Sometimes, it is just that...too easy. When I met with Paige and Nolan, I had this photo of a cake that I had just found online, that I had to recreate. It was done by the Cake Girls in Chicago, and it just knocked me over with sheer cakestacy. The cake was a grey fondant background, with blush pink flowers in perfect lines on the sides. Paige and Nolan were planning their wedding in grey, black and blush pink. We're halfway there. Unfortunately, it's the second half of the way there (hoping that the clients have the same taste as you in cake design, convincing them that grey food is okay to serve (people have hang-ups about grey fondant...which I find funny, because they seem to have no problem eating cakes shaped like books, tree trunks, suitcases, even beloved pets, but grey fondant tends to freak people out!?!) and most importantly, not breaking the Gateaux Cardinal Rule...Each cake must be original, designed specifically for the client and their event. Now, once again, I remind you that I'm a cake lady, not an English major, so forgive that last monstrosity of a sentence, and we can all move on.
Paige and Nolan loved the cake that I showed them. They weren't afraid of grey fondant, and best of all, they brought me a copy of their beautiful invitation for added inspiration. The invitations had embossed brocade edges...matte black on high-gloss black. Ultra chic...ultra cake-able!!
So we sketched up several options morphing the cake idea with the invitation pattern. One after another, they kept coming, each prettier than the last design, until I was staring at a table full of cake sketches. Too easy.
For those of you who haven't been in for a consult with us, I'll fill you in. We send our lovely couples home with the black and white sketches, then when they come in to pick up their cake samples on sample day, we give them a stack of colored sketches from which to choose their final design. What often happens in the meantime, is that I fall in love with one of the designs. But, it is out of my hands at that point. After all, as much as the cakes are mine, mine, mine...they ultimately aren't mine at all. They are, as much as I cringe to admit it...not...mine...
That's why when it came to Paige and Nolan, it was, once again, too easy. They called back with their design choice, which happened to be my favorite!!
We got their invitation vendor to release the invitation art and monogram, and happily went about creating the cake. We created 72-plus flowers for the tiers, then saddled Julia with the task of centering each flower with a rhinestone, circled with eight edible silver dragees (I didn't say "too easy" for her, but for me it was a breeze!) We screenprinted the brocade pattern in grey royal icing over a black fondant band...never tried that before...worked like a charm. And delivered the cake to the Graves Hotel, where the bridal party was rehearsing the wedding right before the ceremony began.
We got to see the bride's reaction as we stacked the cake. That's when I realized that it really was her cake, not mine. But with such a gracious and grateful bride, even that was easy....too.
Thanks to JM Photography for these beautiful images!
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