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...