Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Joe & Michelle's Wedding

My second spring wedding was for a couple of friends named Joe and Michelle.  Michelle was an amazing wedding planner - she had the cake planned more than 6 months before the wedding!  Their wedding colors were black and gold, and the bride was going have a bouquet of red roses, so the cake had to be pretty classy.  She found a design she liked in a cake book called "Spectacular Cakes" by Mich Turner, so we modeled it after that.

I ended up making a three-tiered vanilla cake with peanut butter and raspberry fillings and vanilla buttercream.  The cake was covered with white fondant and decorated with black royal icing and gold ribbon.  Black on white - gulp!  The cake toppers really made the cake.  Joe and Michelle are both really big Phillies fans, and one of Joe's friends actually made them the cake toppers in the shapes of Phillie Phanatics.  They were so detailed - it was incredible!

The bottom tier decorated in black royal icing.
 
The amazing cake toppers.

The almost finished cake.  It seems like it's missing something...


That's it.  It just needed some fresh red roses to make it perfect.

Now usually, this would be the end of the blog.  But, Joe wanted to have a groom's cake as well.  I think I may have mentioned that he is a fan of the Phillies, right?  So, what better way to show his love for the team than with cake?  Joe got a Phillies cap made out of chocolate cake, peanut butter filling, and vanilla buttercream.  I would be lying if I told you that more than a couple of his relatives wanted him to wear it.


The start of the Phillies cap.
The finished product

The cake table.

Joe was very gentlemanly when giving Michelle her wedding cake.
I guess it tasted OK if she's licking her fingers.
 
Getting ready to feed the masses.



Desiree & David's Wedding

OK, I know it's been a month or two since my last post.  Well, this was a busy wedding season for me.  I had a a bunch of friends and family getting married, so I decided to focus on the cakes and not the blog.  Then, of course I needed a little bit of a break.  But now I'm back to show what I worked so hard on.

Kicking it off was Desiree and David's wedding.  They were having a ceremony for about 75-80 people and needed a cake.  These two came to me asking if I could do something a little different for their wedding since they weren't having a very traditional ceremony (they described it as Celtic/Buddhist with a friend officiating).  Of course a traditional wedding cake was out of the question.

After a quick discussion, the couple decided on cupcakes, which I was so excited for.  Half of the cupcakes were made with the bride's favorite flavors - chocolate and orange - and half were made with the groom's favorites - vanilla, peanut butter, and chocolate.  The chocolate cupcakes with chocolate-orange buttercream were in green wrappers, and the vanilla cupcakes with peanut butter filling and milk chocolate buttercream were in blue wrappers.  I love how creative they were with the flavors.

Rows of chocolate cupcakes with chocolate-orange buttercream.
Vanilla cupcakes with peanut butter filling and milk chocolate frosting.

As far as the design, we decided to model them after cupcakes in "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes."  The ones they liked had a gumpaste heart sticking out of the frosting with an initial written in them.  Since not many people I know enjoy eating gumpaste, I suggested they switch that heart out with a sugar cookie.  Of course they had to throw in another little twist - Desiree wasn't going to change her last name, so they didn't have a common initial.  Luckily, their first names both start with D's, so it was meant to be.

One of the many trays of sugar cookies to decorate the cupcakes with.

The finished products.