Clarice – have the lambs stopped screaming?

February 18th, 2010

So here it is! Tonight, we delivered our entry for the Minnesota Monthly Food & Wine Experience – the Czar of Cakes Challenge.

Bit of a spoiler – it’s not getting judged till Saturday, but I’m confident in declaring that we’re all getting our asses handed to us by Gateaux. Seriously. I’d recently heard a rumor that Robin from Gateaux had sold her soul to the devil. DEFINITELY starting to believe that one. (Though, when I asked her about it, she did tell me that the devil actually sold HIS soul to HER… that may explain MORE!).

Anyway, I HAVE to post photos! It’s been killing me to keep my theme and pics all hush-hush before the competition.

So, here’s the deal. In the course of our brainstorming: “What are our favorite foods?” “What would make a kick ass cake?” “What would be funny/different?”, etc.. we got slightly off track and thought maybe to look to other media for inspiration, rather than just restaurants and grocery stores. Any songs that feature a food theme? How about movies?

Well, at the suggestion of food related movies, one of us popped off a quote about Liver, fava beans, and a nice Chianti (there may have been alcohol involved in this brainstorming session).. and AWAY WE WERE. An idea that we were virtually GUARANTEED that no one else would think of, much less actually use: A Silence of the Lambs Cake

Like I mentioned in my latest blog entry, I honestly did float a few other ideas by a WHOLE BUNCH of people, a little part of me thinking I should probably be talked down from this idea. Nope. Bunch of enablers! Love em!

So, I set about working on all the fussy little details.. a bottle of Chianti (in the traditional style bottle!).. sugar “death’s head” moths, painted in cocoa… liver & fava beans out of fondant.. a fondant “radish rose” and sugarpaste sprig of basil for garnish… a fondant plate, gumpaste cutlery (all airbrushed with edible metallic silver luster!).. Hannibal Lecter’s mask.. and a brain. Muahaha!

(Editted to add – Been asked about the size a few times. The “man” is actually life sized, everything else is also “real” sized. The moths are about 5″ across, the cutlery all proper sized.. it was a monster of a cake!)
I will shut up and post photos now!

Obviously not a traditional interpretation of a “Food and Wine” themed cake, but hey.. Looking forward to seeing what the audience and judges’ reactions will be!

Czar of Cakes Challenge, or “I gotta be me!”

February 18th, 2010

Back in my figure skating days, I learned an important lesson: “When you’re going into a competition where you know you have no chance of winning/placing, just be yourself, have a bunch of fun, maybe do something crazy.. and no matter where you place, you lose nothing”.

It was that kind of thinking that was behind my Tremors themed wedding cake, for the Chocolate Show competition. The theme was animals, I’d been looking for an excuse to make a Tremors cake… grabboids are animals, right? :)

Anyway, if you follow me on twitter or are friends/fans on Facebook, you know that I’ve been preparing for the “Czar of Cakes” Challenge at the Minnesota Monthly Food & Wine Experience. The competition involves 6 local cake companies: Celebration Generation, Muddy Paws, Gateaux, Jessica’s Cakes, Queen of Cakes, and .. that other one. Only real rule is that the cakes have to be food / wine themed.

It took me well over 3 weeks to settle on a theme! We started with an initial brainstorming session, which produced 3 reasonably great ideas, and one “spectacular.. but has NO chance of winning, may get us escorted out, and probably will prevent us from ever getting invited back!” idea.

I tried to get into my competitors heads, when it came to weeding through the ideas. One theme was one that I could see Jessica doing, for instance. Another was one that I could see Gateaux doing. The 3rd was a really sweet idea that I definitely couldn’t see anyone else doing.. but I got really attached to the “spectacular but crazy” idea. Didn’t help much that the vast majority of my friends – in several different circles – are also kinda crazy and weird, and are enablers. LOL. Crazy idea it is!

I just put the finishing touches on the cake, and I’m really excited now! We’ll be posting photos on Saturday, can’t wait!

Happy Valentine’s Day! (or “Why my husband is the awesome-est”)(sic)

February 14th, 2010

This will be short and sweet, cause ya know… it’s 7:30 on a Sunday, AND Valentine’s Day.

Woke up this morning after a truly bizarre dream involving a couple local cake buddies, a local food writer I’ve never met, and a (non-cake) baker from some far off state (dunno which) that I’ve never even talked to.. to be told that my husband actually did make me something for Valentine’s Day.

We had decided weeks ago that we wouldn’t be bothering with gifts. LOL. After my blog entry the other day, I had to come back with “Is it a custom carved Hugh Jackman/Wolverine Pumpkin?”

He laughed and gave me a playful fake pout. Said it would make me smile, though. This is what he presented me with:

I just about fell out of bed laughing! What an awesome gift – I love that my husband is creative and weird, with the same sort of bizarre sense of humor that I have.

If you didn’t read my Last blog entry, it was a selection of my favorite gift ideas for Valentine’s Day, openly admitting that it was far too late in the game to actually act on any of the suggestions.

One of the products/companies mentioned was The Pumpkin Geek, one of my twitter pals. His site is Here. My little excerpt about it included the following:

“K, everything I said about no guilt Vday? 1 exception: Oh wonderful husband of mine, I know you’re reading this.. you know, if you *really* love me, you’ll totally order me a custom carved pumpkin, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Claws out, preferably featuring him in a tank top. Thanks! *mwah* ”

Aw yeah. This morning I was reminded that I have a husband who not only has a great sense of humor, but actually kinda listens to me every once in awhile :)

Awesome.

Token pre-Valentine’s Day blog. Awwww :)

February 12th, 2010

I’ll admit it, I’ve long been a Valentine’s Day curmudgeon.

Don’t get me wrong.. I have nothing against love, affection, showing appreciation for those you care about, romance, or whatever. I’m just not big on feeling forced to do anything, or ads that seem to.. well, encourage romance by way of guilt. Jewelry ads that seem to tell guys that they don’t really love their girl if they aren’t willing to express it by buying a “REAL stone” are particularly great for getting some eye-rolling time in! :)

Nope, I’ve always preferred the “Do something nice for my hubby, cause he deserves it / he had a rough week / *I* had a rough week / I feel like it / Saw something or had an idea that made me think to / etc way of romancing my hubby.

That said, the market really does get hit with an awful lot more “romantic” gift items this time of year, and I’m REALLY impressed with some of the ideas I’ve read about on Twitter, come across online, etc. Of course, I procrastinated WAY too much to actually order any of these for this weekend, but they’re all too cool NOT to share! Consider this partially my “fantasy Valentine’s Day wish list”, and partially me spreading some love to people/companies that I like!

First off, ThinkGeek.com is an amazing one stop shop for Valentine’s Day, IMHO. They have cool products year round, of course.. but major kudos to them for their VDay lineup! My Favorites:

Valentine’s Day Box of Mini Plush Microbes!
This was actually my #1 gift wish (to give OR receive!) this year, and actually would have been able to order in time, but they were sold out till this morning. Bah. Cutest thing ever! Admittedly, probably best for someone with a certain sense of humor – I’m sure some people would take offense at getting a heart box full of plush venereal diseases*. I, however, think it’s awesome! Click here for all of the details.

Plush Beating Heart – It’s adorable! What else is there to say? Click here for all those details

They have a ton of cool items.. check out their Valentine’s Day Gift list Here.

Next up, gotta give some love to my Twitter buddy, Geeky Clean. Sure, there are a million and one soap companies out there, and I’m sure many, many are just fabulous.. but she’s got a unique, awesome product. You know how it is. Nerd solidarity!

“Sexterity” soap
I’m not even into RPG, and I think this is awesome. “peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine” sounds amazing, and come on – super cute idea. My hubby is a reformed gamer, this would be perfect for him. You know, if I didn’t steal it for the scent! Also FTW: “Swine Flew” bacon scented soap and pretty much everything else they make.

I think their soaps would make amazing guest favors for any nerdy or geeky wedding, party, shower, or whatever – and she will do custom packaging! Mental note: Blog more about this later!

Now here is a company I recently found on Twitter, and I am COMPLETELY blown away by the talent here. I mean really, disgustingly talented. He carves fake pumpkins like this:

K, everything I said about no guilt Vday? 1 exception: Oh wonderful husband of mine, I know you’re reading this.. you know, if you *really* love me, you’ll totally order me a custom carved pumpkin, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Claws out, preferably featuring him in a tank top. Thanks! *mwah*

You can follow this ridiculous artist on Twitter HERE, btw.

Pumpkins a stretch for Valentine’s Day? Not in my mind.. and hey, it’s my blog! So… there. :)

Ah, the love continues! My favorite radio station just played Nek’s “La Vida Es”, which I think is the most romantic song ever. Maybe I’m mentally ready to celebrate this weekend afterall, feeling warm and gushy after the song.

How are the Mr and I spending Valentine’s Day, you may wonder? This year, we decided to have fun with it: White Castle, Boone’s Farm, and B movies. Cause that’s just how we roll every once in awhile :)

* I get a kick outta the way people talk about “VD” on Twitter, much in the same way I snicker when brides discuss their STDs. (”Save the Dates”, for my non-wedding readers!) Mature, I know :) Gotta take your entertainment where ya can, right?

New Cake Idea – AKA “I love Twitter”!

February 8th, 2010

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.

I love twitter!

Well… THAT’S interesting.

February 6th, 2010

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.


—————————–


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!

Yay Me! Oh wait.. hrm. Whatever.

February 1st, 2010

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.

Celebration Generation in Wedding Cakes Mag – 6th time!

January 28th, 2010

Check us out in the next issue of Wedding Cakes magazine! Our 6th inclusion – I think they like us!

Haven’t seen it yet, so we’re not sure which cake(s) made it in, but.. cool!

Another truly epic “Save the Date”

January 25th, 2010

Check this out:

*swoon*

I love it when couples really let creativity fly when planning their wedding.

If this video Save the Date wasn’t enough, they also designed a Teaser Poster as a mailed Save the Date. Love the attention to details!

Miss (guided!) Manners.

January 14th, 2010

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”?