Congratulations, Erin!

Congratulations to Erin! 

You are a WINNER!

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While you may not have that perfect winning mix of tiger blood and Adonis DNA, like our friend in the seal up top, you have something far better.  You have CAKE! 

Please send me an email at bakelore@gmail.com, and we will figure out a way for you to win your cake and eat it too. 

Thanks for your participation everyone!  This was a fun give away, and I'll probably do more like it in the future.

The Give Away Cake

Just in case you were wondering, I'm playing this give away all kinds of loosey goosey.  Pretty much if you comment on yesterday, today or tomorrow's blog you are entered, and you can enter as many times as you want, as long as you leave different comments. 

Here's what you'll win:

That's a 6" Lightly Lemon cake with real vanilla butter cream.  It's topped with three calla lilies and seven roses, with a few buds and green leaves tucked in there too.  The picket fence is fondant. 

I will announce the winner on Saturday and hopefully have this thing in your hot little hands the same day...of course, if you live in New Zealand or something, I can't promise it would arrive looking anything like this or tasting remotely good anymore.  That's really far away...but distance can't separate cake lovers:). 

Ok...make me happy people!  Comment, comment, comment!!

Wonderful Day for a Give Away!

Hello, cake lovers!

It's been a wonderful, exhausting day.  As usual, when I've had a big project come to an end, I'm just about out of words.  All I have is pictures, and hopefully they will speak for me. 

I apologize for the less than stellar photography.  I left in a rush in the wee hours this morning and forgot my super double plus awesome camera.  These are brought to you courtesy of my phone.

17 roses, 9 calla lilies and a bunch of little buds and green leaves

The view from up top!

Top and bottom tiers: Lightly Lemon with vanilla butter cream
Middle tier: Buttery Yellow with vanilla butter cream

And just for kicks (and because the top tier of this gorgeous garden cake wasn't touched by anyone by my carefully gloved hand) - I'm going to do a fast and furious give away of the top tier. 

Like it?  Leave me a comment!  This post and tomorrow's post will leave room for entries, so if you want it, comment away! 

Arranging and Maybe Giving Away...

It's one thing to make a pretty flower. 

It's another thing altogether to put it next to other flowers in a way that doesn't look like a Victorian nightmare.

My preference is always simple.  I like uncomplicated florals that hold up the beauty of one or two blooms, with plenty of room for air and light. 

My concept for the cake I'm working on now is to do something like this on top (plus a splash of green here and there):

Then at the base of the tiers, I want to group a few flowers together, a little like this:

I realize I'm a baker, not a florist, and I have an untrained eye.  All I know is what I like and what looks beautiful to me.  I'm usually a pretty harsh critic of my own work.  So I figure if I like it, that's a pretty good sign I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of the right track. 

Speaking of flowers...it might be time for another promo here at Bake Lore.  Anyone in the mood to win some handmade sugar flowers of their very own?

Sneek Peek

As you may have guessed from the more-than-month-long gap between posts, I have been resting a bit.

Not to worry, cake lovers, everyone needs a moment to pause and catch one's breath before digging into a remarkably busy bridal calendar. 

I have lots of weddings, showers and anniversaries booked - which is NOT to say that I'm full up.  I'm not!  If you are interested in a tasting or are ready to place an order, I'm here for you:). 

This post is just a sneek peek into the first of several lovely cakes I have planned for the coming weeks.  It's going to grace the table at an art reception in Indianapolis, and I can't wait to see it all put together. 

Here are some of the sugar flowers I've been working on...

Josh's Ziggurat

Here's my wonderful brother, Josh, with his cake.  He's about to set off for a five hour car trip with the tower of cake.  I hope soon I can post pictures of it's safe arrival at his party!

Yes, he's wearing a rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock t-shirt. 
Cuz he is that cool:).

Revealed: Project Ziggurat

I hear you out there.  Yes, I know you've been checking in to see if I've published the pictures of Project Ziggurat. 

Well, your faithfulness is now rewarded.  I present to you, with no small amount of pride, Project Ziggurat (or: The Cake that Ate a Blog).

Aside from a little cardboard and a few wooden dowels, this thing is completely edible.  It took 60 cups of rice cereal...8 bags of marshmallows...5 pounds of fondant...2 chocolate cakes...an entire batch of buttercream icing...a vat of royal icing...and a great deal of supporting infrastructure. 

The top tier, as well as the bottom two tiers, are made entirely out of cereal treat.  He wanted an epic cake, but was only feeding a handful.  So, we went the fake-cake route, and only the 8" and 6" tiers are delicious chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.
I had ordered a brick texture mat to make the fondant work easier.  But, alas, the mail was slow, so all those bricks are done by hand.

Then the piping...oh my goodness...the piping.  Let's hope I ge this right...

First we have Arabic:

Then Hebrew:

Next is Paleo-Hebrew or Proto-Canaanite:

Then Middle Egyptian (which was almost tossed for a few choice words Amy had to describe just what she thought of near eastern languages as her hand was cramping up in protest):

And finally, Akkadian or Neo-Assyrian Cuneiform:

And what does it all say? 

Josh is 33. 

Actually, the part I've shown you here probably just says "Josh is..." The text wraps around the three sides not bearing the stairs.  Needless to say, I'm happy to write in modern English, without the need to draw birds, triangles or other pictures to get my point across.  Heaven help me if we are ever forced to learn Chinese. 

But, truly, my brother Josh is celebrating 33 years, and this was his choice for his party this year.  I hope it makes the trip up to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in one piece, where it can be enjoyed by his Biblical Archaelological and Near-Eastern Linguist type friends.  Yes, he really is that smart:).

Happy Birthday, Josh!  I love you dearly, as you can tell by the herculean effort I made for your cake.  I hope you and your friends enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the challenge of making it!