Chocolate Ganache at Craftwood Inn

This is a first...an entire wedding cake done in dark chocolate ganache...yummm! The flavor of the cake was yellow with delicious, freshly made, Bavarian creme filling...a great combination. Very simple decorations, yet very elegant. I felt the cake topper was a bit too large for this size of cake, but it still worked. I read somewhere to use double sided tape to give a cake top ornament more stability on top of the mirror or whatever other "platform" you may use. Why had I not thought of that before? It worked great. 

A couple of hints about working with ganache...use the lowest temperature you can to melt your chocolate with the cream. It will turn out smoother. Remember, if you get the cream too hot, the ganache will separate, not go on your cake smoothly, and give you a dull finish. Also, make sure you make enough to cover your larger cakes because the ganache will set up very quickly due to the low melting temperature. I always ice the cake in a thin layer of chocolate buttercream prior to covering with the ganache. Let it set up just a bit and then pour on the ganache. This will also help to give a smoother finish.

For an added bonus...the venue for the cake delivery was at the picturesque Craftwood Inn in Manitou...close to Garden of the Gods. I shot these pictures after the delivery and on the way home. This is why we live here...

The Best of Both Worlds...

On Friday, I decorated and delivered cakes for a friend of ours from church. They were getting married in Denver and returning to Colorado Springs for a 6 pm reception. Only problem was that we had one of our April snowstorms, so the bride and groom didn't get to the reception until 7. In the meantime, I had also made 3 specialty cakes - carrot, chocolate lover's, and Shirley Temple. So, since we didn't want to cut the wedding cake until after the bride and groom arrived, we had plenty of other cake to serve. Actually, it worked out much better this way. You see, the wedding cake was just plain vanilla with no filling...good, but not nearly as good as the 3 other cakes. The wedding cake turned out beautifully, so we had the beautiful wedding cake PLUS the great tasting specialty cakes, without cutting the wedding cake. Granted, the family had lots of wedding cake left over that I understand they were able to share with friends, but it was really having the "best of both worlds."

A Western Wedding...

Yesterday I delivered a wedding cake to a reception with a true western flair. Decorations included hay bales and saddles, all very tastefully done. The cake top ornament was a cowboy bride and groom, with hat, rope, and wooden horseshoe. I used "rope" borders on the cake with tiny sahuaro cactus accents. The drop flowers were made with royal icing and then air-brushed to match the desired color. A rope and miniature hay bales were used to complete the effect. The design on this cake works well with an oval-shaped cake. The flavor was yellow with a whipped cream and strawberry filling.

Valentine's Day Wedding Cake

I did an interesting cake today for a Valentine's wedding. Actually, the bride and groom were already married, but renewing their vows. The cake was interesting because all of the decorations were done in fondant, even the borders. The hearts were all done free hand by rolling strips of fondant and then just forming them into different size hearts and putting them randomly on the background fondant, which, by the way, sticks together with just a little water. The bride also had beautiful roses to put on the cake, which finished it off perfectly. She had sent me a picture of this cake that she found on-line and asked me to duplicate it. I think it turned out pretty well for being the first time doing a cake with these kind of decorations. I always enjoy new challenges.

Cakes and Pets

While my children were young, they did not have dogs or cats as pets. Instead, we had goldfish and, our favorite, turtles. There was a reason for that...dog and cat hairs do not combine well with cakes, especially wedding cakes. When I got too busy for all of the orders I was getting, I went looking for someone I could refer my customers to. So I found this one lady, went over to meet her, to check out her work and her home, and decided that she was a safe bet as a referral. To my horror, the first customer I referred her to for a wedding cake (a friend) called after the wedding and asked me not to refer any more customers to her as they had cat hairs in the wedding cake. I apologized profusely, but at that point, there was nothing I could do. I had not seen any cats when I went to check her out. Needless to say, I did not refer this lady, or anyone else, to anyone ever again. I just told them I was too busy.

Another time, a customer picked up a full sheet cake the night before to take to work in the morning. It was, of course, in a box. She put the box on the kitchen counter. That night, her cat decided to climb up and sit on the box, which destroyed the cake. She called me up in tears the next morning. I told her to bring the cake over and I would repair it as much as I could. Of course, it was not the same cake as I had given her the night before.

My latest run in with a pet was the wedding cake delivery I had last Saturday. The family had a pit bull. First of all, I was met at the table by this dog, and had to ask that someone take him outside while I was setting up the cake. Then I was informed that the dog would be inside (where the cake was set up) while everyone was at the ceremony. I did not know whether the cake would survive the pit bull or not. I just made sure that I took a picture of the cake before leaving, and I let them know that I was not responsible for anything that happened to the cake after I left. I'm not sure what they did to protect the cake, but apparently, it survived as the bride said she was happy with the cake. By the way, this was an interesting cake...check out the picture. The "black" fondant strips were made with the special dark ccocoa, and the red strips were airbrushed so that the back of the strips were still white where they touched the cake. The top had large silver dragees, which I found out have been the scrutiny of law suits. So I had the customer sign a release form before I left the delivery site.

General guidelines when designing a wedding cake

All tiers 10 inches
6" - 8" - 12"
6" - 8" - 10" - 12"
6" - 10" - 14"

There are a few basic guidelines a bride should follow when designing her wedding cake. Often, the decorator designing your cake will fail to let you know these things.

1. If your cake has all tiers directly above each other, either with or without separations, your tiers should have at least 4 inches difference in the diameters. This will not only make the cake look nicer, because of the proportions, but will make the cake more stable. The possible exception to this rule is when you have a smaller cake, the top 2 tiers may have only a 2 inch difference in diameter. (For example, 6"- 8"-12".) The cake would still look nicer if the proportions were 6"- 10" - 14".
2. If the tiers are staggered and on separate pedestals, the above rule does not apply. You may have any amount diameter difference between the tiers, or all of the tiers may even be the same.
3. When delivering your cake, the tiers must all be transported separately. Depending on whether or not you have separations between the tiers, the decorator may need extra time at the reception site to assemble the cake, including adding borders and details.
4. The top tier of your wedding cake is traditionally saved for the first anniversary. This is normally included in the cost of your cake. Most decorators should give you the option of paying for and serving the top tier at the reception and offering a free tier that is ordered prior to the first anniversary, so it will be fresh.
5. Be sure to ask your decorator which items are included in the cost--delivery, floral arrangement, fountain, mirror, extra decorations, etc.
6. Stay away from dark icing colors on your wedding cake. They will bleed onto the background icing and also give your guests funny colored teeth. Also, the more color used in the icing, the more bitter the taste. The most beautiful, elegant cakes are iced and decorated all in white or ivory, with color detail brought in with ribbon or flowers.
7. Be sure your table is large enough and/or the correct shape for your cake design. Also, be sure an electrical outlet and extension cord, if necessary, are available if your cake design includes such things as a fountain or lights.