Contemporary Birthday Cakes

Stepping out of the bridal realm for a post on a contemporary version of the classic birthday or occasion cake. I've never been one who needs an occasion to eat cake but for those of you who do, please allow me to introduce you to the entremet. An entremet (meaning 'between meals' in French, because they needed a word for that whole cake they eat between meals...) is a type of mousse cake that is built in a metal ring and contains layers of multiple different textures and flavors encased in a singular exterior mousse. It is garnished with the purpose of serving it whole to a person or party, who may then slice it up and share it (...or not). Because of the petite size and easily frozen nature of the entremet, you'll find them most frequently in upscale restaurants or bakeries reserved for guests with a special occasion. I just took a whole class devoted to these little gems in pastry school and I thought they were too cute and delicious not to share.

The best part about an entremet is how many different layers of texture you can incorporate into one. A particular flavor can be repeated multiple ways to make a strong statement, or you can build an interesting blend of different ones. Because it is created in a mold, you can use both hard and soft textures with ease without worrying as much about structure. The entremet pictured below has a spicy gingersnap cookie on the bottom, a blueberry jam, an almond cake and a marscarpone mousse on the exterior. The colored band is a decor sponge cake that we 'camouflaged' using brightly dyed cake batter, and there is a raspberry glaze on the top to finish.

Entremets come in all shapes and sizes like this buche de noel mold. The ends are sliced off to reveal the gorgeous layers inside of sugar cookie, blueberry jam, citrus chiffon cake, blueberry compote, basil mousse and lemon mousse. This one is also glazed with a raspberry glaze and garnished with sugar decor items.

Now this one, this one, is modeled after the Take 5 candy bar. Yes. It is a chocolate cookie crust followed by a chocolate pretzel crunch, a caramel cremeux (similar to a mousse), chopped peanuts, a chocolate flour-less cake and a peanut butter mousse. Then the whole thing is en-robed with caramel glaze and garnished with chocolate. It really is as good as it sounds.

I saved my favorite for last though. As much as I love chocolate and peanut butter, the textures and flavors of this last entremet jive with me the most. 

 It is a modern version of the classic carrot cake with a hazelnut cookie crust, raspberry jam, carrot cake, strawberry gelee (almost like a jelly), and cream cheese exterior mousse. To finish this cake I sprayed a hot glaze of white chocolate (dyed orange) onto the frozen cake using a paint spray gun from the hardware store. The warm chocolate sets instantly when it makes contact with the frozen cake and creates a velvety, slightly crunchy texture. It's garnished with chocolate and dried, candied orange slices.

An entremet is the perfect platform to experiment with new flavor/texture combos and really be inventive. They also make a beautiful centerpiece for a birthday or your next special occasion. For your flavor inspiration, any of the mousse flavors listed could be used as a filling in a more traditional type of birthday or wedding cake to make the concept more practical for larger events too.

Bridal Shower Cupcake Cake

I've been busy working on lots of cakes coming your way soon, but I wanted to check in quickly today with this bridal shower cake I recently made:

The design was simple and functional- two dozen cupcakes arranged in the form of a wedding dress to match the theme of the event but be easy to grab and mingle.

These little cakes are tangy and tender citrus pound cake paired with a lavender cream cheese frosting. The floral scent of the lavender brings out the brightness in the citrus beautifully. I wrapped a white tulle sash around the middle to finish and garnished with delicate yellow flowers for some flare. 

This style of cake makes a sweet centerpiece to shower your favorite bride anytime. This getting married business is definitely an excuse to eat a lot of cake!

Gum Paste Flowers

Fresh flowers are absolutely my favorite adornment on a wedding cake but when fresh isn't easily available, gum paste flowers are a very close second. Made from sugar and painted or dusted with color, these beauties will stick around ten times longer than fresh flowers, and they're 100% food safe edible too (minus any wires used to attach them to each other). It's possible to re-create any flower under the sun in a remarkably botanically correct - and delicious - form. Here's a corsage that I've completed recently that would look beautiful on top of a cake, or taken apart and scattered on the sides.

Included in this spray (from left to right) is a two tone ribbon bow, stephanotis buds, rose and rose buds, hyacinth, hydrangea, calla lily and a six petal tiger lily.

Filling it out are rose leaves and ivy leaves peeking between the flowers, and all wires are covered in floral tape and twisted together to attach.

All flowers were hand formed using gum paste and minimal tools and all the color used is food safe powder or gel coloring. 

The centers of the calla lilies are made using gelatin and yellow powdered color to add a realistic texture.

Gum paste flowers will last forever as long as you keep them away from direct moisture and extreme heat, making them a great keepsake from your wedding day for years to come. 

Elegant Hat Box Cake

For my final project in Confectionery Arts, we did a timed butter cream cake that could be designed in any way, as long as it was three, round tiers. We had about five hours of class time to complete the project when all was said and done, and it is a 10, 8 and 6 inch vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream. The design I chose for mine was hat boxes that are stacked and dripping with fondant pearls and gum paste roses, topped off with a floppy sugar bow. 

All the decorations are 100% edible and all hand made by yours truly. The edges of the 'boxes' and the striping on the third tier are formed from strips of fondant along with all of the pearls.

The roses are formed with individual petals around a base and dusted with powdered color for a more realistic touch. 

The bow is two-toned in gum paste and then steamed for a shiny finish. 

The elegance and femininity of this cake make it perfect for a bridal shower or birthday, but who really needs an excuse to eat cake when it looks this pretty? (Not me...)

Cake Decorating Techniques

One thing I really love about pastry school, and especially my latest class, is the chance to get to experiment without having to worry (okay, directly worry) about the cost. At home in my own kitchen, I would never have a reason to make a cake that had four differently designed sides that I can't sell or even really use for portfolio pictures. But in school, I've already paid for those little square blocks of styrofoam like three times so pass 'em on over! 

My assignment with this "cake" was to use different techniques in mixed media to decorate each side separately. There were components that I had to put on there, but we had creative licence over most of it. On the side above I used royal icing to pipe the border and drop the delicate little strings from the cake onto pastillage bases. For more examples of string work, check out this baby shower cake too.

On the next side I did a ruffles leading up the side in gumpaste. You can cover whole cakes with ruffles like these which is a look I like a lot. Hanging down the side is a lace applique also made from gumpaste, similar to the ones on the side of the lace cake I made for a wedding last summer.

This side has more strings hanging from a crimped edge. Of all the sides, this one is definitely my least favorite, but it was still good practice to work with a crimper. The border is a rope made out of fondant.

On the final side I did a border out of a fondant rope, cut to have a "crown-like" edge. The butterfly is extremely tediously and tiny piped royal icing and the banner and buttons are also made out of fondant. I like the fondant banners and swags a lot and think they'd be perfect on a wedding cake for the right event. Lots of great ideas and practice came out of this class and there's still a lot more where that came from.

Royal Baby Shower Cake

I recently finished up my first class at the CIA on the other side of my externship, Confectionery Arts. It's a class that I've been looking forward too since I started pastry school because of the chance to experiment with cake decorating mediums I might not use on my own like chocolate, pulled sugar, and the royal icing string work featured on today's cake:

This is a dummy cake that was a partner build, and I worked on it over the course of two classes with my teammate Emma. The design was assigned to us by our chef and we made all the decorating elements by hand. It's covered in light blue rolled fondant and the darker blue pieces coming off of the sides are made from gum paste. All of the white on the cake is Royal Icing. Because of our color choices I thought it ended up looking a bit like it belonged as a centerpiece to a swanky shower for a new mama-to-be!

Royal icing is the type of decorating medium that is a jack of all trades. It can be used as a rock hard drying glue, a paint to embellish cakes and fill in stencils, or delicately piped strings suspended in air as seen on this cake here. String work is a very old school technique for cake decorating but it's something that I've always wanted to try my hand at. Royal icing strings are a tedious business, but I think it is a gorgeous way to embellish a cake. Let's get a close up on those strings:

My teammate Emma also made this sweet sugar sculpture (pun intended) to sit a top this beauty while I went a little cross-eyed dropping all of those strings. 

Our result was definitely a style much different from the type of cakes I normally do, but so delicate and beautiful. I will definitely use Royal icing as a medium for wedding cakes again, especially lace or detailed piping. 

Sculpting with Sugar

This week I have a new sugar showpiece to share here that I made in my Confectionery Arts class. Similar to a chocolate sculpture, a sugar sculpture doesn't have much purpose in life except to sit there and look gorgeous. Rough life. Although it is 100% edible, it would taste like a lollipop without flavor and not in a very good way. So just feast your eyes with this one, but sugar sculptures are a beautiful way to top off a wedding cake or adorn a table centerpiece. They can also be preserved for as long as you can keep them away from their evil enemy, humidity.

This piece is made from a combination of sugar decoration methods. The leaves, bow and roses are made from pulling cooked sugar, the hearts are made from blowing sugar, and the whole thing sits on a poured sugar base. Pulling sugar gives it an iridescent, shiny finish and glass-like consistency. The hearts are actually completely hollow and were shaped by hand.

The rose petals and bow loops are each made individually and then attached by melting the ends over an open flame and sticking together. 

In the same way as chocolate, you can make just about anything out of sugar using different methods of cooking and decorating.

It's hard to believe this piece was once just a mountain of granulated sugar!