Takes The Cake?

This pretty sign done in gold ink on white card stock invites your guests to help themselves to the prettiest cupcakes around! A nice extra touch to your sweet table.

See other great ideas for your cupcakes on Peter's blog and web site, linked below.

Photo by: Your Wedding Photos by Peter Lammers.

Winter Wedding Cake Topped With Pine Cones

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings

Having a winter wedding but want to add a splash of color on your cake? Want to bring a little bit of nature inside at your wedding reception?

Try this fondant tinted an ice blue to cover your cake topped with real pine cones that have sanding sugar and royal icing to make the snowy edging.  Add some chocolate pine needles for a winter wedding cake with a natural theme.  

Want to see more great wedding ideas? Head over to Martha Stewart Weddings.

Pretty Pink Mini Cakes

This pretty pink dessert is perfect for serving at your wedding or bridal shower.  Unfortunately don't have a recipe for it, just the photo.  If anyone has a link for it with more info let me know.  Otherwise use it for inspiration for a mini-dessert cake.  Photo link.

Multi-Color Layer Cake

This multi-color wedding layer cake by Wanda McNally Cakes shown on Green Wedding Shoes is modern and oh so pretty! Serve with some classic vanilla bean ice cream...yum!  You will have some very happy guests!

Let Them Eat...Cupcakes?

If you've been following the trends in desserts or wedding sweets it's obvious that cupcakes are all the rage.  Cupcake flavors range from the perfect vanilla or chocolate cupcake to designer flavors.  If the cupcake is a 'plain' flavor the likelihood is the icing is laced with a special liqueur flavoring or some special toppings.  Sometimes the tops are fancy fondants in unique shapes that will make any wedding guest swoon! I love this pink floral look! You can almost smell the flowers.

As a bride it's your choice to make whether to go with the fancy designs and plainer flavorings or a cupcake whose taste will take your breath away! These two samples from Cake In A Cup and Lealalicious, are the designers first attempt at haute couture cupcakes I'd say they turned out pretty near perfection!

Gold Embossed Wedding Cake

How do you feel about having this fancy gold wedding cake be the highlight of your wedding reception? It's sure to steal the show, and will likely cost a fortune as well!  This cake from City Sweets and Confections and posted by Calligraphy by Jennifer on Facebook is gorgeous gold with a cream colored flower attached.  Designed by Deborah Lauren this gold standard of a cake Brides Magazine said this cake 'pairs the luster of an Indian sari with a classic peony crafted from sugar.'  The cake is embossed fondant and if you have to ask what it costs...you can't afford it! This cake would be great with a bride wearing a gown with gold trim or a wedding with metallic accents.

Black, White and Pink Wedding Cake

Black and white and a hint of pink, this sweet table wows guests with the selection of cakes in an assortment of black and white designs.  Choose to serve one, choose to serve them all.  Your guests will be wowed! Photo courtesy of Hot Pink Brides. Get the look of shopping in Paris with cakes that look like hat boxes.  Use Eiffel Tower's for centerpieces and some black and white ribbon napkin rings. Put the name of the bride and groom on top of the cakes.

Rainbow Wedding Cake

Let the colors in this cake blow away your guests at your rainbow theme wedding! It's perfect for your theme and will have your guests oohing and aahing! Tiny dots of icing in graduated colors will wow your guests.  This cake isn't your usual wedding cake, but non-traditional brides will love it's bright colors that make it look like a rainbow! Nice work by The Rise and Shine Bakery.  They make this cake in smaller versions as well in case you don't need one that towers as high as this one does.  Or if you're looking for a great looking cake for any occasion head over to their web site and see their gallery of cakes.

Paper Wedding Cake Flowers? Pros and Cons

Brides have come up with more and more ingenious ways to decorate their wedding cakes, but these paper flowers by the Etsy artisans Sunny and Stumpy.  They have been specially created to preserve their beauty and protect them from the icing.  Do not try to use plain paper flowers for cake decorating. The listing is for 20 flowers, but I'm sure you could contact the seller if you wanted more (or less), and wanted to place a special order.   

Sunny and Stumpy specialize in paper crafting, especially flowers, mostly ranunculus.  Colors and papers vary. 

If you plan to try to make these yourself using one of their templates, be sure to add something to protect the flowers from the icing.  This is a project that would necessitate intensive testing before your wedding day. 

Miniature Wedding Cakes

Interested in making your own mini-wedding cakes? Chicago Metallic makes it easy with this easy to use mini-wedding wedding cake pan. This great pan is available on Amazon, but if you're thinking about making enough for all your wedding guests, I'd suggest purchasing more than one or you'll be baking for YEARS!

The pans come with recipes designed just for these pans.  Reviewers thought these were great cakes, and since they were designed just for use in these pans, unless you're planning a lot of trial and error you might want to use one of these. 

 Photo courtesy of Austin Wedding Blog

Use buttercream icing to easily ice your mini-cakes. Cover a mini cardboard circle or

square with desired color 6" foil. Place cake on foil. Place cake in freezer. When hardened, remove from your freezer and ice with a very thin layer of icing to seal
in the crumbs.  When icing the thin layer try stirring in a little bit of water into the buttercream
icing to thin. Let set room temperature, about 30 minutes.  The icing will form a crust.  Then ice over first coat with a softened buttercream icing.

Photo courtesy of Planning the Perfect Wedding Day

Use an 8" spatula for smoothing icing.  Then use tips #1 or #0 for writing or string work.  Use tips #23 or #13 for borders and tip #101 for roses and flowers.  Cut a tiny V in the point of a parchment bag to make the leaves. 

Photo courtesy of Planning the Perfect Wedding Day

Cocktail Cupcakes

Cocktail cupcakes! What a discovery! And they are perfect mini-cakes for serving at a wedding shower or reception! After years of consuming plain cupcakes and finding some missing that 'something' I've discovered what it is! Alcohol! Not that nasty rubbing alcohol, but wonderful things like Kahlua, Bailey's, Rum, etc.

When you combine cupcakes with a cocktail all of a sudden you have a dessert that makes your taste buds go ZING! You'll find a variety of cupcake cocktails on the web, from some using Jamison's to cupcakes soaked with Kahlua or Bailey's. 

If you'd like a recipe for making your own Bailey's head to Signature Drinks For Your Wedding--it's easy to do and great to add to recipes.

For a recipe for Mudslide Cupcakes head over to Endless Summer.  But if you run searches you'll find recipes for Cosmo Cupcakes, Pina Colada Cupcakes, Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes, Mojito Cupcakes, the list is endless! Some of these recipes are posted at The Cupcake Club.  There's also a great recipe out there that makes great mini rum cakes.  Use a baby bundt pan for individual servings so you get 'cupcake size' with rum cake taste. Recipe for rum cakes here.  I originally found it in a Bacardi advertisement but it's the easiest rum cake recipe I've ever found. 

Get ready, get set and GO MAKE THOSE COCKTAIL CUPCAKES!  Let me know what your favorite recipe is and why.

Making Sugar Paste Orchids

This is a great tutorial on how to make your own sugar paste orchids. Originally posted on YouTube by The Food Court. They have dozens of others how to videos posted on YouTube and their own site. Would I want to do this for my own wedding? Nope! But it does give you an idea of just why your cake costs as much as it does. Thought it would be fun to try though, when things aren't quite as hectic as in the middle of bridal planning. If you're a whiz at crafting and cooking you might be able to pull this off, but I recommend practice, lots of practice!

Renting Your Wedding Cake?

Pre-designed Cake

OK, I understand renting the church, renting the reception venue, renting a tuxedo, even maybe renting a wedding gown, but renting your CAKE?  I have to admit it had never occurred to me to rent a cake. I mean, you EAT it, right?

Pre-designed Cake

Wrong.  Well not totally wrong.  You eat PART of it.  Most couples only need a slice for the cake cutting photo and possibly an anniversary cake top to freeze until their first anniversary.  Enter FunCakeRental.com!  They'll provide a great looking cake for minimal costs.  Fun Cakes don't just make a fake cake for your wedding they actually rent you a cake.  Cakes have Styrofoam bottoms that are iced and decorated and ready for your wedding.  Meanwhile a sheet cake in the kitchen is cut and served to your guests with some ice cream and fruit.  This saves you lots of money and your guests frankly don't care. 

More Fun Cakes

Better yet, Fun Cake Rental has rolled back their prices to help brides who have been hit by the recent recession.  Do you love them even more now?  You have your choice of a pre-designed cake or a custom cake.  A basic three tier cake is $125 plus shipping (4 tier $150), a custom design $225 plus shipping (each extra tier is $50).  All cakes require a $200 security deposit which is returned once they cake is received. 

Each layer is approximately 4" tall.  The overall height of a three tier cake is 12".  Cakes are delivered on a one inch plastic tray.  Height can be adjusted by discussing it with customer service when the order is placed. Each part Styrofoam cake is covered with fondant with gum paste decorations and due to it's sugar base cannot be exposed to direct heat or hot lights.

DIY Cupcakes Straight From Your Heart--And It Shows

This is a perfect cupcake for a wedding or wedding shower.  I know, it looks impossible to replicate.  Not sure I could do it in the numbers needed for a wedding, I lack the patience. But if  you're having a small wedding or am more than a so so cook (I admit, I'm not expert) this should be doable.  Just be sure you do some test runs first.  The recipe is here.  It has lots of tips to help your cupcakes show off the heart once they are cut in half.  The original recipe was posted on this site but it's down for now, but the comments are still posted, so again, it's worth reading before you start this project.  I suggest serving the cupcake precut in half to show off the heart, just be sure your caterer or servers know which way to cut the cupcakes, or you'll just have a cupcake with a pink center.  Happy baking!

DIY Individual Wedding Cakes For Your Guests

Individual tiny cakes are all the rage but the price for them is OUTRAGEOUSLY high.  How can you beat the high cost of providing each of your guests with their own indivdual tiny wedding cake?  Try making them yourself.  The equivalent of making tiny petit fours but often stacked up like a wedding cake, these can be time and labor intensive.  But Allison Silber at Engaged and Inspired (who provided the photos above) has an answer for you.  Use a circular cake cutter, a sheet cake and get ready to stack the cakes with your favorite fillings between them.  The most labor intensive part of these baby cakes is decorating the sides.  Allison's solution? Leave the sides uniced.  Let the fillings provide some pretty coloring and top them with a swirl of icing topped with a berry.  BTW, don't forget to head over to Engaged and Inspired's site to see what other great ideas they have to help you plan your wedding day.  Congrats to Allison for a great way to save money on wedding cakes!

Ombre Cakes at Weddings or Showers

Having a wedding shower and want a cake that shows off your talents (or just shows you know who to hire to make your cake?).  Try this cake shown on Glorious Treats blog.  Layers of beautiful pink--perfect for the bride to be who is a pink-a-holic!  The swirls invoke visions of roses, and the graduated color scheme inside the cake that reminds me of layers of chiffon on the skirt of a dress.  Show off your cake baking talents and your creativity by serving this gorgeous cake!

The recipe is on the Glorious Treats site, (along with other great photos of the cake--not to mention lots of other incredible sweet treats that you might like to have at your wedding. The rose like swirls on the cake make it a perfect centerpiece for a sweet table, helping you save on your floral costs.  Your other option, make cupcakes, and ice with the swirls of pink and have them surround this cake--this will let you feed more people if you're having a huge gathering. 

Lavendar Cake by Sweet Cakes by Rebecca (posted on Facebook by Calligraphy by Jennifer)

If you aren't up for the layers of pink icing, try this lavendar cake and top it with a fresh orchid--simple on the outside, with complex layers on the inside--perfect for a shower or wedding cake.

Cake Topper For Geeks

OK, so you're a video game-a-holic and so is your husband to be...what better cake topper than Zelda and the love of her life, Link.  I have to admit, while not a huge gamer, Zelda is one of my favorite games, not quite so into it that I'd put a Zelda and Link cake topper on my wedding cake, but I'm sure there are some gamers out there who would love this.  For the rest of you, I thought it might at least offer some relief from all the intensity of wedding planning--face it, when you're arguing over things like napery or cake flavors with your mom, you can show her this and swear YOU MUST have this on the top of your cake as well as have your bridesmaids dressed in green and carrying gold flowers or show her the Triforce cake--bet she caves! So while personally, I'm not planning a wedding with Zelda and Link on my cake, I thought it might offer some light relief!

Would You Call This Cheesecake?

While this cake is made of brie, it's not exactly what I'd call cheesecake! But it's sure to be a hit with all your guests.  This cake, courtesy of Southern Living, is made from wheels of brie and is a perfect centerpiece for a shower or also works as a grooms cake. Can you say EASY?  Add flower accents and serve with baguettes or your favorite crackers. 

If you don't want to make it for a wedding, consider using it for holidays and making it a Christmas tree, decorate with evergreens and cranberries.  You can always count on Southern Living to come up with great ideas--fortunately for us, this one is attractive and EASY! My favorite kind!

This pretty centerpiece made by stacking wheels of cheese and is drop-dead easy. Choose pretty flowers and herbs in season—lavender would be perfect. Serve with your favorite crackers or French bread rounds. The hardest part of this 'cake' is finding your favorite brie in the right size.  Consider ordering it from your local cheese store ahead of time and not leaving anything to chance.                                     

Cupcake Cuties--DIY Cupcake Kits Any DIY'er Can Handle

Cupcake Cuties

This Black & White Wedding Cupcake Kit is perfect for your wedding day or even a wedding shower.  Each Black and White Wedding Cupcake Kit Contains:

• (24) Black & White Wedding Cupcake Sleeves
• (48) Wedding Rings for Decorating
• (2) Ivory Sugar Pearls Shakers
• Easy to follow How-To decorating instructions and illustrations

To Order your cupcake cuties contact:

Cupcake Cuties™
466 Foothill Blvd. #200
La Canada, CA 91011
Tel: 877 62CUTIES (877-622-8843)

Email: info@cupcakecuties.com

Visit the Cupcake Cuites web site to see other designs to fit almost any occasion. 

Strawberries and Cake--All in One Bite! Plus a Giveaway Link!

(Just a heads up...I couldn't decide where to post this on my cake blog or my diy blog so it's in both places, if you already read it in my DIY Wedding Planning blog, just skip over, or enjoy the eye candy!)

As you may know from reading my blog I am hooked on strawberries--I eat them plain, use them in recipes, on recipes, and turn them into drinks--you name it, I've done it to or with strawberries! (Hmm..that sounded weird, but I think you know what I mean!) I found this recipe on Taste and Tell, a great cooking blog that you'll want to bookmark or follow so you don't miss any recipes they have! This recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cake Bites not only tasted good it looked pretty as well!

I like cake bites for weddings or showers because they are so EASY! Easy to make, easy to eat...and face it, they just taste good. Not to mention being perfect as wedding favors or on a sweet table. As the writers at Taste and Tell note, some of them are just a little too sweet so sometimes I have to adjust the recipes to suit my taste buds or change the icing on them so they don't make my teeth hurt from the sweetness. So head over and take a look at the recipe for the Strawberry Shortcake Cake Bites, it's a perfect time of the year to make these, especially if you've just been strawberry picking and have lots of berries--this gives you something new to make with them!

Taste and Tell suggests a book all about cake bites called 101 Gourmet Cake Bites that they're running a giveaway for until August 12th, so get your chance for a free book--what could be better than free? So yet another reason to read their blog! (And enter their giveaway!)

All photos courtesy of Taste and Tell Blog

Belgian Chocolate Rose Covered Wedding Cakes.

Belgian chocolate wedding cakes -- what more could you ask for. No more dry pound cakes for a wedding if you order your cake from Fancy Nancy located in the United Kingdom.  Fancy Nancy created this gorgeous cake for Wedding Magazine! It's chocolate cake (YUM!) with sorbet colored roses--perfect for a spring/summer wedding.  Love the color combinations and I admit to being partial to chocolate cake for a wedding cake (or for anything else for that matter!)  For more gorgeous cakes from Fancy Nancy visit their web site.

If you're looking for a fall version, try this Fancy Nancy cake.  Again, flower covered and three tiered--delicious!  This is a Belgian Chocolate Rose cake covered entirely in handmade Belgian chocolate roses that Fancy Nancy made for a party celebrating the launch of "Bride Ideas and Frock-Ups," a book that every bride should read whenever they start taking themselves too seriously, by Sim Canetty Clarke, Amanda Lockhart and Susannah Frieze. The book is filled with beautiful photographs and witty anecdotes, stories and jokes, a great read for anyone, particularly if you are a potential bride and/or groom or if you deal with them day in and day out and need to laugh. 

Cupcake Cones and Other Things To Make You Lick Your Lips!

Martha Stewart Weddings offers brides this great idea on how to serve your cupcakes at your wedding.  Maybe your mom made a version of these for you when you had to take cupcakes to school for a class party, but this more sophisticated version is sure to please not only palates but the eye of all your guests.  Visit Martha's site for more ideas and the link on where to buy the cones.  Additional info on where she purchased sprinkles and nonpariels, as well as edible stars and hearts glitter.

Read more and get the recipe at Marthastewartweddings.com: Cupcake Ice Cream Cones. Martha even tells you where to buy something to hold the cones up on your sweet table! TY Martha!

Martha also provides a recipe for these ice cream cups made using a pizzele maker.  Love using new ways to serve the ice cream or sorbet at your wedding!  Recipe is here.

BTW, when you hit the page to purchase the mini-cones you'll find some great mini-phyllo shells in CHOCOLATE! OK, I know I can't be the only chocolate lover out there--has anyone ever used these? If you have I'd love to hear your ideas or if you'd like to guest post your experience using these just let me know. 

The web is a dangerous place for a chocolate lover--it gives me access to all sorts of chocolate I never knew existed before--past the lips... ah well, I know Weight Watchers would approve of these, if I only eat just one!  (which of course if the real trick for me with anything chocolate!)

Love Birds Top This Cake

In general I'm not a big fan of love birds at weddings or cake toppers on wedding cakes--a little too much for me, but this cake by Bobbette and Belle (located in Toronto, Canada) is an exception.  I saw it and fell in love with the creativity of it!  Bobbette and Belle made this cake for a Toronto wedding.  Lucky bride and groom!  Bet it tastes as good as it looks! Visit Bobbette and Belle's web site by clicking this link where you'll see they make this cake with other color schemes as well. 

California Brides--La Monarca Bakery Suggest Cake Bites For Your Wedding

Cake bites--are they taking the place of cupcakes at weddings and other special occasions?  Co-founder of La Monarca Bakery, Ricardo Cervantes thinks they will.  (Ricardo, I fell in love with just your name, add the cake bites and you have a customer for life!) He's so convinced he's serving them at his own upcoming wedding reception.  La Monarca offers them in a variety of different flavors including: fruit tarts, dark Mexican mocha cake, traditional puff pastry Napoleon, tres leches and caramel flan. They also offer less traditional wedding cakes like tiramisu and dulce de leche. So many sweets to choose from it is a hard decision, so don't waste time choosing, just serve your guests a selection from La Monarca.  Visit their web site at La Monarca Bakery where all the food is made from scratch--no mixes here, no preservatives, no lard, no artificial flavors--no wonder they taste so good!  The store was named after the Monarch butterfly--even it's boxes for it's goods are gorgeous.  La Monarca-a feast for your mouth and for your eyes!  Visit them soon if you are lucky enough to live in California near one of their stores!

Lacey Looking Cake

I love this black and white cake that I found on Real Simple's web site.  Black and white is one of the most popular wedding combinations for brides looking to make a personal statement.  This black and white lace confection may be on a site called Real Simple but it looks anything but simple!

This cake from Call Me Cupcake's site, also in black and white is not quite as inticate but would work well for a less fromal black tie wedding.  This cake was inspired by fabric and has the same look...clean but sophisticated. Be sure to visit both these sites to find even more great cakes to give you some inspiration for your own cake.

Let Them Eat Cupcakes

Cupcake Wrapture, Couture for Cupcakes published this great photo of cupcakes served at a wedding.  Their web site offers a variety of wraps for cupcakes to make your wedding day look like a designer baked everything!  See their blog for more great photos of cupcakes for your wedding or wedding shower. 

Hand Stamped Wedding Cake Topper

Jake and Jane have the perfect cake topper! Simple but effective! (Made by Lisa Leonard).  Note the tiny hearts at the bottom of the cake.  I love these hand stamped creations!  Photo from Green Wedding Shoes site.

The bride and groom also utilized Lisa Leonard's hand stamped creations on the bride's bouquet.  Photo also from Green Wedding Shoes.  Memories that the bride and groom can keep forever--what a great idea!

Angel Food Anyone?

This double-decker angel food cupcake with it's boutique cupcake paper is perfect for a wedding.  It looks just like an asymmetrical wedding cake! This cupcake was an entry in a contest and was created by The Insomniac Baker.  The recipe is on the Baker's web page linked previously.  Photos also courtesy of The Insomniac Baker.  Try out this combination of angel food cake and meringue with gelato!  Two fluffy angel food cupcakes with meringue gelato in the middle and a smooth, Swiss meringue buttercream on top, with a sweet little meringue cookie to top it all off--perfection! These are an ice cream cupcake though so your caterer will need to assemble them on site and they won't work for a sweet table.  You could probably adapt the recipe to use something other than the gelato if you wanted to use them for a sweet table display. 

A Cake to Go With Your Nonpareil Martinis

The Cake Girls made this gorgeous cake shown on Martha Stewart's web site that goes perfectly with the White Chocolate Martini's with nonpareil rims on The Signature Drink blog.  Visit all the blogs and sites listed.  Kudos to The Cake Girls for their beautiful creation!

While Not Technically Cakes...Taste Just As Good!

Planning on providing a late night snack for your guests as your reception winds down? Serve these doughnut holes with a difference. Ask your caterer to make you a variety of these great donut holes in a variety of hot colors and serve them in a gold or silver cone. Add some good coffee and your guests will thank you! Thank you Martha Stewart for the great idea and photo!

Doughnut recipe at Martha's site.

Win a Cake!

Visit Truly Custom Cakery's blog, Stacy's Sweet Shop, and enter to win a cake! The details are on her blog, read carefully and enter, enter, enter! There is more than one way to enter.  Stacy has some incredible designs, great for that special birthday, anniversary, or groom's cake or any special occasion.  Good luck! Obviously you need to live in the area to be able to pick it up.

Succulents Are Everywhere!

Cake by Erica O’Brien; Photo by Charla Blue Photography

Not only will you find succulents in bouquets, boutennieres and centerpieces and wedding favors but now they are being used to decorate cakes.  These simple cakes with the addition of succulents take the cake from ho hum to WOW!  Keep your eyes open for other cakes decorated with succulents.  But what makes these succulents so incredible is they are made from fondant! Could you tell? I sure couldn't! Erica O'Brien deserves major kudos for her artistry on these cakes! Anyone with any other ideas on how to use succulents please post them!

Cake by Erica O'Brien Shown on Greer Loves; Photography by Hazelnut Photography

Cake by Erica O'Brian; Photography by: This Modern Romance

Same credits as cake above it.

When is a Cake Not a Cake?

When is a cake not a cake? SURPRISE! When it's this gorgeous paper cake from Tracey Mason. 

While this cake looks good enough to eat, it's actually meant for guests to deposit their gift cards for your wedding in! You can see it and the story behind it at Tracey Mason's Studio. 

Tracey is a creative DIY'er who has a creative web site filled with fun to make crafts that will knock your socks off. She also created a matching card to go with this cake. Why not create a memorable gift for the bride and groom to use at their wedding? Tracey also offers how to directions for the paper rosettes that decorate this 'cake.'