(Spoiler Alert!) Here's to the Bride

Yes, don't look if you don't want to know what I've been working on this week!

I just can't leave this one alone. 

I've had these lovelies on my drying rack for a while now...still a bit of wet "paint" before their final dusting of color.

Bake Lore sugar flowers drying...just a small peek at the
original topper debuting on Saturday

This is a sneek peek of one really unique, gorgeous cake topper.  Can you tell I'm excited about this one?

Let me tell you, though, it's not just about the flowers.  It's about the bride.

I met this amazing woman when I moved home from a few years of east-coast insanity.  Talk about beautiful, inside and out.  You become fast friends with the people who are walking with you through times of extreme change, and this lady was part of the whirlwind of life that surrounded me when I got married. 

Partnered with her equally awesome best friend (who I hope will get her own Bake Lore post one of these days), she threw me a beautiful wedding shower and helped make my wedding invitations.  She was a charter member of a briefly convened group we called "The Hot Mammas Club," and she helped me, on more than one occasion, survive my incredible propensity to get lost WHEREVER I GO. 

She's gonna marry a hunk of Latino preacher this weekend, and I couldn't be happier for her.  She's made me wait a long time to enjoy blessing her a little bit in the same way she has blessed me.

Here's to you and all the Hot Mammas out there - love and miss you all!

Te Amo!

Anyone who follows this blog regularly knows that when I am silent for a few days, it's because I have a consuming project (or five) to work on.

I've been going back and forth in my mind over the past few weeks about what I thought was an overwhelming schedule for this summer.  Many factors combined to lead me to the place where I was overwhelmed at the stack of orders I had for the wedding season, and my sanity demanded that I stop shopping for new orders.  I even turned down an order:(. 

I really just thought I had too much to do already, and couldn't do it justice.  One thing I never want is a sub-par cake with a Bake Lore card in front of it. 

But here I am, halfway through what I thought was a crazy-busy season, and I find I am handling it all just fine.  In fact, I kind of wish I had a few more orders. 

Live and learn.  That's what this whole process is about. 

In the meantime, I am happily working away on a gum paste topper for a bridal shower cake.  I'm giving you a sneak peak here...it's going to be great!

Elements of a Cake Tasting, III

Welcome to the third and final post in my mini-series on cake tasting.  When January rolls around, bridal shows start popping up, and bakers have cake tasting on the brain.  Hopefully, you're taking advantage of this slow season in the biz and booking cake tastings for you and your hunk of groomliness. 

We've talked about trusting your baker.  We've talked about being prepared.  Now, let's talk about the not-so-fun part: the budget.

If you want a cake like this:

Yes, that is William and Kate's wedding cake.  Drool.
credit

You should be expecting a price tag fit for this:

Yes, that is the Queen. 
credit

But let's be honest, are you inviting Eugenie and Bea to your wedding along with their nine million club-hopping gal pals?  Probably not.

The first key to setting your budget is buying your dad a nice big steak, batting your eyes at him and reminding him that you'll always be his little princess.  Aha...

Actually, the first thing you have to do is finalize your guest list.  Once you know how many people you're inviting, you'll know how many servings you'll need and whether you can go for crazy, high-end flavors and decorations or need to stick to a delicious but more basic choice.

I also recommend getting a little more cake than you think you'll need.  So, for a wedding with 50 guests, I suggest a cake with 70 servings.  This gives you enough wiggle room for sweet-toothed guests to venture back for a second slice.  That's a lovely three tiered cake (10", 8" and 6") that would make any wedding reception proud.  At Bake Lore, we start our cake servings at $2.00 each for a 1x2x4" serving. (I've noticed a lot of cake sites won't quote you a base price, and I find that pretty aggravating.)  So, if you're doing the math, that makes the base price $140.00 - wow! - a great cake for a decent price!

You'll be upping that price if you go with flavors that require additional ingredients - raspberry butter cream, for example, has real raspberries in it, and you'll see an increase there.  You'll also have additional costs incurred with elaborate decorations. 

It's all up to you (and whoever is cutting the checks!), but the bottom line is that you can feed a small crowd really good cake for a decent price.  (That means no grocery stores, fake icing or freezer burned flavor.)

So what have you learned, dear bride?
1) Trust your baker and try new flavors.
2) Come prepared with design ideas.
3) Know your budget.

Do those three things, and your cake tasting should be a raging success. 

When you schedule a Bake Lore tasting, you will get a full consultation and either leave with your estimate or recieve it within a few days.

So, when will we be talking about YOUR cake?

Best of 2011

It's the end of another year!  How did this happen again?? 

I am feeling reminiscent and looking over my year of projects, I wanted to share with you all again some of my absolute favorites.

First, the Incredibly Time-Consuming Shaped Cake Category...Winner is...The Guitar Cake!!!

Rock n Roll baby!

Up Next we have the Impossibly Cute Saturdays, that is Cake Pops, Category:  The Christmas Ornaments!

Soooo cute.  I love 'em!

Yes, I had to go with the Christmas ornaments.  I love them.  I want some of my own:).

And finally, my top choice for 2011, my chef d'oeuvre, my magnum opus, my awesomest of awesome cakes:  The Epic Wedding Cake Category and Best in Show...a little something I call the Colossus of Gant...best wedding ever got the best wedding cake ever (if I do say so myself...).



The Colossus of Gant!

2011 was a sweet year, pardon the pun, and here's hoping 2012 will be better still.  I want to see a full wedding calendar and a many, many new and returning customers. 

God bless you all and thank you for making time for Bake Lore.  Here's hoping I'll be sharing pictures of your very own Bake Lore creation soon! 

Happy New Year!!!

Portrait of a Cake Build

Piping something for the purple hydrangea to hang onto

Do it yourself floral arranging!

Almost there!

 

Cake Euphoria!  Oh the bliss!

My favorite shot.  I just love the straight
back and the stairstep of the florals.

The reason the effort is so, so worth it:)



Mr. and Mrs. Gant

Mr. and Mrs. Gant cut this six tiered, lemon cake this afternoon.  Oh what a wonderful thing!  I will  have more to say about this later, after the cake euphoria has died down.  For now, a picture is worth MUCH more than my words...

Deep Greens and Blues are the Colors I Choose...

Or in this case...purples and blues.

Hello everyone!  I've been HARD at work lately.  I told you I'm starting to have a genuine gum paste garden on my back porch, and let me tell you, I like the look of it!

I'm working on a really big wedding cake for the first week of July, and it will have every color of the rainbow represented in flowers - literally - every color. 

So far, I've got the blue and the purple looking pretty good - irises, small hydrangeas, calla lilies, roses and a variety of little filler buds not pictured here. 

I'm half way through green, then I move on to yellow, orange and red.  I'll keep ya posted.