      
Archive for November, 2009
Monday, November 30th, 2009
I should start this off by a bit of background, maybe a disclaimer: I’ve never considered myself a Trekkie at all. Hell, until this past summer, I think I’d only seen 2 of the movies, and a few episodes of TNG. When hubby and I attended a big nerd convention in July, we found it weird that neither of us really fit a particular flavor of nerd/geek.. we weren’t Trekkies, we weren’t gamers.. etc. Just generic Nerds.
After this past Friday, I think we both became Trekkies. Well, maybe pre-Trekkies. Trekkies with training wheels. Yes!
Back at that convention, there was a Klingon wedding. We were totally kicking ourselves over not knowing that was gonna happen – I would have cut a steep discount for the opportunity to make a Klingon wedding cake! The ideas – “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” flew, and built on each other. Anyway, ever since then, I’ve been itching for the opportunity to make an epic Klingon cake.
At that same convention, we picked up a sparkly gold flyer for “A Klingon Christmas Carol”. Trekkies or not, it just sounded ridiculously cool to us. We’re big fans of people who get into something – anything – and just run with it. We love crazy ideas… and we ADORE crazy ideas seen through to fruition! So, we stuck the flyer on our fridge, and awaited the play’s opening.
If you haven’t heard of this – and we certainly hadn’t, before picking up that flyer – let me explain.
A Klingon Christmas Carol is a theater production put on by Commedia Beauregard. Their mission is to perform plays that are translated – from one language to another, or from one form into another. In the case of the Klingon Christmas Carol, they took a story from a book – “translated” it into a play.. tweaked it to have a Klingon theme (Scrooge has no honor!), and then translated it into Klingon. It’s performed in full Klingon garb, with English subtitles projected onto a screen on the stage. Awesome!
On a lark, I decided to get ahold of the Powers that Be at CB theatre.. one thing led to another, and we were on board for one hell of an epic cake! (Yes, this would be the same cake that we haven’t shut up about for the past two weeks, if you follow us on Twitter, or have me friended on Facebook!)
And we’ve come to the point where a fit of fangirl overtakes me, and I have no idea which direction to go with the rest of this blog entry. There is just SO much to say! Let me be lame and bullet-point it!
- The People. My husband and I had the opportunity to meet the cast and crew of Klingon Christmas Carol a couple of times before the event. Once was a rehearsal (and yes, the fanboy/fangirl in both of us came out BIGTIME as we watched them practice fight scenes, complete with Bat’leths!), and once was a meet and greet – featuring a viewing of “The Making of A Klingon Christmas Carol” – a documentary filmed the year before. It was all very exciting.. especially because everyone involved was *awesome*.
It was really interesting to watch their prep work for the show, and we have mad respect for them as a result of what we saw. I have NO idea how they managed to learn/memorize all of that Klingon. At the rehearsal, we followed along on the teleprompter.. wow, what a difficult looking language! Weird capitalization, very few vowels, and VERY interesting syntax.
We later had an opportunity to learn a couple words, when their Klingon language expert – and translator – taught us how to say “take the chocolate!” in Klingon. The idea was to have something to say as we served the cake. I never did master just the 2 words involved that Laura taught us (thanks again Laura!), but in the end, it didn’t matter. Serving the cake was such a crazy event, I didn’t have time to THINK, much less say anything!
- The Show. OH MY GOD. Where to start? The costumes are amazing! The makeup is amazing – everything looked straight out of an actual Star Trek movie – very convincing, very high quality. There is an Orion Slave Girl bellydancer! (Holly, who’s a total sweetie!). They do a cool “transporter” effect when taking Scrooge back in time! There’s a Vulcan character as the narrator.. and SHE is awesome too!
If you haven’t gone, you totally should – we’re going to see it a few times, and wouldn’t miss it for the world! Definitely a year (and career!) highlight for us!
- The Cake. Ah, the cake. We looked forward to this from the moment that our involvement was confirmed! Now that it’s all over, it’s sorta sad that we no longer have anything that insanely epic on our horizon!
The cake started out with looking for existing information on Bird of Prey ships. Luckily for us, Trekkies are thorough in their obsession, and we were easily able to find blueprint type views of the ship from various views. Score! Scaled the blueprints to fit our needs, and we were almost good to go!
Next, we had to build a custom cake board for it. With measurements in hand, I had to make a special trip to the theater to measure all doors, stairs, etc… to make sure that this was actually a logistical possibility. It was – but only very BARELY! The cake board ended up being just short of 4′ long, and just short of 3′ wide! What a monster!
My husband is in charge of all non-edible builds related to my cakes, and has now earned the title of “Chief Engineering Officer” here at Celebration Generation Cakes. Tee Hee. I swear I’m going to make him a CEO shirt to wear to events we do! Anyway, not only did he cut and finish the cake board, he built the structure of the wings – no small feat! I married well.
The our edible Bird of Prey ship made it’s maiden voyage – to the theatre – in fine form, with no problems at all. Though we had to tilt the board at a fairly severe angle to get it in the door (Though I’d measured the frame, I had neglected to take into account the door edge itself, the hinge placement, etc!), it made it to it’s table with no problem.
- The Whirlwind! The few hours between us arriving (prior to the show), and serving the cake (immediately after the show) were a whirlwind of fan activity. The warbird was definitely our most photographed cake ever, with streams of camera phones clicking away at any time. Little did we know, one of those camera phones ended up tweeting photos of the cake to Cake Wrecks, who ended up tweeting about the cake to their Over 1 MILLION followers! Thanks again, Cake Wrecks!
The insanity continued when we brought the cake up on stage after the show. All of the flashes going off were blinding! Very “paparazzi”!
- Serving the Cake! This should win for “Best Cake Cutting EVER!”. Seriously. Picture a gaggle of Klingons surrounding the cake, as Scrooge cuts the cake with his Bat’leth! Ah, no need to picture it, we have photos!
Awesome. Seriously, just… awesome. The whole thing. The memories of Friday night are going to make my husband and I grin for a very long time. They’ve got shows playing right through till December 13th, tickets are available online at http://www.cbtheatre.org.
My husband with a Vulcan, an Orion Slave Girl, and another Klingon enjoying Red Velvet cake!
More photos are available on our facebook gallery, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10955&id=100000056868269&l=3928cc8bf1
Posted in Cakes, Interesting, News & Events | 2 Comments »
Monday, November 30th, 2009
So, with the mass amount of ads for Cyber Monday deal in my inbox this morning, I made the last minute decision to give Celebration Generation fans a sale as well!
For today only, we have our Jacked Up Java Caffeinated Brownie Mix on sale – only $10. This is just over 28% off the retail price of $14!
Each package of mix make 18 large brownies, each containing the same caffeine level as a large cup of coffee. Super easy & foolproof to make. Mix is easily divisible into 2 separate batches, and comes in a resealable bag to aid in that.
Makes a great gift for programmers, gamers, nerds/geeks of every flavor, and college students. Well, and for anyone else who likes chocolate and coffee! 
Posted in Announcements, Gift Ideas, Our Products | No Comments »
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Bring on the turkey and…
Pumpkin Pi(e)! Har!
Posted in Announcements | No Comments »
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Well, it’s that time of year again – we have reopened our online store for holiday ordering!
This year, we have an exciting new option available: in addition to “a la carte” ordering, and our traditional mixed treat boxes.. there is now an option to order a mixed box of CAFFEINATED goodies! Treat your local guild or programmers right.. or just use the boost to help you party all night. Either way, it is a most delicious way to abuse stimulants this holiday season!
As always, our most popular favorites are back this year, from chewy chip cookies, to nanaimo bars. Check out the full selection, complete with photos: http://celebrationgeneration.com/holidaygoodies.html.
Orders may be shipped, delivered, or picked up, but all orders must be received by December 14th.
Posted in Announcements, News & Events, Our Products | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Back in July, hubby and I were attending a local event, checking out a table of information, when a shiny gold piece of paper caught my eye. Ever the human magpie, I had to check it out.
It was a flyer for a production called “A Klingon Christmas Carol”. It sounded so freakishly awesome that it has been displayed on our fridge at home ever since, as we awaited the season.
“What is it?”, you may ask. A theater company got together, tweaked the traditional “Christmas Carol” story to be Klingon themed, TRANSLATED it into Klingon, and perform it – in full costume – with English subtitles projected onto the stage. I’m not even a Trekkie, and that just sounds so over-the-top AWESOME, I can’t even stand it!
Flash forward a few months. A strong desire to make an epic Klingon cake, a few emails.. and I’m now in possession of a sponsorship contract with Commedia Beauregard, the geniuses in charge of this brilliance!
More on my contribution to their efforts in the coming week or two… in the meantime.. I have tickets to give away!
I will have 2 giveaways, one through this blog, one through twitter. If you don’t follow us, you SHOULD. Details for the twitter giveaway will be announced on Monday.
In the meantime, here’s how you can win a set of 2 tickets* to A Klingon Christmas Carol:
It’s easy, really. Entertain me! This is a really free form ticket giveaway, mostly due to my indecision about how to run it!
What that means is that your entry can be whatever you want it to be. Tell me a joke, draw me a picture, tell me why you want to – or deserve to! – go see this show. Tell me the nerdiest thing you’ve ever said or done. Anything really – most entertaining/creative entry wins 2 tickets.
Entries will be accepted by Email (cakes@celebrationgeneration.com), or by mail (P.O. Box 41844, Plymouth MN 55441).
Entries must be received by 12pm CST, Wednesday November 25. Winner will be announced on Friday November 27!
* Tickets are not valid for either Opening Night or Closing Night.
Posted in Announcements, Interesting, News & Events | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
I’ve always had mixed feelings about guest books. Obviously, I think it’s great to have a souvenir record of the guests that attended your wedding … but why do they have to be so freaking boring??
Sure, you can buy some guest books with a pretty or otherwise interesting front cover.. but usually, the insides are all the same. Just lines for information. Although my now-husband and I picked up a guest book with the intent of personalizing the cover… we were thoroughly uninspired by the interior. There had to be a better idea.
Well, when we first got engaged, we started a scrapbook for all of the photos, knick knacks, cards, and whatnot that were associated with our upcoming wedding. Wouldn’t it be great, we thought, if we could incorporate our guest’s signatures into this scrapbook?
So, here is what we did:
We bought several nice 12″ x 12″ pages of heavy white scrapbook paper (the size of our main wedding scrapbook), along with more scrapbook paper in colors to match our wedding color scheme. We cut up the colored pages to add accent color & design to the white pages. We cut out stargazer lilies from some of our leftover invitations, and added those to the mix.
Additionally, we bought metallic silver letter stickers, with which we wrote “Love”, “Devotion”, etc etc.. one on each page.
At the wedding guest book table, we left out the stack of pages, along with gel pens in colors to compliment the color scheme. We had our wedding party each sign a page, “yearbook style”, with whatever they wanted, to get it all started.
Before the wedding, decorating the pages was a fun thing for the two of us to do together.. but AFTER the wedding, it was fun to read the passages, jokes, and well wishes that our guests had left, uninhibited by restrictive lines
It’s also nice to have those included with the rest of our wedding memories, rather than in a boring book, relegated to the back of a book shelf and ignored… as we know would have been the fate of our original, purchased guest book!
Posted in Crafts, Inspiration | No Comments »
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
When I got married, I was a seasoned and highly efficient event floral designer. Of course I was going to do my own arrangements! Hiring out wasn’t even a consideration – I’m very Type A, I knew exactly what I wanted, etc.
Even with my experience… if I had my time back, I definitely would have hired out, just to minimize that bit of extra stress the day of/day before. Would have liked to be enjoying time with the girls the morning of, not running a hot shower in the hotel room to coax some stubborn lilies open! I always recommend to hire a professional floral designer for your wedding.
Sometimes though, it’s just not in the budget, or not what the bride wants to do, for whatever reason. That’s fine.. but definitely requires some planning ahead! Try to design arrangements that will last several days, and pick sturdy flowers that don’t require a lot of special care.
Here is a cute, cost efficient floral arrangement that can be made several days ahead of your wedding! You can use these on each table (and the individual arrangements can double as guest favors!), or just on “special” tables.. the guest book table, etc. The instructions are for the arrangement as pictured – you can use less containers, and do a smaller heart if you’d like!
Per table, you will need:
- About 15 mini Mint Julep cups (plastic looks fine, and is cheap!)
- Ribbon to match your wedding/floral colors
- Floral foam (Oasis) for FRESH flowers (wet)
- Fresh cut flower food/nutrient, prepared in water per product directions
- Clear plastic floral tape (not the paper wire tape)
- 4 or 5 roses per cup
- Tiny filler flowers (we used wax flower)
- Greens of your choice
Before getting started with the actual floral design, you’ll want to prepare your cups. Tape or glue lengths of ribbon around the bottom of each cup. If it suits your wedding, they can be further decorated with rhinestones, etc.. and you can do this well in advance of the wedding.
Several days before the wedding, cut up your Oasis foam into chunks small enough to fit into the julep cups, but big enough to be snug. Soak them in your prepared water/floral food solution, then insert into the cups.
Use the floral tape in an “X” shape across the top of the foam to secure the foam in the cup. The greens will hide the edges of the tape on the cup rims.
Cut your greens into small pieces. Create a small “wreath” of greens around the edge of the cup by sticking the stems into the foam. Allow the greens to hang slightly over the edge of the cup.
Cut your filler flowers into small pieces. Stick them into the foam, creating another small wreath.
Trim your roses to about 3-4″ long stems, cutting the stems on an angle. Carefully stick your roses into the foam. Be careful where you place them – you shouldn’t remove them and reposition after you’ve stuck them in the foam once.
If there are any gaps in the arrangement, fill them with greens, and/or filler flowers.
Arrange the cups in a heart shape, scatter some flower petals on the table, and add some glass votive holders/candles for drama!
Posted in Crafts, Favors, Inspiration, Wedding Flowers | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
I recently had the opportunity to make my very first black wedding cake, for one of my absolute *favorite* brides of the year. Maybe ever.
I’d love to do a full blog entry on their wedding eventually – the visuals were so striking! The bride had a wonderful design vision, the venue was gorgeous… and you know I have a soft spot for brides who throw convention and “expectations” to the wind and really march to their own beat.
In the meantime, however… I’ll present you with photos of their cake! This cake was themed around their Halloween / Goth / NIN wedding through and through – it was Blood Orange Truffle flavored! (”Our deeply rich, dark chocolate cake is filled with alternating layers of blood orange chocolate truffle ganache, and blood orange buttercream.”). Not only specifically “Blood” orange – tee hee! – but that particular flavor cuts to a beautiful orange / deep dark chocolate brown. Seasonal colors!
The cake featured sugar roses in varying shades of gray, dusted with black accents. It also featured dark gray “lace” made from Sugar Veil icing – a unique product that allows a cake designer to pick up piped designs and drape it like fabric! Exciting… and meant that the entire cake was edible!
More detail photos of this cake can be seen on our Facebook site, Here
Posted in Brides, Cakes, Photography | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Man, who ever thought I’d actually be able to do a follow up to a “You Know What Would Be Awesome..?” post?
I mean, the whole point of that category is for be to babble on some of my weird ideas that are so wacky, they’d never be realized. No fruition expected!
Well, this past week was “The Affair”, formerly known as a the Twin Cities Chocolate Extravaganza. As was the case last year, the show featured a chocolate competition, overseen by the Pastry Professionals Association of MN.
Last year, I had grandiose plans for my 2 cake entries, but procrastinated / got distracted by higher priority stuff, and ended up just mailing it in with my entries. Total crap, and only earned me a certificate. This year, I planned to avoid that when I entered… but felt utterly uninspired by the theme: Animals. What was a girl to do?
Get weird with it.
So, after some thought, I decided to do a wedding cake based on the greatest monster movie of all time – Tremors. Grabboids are *totally* animals, right? LOL.
So check it out. A Tremors themed wedding cake!
The topper features Val & Earl’s truck being sucked into the ground.. Val in a sleeveless tuxedo tshirt and cowboy hat (as I imagined he’d wear if he were to get married!)..and Rhonda. Both cowering from a grabboid! So romantic.
The rest of the cake features 3 more grabboids, including the one that died when trying to chase Val & Earl through a concrete retaining wall. Yes!
I had been considering representing the 2nd-last-to-die grabboid – but I wasn’t sure the judges would appreciate “guts” on a wedding cake.
Hrmm.. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t appreciate a Tremors cake in general, so in hindsight.. maybe I shouldn’t have let that thought stop me!
In any case, they couldn’t have hated it too much – got me a silver medal for it! Woo!
Also, my favorite blogger featured the cake yesterday! Click here to check THAT out!
Now I just have to hope that next year’s theme is “plants”, so I have a good excuse to make a Triffids cake!
Posted in "You know what would be awesome..?", Cakes | 1 Comment »
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Blast from the past… and elaborating on my “couture” rant!
Friday, November 13th, 2009Things have been such a whirlwind since opening Celebration Generation, that sometimes… well, things I was doing only 3 years ago or so seem a LIFETIME ago!
I was at a networking function the other day, and my (extremely varied!) experience in the industry came up. In explaining that – while I’d been in the industryfor about 15 years, I’d only been in cakes for the last few – the subject of custom gowns came up. Gotta say, got a pang of nostalgia about my old stompin grounds!
That nostalgia prompted me to go looking through the old portfolio.. and inspired a blog entry (maybe 2 or 3!). I’d like to share pics of the last wedding gown I ever made.
This gown design was conceived sometime in late 2005, and was created in late 2006, as a sample gown for a wedding show. At the time, I was transitioning out of custom gown work, and focusing more on florals.. but what can I say.. I’m SUPER ADD!
Something you may not know about me: I am a classically trained fashion designer, and drafted all of my patterns from scratch. It was an interesting way to use my mathematical (yet, creative!) mind. With an idea of what I want to make, a simple set of measurements, and a couple measuring tools (square rule, hip curve, etc), I can turn any idea into a custom pattern. Kinda makes me sad from time to time that all that is sitting in the back of my head somewhere, gathering cobwebs from lack of use!
You may have noticed my twitter mini-rant recently about the use of the word “couture”. Yup – that was based in my history as a designer!
If you have no idea why I’d rant about it.. a quick lesson here: I get annoyed at the overuse / cliche-izing of the word “couture”. “Couture” gets used as a synonym for fashion, or used as a label/descriptor for pretty much everything from a line of sweatpants, to cakes, invites, whatever. Pretty much anything out there could/probably has been labelled with “couture”. Technically, however.. “couture” is a term with very specific meaning. In France, it’s even a PROTECTED designation!
“Couture” denotes clothing items which are usually custom-made for a single client (though I believe it’s also been officially extending to a few small-run lines as well). They are items made from high quality fabrics, utilizing fine techniques – and usually hand sewn detailing.
While this described the work I did while making custom gowns, there is one other requirement for use of the label that I did not satisfy: As I’d learned it, back in my fashion school days… to be labeled as “couture”, the designer had to have studied in Paris, under a couturier. I did not. Some may argue “common usage” or call it as semantics… but I’ve always elected to respect it. Too bad, too.. because “couturier” sounds much cooler than “gown designer”!
Hope that doesn’t all sound too pedantic. I’m a bit of a word nerd, and find things like this interesting! Anyway, I digress…back to this gown!
Fun fact: this gown had 97 pieces of fabric in the bodice alone! That’s not including the pieces of boning that were used to give it structure, either (14 pieces, if you’re curious!)
Sigh. Pretty, wasn’t it? One of these days, I’ve gotta find a cool excuse to design & make some interesting frock. One of these days..
Posted in Commentary, Gowns | 1 Comment »