I love Twitter. It’s been great for networking, meeting people, exchanging ideas, and even just getting silly with fellow vendors. Every once in awhile, a gem comes through that I consider posting on this blog.
Then I get ADD and forget about it.
I received the BEST request on Twitter the other day, and had to share:
From @chebutykin: Hey @Celebr8nGenr8n , if I decide to host a end-of-the-world party in 2012, would you create a Aztec temple/human sacrifice cake for me?
Oh hell yes!! Kinda sucks that 2012 is so far away, this is exactly the kind of cake / event I can totally geek out over. My next “Klingon Bird of Prey” type of epic awesomeness. Yes!
@chebutykin received a response from one of her followers almost immediately, and it made me smile:
From @dmann11 : @chebutykin please…dear god, let her say YES. Also related: Stealing the idea.
There’s been a trend cropping up in my recent consultations. It’s not color, shape, or even flavor related. Nope, it’s a trend of brides who have been fed a line or two (or many!), and ask me for the real deal. Probably about time to blog about it!
There is a certain cake company out there – who shall remain nameless here – who has the nasty habit of outright lying about the offerings of their competitors. I’ve never understood why – they have their fingers in everything, pretty much saturate the market, and really have nothing to fear from small, boutique custom cake outlets like my company.
I’d like to clear up some of their statements, as told to me by a prospective client of theirs:
1. “You don’t want to do the outside of your cake YELLOW! (Yes, she very much did want a yellow cake) It can look GREEN under some lights!”
Sure, it can.. if you have green lights shining on it. Blue lights, even. Why anyone would do this as a default is beyond me, but whatever. Bizarre reasoning for trying to talk someone out of their dream cake. Sure, any cake can be made to look any color with external lights… that’s why it’s always good to have your cake area well lit. You know, with something other than green/blue lighting (unless that’s what you want!).
2. “If you do any color other than natural colored, it will stain your guests’ teeth for 2 weeks!”
Uhm, no. At worst, you may stain them until the next day, but that would be under extreme circumstances. Let me elaborate!
- Color that is incorporated *into* fondant will not stain teeth, period.
- Most colors that are incorporated into buttercream will not stain.
- Black or very, VERY dark colors incorporated into buttercream *may* stain teeth, but only for a very short while. This is assuming that a large amount of the colored frosting is eaten – piped accents will not do it.
So, it’s not the best idea to frost the entire outside of a cake in a deeply colored buttercream. Oh well! Fondant is an excellent alternative, and as a side benefit, will keep your cake moist and fresh!
3. “Fondant is (insert disparaging remark of choice here).”
Can fondant be nasty? Sure, if you buy the wrong one. Is it appropriate to blanket all fondant with that label? No. Click here for a past blog entry about fondant, which explains everything.
4. “It’s bad to color frosting, because coloring is UNNATURAL!”
The most amusing thing about this statement is that the bakery that makes this claim bakes their cakes from mixes – you know, full of unnatural stuff!
Here’s the deal. While there are plenty of people who would like to keep certain dyes, etc out of their diet, it takes only a very, very small amount of coloring per serving to achieve any particular color. Definitely not harmful in the slightest!
When coloring fondant, even less color is needed, and fondant is easily peeled off to avoid the dyes if necessary.
Finally, there are many NATURAL food dyes available. Frosting can be colored with anything from berry juice/extracts, to beet juice, to squid ink. Not wanting to deal with “unnatural” ingredients really is no excuse to just avoid color altogether.
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The thing is, none of these comments really need to be made to anyone, much less a bride who is looking for her dream cake (whether it involves color, fondant, or both!). No one is saying that this bakery – or any, really – need to deal in fondant, OR color. Just be honest about the reasoning. It’s not about being unnatural, or what color it can look under lights.. it’s that it doesn’t fit the business model of this particular bakery. Things like fondant and color take a lot of time, and specialized attention. When you’re churning out multiple dozen wedding cakes every week – definitely concentrating on volume – dealing with all a single color / lack of color can make a lot more sense. Assembly lining cake has its drawbacks when it comes to ability to customize!
More power to them, though. Personally, that’s not what I’m about, so we service very different brides. I just wish that they’d stop misinforming brides about products, techniques, and their reasoning behind not offering. There is nothing wrong with color or fondant!
I believe that every bride should have the option to have the cake of their dreams, regardless of what that is. Color, fondant, crazy, elegant, whatever – without being told lies about why they “don’t want that”. As a cake vendor, if I come across a bride whose dream cake is something that I don’t really do (fountains, stairways, whatever!), I’ll refer them on to someone who does. It’s not my job to change their mind on what their dream cake is – it’s my job to facilitate that. EVEN if it means passing them on to a caker that is a better match for their dreams!
The other day I fell out of bed, as usual, with an idea in my head. This is a usual occurrence – it may be a product idea, a contact I decide to make, a new design, a technique, a blog topic, whatever. One of these days, I’ll learn that sleep time is for REM sleep, not asleep-but-problem-solving-in-my-dreams, but I digress…
This particular idea was to write a bit of a rant about bogus industry awards. A big topic to bite in to, but I ultimately decided that it would probably be snotty, and kind of offensive. Put the idea on the backburner.
Today, I received a sign that I *absolutely* had to go ahead and write that bit of snark fest. At least, I choose to see it as a sign. Your mileage may vary, of course
A bit of backstory here: A few weeks ago, Twitter and the blogs just lit up with wedding industry folks congratulating themselves on winning the “Bride’s Choice” award for a certain wedding planning site. I mean the tweets got so prolific, it really did rival the last 20 mins or so of that football playoff game recently. Seemed like everyone and their dog won the award.
I, however, did not – and that was a factor in deciding to forgo a blog entry. Thought it may come across as sour grapes. Anyway.
The thing is, there really wasn’t any judging or standards involved with this “award”. I know, I was one of the million or so ‘winners’ last year. I believe last year, you had to have 4 reviews on their site that were all better than 3/5 stars, or some such criteria. Thing is, my brides don’t tend to visit that site, I feel lame asking for reviews… so I really haven’t had any reviews since. I have received exactly 1 review there in the past year and a half! No big surprise that I didn’t win.
Did I feel bad? No. I understand the nature of the “award”, and it really amounts to some smart advertising for that site. Once a year, they notify pretty much everyone that they’ve won this “award”, and – being human – everyone gets excited, announces the news, and puts the little award graphic on their site. Linked, of course, back to this wedding planning site. Very quick and easy way to not only increase their exposure and traffic, but to seriously impact their search engine ratings. Smart – and sly.
Amid all of the tweets about winning, there were a few voices of reason. Click here for one blog entry that made the rounds last week, albeit for a different site. (Same idea, though!).
All this backstory, right? Anyway, the sign (cue Ace of Base..)? One of my cake tweeps mentioned that the both of us are apparently on this list of ‘winners’ (*chortle*), though neither of us received notification about it when everyone else did. I did go to the site to confirm. Sure enough, right at the top of the list of ‘winners’ – pretty much EVERY cake company in the cities – was Celebration Generation. Woot?
I won’t be bragging about it, I won’t be pasting a link to the site, or their little “Bride’s Choice” banner, because I don’t play that game. There are an awful lot of games in this industry, and I’m just not into that crap. Does refusing to play the game hurt me at times? Sure.. ask me about the local mag that actively badmouths me. Why? Cause they had me do a custom fake cake for a photoshoot, then lied about one of the other cakes involved, in such a manner as to disparage the use of fondant.
I’m sorry, but if you bash the use of fondant, claim to never use it because it’s “so horrible”, then do ALL of your advertising featuring fondant cakes, AS WELL as photoshoots.. you’re a big hypocrite. If, as a magazine, you know all of this, yet knowingly caption the cake as having been – let me quote here – frosted with their signature buttercream, for the look of fondant without the gummy texture”, I’m going to call you out on it. It’s called having morals. Yes, that was all from memory, from a year ago – I was mad! Why mislead brides like that? Oh yes, because this cake vendor is a prominent advertiser. Sure. ARGH!
I digress, again. “The game” is something that’s annoyed me for a very long time, you see.
In other, more local news, a local wedding mag is currently soliciting votes for their “best of”. Please don’t vote for me. I have no interest in that particular popularity contest at all. I can’t wait for the voting period to be over, as that’ll be when all the emails, evites, FB messages, and tweets begging for votes will end. It’s not a whole lot different than the site I described above, only this one actually involves voting.
The problem, however, is that it really has nothing to do with the quality of anyone’s service or product. You don’t have to be a bride, or even ever have been a client, in order to vote for someone. It’s a popularity contest. The cake category in particular is particularly bogus. All of the top cake companies in the state handle a VERY SMALL AMOUNT of cakes on any weekend… yet are pitted up against companies that can do upwards of 60 weddings in a week.. and it all comes down to a vote? Yeah. That’s quality right there.
That’s not to say that all awards are bogus. We were so thrilled to win the 2008 ICON award, as that had been judged by pros. I cannot tell you how thrilling it was to know that Sylvia Weinstock herself had decided my little company to be the best of the best. Exhilerating! We didn’t win for 2009, but that was completely ok with me. When Gateaux won, I was legitimately bested. An honorable loss is alright by me! I’m happy that we were nominated, an honored to be included in such great company. ISES also has a juried award, and I’m sure there are more out there. Judged awards > phantom standards, or “whoever can wrangle enough votes from whoever”.
I could rant for hours, but I’ll try and wrap it up. In summary, treat any “award” you see with a big grain of salt. Yes, that’s a nice, succinct summary right there.
If you follow me on Twitter – or know me in person – you know that there are many things about the current state of the wedding industry that really make me roll my eyes. Any advice the wedding mags spew about sheet and/or fake cakes usually top the list!
Today, I came across a concept so over the top offensive.. I had to post. Be forewarned, this is going to be a full out rant. It will definitely not be all “sunshine and roses”. In fact, it may be perceived as scathing. Really though, stuff like this really needs to be highlighted and openly ridiculed before it gets a chance to gain foothold as “acceptable practice”
This mind blowing concept? There is a company out there that touts its services as a way to help brides observe etiquette, by aiding in getting the thank you cards out there – and quickly. Till this point, they had me – I have really been dismayed at the way manners seem to be heading, culturally. Advocating that brides get their Thank you cards a.) done at ALL, and b.) sent out in a timely manner … well, it could only be a good thing, right?
Wrong. The devil is in the details, and in this case.. what a doozy! Basically, a bride would upload a photo from the wedding, the generic text she wants in the cards, and a database of names / mailing addresses. The company would print the cards en masse and mail them. Not only do the brides not “have to bother with” addressing the envelopes, they do not even need to SIGN THEM.
OH. MY. LORD.
The best was how the concept was presented.. suggestions like “Well, what is your time WORTH?” “You don’t want to have to bother with actually signing all those cards”, etc. I kept waiting for any sign that the presenter was aware of how ironic it was to frame such statements- and such a service – with ANY mention of “etiquette” whatsoever.. but no. None.
There is a really disturbing trend in the industry, where the invitation list comes down to pretty much nothing more than a gift grab. Invite everyone you’ve ever met, and cut every possible corner on everything to be able to invite these huge numbers of guests. Do things like have an A list and a B list.. serve proper wedding cake to some, grocery sheet cake to the rest.. whatever.. just have that invite list as big as possible. Barf.
But this? Just… wow.
“What is your time worth? Do you really want to waste all that time signing cards?”. The real question should be: What are your guests worth? Do you really value having them in attendance? Do you really appreciate the time they took to select a gift for you, and to book that day off to attend your wedding? To be there for YOU? That’s not even making mention of what money they may have spent: your gift, clothing, hair, maybe a babysitter.. yes. How much do you value your guests?
If the answer really, truly involves not valuing them enough to take a couple of minutes to write them out a personal thank you card, why are you inviting them? Is personally signing your own name REALLY that much of a hardship?
If your time is seriously that limited, and that freaking valuable that you cannot send your guests a properly signed Thank You card, then what are you doing spending time planning a big wedding? You really should just get married at a court house. Not only will it save you a TON of time, you won’t be insulting your guests by sending electronically mass produced thank yous.
I truly cannot imagine what it must be like to receive such a thank you. Where is society heading, really? Is this the next step towards sending a mass email to ALL your guests, basically saying “Hey guys, thanks for coming, we loved your gifts, kthnxbye”?
Recently, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to create a wedding cake that flew in the face of conventional wedding “Seasonality”. Thought I would share the details and some photos!
Many wedding magazines will tell you that fruits, berries, sunny colors, etc are strictly the domain of spring and summer weddings. I’ve never been a fan of the “supposed to” kinda rules that the great wedding industry machine puts out.
This early January wedding cake was themed around lemons and raspberries, inside and out! The cake was lemon with raspberry buttercream, and the cake was a sunny lemon yellow, with lemons and raspberries sculpted from fondant as the accent.
You see, although it was cold, dark, grey, and – did I mention – COLD outside, lemons and raspberries had a personal significance to the bride and groom. When they met, she was working in a cafe… and he would come by sometimes 3 times a day to buy lemon raspberry squares from her! Very cute and meaningful!
As we set up the cake, we noticed that the table names were “sunny” and happy too – the one nearest the cake table was the Lemon table, featuring citrus fruits as a centerpiece! The scent of lemon wafted throughout the reception area, as the staff busily prepped the lemonade that would be served. Lemonade in January! Love it!
An interesting thing to note about this cake – the final product we left was not the same as what we showed up with, nor what we had decided on in the contract!
The originally contracted idea for this cake was a lemon yellow cake with yellow piping on the borders. As the bride seemed fun, and her lemon raspberry bars story was so cute, I convinced her to let me do raspberry and lemon detail work on the cake (which was not any more expensive than plain would have been!)
As I finished the cake on the morning of the wedding, I really felt it needed something more – some swirlies piped around the little lemon/raspberry arrangements. So, I filled a piping bag with yellow frosting, and crossed my fingers that the bride would agree with me.
I met her as she got ready for her ceremony, and she was completely open to letting me go wild with the cake. I piped the swirls that I envisioned, and everyone was thrilled with the result! See below for before and after photos. The cake was perfectly nice before the extra piping.. but the piping really gave it that final “Ooomph”, I think!
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again… letting me run wild with an idea will always result in an amazing cake. I love it when my brides trust me and give me creative freedom!
Also, when it comes to planning colors, themes, flavors … break the rules! When done right, colors don’t have to be seasonal, and neither do flavors. Non-traditional venues can be a ton of fun, and self expression makes for a very memorable wedding.
Like many people, I’ve spent a fair amount of time reflecting on the past year, and planning for the coming year. Which resolutions were met, which were not.. the hows and whys of it all, and what I want to accomplish next year (which will definitely need a post to itself, eventually!).
Today, though, I had a bizarre set of coincidence happen… and it really put some things into perspective for me. Wanted to share!
Very early on this morning, I read a tweet which asked if anyone was racing at the last minute to meet their 2009 resolutions. This triggered an immediate pang of guilt in me – I’d only met one of my 3 resolutions this year, and because that was way back in January, I don’t think it counted (too low a bar for a real year goal!). Another goal – to lose that 100 lbs once and for all – well, I managed to make NO net progress on that one, by the end of the year. Sigh. Maybe next year?
The 3rd goal was one that I was POSITIVE that I’d accomplish, with commitment and a lot of work. I started out quite committed, but then got distracted by work, sidelined by injury, etc. THAT resolution was to be able to leg press 1000 lbs.
Back about 4 weeks ago, I realized that it was the only resolution that I had any hope of accomplishing – I was up to about 925 lbs already. I came up with a grand plan of how I’d reach my goal in only 5 weeks or so… then was too busy to work on it. Hence the reason for my guilt early this morning. Interesting how perspective would change, just a few hours later!
I had just left the post office, and was headed back to the office. Up ahead, I noticed that someone’s car had stalled out in the middle of the road, perpendicular to the flow of traffic, blocking almost all traffic. Now, I have a weird confession – I LOVE pushing cars. Love it! A little bit of adrenaline, a little bit of goodwill… and a whole lot of appreciation for my own body. When you look like I do, that last point can be in short supply, so it’s nice when I can feel good about it. Plus, I’m just plain GOOD at it, and it’s always nice to do something you’re good at. I’m like the double-X-Chromosome-Valjean-of-Car-Pushing. Or something. Anyway.
So I got out, had him get in the car and steer while I pushed him up out of the middle of the road, and out of the way of the commercial driveway he was also blocking. Between the bit of incline and the little bit of slip the snow provided… I felt good. Strong, useful.. just good. I realized then and there.. you know, it honestly doesn’t matter that I was 75 lbs short of my goal in the gym. I have real-world applicable strength, I just pushed a couple thousand lbs, by myself, with no problem. I was useful, and could help someone, and that’s much more important than an arbitrary (though, round and impressive!) number that I’d chosen as a goal.
It was my first opportunity to push a car in a long time, so I found the timing interesting. It had instantly alleviated all of the stress and guilt I felt earlier this morning. THEN things got even more interesting: As I started walking back to my truck, my chiropractor drove by, pulling over to say a few kind words about my “good samaritanship”.
Without going into all the boring details, I have a LONG history of beating the crap out of myself, physically. I also have a long history of not taking the best care of myself, in a lot of ways – not tending to injury properly, powering through when I shouldn’t, etc. At the present time, I have a crappy hip injury and a bad knee.. along with the chronic upper back pain that’s been at me for a long time. To sum it up… pushing a car was kind of a dumb thing for me to be doing, and the sudden appearance of my chiropractor made me feel a little guilty about it.. until I decided to take it as a bit of a sign to go in for preventative care, right then and there.
It’s always hard to me to take all the connected dots in my head, and lay them out in a blog.. but the whole thing struck me as very significant, in a very short amount of time. Aside from the realization that 1000 is just a number, and that I SHOULD be happy where I’m at (not saying I’ll stop aiming for 1000, just that I won’t beat myself up any more for not reaching it by the start of 2010!)… the appearance of my chiro came across as a definite sign that in the new year, I really should focus more effort on actually taking better care of myself. That health and (Relative!) lack of injury really does matter more than meeting a crazy = and random – goal.
It’s been an interesting year, introspectively, for me… and I think I have a decent plan for what/how I’d like to improve, personally, for 2010. Taking better care of myself doesn’t stop at the physical, but a lot of the “emotional well being” is very much tied into my resolutions for the business in 2010.. so stay tuned for that.
When I was a young girl, one of my FAVORITE movies of all time was “Day of the Triffids”. Well, it was a BBC Mini Series… close enough! Anyway, I loved it. Loved it! I’d make triffid themed jewelry for myself (both paper and “friendly plastic” versions).. a paper mache.. erm, not sure what I’d call it. “Desktop Sculpture”, for lack of a better term? Paper cutout door decorations.. yeah, again.. I was a weird kid.
As an adult, through the wonder of Netflix, I was able to rent a different version of the movie… only to be sorely disappointed. (1962 version). My husband had never seen Triffids, and I’m sure he thought I was totally off my rocker when he watched it. Some day, I thought, we’ll get our hands on the version I liked as a kid.
Anyway, I *just* found out that the BBC has remade Day of the Triffids. (I read about it Here.)
First thought: *shrieking like an excited little girl*
Second thought: “Wait. Look what happened when “V” (another childhood favorite) got remade. Don’t get excited, this could be utter crap”.
So, hopefully I’m not getting prematurely excited about this, but I put WAY more confidence in the BBC (who did the version I liked in the first place), than the yahoos that remade V…
… and the clip looks AWESOME! Oh my lord! Could it actually turn out BETTER than the one I adored as a child? MAYBE! So exciting! I’m really happy that they redid the catalyst of the widespread blindness, also. Anyway, let me digress, before this just degrades into random, incoherent fangirling.
I would looove to do a Triffids themed wedding cake. Do I think anyone will ever hire me for one? Probably not. However, Triffids are plants (Flowers, even?)… and that opens up the possibilities for doing one as a contest showpiece. THAT would be awesome!
In the wedding / event industry – and really, just small business in general – there are many times when you have to fill out questionnaires about yourself and your business. Whether it’s for an interview, a profile on a website, or even just for a bio on your own website.. you really find yourself answering the same few questions repeatedly. You know, “How long have you been in the business?”, “How did you get your start in the business?” etc.
Bah.
Well, early this morning I was filling out another such questionnaire, and was pleasantly surprised by a question I’d never been asked before: “Is there a book, person, or story that comes to mind which has had a strong impact on your career?”. Wow! I like it!
I’m sure that there are “proper” answers to that question… something by Preston Bailey, or Martha Stewart… maybe a business book… who knows. My answer came to mind immediately, and immersed me in a sense of not only nostalgia, but confidence and happiness. It definitely inspired me to write a blog entry, so indulge me while I share!
My answer is a fairly obscure children’s book from the 70’s, from the Value Tales series: The Value of Believing in Yourself : The Story of Louis Pasteur. I owned it when I was 4, maybe 5 years old. Weird as it may be, silly as it may sound.. it really has had more impact on any book I’ve read since! I can still visualize the illustrations in my mind!
It was the story of how Pasteur, one of the fathers of microbiology, developed germ theory and created the vaccine for rabies. I’ll spare you all of the nerdy details. I knew from the age of about 5 that I wanted to be a scientist, that I wanted to work with diseases, and that I really looked up to Louis Pasteur as a role model.
Yes. While other kids would name athletes, musicians, or movie stars as role models.. I looked up to Louis Pasteur. I was a weird kid, but I maintain to this DAY that he is a much better role model! (I’m looking at you, Tiger Woods!). Anyway, I digress. The book was inspiring on many levels.
For one, it formed the basis for my early love of science, and experimentation. While I did end up very off track from my original life goal of a career in virology, I’ve never stopped enjoying experimentation. I think that comes out in my flavors list nicely, in some of the design techniques I’ve developed, as well as in my upcoming cook books. While none of that is ever going to get my name immortalized in any science textbook… that book was foundational to my lifelong love of learning.
On another level, I really do think that the book accomplished it’s main goal – I do think I learned “The value of believing in myself” from it. In the early days of microbiology, a lot of germ theory seemed VERY off the wall.. and a lot of people thought that Pasteur was kind of off his rocker. He had ideas that could be regarded as weird or crazy, and believed in himself enough to develop them, see them through. We now vaccines, a much better knowledge of immunology, and pasteurization, all of a result of his “crazy” ideas.
While my “crazy” ideas are never as history-impacting as his were, I do believe that the book had formative impact on my desire and ability to not only think outside the box, but to just go for it, and really see crazy ideas through to fruition. I think THAT has really gone a long way to making work – and life – fun!
“The Value of Believing in Yourself” was from a series of about 40 formulaic books. Each told a fictionalized story of a historical figure, illustrating a certain “Value”. There were titles for values such as Adventure (Sacagawea), Leadership (Winston Churchill), Determination (Helen Keller), and so forth. “Believing in Yourself” was the only one I owned, unfortunately
The books have sadly been out of print for a long time, and it’s really unfortunate. If the rest of the books were anywhere near as good as the one I owned, I truly don’t think that any household with kids should be without the entire set. A bold statement to be sure… but damn, being impacted by that book almost 3 decades later? To have it be the first thing to come to mind when asked that question? Even after giving hard thought to whether or not there were any other books that have affected me so, I draw a complete blank. THAT is a powerful book!
New Cake Idea – AKA “I love Twitter”!
February 8th, 2010I love Twitter. It’s been great for networking, meeting people, exchanging ideas, and even just getting silly with fellow vendors. Every once in awhile, a gem comes through that I consider posting on this blog.
Then I get ADD and forget about it.
I received the BEST request on Twitter the other day, and had to share:
Oh hell yes!! Kinda sucks that 2012 is so far away, this is exactly the kind of cake / event I can totally geek out over. My next “Klingon Bird of Prey” type of epic awesomeness. Yes!
@chebutykin received a response from one of her followers almost immediately, and it made me smile:
I love twitter!
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