Mets Cap

For you Mets fans out there....

One tool I love to use when making gumpaste decorations is the stitching tool.  I took this one from my mom's alteration kit :)  It creates such a realistic pattern and dimension, which is perfect for the stitching on this hat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay warm, it's almost Christmas!!

Blog Features

Sweet madeline cake for my friend Nanette's 25th Birthday!
White cake with fresh strawberry buttercream :)  Hand-cut gumpaste numbers painted with edible gold.

Brides.com (website for Brides Magazine) posted us in a Get to Know feature.

Head to the Hip Hostess blog to read what I see as the top 5 trends in wedding cakes!  Vibrant colors, monograms, graphic motifs, eco-friendly....

Manolo for the Brides shares that our cakes can be cute and sophisticated at the same time :)

Cake with Kate

During the craziness of Thanksgiving week, I had an opportunity to help Kate Sullivan from Lovin Sullivan Cakes on an extraordinary Bar Mitvah cake.  The cake was themed after AND delivered to the new Yankee Stadium.  Kate is a seasoned cake competitor (Food Network cake challenges, TLC cake off...) and this awesome cake might as well have been one of them!

Kate stacking the bottom tiers.

 

Here's me painting the Yankee's hat for the top

 

Kate was the first designer that I interned for when I moved to New York and since then, she has been a cake mentor to me.  Not to mention, she and her family are absolutely the sweetest people in the city!  Her cakes are stylized, elegant, modern, and colorful.  Appropriately named a Modern Bride Trendsetter in 2008, her work never ceases to amaze me.

About a year ago,  I was also able to help her with the seasonal collection of cakes from the Real Simple Weddings magazine that's currently still on stands!


Check out her website not only to see her cakes, but also her blog, videos, and cake challenge photos!

Cake Questions

Merci New York and I collaborated to answer a few commonly asked caked questions that brides might have as they look for their wedding cake.  Check out their wonderful site and here are some of the questions to help you:

What should a bride bring to her initial consultation?
At consultations, I always ask a bride to bring various inspirations such as photos, color palettes, themes, their invitation samples, patterns, or any other ideas ideas they've been dreaming of. If your fiancée cannot come with you, it's always a good idea to bring a friend or family member rather than coming alone. They can provided valuable feedback in moments of indecisiveness and act as creative support.

Which frosting is the best for wedding cakes?
We coat all our cakes in a layer of buttercream and then finish it off with a layer of fondant. I believe it produces the cleanest finish and is the best method of preservation because it seals in the cake from air. Everyone thinks fondant tastes so horrible, but there are international brands that are delicious and flavored fondant (such as white chocolate and milk chocolate) that taste like tootsie rolls. It's also very simple for your caterer to remove fondant from the cake before serving it to your guests, so don't automatically rule it out because of the myths.

What is the biggest misconception brides have about their wedding cake?
I think the most popular misconception is that wedding cakes look great but taste bad. Wrong, your wedding cake can taste amazing! There are crucial points to consider to overcome this mistaken belief.
1. Make sure you choose a great baker that will use the freshest and finest ingredients. Lots of bakeries use shortening instead of real butter, low quality cocoa, and imitation extracts to cut their costs. It's okay to ask these questions and it's always better to pay a little more for a baker that will use quality ingredients. The final product can only be as good as the ingredients that go into it.
2. Make sure they will bake your cake the week of the event instead of using frozen stock.
3. Be sure to keep it simple and choose flavors that complement each other. If you don't know what kind of buttercream goes best with your pumping cake, don't choose pistachio just because it's good and it's your favorite. Certain flavors pair better with each other so ask your baker for recommendations. {I'd say cream cheese}! This is why the tasting consultation is such a crucial part of wedding planning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Regardless of how much turkey, casserole, and yams I eat, there's always room for dessert.  I'm sure you can agree!  My vote always go to pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, but if you are not into pie, celebrate with a seasonal pumpkin cake/cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

Cut out maple leaves...

Lay them on a silicon leaf impression and press.  (Stores sell ones specifically for maple impressions, but I used a general one that is good for a wide variety of leaves.  Plus, these are pretty pricey so unless you are making a lot of them or really want to be botanically correct, this will do.)

Time for some dusting to liven up these leaves.  Here is the color lineup:

 

Cupcakes!

 

 

 

Enjoy!  Have a delicious and merry Thanksgiving with family/friends!

Blog Feature + Interview

Kelly from Glamour This! posted a short interview about us this week.  Check out her beautiful blog or read on to learn a little bit more about myself and how EatCakeBeMerry started!

How did you come up with your company name?
When I was trying to name my business, the phrase “Eat, drink, and be merry” came to mind because it encompassed such a great action (eat) and emotion (merry).  So I wanted to adopt the vibe for my business because I think its pretty natural for everyone to be merry after eating some delicious and beautiful cake!  Hence EatCakeBeMerry.

What made you start this business – the major turning point?
After I finished culinary school in San Francisco, I came to New York and had the opportunity to work with some renown cake designers.  Then I got married and stepped away for a couple months, which is the period when I truly realized there is no other job I’d rather do.  So I started making cakes again for family/friends and from there it organically blossomed into my own venture.

What inspires you?
I’m a very visual person so most of what I see in my day to day life inspires me.  Stationary, department store displays, greeting cards, magazines, scrapbook/craft supplies, clothing, jewelry/accessories, buildings, product packaging,…you name it.  I’ve made cakes adapted from designs on a 3-ring binder and even bed sheets from Anthropology.

What is the best part about your job?
The best part of of making cakes all day is getting to eat the scraps :)   Really, it’s being able to translate a couple’s personality and interests into a meaningful and unique cake for their special day.

Whats the process?
The process starts off months before the event with a consultation, which is when I get to know the bride and groom.  There we collaborate to create a great design and chose flavor combinations.  Few days before the cake is due, we start making the decorations, baking/building the tiers, and the day before the event we assemble the final product, which is then ready to head over to the venue.

Tell us a little about yourself, to get to know you more
I’m a midwest girl at heart.  I spent half my childhood in Ilinois and the other half in Michigan.  I went to Univ. of Michigan and was studying to be either a dentist (always wanting to work with my hands) or a math teacher until I discovered cake design the summer of my sophomore year.  As soon as I graduated, I headed to SanFran to learn more about baking/pastry then went to New York City because that’s were my finacee at the time was.  After a year there, I got married and moved across the river to Jersey, which was a great decision because now I get to awe over the NYC skyline every day :)

Blog Features

 Jennifer of Destination I Do Magazine wrote up great feature about us and perfectly assigned some of our cakes to each of the four seasons!   The pictures in their mag really makes me want to create a beach themed cake and makes me wish I had a destination wedding on some island rather than on the Hudson River :)

One White Dress is correct when they say our cakes don't take themselves too seriously.  They are meant to be playful, fun, and colorful, yet graceful enough to be at your wedding.  If you are planning your big day and looking for inspiration boards, go visit their site.  They have a whole section dedicated to them in every color combination imaginable!

I stumbled upon...Mints Design blog.  East meets West in floral design.  They design stationary too.  How cool is that?  Check out our feature in the "inspiration" section.

Blog Features

One Lovely Day is the blog for Project Wedding, which is a a national online resource/community for everything wedding related with a focus on vendor recommendations.  Jeannie was so sweet enough to post two entries about eatcakebemerry so check both of them out :) A Merry Morning and Sweet Score.

What Junebug Loves is the blog for the amazing Junebug Weddings.  If you are planning to have your wedding in Seattle, LA, or the OC you have to visit their site.  They even have a Groombug section for men!  As for us, we have been featured on their blog this week.

Three of our cakes have been added to the One Wed cake gallery, which is an extensive online resource/community for brides and grooms.  They have checklists, forums, vendors, advice, and even a honeymoon planning section.

Amy Jean of Relentless Bride (who also wrote about us in a Weddzilla post last week) shares some photos of our sweets.  I'm glad that in a moment of stress, she was able to relax by looking at our cakes!


Inc. Weddings calls our cakes "yummy gorgeousness" in their post of us this week.  These passionate wedding producers create such personal, beautiful, and detailed events.  Visit their site to see more.

I heard of Wedding Soiree when I was down in Georgia visiting my parents and today they blogged about us!  If you are looking for wedding coordinators down there,  check out their modern, stylish, and chic packages. 

Beautiful Things to Share shared about us last friday.   From its name it's pretty self explanatory, but it's a blog about all things beautiful :)  Glad to see that bloggers beyond the wedding industry are taking interest in our cakes also!


Hope you enjoy checking out these posts and I'll have a sneak peak at some cookies we've been working on at eatcakebemerry very soon!

Stitched Flower Cake and Blog Features

Here are some great blog features for this week:

An InStyle Magazine blogger included us in a roundup of what's now in weddings on the web.


Weddzilla entry by Amy Jean (of Relentless Bride) highlights a few of our cakes and asks what your cake style is.

Merry Poet  How about celebrating a birthday with one of our cakes?


Here are just a few snippets of the process when I made the stitched flower cake.  I call it stitched because I took a stitching tool to draw lines in the petals/leaves so it would have the effect of felt flower appliques. Happy Friday!
Started with a sketch

Gathered some edible dusts to paint the petal cutouts with: watermelon, carnation pink, and white.

 

Blog Features

EatCakeBeMerry has popped up on various blogs this week and I wanted to share the links so you can not only read what the bloggers have to say about us, but also visit THEIR awesome sites.  Most are vendors so hopefully you can find these to be good resources as your plan your own wedding! 

SwoonOverIt (TheBlissfulBride)  A modern caligraphy studio in Florida.  Shirts, signs, addressing, maps...she does it all!

Behind the Knot   Passionate wedding blogger also from Florida.  Erinn is so sweet and has a great collection of inspration boards you might want to see.

Amy Atlas Events   NYC event planner who is well known for her signature dessert tables.  You have to take a look at her gorgeous and extensive portfolio!


Maida Vale Invitations   Modern Invitation Designs.  Such clean, simple, and colorful designs!  Check out her etsy shop also.

Wedding Bells  Canadian Bridal magazine.  Posted by Rosie's Ideas.  I think I've seen this magazine in the States also.

Wedding Fresh  Dani is a pro at tailored wedding planning.  She offers a variety of packages to help ease the process of creating a couple's dream day.

Gwyneth Paige  Couture letterpress and very eco-friendly too :)  Can't wait for their main site to be launched!

The Cinderlla Project A great blog dedicated to wonderful wedding inspiration!

Blog Features and Halloween

Some new blog features for this week:

From I will to I do is a blog written by the senior editor of Brides.com.  Posted are a ways to get ideas for your wedding cake and links to great galleries.

JolieJolie is an awesome blog written by one of my friends, Lisa, out in Cali.  The catch phrase for her blog is "all things prettiful," which is definitely what you can expect from her entries.  Pretty ideas, products, and images!

Private Receptions is a talented wedding planning and design group in NYC.  For the post, I recommended two important tips for creating a great wedding cake.

Halloween is this Saturday and I made some spooky decorated cookies for the occasion!  Trick or Treat!

Sport Cakes Part2:Basketball

On Sunday I watched the Yankees win their 40th ALCS and later this week they will play in the World Series! Tomorrow is also the start of the NBA basketball season.  To celebrate these two things, I have put together a "sports cakes" feature. (see part 1 entry below for the baseball cake)

This life size basketball cake was made for my husband's 28th birthday!  He loves anything basketball and was even a manager for the University of Michigan basketball team for 4 years.  Go blue!

I started off by making a wood grain base to replicate the hardwood floors of a basketball court.  Then I carved the cake to make a sphere.  Half the cake was styrofoam simply because I only needed the cake to feed ~8-10 people.

I think it took roughly two hours to poke all these little holes.  It's the details that matter!

This is a comparison of the real ball on the left and the cake on the right.  I boosted the orange color for the fondat because I thought the real ball was too dark for a celebration cake.

 

Sports Cakes Part1:Baseball

On Sunday I watched the Yankees win their 40th ALCS and later this week they will play in the World Series! Tomorrow is also the start of the NBA basketball season.  To celebrate these two things, I have put together a "sports cakes" feature.  (see part 2 above for the basketball cake)

The Yankees vs Mets 360 cake was inspired by the Subway Series, which is when the two NY baseball teams play each other.  Depending on which team your are rooting for, you can choose the front of the cake! 

Making of the gumpaste logos...

 

Blog Feature

Things Festive has featured us on their blog today.  They sell pretty much anything you could possibly need for a wedding!  So if you are looking for favors, guest books, cake toppers...check out their site :)

Blog Feature

Eatcakebemerry is featured on Texas Wedding Guide.  Check out what they have to say :)  Glad the weekend is here!

D+J Cake

This past weekend, I went to Seattle for a friend's wedding.  The city was so quaint, and I especially loved the Queen Anne area. The views were great, market was fun, seafood was tasty, air was clean, but yes there was a lot of rain.  The wedding itself was fun and it was really good to see another one of our friends tie the knot!  This is the cake I made for them to match their green/brown color palette.  The wedding had a very eco-friendly vibe and so did the new Hyatt Olive8.

For the character toppers, I started with basic shapes to make bodies and heads.

I dressed up the bodies first with a halter gown to match the bride's actual dress shape and a snazzy tux for the groom. I then decorated the heads, added hands, and a bouquet of flowers.

 

I just had to switch up the heads to have a laugh :)

Exchanging vows and saying I do's

 

 

Once I got there, I painted her dress shimmery white and added a veil to her head.  Topped them on the cake and voila!

Congrats David and JiHye!

Blog Feature

Eatcakebemerry is featured on With This Ring blog today!  Check out this blog for great photos of real weddings and inspiration for the big day.

Blog Feature

EatCakeBeMerry has been featured on Venessa Kaines Design blog, which celebrates all things design! I'm glad that cakes are no longer seen as just food for celebrations, but also as a unique medium for art and design.