Happy Birthday Like Never Before

My Daddy always used to say, "Never say Never." He also said, "never throw a 7 until a 7 has been thrown," when we played Gin, but I digress.

On this occasion it is easy for me to say this was a birthday that was celebrated like never before. No it was not mine, but my father's favorite aunt, Edith Harrison, who turned 90 in April. I was fortunate to receive an invitation, not only to the party, but to make the birthday cake for this incredible celebration. There were no instructions, just do whatever my heart desired, and feed 200 people (actually to be fair they were going to buy extra cakes to make sure there was enough but I said if I am going to bake for 100 it is just as easy to bake for 200). It wasn't the designing, baking, or decorating that challenged me on this assignment but the logistics. You see the party was being held in Cartersville, VA and I am in North Carolina, 20 miles from the South Carolina line. So there was a little transportation issue. How do you safely transport a cake almost 400 miles? Of course I had a plan.

I baked the cake in North Carolina and froze all the layers. I placed them in a cooler with ice bricks and drove to Charlottesville (about an hour from the party.) This is not nearly as challenging as it sounds as my mother recently moved to Charlottesville and she was at a conference in Florida so I was able to take over her kitchen and decorate. I put the base layer and basket weave (or trellis work depending on the cake) on each cake, eight in all, and got ready to transport the next morning.

I carefully loaded the cakes in the vehicle along with hardware to construct the cake icing and decorating tool box (and clothes to change into) and headed towards Cartersville. It was only an hour long drive and I was feeling pretty good about the process until I went across a large set of railroad tracks a little too fast and got a little nervous. When I got to the community building there was very little damage, none that couldn't be fixed with icing (icing is the super glue/duct tape of the baking world). I commenced to construction and decorating.

Decorating was based on the decorating at the party. It was really quite amazing.
A small building had been transformed into a comfortable living room setting with the most beautiful flower arrangements everywhere. There was soft tulle draped across the ceiling softening the stark building, and making it just right for an afternoon celebration. The color scheme with blues, violets and pinks was transformed into the design of the cake. I had three hours to construct a three plus foot cake and get all the flowers on it.

In my favor was that everyone left to change so I could work on the cake and

have it (hopefully) magically transform in front of their eyes (or at least look a little better when they got back.) I got to work and constructed the cake and then decorated cake after cake, layer after layer, until I was finally satisfied that there was not much more I could do, and I really needed to clean up.

The thing about a cake this size is that it does not stay up long. After everyone got a chance to see it (especially the birthday celebrity) we cut into it. Everyone seemed pleased with it, especially my cousin's little boys who stood in front of the cake eating other food as fast as possible hoping beyond hope I would not cut into it. Finally she explained to me that they were not allowed to have cake until they ate other food first. However they were concerned that the cake would be all gone before they could eat enough to please their parents so I made them a deal to save them each their favorite flavor of cake to make sure nothing would happen to it. I couldn't cut it fast enough, as soon as I figured out which cake was which there they were ready for their cake.

I must say what a pleasant day. About 200 people came by to share their birthday wishes and enjoy this special celebration. Elizabeth (Aunt Edith's granddaughter) was doing her best to catch everything via camera card (while Robert is still using a camera with film...but we're trying) Aunt Edith seemed tickled with the variety of people who came, many that she had not seen in years. As it should be it seemed that she had a fantastic time. Thanks to Judith and her planning the party went off without a hitch and everything from the food to the decorations were just perfect.

This week Aunt Edith sent me the most wonderful thank you note for the cake. Inside was a clipping from the local paper, showing her in the background cutting the cake. The article gave highlights of the party including that I had decorated the cake. Imagine my first press coverage of a cake, and I can't imagine a more fitting occasion cake to publish. I must admit I don't think Ace of Cakes has anything to worry about. In the meantime however I will continue to enjoy this special cake made for a special lady on a special occasion, one like never before.

Say "I Do" to the Cake

We've all seen or at least heard of the show saying I Do to the Dress, but what about the cake? Each wedding is different and what a bride or groom concentrates on as being the most important part of the wedding. For this wedding they kept telling me how the cake was going to be the show piece of the reception and all I could think about was how everyone would be looking at them not the cake...at least not until they cut it.

Well when I got to the church (the reception was in the social hall for the church), I was greeted by covered but empty tables, and the bride, with hair done and veil on getting ready to slip into her dress for photos, and several people who just looked at me in my jeans, polo shirt and ball cap concerned that I was dressed for the wedding. As I looked around for the cake table it was hard to miss.
On the wall hung a large wooden cross with white sheer fabric draped to each side and a ball of the fabric in the center. I found out later that the ball of fabric was actually filled with small white lights that looked really incredible when lit. In front of the cross and under this fabric ball was a round table, the cake table. To either side against the wall were two tables, with photos draped with cloth so the groom could not see the bride in her dress before the wedding (by the way I did get to see her in her dress and she looked like she stepped out of a fairy tale...every girls dream of how she hopes to look on her wedding day.) Through the middle of the room was a Z shape of tables for all the food that smelled so good simmering in the kitchen.

I went to work constructing this cake. There are days when I feel like I am either an architect or construction worker as I build these rather large cakes. I started with an 18 inch plate and placed the fountain and greenery around it and then added 13 inch columns. On top of the 6 13 inch columns sat a 16 inch heart shaped butter cake with off white icing, rose colored roses and sage colored leaves, stems and seashell border. Three inches above that cake sat a 12 inch cake and a nine inch cake on top of that. The topper was the most beautiful Lucite heart with two intertwined hearts, their names, and wedding date etched in the center. By the time the cake was up and constructed it was an inch shy of being a three foot wedding cake.

The bride saw it dashing from one part of the church to the other (trying to avoid being seen by the groom), and commented that it was beautiful. The groom had the opportunity to see it on his way to change for the big event, and seemed pleased with how it turned out. I gave cutting instructions to a very nice lady who was in charge of cutting the cake after they cut it, and she seemed ready to divide it up quickly and efficiently for all.

Today, the day after the wedding I have received several reports on how much people enjoyed the wedding and how happy the couple looked. I also heard from one of the guests that the cake was really good, which makes me happy that it was up and tasted good (because that is the most important part to me..who wants to celebrate the happiest day of their lives with a bad cake?). I am looking forward to hearing from the happy couple when they return from their honeymoon...in the meantime I will work on their wedding cake photo album, and enjoy being able to take a part in this happiest of occasions in their lives.

You Decide

Sometimes when trying to give some one an idea of what you can do you can give too many choices. I was trying to do that with this cake.

The questions were easy to answer but it is a case of seeing it with your own eyes versus, looking at a picture. Instead of giving you the answers (because the photos do that) I will give you the questions instead and you can decide for yourself.
Is off white icing better than white? What about lots of flower clusters? What about a little color versus all one color? Can you match the colors of the event? What would it look like with lots of color versus a little color?
What do flowers look like going up the side of the cake? What about different sizes of flowers? Can the top design be a little off center?

This is an 8 inch two layer cake made of butter fudge because sometimes chocolate can make the most difficult decisions much easier to handle. Or at least things seem a little sweeter at the time, but you can decide.

Slumber Power

If you are a child of the sixties this cake might be familiar. It is the super bright, transcendental, fun flower, a.k.a the flower power cake. A sign of of peace and love in the sixties, and a sign a fun for young ladies who like girlie, bright and fantastic cakes in 2009.

This cake was made especially for a young lady who was celebrating a birthday in a really fun way, a slumber party. Of course you know when you have so many girls in a confined space and you hope they sleep, what you really want to do is feed them lots of cake. Yes, I am joking. What made this cake spectacular is that it was this young ladies first chocolate cake...ever. I grew up on chocolate cake. As a matter of fact there was no decision to be made when it came to birthday cakes in our house, they were chocolate with white icing and yellow roses. So when this young lady's mother informed me that this would be her first chocolate cake I was very excited, and might have gone a little overboard. Instead of a plain old devils food cake, I kicked it up a notch and went with butter fudge. There might not have been any sleep at the slumber party, but I bet they will have a time they will never forget.

The Ugliest Best Cake Ever

It is not uncommon when working on a wedding cake to do sample cakes. When the brides mother has a birthday, well sometimes cake can do double duty. So in reference to the title I would say this is the ugliest sample wedding cake ever made, but not an unattractive birthday cake.

The cake is a two layered butter cake. I used two 12 inch heart cake pans and imprinted vines and various flowers. Not exactly my favorite design but I did get an e-mail saying it tasted pretty darn good. Stay tuned to see the next creations.

A Birthday and a Smile

I got a phone call last week and a very nice man was talking to me about the fact that his wife was out of the office so it was safe to call me. Now my mind first jumped to this man has a seriously wrong number, but then I realized he had called the office and had to ask for me. He identified himself but it did not help, as my mind was now trying to figure out who his wife was thinking who was not in the office that day so I could figure out this mystery. Then he said, "well you may not know this but her birthday is Thursday." The little light bulb shot off over my head, a wave of relief came over me and life was suddenly so much better. Yes, this was the husband of one of my co-workers, and as I listened I realized he was calling to see if we could arrange a cake, on the sly.

I asked the normal questions if there was a theme to the birthday, and colors etc. He said no, that she was working that night so it was just going to be her parents, and family at home, nothing special just create something she would like. Here is the kicker, the one that got me and made me get extra creative...he said, "when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she said one of your cakes." That was it. This was going to be a great cake, it had to represent my coworker, let's call her Christy, and her sparkling personality.

So thinking away I came up with something really bright with lots of colors and shapes. Something about that didn't feel right, kinda felt like a cop out, it wasn't personal enough. I went to her partner in crime in the office to ask her but she was on the phone. So as I was working my IM screen came up and I asked one of my volunteers who knows her fairly well and she said a McDonald's cup. I thought that is perfect, and started thinking about how to do that and I thought I could do it so it was half a cup coming off the cake board, then she suggested a diet coke can in the same manner. I was leaning towards the McDonald's cup because it would be brighter but I had my construction concerns.

Over lunch that day the cake idea became cemented in stone. One of my lunch buddies suggested using round cakes to make the diet coke can, she was offering some small springform pans to help me out. At that point I was set on a diet coke can. When Christy's partner in crime, let's call her Janice, and I talked that afternoon and I ran the idea by her she loved the idea of the diet coke can. She and I were discussing flavors and decided in keeping with the diet coke theme the cake should be a chocolate cake, so butter fudge was chosen. Mind you at this point I have included many people in this secret, and so keeping it a secret was as important as getting the cake done.

Well I ended up baking about 18 inches of 6 inch round cakes. We ended up using 12 inches of cake which seemed to look right plus much more the cake would have been really lopsided. My biggest concern was grey icing. Grey icing can be depressing and it is almost impossible to make metallic icing so once I got a light grey base I started in with the colors. By the way writing sideways is kinda tough, but it is the straightest writing I have ever done. I little ribbon edge around the top and all worked well.

Christy's husband and I arranged a pickup time at my house, and knowing were she was we were in good shape. He grabbed the cake and went on to take care of the rest of her surprise eventing. That night after our program we made sure everything was picked up so we could leave in a hurry and send her home. I sat on my laptop, trying to work on homework, curious if she liked it. I got a text message about a half hour later, letting me know she had a cake and a smile.

Lordy Lordy Look who's 40?!?!

I admit as a child my parents had a blast going through the newspaper looking at all the photos of those who had turned 40. As a child that seemed like a huge milestone that very few people lived to see. Now I am getting ready to venture to that milestone and I don't see anything remarkable about it. I am thinking 80 is closer to the top of the hill and that 40 is just starting the climb...but what do I know I am still a young'un.

I say all this to build up this incredible cake to celebrate, not a 40th birthday but the passing of a man's youth. Not any man, a youth pastor. No, I do not have a death wish doing such a cake, I just a have a really warped sense of humor and the inability to say no to the very kind person who asked me to do the cake.

I must say I have never used the tombstone cake at Halloween. Usually it is used for Birthdays or other such important celebrations. The cake comes complete with cracks, spiders, spiderwebs and of course black roses. Fortunately the recipient came complete with a sense of humor and appetite (I am told the butter fudge cake went over well).