White Wedding Dessert Table

This past weekend two of my great friends Katie & Derek got married! I was honored when Katie asked me to create a dessert table for her special day. Her vision was to have a small cake, cupcakes and sugar cookies. She wanted to keep things clean and simple, with white being the focal color and a hint of green to accent. I love the Save the Date invites they sent out with the bicycle built for two! Katie and Derek first met a few years ago while training for a triathlon, so this announcement was so fitting for their special occasion.

Keeping with the white theme, I decorated sugar cookies using 3 types of white sprinkles: nonpareils, sugar crystals and pearls.

To add a touch of green I made some "mr. & mrs." cookies especially for the bride and groom.

Of course I had to create a few bicycle cookies to match their Save the Date!

Here are a few other special cookies I made only for the bride and groom so they could enjoy while honeymooning.

Katie's wanted to have a small cake for them to cut, inspired by i am baker's rose cake. I had so much fine trying this decorating technique using tip 1M.

The inside of the cake was yellow with chocolate icing in between the layers...the bride's favorite!

To match the cake, all the cupcakes were decorated with a rose on top. The cupcakes were all carrot cake.

Here's how everything came together on the dessert table. The bride's grandmother also made her signature almond pound cakes with a family recipe. And hiding under the dessert table are all the extra cupcakes and cookies to be refilled throughout the reception!

I just loved Katie's expression when she first saw the dessert table! I am thrilled that she was so happy with how everything turned out!

The look we were going for was similar to Amy Atlas' signature white dessert table.

Time to cut the cake...

Congratulations Katie & Derek! I wish you a lifetime of happiness! Thanks for asking me to be part of your special day!

5 Layers for 5 Years

5 years...wow how the time has flown by. It seems like just yesterday Randolph and I were getting married at the Middleton Place Plantation in Charleston, SC. Our wedding was outside, it was approx 97 degrees and to say it was hot is an understatement. It was HOT, humid & sticky, sweat was pouring and bugs were everywhere...and when I say everywhere I mean in every single layer of my wedding dress. But I wouldn't change a thing about that day. It was at a beautiful venue in our favorite city and we were surrounded by our friends and family and wonderful memories!

Over the past five years so much has changed, but I won't bore you with all the details of my life the last 1825 days! Today we are just going to focus on cake! Ah yes, good old wedding cake, the other love of my life! Who would have thought five years after enjoying my 4 tiered round yellow butter cake with butter cream icing wedding cake (was that enough cake terminology for you in one sentence!) that I would now not only be addicted to indulging in a slice of cake almost daily but also in baking and decorating them too!

I was excited to try a new decorating technique with this cake and just love the end result. Using a Wilton tip #18 I piped on rosettes in rows all the way around. Tip #18 is a star tip so you just start by squeezing out a star and then gently rotate your piping bag while squeezing icing clockwise to 9:00, on to 12:00, then 3:00 then 6:00 and finishing off the circle. Super simple!

And since we are celebrating the big 5 year marker a 3-layer cake just wasn't going to do. 5 years = 5 layers of cake right? I wanted to make us a cake that reminded me of our wedding cake, only not nearly as large. Immediately I thought of Sweetapolita as the perfect place to find an amazingly delicious cake recipe. Afterall, she is the queen of beautifully decorated layer cakes. I made her Yellow Buttermilk Cake and oh my it is delicious, moist and buttery! Since her recipe called for a chocolate fudge icing and I wanted a more traditional buttercream I decided to go with this Marshmallow Buttercream frosting I found on Jessicakes. This icing is light and fluffy and I love the sweetness from the marshmallow cream! These two recipes paired so nicely together and I would highly recommend both of them!

Since our wedding was outside I decided it was only appropriate to take these cake photos outside today, temps in the high 90s, I'm dripping sweat while trying to get the perfect shot, flies are swarming the cake, buttercream is melting...it all makes perfect sense right??? Then my little fly friend landed on the cake for his afternoon sugar fix and I just couldn't resist snapping a photo! Let's just say after this mini and very rushed photo shoot today I have a new found respect for wedding photographers, especially my poor photographers that had to be tormented in the Carolina heat 5 years ago snapping hundreds of pictures for my special day!

And just in case you were trying to envision what my wedding cake looked like from my ramblings above...well wonder no longer I have searched my photos and found a picture of us cutting the cake!

Happy Anniversary R! Looking forward to our road trip this weekend filled with camping and our final destination at the Middleton Place for a few days! Love ya!

Hilary Duff Inspired Wedding Cake

Remember back in October when I posted about being asked to make this wedding cake? Well yesterday was the big day, and I am pleased to say that I successfully made, delivered and assembled the bride's wish for a Hilary Duff inspired wedding cake.

So what do you think of this side by side comparison? Did I pull it off?

Structurally the cakes were both constructed of 3 tiers each being 3-layers with only icing in between each layer. Hilary's cake was a yellow cake while this bride's cake was a carrot cake, which is why the cake appears slightly darker.

The mother of the bride ordered 125 ivory roses and arranged all the flowers in between the tiers as I assembled the cake. I love how she added some green moss to give the cake a more rustic look.

While assembling the cake, Kelly the bride stopped by and I got to snap a quick picture of her with the cake. Isn't she gorgeous! I absolutely LOVE her ivory sweetheart wedding dress with layer after layer of sheer fabric. Simply stunning!

The cake was constructed of a 14" bottom tier, 10" middle tier and 6" top tier.

I must admit I really like the look of this cake with minimal frosting. The simple and natural look really fit perfectly with the entire rustic theme of the wedding.

In addition to the cake, I made some red velvet cupcakes by special request from Kelly as a surprise for her groom Kyle.

Half the cupcakes were made into a giant pull-apart cake shaped like the UNC Tarheel as Kyle is a recent grad.

The remaining cupcakes were placed on wood stumps to fit in with the decor of the day.

As a fun treat on the cupcake table, the mother of the bride found a lawyer's scale at an antique shop and had me make a cupcake representing both the bride and groom's college. The only request was that Kelly's "Georgia" cupcake weigh just a little bit more than Kyle's cupcake, so I added an extra dollop of icing to tip the scale in her favor!

Here's a peak behind the scenes of me piping some extra icing around the perimeter of the cake as it's being assembled.

This cake would not exist without this amazing cake stand. This is a one of a kind, custom made wood stand designed specifically for this cake! As I was doing a trial run with the carrot cake I realized that this was a dense cake and very heavy. I knew the commonly used plastic separator plates and pillars were not going to be enough to support the weight of this cake. Luckily one of my friend's dad does wood working and created this structure for me. Each tier is removable by spinning the wood plate that fits securely into the center pole. I will definitely be using this stand for future cakes and even cupcakes. Thank you Mr. Abreo you are so talented!

Here are a few pictures I took of the wedding and reception location, the Malbis Center in Daphne, AL while onsite assembling the cake. The mother of the bride and bride are two very artistic ladies and they did all of the decorations. I was so impressed with how gorgeous everything turned out.

They happy couple!

Congratulations Kelly & Kyle! I wish you all of the best in your new life together!

Also, special thanks to my amazing friends Katie and Jennifer who drove the "Cake Car" for this HUGE delivery and helped me get things set up! You all are the greatest!