Celebration Generation

First Magazine Shoot!

admin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:44:44 +0000

Hey all,So today was an event I’ve been looking forward to for a few weeks - I was asked to provide a cake for a Minnesota Bride photo shoot! This would be my first magazine shoot, so that’s a cool milestone.

The idea was to make something “spring” oriented, and they requested a new version of one of my recent wedding cakes - the piped meringue flowers one.. only in bright colors. How fun! Not fun to pipe, just fun to see it come together. I wonder if they read my blog entry on the first one, and how much I hate piping flowers? They’d have to be sadists, in that case, LOL.

While it’ll be cool to see the finished layout, I don’t have a ton to report on how the day went. I dropped the cake off early this morning, then had to hightail it over for a physical therapy appointment. (No good news to report on that front, I’m afraid!). Then I had to bide my time until I was to pick up the cake at the end of the shoot.

Oh! There was one interesting thing. When I went back to pick it up, I *had* to sneak a peek at the other cakes.. gotta see what I’m up against, right? Anyway, the interesting thing was that the cake that The Buttercream Collection had submitted was actually a fondant cake! I’d recently heard that all of their display cakes are now fondant as well… So, I guess I’d like to welcome Buttercream to the realm of fondant!

Hopefully this (assumed) new expansion of their offerings will mean that we’ll all see less misconceptions about fondant perpetuated by them! Fondant is such a great medium to work with, I’m glad to see them - those who were the loudest about how awful it is - embrace the virtues of fondant! I guess they’ve found one of the good tasting brands of fondant that are available. Woo! The last big bastion of anti-fondant sentiment has been won over! (Can you tell how much I hated reading all that misleading “all fondant tastes bad!” nonsense? SO glad that’ll be coming to an end!)

Anyway, that’s about it. It should be interesting to see how the market evolves over the next while. If Buttercream is now offering fondant cakes, I wonder if any of the other mass-market cake producers will follow suit? Could fondant cakes soon be available at Walmart? I guess time will tell. Like I said though.. should be interesting!

Fondant Rant

admin — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:52:26 +0000

I’ll make this as short and sweet as possible.. mostly because it’s Sunday on Labor Day weekend, and I don’t want to spend a ton of time working. LOL. Anyway, the family and I just got back from the State Fair, and saw something that horrified me so badly, that I think it needs to be addressed ASAP.We saw a few minutes of a cake demonstration, as we were walking through. The person was talking about fondant, and showing how to work with it. At one point, she mentioned about how anyone can go to “Joann’s or Michael’s” to pick some up, and the feeling of dread hit. (more…)

Best. Cake Topper. EVER.

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:30:15 +0000

Ok, so I’m pretty much anti-cake topper. (By that, I mean the figurines.. I’m ok with tasteful florals, etc). To me, figuring toppers harken back to the days of the bad 80s cake.. you know, with matched sets of bridesmaids and groomsmen standing on awful plastic stairs jutting down from the main cake? Ugh. Then my good friend Karen mailed me a clip from a magazine - a full page ad for the Paris hotel in Vegas. I just about fell off my chair!! See below.

Is that not just the COOLEST topper ever?? My first thought was “I want one!”. No real plans for it, I just have to own one!

So, I did some quick googling, and found it! http://www.harrahs.com/casinos/paris-las-vegas/casino-misc/cake-topper-detail.html

Had to share!

Wedding Cakes : A Design Source.. again!

admin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:10:57 +0000

Woo!

Just received the next issue of Wedding Cakes: A Design Source mag in the mail (I hate waiting the extra month or so for it to get to book stores, so I order it direct from the UK now!).. and we have not 1, but *3* cakes pictured inside!

Still wondering what happened with the color of the third photo (on page 112), but whatever. Exciting anyway!

Exciting Weekend, Part Deux.

admin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:46:35 +0000

As you may (or may not!) know, we’ve been working on a book for awhile now. A few actually, but that’s for a later date. Right now, we’re far enough along on the first that we can spill the beans!

Our yet-to-be-named cook book will be released sometime in October - we should have an actual date wuthin the next couple of weeks. We’ll be setting up for presales around that time, also.

The exciting news? We start photography for it tomorrow!!

This weekend was a tiring bunch of prep work for the start of photography. Running around, figuring out what to buy for backdrops, accessories / props, etc. Getting more serving plates in different styles, forks.. and a few more cocktail glasses. I think we’re all set to go!

Why cocktail glasses? Well, the book has a duel focus - it features recipes for cocktails.. and cakes/sweets BASED ON those cocktails! There are some seriously heavy hitting, amazing recipes in this book. My favorite so far is the Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake. Wild! We put that cake to our regular monthly group of “guinea pigs”, and even the most fussy eater in the group gave it a “10″.

If you can’t wait for October to try these goodies, don’t worry - you don’t have to! We will be featuring a good handful of goodies from the book at each Maple Grove Farmer’s Market we’re at, till the end of August! Come by and try a slice of heaven! This week, we will be featuring cakes based on tropical cocktails. Yum!

Exciting Weekend for me - Part 1

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:31:40 +0000

This weekend is a special one for me, for a few reasons: - The very first Celebration Generation client is getting married on Saturday! Like most of our clients, she booked waaaaay in advance. So, while she’s far from being our first delivery, it’s still a cool milestone, I think!- It’s all about the sugar / gumpaste with the two wedding cakes going out this weekend! More on that in a minute.- Both cakes got delivered tonight. A Friday! That means I actually have a weekend off for once! Very excited about that. What am I gonna do? Work, of course… but more on that in tomorrows’ blog! Very excited about what I’m doing this weekend..
(more…)

Pride weekend recap!

admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:51:44 +0000

Whew! It’s been a full week since the end of Pride, and I’m finally recovered enough to post. Err… well maybe a little procrastination was involved… whatever! The funny thing is, the day after Pride, my head was just swimming with all the stuff I had to post about.. now, a week later.. it doesn’t seem so intimidating! I just hope I don’t forget anything! Anyway, Pride was - as always - a total blast. It was a lot less work this year - last year I was the florist, and had to decorate 3 separate ceremony areas, as well as pump out custom boutonnieres all day, both days.. all the while doing the contracts for hubby’s photography!

This year, the big stress came from baking for a couple of celebrities! (more…)

Rainbow Marbled Amaretto Cake!

admin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:46:13 +0000

This weekend is a weekend we look forward to every year - Pride! I was their floral sponsor last year, this year I am back - but with cake! My husband will be back to take photos at the private and mass commitment ceremonies this weekend, as well. I’ll be updating after the event with photos, but I have one teaser pic that I have to share!

This is what the inside of the sheet cakes look like! We will be filling these (amaretto) cakes with a white chocolate & Amaretto mousse, and serving them after the mass commitment ceremony on Sunday.

Cool looking, huh? Definitely the most colors I’ve marbled together at once!

I am SO excited. Pride is always a good time for my whole family (my 10 year old LOOOVES wandering around and seeing the sights!), but this year is even cooler! Not only are we debuting our new, crazy marbled rainbow cake… and supplying a gorgeous “dummy” cake that’ll be kept and displayed by Pride for years to come..

.. but I’m baking for En Vogue and Deborah Cox! Woo! Love their music! I’m just putting the finishing touches on the menu for their Green Room platter, will definitely post more later!

Very cool photo!

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:17:37 +0000

Check it out:

Hubby took this photo back a few months ago - it’s our table at Epic, for the Social Butterfly event. I have NO idea what he did to the series of photos to animate it, but I thought it was cool enough to share here!

Insanity!

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:41:23 +0000

If you’re one of my cake buddies, you likely know how much I hate piping flowers. I say this theoretically, because I haven’t piped a frosting flower since I was about 16, and my good friend Medea got married. No wait, it was before then - I’d already gotten sick of them. I remember now - I’d made calla lilies out of sheets of beeswax to adorn the top of her cake! Anyway, my memory issues aside.. I’m much more of a fondant jockey than a traditional cake lady. I’d rather sculpt than do embroidery, too!

So, when I met up with a cool couple that I wanted to work with.. but who wanted a cake COMPLETELY covered with piped flowers, I faced a dilemma. I ended up throwing my misgivings to the wind, and signed on with them.

(more…)