Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sweet 16 Heart Cakes


Our kitchen designer's daughter was celebrating her 16th birthday and when it came down to getting her a cake, he asked if I would like the opportunity to do that cake.  Our kitchen designer, Bruce at Le Gourmet Kitchen in Orange, California is a fantastic guy and he has done so many things for us... he let us use his showroom for our engagement pictures...


When Tyler put his knee through our under cabinet floor, we knew it was time for a kitchen redo... Bruce and the team he assembled did a fantastic job on our kitchen...


So, I didn't hesitate when he asked about a birthday cake for his daughter and her friend.  The two girls wanted to mimic their invitation design which was two hearts.  The most important factor of the cake, making sure it fed 80 people.  My plan was to have each heart feed 40 people.  I baked the cakes in a 10" square cake pan and hand carved the cakes into a heart.  

Overall, I believe the longest measurement is 11.5" and I was scared about covering the cake in fondant.  As some people may know, working with fondant isn't the easiest thing.  Fondant is susceptible to drying out (aka crack lines or worse tears in your fondant) and temperature (anything but cold makes it sweat which can sometimes lead to running colors).  So, in order to cover the cake I had to roll out a large piece of fondant.  The first heart took me two tries but it got covered!  And the second one only took me one try.  My arms and back hurt the next day and I had no idea why until Tyler reminded me that I rolled out fondant.  Oh, fondant and our love hate relationship.
 
The heart was to be covered in black fondant, with a white heart overlay and then the birthday message was to be piped in red. 

 
I tend to under estimate my cakes... so I thought the cakes would error on the small side and I was worried it wouldn't feed the 80 people it needed to feed.  So, with the help of Talya (my Sous), we made cupcakes to match!  Yea... Each cake was about 4" tall and weighed about 20 lbs total.  They were beasts and the cupcakes probably were not needed, but they looked cute!


And an overhead shot of the cake!  I was pretty proud of my first carved/sculpted cake.  I definitely liked that the shape of the cake was a bit different than what I was used to. 

The cake was balanced on my lap in the car... it was a long car ride.

Happy 16th birthday Julianna and Morgann!  I hope you two had a wonderful time at your party!


Until next time, happy baking and decorating!
~Danielle

2 comments:

  1. this is beautiful and so simple. love it!

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  2. These were beautiful in their simplicity. I know you were worried about the fondant but you are becoming such a seasoned veteran. ;)

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