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???????????

Buttercream vs Fondant - And the Controversy Continues

I have to say...I've never heard so much controversy over buttercream vs. fondant as I have in the past couple of months since our television special "Iced With Sylvia Weinstock". Sylvia...I continue to bow to you. You are the Leonardo DaVinci and Queen Mother of Cake Decorating.

I'm sure this debate has been going on for years and I'm sure the arguments have been heated, but you know what they say...you're never really aware of some things until you are experiencing the events or witnessing up close and personally.

Nothing really beats a smooth, light and silky buttercream as far as taste is concerned, and if applied perfectly...I mean totally smooth....no pockmarks, no swirls...(not getting it perfect is enough to make a grown woman cry!) I mean ice smooth...buttercream is the way to go. It's natural - no preservatives - the real deal. And... if you happen to leave a pockmark behind or two...you can...indeed start all over or in a last ditch recovery...if aesthetically beautiful and part of your overall design concept... you can camouflage it with beautiful flowers, or elegant buttercream piping. Not that that should be your fallback. It should be as perfect as perfect can be...and it better taste amazing.

On the other hand...fondant...allows for that beautiful porcelain look that so many people like...including myself. And...fondant allows for easier manipulation, maneuvering and certain decorating elements you simply can not do with buttercream. (Believe me...after almost dropping the buttercream cake on the show, and creating an indentation on one of the tiers...(I forgot to put my center dowel in! Duh!!! I know!) Do you remember on one of the episodes of Cake Boss when Cousin Anthony dropped the Sweet Sixteen Cake down the stairs...and all of us decorators were screaming at the television...yes you know who you are....where is your center dowel!!! And we all thought it was a set up...Well...my dears....crap like that does happen on reality t.v. I know....You do forget when under pressure!)
But I digress...Back to buttercream and fondant.
Of course...in order to have a perfectly smooth fondant covering, you must have a smooth buttercream foundation. So it does pay to practice practice practice getting that foundation right. It doesn't have to be ice-smooth...after all... Buddy V. "dirty ices" and Toba Garrett spackles.... but they get it smooth, or you will get those dreaded bulges and bumps...Not a very attractive!!!

In order to keep it natural, the best way to go is to make your own. That way you are insured of a pure product. However, when you are in business, and are working pretty much alone, and you have several cakes to do per week and all of the customers are asking for rolled fondant icing, the pre-made commercial stuff is the way to go especially in the summer. And some of them do taste pretty good. I have my favorite. Each cake...needs a minimum of 1 1/2 pounds of fondant...and that's for a 6" cake....Can you imagine the time it would take to make say...7 pounds of fondant for a three tiered cake times three or four or more cakes? Yes...it would be ideal...but honey....if I wanted an upper arm workout I'd go to the gym. It's enough rolling out the stuff. (I don't have a sheeter!)

Each of the icing mediums requires a certain skill set. (Some of us are better at one or the other or the multi-talented...both.) The basic skill to attain is the proper application of buttercream. It is the mother of all skills to master. You might screw up a bit...God knows I have...and believe me...it's really humbling when you've done this on national television, but in the end...with perseverance...and patience, and a love and passion for what you are doing...your end product does come out pretty nice. (Well...at least that's what people tell me about my work.)

The same goes for when you are working with fondant. I've seen some pretty bad fondant jobs. Yah...I'm pretty critical now, (I go to events and affairs and the first thing I do is check out the cake!) after 5 years of paying my fondant dues! Kerry Vincent would come at you like no tomorrow too ! Even though I haven't reached her level yet, I hope to soon. (Remember what I said before? Practice Practice Practice?) You don't just slap fondant on a cake. I'll never forget the first time I worked with it when I went to cake decorating school in London. I was sooo nervous about it....and afraid of being embarrassed in front of the masters of cake decorating there. Seriously, these people were the big guns...the likes of Tombi Peck, Anne Skip, Alan Dunn, Maisee Parish, Debbie Brown were enough to make you wish you were born with a decorating certificate attached to your pinkie toe.) Yet...after the first fiasco, elephant skin....tearing....cracking....thick on one side...too thin on the other...jagged edges....I soon learned how to create a PERFECTLY smooth foundation for my decorating projects.

So, at this point...you're probably wondering...does she like decorating with buttercream icing over fondant icing? I will let you know after I've challenged myself to create the biggest most glorious cake of my career...I'm talking huge....at least 5 feet tall....in buttercream and gumpaste flowers and then one in fondant and gumpaste flowers. If you don't hear from me after I've completed this project...it means that I've collapsed in a corner of my workshop covered in....buttercream or fondant.

50th Wedding Anniversary Cupcake Tower

I created this mini-cake tower for a 50th Anniversary celebration. The symbolism behind the cake was very interesting. The celebratory couple have three children all of whom live in different parts of the country...thus the butterflies...representing them. On either end of the mini-butterfly cakes, there were chocolate silhouettes of each of the grandchildren.

It was a sweet concept and I had a lovely time planning this tower of mini's with my client.

Congratulations!

Pink Hydrangea Christening Cake

This lovely cake was for a christening held in May of this year. The pink hydrangeas were all completely handcrafted and placed on the cake to give the appearance of petals gently falling down the side of the cake. The piping you see on the bottom and top tiers was freehand.

I remember reading one of my favorite cake design books in a chapter that discussed piping.

I find that when in a very quiet room....and allowing oneself to get into the "zone" the piping flows freely.

I've tried several times to "copy" someone else's patterns...yet found it extremely difficult to do. But, when I gave myself permission to go with the flow...and to allow my imagination to go free...I was pleased with the work and the process.

This cake was a vanilla buttercake filled with fresh strawberries and strawberry puree and whipped cream. It was so hard not taking a slice out of it. Yummy.

Recent Cakes - Yanni's and Lambraki's Birthday Cakes

Here are Yanni's and Lambraki's Cupcake Towers for their birthday party held at Lucky Strike in New York City. Yanni wanted Super Why and we created a Candyland Cake for Lambraki. Yanni turned 4 and Lambraki turned 1.

There was a lot of pressure with the Super Why cake for Yanni. Why? You ask?

Because Yanni is a Super Why afficionado...There was absolutely no playing around with the image of this character! Either it is....or it isn't! So....to make absolutely - 100% sure it was....I created a 2-D representation of Super Why on sugar paper and tranferred it to pastillage.

On the other hand...Lambraki's was easier. I knew Candyland!!! But to make sure, I got the colors and the little marshmallow king right I went out and bought the game.

Nah....I bought it because I secretly wanted to play it!

Happy Birthday Yanni and Lambraki. Many many many more!