Magazines, Menus, Cakes and Clients: Part Two

If you've been following me on Facebook or Twitter, you've likely seen this cake trio before. It's a set I created earlier this year as a companion piece to the gorgeous Viceroy invitation suite by Paper Olive.

I'm kicking off this post with the trio because I wanted to talk a little more about how it was made, and announce that it was chosen to appear in Brides Southern California magazine in January. Another lovely surprise that came via an email request for images from the editors.

Trios are popular these days -- coincidentally I'm making another trio this weekend for bride Kim which will have lace accents and gold bands. I think the popularity of this more deconstructed style of wedding cake is coming from both cakers and brides. It stems from a desire to create more visual interest and modernize the cake presentation. Brides are thinking more and more about the cake as a "destination" at the reception, like the bar and dancefloor. A trio is something new and different for people to look at and get excited about eating later in the night.

This trio almost didn't happen. When I got to the photo studio I was unhappy with a couple of aspects of it, and thought I'd just shoot the center cake. Then I thought, Eh, just shoot it. And bingo, the magic that happens at Andrea Bricco Photography took place. Et Voila, the trio was shot.

One of Bricco's photography friends, Steph Fowler, saw my cakes and asked me to make one for a Midsummer Night's Dream engagement shoot she was working on. I told her I could make a small cake with lots of detail, if that would work -- here's the result (shot by me, not her -- she's much better):

Sometimes I have cakes completely sketched out before I start decorating. Other times, I have a rough idea about how I want it to look, but let the cake dictate how it will look finished. This was one of those times when I knew I wanted lavender, something green on the sides, and dragonflies. That was it. 

The day before I began on the cake, I sculpted the dragonflies out of gum paste and attached wafer paper wings. Fun stuff, wafer paper. I've just started experimenting with it and see a lot of possibilities.

The cake started with pale lavender fondant, then I airbrushed some violet areas and let that dry. Then over the whole cake I added silvery shimmer (very difficult to capture that on camera, but it shimmers in the light with a fine silver mist). I added grass blades and leaves to the side, then shaded most of them with edible green petal dust. I popped on a few stephanotis flowers, and added tiny silver dots between the grass blades and to the top to give an effect of fireflies in the distance or nighttime stars. 

The stand it sits on is by the fabulous Lisa Marie at Orange and Blossom. Her High Tea for Alice line of vintage European china tea stands and cake stands was featured on Preston Bailey's Entertaining Blog, and I've loved them since I first saw them there.

At this point in the post, you may have noticed that I addressed everything in the title except the "Menus" part. I included that because I very much want to focus Superfine on doing fine cakes, and am leaving behind the cupcakes and confections piece. 

"But Andrea, cupcakes are so popular!" 

That's true, I still get requests for them and likely always will. Thing is, I currently charge $3-5 for a cupcake (depending on decor) and would have to charge $7 each to make them work with the Bottom Line. In my opinion, with all the great cupcake shops around like Crumbs that charge less and make a great product, I decided I'd leave the cupcakes to the cupcake shops. Of course, if you've had a Superfine cupcake before and want them again, ring me. If I can accomodate you, I will.

"Um, Andrea? You also mentioned you were dropping the confections piece. Is that like the truffles, cookies, macarons and stuff? By the way, it still says '...and confections' in your header."

Yeah, I gotta change that. I'll update the header soon, but yes, it means I won't be producing confections on a for-order basis anymore. I still love to make them when I have down time and want to make something special for a friend's party, but as the menu goes, they're going the way of the Dodo. Cakes are my passion and are the core of my order base. Not to mention I'm really looking forward to a more cake-centric practice, one that lets me dive in to all the new techniques and technology of cake-making. I have a list of 18 cake ideas waiting in the wings (no kidding). I'll be starting on that list in January.

Whew! Another long-ish blog post. More to come...have a great day!