OK, so I read about the NY Cake Convention on Twitter and had this idea... In keeping up with my cake documentary... why not see if I can get access to photograph it. Now, this was a complete shot in the dark... but why not try, right?
So I looked on the "Contact us" page and emailed every single person on it! I explained the photo/cake work I have been doing and sent a link to my photography site as well as this blog. Someone had to be interested. And someone was!
Hello Lauren,
We would love to have you participate in the NY Cake Convention as one of the event photographers. Send me your mailing information and I will have a media kit sent out to you. Included in the kit is an event pass which would give you access to all areas of the convention.
I look forward to your response.
I can't even explain how excited I am! This is going to be HUGE! I can not wait to document "Cake Culture". I already bought my tickets to get in, as well as see the cake competition, but now maybe I can actually go up on stage and photograph the competitors!
Some of my recent photo work combined with sounds of the baking and decorating process.
This is a work in progress. The finished product will be on display I believe sometime in March or April. I will update as I know more.
So here's the story behind this...
As most of you know, I am also a photographer. I have always preferred to shoot food and that is what has motivated me to start my baking business.
I have always loved to bake and have been doing so since I was about 4 years old with my aunt. She always taught me that the prettier the dessert looks, the more people will want it. We used to have an "reject" pile of cookies around the holidays just for us and we always gave all the pretty ones away.
That school of thought has stayed with me all these years. When I have company I make sure everything is plated well. When I bake a cake, I make sure it is decorated well. I pay great attention to detail because sometimes it's the smallest details that matter the most.
So I took everything I know about baking, and everything I know about photography, and put the two together, added some sound... and POOF! Magic.
Ok, maybe not "Magic", but my goal is to shed some light on the whole cake decorating process. With so many shows out there, like Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, and Amazing Wedding Cakes... a lot of viewers get to see how a cake is decorated. But what they often don't get to see, or see enough of anyway, is all the work that happens before the fondant can be applied. The hours in the kitchen to bake all the cakes and make the frosting. Especially home bakers like myself.
I feel like today, with so many cake shows out there, cake decorating is finally taking it's place in the art world. I am trying to give it a push by creating my own edible art and producing documentary photographic art combined with sounds to further enhance the viewers experience.
I am also trying to get the message out there that it is possible to create incredible cakes in your own home kitchen. I live in a small NY apartment. I only have one oven. I only have one 6 quart mixer. I only have one counter. If I can do it... anyone can.
Mike's birthday was the same weekend as the roulette wheel cake so I didn't have time to do exactly what I wanted to. But I did get to try out some new recipes!
I have been meaning to try out some of Warren Brown's recipes but I haven't had much time to experiment lately. This cake was made with components from Warren Brown's"CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch" and it was pretty damn incredible!
I first made the "golden butter cake" and the layers didn't rise as much as I would have liked and I really hate flat cakes so I decided to make the "chocolate butter cake" as well. Delicious, but a little dense.
I filled the layers with the chocolate pastry cream recipe which was very good and the frosted the whole thing with my variation of his "flame" frosting. I would have liked to make it exact, but I didn't have everything on hand. I'm still on the hunt for cocoa butter. The frosting tasted almost like apple pie but with a kick you can feel in the back of your throat. There are several different chili powders that go into this and I think I really went overboard with the ancho chili powder. (recipe called for actual dried chili's, but whatever).
I will definitely be trying out the frosting again! Mine didn't get as thick as I would have liked, but it was delicious!
Ok, so this is pretty overdue but I have been so swamped with school work and cake work and life in general that I haven't had much time to post up the new pics.
So this is so far the largest cake I have ever made! I am sooooo proud of it! There were a lot of problems throughout the process, but in the end, it all worked out.
This was 4 18" x 13" cakes. 2 cakes on each side. All chocolate beer. The cups and the beer can were all made with rice krispy treats and covered with red fondant. White fondant tops and rims were added. The "beer" is amber colored piping gel. The white center strip was placed on top to hide the fact that it was 2 sepreate pieces.
The first problem I had was during the baking process. When I went to flip one of the cakes out of the pan it fell onto the table and just crumbled. The cake was so moist that there was just no saving it. So I took a deep breath, baked another cake, and turned the scraps into cake balls.
There were also problems when making the "cups". We made a dozen of them a week before and the heat and humidity made them crack and sag, so 2 days before the cake was due we had to peel off all the cracked fondant and re-do them all.
Next cake will be a roulette wheel. Mike's grandfather put together the custom lazy susan for me last night! I am so excited to get started on this cake!
This one is for a dog's birthday. (more of an excuse to get together and have a BBQ and few drinks). It's made with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting. The bulldog on top (Soco) is made of rice krispy treats and covered in fondant.
Ok, here's a pic of cake #2... delivered it tonight. It's the first purse cake we've done, so I know it's not perfect. We really had a hard time with the handle. But I love the zipper look.
Last cake of the weekend! Talk about "Death by Chocolate"! This cake was 3 layers... bottom layer, triple chocolate brownie with chocolate chips... next 2 layers, chocolate cake. The filling was a semi-sweet chocolate gonache and it was covered in chocolate buttercream. It was then decorated with fondant cut-out stars as well as hand piped vanilla purple stars. I LOVE tall cakes!!!! I had so much fun with this one!
We just finished building the arms... they're in the fridge chilling before we can cover them with the fondant. Then we can finally start to decorate! So excited!Added the arms Added the blue for the sleevesAdded more white for the jersey.
Ok, so we covered the board with home made orange fondant... took forever! It was just so soft. The body we covered with home made marshmallow fondant. Worked out fine. The huge rice krispy head we ended up having to run to the store to buy a box of pre-made fondant. We just completely ran out of the good stuff.
Everything is going to sit in the fridge overnight again so we can start decorating tomorrow. The hat was cut out yesterday, so it's still drying. I just have to add the face, the buttons, and some other details. Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day! It's a good thing I LOVE what I do!
Ok, so were working on a Mr. Met birthday cake for Friday. I want it to be perfect. I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm already stressing out. I woke up today and baked 2 red velvet sheet cakes (3 if you count the one that somehow boiled into a syrup because my oven got too hot, which has never happened before so I don't know what that's about)
For about 2 weeks we have been discussing the size of Mr. Mets head. I have a ball pan from Wilton, but it just didn't seem big enough. Then I have a much larger ball pan with an 8" diameter, but that looked too big.
We also planned on using cake for the head, but after a trial run using the red velvet cake we came to the conclusion that it's just too soft. There just arent enough dowels in the world to get a round ball of soft red velvet cake to stay on top of a 4 layer red velvet cake without falling right over. (Trial cake was then broken down into red velvet balls for the 4th of July, I just can't justify wasting cake lol)
So, Rice Krispie treat ball it is! And the best part was that we didn't need a pan to shape it. It took a double batch of the gooey treat to create this giant head by hand, but at least I know I won't have to worry (too much) about it rolling off before they cut into it.
The majority of the body is already stacked and frosted with cream cheese frosting and chilling overnight before we cover it with some home made marshmallow fondant. We just have to build the arms out of the rest of the cake and I will also need to whip up a 3rd batch of cream cheese frosting. I also made buttercream to coat the ball with before we cover it so it's nice and smooth.
Mike is currently shaping out the tiny Met's hat from a 50/50 blend of regular fondant and gum paste dyed royal blue. This should take about 2 days to set. I am so excited to see this all come together! I'm sure it's gonna look great, but I just can't help but be nervous! So far, about 6 hours have already gone into this cake and we haven't even begun to decorate it. Tomorrow we must complete the structure and cover the whole thing with the marshmallow fondant. I hope everything just falls into place from there.
For my next mission I will be attempting some beer buttercream. I know it's pretty basic, but i've never had it before. In order to do this I will first have to figure out what cake base to start with. I am torn between just a basic chocolate cake brushed with beer or a chocolate beer cake (which I have also never tried before). I think I will most likely try out the chocolate beer cake since I am very curious about the flavor. I will also then be able to taste the cake and frosting seperate as well as together. If this comes out good, I know what my July 17th Coney Island special is going to be!
Ok.. so I'm back to my old self again! I hate being sick, so glad it passed. Went to the doc and got a clean bill of health.
"Flea By The Sea", here we come!!!!! This means that over the next 2 days I will be baking my buns off! Pardon the bad pun. We will have a booth right off Stillwell Ave. on Saturday, June 20th. Gates open at 12 noon!
Anyway, tomorrow I will be baking a double batch of chocolate chip cookies as well as a double batch of fudge brownies. If I have time left over I will also start baking some cupcakes.
On the menu for this Saturday, June 20th:
Custom Cupcakes!!! Who doesn't love a good cupcake?!?!
I <3> I may even top them with some fudge!!!! Chocolate overload!!!
*Also going on in Coney Island this Saturday: Mermaid Parade, The Cyclone, Wonder Wheel, and other rides are open AND the Circus will be there!Come on down and enjoy Brooklyn! Rain or shine!
That's about it for this weekend. We will also be there for July4th and our menu will include much more, like "Liberty Ball" cake pops and possibly Margarita cupcakes with a twist of lime! So come on down and enjoy a cupcake with your fireworks!
Ok, so I got the recipe from a friend... super secret and all that jazz, and I would never post a recipe given by someone who didn't want me to. So I wont. However... I also did not use that recipe. I did a lot of research on line and found countless posts about this new craze.
The most basic recipe says to use: 1 box of cake mix... prepare as listed on box and cooled 1 can of frosting Chocolate to dip
Once cake is cooled, crumble. Mix in the frosting until mushy and delicious. Scoop out some small balls. Cool (overnight for best results). Dip in melted chocolate.
I stuck some popsicle sticks in there too!
Tonight I tried a new red velvet recipe. Big mistake! I should have stuck with the old one, which, in my opinion, is damn near perfect. I also didn't have any cream cheese, so that was obviously out of the question. Instead I ended up using my regular go-to buttercream frosting (minus the vanilla because I'm all out of that too... need to hit the store tomorrow!)
Anywho, they taste incredible. I started to dip them in white chocolate but they are still too soft and they came out quite mushy. I'm keeping them in the freezer tonight and will resume the dipping tomorrow. I also just found out that this works best if you use a mixture of half chocolate, half cocoa butter. (need to add cocoa butter to my list)
Tomorrow I will add some pics when they are all done. Next time i'm trying it out with good 'ol chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.
Ok, I will be working on this blog as often as possible. I would like to post up some recipes that I have as well as images of the cakes or cupcakes produced by them. I will also include a rating of some sort. I have lots of good frosting recipes too!
Ok, so maybe not... but they have taken over my life!
I LOVE to bake and I have recently started baking for profit. I have been baking for years with my aunt and the passion has only gotten stronger.
Because of my love for baking, my cakes and cupcakes taste even better than they look. I constantly try new recipes to make sure that I am serving the best there is.
Lately I have been trying to become a little more adventurous in my recipes. This past weekend I did a trial run with margarita cupcakes. They were good, but still need work.
So, thanks again for stopping by. Feel free to leave comments and follow me on Twitter. I'm going to be updating quite often.
