I made lapis ribbon bow loop bouquets to accent the flowers coming down the front of the cake. The bride provided the gold with crystals monogram cake topper.

Shekitta

July 31st
The last day of July brought three wedding cakes. Keep in mind that the next day was Saturday, August 1st, where I had three more wedding cakes and a groom's cake. They will be posted with the August's Cakes entry, but don't forget (and I'll tell you I never will) that I had all those cakes in ONE weekend. THAT will never happen again. But, believe it or not, the week was not stressful at all. I was organized and stayed on task for each day.

I really like opportunities to design unique cakes. Payton came with a desire to incorporate a design element that was central to other elements in her wedding design. It was a fluer-de-lis. Although the design was quite simple, it was really lovely. Black ribbon anchored the bottom of each tier. I piped small fluer-de-lis designs on the sides of the cake, the same as i would have done with a swiss dot design. The top of the cake was a large fluer-de-lis shape with designs that I hand contourd with a gumpaste tool. The red accents are monograms made from red sugarpaste. The bride and groom ordered a custom made wax stamp which I used to make an impression in the paste. My favorite part is when a bride tells me that the cake exceeded their expectations. Payton's reception was at Savor Hospitality in Cary.

Payton

Abby's chose another design that is often requested, because of its simplicity. Random scrolls on the top and bottom tier, and single pearls on the middle tier. The selection of white roses and pink and white gerbera daisies give this a fresh summery look. Her reception was held at the Doubletree Hotel and Suites. This is a great venue too! Amy takes good care of every detail there.

Abby

There was another cake that day for a bride, Cynthia, that I do not have a photograph of. It was a three tier square with white on white vines and leaves crawling up the cake. It had sugar paste calla lilies and pink dipped strawberries.

Stay tuned for August's post which will follow later this week. I am acknowledging that it is currently September 5th and I am only now getting to July's cakes. I always appreciate your comments, whether you are a regular follower or not. I like to hear which cakes are your favorites.

Thanks for reading!!

So much to do, so little time!

2009-06-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

June's cakes have all been baked, decorated and delivered. We traveled all over the triangle area, and to some places twice. It was hot and humid, and that makes delivering buttercream iced cakes very scary. I tried very hard to make sure that we only had to put one cake in the car at a time, deliver it, and then come back for the next cake. This "wedding cake relay" game made for very long days in my cute little Jeep, but it was much better for the cakes.

The cakes that I am posting today are just a few from the month. Sometimes, when flowers are not ready or cake toppers are not left for me, I do not get a finished photo of the cake, and so there are several cakes that are not being posted for that reason.

Friday, June 13th
This first cake was for a former piano student of mine, named Julie. I started teaching Julie when she was 7 years old, and taught her until her junior year of high school. I had taught her sister Jaime for a few years too. Side note: for those of you who do not know, I have spent the last 29 years as a piano teacher. While I currently only have 4 students as I have left attrition reduce numbers as the cake buisiness grew and grew, most of those years I had 20 to 30 students crossing my threshold after school every day.

Julie had her reception at St. Michael's Parrish Center in Cary. She wanted a very traditional cake with aqua ribbon and bright yellow flowers.

Julie

Ann Marie came to me wanting her cake to reflect the embroidery designs from her wedding gown.

Back view

Close up

I had a wonderful experience designing this cake. For weeks in advance, I would study the photos of her dress to get some inspiration and to figure out how I would execute the design. At first I thought that I could pipe the design with icing, but then one day I came up with an idea that I knew would take the design to a more elegant level. I used a fondant extruder to make long thin tubes to form and shape the flowers, leaves and flowing stems. I used sugar pearls and pearl headed stamins to accent the design. It gave the cake so much dimension. Once again, a two dimensional photo does not do the cake justice.

Ann Marie's reception was at the Doris Duke Center at Duke Gardens in Durham. I always love to see how the room transforms from bride to bride as I deliver cakes there.

Ann Marie

The last cake of that day was delivered to the very lovely Hill Ballroom at the Carolina Inn. Amanda had seen a cake design that I had done before where each tier had a different design element. The flowers, provided by Kathy from The Purple Puddle, were a wonderful combination of purple flowers with young green hydrangea. This was one of my favorite cakes in all of June.

Amanda

Friday, June 19th

Dorothy is a bride from Brooklyn, NY whom I have never met. She found my website and contacted me on the telephone, and we worked together entirely via emails, phone and letters. She had her future sister-in-law and mother-in-law come for her cake tasting and consultation. I also sent some cake samples to her in New York for her to try.

Dorothy had fallen in love with a cake I had made in May of 2008 for a bride named Alex. It is a towering four tier cake with chocolate scrolls and a chocolate fondant bow on the cake top with long chocolate fondant streamers coming down the front of the cake. Alex used green hydrangea to accent her cake. Dorothy's fiance was a Carolina fan, and wanted Carolina Blue to somehow be involved in the cake. So she had me use blue hydrangeas instead. I was able to aquire the most beautiful, large and fluffy blue hyrangeas for her cake.

I had gone out to purchase the flowers on Thursday before the wedding. None of my usual sources had true blue hydrangeas. I did find some that were that almost purple version, but I had to have something resembling Carolina Blue. After four or five places, I went to my closest Harris Teeter and aske the floral designer there if she had them. While she told me that they didn't have them there, she said that she had a bush full of them in her yard at home in Fuquay. She tried calling the other stores, who also did not have any. I finally asked her if she was working on Friday, she said she was. I said "I will buy them from you!" So she promised to bring some stems with her to work on Friday and I would meet her there around 11:00 a.m.

When I arrived on Friday morning, she was on her way out of the store. She had forgotten the flowers. So she called one of the other Harris Teeters to see if they had gotten any in, and while that lady said the store didn't have any she said that she had some beautiful ones in her yard.

So, that lady went home, clipped several stems from her bush and then my Harris Teeter's floral lady met her at the Cary store and brought them back to my store so that I could pick them up. All that for me, and then she wouldn't even charge me for them. She was from New York...I guess those NY girls stick together. :) Here is Dororthy's cake:

Dorothy

Saturday, June 20th

Currently, I only have one photo from Saturday the 20th's cakes. And, I wasn't able to get a very clear shot because the light from the French doors was flooding the area where the cake was. Margaret's reception was at the Henderson County Club. The flowers were provided by Cydney English from The English Garden near Brier Creek in Raleigh. Cydney and I work together quite frequently, and she is terrific!

Margaret

Saturday, June 27th

Of the 5 years since Cake Dreams began, this week produced the most cake of any other. This week, we produced 900 servings of cake between four weddings! 450 servings were for one cake. I had a great deal of support this week and props must go to several people. First, to Kimberly Bloomfield who helped me with the baking. I love Kim!! Second, to my daughter-in-law Mary who made more recipes of raspberry filling than I can even count (for the 450 serving cake), several recipes of strawberry filling and chopped and melted the white chocolate and poured the molds for the sea shells for one of the cakes. I love Mary!

Third, to Catherine who came over to make a baby shower cake for a friend at her work and helped me by baking banana cake. YUM!! And finally, a huge thanks to my mom, Eleanore, (who turns 79 later this year) who with some help from my son Daniel, chopped 4 pounds of European dark chocolate into tiny shavings to make chocolate ganache (also for the 450 serving cake). Over several days, my mom washed dishes, cake pans and other utensils to keep the kitchen in efficient working condition. I love my MOM!!Daniel washed plenty of dishes too, as he is paying me back with his time for all the money spent on his chorus trip, prom and other expenses from his junior year. I love Daniel!

Emily had a beach theme for her reception. She brought me a photo from a cake shop in Maui, Hawaii as her inspiration. Off white buttercream, simple scrolls with pearl accents and white chocolate sea shells buffed with luster dust to make them look like real shells.

Emily

Trevia went for classic scrolls and blue ribbon with a traditional cake topper. Her reception was held at The North Pavillion at Duke Hospital. It was really a lovely setting for a reception.

Trevia

Alison ordered her cake almost a year ago. She had her reception at the Bentwinds County Club in Fuquay-Varina. She had alternating ribbon in cornflower blue and deep violet. I don't have a photo that includes a custom made crystal cake topper, as it wasn't at the venue yet; but I hope to get one soon.

Alison

Sonal's cake was the largest single cake order I have ever had. She grew up in Cary, but works and lives in New York City. She wanted cake for 450 guests. Sonal's reception was the first wedding reception held at the new Raleigh Convention Center, downtown Raleigh. This was a specatular event! She had a wedding designer come down from New Jersey to design her wedding. The Indian caterers also came from New Jersey. The flowers were spectacular as well as the table decor. There were place settings for 700 guests. There was special lighting and music. Because the room was so large, there were two screens set up adjacent the head table (which was on a stage) so that all the guests could see what was going on during the program and introductions before dinner.

Sonal's cake design was inspired by her wedding clothes that she purchased in India. The icing was tinted a pale mauve. The piping was done in a darker tone, and then I hand painted edible gold which is a powder that is mixed with vodka to make a paint. The alchohol evaporates and leaves the gilding behind. It took 8 hours to pipe all the scrolls and then go back and hand paint them on all six tiers. I used a narrow gold mesh ribbon at the bottom of the tiers to give a clean edge and coordinate with the gold on the cake. Silver dragees were also used to ornament the design.

Sonal

Close up view

Gee, I am tired just having reviewed this month's work. July will bring 16 more wedding cakes and 2 groom's cakes. As always, I thank you for your interest and appreciate your comments.

The "Marry" Month of May

2009-06-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a long and busy month at the home of Cake Dreams and I produced 12 wedding cakes and one large party cake during the month of May. Eleven of those cakes were made on the last three weekends of this month. Reports have come back from happy brides and groom's telling me (once again) that the guests said it was the most delicious cake they have ever tasted. I have to say, I just never get tired of hearing that. When I started Cake Dreams, it was by express goal to create the most moist and delicious cakes and fillings and icings so that your wedding cake would not just be a beautful centerpiece for your wedding, but also, the delicious dessert for your reception.

MAY 30, 2009

The first cake was for the wedding of Kelly and Aaron. They had their wedding and reception at the Cafe' Luna in downtown Raleigh. This is one my most favorite places to work with. They have delicious food and take very good care of their guests. It is my first pick for a smaller, more intimate wedding.

If you have read my previous post titled Something Old Becomes Something New you saw that this design is my most requested wedding cake design. And here, you see, the same cake design takes on its own unique look just by the change of ribbon and the flowers.

Kelly and Aaron

photo courtesy of Melissa Kay Photograpy

This cake was for Misty and Nick. They chose the same basic design as the above cake. Misty selected a narrower bright green gross grain ribbon and had me provide hand made sugar paste stargazer lilies with leaves to place on the tiers of the cake. This cake was simple and yet so elegant. I loved how this cake looked.

Their wedding was held at the B&B County Garden Inn in Apex. This is a lovely setting for a wedding.

Misty and Nick

Patrice selected one of my favorite cake constructions for a large four tier wedding cake. I love when a large square tier is placed as the base for three round tiers. Like Misty, Patrice selected hand made sugar paste stargazer lilies to cascade down the front of her cake. She also had me pipe whimsical hearts on alternating tiers. I have included both a close up and a full shot of the cake. Patrice and Ray were married at the Millennium Hotel in Durham.

Patrice and Ray

This is the last of the cakes from May 30th. It was for Emma Taylor and Brandon Pope. They had their reception at the Campbell Lodge at Durant Nature Park. Emma's colors were a lovely light green and buttercup yellow. She had the most adorable wedding invitation that she gave to me to match the colors. I used a classic scroll pattern and then made yellow sugar paste flowers with green royal icing centers which were airbrushed with a pearl luster and placed at the ends of the scrolls. Then I used the green royal icing to create the light green bead borders around the base of each tier. A beautiful assortment of fresh flowers were given to me to place on the cake top.

Emma and Brandon

MAY 22nd and 23rd

Celsi loved a cake that I had made last year for a bride named Jenn. She just changed the color of the ribbon to royal blue and used bright bright pink roses. It is simple, but still a little different use of scrolls and ribbon.

Celsi

Lyn from Fresh Affairs provided the beautiful flowers for this simple offset square cake. Julia and Nick held their wedding at the Raleigh Rose Gardens and then had a beautiful reception at Sullivan's Restaurant on Glenwood avenue, downtown Raleigh.

Julia and Nick

Paula and William selected a classic design with random scrolls on ivory buttercream with black ribbon. When Paula first met with me, the wedding was to be held locally. Later, there was a literal change of venue and the wedding was moved to Charlotte. This cake was boxed and picked up by friends and driven three hours away for the wedding reception. Clean and simple lines make for an elegant design.

Paula and William

MAY 16th

Courtney and Derek were married at the exquisite Carolina Inn. Courtney's cake was decorated with random scrolls with sugar pearl accents. Her tiers were separated by the most beautiful pink hydrangeas that I have even seen (also provided by Lyn from Fresh Affairs). This cake just screams "I am a wedding cake!" The photo is courtesy of Nicole Faby Photography. Check out her blog too. She does amazing work!

Courtney and Derek

Rebeca and Kyle held their reception at the Rigmor House in Chapel Hill. This was my first time delivering a cake to this venue. Everything was decorated with Silver and Navy Blue. Rebeca wanted me to make little navy petal sugar flowers and place them on the cake more densely at the bottom and lightening as they rose up the cake. I added small silver dragees in the center of the larger sugar paste blossoms. I made several larger blossoms to place on the cake top. This was a unique design that was really lovely. Unfortunately, my little camera doesn't do the cake justice.

Rebeca and Kyle

Finally, I had the wonderful opportunity to make another whimsical "Mad Hatter" style cake for a great little family. Back in 2006 Heather ordered a first birthday cake for her son. She wanted something really colorful and whimsical. Click here for a link to that birthday cake. This year, her little girl turned one and so she wanted to have something similar, but with a more feminine flair. I made little bumble bees, and butterflies in different pastel colors. It was a very fun cake.

Happy Birthday Regan

Let me know what your favorites were from this month. I know that I have vistors to my blog, and I would love to hear from you. June has some traditional cakes and some not so traditional cakes. I can't wait to see how everything turns out for June.

Thanks for reading!

Something Old Becomes Something New!

2009-05-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

Most of the time, the wedding cake designs that are selected by brides are based upon previous designs. In many cases, a bride finds a design on my website and decides she loves it just the way that it is, and only modifies it by the color of the ribbon and the flowers. One design in particular is my most asked for design. I have made it too many times to count. And yet, when the ribbon is on, and the flowers are placed on it, it becomes brand new, even for me.

Such is the design of the cakes shown below. Single sugar pearls on the top and bottom tier, and the quilted diamond shape impression with pearls at the intersections on the middle tier.

This first cake photo is the very first cake I ever made with this design. I loved this cake so much and the photo turned out so well, that I used it as the icon for Cake Dreams beginning in 2005 when the cake was created.

Jennifer W.

This cake had custom tinted fondant sugar ribbon bands around the base of the tier, but most of the recreations of this design have used fabric ribbon, as it is a more affordable alternative to the custom made edible bands.

This last month, I made two more cakes with this same design. Both of these two cakes used sugar paste flowers. Can I tell you how much I love sugar flowers? I just love them. This first cake was for Trish in Fayetteville. This cake was delivered to the Pope Air Force Base Officers Club. Our Jeep had to be searched before we could enter the base. That was fun!

Trish's cake used white roses and green miltonia orchids on the cake top. Her cake had a dark moss green ribbon wrapped around the tiers. The second cake was for Pearl in Durham. She selected Peach ribbon and Peach cymbidium orchids for the cake top and steps of the tiers. Turns out, there was not a roll of peach satin or gross grain ribbon to be found in all the county, but after much searching, I did find some sheer ribbon in the right color.

Same old design, but each with a new look unique to the bride. (did I mention how much I loved the sugar flowers on these cakes?)

Trish B.

Pearl G.

Now we have Patti C's cake. Patti fell in love with the cake design that I created for my daughter-in-law Mary who married my son Christian in April of 2008. She told me it was the most beautiful cake she had ever seen. So, I recreated that cake design for Patti, in a smaller size and with green hydrangea instead of blue. The photo is at an angle so that I could get the whole cake in the photo and still make out the detail. It is a fondant iced cake, with fondant panels wrapped around the tiers to imitate different eyelet lace on each of the 5 tiers. I am pretty sure that it took about 25 hours to create this cake from start to finish.

Patti C.

Two weeks ago I delivered this next cake to a venue I had not been to before. It was at the Hudson Manor, up past Louisburg, NC. It was a spectacularly beatiful setting for a wedding. Old historic southern manision with gardens and a new ballroom pavillion on the premises. The cake for Diana B uses one of the mose popular color combinations from the last few years. Light powder blue with brown. She chose single pearls all over the sides of her cake, brown ribbon around the tiers with silver initials and hydrangeas at the cake top. It is classic and elegant.

Diana B.

On the same day, we deliverd Priscilla's cake to the North Hills Club in Raleigh. I just love the simple scrolls and pearls with a variety of fresh flowers. This design is also very popular, but it was fresh again for me with these lovely pink flowers.

Priscilla P.

Last, is my favorite NEW design from this year. This is Dabney's cake. It's really old designs just organized in a new way. Square bottom tier, with the quilted pattern. One inch wide fondant ribbon bands airbrushed with pearl luster. Single pearls on the top tier. But, my favorite thing about the cake are the bows, also airbrushed with pearl luster. Dabney had originally wanted a casual and relaxed bow offset on the top tier. When I made the first bow, it was just too large scale for the top of the cake. So I made another smaller bow to fit the tier. The afternoon before the wedding I called Dabney and told her I had this extra bow and how would she feel if I put it on the top corner of the bottom square tier in front of the middle round tier. She said it sounded great. Well, it did, and it looked even better. That bow made the cake. I loved this cake. It was delivered to another venue that I had not yet been to before. It was at The Sutherland up in Wake Forest. Beautiful! What a lovely setting for a southern style wedding.

Dabney B.

I hope you have enjoyed these cakes from the last month. May has another dozen or so cakes left in it, so I'll see you back here in a few weeks!

New Cakes!!!

2009-04-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

With the new design of my website, I no longer have the ability to add EVERY cake that I make to the on-line Cake Design Gallery. But, this BLOG is the perfect place to show the new cakes that I make. So here are just a few of the new cake designs that I have made since the beginning of 2009.

A mom from Maryland called me to make a surprise birthday cake for her son who lives here in Raleigh. She gave me a color scheme and asked that it be whimsical and let me do something special. I gotta say, I love the multi-color rolled candles. Everytime I make them I figure out a new and better way to do it.

A co-worker of my husband asked if I could make a minature wedding style cake for his wife, for their 15th wedding anniversary. It's hard to determine scale from the photo, but the bottom tier is a 7 inch cake and the top is a 4 inch cake. Each tier is only about 2.5-2.75" tall. The sugar paste calla lilies really make it special. It was a VERY cute cake.

Last week, I received a phone call from a man who lives in Hickory, NC. He was inquiring about a cake on the website in the style of a Louis Vuitton Dufflebag for his daughter's 18th birthday. They were driving in the area to celebrate as she attends the Durham School of Math and Science. I made a more "girl-ish" version of this cake to scale of the classic LV bag. It took almost 5 hours to hand paint all the gold designs on the sides of the chocolate fondant. I was very pleased with result!

Last month, a very cute mom-to-be and her sister came for a consultation to design a very special cake for a baby shower. I have fallen in love with this cake. I made extra tall tiers for the square cakes so that they would look more like gift boxes.

All I can say about this cake is that I love the simple classic design. For those that know about cake decorating, square cakes can be a real beast to ice. It's those darn square corners. I worked very hard to make sure these corners all lined up straight and even. Simple black ribbon, triple dots and fresh red roses with green berries on the top make for a lovely design. The reception was at Marbles Kid's Museum downtown Raleigh. This cake served 250 guests. It was chocolate chip cake with chocolate fudge filling. YUM!!!

This is one of the sweetest cakes I have made this year. I love sugar paste flowers. I believe that they add an elegance that even fresh flowers do not often create. This simple round cake that serves 100 was iced in my classic buttercream and then airbrushed with a pearl luster. Insted of the usual icing bead border, I made strands of sugar pearls with a silcone mold to place at the base of each tier. The hand-made sugar roses, stephanotis and baby's breath with green leaves make an elegant statment for an elegant bride.

Unfortunately, a photo simply cannot capture the essesnce of this cake design. The groom is the one that suggested a design for the cake, based on the cake topper that they had selected. The couple on the cake topper is standing in a bed of tiny beige roses. I found a mold that made tiny 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" roses which I then buffed in a custom mix of petal and luster dust. I made hundreds of these roses. Then the idea was to have them spilling off from the top of where the couple were standing and cascading down the cake, as if a waterfall of flowers. In lieu of icing borders at the base of the tier, I rolled long "snakes" of sugar paste to nestle in the base of the cakes. It was a special cake for a special couple.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I'd love to hear your comments!

A New Look for Cake Dreams

2009-03-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a little more calm here at Cake Dreams for the last three months. Traditionally, December, January and February are not the most popular months for weddings. As a result of this trend, I have been spending more time meeting with brides and groom's who are planning their spring and summer weddings than actually creating wedding cakes.

I have also totally redesigned my website and it has been up and running for about a month now. I have had wonderful feedback on the design and the overall functionality of the site. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.

I am a DIY kind of gal. Always have been. I would say that tendency is probably why I ended up making and decorating cake to begin with. I got it from my mom. She was a DIY gal too. So, when I decided that a new website was needed, I knew I had some work to do.

My original websites were created using the program Microsoft Frontpage. I purchased the Video Professor DVD's for Frontpage (yes, these are the ones that you see being advertised on infomercials on late night and early morning TV). After going through the tutorials, I created my first website for Creative Cake Design which was the original name for my business. It was very remedial, using the preloaded template layouts to help me get started.

In August of 2006, I renamed my business Cake Dreams to avoid the very often confusion with another lovely baker in the Apex area Cinda's Creative Cakes. It was then that I decided to be more creative with Frontpage's features and designed a completely new look for my new name.

That website worked great for several years. But as more and more photos of cakes were added to the galleries, it was taking longer and longer to load the pages. And, I really wasn't doing well in the Search Engine rankings. So, I determined that an overhaul was necessary to help Cake Dreams become more visable to searching brides.

So the short story is that we downloaded the Dreamweaver website design program on Monday, along with a series of tutorials. On Monday night, it snowed....a LOT! Also, I was really sick. So, all day Tuesday, with nothing else to do, I laid in bed with my computer and watched about 6 to 8 hours of tutorials in between napping. I finished up the tutorials on Wednesday morning and on Wednesday night I started creating pages. I learned FLASH in an afternoon so I could create the cool slide show on my Home Page. On Saturday, my VERY AWESOME and INTELLIGIENT son-in-law Bryan, came and wrote the code for the JavaScript for the very cool Cake Design Gallery. By the next Monday night, my website was up and running.

To be honest, I don't think I did much of anything else that week.. A bit obsessed with it, I would say.

Since then, I have been adding additional pages and features as I learned more about the functions of Dreamweaver. It has been a wonderful learning experience for me. Got to keep the brain cells growing.

Out with the Old

In with the New

Stay tuned for a post with new cake photos.

A Wedding Cake Story

2008-11-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

I had the experience over the last year to make three different cakes for one very special couple. This is the cake story of Renee and Dom.

Last November, I was contacted my Renee's good friend Pam to make a very small wedding cake for Renee and Dom. Dom was being deployed to Afghanistan, and so they decided to have a small and intimate wedding before he left. They would have a larger wedding and reception a year later after he returned.

They were married on November 29th, 2007 and had a quaint but lovely celebration at An restaurant at the Arboretum in Cary. The cake was a surprise that Pam was ordering for Renee.

My understanding is that they both LOVE the beach, and so she asked me to make something tropical and Pam gave me a color scheme. I made this miniature three tier cake (10-7-4 inch short round tiers) covered in rolled fondant. I airbrushed the white fondant with a bright orange, and then wrapped bright pink ribbon around the base of each tier. I made white chocolate shells and star fish. The green orchids were brought to me to place all over the cake. The flavor of the cake was lemon cake with raspberry filling.

The "JOP" Cake

(Justice of the Peace)

While Dom was in Afghanistan, Renee and Pam, and Pam's husband, Dennis, had a consultation to design the wedding cake.

Pam and Dennis hosted an engagement party shortly after Dom's return to the states. They surprised him with an ocean themed cake, complete with sea creatures and more shells. I found images of dolphins, seahorses and fish from a Google Image search. I resized and printed them for the outline. Then I used my gumpaste tools to contour the shapes of the creatures. I painted right on top of the aqua buttercream to give plant-life effects. Brown sugar was a good sand "look-a-like" and Voila!!

This was a very fun cake to make.

The Engagement Party Cake

Finally, the day arrived for Renee and Dom to have their big celebration with all their family and friends. They had the reception again at An restaurant, which is a marvelous venue for a reception. They take such good care of you and pay attention to all the details.

They always allow me to go back in the kitchen to finish up the cake assembly. They treat me like part of the staff. I feel really respected. I brought all the tiers of the white fondant covered cake to a butcher block counter in the kitchen. I started assembling the tiers, and realized that I did not have the envelope with the pins to secure the brown ribbon, nor my scissors for cutting the curly willow and the orchid stems. I also did not have my long dowel to secure the tiers together.

Doug checked the car, and the envelope was not there. I must have left it in the kitchen. So I called Eric and he drove it to the restaurant. Fortunately, it was only 10 minutes away.

While waiting I played around with the curly willow and the orchids that the florist left for me so I could plan how I would arrange them. Eric arrived swiftly and everything went together fabulously. When I was done, I stepped back and said "I think this is my new favorite cake". It fit perfectly with the Asian theme of the restaurant. The kitchen and wait staff were ooh-ing and aah-ing over the cake. They were so kind.

The Wedding Cake

On the Monday after the wedding, Dom came by to return the cake stand and other accessories. This was the first time that I had ever met him. He told me that he had to give me a hug. He told me not to ever stop what I do, because it makes people so happy.

He was so complementary. He said that Renee just loved the cake, and that when she saw it, she started to cry. That's exactly the kind of response I love to hear about. Every bride should love her wedding cake. That is always my goal.

Dom thanked me again, and I thanked him for his service to our country.

I can't wait until they call me for the first baby shower cake. :)

October's Cakes

2008-10-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

October has become a very popular month for a wedding. Each year since I started in business, October has emerged to be a month to compete with April and May. What's even more outstanding is that most of my October wedding cakes were booked 6 months ago. Smart brides!

This month, there were a few cakes that really stood out either because they had unique design elements, or because I was doing things that looked easy that I had never done before. I am such a "fussbucket", that I have to make sure it is just perfect before it goes out the door. I have been known to cry a tear or two in frustration when it seems that I just cannot get something to work. Then, I say a prayer (really) and the light is given to me to accomplish the task.

JENN'S CAKE

Such is the case of a wedding cake from the first weekend in October; a lovely bride named Jenn. She had found a photograph in a magazine that she loved. It used ribbon around each tier of the cake, like I have done numerous times, but, it was a very narrow ribbon and at the top edge of the cake, with a bow at center front.

Well, you just can't tie a ribbon around a cake iced in buttercream icing, the way you would tie a ribbon around your hair or your waist. Buttercream will dent and smoosh if you tighten it to make the bow. So, what I had to do is take two long lengths of the ribbon and tie them together to make the bow. Then I took the two loose ends and connected them together with a pearl headed corsage pin in the back of the cake. Sounds easy enough. Right? Not so much.

I don't want to dissolusion anyone, but cakes aren't perfectly round or perfectly flat. They are not even necessarily perfectly level. When you wrap a ribbon around the top edge of the cake, you can really see the flaws. Well, my husband, Doug, says that only I see the flaw, and that the average person just sees a lovely cake. But remember, I am a "fussbucket" about these things. It was very difficult getting the ribbon even around the cake tiers, and make sure that the ends of the bows didn't ding the buttercream icing.

I wished I had a third hand for this task. I had to start with the bow in the front of the cake and hope that it would stick in the icing long enough for me to spin the cake on the turntable and wrap the ribbon to the back from one side and then the other. Let's just say it took several tries. But, in the end I got it to work. I piped on the little "C" scrolls and ended up just loving the cake.

When I delivered the cake the flowers were there for me to place on the cake. The flowers came from "Fresh Affairs". Lyn Graves was the floral designer for Jenn's wedding, which was held at Highgrove in Fuquay-Varina. Below is the end result. Very nice.

click photo to enlarge

HEATHER'S CAKE

Heather is a beautiful bride who ordered her October cake a full year in advance. I am always excited to design a cake that is truly an original design of mine. Heather showed me a photo of her wedding gown, and I became inspired with the detail on the hem of the train of her gown. She was excited to have a cake design that no one else has had, or would ever have.

I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to create the design, but I knew that the inspiration would come, as it has so many times before. From time to time during the last year, I would get out the photo of her dress and just sit and close my eyes and meditate regarding how I would create the beautiful applique on her cake. It was going to be more of a challege, because the cake was to be iced in buttercream and not fondant. I was going to have to be really creative.

In September, I had Heather email me some close up shots of the detail of her dress. This really helped. I enlarged the photos so that I could see the detail more clearly, and then I cropped and resized the shapes to create a template for the larger design and the scallops from the hem of her dress.

On Thursday, I began the slow process of rolling out the sugarpaste dough very thin and using an X-acto knife, cutting the shapes. I needed about 20 of the scallop sections cut, and then 8 full applique shapes and then 10 of the partial shapes. I put them under plastic so that the gumpaste would set, but not dry out.

On Thursday evening, I place the scallops around the top edge of the bottom tier, and was feeling pretty proud of myself. I knew that I had to put the designs on the cake before the tiers were stacked on each other, because the icing had to be firm, coming straight from the refrigerator, so that the icing wouldn't displace so easily as I pressed the gum paste applique on the to the sides of the cake. If the cake were fully stacked and assembled, by the time I finished one tier, and then got to the next one, the icing would be soft again. Part of the problem is that the assembled cake is too heavy for me to lift safely, and so I couldn't keep taking it in and out of the refrigerator to chill the icing to get it firm again.

I made royal icing and began to pipe the detail on the appliques. I had practiced the strokes with a pencil on paper so that I would have a good feel of the flow of the design. I found that once I was using the royal, that I had to modify the lines, as it was just to busy. I was happy with the result. I got out the airbrush and mixed a silver platium luster dust with some Nu Silver and sprayed the scallops and appliques. I was in love. Then, I put the little sugar pearl accents on the details and I was done for the evening. It was beautiful.

The next day, I had worked on the middle and the top tiers with their details, in much the same way as I had done the bottom tier. The middle tier had just the bottom of the design of the pattern from the dress and then the top tier had just the top portion. Doug said that it reminded him of angel wings.

I went to put my airbrush tool together to spray the middle and top tiers. I couldn't get the very tiny "nozzle" portion of the tool to screw in. I looked at it, and it was broken. Half the threads were cracked off! Ugh!

I immediately thought of the night before, when I disassembled the airbrush for cleaning. In my mind I kept thinking, "Righty tighty, lefty loosey", so that I would unscrew it the right way. I thought I did it right, becasue it came off. But, I must have over tightened the nozzle until it cracked off, and now I have a broken airbrush with a half finished cake that must be done by the early afternoon the next day.

It's now after 1:00 p.m. on Friday. I look online for a supplier that sells just the parts for my brand of airbrush. I contact Sugarcraft in Ohio by email, because they no longer publish a phone number on line for orders or order information. It came as a result of many complaints of poor customer service about a year or so ago. I had never had any bad issues, so I never thought anything of it. I wrote about my emergency and inquired as to whether they could overnight ship the item so that it would get here by noon on Saturday. I received a reply at about 1:33 telling me that if I got my order in by 2:00 p.m. they could. So, I emailed back saying "OK, let's do it" and gave all my order and payment information. I went up to shower, because I had to leave for a Friday wedding cake delivery in Wake Forest by 2:30. By the time I came downstairs, it was after 2:15 p.m. and I when I checked my email, the lady responded that if I did not order through the website, that my order was not official.

Well, I submitted the order. But, I couldn't get the overnight shipping option to work. I emailed back and then had to leave to deliver the cake. When I got home around 4:45 p.m. she emailed me again and said that there was nothing she could to do help me.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

Doug was home by now, and he suggested that perhaps there was a company on the west coast that I could work with. The manufacturer of my airbrush is in California. I called, and ordered the 2 millimeter part for $15.00. She said it would arrive before noon. As soon as I hung up, I had this feeling that I needed to also order the part that the nozzle screws into, just in case the broken part was lodged in that. Both parts were on their way. The items totalled $50. The shipping charge was $47. But, they arrived by 9:30 Saturday morning, and all was well.

So much stress.

So, here are some photos of the completed cake. The lighting isn't great, because of its placement in front of the big window. I haven't heard from Heather yet, but I hope she loved her cake. I know I did.

Taken in my Kitchen

At Wakefield Plantation

click photo to enlarge

Well, that's my story for October. I hope it gave you some perspective into my world. I always love the opportunity to grow my skills. I'd just like to do it with a little less stress!!

I'll be back next month with more!

A Look Inside Cake Dreams

2008-10-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Cake Dreams first blog enty!

I hope that those who regularly browse my website will find the backstory behind each week entertaining and informative. I can't say that it will always be entertaining, or even interesting. But, I will try my hardest. At the least, it is a place to see the newest cakes each week.

Well, let's jump into the batter together...