Ruffled Beauty

An all-white cake in textured buttercream with fondant ruffle flowers. Vanilla cake, fresh raspberry cream filling, almond amaretto buttercream. It smelled so amazing I wanted to grab a chunk of cake with my bare hands and stuff it in my mouth! And I absolutely LOVE the simple, elegant look of this cake.

Bridal Showcase 2015

A quick post to show off this year's cakes for the Utah Bridal Showcase. I'm so pleased with all of them, but the hand-painted cake is my absolute fave!

Salmon Shades Wedding Cake

I was fortunate enough to take a class from one of the most amazing cake decorators of all time - Carrie of Carrie's Cakes. She is incredible! She is so generous with her time and knowledge. She totally blew me away. Hello, hero worship! I learned so much. I've never even tried to make a fondant wedding cake. The most I've ever done is a few birthday cakes for my kids (see Lego cake here). And LOOK! I made THIS cake :) I couldn't be happier with the result. Of course, I see all the flaws, but hopefully you guys don't. (PS I designed this one all by my lonesome too:)

Wedded Bliss

This was a really fun cake to do. Firstly, because the family was really sweet. Secondly, well, because just look at it! It was so simple and beautiful. And I love how the flowers in fall hues look on it. They chose a simple vanilla cake with fresh raspberry cream filling. They loved it so much, that they had me make them another tier the next week :)

This Week's Sweets: Tiffany Inspired Cake

This was a two-tiered, textured buttercream cake inspired by Tiffany. Finding inspiration from Tiffany isn't hard! I loved the rosettes and the tiny edible silver beads. So fun. And so pretty. Inside were six layers of vanilla cake with vanilla custard filling.

This Week's Sweets: Yellow Ombre Wedding Cake

Layers of vanilla cake, fresh lemon cake, and luscious lemon crème. Rosettes in hues of lemon yellow.

Cake Building Tips

(Here are my top three most super secret tips for making the perfect cake)

1. Remove your cakes from the pans as soon as they are cool enough to remove, but still warm. Immediately wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. This creates very moist cakes, and makes them easier to handle when assembling and frosting. (You can do this part several days ahead of time)

2. Once you have assembled the layers of cake and put in your filling, apply a thin coat of frosting around the cake, catching all of the crumbs. This is called a crumb coat. It basically just seals the cake and all of its crumbs so you have a smooth surface to work with. After you have applied this coat, apply whatever final layer of frosting you want - textured buttercream, piped-on buttercream, rosettes (like the cake pictured here), etc.

3. Put your cake in the fridge and get it cold before transporting it anywhere. This helps the buttercream to harden, so it travels better, or so that it's easier to handle when setting up your cake display at home. Bring the cake out at least an hour or two before your event, and the buttercream will soften up.

This Week's Sweets

Rosette Cakes

Three cakes in Mardi Gras hues for a sweet sixteen party. Chocolate with french vanilla cream, vanilla with fresh strawberry buttercream, and vanilla with french vanilla cream.

This was my first attempt at a rosette cake. I was pleased with the result, although, when I look at them, my eyes immediately gravitate to the flaws!

This Week's Sweets: Wedding Cake (or a whole table of cakes!)

Textured Buttercream, and Wedded Bliss.

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, this cute couple opted for a table of cakes with varied textured buttercream in hues of cream and grey. The bride and groom liked the rustic look of the buttercream. I had a lot of fun with these cakes! There were five flavors - Chocolate pistachio cream, vanilla vanilla cream, lemon cream, chocolate vanilla cream, and vanilla strawberry cream.

Wedded Bliss.

Here are some snapshots from a recent wedding. The bride chose to do a cookie bar for her guests alongside the buffet. It was a total hit. I watched some guests come back 4 times. I even saw one person put 13 (yes. THIRTEEN) desserts on one tiny plate (because the bag wouldn't hold enough :). She also chose to do mini cupcakes in place of a wedding cake. They looked amazing and 400 cupcakes were gone in a matter of minutes. Mmmm. Sweet wedded bliss!

She had 8 different kinds of cookies. Aside from the flavors pictured, she also had puffed rice treats, sugar cookies with fresh whipped vanilla buttercream, snickerdoodles, and classic chocolate chip. And her cupcakes were all chocolate cake, with chocolate ganache filled with pistachio cream rolled in crushed pistachios, vanilla buttercream topped with a soft sour cream sugar cookie in a peppermint glaze, cream cheese frosting rolled in vanilla tinted coconut, and a simple almond glazed. The colors looked AMAZING and everything turned out supremely "sweet".

All of these amazing photos were graciously given to me by the very talented Adilfa Ford at Don Polo Photography. Check out her site. She's been in the business for years and she is amazing. And so spunky and nice.

Kari and Justin Wedding

One of my bestest friends was married last weekend in a beautiful backyard ceremony. Their colors were red, white, and black. And YES, they are UofU fans, and YES I did spot more than one UofU tie amongst the guests. I'm ok with that though, being a UofU alumnus myself...
Anyhoo, here are some photos of their cupcakes. The flavors are (all with chocolate cake) Peppermint, Cookies and Cream, Fresh Strawberry, and Vanilla Coconut.

PS Stop by and see moi (and lots of the coolest stuff you've ever seen) at the OH Sweet Sadie! store September 17th-19th at SoDa Row in Daybreak.