Country Wedding Cake

A few months ago one of my oldest friends (we're talking 9 or 10 years old here) contacted me about making a cake for her wedding reception in June. Erin and her husband, Jon, have one of the greatest stories I've ever been a part of and I am so excited to share it. Erin and I grew up swimming together along with two of our other friends and we were quite the fearsome foursome. In fact, I found out at her wedding that ten years later we still own relay records in our summer swim team league (how's that for longevity?). Although we don't always keep in touch regularly, these three girls have carried me through some of my fondest childhood memories, and now we have one more to add to the books.

At a swim meet a long time ago, being the 14 and 15 year old girls we were, we dared Erin to get the phone number of the cute lifeguard. Erin was the fearless one in the bunch so of course she followed through. Immediately, nothing really came of it except a little teenage flirtation. But fast forward five years later and Erin was sending us all a message telling us that she was dating a guy named Jon, and didn't we remember that time we dared her to get his number at a summer league swim meet? They had re-met randomly and now, they're married! You can imagine how excited I was to reconnect with old friends over wedding cake of all things.

Erin and Jon's reception was a laid back, mountain lodge affair outside of Charlottesville, VA where we grew up. She came to me knowing that she wanted a cake that was chocolate and reflected the same relaxed vibe of their venue. We created a pinterest board to bounce a few ideas back and forth before creating a cake that was unique to Erin and Jon. This was the final product that I delivered to Charlottesville for them:

The cake was layers of dark chocolate cake with alternating tiers of whipped chocolate and chocolate-almond mousse. 

The flowers on the sides and the topper were provided by Erin's Grandmother.

The top and bottom tier were decorated with a 'stucco' buttercream finish and the middle is smooth finish with a brown fondant band detail. 

Having some fun with the cake :-)

Vineyard Vines Birthday Cake

A friend of mine recently asked me to re-create a birthday cake that she saw online in the shape of the Vineyard Vines whale. The result was a deliciously simple, vanilla-on-vanilla version of the company's logo paired with prep-tastic cupcakes to match. If you're not familiar with the clothing brand's miniature marine icon, click here to see how I did!

 The cupcakes were also vanilla bean pound cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. I dipped the sides in sugar and garnished with handmade fondant bow ties and pink whales. 

Thanks to Michael's for selling the perfect pink and green plaid cupcake liners to go with this theme.

 The water spouts are made from sandwich toothpicks and are not edible.

This cake will certainly satisfy even the preppiest of taste buds.