Central Florida Fair Cake Competition Wedding Entry

I have just entered the Central Florida Fair Cake Competiton being held February 25-March 7!

So looking for inspiration all I kept thinking was I wanna eat cake! Then I thought of "Let them eat Cake" and Marie Antoinette. Doing some research about her there are Historians that believe that the famous phrase was not uttered by her!

Here is an article about it:  http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/antoinettemarie/a/histmyths4.htm

But hey why cant we still design a cake inspired by her and her style!

This is a preliminary sketch. I will be focusing on the colors and fabrics. Many things that were of her style including ruffles, feathers, and bows! Keep checking back for updates about the fair and the outcome!

 

Cajun Cakery Loves: Cake Balls

Cake balls, also known as cake bites, cake truffles, or cake drops, are similar in size to a large truffle or bon bon and combine the visual aesthetics of a fine chocolate with the flavor and texture variation of cake.
These confections a sweet tastes of heaven. 


To make these cake balls, all you have to do is bake a cake (whatever pleases your fancy) and once it's cooled, you simply crumble it up, mix with any kind of frosting, then roll the mixture into tiny balls. Then -- here's where your creative juices can run wild -- the balls can be dipped in chocolate, nuts or whatever confectionery coating you can think of.
Although most people use boxed cake mixes, you can certainly bake any cake from scratch, and of course, make your own frostings.


Here are the instructions:

Chocolate cake balls
Makes about 80 to 100 small balls
1 (18.25-ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1 (16-ounce) container chocolate frosting
1 (about 20-ounce) bar chocolate-flavored confectioners' coating
Prepare the cake mix according to package directions in any of the recommended pan sizes. When the cake is done, remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes. Crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl and stir in the frosting until well blended. Cover and refrigerate.
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate coating in a glass bowl in the microwave or in a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth.
With a melon baller, scoop the cake and frosting mixture to form balls. Carefully dip the balls, using a toothpick or fork, into the chocolate and coat evenly. Place on wax paper to set.

Happy Baking!!

Tasting Parties - Book yours today!

I had a tasting on Sunday for a cake coming up this week (look for the preview photos from that on Thursday). It was a great time. Here are pictures of what was served.

So with all that said, Cajun Cakery will now be offering Tasting Parties, wether you fancy Cake, Cake Balls, Cake Pops, or Cupcakes we have the party for you!

A Cake Tasting Party is a great way to get your friends and family together for a special occasion or just becasue. Your party can even get you a free cake! To book a party please call me @ 407-394-4109 or e-mail at sarah@cajuncakery.com. I will need at least a 7 to 10 day notice before we can have your party. I also will want to go over flavors of cake, filling, frosting, and other treats according to your palate a week before your party. I try to have 3 to 5 cakes, fillings, and frostings to taste.  

Cake Tasting Party Prices:
Parties are priced based on the number of people and generally start at around $100

Extras:
Cupcakes $24 a Dozen
Cake Balls, Cake Pops: $ 12.00 a Dozen
Individual Mini Cakes: Call for Pricing

Price may be increased depending on design.

All cake orders must be ordered and paid for with in one week of the cake party. Wedding cakes, 3-D carved cakes, larger round and square cakes prices are available upon request.

Lilly Pultizer Cake

This cake was designed after designer Lilly Pultizer's new patterns. It is a Chocolate Fudge Cake with Coconut Pecan Filling and Vanilla Buttercream. The Palm tree is made out of Fondant!

Take Me I'm Yours Cake

The take me I'm yours cake came about when our clients sister lost her top tier for her wedding cake. The couple loves the band Squeeze. They followed the band throughout Europe on their 1st anniversary of dating, on their 10th they saw them in Ireland and he proposed to her! He even sang it to her in his vows. HOW CUTE!





That is where the inspiration came from. She wanted all white yet not plain. The cake is Carrot with Cream Cheese frosting. They will freeze it (like they would have their real wedding cake) and eat it at their 7 year ich party (still trying to figure out exactly what that is)!

Poured Sugar Beer Bottle Tutorial

First thank you to Cake Central's forum boards that got me started, and I modified them to come up with this method that worked for me. My apologies to all you true sugar artists! This was my first attempt at sugar work, so these may not be perfect instructions, but at least I know they worked for me. The total process of making the molds and the bottles took me three days so keep that in mind when planning out your time.

Instructions for Sugar Beer Bottles

Remove label and wash the bottle you want to mold, fit a cork wrapped in plastic into the top so that it is even and flat with the top of the bottle. You may have to cut the cork to size first, then wrap in plastic and insert into the top of the bottle. If you do not use the plastic you may get bits of cork in the top of your mold. This will not harm your mold.

Place your bottles on wax paper and using Rubber Latex (I found this at Michael's) paint several coats over the entire bottle (except the bottom of course), letting it dry in between coats. Extend your coats down to 1in onto the wax paper.  It is best to let it sit over night after the final coat. It took me 15 coats to get a good mold. The latex dries clear so you want to put enough layers on so that you can no longer see the bottle.

Once it has dried completely, coat the outside of the mold with baby powder so it does not stick to its self and begin lifting the mold from around the bottom of the bottle, loosening it all the way around.

Roll the mold off the bottle. To roll the mold completely off the bottle it will most likely turn inside out. Simply use a mixing spoon to push it right side out. As the mold cures more over time it will stop sticking to itself and you wont need the baby powder anymore.

This part was in the directions but I skipped it and just used a heat resistant cup. Here are the real directions in case you would like to try it: Using any kind of modeling clay, make a half bottle mold using the same bottle, this will be the support for your latex mold. If the mold tilts the top of the bottle downwards at bit this helps.

Rest the latex mold in the clay mold or heat resistant cup and then prepare your sugar.

Mix ½ cup sugar and ½ light corn syrup in a two cup glass measuring cup and place in microwave. Microwave the mixture for 6 minutes at 50%. then micro at full power for another 2-3 minutes, depending on how dark you want your bottle. It will continue to darken a bit once you remove it from the microwave.

Carefully pour the mixture into the mold a little at a time, rotating the latex mold slowly to evenly coat the mold, letting it rest in the cup to keep it’s shape. The latex will be hot to the touch, so gloves or potholders are needed. Once you have coated the mold, continue to pour the sugar into the mold and continue to rotate until you have used all the sugar and it starts to set. If you stop turning too soon all the sugar will slowly fall to the bottom (or top of the bottle) and it will take a while to dry. I continued to turn for about 15 min after all of the sugar was in the mold.

Once the sugar has cooled, remove the mold from the sugar bottle the same way you did from the real bottle, loosen the bottom, and roll the mold off the bottle. When you get to the neck give it a gentle tug and it will come free.

I hope these make sense and at least point some of you in the right direction to start making your own bottles.

Beer Bottle Cake

This was by far the most fun I have had making a cake. It took quite a bit of time but I think the effort was worth it. This is a vanilla cake with Beer Buttercream Filling. All of the decorations are madeout of sugar.

 
The beer bottles are made with poured sugar into latex molds (I will be posting the tutorial on this one later), and the ice cubes were made from poured Isomalt (a sugar substitute that does not yellow).

The labels were printed on edible paper with edible ink. I hope that we get more orders for items like this! It was an adventure and I love trying new techniques!

Cajun Cakery Loves: Chef's Jacket

As a going away and good luck with the new adventure present a friend of mine gave me a Cajun Cakery Chef's Jacket and hat. I was so stunned! They are awesome. When I found out about them (I only had a picture), I couldnt wait for them to come in! Well...Today was the day. Im going to be styling on my deliveries now!

2010 and lots to come from Cajun Cakery

Happy New Year everyone. Cajun Cakery has been in full effect for a week now and I can tell you that starting a business is not easy. I will be documenting the trials, failures, and successes of starting a new cake business. Every thing from the day to day paperwork to the fun and best part of decorating. Coming up – I have loads of interesting links and suggestions, tips and recipes, techniques and recommendations. The section ‘Cajun Cakery Loves’ will showcase my favorite find of the week! Hopefully I’ll see you back here again and again. I’d love to hear your comments.

-Sarah