Fall Leaves Wedding Cake

Hillary and Scott wanted a fall themed wedding cake with marshmallow fondant leaves and branches. I had so much fun making this cake because leaves don't need to look exactly the same so I really just varied the look of them and adopted an "anything goes" attitude. I cut out leaves in yellow, dark orange, and brown. I placed them on top of crinkled seran wrap and let them dry in different shapes. Once they were dry, I hand-painted a darker shade of yellow, orange, and brown on all of them to give them some more character. FUN FUN FUN! :) I like that type of work. The whole cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and the swirls and dots on the cake were also made of MMF.

The top tier was Ruby Red Velvet cake and the middle tier was Chocolate Hazelnut Cake (chocolate cake layered with hazelnut cream filling and buttercream). Here is an inside flavor shot for you:

The bottom tier was Spices & Cake (spice cake layered with cheesecake filling and buttercream). Here is that flavor shot:
Hillary wrote me after the wedding and said that the cake was exactly what she was looking for. It really fit into her wedding scheme and reception area. It was beautiful with all of the leaves and deep oranges and browns. SO fall! :) Congrats, Hillary & Scott!

Quad Cake Tasting

Amber and Ben had a cake tasting a while back to decide the flavors for their wedding cake (those pictures to come). As I've mentioned in previous posts, I recently started decorating the cake tasting cakes so that the bride & groom can get a good idea of what marshmallow fondant tastes like as well as a trick for myself so that I can tell what's inside the cakes :) The left cake was an Almond Joy Cake (coconut cake layered with coconut flakes, coconut cream filling, almond slices, and chocolate buttercream). I've attached an inside flavor shot for you below.... yummmmmm.....

The second cake was a Traditional Carrot Cake layered with cream cheese frosting. The third cake was a Lemon Supreme Cake. As you can see from the picture below, this cake is lemon with lemon cream filling and buttercream. The last cake was a Turtle Cake (chocolate cake layered with caramel, chopped pecans, and chocolate ganache). All of the cakes are covered in buttercream or chocolate buttercream with marshmallow fondant accents.

The cake tasting went really well and we solidified all of the details for a 5-tiered wedding cake with different shapes and cascading flowers. Just you wait, that picture is coming :) I apologize for being so behind but I have about 25 cakes to post before I'm caught up. I'm getting there, I promise. For pictures of my most recent cakes without the descriptions, you can check out my facebook page at www.facebook.com/saltcakecity

See you there!

Gerber Daisy Cupcakes

Lea was having a reception back here in Utah after her destination wedding in Hawaii. In order to tie in the Hawaiian theme, she wanted some bright and fun cupcakes. We decided to do bright orange, yellow, green, and pink gerber daisies made out of marshmallow fondant to top most of the cupcakes and then a few cupcakes with just bright colored frosting. This was the end product! I have to give a quick shout out to Dennis Jones Construction for his AWESOME carpentry skills in making this beautiful cupcake stand. It was hand-crafted and mailed to me from Carmel, CA, and I was so completely pleased. Every time I saw it, it made me smile. This cupcake stand exceeded even my own expectations of his abilities and I just can't say enough about it. Thank you so much! I will definitely be using DL Jones construction in the future :)

Now to the cupcakes. Lea wanted Tuxedo flavored cupcakes and so there was quite a lot behind getting these babies to be just right. First, I baked chocolate & vanilla cupcakes (I scooped half chocolate batter into the cupcakes and then scooped vanilla on top of that). You can see in the first picture how the chocolate is peaking through on some of the cupcakes. Second, I dipped the cooled cupcakes into rich, chocolate ganache (picture 2). When the ganache had cooled, I piped sweet buttercream on the tops of the cupcakes (picture 3). Finally, I added colorful marshmallow fondant flowers to the tops of the white buttercream and piped bright colored buttercream on the tops of some of the other cupcakes (picture 4).

My mom, who lives in California, was visiting that week and happened to help me make all 100 or so gerber daisies that were cut by hand, shaped, and topped with a ball of marshmallow fondant that had been rolled in tiny candy balls. This just gave them a little extra color, pop, and flavor. Thank you, mom!!

Lastly, here is the cake topper that Lea and her now-husband cut into. The flavor was Ruby Red Velvet (red velvet cake layered with cream cheese frosting) and the cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. All-in-all, I loved how this cake order came together. I was so pleased to have the help of Mr. Jones (who made the stand), my mom (who cut out so many little flowers), and Rosie & Drew (who helped deliver all of the cupcakes and set it up in site). Thank you all for your help in making this beautiful display!

Connect2Utah on 2News This Morning

On August 3rd, I was invited to be a part of Connect2Utah on KUTV's 2News This Morning in Utah. First, you need the back story. I received an email from Tom, KUTV's photojournalist pictured above in the blue shirt, a while back asking if Salt Cake City would be interested in being on the news. Then, I noticed that Tom's name sounded familiar... turns out, I was his public speaking instructor three years ago. It was quite a coincidence since he didn't realize it was me either. After putting this off for quite a bit, Tom and I finally found a date that worked. I made a few fake cakes for the occasion and since our topic was Groom's cakes, I made a poker themed cake and a Dallas Cowboy's cake. The poker cake was a nod to my brother who loves poker and the Cowboy's cake was a nod to my dad. Since I technically have never made them a cake, this was a way for me to kill two birds with one stone :) haha. I hope they realized that... probably not, huh.

Anyway, on the day of the live shoot, I met with Casey (the host holding the cake in the picture above) and Tom at 5:15am to start the set up. I came prepared with several fake cakes including a Twilight themed cake and a few wedding cakes to set a little background while Casey and I went to work on discussing fondant and making a cake. I made a tuxedo themed cake (since I had just had someone order this as a groom's cake) and the flavor was Tuxedo Cake (layered chocolate and vanilla cake with buttercream and chocolate ganache. Then, I threw in some dark and white chocolate chips into the mix for funsies). You can see the finished product here after Casey cut into it and ate a slice. This cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and decorated with fondant accents (that Casey put on while we were on air).
Here are the two shots of the groom's cakes I made. Again, the cakes are covered in fondant and even the football was made out of fondant. You can't see it well here but the silver parts of this cake were sprayed with edible silver shimmer.
This was the poker cake and everything on here is edible from the chips to the cards to the playing table. I loved making this cake because it was so colorful and vibrant.
Now to the video footage. We shot four segments between 6:15 and 7:45am but it's okay, it ended in eating CAKE! :) hehe. I was definitely nervous before the shoot but I was really relaxed while shooting, which is ironic since my former public speaking student was watching me basically do a live impromptu speech. Tom was really awesome though to help me feel comfortable with bright lights, mics, and all the energy that Casey had to offer at 6 in the morning. :) Thank you so much to Tom and Casey and Skippy (the intern who had to eat gross tasting fondant on air) for allowing Salt Cake City to be showcased.

Here are the links to three of the four segments for those of you who either live outside of Utah or who aren't usually awake at 6am. Enjoy!

The first segment is the opening introduction from Casey:

http://connect2utah.com/2news-this-morning-story/?nxd_id=102145

This next segment is about fondant and the different types of fondant:

http://connect2utah.com/libraries/nxd/media/?data=media_player&v=161905

The last segment is Casey making a fondant bow, or at least a semi-descent fondant bow :)

http://connect2utah.com/libraries/nxd/media/?data=media_player&v=161915

The Crimson Twins

I did a cake tasting for a local venue here in Salt Lake City and made these two cakes that I'd like to call the Crimson Twins. The dark cake was a Brownie Lovers Cake (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache and a layer of brownies). The white cake was a White Almond Cake (lightly flavored almond cake layered with sliced almonds and cream cheese frosting). Both of the cakes are covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and the decorations were as well. I'm attaching two pictures that I made that I'm going to post on my website as "inside flavor shots." Because most of you don't live in Utah and can't order a cake from me, you can do a visual cake tasting :) The first is Brownie Lovers. Yuummmm.....

The next flavor shot is the White Almond Cake. Enjoy!