My life as a Wedding Professional....

As some of you are aware, I got remarried earlier this year. The month before our wedding, my parents threw my fiance' and I a little party at the Grumpy Golfer, here in Victorville. We kept the guest list small enough to be able to use their open area, as I loved the chairs, tables, and the fact that we didn't need to do excessive decorating to make it a fabulous-looking event!


Here's some photographs from Kenneth and I's party. Photography credit goes to Autumn Huffine, who did a FANTASTIC job capturing some amazing moments!! She's a young, budding photographer, whom I recommend! Contact me for more information...

The theme was "Black & White", kind of shabby-chic, with pops of Green and Hot Pink. I ADORE pink, it's one of my favorite colors. (I ended up wearing HOT pink slingbacks for my wedding a month later. I will have to post the pictures I took of my shoes & jewelery before hand, they came out so pretty!)

Anyway, my mother and I had fun putting everything together. Picking out sparkly things, lots of candles, and I planned the CAKE. Which turned out to be a monster of a cake. But hey, why not?

6-tiers. But it was SO gorgeous!

I did layers of White Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling & Buttercream, Double Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Cream Cheese Icing (at the request of my fiance'), and a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache & Cream Cheese Frosting. Of course i topped the whole thing off with my White-Chocolate/Marshmallow fondant.

Hand painted, shimmered, and all the little details with black royal icing on the top two tiers. The biggest cake I've done (even now, months later!!), but it sure was stunning! I also did Red Velvet cake balls in Pink & Green to match the decor.

My mom found the trim at a local fabric store, and I wrapped the bottom "plate" in some black raw silk. Topped with a "M" for my soon-to-be new married name, and a hot pink hydrangea!!

We had a DJ, Nedro, he's awesome. If you need a DJ here in the High Desert, please let me know! I've worked with him before, he was the only one I even considered using! Played the music I wanted (mainly 40's and 50's), and has a great setup!

My Uncle David Clark also was there, he played the clarinet. For those of you who don't know, he's the world record holder for the oldest man to sail around the world solo! 86 years old, and running wild and free!! My sister also sang for Kenneth and I.

The surprise of the night? A singing cowboy!! My father met this gentlemen about a week before, and brought him as a surprise! He's the last of the Singing Cowboys from the mid 1900's. Awesome surprise! (I was hoping for Elvis to show up at my wedding after that!)

Some other pictures from the night. My favorite is the one of Kenneth and I dancing, just our feet. Plus you see my shoes! =) (I <3>

What a night! I am SO happy we did the party BEFORE the wedding. It made my wedding day fairly stress-free. Okay, being in Las Vegas helped that too!! We got married on June 12, at the Venetian, in the courtyard. Yes, pretty much in a MALL. I find that fitting.

In fact, I found some really pretty shoes while my girls and I were waiting for the wedding to start! My groom did a major no-no...the marriage license got misplaced! We found it, it was actually a funny story, and everyone was laughing about it. Just meant I had more time to be a bride!! (no nerves for me this time....everything was perfect)

I'll post wedding pictures soon. They were gorgeous!

Cheers!

Julia

Hello Kitty!!

I got a call a couple of weeks ago from a lovely gal who was struggling to find a cake for her daughter's birthday. Labor Day weekend actually. Honestly, at first, I told her I just didn't think I could pull it off.

After mulling it over, speaking with Kaylin (my amazing Intern!), we decided it WAS something we could handle.

And I am SO happy I decided to go for it! What came out was the most ADORABLE cake I think I've done yet!! Hello Kitty!!

I did her nose in edible gold glitter, and her bow is also covered in glitter!! The cake was my fabulous White chocolate cake with strawberry filling. Of course, topped with my vanilla buttercream (I make everything from scratch, and I use REAL butter, no crisco-base unless it's a cake that's going to sit outside all day), and of COURSE my White Chocolate/Marshmallow fondant on top!! Mmmmmm. The cake smelled AND tasted as good as it looked.

I just don't understand why more bakers don't make their own fondant. It's really not that hard, and it's SO much easier to work with! I make it just before I'm going to put it on the cake, and it just slides on that cake like a DREAM. It's smooth, and tastes as good as it looks!!!

Here's to all bakers, and those out there that make fabulous cakes! I'm still learning SO much, but I aspire to be better. I've been working with Gumpaste, but it's still a learning curve for me. (and it smells awful!) I've still to take any classes on floral design OR cake design. Maybe it's time to take a theory class? Hrm, a thought!

Keep an eye out, I'm still working on updating my blog with recent events and posts!

Cheers!

Julia

Detail on Quinceañera Cake

Some close-up detail from the recent Quinceanera cake. The ribbon I used on the cake was also the same ribbon Lizbeth had on her dress!!

Happy Birthday Lizbeth, many happy returns!!

(and I do hope you enjoyed that yummy Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.....It sure did SMELL amazing!!)

Quinceañera

I had the recent chance to do a 4-tier cake for Lizbeth, for her Quinceanera. Kaylin was by my side to accomplish the feat of this enormous cake! (it probably weighed 50+ pounds! All the fondant!!)

What I did was take photographs of the dress, and then took aspects of the dress and incorporated it into the cake. It's wild, crazy, and just "WOW". I used a ton of edible glitter in Gold, Teal, Electric Blue, and Silver. The flowers are all hand-painted, as is the entire cake. I used different colors of luster dust over a navy blue base. (I tinted the fondant, and then painted over it to give it a different effect.

I HAD intended to make the topper from Gumpaste, but it wouldn't set. So I went with my backup plan, which were wooden letters spray-painted gold with navy blue crystals.

All in all, it's probably the most time I have EVER spent on a cake. But it came out gorgeous!! I am still making everything from scratch, including my fondant! I use a marshmallow-white chocolate base for my fondant, and kneed in sugar to make it the right texture for the cake design I am working on. (if that makes sense?) I am not a fondant fan, simply because it usually tastes HORRIBLE, but I have to say, the fondant that I make is quite yummy! My children like to eat the scraps! As they are spoiled when it comes to cakes and sweets at this point, I figure if those 4 like it, I've done a good job!

Keep an eye out, I'm still trying to update with recent work. I've fallen far, far behind in my blogging!

Cheers!

Julia

Cake Balls!

Recently, I had the chance to do a charity event for the Friends of the Phelan Libary.

Here's some of the cake balls we did. My intern, Kaylin has been working just as hard as myself! We did over 200 cake balls, in 4 flavors. White Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Mocha, and Red Velvet!

We also dusted them with a new medium, edible glitter!! You can't see in the pictures the way you can in real life, but it sure does sparkle!!

This batch here to the right is from my daughter's birthday party. Just shimmers, some royal icing designs, and luster dust sprinkled. This was also the debut of Mocha Cake Balls, a newer invention!!

The current popular flavors are:

Mocha

Red Velvet

White Chocolate

Strawberry Cheesecake

Lots of new things going on. Keep an eye out for more posts, and more photographs!!!