Can Paper be Delicious?

Yes, grasshopper, yes...
As a lot of our clients already know, we're huge fans of good wedding dresses. What's not to love? They make our brides look gorgeous, and often give us amazing source material (no pun intended) for designing our cakes.

One of our favorite designers is Monique Lhuillier. She is responsible for the likes of our "Margeaux" cake as well as many of our Alencon Lace designs. The embroidery, fabrics, and techniques she uses are so beautiful and diverse, that we relish every time a bride gives us the opportunity to knock off one of her dresses with a cake.

The exciting news is that Ms. L. has just come out with an amazing line of wedding invitations. As soon as we heard, we made the necessary nagging phone calls, and now we are proud to offer her invitations in our portfolio of letterpress and artisan stationery companies.

Now, while none of us have actually tasted them...yet. They are indeed delicious. How, you may ask? How about beautiful 100% heavyweight cotton papers, letterpressed or engraved with designs inspired by couture wedding dresses. Yummy.

So it was the shoes that did it...

Jan and Brian were friends. They ran in the same circles, and hung out with the same group of people. Nothing more. Until, as I was told, one night when they all went out and she wore this pair of high heel leopard skin shoes. According to Brian, that was it. Who needs cupid when we have Gucci and Manolo? Needless to say, when they began planning their wedding, Jan knew that one part of her wedding ensemble had already been determined. And what better than wearing the shoes that made it all possible? How about topping the wedding cake with a frosting replica? Okay!

It turns out that our Groom had some pretty awesome footwear in mind for the day as well. A pair of Vans that were designed with a wingtip pattern on them. Now we've got a pair of cake toppers!

It took us two weeks to build the frosting shoes, piece by piece they had to be dried in the proper shape, and assembled bit by bit, then handpainted. I have a new respect for all of those Italian shoe makers out there. But once they were complete, and perched upon a cake trunk, hatbox, and shoebox, it was worth every minute.

They kept the cake a secret from everyone, but we gave them all a little hint with the invitations. A wine colored folder with leopard skin paper accents and the wingtip motif printed as a border around the text. I have the best job in the world.

Jordan and Brad

So this bride calls me up, and asks if I can make a groom's cake shaped like kettle bells. No, this isn't the set up for some "guy walks into a bar" joke, it is just a slice of a typical day at Gateaux. Turns out, Jordan's fiance owns a hard core gym, where they use extra-special implements of torture in their workout routines. Sure enough, upon walking into my own (significantly wimpier, sorry Matt) gym the next day, I spied a pair of these bad boys in the training room. Of course the ones at my gym weren't quite the size of these, but then, we're getting back into that bad joke territory.

Anyway, I met the lovely Jordan, and loved the look of her wedding plans, so we quickly sketched up a crazy-beautiful offset stacked wedding cake to stand next to the kettle bell cakes. We also designed an awesome invitation for her. Round! How cool.

Thanks to Noah Wolf Photography for the great pictures of both cakes, including some from later in the evening after someone tried to lift one of the Kettle Bell cakes up by its frosting handle. Now, we're good over here, but not that good. You can imagine the carnage. I've been assured it was well after the guests had seen the cake, and all was well. Thank God, I wasn't around to see it myself, oh the horror! Cake abuse.