Cake!

This week at work I finally had the opportunity to decorate some cakes! Everyone who knows me, knows I love to make cakes........and cupcakes of course. Each week I have baked lots and lots of cake that has been used for birthday cakes, grooms cakes and of course, wedding cakes.  All of the cakes and cupcakes at Bittersweet Confections are made from scratch which does take a little longer, but the results are well worth it and I know the customers appreciate it too. 

Well, this week I finally was able to actually decorate some of the cakes that I baked. Eric, the pastry chef, was out of the shop on Tuesday and we had two orders for cakes so Grace and I finally got to decorate. :)

 

Red Velvet Birthday

Our first cake was a joint effort and was a 6in. red velvet cake that I baked the day before. I iced the cake with some of the yummiest cream cheese icing I have ever made. I masked the sides with cake crumbles and Grace wrote the message in chocolate. Grace is wonderful with writing in chocolate and I can't wait to learn more from her. She has worked in the industry in different New Orleans hotels for a few years now and said they all of them write in chocolate so she has had a lot of practice with it. I have more experience with writing in buttercream icing than she does so we make a pretty good team.....lol

Petite Cakes

In the shop we have what are called petite cakes. They are small approximately 3 inch chocolate cakes that are filled with chocolate mousse and covered in chocolate ganache. These are very popular in the shop and would be a nice little personal sized birthday surprise for a friend or co-worker. They really are the perfect size for a good chocolate fix or you could share if you really wanted to and both people would be satisfied. I have tasted these cakes and personally I'll keep mine to myself thank you very much.

Obama Cake

On Election Day we had an order for a 6in. vanilla cake decorated with the Obama symbol. Since Grace had already left for the day I got to do this one all by myself! I made this cake from start to finish, the baking and the decorating. :) The vanilla cake was a chiffon cake that we make from scratch. We make the base cake batter with butter, sugar, flour and leavening ingredients and then a meringue is made and folded in. It can then be flavored accordingly and baked into a cake that is so fluffy and absolutely delectable. It was decorated in buttercream and I piped the design in stars (appropriate for Election Day don't you think???) I kept waiting for a Romney order to come in too, but nope. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of them side by side. 

Eric makes all of the wedding cakes, grooms cakes and really most of the orders that come in.  I am hoping that as Grace and I have opportunities to decorate cakes he will let us help with some of the orders.  He is very talented and I am really looking forward to learning from him.  A couple of weekends ago he made a grooms cake that looked like a red and white popcorn box.  I wish I had taken a picture to post, but that was a very busy day and there was no time to stop and take out the phone and snap a pic.  The fake cake that is on display now (pictured below) is one that he made and it really a neat design.  I can't wait to learn more and get some more experience with fondant. 

More to come later.  Keep it sweet folks!