SF Station Turns 12

I'm pretty sure that all the cool kids in the Bay use SF Station as their resource guide to what is happening in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is a great website and ever since I was asked to make their 12th birthday cake, I've been hooked. They specialize in the arts and cultural happenings around the Bay Area, so the design elements on the cake reflected this. I made theater tickets, movie tickets, a VIP pass, an artist's palette and a little plate, fork and knife set that exeplifies their extensive restaurant guide. Of course the cake wouldn't be complete without the Sutro Tower featured on thier logo.
Thanks to Eduardo Ribeiro for the photograph. Hopefully more pics will be up on the SF Station site soon.

Sculpture Cakes

December is not the big month for weddings, but I get a bunch of fun birthday and theme cakes. Here are a few favs from this week.

A Topsey Turvey Butterfly Cake and A New Faberge Egg Topper

This fun Topsey Turvey Cake was for a Batmitzva. The invitation had a beautiful purple butterfly on it so I used that design element as inspiration for the cake.

I am so happy to have had another request for my customized, hand made sugar Faberge Egg toppers. This time the topper was for a birthday. I used photos of the birthday lady on the egg and as well as her favorite color purple as the background color of the egg and for the flowers.

November Weddings

Here are a few cakes from my weddings this weekend.

This small wedding cake for 20 wass iced in buttercream with buttercream piping and little sugar jewel details.

Grooms cake! I used fondant for the glove because it really makes great leather.

Not the best pic I know, but this really did look good. All the flowers were sugar.

I was really happy with how this cake came out. This is also buttercream icing and piping. The couple ordered the crystal "B" topper themselves.

Glamourous Wedding Cakes

I have a new favorite venue: the Penthouse Suite at the Fairmont Hotel. For this intimate wedding I used a gorgeous rhinestone trim (which I believe was used on the bride's dress) as a band on two tiers. I also individually cut the stones to use as centers of flowers in my topiary topper. I love the turquoise tile that peeks through in the picture of the topper. I had the opportunity to work with Kathryn Kenna, who is one of the nicest, most easy going and professional event planners I have worked with.

This wedding, designed by the always amazing Michelle of MB Wedding Designs was at The Julia Morgan Ballroom, which is tied for favorite with the Fairmont Hotel(I think they are both designed by Julia Morgan which would explain things). The colors were silver and midnight blue, so with the guidance of Michelle, we created this look. Covered in fondant and painted in silver, the tiers are decorated in hand made fondant jewels and leaves. That very inventive stand was made by Asiel Design.

Sculpture Cake of Stacked Gold Bars for Whirled

For those of you who are fans of the online role playing games, maybe you've heard of Whirled? I hadn't but I learned what currency they use in the game, yup, you guessed it....Gold Bars.

This fun 3'X 2' sculpture was mostly faux, but the top 6 bars were real cake. All iced in buttercream and painted in gold. The logo was hand painted.

Sports Sculpture Cakes

Without fail, theme cakes of the more random nature always come in pairs. Well in just this week alone I had two footballs, one soccer ball and a pair of ballet slippers. I'm not complaining, it's just funny that I won't have orders like this for months and then they all come flooding in. 
All are iced in buttercream with fondant cutouts with the exception of the slippers which were entirely covered with fondant.

New Cakes

Here are two elegant wedding cakes that I think you will all enjoy. The bottom cake for a commitment ceremony was inspired from my favorite Italian ornamental details- all hand piped in buttercream.

And this was a super fun Hawaiian Beach party themed cupcake tower. Each cupcake had hibiscus flowers, beach balls, sand, ocean, seashells and surfboards.

A French Inspired Wedding at The Bellevue Club

Thank you Allana Taranto of Ars Magna Studio for taking these lovely pictures.

I discovered a new fantastic venue this weekend. The Bellevue Club overlooking Lake Merritt in Oakland is a secret jem of a venue that evokes the rooms of Versailles. My bride and groom love everything French (perfect, since I'm French!)so I was so excited to create a design inspired from the ornamental scrolls and swags of the room.

Me in action.

These centerpieces byLeighsa Montrose of Branch Out were so stunning I just had to mention them. The rich colors of the flowers and peacock feathers had such a nostalgic feel that looked wonderful in this venue.

Wedding Cakes

This was a very simple elegant wedding cake iced in Italian meringue buttercream with sugared wine and concord grapes, pears, lychees, figs and plums. I added a few monkey tail ferns, brown branches, berries and eucalyptus leaves.

A bit different in style, this cake was also iced in a yellow/green buttercream and decorated with pink sugar orchids, rosebuds and baby blossoms.A bit different in style, this cake was also iced in a yellow/green buttercream and decorated with pink sugar orchids, rosebuds and baby blossoms.