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Hi All, 

Our blog has moved! Click here to see the newest posts at http://www.superfinebakery.com/blog.


Thank you,

Andrea @ Superfine

Campanile Cakes

Campanile, one of L.A.'s top restaurants, is housed in a historic building constructed in 1929 for the one and only Charlie Chaplin. Owned and operated by a Who's Who of chefs, it also happened to be the site of today's Superfine wedding.

Simple and clean was the order of the day. Our bride, Hillary, ordered a white stacked cake with flowing sugar ribbons, and asked for sugar sweet peas and sugar hydrangea to match the other flowers in the room. Hillary also wanted a straight-up chocolate cake for the kids (although a few adults came over during set up to request a piece!).

The cakes we design for children tend to be on the cleaner, more sophisticated side (sorry, no Elmo cakes here :). This one's no exception: We made a smooth chocolate ganache surface to cover the Black Onyx chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream inside, and popped a small cluster of sugar hydrangea on the top to coordinate it with the main cake.

 

The main white cake was a stack of Red Velvet, Carrot Cake, and Vanilla with Three-Berry icing (the bride's favorite). When I do sugar straps or ribbons like these on a cake, I don't like to leave the back plain: Two straight ends that simply meet at a seam. So I usually take the opportunity to add secret detail that somehow enhances and reflects the mood of the cake and the event.

This white cake had loose flowing ribbons around it, so I ended them with a slant cut and rippled them like loose ribbon ends. I added small sugar buttons as a closure and varied the heights of the ribbons to add some visual interest.

Congrats to Hillary and Manuello, and all the best!

Cakes Fit for a Queen (Mary)

Imagine a large passenger ship something on the scale of the Titanic, but more Art Deco than victorian inside. "Waterfall" style built-in woodwork (rounded corners and edges), high ceilings, and copper and brass details to finish off the look.

click for larger view

This is the interior of the Royal Salon aboard the Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach Harbor since 1967. It's also the setting for this week's wedding cake table designed for Margie and Morgen, two architects from New York.

The Royal Salon has a lovely built-in buffet with a copper back and half-moon shape across the front. It served as the perfect space for the six cake set up Margie requested: All in vintage style, made with buttercream but for one. The center cutting cake (pictured at left) would be decorated with fondant tiers and delicate ruffles.

Margie had little ribbon flags made with various ribbons in her colors, seafoam and coral, and sent them to me to insert in the tops of the cakes. For her central cake, she had a very special paper flag made: It's been calligraphed with "Margie & Morgen." (click the picture for a closer view).

The flavor for this one was a fresh almond cake layered with Pistachio icing. An upscale and beautiful choice for Margie and Morgen to feed eachother for pictures.

Alongside the main ruffle cake is a version of the currently popular Frill cake, seen just to the left and back a little. I first saw this design in Martha Stewart, and it's beautiful done in vintage pastels like yellow or pink, or white as in this photo (the dark room makes it look a tad yellow, but all cakes were white :)

This one was a carrot cake, a flavor popular with guests young and old.

Under a glass cloche, a round buttercream cake decorated with simple coral sugar buttons is elevated from just a cake to a precious object. Fun to make and sweet to look at, this cake was a sweet lemon cake (flavored only with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest), iced with vanilla bean icing.

Below you'll see that on the far right end of the buffet we placed a cake covered top to bottom with sweet buttercream rosettes, and situated it next to the cake that, around the bakery, came to be known as the "Tiki Hut." Vertical fluting on the sides and top angle of the Tiki Hut cake created a great structural statement among the softer cakes surrounding it, and placing it under a second cloche added balance to the larger one over the button cake. The rose cake was our Pink Velvet iced with Three-berry icing, and the Tiki Hut was a small carrot cake, the bride and groom's favorite flavor.

Last, but not least, is our sixth cake below, a sweet stack of lemon cake and vanilla bean icing featuring simple Swiss dots on the bottom tier. As any cake-maker will tell you, Swiss dots appear simple and easy, but in fact take a lot of measuring and a steady hand. The eye seeks order, and if one dot is even 1/4 inch off its mark, the pattern appears off and the effect is ruined. And this table is not about odd patterns: It's about order and grace. The beauty of math.

Adorable calligraphy and intricate letterpress of the main flag by Betsy Dunlap and Blackbird Letterpress, respectively. The flowers were done by Rebecca of Holly Flora who had beautiful dahlias, roses and more to dress the bases of the cake stands as well as the whole room. Thanks Rebecca, for the gorgeous finishing touches to the cake table, and to Margie and Morgen: Congratulations!!

La Dolce Vita

Greg and I took a little vacation from our lives early this month, and got to know Rome, Florence and eachother again. Hot days were spent walking cobblestone streets, seeking out the best food and most interesting people we could find. Above is a shot of cocco (coconut) and limone (lemon) gelato, taken outside the reputed best gelato place in Rome, Giolitti.

Streets in Italy criss cross, meet at odd angles, and there's something beautiful and interesting around every corner. Avoid anyplace selling pizza. It's good, but it's the mark of an overpriced tourist restaurant that likely also serves packaged pasta. That's not what we were looking for.

I'm a fan of gnocchi, so I ordered it in two different places there on the first two nights. Both were packaged. :| I was expecting something fresh, made that morning. I've been spoiled by the restaurants here in LA like Mario Batali's Osteria Mozza and Fabio Viviani's Osteria Firenze, both of whom specialize in fresh, homemade amazingness straight from the heart of Italy. Greg and I are fast learners though, so we spent Night #3 hunting the real deal.

At home one of our favorite ways to eat is tapas style. Grazing. Meats, cheeses, cornichons, olives, apples, dried apricots, cashews, marcona almonds -- whatever is in the cabinet and fridge. So one night in Florence we were delighted to spy a small brick cellar-like shop down thre stairs, below a large building. The door was open, the lights were on, and I could see the edge of a well-lit glass case that looked like it had some goodies in it. Two older Italian men in suits were having an animated conversation over aperatifs with the owner behind the counter, and I was a little shy to intrude on what was clearly a local, private evening ritual. But I wanted some of that cheese. And some slices off the salami up high on a shelf behind the counter. So I walked in, and began a conversation in my broken Italian, to ask for some goodies.

The owner spoke little English, but as soon as I said the word "picnic," he knew exactly what I was doing. He never asked for amounts, just cut off enough cheese, salami, and buttery prosciutto for two, held up two breads for me to choose from, and let me point at the dishes of roasted peppers, olives, pickled anchovy (Greg loves the stuff -- me, not so much), and packed it up for us. While I spoke to the owner Greg browsed the floor-to-ceiling wine racks behind us and picked out a nice bottle of something for us to share. We paid, took the goodies back to our room, and had our first great, authentic meal of the trip.

After our dinner we wandered out for sweets. There's no lack of goodies in Italy, and the people are so kind and helpful, you can make your vacation what ever you like.

No trip to Italy is complete without a visit to the Holy Land: Parma. Home of the best prosciutto in the world, we paid homage with a trip to the Prosciutto Museum there where we could learn about the happy piggies, the tradition of prosciutto making, and see some of the old tools and racks used since 1920. We were the only ones in there. I'd like to think it's because we're big LA celebs and they cleared the place out for us, but ah, I think it's just 'cause no one else was interested. Ahem. Moving on...

We had the best meal of the trip on top of our last hotel, the Raphael in Rome. The rooftop restaurant serves four-star cuisine in an idyllic setting overlooking the rooftops and churches throughout Rome. With a light warm breeze and a big waxing moon hanging in the darkening sky, it was a great place to finish the trip.

If you're planning a trip there anytime soon, here are a few resources to get you started. If you're heading back next August, we'll see you there ;) :

Recommendations in Rome (Roma):

Gelato: Giolitti
Via degli Uffici del Vicario, 40
Open daily 7:00 - 2:00 a.m.
Advice: Pay at the cashier booth in the front FIRST, then get in line to order your gelato.

Hotel: Raphael
Largo Febo 2, Piazza Navona
Make reservations to eat on the rooftop. Ask for Clive who has been managing the restaurant for 12 years.

Restaurant: See Hotel Raphael's Restaurant.

Recommendations in Florence (Firenze):

Hotel: Palazzo Vecchietti
Via degli Strozzi 4
Only 12 rooms, this place provides the ultimate in service, peace, and lovely communal morning breakfasts.

Restaurants: Osteria Belle Donne
Via delle Belle Donne 16
Casual atmosphere with outstanding food, have Jacinto (Ja-shinto) recommend your wines.

For Grazers, hit up our little cellar find:
No idea what the name is, but it's on Via Parione, across the street and up the same block a little from the restaurant Trattoria I' Parione.

Happy Anniversary, Babe

Four years ago I married the coolest, hottest, kindest, smartest, and tallest guy I could find. Greg, my 6'6" church camp counselor, pre-law student, Japanese speaker, scuba instructor, Ivy League digital product guru, I love you. Thank you for this amazing life we have together. You're the Captain of my heart. :)

Carondelet House is Superfine

"Andrea, do you realize how long it's been since you've done a post? I've been looking at these last two on flowers for about a month now. Show me the cake!"

Yes, I know. I've been neglectful! But I do have something pretty to show you (albeit, not a cake this time around):

Carondelet House entrance and its amazing painted, vaulted ceilings.

It's Carondelet House. For those of you from Los Angeles, you have likely heard of the in-demand venue spaces called the Smog Shoppe and Marvimon. These locations specialize in featuring recyclable materials and eco-friendly plantings to enhance the open plans at both locations for maximum beauty, modernity, and hip factor. The latest addition to this family of locations is The Carondelet, so named for the street address, 627 Carondelet St.

Main room, set for dining.

When I first saw the property, it was for delivery of a large wedding cake for a photoshoot styled by Amber Gustafson of Amber Events. A few weeks prior I'd met the catering manager of Tres LA Catering who happens to manage the company out of the second floor of The Carondelet and was happy to reconnect with her at the shoot.

Cozy alcove complete with fireplace and club chairs.

We set up time to do a tasting and spent an afternoon tasting cake and talking about the importance of fresh ingredients, responsive client service, and a hot pair of high heels er, beautiful visual design. Ahem. Yes. Anyway, that meeting went well and I am very pleased to announce that Superfine is now a Preferred Vendor at the Carondelet House. It's a very exciting honor for us, and we look forward to a long and happy relationship with Melissa, Steven, and the rest of the impeccable crew at Tres LA and The Carondelet.

Sugar Flower Research: Descanso, Day 2

Continuing our last post on sugar flower research, here are some lovely shots of the flowers in bloom up at Descanso Gardens. Enjoy!

Stunning roses are in bloom at Descanso Gardens making it the perfect place to snap pictures of exotic models for sugar flower-making. Check out what we captured on our trip there last week!

Descanso is divided into several gardens, all with one genus of flower in it: Lilacs, roses, irises and so on. Here is a shot of a bearded iris, and a rarely-seen-in-these-parts blooming dogwood:

Sugar Flower Research: Descanso Garden Lilacs

An unusual variety of bright purple lilac with white-edged blooms.

I didn't grow up with lilacs. My childhood sense-memory of these beauties was trained by cheap lilac soaps from the local grocery store and perfumes from Avon. So on my visit to Descanso Gardens in Montrose yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the beauty and variations on the looks and scents of these April/May stunners.

Click for a larger image of this blue-purple beauty.

Looking up through a deep purple lilac tree.

I think these deep purple lilacs mixed with the pale lavender ones at the end of this post are my favorite look. Contrast of two or more colors, even if they're close to each other, seems to energize the whole look of an arrangement or cake for me. That also applies to flavors -- I wouldn't do a chocolate cake with chocolate icing: Your palate will numb to the flavor too fast. Instead, contrast it with mint, coffee, orange, raspberry, or something light like vanilla.

There were so many varieties of lilacs that I wanted to capture some of the most striking and unusual. This lilac is bright pink, and features uncharacteristically tiny flowers (usually each bloom is about the size of a nickel -- these are the size of a pencil eraser).

A cascade of pale lavender lilacs.

Today the focus was lilacs. In my next post we'll have the rest of the flowers: Poppies (the opium variety with extraordinary blossoms), tulips, bearded irises in impossible colors, and more. There is just too much beauty to post it all here. I need to give you a breather.

Have a great weekend!

Kat and Oliver at the Smog Shoppe

It looks so simple, doesn't it? It's white, no sugar decor, no fancy shapes, just squares. Slam dunk, right? Wrong.

Any caker will tell you that an all-white cake with no decor is likely the hardest cake to make. All flaws show. Especially on a square cake like this, if something is just 91* instead of a perfectly straight 90*, it will be obvious. The eye loves order, organization, straight lines. So when Kat and Oliver asked me to do a 'simple' buttercream stack of squares, the technical challenge got me.

Added to all the challenges of the mathematics and the steady hands needed to achieve them (no caffeine or alcohol 24 hours before final coating), this cake's interior was chocolate cake. Not just any chocolate -- our *black onyx* chocolate cake. That means not a single black crumb could exit the interior during buttercreaming. One small speck in this clean exterior and the effect would be ruined.

How did I do it? A strong crumb coat, and 20 minutes spent cleaning the board and surrounding area of any crumbs before final coat. Yes, I kept a needle pinned to my jacket pocket to pick out the one or two stray crumbs that escaped into the buttercream, so their 15 minutes of fame turned to five seconds as soon as they were discovered.

I do two kinds of exteriors on buttercreamed cakes: Rustic and Glass. Just like the names indicate, one is a little rougher (as on this cake) and looks more like food. Rustic-style is my favorite, and it worked for Kat because, being a chef herself, her top priority was the flavor and food-like nature of the cake. It had to smell, look, and taste right. Like food. Not a dress, not a showpiece -- food. I share her passion for her love of the ingredient, so I did the rustic style for her and Oliver. Sometimes the formality of a design demands the more smoothe Glass finish. I'll show you that one in a later post.

Many cakers are leary of florists. After an experience or two with florists that literally molest the cake with flowers, ruining the finish with nicks and dents and occasionally holes, I get it. But on this cake I worked with the fabulously talented Gilly and team at Gilly Flowers in Los Feliz (Sunset Junction). Not only is he gracious and kind, but he is careful and has exactly the same design sensibilty driven by shapes and the deep, subtle drama found in form that I have. He's the only florist I feel I can set up the cake, tell him it's ready, then just walk away -- I trust him that much.

I've got more cakes on the horizon: One 40s style with a sugar brooch, a lovely cake featuring a sugar creeping fig growing up the side, and a lovely coral-and-lace number in May. More to come...

Superfine at Unveiled, Beverly Hills

Two weeks ago we were honored to be asked to be a part of Unveiled: The Bridal Event held in Canon Gardens, just next to the Montage Beverly Hills. This outdoor couture event was a fantastic way to see the best of what Southern California vendors have to offer discerning brides.

Superfine contributed the above Mocha cake trio, featuring three shades and flavors of fondant -- right to left, we have a chocolate fondant, white chocolate, followed by mocha fondant on the far right. Each cake features a variety of styles of sugar "fabric" flowers, gold buttons, and a couple of ribbons featuring secret love notes taken directly from the actual notes of the bride and groom that inspired this trio.

The note on the smallest cake (above) says "I'll love you forever." If you look closely at the chocolate cake, you'll see a little ribbon on the ledge. That one says "You're the bomb, babe." Secret notes like this help personalize a cake the way nothing else can.

Presented along with our cake was a tasting-cake version of our Opera cake. Each slice was made with almond cake stacked with French mocha buttercream, then iced with chocolate ganache and topped with a thin sheet of 23-karat gold.

I wound the show down with friends and champagne on the adjacent Bouchon patio where we could watch the crowd mill about as the sun set. Some high points of the day included seeing friends at 100 Layer Cake, Green Wedding Shoes, Bouchon Bakery, the Montage (met and chatted with Richard Ruskell, current contestant and all-around upstanding chef at the Montage currently competing on Last Cake Standing for Food Network), and Margaret Rowe Couture Vintage Jewelry.

It was a great day and finishing it off with Kristeen LaBrot and Krista Mason was the perfect ending. Can't wait for the next one!

Black and White Ruffles

Black and white ruffles were the order of the day when I got together with a group of amazing professionals in an 11th floor downtown Los Angeles loft in early March. We came together to do a really fun photoshoot inspired by the latest trends in ruffles, and accordingly I made the ombre ruffle cake above. 

The decision whether or not to use a black or white sugar peony on this cake was a tough one. We were looking to show a little edginess in this shoot, the contrast between light and dark, and I decided to make the flower a little darker to contrast with the soft ruffle effect on the exterior.

Hanging above the cake is a set of paper poms from Prost to the Host, and our very cool linens came from Wildflower Linen. Kristeen LaBrot of Kristeen LaBrot Events designed the shoot, and the artful photos were shot by fellow Studio City resident, Krista Mason.

We are honored to see this shoot featured  on Grey Likes Weddings! Take a look and see more of the great work done by all the professionals. Our models' hair and makeup was done by Susie Chhuor for Sunny LA., and the dramatic white floral designs were put together by Enchanted Garden Designs. 

Sugar Flower Bootcamp with Ron Ben-Israel

Ron and his Jade Rose

Several years ago I saw a chef on the Martha Stewart show. He was confident, in command of the segment, and had a clear vision of right and wrong when it came to cakes and their decor, including sugar flowers. I read posts about him, watched his videos on YouTube, and as Facebook and Twitter became part of our daily lives, followed him on both.

I learned a lot via observation and practice in my own flower-making. At culinary school I was lucky enough to study sugar flowers and cakes under one of his good friends, Alicia Boada, who taught us his methods. I came close to being able to replicate every fold and shading technique, but couldn't quite capture the art I saw in his work.

That chef is Ron Ben-Israel, arguably the best sugar-flower expert in the US, and this past weekend I had the opportunity to spend three intensive days under his tutelage learning the intricate steps to produce flowers like he does.

I arrived around midnight the night before our first 9:00 a.m. class began. When I walked out of the hotel in the morning, I saw my first awe-inspiring Live Oaks each hanging with long, light tresses of Spanish Moss. Beautiful. I walked the two blocks under these trees to the class, hosted at Minette Rushing's Custom Cakes in Savannah, GA. There were 20 of us RBI groupies, each excited to be there and get started. I had been circling his Facebook page like a shark...waiting for the next class to be offered. It turns out, so was Clay from New York, Laura from Italy via Montana, and Tina -- she flew about 23 hours from Australia just to study.

An orange grouping of peonies and callas.

We learned how to make several complicated flowers, most petal-by-petal: The peony, rose, and tulip. The sweet pea, calla lily, hydrangea and filler leaves. Enough learning was packed into three days to be able to apply the techniques to just about any flower, so even though we may not have done the dahlia or snap dragon, I think I could safely reproduce them without embarassing myself.

Superfine Sweet Peas

I was really compelled to push myself by Ron's perfectionism. My sense of order and pattern drives me to have everything level, square, and clean, but Ron's keen eye for detail could see nature in every fold. He has a natural muscle and sense-memory for exactly how a sweet pea's outer petal should move. An innate feel for for the curl and color of the aging edge of a rose petal. Does nature introduce cracks into a petal? Strange paper-like folds at the base of a lily? No. So fix it. Do it better. Try.

Sure it came at a cost. Studying with the best in the nation means you'll be shelling out for the class, hotel, air fare and maybe some tools. Dealing with jet lag, sore hands, and the occasional admonition from the Sensei. But learning to see the fine details through his eyes was worth it. And the friends I made created a nice tight community of flower makers, any of which I feel like I could call on for input. Big hugs and shout outs to all of you and above all, many thanks to Minette and Ron!

Now, for your viewing pleasure, a cute shot of Ron dancing with Minette, all in the name of teaching, of course... :)

Ron and Minette demonstrating the way the spiral on a rosebud is made.

...Off to See the Wizard...

This Thursday I'll be flying to Savannah, GA to meet a man I've wanted to meet for some time now: Ron Ben-Israel. He is known in the cake world and NYC event scene as a premiere cake maker and sugar flower sculptor, and backs up that reputation with a constant stream of amazing cakes, appearances in fashion magazines, and on the arm of Martha Stewart at so many industry shindigs.

Ron trained as a ballet dancer early in his life, but soon realized that it's not a career you can easily continue into your mid- and later-life. He's a natural artist, and decided to hone his sculpting and baking skills by training with the best teachers he could find. After educating himself, he spent years innovating his own style of flower making and building his cake atelier business in SoHo, NYC.

We'll spend three days together at Minette Rushing's Custom Cakes location in Savannah while he teaches us the intricacies of making sweet peas, gardenias, roses, peonies, and more. I'm thrilled to be going, and can't wait to start adding these flowers to future cakes!

If you'd like to see Ron in action, take a look at this great interview I found of him on YouTube:

Can't wait to see you, Ron and Minette!

Cake Table Love

I love doing cake tables. Most brides come to me with ideas for lovely, modern stacked cakes which make up about 80% of my work, but then there are the brides who prefer something more deconstructed and playful, like a table full of cakes in related but different styles. This set was created for an NYC bride getting married in Los Angeles in August (click for a more detailed picture):

She sent me a couple of inspiration photos, her save-the-dates and invitations, a link to her wedding website, and more. All that collateral material around the event helped me visualize the sense she was going for, and I came up with many cakes in different styles for her to choose from. She chose seven of the 10 above -- can you guess which ones?

I have another bride coming up in April who wanted a slightly more formal set of five, coordinated by color and shape:

My love of architecture frequently fuels at least one design element in my sketches, and the gold sugar bands in the set above were directly inspired by my photographs of the gold crown moulding taken during a walk-through of the venue, Castle Green in Pasadena. The sugar moulding will be replicated with various tools and molds then painted with 24K gold to get just the right look.

Thought the mouldings vary from room to room, these can be seen in the room that will actually hold the cake set, so the cake will look right at home.

I've also got a few trios on the books, but will save those for another post (maybe with the finished product?)

Oh, one last thing: A big shout out and thank you to Joy Cho of the Oh Joy! design blog for featuring us last week! She and her blog have appeared in Lucky, Forbes, Time and more for her design expertise. Known as the hipper Martha Stewart, Joy reigns supreme in the design blogosphere. Thanks so much, Joy!

Have a great week everyone!