National Capital Area Cake Show Part 2

So, part 2 of the National Capital Area Cake Show is the wedding cakes! Everyone loves the wedding cake competition.

Here was the competition information sheet that competitors were to base their cake design off of for the show.

•  Names of couple: Kortni O’Grodnick and Aaron Kelly
•  Wedding date: April 2, 2011
•  Reception location: Harbour View 13200 Marina Way, Woodbridge, VA (http://www.harbourviewevents.com/)
•  Reception time: 5:00 p.m.
•  Wedding Theme: “Simple, yet elegant”
• The ceremony will be outside on the patio, and the reception will be inside in the converted barn.
• The wedding colors chosen by the bride are ivory, navy, and kiwi green.
• The bride will be wearing a dress by Alfred Angelo (style 1719), in ivory with a navy ribbon.
• Bouquet: Ivory Roses with grass blades looping through with a navy blue ribbon on the stems. She’s also having ivory Calla Lilies, mini ivory Cymbidium Orchids, and Peonies at the reception. Kortni would love to see these flowers incorporated in her cake design.
• The bridesmaids will be wearing dresses by Alfred Angelo bridesmaid style 6482), in navy.
• The maid of honor will be in kiwi green
• They are not traditional people and would love to see other shapes besides round in their wedding cake.
• They are intrigued by the notion of a monogram (KKA) on their cake, but don’t have a specific style in mind.
• Kortni and Aaron met 11 years ago and are the perfect complements of each other. Kortni co-owns her own custom cake shop and Aaron loves to cook. They both have an interest in photography as a hobby.
• They are honeymooning in Europe for three weeks. Kortni has never been, but Aaron enjoys Italy and Germany. Aaron’s favorite artist is Monet, and Korni’s is Van Gogh.

The competitors were to choose at last four pieces of  information listed above, and incorporate that into their cake.

  

 Check out that stringwork! WOW!

 Love the lace detail on the sides of this cake!

 Loving this cake and the style of the corset tier!

 So much detail!

Well I don't know who won, but I have to say they were all beautiful and so detailed! Hope you enjoyed checking out all of the talent that MD, D.C. and VA has to offer!



National Capital Area Cake Show

I had the pleasure this weekend of going to the National Capital Area Cake Show in Annandale, Virginia. I usually enter this competition, but have been so busy with my upcoming bridal show that I was not able to enter this year. I did, however, get to check out all of the amazing talent that Maryland, D.C., and Virginia have to offer. I will break this post up into two parts; this first post will be all divisional cakes, and the second will be the wedding cakes.

The theme this year for the divisional competition was "Under the Sea". I love this theme and would have loved to enter something.

Check out this amazing turtle! Unreal!

 So much detail.

I love how this cake was still a tiered cake, but really pulled in the theme.

Shipwreck. Awesome!

Wow, this cake has so much detail that I don't know where to look!

These figures are out of this world!

So cute!

Here are some photos of cakes that were not in the "special themes" category. The steampunk bride and groom were really cool and different!

Look at all the detail.



I love this "nursery rhyme" cake. The detail and painting on this cake was so incredible. Very well done!

Well I hope you enjoyed a look at some of the spectacular work presented at this show. Stay tuned for the second post which is all about the wedding cakes!

Bridal Show

Sweet Eats Cakes LLC will be doing their first bridal show April 3rd from 1pm to 4pm at the The Inn at Roops Mill in Westminster MD.  The show is hosted by DeMario Bridal & Formal Inc. , Kimberly Brooke Photography, and The Inn at Roops Mill. There will be lots of great vendors, door prizes and goodie bags for the first 25 brides! If you are local and getting married soon come check us out!

 http://www.theunveiledbridalshow.com

We hope to see you there!

Stay tuned we have lots of more great cakes to show you after we do our photo shoot this weekend!

Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I don't have a St. Patrick’s Day post to share with all of you, but I do have an adorable first birthday party! When my friend, Amber from college, asked me to make her son Cole's first birthday cake, I jumped at the chance. Amber wanted to do a Mickey Mouse-themed cake and a Baby Mickey smash cake for Cole.

For the cake, I made the bottom tier look just like Mickey’s pants! I think it looked adorable! Then, for the middle tier, I made a circle/polka-dot pattern with Mickey's silhouette throughout. The top tier is, of course, Mickey ears with Cole's name and age! I was really happy with how the cake turned out! Jessie Rae Photography took all of the wonderful photos. You can find the website at http://www.jessieraephotography.com/. Hope you enjoy!

For Cole's smash cake, I wanted to keep it simple, but still portray baby Mickey. I made an all buttercream cake (not something I usually do), with fondant cutout stars. My awesome husband sculpted a Baby Mickey out of modeling chocolate! He did an amazing job! I can tell you that Mickey is incredibly hard to get right, but he did it!  

Here is the birthday boy getting ready to eat his smash cake!

It looks like he's really enjoying it!

So cute!

Proud mommy with her now clean little man!

Happy Birthday Cole!

Royal Wedding

When I was given the challenge of designing a cake that would fit for a royal wedding, I knew I had to design something a little over the top, but still classic and elegant. I think the new princess has a classic sophisticated appearance that I wanted to tie into my design. I don't usually do this, but, for this cake, I decided to make an inspiration board.

Dress/ Ring - www.castnews.us, menu- www.theknot.com,

champagne glasses- www.beau-coup.com, shoes- www.elizabethannedesigns.com

bouquet- www.blog.flowerlab.com, invitation- www.theknot.com

gold lace cuff- www.hauteaddiction.com necklace/earrings- www.blog.adornbrides.com

Of course, I wanted to tie in the color royal blue because of the ring and the dress she wore for her engagement photos. Also, I think that the color royal blue is appropriate for an April wedding. I also wanted to tie in gold because when I think of royalty, I think of gold. I wanted to make the cake elegant, modern, and bold, yet still have a classic look and feel to it. I made the flowers on the cake; roses, peonies, and calla lilies, in shades of ivory and white. I added looping grass blades to the cake for a modern touch.  

The band around the top and bottom tier was an imprint which I then went back and painted gold and blue. It was a long process, but it gave the look I wanted.

For the middle tier, I made it extra tall for drama and then imprinted with a circle pattern. At the intersection of each circle, I placed a sapphire sugar gem to represent the engagement ring. 

I hope you all enjoyed my cake and the process I used to make it! 

New Logo

We are working on a new logo for the business. A friend of my husband's drew this up for us. It needs some retouching, but I really like it! Let me know what you think of it.

Cake Auction

This past weekend I went to a fundraiser to help support my nephews soccer team. I decided to donate a gift certificate for the silent auction for one free custom cake worth $150 dollars. I wasn't sure if this donation would bring any money in for my nephew but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was one of the top bid on items. Here are a couple of pictures of the set-up and auction throughout the night.

Yay it brought in $100 dollars much more then I thought it would and it helps my nephew out too!!

Hope you enjoyed! I can't wait to make the cake for the winner!

3.0.1 Jewelry Launch Party

I am excited to share this jewelry launch cake with all of you. It was certainly a challenge to come up with a cohesive design for this cake. I was given free reign of design and told that the cake needed to display the jewelry. I didn't want to do a classic jewelry box because after researching the inspiration for the jewelry I didn't feel like a jewelry box would fit. The designers website says the jewelry is "inspired by Middle Eastern and Mediterranean culture, religion, and urban life, the collection showcases the iconic "evil eye" and other religious symbols."

When I began do design this cake for some reason the image of the jewelry hanging off a tree kept popping into my mind, so I went with it. I also wanted to tie in the designer’s Middle Eastern culture and give the cake a Mediterranean feel. So I decided to make the cake board an old looking map of the Mediterranean, from there I stacked up old looking books with 3.0.1 written on the binding. The top book I left open and had a tree growing up through the pages of the book. On the open book I wrote quotes from the website describing the jewelry.

The tree was made out of modeling chocolate that was molded around a support system and painted to look old and weathered.



For the jewelry I tried to pick different pieces from the collection that I thought summed up the inspiration for the line. The jewelry was made out of rolled fondant that I strung through a piece of fishing line so that the pieces moved like the real jewelry. I then sprayed each piece with confectioners glaze so that it was shiny like the real jewelry.

I love the way the jewelry turned out! It looked just like the real thing.



Here is the spread of the real jewelry at the party. I think I matched the collection well.

When the designer saw the cake she said that at her next show she was going to display her jewelry on trees because she like the idea so much! I would call that a successful cake! I hope you liked this cake and party! Let me know what you think.