Michael's 40th Birthday Poker Cake

Here's a fun birthday cake I created for Michael for his 40th Birthday.

Everything on this cake was handcrafted and painted, with the exception of the lowercase "m" on the poker chips which was created with "Tappit".

When creating cakes, sometimes you need a little inspiration. My friend and partner Sofia had the coolest idea. The wire accents with the card suites decorations suspended from them, were inspired by her card cake. Thanks Sofia. Which brings me to something I have wanted to discuss in my blog....and that is sharing information.

When talking to one of my instructors in cake design....we spoke about sharing "secrets" of the trade etc. And she said something beautiful to me. She said...Amelia...there is enough work out there for all of us. There is no need to hide information and not share our knowledge." I totally agree. Perhaps its the teacher in me....but I always seem to have the urge...the need to teach. Everyone's hand is different. Everyone has there own vision. It's how you take the information you learn and transfer it to the cakes you create that make it your own.

I find that with a little inspiration from other cake designers, the fashion world, nature, and just everyday objects....a cake can be created.

Sometimes...we get "stuck" just as writer's get writers block. I call it caker's block. When I get that way....I just step away. Grab a cup of coffee....sit on my porch....and empty my mind...which isn't very difficult to do these days! Then...I just go back to my worktable...."let go" and allow myself....yah...I mean give myself permission to be me....

Before I know it...I'm in my zone...It's almost as if someone else's hands are working on a piece. Oh...wait a minute....it's not someone else....it's the real self under the surface.

Happy Caking Everyone!

Manhasset Women's Coalition Against Breast Cancer Silent Auction Cake

This is a cake - Bohemian Chic - I created for the Manhasset Women's Coalition Against Breast Cancer for their fund raising dinner and Silent Auction held tonight at the Inn at New Hyde Park.

The flowers were fantasy peonies trimmed in gold highlight, ribbon flowers and feathers of hope for the cure and a pink ribbon for the cause.

The women of the coalition are such a hard working and dedicated group. I am honored to have just a little part in their fund raising efforts to wipe out this beast.
A beast that has taken so many of our sisters.

I pray for a cure in our lifetime.

Congratulations to the MWCABC for a fabulous job! This year they had 500 people attend this worthy function!

Halle's Sweet 16 Cake Vision

Halle's Favors




It was such a pleasure consulting with Halle and her parents on Halle's vision for her Sweet 16 Cake and favors.

Halle's vision for her cake was to be artsy and out of the box. Loving animal prints we incorporated fantasy zebra and leopard prints into the bottom two tiers. Her third tier was a vision of polka dots...I took the dots and created arched dots. They don't look perse' like animal print....but somehow....the dots to me were a very abstract interpretation of a cheetah.
Halle's top tier represented her color scheme at her venue - The Douglaston Manor, in Douglaston, New York. We wanted to represent the colors as well as Halle's vision of something dreamy and artsy - almost VanGo-ish. Alright...maybe that was more me. The VanGo-ish tone. Her cupcake favors were royal blue chocolate disks with a silver fantasy daisy with a fantasy silver ribbon rose. I wanted to incorporate the two flower elements that were on the cake. The flowers on the cake were in magenta.
The topsy turvy cake Halle requested was made of red velvet cake as were her cupcake favors.

I have to say at this time that the staff at the Douglaston Manor - Daniel Miller (Maitr'd) and servers were absolutely wonderful. From the moment we arrived at the manor to the very last final detail I attended to on the cake - they were extremely helpful. It is service such as theirs that make a cake designer's life so much easier. Thanks guys!

So to our Sweet 16 young lady - Halle...I hope you had a fabulous time at your party. Wishing your Sweet 16 year be filled with all the best and that your dreams come true. To your mom and dad...even though I've only spoken to Halle for a couple of hours....I could tell she is a fantastic teen! Mom and Dad....you should be proud! May all your wishes for Halle come true.

Halle's Vision

Topsy Turvy Sweet 16 Cake at The Douglaston Manor in Douglaston, New York. September 23, 2011.

Two More of Some of My Favorite Cake Creations

Marc Jacobs Purse and Shoe

Cartier Watch Groom's Cake

Was scrolling down my blog and found these two cakes I created. It was the Cartier Cake that was noticed by one of the producers at TLC, which prompted her to call me to audition for TLC's Ultimate Cake Off. Didn't get on that season, but then, Al Roker Productions called, and we were selected to film a special with Sylvia Weinstock on WE TV. An experience I will never forget!

The Marc Jacobs bag and shoe was for Yvonne, who celebrated her birthday at Seasons on Long Island. Looked pretty nice in their winter room with a fireplace as a backdrop.

Ok...enough reminiscing....on to new cake creations and to building out our new shoppe in Port Washington, New York! Yesssss people....we finally got our verbal approval for permits and are now lining up our contractors!

Christening Cake and a MacKenzie-Child's Inspired Birthday Cake

What a sensational 2011 season we've had so far! Going through my blog I thought I'd just recap a couple of cake creations that were created for our amazing clients! There are so many more to view in older posts.

Not only did Sweet Alchemy by Amelia have the opportunity to create....but we were on two podcasts...The Andrew Zarian Show - Guys From Queens, where I muppetized out of cake, Andrew for his birthday and where Sofia baked some delish cupcakes.

To make the season even "sweeter" Sweet Alchemy was in a one hour television special "ICED WITH SYLVIA WEINSTOCK", which aired on May 29, 2011, on WE TV. During this special with the Empress of Cakes Sylvia Weinstock, Sofia and I competed for a coveted three day mentorship which we won! During the mentorship, we were asked to create and execute a wedding cake in just under 2 days, in a medium (buttercream) neither Sofia nor I were expert in...but learned very quickly!) for a bride whose reception was at Cipriani Wall Street! The antics and the drama were to die for! We're just hoping it reruns on "WE".

Who knew...that five years ago....after visiting my son Terry in London....and taking cake design classes at Squires International School of Cake Decorating, that I would be bitten by that "sweet bug" and leave teaching and social work to become a cake entrepreneur!

And so...on to new and exciting days in creating for happy events.

Cake Highlights

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!