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.

Tuxedo 21st Birthday Cake

This cake is the ultimate 21st birthday cake. You might have a little more than just a sugar buzz after polishing off a slice - if you can stop yourself there. I've made this cake for several different occasions over the past six months and have finally gotten the recipe perfected. It has four layers of intense chocolate cake made with Guinness Stout beer. In between each is a mousse-y, whiskey caramel filling (that is also AWESOME as a sauce over ice cream...) and the whole thing is topped off with espresso buttercream. The cake is super moist with a spongy texture and a not-too-sweet flavor. The Guinness really comes through and gives it an after taste that makes you go, "hmm...," in the best way. The rich filling compliments it perfectly and the buttercream ties all the flavors together. This particular cake has an extra drizzle of dark chocolate ganache over the top, just in case you weren't already sold. It's chocolate, it's Irish, it's alcoholic. What more can you ask for as a new member of the 21 and over crowd?

**All alcohol evaporates in the baking process and only remains in the cake and filling as flavoring**

I recently entered this cake in the Today Show's Quest for the Best Birthday Cake challenge. Here's to hoping that something comes out of it, but either way this cake is just plain wicked. 

Lemon Lime Wedding Cake: Mark + Cassie

Remember these guys from their tasting in February? Well, they got married last weekend! Mark was my swim coach in college for two years, and he met Cassie at McDaniel college where they both were on the swim team as well. In addition to a beautiful day and beautiful venue for their wedding, they also had this beautiful cake as a centerpiece on the dessert table:

The theme of their wedding, if you remember, was lemon and lime- perfect theme to tie in with the cake. Each tier is four layers of vanilla poundcake sandwiched together by a tart lemon/lime curd and covered with Italian buttercream. The topper idea was a find on pinterest that I recreated with a real lemon and lime and a little help from Michael's. 

Wedding cake #2 for June was a success! I loved the clean design and simple topper. This cake very much reflects my own taste in wedding cake style as well as Mark and Cassie's. 

They told me it tasted as good as it looked! Congrats Mark and Cassie, I was so honored to be a part of the big day.

Beach Wedding Cupcake Tower: Michele + Dustin

First things first...May/June has been a really exciting time for my little business. Starting last weekend I began the first of FOUR wedding cakes in a row, which is the busiest I have ever been. Thank you for continually visiting my site and passing on the word to your friends and family- it is seriously paying off and I couldn't have done it with out you!

To start off the summer wedding season I packed my little car full of custom cupcakes and headed down to Va Beach to celebrate the marriage of Michele and Dustin. The wedding cake for this very sweet couple fell into my lap via close family friends, and I couldn't have been more happy to do it. The beach holds a special place in both Michele and Dustin's hearts - so much in fact that they said their vows with sand between their toes. To reflect their shared appreciation and venue of choice, I created a very beach-y cupcake tower for their reception. We bounced more than a few ideas back and forth before settling on the final design, and you can check out their inspiration board here. The final sketch looked like this:

The cupcakes were two different flavors. Michele's favorite- vanilla poundcake filled with chocolate-almond ganache and topped with dark chocolate frosting, and Dustin's favorite- chocolate chiffon cake filled with chocolate peanut butter ganache and topped with peanut butter frosting. Each cupcake was dipped in graham cracker 'sand' and decorated with a handmade sea creature.

Gumpaste sand dollars, fondant starfish, and pink sugar coral.

The Adirondack chair topper was ordered off of Etsy, and is the only non-edible element of this cake. The driftwood fences are also gumpaste.

Congrats Michele and Dustin!

Black and White Anniversary Cake

Yin and yang, chocolate and vanilla, Christian and Ally. Opposites attract! Check out this fun and classy black and white cake I made for my friend Christian to surprise his girlfriend on their two-year anniversary. The cake was split down the middle chocolate and vanilla, inside and out. It was dark chocolate cake layered with dark chocolate mousse on one side, and white cake layered with white chocolate mousse on the other. I iced it with vanilla and chocolate buttercream and then poured chocolate ganache on top so it was dripping down the sides. Hand piped white and dark chocolate hearts top it off. It turned out to be one of my favorite cakes, and as aesthetically pleasing and opposite as Christian and Ally themselves :-) Lots of pics because I liked it so much:

The naked cake

Hand piped chocolate hearts

Finished product!

A shot of the insides

Monarch Butterfly Birthday Cake

This cake is any chocoholic's dream. The top tier is three  8" dark chocolate cake layers sandwiched with chocolate-almond mousse. It is sitting atop 10" of vanilla bean chocolate chip pound cake with whipped cream cheese filling, and the entire thing is en-robed in velvety dark chocolate ganache. The type of cake that just needs to be eaten with an icy cold class of milk! I made it for one of my friend's mom's surprise 50th birthday party. The little feather monarch butterflies held a special significance to their family and were ordered online to ensure their accuracy. The number '50' topper is handmade from gumpaste and completely edible!