Sisters!

Paige and Caitlin were married within a month of each other this summer. And who referred them to us? Their brother, who was married a year ago. I told Karen (their mom) that she deserved her own honeymoon after two years like this! As it often is with sisters, their styles were completely different from one another. Both were beautiful weddings, and we were thrilled to be a part of both (even if we did call Caitlin "Paige" from time to time).

Paige's wedding had a more modern, tailored design to it. Her main colors were black and white, and she accented the room, and other little details with hot pink and orange. We got to go the the Graves 601 to set up her utterly unique cake. As a matter of fact, Paige let us use a new stacking technique that we discovered while preparing for our "Food Network Challenge" Dr. Seuss cake. I can't tell you how pleased we were (and a little nervous) to try out something this unique. The best cakes are those that scare you a little bit. This was one of those cakes!

Keeping with her black and white design scheme, we had her invitations done on a white sparkle paper with black ink and carried through the accent colors with an iridescent hot pink and orange ribbon. The monogram from the invitation turned out so nice, that we decided to incorporate in into her cake.

Sisters, Part Two!

Now, Caitlin had an entirely different feel to her wedding design. While she is quite the outdoorswoman (her love of hunting represented by a camouflage garter) she kept the elements of her wedding traditional and elegant. We designed her cake around the lace pattern on her dress and the sashes on the bridesmaids gowns, but gave it a twist by incorporating her sage green and periwinkle blue color scheme into these otherwise traditional couture elements of the cake.

We designed her invitations to reflect the bride and groom's love of hunting and fishing by incorporating a fish motif and caption "Catch of a Lifetime". Their favours were the most elegant little white boxes tied with periwinkle ribbon, but inside the guests found little chocolate fish. I just love when a couple puts their personalities into the favours.

We just had a great time with this family. I still can't believe how relaxed and easy going they all were, especially with two weddings within a month, and three weddings in two years. You'd think they did this every day... we wish they would, we'll miss them around the shop.

Courtney and Ash Spice it up!

So I get this phone call from a woman named Lynn, who is looking for a groom's cake shaped like a Bottle of Tabasco Sauce. Turns out, she's actually not insane, she's just got this daughter who fell in love with a Tabasco Junkie.

Courtney and Ash had a beautiful wedding with the most unique color palette I've seen in a while. They jokingly referred to them as Florida Gator colors, but the whole look was just beautiful. We incorporated their colors into the main wedding cake, and, of course, whipped up a giant bottle of Tabasco Sauce (Chocolate, not spicy, sorry Ash). They finished the night with a surprise fireworks display for their guests. Some people just know how to throw a party.

Thanks to Lace Hanky Photography for sending us these awesome pictures.

Pictures from Andrea and Kris

As many of you know by now, I am a photo junky. Nothing makes us happier at Gateaux than our favorite couples sending us pictures from their weddings. Being the behind-the-scenes vendors that we are, we rarely get to catch a glimpse of our beautiful brides all decked-out for their big day. Needless to say, when they send us pictures, we just love it! These were taken by our friends over at Coppersmith Photography.

Here are a couple that Andrea and Kris sent us from their wedding this past July. We've already posted their cake, but had to add these to the blog. Beautiful couple...inside and out.

Jaclyn's Cake

How's this for a twist on a classic? Jaclyn's cake used all of the traditional elements to a wedding cake, but incorporated them into something completely new. Let's call it "Nouveau Classic"... okay, how about just Awesome!

Pauline and EJ at the Zoo

I can't think of a cooler venue for a reception than the Discovery Bay room at the Minnesota Zoo. Where else could you share your happiness with a couple of dolphins and an open tank of sharks and stingrays?

For Pauline and EJ, this was the perfect match. They love the ocean and all the strange and beautiful little critters in it. Armed with books of sea life, they sat down with me and scared the living daylights out of me with requests to recreate everything from crabs to christmas tree worms out of frosting for their cake. Following my general rule of thumb "If it scares the crap out of me at the initial meeting, it's going to be an incredible cake" I gleefully obliged. We started the fish, anemones, and other advance elements of this cake a full two weeks before the wedding in order for the peices to dry hard enough to support themselves, then be hand-painted, then assembled. It was fun to see the bakery racks pile up with varying phases of completed sea life. I must say, I kind of miss that little puffer fish smiling at me each morning when I came into the shop.

Oh well, I can't think of a nicer couple to have adopted (or maybe eaten) him.

What happened to the Kitty cake.

A lot of our faithful clients have commented on our appearance on the Food Network "Dr. Seuss Cake Challenge" this past March. The most common question is "when are you going to do another?" The answer is, "not so sure". While the great crew over at the Food Network has contacted us in regard to doing another challenge, we just haven't had the time to get back for another taping. Insiders to Gateaux, also know that we actually practiced, baked, and brought the cakes, supplies, cake stands, colored fondant, chocolate paste, airbrush colors, rice crispy treats, and other accoutrements for not just the Dr. Seuss cake, but a backup cake (as the contract to use the Seuss name had not yet been signed when the challenge was taped). Long story short, we, in our ultimate Gateaux Type A fashion, spent day and night for three weeks planning, practicing and racing the clock to learn to complete both of the cake designs in 8 hours flat. When we arrived in Denver for the taping of the show, we still didn't know which design (Green Eggs and Ham, or Three little Kittens who lost their Mittens) we would be competing with. We surely hoped that it wouldn't be the lesser practiced, and still not quite-figured-out Kitten cake. Luckily, the show went ahead as a Dr. Seuss challenge, and we didn't have to create the Kitten cake in competition. However, the sheer torture of having to practice two cakes of that magnitude, with uncertainty lingering over us took its toll. Upon arriving back in Minneapolis after the show taped, a smiling Rice Crispy Treat Kitten popping out of an 18" diameter cake shaped like a pie greeted us at the shop. It hadn't been disassembled from our practice run a week prior. Like all good stressed-out cake women, we resisted temptation to drag the nearly 60 pound chunk of stress to the dumpster. Instead, we carefully planned its demise. So here it is. Poor kitty.