Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Cakes for Well Dressed Royalty

Cat and Perry had a joint birthday celebration this year. This never happens. Their birthdays are a day apart from each other, February 18 & 19, and they always celebrate separately (because who wants to share their special day?). This year, they brought all their mutual friends together for a royal afternoon brunch at Hs Lordship in Berkeley. It was a lot of fun, and they should do it more often!


The dress code was blazers or suspenders with a touch of gold. So I set out to design cakes around that dress code.



[I didn't take very many pictures, because most of what I was working on was time sensitive and hands on. I didn't have time to stop to take pictures or want to risk getting my hands dirty.]

My original plan was to make a ganache with candy melts.  I didn't have much of a color selection when it came to them. I should stop thinking things will work when I haven't actually tested it first myself. To make ganache, all you do is add heated heavy cream to chocolate. Regular milk chocolate works the best when making ganache, everything else does not. I got some goopy mess when I tried making it with these candy melts. My guess is: too much butter fat mixed with more butter fat equals goopy mess. I really wanted the ganache idea to work, because it has the cleanest look. Fondant could have also been used, but, in my opinion, it doesn't taste very good and no one really eats it.

I ended up having to just melt and pour the candy melts over the cakes.



My newest tool: Duff Goldman (from Charm City Cakes) approved gum paste/pastillage.  If you've ever seen flowers or other cool decorations on cakes, this is the stuff the decorators use to make them. Gum paste is completely edible, and is used and sets like clay. What makes gum paste harden is the egg whites or meringue powder used to make it. I didn't want to risk making my own, so I picked up this ready made gum paste to make the details of the cakes.



I quickly molded my pieces, and painted them with gold luster dust when they dried a few hours later.



Perry's was a brownie and Cat's was a vanilla cake. Both were made from mixes. I was so hyper afterwards. Frosting, candy melts, sugar... kept getting everywhere and I kept tasting it and it was nearly 2am and everyone was sleeping.. I ran around dancing downstairs for awhile to expend the energy.


At Hs Lordship the next morning (February 25th).





So this is what it feels like to be in the presence of royalty ;)



Photos from Nikki's


and Tracy's iPhones.


Happy birthday, Cat and Perry!


More pictures from my camera.


Catherine Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge.



T3! Minus Nancy & Zoe.


Tracy had an injured arm that Alane kept unintentionally hitting.


xtremelyinsayne.


lol, Lan.


"Donald Trump wants his blue blazer black."



"Why would he want his blue blazer black?"



Perry would be the only one to fully follow his own dress code.



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