Friday 23 March 2012

Process

Here are a few shots of the decorating process of the wedding cake (from my previous post). Thank you to my cousin Kevin Fong for his awesome photography skills :)

Painting the dried royal icing pearls with edible silver dust 
A closeup of 3 techniques I used; fondant pleating, royal icing piping and quilting

Painting the monogram on the cake with pink food gel diluted with alcohol

Painting the monogram with edible silver dust

The cake in 2 parts, ready to be delivered from Montreal to Toronto


The almost-completed cake in comparison to my sketch. I think I succeeded in bringing
my vision to life :)

Another shot of the finished product :)
Photocred: Elizabeth Wong Pagnotta

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Tiff & John

I had the pleasure of making the wedding cake for my cousin Tiffany and John's wedding last Saturday. The happy couple was very easy-going, and they fearlessly allowed me to design the entire cake by myself. Probably the most fun I'll ever have making a cake! I did lots of research, drew lots of sketches, experimented with colour schemes, and changed my mind endless times but in the end, I designed THE cake that I fell in love with (and the couple later did too). It was going to be grand, bold, with a little touch of couture :) Oh, and did I mention that the wedding was in Toronto?! (For my new readers, I'm in Montreal). Lots and lots of planning went into this cake, as I had to work on it around school, and in such a way that it would still be fresh and moist for the wedding. Having been my second Toronto wedding cake, I had a general idea of how to organize myself but it was never the less a little challenging. I started baking the cakes a week before the wedding and froze them until I was ready to assemble the cake. In one afternoon, with all my mise en place, I was able to assemble and crumb-coat all 5 tiers. Next was to cover them in fondant and start building my cake. My plan was initially to bring the cakes in 3 parts, but with my final sketch, I had to assemble them in 2 parts. Turns out the cakes were heavy enough that they did not budge during the entire 6 hour car ride (phew!). I brought the rest of my supplies and finished assembling the cake on site at Piper Heath Golf Course in Milton, ON. With all the right planning, and a bit of good luck, everything went off without a hitch! The bride and groom were very pleased with the cake :) I received lots of compliments on the appearance of the cake as well as the cake itself. Even after having been frozen for a couple of days, the cakes were still very moist and tasty. Some people even commented on how fluffy the buttercream was (that made me very happy- I get super excited when my buttercream turns out super "light"!). Here are a few pictures of the process and the big day :)

All assembled, looking pretty straight :)

Adding borders

Giving the floating tier a royal icing finish

Fresh orchids atop the cake- so beautiful. The monogram is a hybrid of
their two names, also used on the invitations.

The finished cake!

The glowing couple on a beautiful March afternoon

Tiff & John posing with their cake

John getting mad at Tiff for shoving cake in his face- priceless! 

Classic :)

A closer look at the cake. 3 tiers of vanilla bean cake with maple Italian buttercream and
2 tiers of dark chocolate cake with caramel fleur de sel Italian buttercream.

Fun facts:

# of hours to complete cake ~25
lbs of butter in the buttercream- 7
estimated weight of the cake ~60 lbs

Wishing nothing but the very best to my cousin Tiffany and my new cousin-in-law John! May you have a happy and healthy life together :) I am so happy to have been a part of your special day. You know who to call for anniversary cakes... ;)

Wednesday 14 March 2012

It's my birthday...

It was my birthday yesterday (I'm 22!) and to celebrate, I went out for dinner and drinks with some friends last weekend. As people wished me happy birthday, they also asked who made me a birthday cake... why, ME of course! People seem to be a bit shocked that I would do this on my own birthday, but the truth is, I love baking and who better to make something perfect for me than me?! (I also plan on making my own wedding cake when the time comes :p) This year I made cupcakes, for ease of eating on the street (the restaurant didn't allow cakes to be brought in). I made a combination of my most favourite things, and ended up with these:


Chocolate chai cupcakes with pear cream filling and caramel buttercream :)
Topped with Crispearls and a marzipan pear
Photocred: Carolyn Chin
Photocred: Carolyn Chin

This week I've been super busy prepping a wedding cake for my cousin Tiffany's wedding on Saturday! Stay tuned for lots of pics!!!

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Cupcake Training Camp 2012

This past Sunday was Cupcake Training Camp held at Coeur des sciences at UQAM. The event was a cupcake sale benefitting Jeunesse, j'écoute and La tablée des chefs. This was the second year I was able to participate, and I did so with three of my classmates, Catherine Martz, Élodie Vanasse and Marianne Lafleur. We each made 50 cupcakes, and thus were allotted half a table to serve them ourselves. My contribution was spiced chocolate cupcakes with a banana cream filling, topped with a toasted marshmallow frosting and a banana chip. Here are some pictures from the event!


Élodie's lime cupcakes with chai marshmallow frosting
Photocred: Catherine Martz

Marianne's pineapple coconut cupcakes with marshmallow frosting
Photocred: Catherine Martz

Catherine's grapefruit cupcakes with pomegranate marshmallow frosting
Photocred: Catherine Martz

My cupcakes! Spiced chocolate cupcakes with banana cream filling and
toasted marshmallow frosting
Photocred: Catherine Martz

Our table with 200 cupcakes
Photocred: Catherine Martz

Myself, Marianne and Élodie
Photocred: Catherine Martz

Nonna Maria was impressed with our cupcakes!
Photocred: Pedro fait de la photo

Our team :)
Photocred: Susan Moss
This spring's event was a lot of fun to take part in. The next full fledged Cupcake Camp Montreal will be held Nov. 18, 2012 at the Palais des Congres. I hope to be able to once again participate :)