Sunday, May 30, 2010

Vintage Suitcase for Bill Griffeth - Bye-Bye Bill - CNBC.com


Bye-Bye Bill - CNBC.com

The most memorable cake I have made in my cake decorating career was for Bill Griffeth at CNBC's Power Lunch. You can click on the link to see the actual footage of the cake when it was aired on the show.

I was told I had three hours to decorate the cake and make it look like a vintage suitcase. It was going to be filmed for the show and it had to be perfect. Okay, no pressure. The pastry chef presented me with the basic shape of the suitcase. It was covered with a chocolate fondant that had been slightly lightened. I distressed the fondant with cocoa powder, made the handle and straps and went on with the detail work. I used lemon extract and edible silver dust to give the buckle and locks their shine. The stickers were applied and there it was! When I look back at this cake I have fond memories of watching it being presented and cut on CNBC and having my family and friends call to say they saw it. It was a day I won't soon forget.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Cupcakes


Cupcakes are still the trend and I have to say Tom makes the best tasting cupcakes I have ever had. Along with our cake orders we filled an order for 100 mini cupcakes and according to our client the cupcakes had to "make an impression." The cupcakes were to be served at an intimate fundraiser and they needed to be extraordinary. They were! As you can see from the picture their were 6 kinds. Red Velvet, Carrot, Black & White, Oreo Cookie, Chocolate Chocolate and Chocolate Mint. The cupcakes were decorated with tiny sugar flowers, some were iced with buttercream or chocolate ganache. Some were dipped in warm ganache to give them a smooth finish and the Black and White were dipped twice to give them the traditional Black and White cookie look. Each cupcake was filled with creamcheese, chocolate mint or chocolate so each bite was absolutely delicious. What satisfaction we felt after we received a call telling us that the "cupcakes were noticed" and that they tasted as wonderful as they looked. My thanks to our wonderful mentor and caterer Georgio for the time he took to take beautiful photographs of the cupcakes.