Justin and Krista Part 2

But our bride wasn't done with me yet. A surprise groom's cake was in order as well. You see, the groom travels a lot for his job, is a native Canadian, and proposed to the bride, while in Hawaii, by writing his proposal in the sand. Sounds like a lot to get onto one cake, but when the cake looks like a stack of suitcases, it's hardly enough.

So we added a couple of frosting dog collars and tags peeking out of one of the suitcases to honor the bride's dogs who come along with them quite frequently in their travels. The top tier, let's just make it into a cake shaped like a crate holding another cake shaped, and hand-painted to resemble their favorite champagne. For Canada, we had to honor the great northern tradition of Ketchup chips (don't ask me, just google it)a favorite Canadian delicacy of the groom's. For personal affects, we included frosting replica of the groom's Minnesota Twins ball cap as well as a copy (again, frosting)of his favorite AC DC money clip, complete with frosting canadian money.

Set the whole thing in a base(hand made by my father in law "Magic Phil") filled with brown sugar and white chocolate seashells and you have it! Proposal and all.

Looks like he liked it.

Again, thanks to Olive Juice Studios for the fab shots!

Kristen and Luke

This couple had such a beautiful, tailored event style that when Kristen mentioned her ideas for Luke's surprise grooms cake, I nearly fell off my chair!

Let's start with the invitations. We copied an engraved motif from their Kate Spade cake knife set to create a background graphic for their letterpressed invitations. Keeping with their chocolate brown and ivory color scheme, we dropped the motif behind the text in taupe ink. Once they were in, and stunning, we had to copy the same pattern onto their cake. We had sketched several designs for their cake prior to their invitation appointment (when the cake knife made its first appearance)but once we saw how beautifully the invitations turned out, I just had to offer them a matching cake design.

They loved the new cake design, so we switched over to it resulting in one of my favorite cakes of the year.

Now onto the craziness. Kristin wanted to surprise Luke with a cake in honor of his Alma Mater, so we sketched up a cheese-head shaped cake. As the secret appointment progressed, the cake developed quickly to reflect more about Luke than I ever thought a mere slab of cake/cheese could contain. We added the many sports he enjoys, their two pet cats, and then, the mob of neighborhood kids that seem to follow this poor guy around whenever he's out around their house. Kristen laughed about how Luke can hardly make it to their front door without several kids climbing on him asking him to come out and play.

I'll take it! With my usual caveat, that trying to make realisting people out of frosting can often result in just plain creepiness, I set off to make Luke (widow's peak and all) into a frosting cartoon. The random kids followed. Every time we walked into the shop there was a new face peeking out from the baker's rack at us. It took about two weeks to make all of the varying parts, let them dry, and then royal-icing them together. Needless to say, the day after the Groom's cake went out, I looked over to my favorite baker's rack peanut gallery and was saddened by the empty space. We really miss the gang, but I suppose that's just incentive to do an equally weird groom's cake again soon, if for nothing other than the companionship.

Melissa's Winter Glam

I just love a girl who isn't afraid of a little drama in design. Melissa had the most beautiful sparkling snowflake wonderland wedding reception at the Saint Paul Hotel. We incorporated the pattern from her wedding dress bodice on the top three tiers with one minor alteration, we added delicate little frosting snowflakes to the pattern. To finish off the design, a dramatic cascade of not only sugared, but edible glittered snowflakes.

Melissa and her sister/coordinator were not only fun to work with, but they were one of the most amazing duos of non-professional coordinators I've ever run across. These girls didn't miss a step. From the little added touches in decor, to their handmade invitations, the theme was carried through impeccably. My favorite little touch...the State Fair inspired appetizers. The groom proposed at the Great Minnesota Get Together (which I'm proud say, my own amazing husband has teamed up with me to earn the Blue ribbon in Raspberry Jam) so it only made sense to bring this one touch of summer into this otherwise winter wonderland. Got to admit, those corndogs smelled awesome in the dead of winter!

A snowy delivery day

I love winter weddings! Everything is less stressful for a baker in the winter. Our arch nemeses heat and humidity are on hiatus, and the cakes love it. Plus, there are less weddings per weekend, so we get to take our own sweet time and enjoy decorating the cakes at a relaxing pace. The only trick is when, as in this December and January, it seemed as though there was a snowstorm every Saturday. Okay, I take it back... I only like winter weddings. So, here are two cakes that, though the weather outside was frightful...made it to the reception on time.

Laura and Sandeep had a dreamy winter wonderland reception at the Carlson Rotunda. We met with them earlier in the year, and they really let me play around with unusual elements like using Oval tiers, offset stacked to one side, allowing the snowflakes to flutter asymmetrically down the side of the tiers. The hidden gem on this one, however, was a frosting replica (not to scale by a longshot, he's huge!) of their dog Captain. We gave him a pale blue frosting scarf for the occasion. You have to look closely, but he's there, hiding among the snowflakes on the second tier.

Dori and Andrew had their reception Downtown St. Paul that same snowy night. They were both here for the wedding from London where Andrew is a Grenadier. We just couldn't help ourselves. We had to pitch them frosted Grenadier cookies as favours, and they agreed, they were a must-have.

The cuteness was almost overwhelming, so we balanced it with a cake modelled after Dori's amazing wedding gown. We pleated the fondant and copied the lace and ribbon embroidery from her bodice. The vase on top was frosting, but it could still hold fresh flowers. We just loved the glamour.

Do you have any idea how many calories are in this stuff?

No, I'm not stupid enough to answer that question...and hey, who eats wedding cake everyday anyway? It is a special indulgence that we all allow ourselves in honor of two souls uniting in their mutual journey on this crazy planet we live on. And, while that doesn't happen everyday, no harm in a little slice of Cream Cheese Nirvana or Turtle Cake to celebrate the occasion.

There are, however those of us fortunate few, for whom, that "occasion" is our business, and we are surrounded by the evil-gooey-goodness of wedding cake every day. That explains how, while my friends were all gaining "baby weight" I gained "owning a bakery weight" right along with them. Long story short, I woke up one morning and realized that in 5 years of owning Gateaux Inc. I had put on 40 pounds.

So, convinced that my body had reached its equilibrium, and I couldn't drop the weight, I reluctantly joined Balley's with my husband in December of 2005. They scheduled me a complimentary session with a personal trainer (her name was Sarah, a mere two modest vowels off from Satan) and I began another futile attempt at dropping some weight.

I met Sarah at the gym on a Monday at 9:30. I thought she would show me how to use all of those weight machines that were a mystery to me, and walk me around the gym to get familiar with the facilities. At 9:45, while sitting on the floor of the gym's bathroom trying not to vomit, I realized that I was mistaken. Her job was to show me just how far I had let myself go. Now, a sane person would run away. So what did I do? I hired her for 8 more sessions. I've been working out with Sarah every week since, and she's the best.

She not only showed me how a real workout should feel (I never would have pushed myself as far as she does) but also helped me figure out how to adjust my diet and eating habits to a maintainable level of healthy, without dieting or cutting out any one food. She is responsible for my losing 32 pounds and feeling more fit than I ever have in my life. I was the skinny wimpy kid who couldn't run a mile once a year in gym class without hyperventilating. Now, I can run 3 miles in around 30 minutes.

One of my full-timers hired her to train leading up to her wedding a couple of years ago, and she had similar results, losing 40 pounds. We've both kept the weight off for two years now, and feel great! Take that, triple espresso ganache truffles! Mmm, truffles.

Anyway, why do I bring this up now? No, not to toot my own horn and show off the new cake lady bod. More to pass along this awesome thing to other people who I know would benefit as I did. Sarah has started her own business Real Fitness Solutions. She is now training people at a small club in Minneapolis. You don't need a membership to the club to train with Sarah there, and since she's gone independant, her pricing is an absolute steal! Don't let this one pass you by. If you're intrigued in the least, go to her web site www.realfitnesssolutions.com and contact her. You'll be glad you did. I was.

Mindy and Brad at the Walker

I just love it when a couple lets me run with a theme. Now, these two had anything but a "theme" wedding. They had an amazingly tailored, elegant affair. The reception just happened to be held at the Walker Art Center. Now, I'm not a native Minnesotan, myself, but I have lived in the Twin Cities for 19 years (damn that makes me sound old!) and I take quite a lot of pride in my chosen home. Now, New York has the Chrysler Building, the A Train, the Empire State, and innumerable other icons related to it, Seattle has that Needle-y thing, St. Louis has it's arch (one hell of a claustrophobic ride if you want to get to the top might I add). To me, Minneapolis has the Cherry and the Spoon. And what luck, to have a couple whose reception is right at that location. Even luckier to have a groom, who mentioned that he thought it would be cool to have the cake look like the sculpture.

While the entire cake as the cherry and the spoon was a little over the top for such an elegant affair, the two of them did agree that a miniature sugar version of the sculpture would make an understated, but unique cake topper. I couldn't agree more, so we had a cake topper.

But we also had a design scheme to carry through to the invitations, the Save the Dates, the cocktail napkins, menus, etc. I quickly sketched up a few versions of the Cherry and Spoon for the two of them to consider for the invites, and we landed on a really cool stylized representation to include in all of the stationery elements. Check it out on the tag to their Save the Date cards below.

I'm lucky to have clients who let me play around with stuff like this. Quite often, I have a bride in the shop who says "I just want to have 10 weddings so I don't have to choose just one cake". To which I just have to laugh to my lucky little self and know that I have about three weddings per weekend, thanks to my wonderful clients who are good enough to share them with me.

Damn, These Bitches Can Bake!

If that's how you feel about Gateaux, let your voice be heard. Here's the story...Every year, Minnesota Bride hosts an online vote for the best wedding vendors in Minnesota. Some years we win, but most years we lose out to companies that do much higher volume in wedding cakes. It's one of the few disadvantages to remaining "stubbornly small" in order to offer our brides the best personal service in the business. So, this year, we're asking for your help! If you're a fan of what we do, take a few minutes and go to MN Bride and vote for the Best of 2009. You must vote for at least six of the categories in order for your vote to count, so this gives you the chance to give a nod to your favorite florist, restaurant, hotel, etc. too. The winners are posted in MN Bride's Summer 2009 edition. It's a great PR thing for our little cake shop, so if you enjoy peeking at our work on the blog, we'd love your support!