Fort Wayne Wedding and Occasion Cakes

Its not too late to do a year in review, right??  Here is how 2011 went down for me in no particular order…

* had a baby

* went to South Africa

* ate at Alinea

* made some cake, a small sampling is featured below

 

It is not often that I am propositioned to do a cake involving blood and guts, but who am I to pass up an opportunity to do a cake that resulted in my hands being dyed red for several days? And let’s be serious, the idea played right into my Halloween obsession.

So here’s what happened…I was contacted by a woman who was throwing a birthday party for her husband. As a joke, the woman’s husband told the kids that he wanted fish head soup for dinner and roadkill for dessert. Unbeknownst to the husband, she was determined to make those things happen. She was tackling the fish head soup and wanted me to handle her roadkill needs…an opossum complete with tire tracks and as much blood and guts as possible. Normally, when I do a cake, I do research on the internet to get familiar with my subject. This time was no different, but it was a tough job…opossums are GROSS looking! The opossum cake was rather large and took up quite a bit of space in the fridge. At one point, my three year old son Noah asked me why there was a cat living in our fridge. I was quick to respond that “he’s just sleeping” to which he further asked “but why is he covered in sketti?” To that, I had no response but to laugh, because in our house, Sketti is the common word for any noodle substance covered in red sauce. We talk about Sketti cat a lot still. I think it was a big hit for both Noah and my customer. I’m sure that was a birthday party to remember!

And now I present Sketti Cat. Green glittered flies were added for extra effect.

Happy early Halloween to all!  Anyone that knows me, knows that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Actually, the entire month of October (commonly referred to as ‘Rock-tober’ in our house) is my favorite.  Though I personally don’t think I am as crazy as my sister is about Halloween, I do enjoy a good scary movie and am now the proud owner of a life-sized, motion sensor having, fog creating, glowing and talking witch.  It just so happens that my Halloween sock collection exceeds hers as well, but enough about that.

My second annual Halloween cake class was fantastic and we had a great time learning the art of cakelets and the challenges of cake pops.  The kitchen got very messy, but there was some fine edible masterpieces created that night.  I always like to try out a new recipe when I have a class as well and this time was no different.  I think that these candy corn French macarons turned out so very cute.  Since the bag was empty at the end of class, I take it they tasted good too!

Thank you to my class for spending an evening with me and for all of the laughs and good humor!  Here are some pictures of the class and their creations.  Have a safe and treat filled Halloween!

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What the devil are you waiting for? There are only three spots left in the Halloween miniatures class for this Monday the 17th. Call Laura Wilson at 341-4300 to reserve your spot before it’s too late!

I know it’s vert short notice, but I have just finalized the details of my next class. The class will take place on Monday, October 17th at La Dolce Vita in Roanoke from 6:30-8:30 ish. In this class we will delve into the teeny world of cake pops, cakelets and other mini treats all with a festive Halloween twist. The class limit is 10 students and the cost is $60. Contact Laura Wilson to reserve your spot at (260) 341-4300. I look forward to seeing you there!

Hey all…a quick post to let you know that one of my wonderfully talented mentors from Vanille Patisserie in Chicago, chef Keli Fayard, is competing on Food Network Challenge tonight!  Romance novel cakes is the theme.  I am going to be making popcorn and cheering her on!  Check it out!

Now that things have settled down after the holidays, I finally had a chance to post some pictures of my favorite holiday gift box cakes from December.  I appreciate everyone’s business and hope that you enjoyed eating your cake as much as I did making it!  I especially appreciated the voicemail I received from a customer who stated she thought she might end up in the ER after eating the cake because it was so good.  That’s a pretty nice compliment!

For anyone that is interested in ordering any of the cookies I included, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  It was a fun challenge for me to come up with a unique cake design for every order that I did, but I am looking forward to not doing another gift box for awhile!!

Looking for something special for a holiday party or to give to a close friend as a holiday gift, but don’t have the time to make it yourself?  This impeccably decorated, hand crafted, gift box cake is the ultimate surprise holiday gift!  The gift is truly inside with each cake featuring four dreamy layers of cake and three mouthwatering layers of filling.  You have your choice of two exquisite flavors sure to brighten the holiday season:

• Decadent vanilla bean pound cake with layers of spiced chocolate ganache…just enough heat to warm up any chocolate lover’s holiday.
• Rich red velvet cake with layers of fluffy cream cheese filling…festive in color with flavors to match.

Order one of each if you can’t decide!  Each cake is one of a kind!

• Cakes serving 10-12 people…$85
• Cakes serving 20-22 people…$150

Each cake can be personalized with a special message on the gift tag.

Cakes will be boxed and ready for pickup every Friday afternoon the month of December (12/3, 12/10, 12/17) except Christmas Eve.  You will be contacted via email the week of your pickup with the time window and location for the pickup.

Orders must be placed by November 24th, 2010.

Payment in advance is required.  To maintain the highest quality, there is a maximum number of cake orders taken per week so order early!

Orders can be placed by contacting Jeannie Tomkinson directly at 260.416.2766.  Happy holidays!

Well the Halloween class was a sold out success!  We had ten of the finest, most talented students yet and some repeat offenders!  We all met at Laura’s house for an evening of learning, laughing, glitter and quite frankly, trashing Laura’s kitchen.  Each of the students received a uniquely shaped pumpkin spice cake to ice, cover with fondant and decorate with the airbrush, glitter and candy corn.

Everyone made amazing cakes of their own to take home and enjoy with their families just in time for the Halloween festivities.  I do enjoy seeing how the cakes, which all started as the same basic looking cake, each turn into individual works of art.

I always make some sort of delectable treat for my class to snack on during and this time I strayed from cake to individually decorated Halloween vanilla cupcakes with cinnamon apple cider cream.  Yum.

I was so wired after class that I couldn’t sleep that night.  I feel like I am still getting the glitter out of my hair!!  I wish there was more time to have another class before Christmas, but its not looking good.  Laura is off to Paris for FOUR WEEKS and I will be sponsoring the November/December La Dolce Vita Savory (a.k.a. Sweet) of the Month.  More to come about that soon.

To my class…be sure to sign up on the blog to get regular postings from me about upcoming classes, the latest cakes and news.  Thank you again for being an amazing group to work with.  I sincerely hope you all enjoyed the class!

Check out the photos of the students and individual class cakes below.

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