Monday, January 31, 2011

Experimenting with "Cake Wires"

My mom is one of my favorite clients. She is so good at gushing about how wonderful my desserts are that I leave her house feeling pretty darn special every time I deliver a cake (and let's be honest, even when I go over empty handed). This time she wanted a birthday cake for two of her dear friends celebrating milestone birthdays at their monthly dinner group party. I have known Janie and Sharon since I was little, so it was an honor to make them a treat for their special days!

Mom knew she wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and chocolate chips on the sides (a family favorite), but gave me free reign to decorate the cake however I wanted. I took the opportunity to experiment a little with a product I'd seen and been wanting to try. Duff Goldman, the man behind the Food Network show Ace of Cakes has recently come out with a new line of cake decorating products, and I have been wanting to find a way to use these "cake wires." My initial plan was to hang the fondant stars with their names on them from the wires and have them dangle off the side of the cake, but I didn't make the stars far enough ahead of time for them to get totally hard, so when I tried to hang them they broke. But even before they broke, I had a hard time figuring out where to place them, because of their curlie-cue shape. No matter where I put them they looked funny, plus they made holes in the cake. As a back up plan I hung some purple balls from the wires instead, and put the stars on the top of the cake. It ended up looking kind of intergallactic with the stars and the "alien antennae" that the wires reminded me of. When all was said and done, the cake was DELICIOUS, but I wasn't sure I would bother with the wires again.

But leave it to my mom to find another good use for them. I walked in to her dining room today to find this adorable addition to her flower arrangement. Maybe I just need to go buy some flowers to make use of the rest of the wires!


Sunday, January 23, 2011

Play Ball!

I was thrilled to get a call to do a birthday cake for a wonderful family friend, Chris. With a little help, his 8-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, was planning a sports-themed surprise party for him and wanted me to do a baseball cake, since that has always been his favorite sport. I did Caitlyn's scooter-themed birthday cake in October, so she knew she could count on me to get the job done! I love starting my clients when they're young ;) Happy Birthday, Chris!! Hope the party was fun and surprising. Good job party planning, Caitlyn!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Big News! Emily's cupcakes on ABC's Brothers and Sisters!

I'm excited to announce that my cupcakes are going to be TV stars! Thanks to a referral from one of my best friends (and clients!), Allison, Emily's Custom Bakeshop was hired to make cupcakes for an upcoming episode of Brothers and Sisters, one of my favorite shows on ABC. They needed cupcakes with dinosaur toppers for a birthday party scene in addition to extra batter and frosting for a few other scenes where characters are going to be "baking" and "decorating" the cupcakes for the party. I delivered all the goodies this week and am super excited to see how it all turns out. The episode airs on Sunday, March 6, so make sure to tune in!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Bakeshop is Open!

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Emily's Custom Bakeshop blog. This is where you can come to hear baksehop news and see all the yummy new things I bake. Everything you see is something you could order if you'd like, so take a look and let me know if you'd like me to recreate something for you.