Leann Onopa and Michael Moore are personal friends, and I was flattered when they asked me to do their wedding cake. They were looking at a Halloween-eque cake but not over the top. We ended up with a black, white and crimson cake with sort of creepy black treeish things sticking out the sides. A little Tim Burton feel, I think.

No Comments » |

I absolutely loved this cake from September, which was for Kristina Pierce and her groom at Willamette Valley Vineyards. It was a biggie, with six tiers in the main cake with two side cakes. The porcelain look of the main cake juxtaposed with the fine detail work on the scroll on some of the tiers and the side cakes were so beautiful. You can’t see it really well, but there are silver dragees as well, adding just a touch of shimmer.

The design is credited to La Jocande, a bakery in Portland.

1 Comment » |

Crooked or topsy-turvy cakes are cool to look at, and they can be fun to make. They are challenging, for sure, because of the angles. I like them best on the small scale, such as the 21er cake I made for a woman named Alma. She loves red and yellow. We threw in some gold, too.

No Comments » |

This was the year that high school booster clubs found out about the wonder that is Myriad’s cake sandwich. I made nearly 400 for Dallas High School and several dozen for West Salem High School. They are so wonderfully tasty: two layers of cake with a thick layer of mousse filling, all covered in dark or white chocolate. People call them a fancy Ding-Dong. I’m not sure either the Hostess people or I really like that comparison, but hey, whatever works.

Here’s a shot of the spread at the Dallas High School event. Note the Dallas Dragons color scheme.

I should mention that Sue Hamilton of SHE Designs event rental and coordination did the decor on the tables.

No Comments » |

For a friend’s step-daughter’s 16th birthday, she wanted a pillow cake. She was going to add a tiera to the top. Cake flavor: German chocolate with the best freshly made caramel pecan filling I’ve ever tasted (or made).

I can’t take credit for the design. It is one part of a tower of pillows for a cake created by Colette Peters.

No Comments » |

A few weekends ago, I did a great cake at Creekside Golf Course. It was white with a variety of piping designs, brown ribbon and orange gum paste lillies. My husband made the stand for me after I couldn’t find what I wanted in stores. The amazing thing is that he whipped out the stand in just one day, including paint! It’s good to have a handy husband. Too bad he can’t bake…..

So here is the drawing I did for the client, and the final result.

I love the way the orange of the lillies really POPS! I also really like the combination of round and hexagon shapes. The bottom tier is a foam dummy to add height and drama.

No Comments » |

In addition to the yellow and white eyelet cake I submitted to Oregon Bride, I also sent a shot of a dummy cake that had been sitting at Little Cannoli Bakery in the Reed Opera House for years. I always thought the stucco exterior treatment on the cake was so unique, but it never really got much notice at Little Cannoli, it seemed.

Or perhaps it did. I’m not really sure, as the owner has/had photos of my cakes up on his Web site, so he may have gotten orders because of that. But when Little Cannoli closed, I went and picked up the cake. It looks HOT in this photo! It would be perfect for a wedding at a winery!

No Comments » |

Oregon Bride is doing an article for the spring/summer 2010 edition about Willamette Valley wedding vendors, and I was lucky enough to be on their call list. I really wanted to get some photos into the magazine, so I created a cake design featuring yellow (the newest trendy color) and white in an edible eyelet design. Fingers crossed, it will appear in the magazine.

Here’s a sneak peek. By the way, the fabulous topper is by Myra Callan of Twigs and Honey, a former wedding cake customer and friend.

No Comments » |

It was a strange yet fun day I got an order for the Sugar Beet Seed Growers Association celebration cake. The staff was celebrating its 40th anniversary at Willamette Valley Vineyards. I gave the group three options for a design, from simple to totally fun with life-size beets, leaves and planter boxes in a wood grain.

Fortunately, they chose the most fun option. It was completely edible. The “dirt” is graham, and the blue “seeds” around the bottom look like the actual sugar beet seeds.

No Comments » |

Time to play catchup on the highlights of the summer.

I don’t do sketches for every client, but sometimes people request them, so I do my best to draw. Many other cake designers have artistic training, but I’m self-taught in all respects, so I just do the best I can. Anyway, Kristin Haberman and her fiance, Chris, got married in August, and they were expecting a large crowd. They ordered 200 servings in sheet cakes, a main cake to serve 225 and 40 cupcakes for the kids.

Here’s the sketch, and the finished product.

I heard later that the main cake didn’t get cut much, but the feedback was that everything was delicious (that was from Fred at Encore Photography).

No Comments » |