Navy & Pink Wedding Sweets

Earlier this month my good friend Molly got married. My obsession for baking and cake decorating all started a few years ago after Molly and I took our first Wilton Cake Decorating class together! Since then I've enjoyed developing new recipes and trying new decorating techniques. For Molly's wedding shower I created some fondant monogram cupcake toppers in her wedding colors of pink & navy to showcase her soon to be new last name "Spain".

Molly had asked me soon after she became engaged if I would make her wedding cake and cupcakes for her special day since she knew how much I enjoyed baking. After thinking long and hard about taking on this huge commitment, I had to turn her down though. The reason being b/c by the time her wedding rolled around I would be 37-weeks pregnant and not sure of how I would feel baking and decorating. Or would the little one make an early arrival and leave me in the hospital in labor during the weekend of her wedding...what a nightmare that would have been! So instead of baking I told Molly I would help with decorating her wedding sweets!

Molly came up with the idea of cupcake flags to top her cupcakes, so I found some fun pink & navy paper stock and she supplied 10 different words and phrases that she wanted included on the flags.

I made 100 cupcake flags to embellish their wedding cupcakes.

In addition to the flags Molly wanted me to add some navy fondant petals around the tiers of her wedding cake. She had a local bakery in Mobile bake her wedding cake and then I added the finishing touches. I was a little nervous about doing this at first, after arriving to the reception location and seeing a beautifully decorated white wedding cake standing tall, was afraid to touch it. I made sure with Molly's mom and sister-in-law before I started adding the fondant petals that Molly really wanted me to add these decorations. I have never added decorations to a cake that someone else baked before so I was a little worried I would mess something up.

The petals turned out fine though, just like the picture Molly had supplied for me to reference. And lucky for me, I got to see a sneak peak of the bride before the ceremony while I was there decorating!

Here's a picture of me with my 37 week pregnant belly and the beautiful bride to be, Molly!

Congratulations Molly & Keith! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness!

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!

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!