Kara and Greg's Amazing NYC Movie cakes FINAL ACT

Ok, so we're skipping to the final scene...I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting the outcome of this order and believe me I toyed with the idea of making you wait it out a bit more so that I could edit and put up the photos in the order in which they were taken. Well...I'm anxious for you to see them too but for the last two weeks I have had to put other things on hold while doing this order so I'm playing catch up right now with various duties in and out of the studio - which means I can't sit and blog the way I'd like for a few days.

First of all...I think I'm caught up on sleep. Yesterday I was pretty much in a coma. Here's another behind the scenes tid bit for you, when it's a one person business and the deadline looms with perishable product, sometimes very little sleep, if any at all, is had. I don't know sometimes if I can take it. With God's help and the amazing support of family and friends I muddle through. This order was no exception. I'll post more later on the specific support given, but I have some amazing and talented friends in this business and a couple of them came to give more than just moral support. Beth from The Pink Cupcake Bakery in Mt. Vernon, OH came out (yes from OHIO!!) to lend a hand and brought her daughter along for help. They were here for just a day and a half but I can not tell you how much help that was! And wait till you see what Beth did...she's a rock star with Styrofoam and my Dremel tool!! There will be a whole post dedicated to her talent soon. And then of course there is my pen and paper gal, Erin, from Bride Design here in Syracuse; she came over the other evening to help me paint. She's an amazing painter, did you know that? I think the task at hand was a bit limiting and boring compared to her usual subjects, but again, the help she provided was really a much needed, incredible boost.

Ok, so now for the eye candy. I'm skipping ahead here to the finished product. See how nice I am? I know you've been waiting. You'll have to come back again in a few days to see the rest of the order progress, I have lots of pictures to show you don't worry.



The main "cake" is the Empire State Building with King Kong and bride. I refuse to call it a cake, as it contains NO actual cake. This is a display. It's displayed like a cake, it takes the place of a cake, it could have been done in cake. But it is not cake. The cakes are in the centerpiece displays, so no cake here was needed. The display is made of Styrofoam and pastillage. More on King Kong later, but his insides are also Styrofoam and then I detailed his face with sugar paste and finished him off with royal icing. The bride is sugar paste. More on the construction of the topper in another post.


The centerpiece cakes were also the table names. Each table was named after one of their favorite NYC movies. These were incredibly time consuming and some of the parts were just plain difficult, but the desired finished look was spot on and I'm very happy with them. While setting up, we met the father of the groom, who was also very pleased. Let me just tell you how nice it is to hear the phrase "Worth every penny". It's nice, very nice. So here are just a couple of the table cakes, the films are obvious.



Technically all edible, each of the centerpiece cakes consisted of the film canister cakes, the film reel, a scene from the movie depicted on the film strip in printed icing sheets, all laid out and cut out by me, the movie poster to match. The movie posters are front and back edged with gold and silver dragees - painstakingly placed by Beth and Arie while they were here...this took forever! I can only imagine if they weren't here to help that this part would not have been done. Each cake was placed on a custom mirrored charger plate made by a friend of the parents - I'll get that info later, they were really cool. We loved how in most of the photos the film strip look of the charger reflected back up onto the cakes or the cakes onto the mirrors. Usually a reflection like that ruins a cake shot - the blade of the cake knife for instance often leaves an odd blemish looking shadow on the cake, not so this time. Oh, and did I mention that the cake flavors were all different? I doubled up on a few flavors, but this was definitely an order where the 20 Qt Hobart mixer did not come in handy - which of course added to the time it took to bake. Note to DIYer's...don't try 16 different cakes at home, from start to finish this part took two days and no sleep.

Ok. Thanks for your patience, thanks friends for your help. That's it for now. Enjoy. Me...I'm going to go ice my hands some more, and catch up on the rest of my emails and phone calls from the last 2 weeks. I'll edit and post some more "in progress" shots over the next couple days but then it's right back into the thick of it with other orders so give me a minute or two...it's just me here!! The progress shots are really worth a look though, so come on back to see them!

Kara and Greg's NYC Films Wedding ACT ONE

So this is the first of what will hopefully be several blog entries chronicling the progress of Kara and Greg's wedding cake. Their exciting theme...films shot or set in NYC. Each of Kara and Greg's centerpieces will depict a different film - is that the coolest idea or what? They're not having boring old table numbers, they're using their favorite movies!! I will post as I'm able to...but obviously I'm a bit busy with the actual cake ;-)

The part I'm showing a glimpse of now is the seemingly endless construction of the edible (technically) but non cake parts of all of their 16(yes, SIXTEEN) centerpiece cakes each with film canister cakes (not shown since I bake fresh and we're not there yet) and then on top of each a pastillage film reel with filmstrip matching the movie poster on a pastillage plaque that will be positioned on each reel. There will be a little bling and a bit more strip than shown in these photos, but that's all in due time. A little tid bit of info client's don't know about is that for every cake order there is at least one piece of decor that can and will be done ahead of time, but there are so many that just can't be done until the cake is baked. Whether it's hand painting on a fondant covered cake, or in this case, positioning very fragile strips of fondant "film" with printed icing sheets to duplicate a favorite scene from the movie, many things just can't be done ahead. Because we want an unwinding effect, the last strips of film for each cake will have to be placed when the cakes are done while the fondant film is fresh and pliable; this means I can't make that part until the cakes are ready for it. It's this type of work that usually leads to very late nights and sometimes very long set up on site when cakes are delivered.

Want to see just how much was involved in making the parts for that centerpiece above? I've been taking just a few photos of some steps that were necessary to get there. And yes, that means I actually left out some steps!! Pounds upon pounds of pastillage had to be made, drying forms had to be constructed, dough rolled and cut, dried on forms, parts painted, "glued" with icing in sections, more parts added...each step with significant drying time allowed...

click to see a larger view of the shots.

I'll try to add some shots of the "film" being made when I make those additional strips toward completion of the cake.The centerpiece cakes are not the entire order, but you'll have to check back for the rest of this exciting wedding cake story! Until next time...