Ivory and Gold

I'm sorry! I have probably been the worst blogger to ever exist. It's been forever since my last post, and it's not for lack of cakes to write about! I have been caking non stop, and it's been wonderful! A whole lot of big things are happening this year, it's all so very exciting! I took part in my very first bridal show in January (pictures to come), my new website is up (www.winkle.ca) and a whole lot more exciting stuff to follow! But first, here are a few pictures from my last two weddings of 2013. 

The first is from a wedding that was held at the beautiful Windsor. Such an elegant location required an equally elegant cake! The bride wanted to surprise her hubby to be with a soccer ball somehow incorporated into the cake. The bottom tier was also inspired by her wedding dress. I'm loving the ruffle rose, and the trend hasn't died down just yet! I still have two more for 2014 weddings with ruffle roses! So pretty! 

So, I had to beautify a soccer ball, include inspirations from the bride's dress, and make the sure the whole thing wasn't a hot mess, and would fit into the elegant setting of Le Windsor. Challenge accepted! 

images by Danylo Bobyk Photography : :www.danylobobykweddings.com

images by Danylo Bobyk Photography : :www.danylobobykweddings.com

images by Danylo Bobyk Photography : :www.danylobobykweddings.com 

images by Danylo Bobyk Photography : :www.danylobobykweddings.com

images by Danylo Bobyk Photography : :www.danylobobykweddings.com

My last wedding of 2013 was a December wedding held at Auberge St-Gabriel. I was asked to create a vintage lace inspired sweet table, filled with cookies, macarons, cupcakes, and at the centre of it all, another ivory and gold cake. We brought in a ton of props, from candle sticks, jewelry boxes, and even little perfume bottles to tie it all together!

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

images by You, Me and a Photograph : youmeandaphotograph.com

Traditional Wedding Cake

This weekend, I had a very last minute wedding. By last minute, I mean I met with the bride and groom a week before their big day! Eek! Luckily, I was available to make them their cake, and I was able to make a sweet couple very happy. :)

They were having a fairly small wedding, so they didn't need anything too big, but the bride wanted it to be as tall as possible. She wanted a traditional pillared cake, which usually isn't my cup of tea... but my brides get what my brides want! I put my own little spin on the picture she came to me with, and I have to say, I ended up liking it way more than I expected. Instead of the usual piped detail, I mimicked the same look using fondant pearls and fondant swags, all topped with some orchid bouquets.

Scrumptious Sketches

I've been working hard this past week, and for once, it doesn't involve any sugar, eggs, or fondant! I've been designing cakes... digitally! Let me back up and explain a bit. I'm a complete novice when it comes to things like photoshop, they are way too complicated for my liking, and I never had the patience to learn how to use it properly. I've tried a ton of different programs to draw out my cake sketches, and none have been simple enough for someone like me, and I always resort to drawing them out by hand. So, my search for a digital option continued... until I got my Mac, and I came across this program called Artboard. Finally, I had a simple way of bringing my visions to life, and available to share for everyone to see! :)

After a week of learning the basics, I know I'm nowhere near mastering this program, but I thought I'd share a couple of sketches anyways. To start things off, I decided to make a sketch of a cake I've already made. Look familiar? (Fit For a Fashionista)

I also made another sketch, based on a trend I'm seeing a lot in wedding cakes this year. When I was at the Elegant Bridal Show last week, I noticed a whole bunch of cakes with ruffles, cascading ribbon flowers, and an oval quilted texture. Voila! Wouldn't it be awesome to get a sketch of your wedding cake before the special day!? 

Wedding Cake Bliss

It's wedding planning time! Now that I'm engaged, I'm finally allowed to start pinning endless floral arrangements and sweet table ideas on Pinterest without looking crazy! There's just one question that everyone has been asking me without fail. "Will you be making your own cake??" As crazy as it might be, and at the risk of becoming the most insane bridezilla, I have to! As to how my wedding cake is going to be decorated, I have NO idea! That's something that will take a while to decide!

When my sister-in-law insisted that I enter the wedding cake category at the Montreal cake show last month, I was at a loss as to how to decorate the cake. The contest was about creating what we thought the wedding cake of 2013 would look like. Modern has been done, and classic is well, classic. We tried to come up with something new, techniques and patterns that haven't really been done yet. Being an interior designer, she suggested I work around some patterns we found in some wall flats from Inhabit. We also found this floral lamp, and we were set. Here's the sketch she came up with. 

So I got to work, trying to make sure her visions were reproducible in fondant! Some of it took quite a bit of trial and error, but in the end, it looked amazing! Modern and elegant.

The coloured tiers are actually painted inspired by watercolour paintings. The lampshade inspired tier was formed out of gumpaste over a dummy cake, and then suuuuper carefully placed over the painted tier. 

And to top it all off, a giant gumpaste rose, dusted in a pink/purple petal dust. Instead of sitting it straight on the cake, we thought we'd make it even more different by making it stand just an inch over the cake, with a thick stem showing. 

Fit For a Fashionista

This set of wedding cakes kept me up at night weeks before the deadline. I was constantly reminded of this giant project I had taken on. I was eat/sleep/dreaming of this cake. It's really not that big of a project, but let me tell you a bit about my week. This wedding was on the same day as another wedding I was making a cake for. I work a full time job, had a trade show for that job the week before, and I have another part time position on the weekends. My life right now is as crazy as it's ever been, and I couldn't be happier! If that means cows in the morning, and cakes in the evening, all the better!

I did need help with this wedding cake, and lots of it! My best friend spent both Thursday night, and Friday night with me, staying up into the wee hours of the morning. With lots of caffeine, while blasting the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and Disney songs, we somehow got it all done! I owe her big time!

These cakes were for a couple of amazing clients! The bride is a fashion blogger, and had some grand ideas for her special day. They came in for a tasting a couple of months before the wedding, and were an absolute pleasure to work with! They chose to do three different cakes, and were so open to trying out whatever designs I had in mind. They did give me quite a bit of inspiration to work with, it was so perfect!

Interested in seeing what other wedding cake ideas I have in mind? Come see me at Montreal's first annual cake show at the end of this month, where I'll show you what I think the wedding cake of 2013 will look like! There's also a cupcake event, it's going to be so much fun! Hope to see you there!

A glimpse at the beautiful venue!

White Wedding

I know I tend to put off  blogging about my biggest cakes, it's why there's still no post about my niece's last birthday cake. There's just too much pressure! I need to find the right pictures, find the right words, and usually when I wait too long, I've forgotten what I wanted to share about the cake, and it becomes useless to post it at all. So! Here I am sitting at the car dealership, while little Peri (yes, my car's name is Periwinkle) gets an oil change, and I decided to get this done! 

Let's start with my biggest cake yet. It was a wedding cake serving 150 people, it was about 20 inches tall, and weighed a whopping 26 pounds. I know that's really not that much in wedding cakes, but clearly, I was too weak to carry it from the fridge to my workspace without getting out of breath. This is where my dear fiancé comes in. Aside from cleaning the kitchen and doing my mountain of dishes when he came home from work each day, he was also the strength and engineering behind making this monstrous tower. Without his meticulous levelling and dowel making, this would have been more like the leaning tower of Pisa!

This wedding was held at the loft hotel in Montreal. It was a breathtaking setup! Beautifully decorated in all white and silver, the venue was absolutely gorgeous! Having just gotten engaged, I'm obviously starting to look at wedding venues very differently… I'm finally allowed to think about my own wedding! And let me tell you, this one was definitely an inspiration! The cake, with its simple white laced tiers, would look stunning with the rest of the decor, I'm sure. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures of my cake once setup, since I left it in the fridge. The ceremony and reception were being held in the same room, and seeing as the delivery had to be made through the ceremony room, I was in and out of there before the bride was even in her dress. She came down to see the cake in the kitchen of course, and she absolutely loved it! She promised me pictures, so more pictures to come soon, I hope!