90th Birthday!

Sorry for the hiatus blog-friends, but the Evil Cake Genius has been in China for the last two weeks, where, she learned that...Chicken feet and whole turtles aren't just for breakfast anymore, and...there's another Gateaux cake shop out there...in Beijing! We stumbled upon this little shop in an old Hutong neighborhood that has become a shopping street. We exchanged business cards and a very limited conversation with lots of miming to try to communicate how cool it was that we had twin companies on opposite sides of the globe.
But on to more cakes! We got a call from Give My Regards To...Event Planning for a 90th Birthday cake. Sydney, our birthday boy has lived many lives in his 90 years, so the only way we could make it into one cake was to Box it up!Any of you who are from the Minneapolis area would recognize the top tier, and hopefully make the connection to the guest of honor's name. Yep, he was the owner of the Sydney's Pizza Cafe's that were dotted around the Twin Cities not too long ago. The pizza box and frosting slice of pizza were the obvious nod to this chapter of his life. The Hamm's Beer Case tier and Frosting Goodie Pop bottle on top of the cake referenced his years in the bottling business, and the crate tier covered the rest of his business endeavors as well as his love of travel. We added the fishing lures and Chris Craft boat flag because he's not all work! As usual, it's all edible!And the fortune cookies...when asked what he wanted to serve at his party, he chose Chinese food. Why not? And yes, it true Gateaux fashion, we made it harder than it had to be...the fortune cookies are frosting, and the fortunes too!The planner let us know that they had to put a sign on the cake table that said "Birthday Cake" because nobody knew it was a cake. We just love to hear that!

Maria's 60th Birthday

I've met some pretty fabulous people in my career. I'm lucky that way. Maria, was no exception. She emailed us about a cake for her 60th birthday party. It would be a beautiful affair celebrating her life "while I'm still around to enjoy it" as she told us. The more I got to know Maria, the more I loved her. She's an amazing woman, an educator at Mankato State, an independant, funny, successful woman, who isn't afraid to don a tiara for her birthday party. That's my kind of lady.

We made the cake opulent and striking, using her decor of gold, roses and grapes as our inspiration, I drew up several options, and she was immediately drawn to this one. A beautiful three tier Oval cake with hand-painted peach accents and 23 Karat gold painted scrollwork.

When we arrived to set up the cake, she was there with her family putting the finishing touches on the room, so we had the priviledge of spending some time with them. Maria is preparing for a trip to Africa to finish her Thesis on the multiple roles/identities played by African American Women in their lives. I'm sure I'm not doing her project justice, but really guys, I'm a cake lady, hardly a scholar. All I do know is that I'm fully on board for her 70th!