Baby Sophia Celebrates Her First Birthday at Roma View

I can't begin to express how happy I was when Jennifer contacted me to create Sophia's first birthday cake. I'm always thrilled when I get a chance to create a cake. But this cake was especially special as it is the third cake I've done for Jennifer and James...the first cake for them being James' groom's cake. James related to me when they were cutting the cake that Jennifer had leaned over to him and said that when they became pregnant she wanted a cake from me. That was the most precious thing I had ever heard!

Well several months later, I received a phone call from James...a clandestine one at that....James wanted to secretly meet with me to order Jennifer's baby shower cake! We knew she loved ducks and gerber daisies and Coach bags....so we designed a Coach diaper bag, with all the goodies that go into a diaper bag and of course....a mama duck with her babies following AND yellow gerber daisies!

Now...here we are a year later, AND....another phone call. This time to order baby Sophia's 1st Birthday cake.

We set up an appointment at Jen's mom and dad's home. It was like a family reunion! And of course, our new addition....Sophia!!! What a happy happy baby! Always smiling! And Cuuuuuuuuuute as a button!!! Together we went through my albums, and then created little Sophia's cake. It originally was to be a 3 tiered cake...but I wanted to surprise them and made it into a 4 tiered cake. The flavors were chocolate blackout cake with cookies and cream filling and the remaining tiers....a moist vanilla cake with Italian Meringue filling with a "schmere" of apricot preserves gently accenting each layer within the tiers. mmmmmmmm!

Baby Sophia's favorite characters are Elmo and his pet fish Dorothy. So I hand-crafted each character out of gumpaste and placed them on the cakeboard to the side of Sophia's name ribbon.
The cupcake on top was made out of krispie treat, and white chocolate modeling plastique and decorated with white fondant and fondant appliques. The cake under the dome of the cupcake was a white sour cream cake.

I can't wait for pics of the party and the cake cutting to arrive. The minute they do, I will post them with a blurb of course!

Before I forget...I want to thank the serving staff at Roma View for their help in getting us set up. They were so very kind and sweet. Why one of the staff, I wish I had asked her name actually helped up maneuver the cake table so that there wasn't a glare from the waterfront. Which by the way is beautiful.

My best wishes to Jennifer and James and their baby girl Sophia. May all their dreams for their little one be fulfilled!

Newest Cakes

Dont know what happened to the images. They are pretty tiny. But I did want to post them as they are so pretty. Pamela called several weeks ago to order these cakes for three birthdays, Neeta - 30, Lachmi 70 and Wellie 81.

These simple yet elegant cakes are both whimsical and classic. The orange diagnol cake with the lace piping was made for Neeta, and the red double banded cake for the two grandmothers.

Each tier was a different flavor, chocolate with strawberry preserves and chocolate brandy ganache, red velvet with a traditional cream cheese filling, yellow butter cake with fresh strawberries and cream, and moist white butter cake filled with pineapple and passion fruit Italian merringue buttercream.

When I arrived at their home in Richmond Hill I could hear exotic Indian music wafting down the driveway. It was hard for me not to start dancing. I so love Indian music. Then the music turned to modern Guianese. This promised to be a rockin party.

Hoping that everyone had a fabulous time. Many happy returns to the celebrants, Neeta, Lachmi and Wellie!

Andrew Zarian Show Appearance

Wow...who would have thought that this "little girl" from Hell's Kitchen would be doing what she's doing now. In the past year, I made an appearance with Sofia Demetriou on the Andrew Zarian Show - Podcast - Guys From Queens Network, where I created a muppetized Andrew for his birthday, filmed a special for Al Roker Productions - on WeTV - Iced With Sylvia Weinstock, where Sofia and I won a coveted 3 day apprenticeship with the Leonardo DaVinci of Cakes, Sylvia Weinstock, and then appeared again on the Andrew Zarian Show on Thursday, July 14th, where we shared with our viewers, the hilarious antics behind the scenes of "Iced". And in between, opened a shop and closed (not due to any fault of our own) and am in the process of re-opening in Port Washington.
Whew....that was a mouthful. Not to mention all of life's everyday events.
Growing up....one thinks of all the possible things one could be when they grow up. One of my dreams was to be a photographer/documentary film maker. Circumstances didn't allow for it to happen. But there was always an indescribable feeling...you know like the feelings you get when you want to do something....you feel like you're going to jump out of your skin.... you just can't
pinpoint what it is...yet you know it's a need to create something....anything? I guess this is where destiny pokes it head and sends you places where you never really think anything out of what you expect to happen....and bam...you're clear! You know exactly what it is you want to do....when you grow up. Well I'm all grown up now physically, on the other side of 50...yikes...and I am following my dream of having a custom cake shoppe....yes....the clarity was "create cakes", appearing on National Television and a Pod Cast! Hmmm...I wonder what else is on the media horizon.
Well...I am living the dream, and for now....this is where I will be....until that little girl inside of me starts wondering again....."What do I want to be when I grow up?"

Thank you Andrew and Jessica for having Sofia and I on your show! I know I for one had a blast...still thinking about those brownies you had. yummmmmm???????????