Cake Life @ The Velvet Buttercream

When did it become okay to order a cake at last minute? Did I miss the memo?!?! In the past 3 days I have completed nine last minute cake orders.. most of them to be completed within 10-20 minutes. I almost feel like Robert Irvine in "Dinner Impossible" when he's trying to complete an amazing event in an impossible amount of time. I've had customers ask for a few rediculous cake orders, one for example was a customer who wanted a 3-tier Fairytopia cake and they wanted the cake in 2 hours.  Even if I didn't have that much to do, I still would have told the customer no, and in fact I did tell the customer no.  I hate to turn down the extra money, but I just can't decorate under intense pressure like that.  In my last blog I talked about my ability to decorate cakes fast, but those cakes are just so basic that even 4-5 minutes for a basic double layer cake isn't unheard of. Now for the icing on the cake (so to speak): I had a customer come in yes

Mary Poppins had the right idea when it came to sugar. So how does this relate to what i'm going to write about? Easy.. Sugar is the basis for any cake and it's quickly become the new cocaine. This new cocaine has grown in such popularity that cake decorators like myself find that my job security is best at a grocery store where i'm forced to make 30-40 cakes per day. Job security isn't a bad thing, at least I know that I don't work in a dying industry like DVD rental stores. (pun intended) Another question that I get asked quite often is how I can decorate cakes so quickly. I guess my speed has come with significant practice and a lot of patience. At Albertson's we have a basic cake called an "AD cake" which are icing, no filling, and basic design. At my fastest pace I can produce 24 ad cakes in an hour with 3 cake turn tables, it calculates to one cake every 2.5 minutes. That video proves that kids are crazy for sugar... If you were li

The definition of Calligraphy : A type of visual art . It is often called the art of fancy lettering Cake decorators generally refer to it as the "writing on the cake", but I look at it as way more than that. Some decorators have the hardest time writing on cakes, it's almost as if they don't try to perfect their writing skills at all. When I first started decorating cakes I wasn't amazing with calligraphy, but I practiced till my hands hurt. Now i'm at a point in my decorating career where I can say that I think I do a good job. I have seen some amazing failures when it comes to calligraphy... and so this my friends is the awesome part of the blog. Picture time! Don't let this handwriting fool you.. it may look nice but, wtf? it's spelled wrong! Rofl Do I really need to even say anything to this one? hahaha Practice makes perfect when it comes to calligraphy.. obviously these decorators haven't done enough of that. Writing with icing is d

"Dear Mario: Please come to the castle. I've baked a cake for you. Yours truly-- Princess Toadstool, Peach." Super Mario Bro's! Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 30 years, you would know that the Super Mario Brother's are a household name. Starting from before I was born on the popular video game "Donkey Kong" to his most awesome new game " Super Mario Bro's Wii ", Mario has made quite the name for himself and for some odd reason he still hasn't made his way to a DecoPack cake kit. So for now i'll have to rely on making my own Today was the day that the Super Mario Bro's 1UP mushroom made a comeback, and not just by himself, he also came back with some red health mushrooms and some mini blue cupcakes. He was two layers white cake, two layers chocolate with buttercream icing all around. A pretty basic cake you might say, but it's for a kid's birthday so i'm sure that they are happy just

I've missed two blogs in a row, i'm sorry. I've been on vacation in beautiful Maryland to spend the weekend with someone who is near and dear to me. So i'll be doing a blog today, tomorrow, and thursday! Prepare for the cake overload.. ^.^ The summer season is almost here, although here in Phoenix it just started (insert upsetting face here). With 90 degree temperatures just starting this past week, one nice way to cool down is with a delicious Tres Leche cake, or an awesome fruit tart. Make them yourself or buy them at a grocery store.. either way they are the most delicious light dessert. A tres leche may be a bit heavier than a tart, but if you'e never had the pleasure of trying one I would suggest that you go out and do so! The cake pictured is a tres leche cake that I made last summer for one of my close friends. Tres Leche is translated to "Three Milk" for those of you who missed spanish class. This delicious tres leche cake is made with

Creating the impossible, part 1 may have been my most beautiful cake to date.. Although it was a beautiful three tier square cake, it's sheer size and intricacy does not compare to my Yankee Stadium Cake. To make this cake there were 14 pounds of buttercream icing, 3 half sheet cakes, 2 chocolate and 1 white, 3 cups of assorted sprinkles, and about 4 hours of labor. This cake was my first attempt at making large scale shapes, and as much as I pride myself in how awesome it looked, I still think that I can do way better. This is the final product... the cake weighed in at 45 pounds with 4 layers of cake and no filling. For being my first attempt at large cakes, it turned out really well. I look back at the cake now and keep thinking of how I could have done so much better! I guess that's just the perfectionist side of me coming out. I know that I could have spent a few hours more on making it "just right" but like all decorators.. sometimes you just have to le

The number one question that I get asked while decorating is "Have you ever seen that cake show?" My reply is generally "I haven't seen it in a few years, but Yes" When I was addicted to TV I used to watch "Ace of Cakes" all the time! It's a great show and it's so much fun to see what they can make out of fondant. Most people don't see what is involved in making these massive projects, things like weight distribution, icing type, and imagination. When I get a customer who wants a huge cake I ask them to imagine the impossible, then draw me a picture and bring it in. The blue wedding cake pictured below is an example of a cake where I asked the customer to use their imagination. The Blue wedding cake was created with six wooden dowels for the base and another four dowels for the middle. They are used to help prevent the layers of cake from smashing the one below. The cake weighed in at just under 60 pounds, with nine layers of fill

I know that this blog is about a month too late for the Valentines day crowd, but i'm gonna write it anyway! Valentines day is a great day to be a cake decorator, because you get to showcase your skills with roses, calligraphy, and making beautiful cakes. I love this holiday! I know, I know, some of you out there are grinding your teeth at that comment, but you gotta see it from a cake decorator's perspective. Whew.. lots of mushy stuff ;) Honestly though... aren't those cute!? I almost feel embarrassed to post the picture of the only Valentines Day heart cake that I made. It was one of my first cakes where I didn't know much about calligraphy, or how to make buttercream roses. February 2009 Eww... lol I guess it was at least a good start. I made this valentines day cake for my good friend Aaron from Tuscon. I never personally handed the cake to him, but I did take lots of pictures and send them along. Valentines day cards are awesome and all, but nothin

A new trend in recent years has began popping up in bakery's across the nation.. Connoisseur Cupcakes! They come in many variations of flavors, icing types, and can be molded into almost every shape you could imagine! Not to sound like a news paper ad, but Sprinkle's Cupcakes has got it all! Grocery stores sell basic white or chocolate cupcakes with White or Chocolate icing.. but why not go all out and make flavored cupcakes? Albertson's Bakeries have recently began to pick up on the trend, although the cake itself is still very basic the icing flavors are not. The flavors range from Strawberry, Peanut Butter, Mint, Cookies and Cream, and so much more! At $.60 per cupcake they are definitely as cheap as they come. The high end bakery's like Sprinkle's Cupcakes come in many different varieties at a hefty price tag of $3.25 per cupcake. Check out their cupcake throwdown with Bobby Flay I titled these cupcakes as "psychedelic", They were created fo