Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, two out of three anyway.

We've had some interesting cakes at Gateaux over the years. Hell, we've had some interesting cakes at Gateaux over the weeks, days, etc. But sometimes, we get a week, where I look at the bakery rack of drying "cakesessories" and can't possibly wrap my head around how and why I've ended up with that particular mix of items in my shop. This was one of those weeks.
While the concept of drugs and heavy metal music aren't too foreign to each other, throw together an AC/DC amplifier and several boxes of (that's right, I'm gonna say it) suppositories, and my type "A" world starts to crumble.
It all started with a drop in from one of our favorite past brides, Krista. Her husband, Justin, was turning 30, and she wanted a cake for his surprise party that would rival his groom's cake. Justin happens to be quite the AC/DC fan (their daughter even has an AB/CD Pacifier, complete with the little lightning bolt) so she'd been kicking around the idea of theming the cake in that direction.
Now, the cake lady has pretty broad taste in music. On any given day, you can catch everything from Etta James, to G Love and Special Sauce, and of course, Cake, playing in the shop. But, I never developed the Heavy Metal side of my brain. So, some research was necessary. Google search AC/DC and you'll get a slew of inspiration. So, we sketched up a life-size amplifier, draped with a tour shirt (marked with important dates in Justin's life) and topped it with Hell's Bell (yup, I had no idea about that either). Add in a frosting vinyl record with custom label, a frosting copy of that adorable pacifier for daddy's little head-banger, and some blown off frosting boards (from what else, the frosting sticks of dynamite) and you've got yourself a cake worthy of holding up you saluting with your fist of rock while drinking from your goblet of rock, rock, rock, rock, ro....sorry, vinyl can skip from time to time.


Now that I think of it, I'm guessing that this week made more sense than I gave it credit for. After all, I'm guessing at their age, the members of AC/DC are probably more inclined to be dealing with prescription drugs than recreational drugs. So, onto cake number two (oh God, did I just make that inadvertent, and horrible, horrible pun?)
This cake was ordered to celebrate the owner's sale of his company to another company and subsequent going away party. They originally wanted a replica of the corporate headquarters, but I'm a cake lady, not an architect, so I talked them in a direction that was much more do-able, and kind of fun. I thought we could make the owner a stack of boxes that look like he's packing up his office and leaving. He collects African art, so we could have one of those pieces coming out of the top tier, and since he'll have plenty of time to ride his motorcycles now, we could make the middle tier shaped like a Harley Davidson saddle bag. The cake could be strewn with office supplies, Post-it notes, etc. scrawled with well-wish messages from his staff.
The party planning committee loved the concept, but thought the cake could represent the history of the company, and the products that put them on the map instead. So, we started with a big pharmeceutical tin of compouding powders, onto anti-poisoning remediers, and then onto their latest products, injectables and, yes...don't make me type it again...you know whats.
We added a message on the side of the cake via those edible Post-it Notes that I was pushing for earlier.

We delivered the cake to corporate headquarters, where...we had the most fun! These people were awesome. We had a constant influx of employees coming down to check out the cake set up, and don't let the lab coats fool you, these guys are one hell of a good time!

So, there you have it, two insanely different cakes, but one thing always ties things together...cake makes people happy, not just me, kind of everyone.