Paintball, Anyone??

Whew, how quickly December has passed us by.  All of us got our exercise in rolling mountains of cookie dough, pressing out tart shells, baking pies, and making all sorts of other goodies.  There was lots of singing Christmas carols and other songs in the kitchens while we worked, which we hope made anyone listening laugh at our fantastic singing skills!

This week I thought we would share a fun cake we made a few weeks ago for Caleb.  He was going to have a paintball party, so his mother ordered a cake with the paintball theme.  We baked, filled and iced the cake, then brought out the the complete arsenal!  The bought some Gobstoppers, they were the perfect size for the cake design.  We started to sort them by color, and we had to eat some to balance out the colors!  Once we found all the colors, we grabbed our matching airbrush colors.  We sprayed different paint splotches all over the cake and put the candy "paintballs" in the center of some.  We had fun, and our hands looked like we dipped them in a rainbow of colors.  Once we finished, we decided that writing on the cake would not match the theme, so we added "Caleb" in an airbrush graffiti.  We hope everyone at the party, and especially the birthday boy enjoyed the cake.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year and can't wait to share some more fun creations with you.  I am headed out on vacation, but I will be on the lookout for some fantastic treats and ideas to share with all of you.  Until the next blog, visit either store and try our Chili Chocolate Cupcake - the perfect thing to warm you up in this chilly weather!

Winter Wonderland Wedding

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are full of turkey and all the fixings!  We enjoyed the fantastic smells of November all last week - there were turkeys roasting, pots of mashed potatoes, scrumptious sweet potato casseroles with our special crumb topping with granola and pecans, and lots of gravy!  Just when we thought we made enough pie shells, we couldn't resist putting together some turkey pot pies for snacking - YUM!  Well, we are now ready for winter to come in and we have put up all the holiday decorations.  Our Manassas location even has a fully decorated and colorful tree.

This next cake we made for a Winter Wonderland wedding a few years back.  The bride and groom wanted a hexagon shaped cake to serve over 200 guests.  And the most important feature of the cake was to have cascading snowflakes coming down the cake.  A week before the wedding we started work on the snowflakes.  We had some generic snowflake cookie cutters for the outlines, but then we had to get creative.  We used different tips and small cutters to create slits and patterns on each snowflake.  We made over 100 snowflakes in various sizes to decorate the cake.

On the day of the wedding we custom cut the hexagon shapes for each tier.  We then torted each cake, filled the cakes and iced them with our delicious vanilla buttercream icing.  Once the cake was all put together, we piped the borders and some dots around the cake to look like snowfall.  We then attached the small snowflakes on to the sides.  The cake was ready to be delivered.  Upon arrival at the reception site, we started the final touches of adding the cascading snowflakes down one side.  We started at the top and worked our way down to the bottom tier.  Once the snowflakes were in place, we added some battery-powered tea lights to make the snowflakes flicker and glow.  It looked stunning!

So join us for a little taste of winter.  We are dusting off the recipe files and bringing back the chili chocolate cupcakes, peppermint patty cupcakes and gingerbread cookies.  We love the holiday season, so we don't hold back.  Get ready for some new treats and let us satisfy your sweet tooth!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Where did November go?  It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a few days away.  We are hard at work in the kitchens creating some fantastic desserts and side dishes.  We all look forward to having a great meal that last Thursday of the month, complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and so much more.  So we thought we would share some great entertaining tips with everyone this week in celebration of one of the largest holidays of the year.

Tip #1 - THE TURKEY: If you buy a frozen turkey, make sure to allow sufficient time for it to defrost in your refrigerator, typically 2-3 days.  When you are washing the turkey, don't forget to take out the bag of goodies from inside the cavity (Victoria knows this first-hand)!  And we found we LOVE roasting the bird breast-side down with the legs towards the back of the oven for a really juicy turkey.

Tip#2 - DINNER ROLLS: Pick them up from us Wednesday night frozen.  When you get home, put them on your cookie sheet in the refrigerator to thaw overnight.  Let them sit out on your counter or dinner table (if you ran out of counter space) while you prepare dinner or for at least an hour.  While you carve the turkey, pop them into the oven and you will have fresh, piping hot rolls in 13 minutes, and just in time for dinner.

Tip #3 - SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE: Try something else in place of the marshmallows this year - crumb topping with granola and pecans!  To make this bit of heaven, take your regular crumb topping mixture (butter, brown sugar and flour) and turn it into the phenomenal with some of our made-from-scratch granola.  Try it with our busy bee (honey maple) or harvest mix (orange cranberry nut).

Tip #4 - PIES: Once dinner is out on the table and the oven is turned off, put your pie in there.  The residual heat from the oven will warm your pie to the perfect, just-baked goodness.  You won't need to worry about it or check on it while you enjoy dinner.  All you will need ice a scoop of whipped cream, or take it overboard with some vanilla ice cream!

Tip #5 - LEFTOVERS:  Don't fret about serving the same meal for the next week.  Take your leftovers and give them makeovers all week long!  Try a turkey pot pie using chunks of turkey, gravy, vegetables and make the top crust with a thin layer of mashed potatoes.  Or make mini turkey empanadas for a quick treat with some store bought pie crust.  And how about turkey noodle soup with our turkey-shaped pasta?  Too much crumb topping from the sweet potato casserole??  Use the crumbs topping to make baked apples - core out some apples and stuff them with the crumb mixture and bake it in a pan with some apple juice for about an hour at 350 degrees.  YUM!!!!

So come visit us if you need a little help in the kitchen cooking, and most definitely with dessert.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Reaching New Heights!

Welcome back to another story, but we made it longer to make up for the lost week!  We have been busy as bees in the kitchen the last two weeks.  This past Saturday was one of our busiest days of the year (so far).  We participated in the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show on Saturday and Sunday, then we had some large wedding cakes to produce.  We had a lot of late nights punching out little sugar flowers and rolling gum paste.  At times we were also up to our elbows in cookie dough, not to mention our arms got a workout rolling sugar cookies.  Through all of this we also practiced our beautiful piping skills and prepared over a thousand cake pops just as the beginning!  We hope you all enjoyed the samples that we had to offer at the food show.  Now on to our cake of new heights.

Victoria and I come from a large extended family.  So when one is ready to get married, we are always happy to help create their dream cake.  Our cousin Jeff brought his bride, Ella, into our bakery with a specific cake design in mind - THE Royal Wedding Cake.  Which one, you may ask, none other than Prince William and Kate Middleton's cake from this spring, of course!  They liked the grand look with the multiple tiers stacked together to create one large and stunning display.  Since they were having over 480 guests, they wanted to have multiple flavors for everyone to choose from.  The first must have was our fantastic carrot cake with cream cheese filling - our family loves the moist spiced cake with plenty of carrots.  Then they wanted to delight all the chocoholics out there with our devil's food cake with a rich chocolate buttercream filling.  We then lightened it up with some mocha truffle cake and vanilla sponge cake with assorted fillings.  There was something for everyone.

After looking up the design of the royal wedding cake for inspiration, we got to work on how many cakes we would need and how we would put it all together.  But the most important question was how we were going to build the support structure.  So we decided to give the project to a trusted carpenter - my husband Ray!  I gave him plenty of ideas and the boards we would be using, so he spent many hours at various hardware stores finding just the right pieces to lock the support structure in place.  I believe he may have even missed a beloved Hokies football game on a Saturday to work on it!  There was much measuring, drilling, gluing, and redoing on his end.  Once he finished with the structure, he turned it over to the bakery to make it more beautiful.

Our team of decorators started weeks in advance to prepare all the sugar flowers and arrangements to adorn the cake.  For the entire day on Friday (the day before the wedding), we had a team of three bakers working on cracking eggs and baking the 21 tiers, or 42 layers, to make up this cake.  As each cake came out of the oven, we worked on quickly cooling and de-panning them to make space in the kitchen.  The decorators and kitchen assistants made gallons of vanilla buttercream (yes, we do use real butter in it) to cover all the tiers of cake and all the various fillings.  Once the layers were cool, we cut, leveled and filled them, then assembled all the tiers to ice them in the vanilla buttercream.  By the time the last tier was iced, the first tier was cool enough for its ivory fondant cover.  Once all the tables got cleared the fondant mats and rolling pins were brought out, and teams worked in tandem to get all the cakes covered.  At this time, there were some arm-wrestling challenges thrown about from the decorators since they got quite the workout from the hand rolling (no machines here) of the fondant.

Now that the cakes were all covered, they were ready to be stacked and decorated.  On the base of the cake, we use four sets of 12" and 9" cakes stacked together and slightly off-set.  The decoration on this required a very steady hand since the bottom tier was decorated with our triple drop lacing and finished with a small white blossom.  The top cake had a very simple and elegant embossed fondant ribbon with some vines coming down the top and sides of the cake.  Then there were four sets of 10" cakes set in between the four stacked cakes.  For this design, we decided on using a fairly new technique of embroidered flowers and leaves.  This technique requires quick hands and delicate piping skills.  We then tied together all the bottom cakes with four smaller cakes.  Once all the side cakes were done, we started on the middle tower.  The bottom cake was decorated with fondant swags to mimic the drop strings, but more appropriate for such a large cake.  We finished the seams with a white gumpaste rose.  The cake on top of that had an embossed fondant ribbon band to tie in the band from the bottom cakes.  We then custom created a small separator to set the top three cakes apart.  We used a beautiful scrolled design and sprayed it with a pearl shine to let it stand out.  We then brought in design elements from the all bottom cakes, but slightly different, to make the top three cakes really stand out and unique.

Now on to the delivery.  All of the sugar flowers were packaged VERY carefully on Friday evening with plenty of foam and tissue paper.  They took up three large boxes.  There were four cars need to take the delivery - two large SUV's, one minivan (with all the seats down) and one sedan.  One of the SUV's held all the equipment, including the 4' support structure and rolling cart.  The other three held all the tiers of cake.  Upon arrival at China Garden in Rosslyn (the reception site), it took multiple trips in the elevator to get the entire cake upstairs.  Once there, we took over the side tables to start putting the cake together.  We used a champagne pintuck tablecloth for the table, then placed our support on top.  We then worked on getting all the 21 tiers of cake up.  Once everything was set, we went to work on placing all the sugar flowers.  We started with large arrangements of roses and calla lilies, accented with some orchids and more small white blossoms.  We kept moving around the cake, all the sides looked the same, there was no back side to the cake.  Once everything was all set, we place the final arrangement on top and the cake looked absolutely regal!

So here are some fun facts about the cake.  This cake would have served close to 900 guests.  The bottom cakes were close to 5" high each.  We used over 20 dozen eggs, 25 lbs of flour, 30 lbs of sugar and 40 lbs of vanilla buttercream.  From Friday to Saturday, we put in over 60 hours of work on the cake (this does not include the sugar flowers made earlier).  The set up took a team of four almost two hours, not including the delivery time.  And for the retail cost - remember the commercial that promotes "PRICELESS", and for everything else there is a Mastercard!  I am also including a link to a video made by our Uncle Gene about the cake.  Please enjoy!  http://www.cakesbyhappyeatery.com/royalweddingcake.htm

Haunted House Wedding Cake

In honor of Halloween coming up next weekend, here is a cake for everyone to enjoy.  We made this cake for Matt and Sylvia's wedding on October 31, 2010.  They were getting married at Harbour View in Woodbridge, VA and wanted to play up Halloween.  Matt and Sylvia thought about a large pumpkin-shaped cake, but then wanted some spooky elements to it.  After a few sketches, they decided they really wanted a haunted house cake.

The week of the wedding, the designers set off making some figurines for the cake.  There was to be no ordinary topper, a haunted house cake needed two skulls on top.  Once the skulls were formed, the eye holes were cut out to provide a surprise later on.  We also made a top hat for the groom and a veil for the bride.  A black cat was added, as were lots of little spiders, some pumpkins, bats, dying tree and tombstones.

On the morning of the wedding, we cut three square cakes and stacked them together to form the house.  Each tier was covered in the marbled gray fondant.  Once we had the cake covered, we were ready to add all the design elements.  We started off with layers yellow and black fondant to mimic windows.  A black door was added so that we could pipe a rickety black fence around the entire house. We then piped some cobwebs for the spiders to rest on.  For the top tier, we cut out little shingles and overlapped them to give the house little more texture.  Once the cake side was done, we worked on the grave site next door to the house.  We used chocolate crumbs to mimic dirt and worked on some witty tombstones.  Some of them included "Here lies the single life of Matt", "Bachelors could no longer find Sylvia", and "RIP Single Life".  We added the tree with all of its leaves on the ground.  Once we got the cake on-site, we added the skulls on top with little lights behind them so that their eyes glowed!  It was very cool.

Have yourselves a fun and spooky Halloween.  We have plenty of fall sugar cookies to help you celebrate.  And I offer up a special treat for everyone this week - look at our Facebook page to find out what it is!

Gone Fishin'!!

Welcome back to another fun and exciting week.  I have missed two weeks, but we have been busy creating all sorts of fun things in the kitchens.  We had a whirlwind of detailed groomscakes, special birthday cakes and very cute baby shower cakes.  So we will have many stories to tell.

Last weekend was the wedding of Jen and Ben, and they got married at the Inn at Kelly's Ford in Remington, Virginia.  It is a very quaint and picturesque venue and makes for great photos.  Jen wanted to surprise her soon-to-be husband with a spectacular groomscake with his all-time favorite hobby - bass fishing.  Her challenge to us was to create a bass boat using the colors of red, white and black   She supplied us with some photos of real bass boats and left the rest to us.  As for the flavor, she definitely wanted our mocha truffle filling, but the cake flavor was to be a surprise.  So we decided to make her the ultimate cake.  We alternated layers of vanilla and chocolate sponge cake and put plenty of our fantastic mocha truffle filling in between.  We then worked on carving the shape of the boat and tapered it down towards the bottom like a real boat.  Once the shape was ready, we covered the entire boat in vanilla buttercream icing.

As the cake was chilling out in the fridge and awaiting its fondant cover, we went to work on some details.  Everyone in the bakery was throwing out suggestions as to what they take with them fishing.  Who knew we had a bunch of fishermen and women in the kitchen?  The red and white life preserver was must, as were life jackets, anchor, oars, ropes, tackle box and two personalized beer cans!  There was a lot of fondant rolling and colors being made.  As those items were setting, we were ready to cover the cake in fondant.  We started with white fondant to cover the entire cake.  Once that layer was on, we marked and scored it to look like individual wood planks used to build a boat.  That was followed by a red painted plank as the top one and a red backside.  The interior of the boat was covered in black fondant to give it some depth and white benches were then added.  Now then fun began.  We added all the elements on to the cake, but needed it to look more realistic.  We rolled tiny little worms spilling out of the tackle box!  Then the entire board was covered in various shades of blue buttercream to mimic water.  We added candy rocks and green marsh, but it still needed something more.  After a few more minutes it finally came to us, we wanted to tie two wedding bells that said "JUST MARRIED" on the back, just like their getaway car for that evening.  As we were about to do that, an even better thought came into mind, we tied two fish to the back instead!  The bride completed the fun with her cake topper of the bride hooking her groom.

Don't forget to stop by either location to have some of our fantastic granola, jams and fun pasta.  We only have a few bags left of the Halloween pasta for your parties, so don't delay.  In the meantime, stop by for a complimentary cup of coffee when you purchase any of our new products.

Rapunzel, let your hair down!

Welcome back to another fun adventure-filled week.  We have a lot to share - our new line of jams, jellies and fruit butters are in.  Take a moment to check them out.  We will have some samples at both locations.  We are also introducing a new line of fun pastas - we have everything from tailgating shapes to cake shapes to your favorite collegiate football team shapes.  They are a lot of fun.

Now on to our story of a towering cake with a fairytale princess trapped inside for a very special 3-year old birthday party.  We started off with a vanilla buttercake and mango mousse filling, a great last hint of summer flavor.  We then iced the cake in our delicious vanilla buttercream.  Once that was done, we set off to create Rapunzel's tower.  Inaaya's parents asked us to use rice cereal treats for the tower since they were not serving a lot of guests and there would be two desserts to choose from!  The first thing was to carve out the tower shape and Rapunzel's room.  After a thin layer of vanilla buttercream, the tower was ready for some gray fondant with a stone pattern.  We distressed the fondant slightly with some stone patterns and added some extra stones for texture and color variation.  The room on top was covered in white fondant and finished with dark chocolate "wood" trim and designs.  We then designed Rapunzel gazing out the window, waiting for her prince, with her long blond hair trailing down the side of the tower.  A shingled spike at the top brought the fairytale to life.  Once everything was on the cake, the designed was completed with green grass and pink flowers for Inaaya's special cake.  The cake stood about 26" from the table when we were done.

Join us next week for another fun tale.  In the mean time, please come out to either location to check out our new line of fantastic jams, jellies and fruit butters.  We also have some fun shaped pasta for you to enjoy.

Rum-lootin' Pirate on the Loose!

Welcome back to another week.  We were busy creating all sorts of custom cakes.  We thought you would enjoy hearing about Brian's 21st birthday cake.  Brian has worked with us for about 4 years now, and after seeing some of the spectacular cakes go out our doors, he decided it was his turn.

Brian decided he was going to become a fan of Sailor Jerry's Island Rum when he turned 21, so he asked us to recreate the bottle for his birthday.  One of his favorite flavors is German Chocolate cake.  So we took our chocolate sponge cake, brushed it generously with some Island Rum, filled it with some chocolate buttercream and our delicious coconut praline mixture, then rolled it up tight like a jelly roll.  We had to let it set for a few hours so that it could hold the shape.  Once the cake was ready, we started to carve it into the bottle shape complete with the neck.  We put a thin layer of chocolate buttercream over the entire bottle and started to roll out fondant.  Once we got the cake covered in fondant, we sprayed it the light bronze color of whiskey, added the Sailor Jerry label and cap.  But we thought it needed something more.  We first came up with the ever-present red plastic cup most college students use.  But it still needed something else - an ID of course!  So we had a little fun in creating his brand new ID for turning 21.  He became "Brain" Kallapos, from his high school days, can reach items from the top shelf for us, and the photo was from another cake we made for him a few years ago.  If you can't tell, Brian really loves the pirate theme.

Join us for some more fun tales next week.  We have quite a few cakes to tell you about.  These past two weeks we have made Rapunzel's tower, wine bottles, tiny red flowers galore, fall leaves, the list goes on.  We also had a fabulous display at the Bridal Showcase on Sunday.

Eclairs Galore!

Welcome back to another week of fun tales and adventures with Cakes by Happy Eatery.  I hope everyone is staying dry today.  The weather took a turn quickly and feels like fall already.  So come join us for a fantastic cake pop and we will have a complimentary cup of hot coffee to go along with it through Friday, September 9 when you mention this blog.  We are also getting ready to bring back some fall treats - apple maple cupcakes, hot spiced cider, pumpkin cookies, and more.  So make sure to check back with us often for those seasonal favorites.

Now for this week's story, we made a special birthday treat for one of our sales staff's father.  Brian has been with us for over 4 years now, and today actually happens to be his 21st birthday.  We will talk about his cake next week - you will enjoy it!  Brian's father has a soft spot for eclairs.  Last year, we made a mountain of eclairs for his birthday, so we needed something different this year.  Brian asked if we could spell out DAD in eclairs.  We did even better - we made huge eclairs out of the letters, and made mini ones to spell out "Happy Birthday"  We filled the three large ones with our yummy Bavarian cream, but they were too large and heavy to dip into our special chocolate ganache.  So we spread out the ganache on top of each letter.  We then drizzled them with some white chocolate for a finishing touch.  Afterwards, we filled and dipped all the mini letters and a large exclamation point.  We were ready to assemble them together on a board.

If you need help to make a "non-traditional" birthday cake, or just want to have fun with pastries, give us a call.  We are more than happy to create something new and unique to for your get togethers.  Until next week, stay warm and dry.

Hurricanes and so much more!

What a week we had - an earthquake, aftershocks and Hurricane Irene.  We barely felt anything in Centreville and Manassas.  I happened to be in Centreville rolling a few of our flour bins around and was surprised by my strength.  Then the settling noise made me think twice about someone jackhammering away!  Victoria called to check in since her chair was shaking in Manassas.  We realized it was an earthquake when the light fixtures were slightly swinging.  But no harm was done and everyone was safe and sound.  In honor of all that happened last week, I thought you would enjoy a fun story about my brush with Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

Zachary is my firstborn, so as you can imagine, I was a very nervous first-time mother.  He was born on Monday, September 15.  While waiting upon his arrival at the hospital, the news coverage was about a Tropical Storm Isabel that was turning into Hurricane Isabel.  We thought it was funny since we considered the name Isabel if the baby was a girl.  It wasn't meant to be, we had a beautiful and healthy baby boy, Zachary, who passed all the tests, so we got sent home after a few days of recovery.  Just in time for a Thursday night Virginia Tech football game and a hot dinner cooked by my father.  I remember sitting on the couch resting, my father cooking away in my kitchen, and my husband, Ray, anxiously setting the television for his beloved football game.  Then our electricity went out.  Hurricane Isabel was knocking on our door and she was not going away easily.  We quickly got some flashlights and ate the parts of dinner that were cooked and put away the rest.  My father and Victoria went home for the evening, but my mother stayed to help us through our first night home with an infant.  That's when the fun began.

We suddenly heard a huge crash on the back side of the house.  Ray and I went to check it out and we discovered a neighbor's very large tree had fallen into our yard, breaking the fence and clearing the house by about 10 feet.  We were very lucky and thankful.  That was the scene all over the region.  We didn't sleep in any bedrooms at the rear of the house since there were a few more large trees.  Yes, we slept on couches and pullout beds while Zachary got the changing table pad on the floor next to us.  What a sight we must have been.  The hurricane had us down for about 10 days - we had no electricty due to some trees hitting the poles, no phone service due to the amount of water, and no safe water in Fairfax County due to the power outage.  What an unforgettable time in our lives!

The bakery was more fortunate than us.  The electricity only flickered, but remained on.  Since we also use Fairfax County water there, we had a slight problem - safe water for our baking and cooking.  Well, we raided all the stores for bottled water.  We brought it in by the casefuls!  So for Zachary's first birthday party, we had to put this history onto a cake.  We had a serene blue sky with the sun shining through, an upright tree with birds in it and some flowers underneath.  If you look at the bottom corner, you can see the wind currents of the soon-to-be Hurricane Isabel!

Come join us for another fun-filled week.  I am ready for the school year to start.  But until then, come try our special chicken salad of the week.  We decided to take our already fantastic chicken salad to another level this week - we added some champagne grapes and pecans!  The combination is delicious.

Yes, just keep on reading!

I am back from vacation and running around like mad to catch up.  I think this next cake was too funny and that you would surely enjoy the story.

Katie called a few months ago about a cake for her aunt's 65th birthday.  In her family, they do things a little differently on milestone birthdays.  They throw a theme party with something the guest of honor dislikes immensely.  Her aunt believed she was having a Hawaiian themed party, but she didn't know it was going to be overrun with cockroaches!  So Katie thought it would be funny to make the cake as a large dead cockroach and even provided a picture for reference.  We were happy to help.

We were all getting the creeps in the kitchen looking at the photo and designing the cake.  One team started work on the wooden floor boards for the delightful creature to have its final rest.  They started out with a lemon cake and vanilla buttercream.  Once they had the cake iced, they started adding some layers of various shades of brown to give it a stained wood look with a few dark swirls for the grain to stand out.  They then used chocolate ganache to pipe the seams and they were ready for the second team to do their part.

During all this, the second team made a lemon cake roll for the body of the cockroach.  They used a reddish brown fondant in different shades to cover the belly portion and back.  Once that was done, the real fun began.  We had to attach all the legs and cover them with little hairs.  Those big ugly eyes got us all laughing and feeling sorry for Katie's aunt at the same time.  Then the two big long black antennae and we were done.

We apologize for those of you who were visiting us in Centreville last weekend and thought bugs of unusual sizes were running loose.  We promise we run a tight ship!  And to Katie, I hope you watch out on your next milestone birthday, you never know what could be in store for you!  So join us for a good laugh and thank goodness that cockroaches DO NOT live to get that big!  Celebrate the last little bit of summer we have left with a cupcake on us through Sunday, August 21 when you mention our blog.  Until next week.

Wedding at the beach

What happened to the week??  Before I knew it, Victoria announced that it is Thursday.  So I am sorry for such a late blog, but I promise I was eating well those extra two days!  Victoria and I attended the Women's Wedding Network luncheon yesterday and the Farm at Broad Run.  Their outdoor pavilion is just gorgeous.  I am afraid to bring my husband out there, because once he sees their outdoor kitchen, I can just see the wheels turning around in his head as to how to make our backyard just like it!  Lunch was fabulous, we ate local foods catered by A La Carte Catering.  I really enjoyed their corn relish and their bruscetta was outstanding.  Go visit a farmer's market this weekend and pick up some fresh veggies.

I am dreaming of my vacation at the beach next week, so I think this next cake is just what I need to get me through the rest of the week.  This cake was for a bridal shower a few months ago.  They were having a beach themed shower, so the maid of honor brought in the invitation for inspiration.  The blue was so warm and inviting and the white designs just sparkled.  The maid of honor wanted to incorporate some tropical orchids, and left the rest up to us.  We decided to ice the cake in that lovely blue so that the white orchids would stand out.  After putting on the orchids, we decided they needed a little sparkle.  So we brushed them with an edible white glitter.  We added a few fondant seashells around the bottom of the cake to tie in the theme, but we thought it was missing a little something.  Eureka!  Two starfish, to represent the bride and groom, would be the perfect compliment to the cake.  Once those were on, the cake looked beautiful.  We finished it off with Congratulations Kelly and her special date, 9/18/11.

Come cool off with us in Manassas or Centreville.  We just made some death by chocolate cake pops, and they are good!  Come in through Sunday, August 7 and mention the blog for a complimentary cake pop.  I will try to get online at the beach next Tuesday, but if the waves keep beckoning me, I'll be back the week after with a new tale.  I also welcome any photos of cakes we have done in the past that you would like for me to highlight.

Baseball and Cake - always a fun combination!

Whew, what a relief from the extreme heat we have been getting these last few weeks!  I hope everyone has been hiding away in some air conditioning and coming up for some bubble tea!  Our ice makers were working overtime last week.

Now on to our special cake of the week - a groomscake we made for a Phillie Phanatic!  Bridget, our lovely bride, wanted to surprise her groom with a fun cake on their wedding - which was held at the very gorgeous 2941 in Falls Church.  The views are breathtaking.  Well, the groom is a chocolate fan, so we made a rich devil's food cake filled and iced with our dark chocolate buttercream.  Bridget wanted to make sure we incorporated the Liberty Bell tower, Phillies logo and World Series from 1980 and 2008.  So from there, the sketch entailed a custom made Phillies jersey, a baseball with a baseball bat on top, and the Liberty Bell picture.

The first item we made for the cake was the jersey.  We went with a red jersey with white piping for the name and number.  We even remembered the small Phillies logo that is found on the left sleeve!  Once that was put onto the cake, we started on the baseball.  For the baseball, we rolled white fondant, then our tiny fingers rolled out red fondant very thin and cut it into strips for the signature stitching.  We then marbled different shades of brown to make the wood grain look for the baseball bats.  For the Liberty Bell tower, we used a sugar image to capture the light of the tower.  After we put together the cake with these elemtns, we decided it needed a few more touches.  So we put the World Series Campion logos on the sides of the cake, then added some more baseball game must haves.  We made some hot dogs with mustard, peanuts, baseball caps, and miniature baseballs to go around the bottom of the cake.  When we were done, we were ready to play ball!

When you come in, make sure to sample our fantastic granola!  We are creating a new line of healthy treats, and they are delicious.  Today, we have a great blend of nuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflowers seeds in a honey maple granola fortified with wheat germ and flax seed.  We are also working on our breakfast oatmeal, which is a great way to start the day.  If you have some flavor combinations you would like to see or recommend, let us know.

Office Retirement

I am ready for winter to come!  It has been so hot and sticky outside these last few days, and I hear it is only to get worse.  Well, come on in and cool off with an ice cold smoothie - strawberry mango is my favorite!  We will make sure to have our ice makers working overtime to help keep you cool.

For this week's highlight, I thought you would enjoy our office retirement cake we did a few weeks ago.  Catherine worked at Carfax for 7 years, and one of her coworkers wanted to have a fun cake for her retirement party.  She choose to cover the cake with little sticky notes and other desk supplies.  So two days before the cake was due, we rolled out little squares of fondant in those famous sticky note shades of yellow, pink and blue.  We left them to dry so that on the day the cake was due, we could use our food markers to write all sorts of to-do items - lunch with the girls, ask for a bonus, etc.

The morning of the delivery, we made a vanilla sponge cake with fresh fruit and whipped cream filling, then iced it with a thin layer of buttercream icing.  Once that was done, we rolled out white fondant to cover the entire cake.  Once the fondant was on, we were ready to attach the prepared sticky notes and embellish with a few other items.  There was a pen, pencil, tacks, paperclips, pencil sharpener and more.  We thought the cake turned out great.

Well, until next week, stay inside where the air is cool.  But if you do decide to venture out, come stop by either Manassas or Centreville for a cupcake on us, which goes well with those smoothies!

Fun and Whimsical Weddings

It's hard to believe another week has passed us by.  We have been in wedding central in the kitchens for the last month.  So we thought you would enjoy this recent cake for a very fun couple who wanted to reflect their style at their wedding.

The setting for the cake was at the beautiful Hotel Palomar in Rosslyn, VA.  The room was beautifully decorated and the floral centerpieces was of different shapes, colors and styles.  The bride and groom chose a 3-tiered cake with buttercream icing.  They tiered round cakes with a square in the center.  The main color they wanted to have on the cake was royal blue.  The round cakes had fondant polka dots of different sizes all around, the the square cake had bold vertical stripes.  When we arrived at the Hotel Palomar, the florist had fresh flowers waiting for us to complete the design.  The flowers was all different bold colors and different.  The cake looked fabulous!  This wedding cake had both traditional elements and some very modern accents to make it unique.

Come visit us at either Manassas or Centreville through Friday, July 15 for a complimentary bubble tea to help cool you down for the summer.  Don't forget to try one of our butterbeer cupcakes from Harry Potter - the movie is coming out this week!  Until next week, you can find us at www.CakesbyHappyEatery.com.

Party with the Wu Family!

Welcome to a very late weekly blog.  Victoria and I have been taking some time off to send time with our other sister Charlotte (yes, there are three of us!).  She lives overseas, so we don't often have the whole clan together.  She came into town with her family and we have been having a load of fun.  If you can't tell from our personalities, the Wu family loves good food and desserts.  So what better way to celebrate than a big Welcome Home Party?!?!?!  We decided to take things a little easier and have all the catering (food, beverages and pastries) done by one of the best places we know - Cakes by Happy Eatery!

We came up with a nice summer menu that had items to suit food lovers of all types.  Our starters included our fabulous cheese puffs (gougeres), crab stuffed mushrooms, coconut shrimp, paper wrapped shrimp, chicken cordon blue, our brand new hot dogs baked in a bun, and some fruit.  For the main course we had roasted rib eye with a beautiful mushroom gravy, BBQ ribs (really tender and flavorful), potato salad, broccoli salad, green beans, mac & cheese, asparagus in a citrus sauce, wild rice pilaf, herbed chicken in a cream sauce, and more. 

Once we had the menu set, we had to make a gorgeous display.  Victoria wanted something with vivid colors, and as we were sitting at the dinner table at our mother's house, it came to us.  Our father planted a hydrangea bush in the backyard that was in full bloom.  It was absolutely breath-taking with blooms of different hues of purple, ranging from a lavender to a regal purple to a deep blue.  We set out our purple pintuck tablecloth with a lavender overlay.  We then asked Sher (Flowers by Sher) to borrow a tall vase to showcase the beautiful flowers from the garden.  We layered clear and purple crystals in the vase and topped it off with the dark purple hydrangea.  The table looked fantastic.

Now a party wouldn't be the same without desserts from our favorite bakery!  We chose to keep the dessert menu simple this time and highlight some of the popular trends right now - cupcakes and cake pops.  Our kitchens were busy making dozens of miniature cupcakes in assorted flavors, which included classic chocolate, dulce de leche, red velvet, lemon raspberry, mango mousse, simply strawberry and more.  We have also added cake pops to our dessert line.  We made red velvet, birthday cake (vanilla chocolate marble cake), death by chocolate, vanilla and more.  And we couldn't forget our popular fruit tarts - a true summer treat!  They were a fun addition to the party and many of our guests were walking around popping the mini desserts as they visited with everyone.

So don't forget about us the next time you have to plan a party.  Our catering menu is fantastic and our food is all made to order.  Come visit us in either Centreville of Manassas for a cake pop on us through Sunday, July 10 when you mention our blog.  Until next week!

Sushi Anyone??

Welcome to another week.  We have been bringing out all the fun summer time treats.  Check out the new cake pops in different flavors (the death by chocolate is my favorite), lemon cream tarts, key lime pie, chocolate dipped strawberries, and a very refreshing watermelon smoothie.

This week we are featuring a grooms cake we made to highlight the groom's love of sushi.  First we made a rectangular cake to look like the trays that sushi is served on at the restaurants.  We rolled out white fondant to cover the entire cake.  To create the wood grain effect, we used a light brown color and a paint brush to apply the color.  The bristles of the brush resembled the imperfections of a wood grain.  As the sushi tray was drying, we started on hand-rolling all the sushi.  We took out fondant and started out with some dark green seaweed, dark red tuna, light salmon, white rice and orange roe.  Once we had all the components ready, we rolled them together to create a mouth-watering display of sushi.  We finished it off with a pair of chopsticks, some soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger.  The cake looked fantastic and delicious.

Join us next week for another fun cake adventure.  Until then, come visit Victoria or myself in Centreville or Manassas and have a brand new cake pop on us (through Friday, July 1).  Remember to enjoy the beautiful weather and don't forget to pick up dessert for your 4th of July picnics.  Parfait bowls, strawberry pies, cupcakes and strawberry shortcakes are perfect for your BBQs!

A spring wedding

I know it's a little late in the day, but I haven't forgetten about the blog.  I have had quite a full day of spring cleaning (a few months late) and decided I must treat myself to a very cold cup of bubble tea with a warm chocolate chunk cookie tomorrow.  So come join me for a complimentary bubble tea in either Centreville or Manassas (through Friday, June 24) to toast my long-lost and very much forgotten about muscles!  And if you need help with your overdue spring cleaning, I offer up Victoria's muscles - she is fantastic, fast, efficient and remember to look for her in Manassas and she will be ready with extra large trash bags!

Well, after last week's wedding cake mishap, I thought you might enjoy one reading about one of our favorite wedding cakes we have done recently.  This cake was done about two months ago at the height of cherry blossom season.  The bride and groom really wanted to highlight cherry blossoms and had a special love of chocolate.  So they went with a three-tiered wedding cake with alterating layers of mocha and chocolate sponge cake iced with chocolate buttercream, then covered in dark chocolate fondant.  Since the cherry blossoms they chose have a hint of pink, they wanted to accent the cake with a thin pink fondant ribbon band.  We then piped some branches in a slightly lighter chocolate and made our own version of a cherry blossom tree.  The cake looked fantastic!  We were all in awe of how well the cake turned out.  The design was very clean and elegant, it had a touch of traditional with a very modern twist - WE LOVED IT!

 We also want to congratulate all the recent graduates.  Congratulations Class of 2011 and good luck on your next adventures!  Don't forget to stop by or visit our website at http://www.cakesbyhappyeatery.com/ for some sweet treats.

WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?! - Don't forget to always stay cool.......

Well, our kitchens certainly kept us busy this past weekend.  The hot and humid weather sure did not help us out any.  So we wanted to share a little reminder to everyone as the summer is about to officially begin (the 90+ degrees for the last two weeks was just spring!).

On Friday morning, our Centreville kitchen started up early to produce a wedding cake to be picked up at 9am.  The bride and groom were having a small wedding with about 15 people on Friday afternoon.  They chose a two-tier red velvet cake with cream cheese filling and buttercream icing.  For the design, they wanted something simple and elegant.  They went with a light pink ribbon wrap with scroll work and fresh pink roses on the cake.  We had the cake ready for them when we opened at 9:00.  That morning, it was already 90 degrees outside, and they weren't serving the cake for another five hours, so we made sure to remind them to refrigerate the cake when they got home.

Well, almost two hours later they walked back into the bakery with the cake box.  One of our staff members (Brian) asked what was wrong, and they lowered the cake box.  I think Brian's heart may have jumped a little when he saw the remnants of the cake.  All the buttercream icing had melted, the cream cheese filling had also melted and the cake was sweating.  Brian asked what happened, and our nervous groom admitted he had stopped to run an errand before going straight home, therefore he left the cake in the car by itself, with no air.  This happened almost two hours since he left with the cake from the bakery!  Since it was over 90 degrees, it meant the inside of the car was like an oven, and the entire cake could not handle the extreme heat.

We were not able to save their original wedding cake due to the melted icing and compromised support structure.  We asked them to come back in another 90 minutes so that we could figure out our next step.  Luckily, we had some more red velvet cakes for orders that were picking up later that afternoon, so we pulled those cakes and trimmed them for a brand new wedding cake and had the baker start on another batch of red velvet cakes for the later orders.  We quickly filled and iced the new cakes, then decorated them to look like the original cake.  When the groom returned, he had two cakes - a beautiful wedding cake for his beautiful bride, and a groomscake that was sure to be the talk of the pre-summer heat!

So here is a little rhyme from our desserts so that you will never forget to keep dessert cool:
Our gentle reminder that just like you, please keep us (desserts) cool,
We don't like to sit, unwind or relax by the pool,
For we are not made to stay hot,
And we will try to give it all we've got,
But you may forget about us and go take a dip,
And if you do, we will most certainly drip, and may even strip!

Sweet Sixteen

Welcome back to another crazy busy week!  The kitchen in Manassas is busy producing all things graduation for Friday.  We have some fantastic graduation cookies that have been flying off the shelves.  Centreville just created a new sponge cupcake, it tastes like velvet, butter and air wrapped up in a cupcake!  They are only $1 each, but if you mention our blog through Friday, June 10, we will share it with you on the house, and we will make sure our Manassas location has some starting tomorrow (Wednesday).

I thought we would feature a recent sweet sixteen birthday cake we made a few weeks ago.  I received an email about two months ago from Nanci about planning her daughter's 16th birthday party, to be held at a restaurant in Fair Oaks. They were looking for a showstopper that was friendly on a budget.  The first picture they had in mind was a three-tier topsy turvey cake, but that did not fit within their budget.  So I asked what elements from the cake they liked, and we went from there.  The birthday girl was very flexible and loved hot pink, zebra print and black.  So we sketched out a tall two-tier cake, with the bottom iced in hot pink buttercream with a black fondant ribbon band around.  The top tier was covered in a zebra print with a small row of hot pink dots to tie the two together.  To finish it off, we made a 16 out of hot pink fondant and outlined it in black then added in little dangling balls of black, white and hot pink to complete the fresh and young feel for the party.  Nanci was excited when she saw the cake. 

The cake was iced completely out of vanilla buttercream, with just a touch of fondant for the ribbon bands, 16 topper and colored balls.  Our decorators do an amazing job of making cakes look glass-like smooth without the use of fondant.  So come on out and visit us at either location.  If you need to cool down, we have plenty of bubble tea and smoothies to help you out!  Until next week.

Emily

25th Anniversary of Jazz & Pizzazz

Welcome back to another busy week.  Don't forget to try our new chocolate hazelnut crunch cupcake and let us know what you think.  While we look forward to the summer, the kitchens have been hot from all that baking!  Let's get on to our greatly anticipated cake.

Glenn and Mary came to our bakery a few months ago in preparation for the 25th Anniversary of Jazz and Pizzazz, a production put on every spring by the Chantilly High School Music Department.  This is a huge event for them, and they asked for show-stopping cake.  After some sketches and thoughts put down on paper, they decided they wanted to replicate their stage.  We didn't have a photo of the stage to work with so we did a bit of sketching to come up with the blueprint.  From there, the pastry chefs an decorators took over.  The other thing the chefs had to consider was that they were displaying this cake for two days in honor of all alumni coming in for the celebration, and it was too large to fit into our fridges in Centreville.  So we stopped baking production mid morning to cool down our kitchen and to clear enough table space.  The bottom "stage cake" was to be made with chocolate devil's food cake and the backdrop was vanilla buttercake.  The entire cake was covered in vanilla buttercream, then covered in black fondant.  We added purple shimmery "curtains" on the two sides and on the front of the stage, some steps and a microphone in the spotlight.  The back wall had their 25th anniversary logo, which was a must.  But what made this cake so special were the handmade musical instruments on the top.  There was a drum set, guitar, trombone, saxophones and trumpets.

I had the honor of attending the show on Friday night after delivering the cake.  What an experience!  The talent of all the students and the dedication of the teachers, staff and parents at Chantilly HS are truly incredible.  This did not feel like a high school production at all.  I cannot imagine the number of hours that were put into this, so I encourage everyone to put this on their reminders of "TO DO" for next spring.  And to show my support, I invite the Chantilly HS students, faculty, staff and parents to come by either location for a free cookie through Friday, June 3 when you mention this blog.  Until next week and another fun adventure.

Calling all Mouseketeers!

Well, spring has certainly come in our kitchen!  The communions and confirmations are just about done, college graduations are still in full swing and the weddings have definitely on a roll.  In the midst of it all, we still find time for some really fun cakes.  So here is another cake for everyone's inner child.

A client came in about a month ago looking for a cake to replicate a Mouseketeer hat for her husband's birthday.  They both love Disney and Mickey Mouse.  Her only request was that the hat be made of 100% cake, even the ears so that they would taste good.  We were up for the challenge.  We started off with our vanilla buttercake and loaded it with mini chocolate chips, then filled it with some delicious Bavarian cream.    Once that was set, we started to shape the cake into a dome, just like the Mickey Mouse hats.  Once the shape took form, we gave it a base coat of vanilla buttercream and let it cool down in the refrigerator.  As that was cooling, we made red fondant and started on the ears.  We cut small rounds for the ears and covered them in black fondant.  We then covered the hat portion of the cake in red fondant and attached the ears.  We then added the details with the yellow and black ovals, just like Mickey's pants, and a black ribbon trim around the bottom.  The front looked amazing, but the back looked a little plain.  So we decided to personalize the hat, just like you can do at Disney!  We "stitched" the birthday boy's name with some yellow and it just made the cake come to life.

So Happy Birthday Jeff, we hope you enjoyed reliving your childhood, even if it was only for one evening!  Through Friday, May 27 stop by the Centreville store and visit me for a complimentary chocolate chunk cookie - they are my downfall, but hey, someone has to try all the goods!  We will have a fabulous cake to talk about next week - think of Glee meets Chantilly High School Choral!

Graduation Time!

Welcome back and I hope you are all staying dry on this crazy wet day!  We have been making graduation cakes non-stop for the last two weeks.  I thought you would enjoy our latest cake we made for our regular customer, Jennifer.  She always has some fun ideas and cakes.  We have made her a margarita glass, Thomas the Train, bikini cake, and most recently, the Radford Highlander.

Her son just graduated from Radford University, and she was having a party down in Radford for him.  So she asked what could we make that would be fun and different.  We had her look at a few different graduation cakes for inspiration, and she decided that the Radford University mascot was in order.  She asked us to put the Highlander on top.  I hadn't seen him before, so she emailed a picture over.  Well, he looks like a rugged mountain man with a Scottish twist!  So we got to work.

We decided to use vanilla cake to sculpt the Highlander's face.  After some time, the face started to take shape and we covered it in fondant.  While the fondant was still soft, we added in the facial features and the high cheekbones.  The facial hair had us all.  On that Friday morning, the bakery was full of female decorators who have no facial hair.  One of our decorators started a 5:00 shadow look, so I had to explain that this was a mountain man, one who had not shaved for a few weeks, so make his beard a little fuller and his hair a little higher!  She then added his braid on the side.  We finished him off with a plaid headband and he looked fabulous!

We then started on the cake underneath.  Jennifer has a soft spot for our red velvet cake and chocolate devil's food, but her son leans towards the chocolate.  So we made the bottom cake devil's food with chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream icing, which would travel well for the 4-5 hour drive down to Radford.  We finished off the design with some RU logos on the side and some plaid stripes.  We placed the Highlander on top and added some graduation hat sprinkles along with the plaque to say Congratulations Travis.  I must say, we had a really great time with this cake.

Come out and brave the forecasted rainy week.  When you mention our blog through Friday, May 20, which happens to be my 11th wedding anniversary, join me for a complimentary cupcake!  Until next Tuesday, you can always visit us on Facebook or at http://www.cakesbyhappyeatery.com/.

First Communions and Little Flowers!

Welcome to another Tuesday.  We have been quite busy in both kitchens.  We were cupcake central on Friday and Saturday, then quickly shifted to communion and graduation headquarters!  This week we made a simply gorgeous First Communion cake we would like to share with you.

One of our clients wanted a very special cake for her little girl's communion on Sunday.  It was to be a square vanilla cake filled with fresh strawberries, topped with buttercream icing, then completely covered in fondant.  That was the easy and delicious part.  While the fondant was soft, we had to emboss the sides with the diamond pattern.  Fondant dries very quickly, so we had to move fast.  After that was done, we had to hand roll and cut out each little flower to place in each corner of the diamonds.  Let me tell you, it may sound easy, but it sure is time consuming.  I was so kind as to find another cutter so that Victoria could join in the fun.  I called her many times, and this may sound familiar, but she was no where to be found.  I went searching, and she was hiding behind the counter trying to tidy up an already clean counter.  She then offered to wash dishes, in heels!  Well, I went forward, alone, and sang along to the ipod a little louder - private concerts are always fun first thing in the morning!  Once I attached all the little flowers, I had to go back and place a tiny pearl in the center of each.  A few bows in the four corners and the cross on top finished off this gorgeous cake.  Congratulations Catarina Elisa on you First Communion.

So, enjoy the photos and our handiwork.  As special incentive and to help out Victoria, I propose that you each receive a free cupcake at our Manassas location through Friday, May 13 when you ask Victoria to custom make a flower on top!  If you want to visit me at our Centreville location, I will share a free chocolate chunk cookie (I'm munching on one now) through Friday.  Until next week, visit us at http://www.cakesbyhappyeatery.com/.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

OK, we know Tuesday has passed so we are a day late, but we wanted to write about the fantastic cake we made for a client today.  The client came in to us on Saturday wanting a cake with red ruby slippers for a little movie her daughter loved named The Wizard of Oz!  Well, we are HUGE fans of the movie.  Victoria and I always seemed to catch this movie every year on television in December as we put up our Christmas tree.  Timing was always funny, it seemed that no matter when we bought the tree, early or late December every year, this movie happened to be on television the night we decorated the tree.  So we have very fond memories of The Wizard of Oz and the famous yellow brick road!

The client was not as familiar with the movie, but her daughter really wanted ruby red slippers.  So we told her not to worry, we would make her daughter proud.  We knew she had to have the yellow brick road on the cake and thought it would be fun to add in the grass and flowers all around, after all, Munchkinland is beautiful and colorful.  We also knew we had to craft the ruby slippers and flowers early so that they would have time to dry and set.  This morning, we came in to ice and decorate the cake and add some embellishments.  In order to create the yellow brick road, we took a sheet of yellow fondant and found a handy little brick impression to make it look authentic.  We then cut it and laid it down on the cake.  We piped green grass all around it and added in the sugar flowers and two large ones to write Happy Birthday Margaret for the special birthday girl.
We had a fun time making this cake today.  I just wish I could put up my Christmas tree tonight and watch it, but I may have to settle for some good a buttery popcorn, followed by a really big chocolate chunk cookie!  Well, we are off to create some more treats in the kitchen.  And when Victoria and I recuperate from the hundreds of cupcakes for cupcake weddings this weekend, I am sure we will have some more fun stories to share!  In the mean time, please visit us at either location for a complimentary cupcake in honor of our busy weekend through Friday, May 6.

March 2011 Newsletter

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Strawberry Shortcake

Wow, who can believe how quickly time flies by???  We can't believe Easter just passed and another Tuesday almost slipped by!  So, we went into our photo gallery to find one of the most fun cakes we have made recently - Strawberry Shortcake's house!  This cake was for a very special first birthday girl, and her mother really loved the details.  We had everyone in the kitchen making little flowers, strawberries, and gift boxes.

Now, we pride ourselves in making all of our designs from cake.  We do not venture into the plastic pipes, metal or wood-working shops.  So we often have gravity challenges.  In this case, it was all about the strawberry house.  We decided this time, due to weight, we would try to make it out of rice cereal treats.  Now, all of us love eating these treats, so we made them just like always, nice and gooey.  Well, on our trial run, the house only lasted two hours before the treats started sagging - and Strawberry Shortcake can not live in a less than perfect house!  Our other option was to make less gooey treats, but who wants to eat those bricks?  So the kitchen munched on a house full of delicious rice cereal treats and decided to go back to what we do best - CAKES!

The cake was made in two parts the morning of the party.  One part of the staff took care of the base of the cake, making it the most beautiful pink cake abundant with flowers, strawberries and presents!  They also had to hand cut all the letters for the the name - they were quite busy.  The other part of the staff took charge of the house.  We learned that we can work with cakes in any shapes or forms, so we took out with some round cakes and started carving.  After a little while, the house started to come together with some icing, red fondant, green leaves and a stem.  All the windows, doors and flowers were hand made.  If you look closely at the photo, the windows even have curtains!

Come be a part of our next adventure.  We started our monthly newsletter back up, so don't forget to sign up.  And keep up to date when you become a fan on Facebook!  In the mean time, come visit either location for a free spring cookie through Friday, April 29 when you mention this blog.  And look out for our delicious Nutty Napoleans, the chocolate-peanut butter lovers must have dessert!  Come read all about us and our desserts at http://www.cakesbyhappyeatery.com/.

Monster Truck!

Our good friend, Cindie Reinhold, the editor and publisher of Brides & Weddings of Northern Virginia, asked us to make a very special cake for her son Artie a few years back.  Artie’s birthday present from her was tickets to a Monster Truck Jam.  Cindie wanted to combine his newfound love of monster trucks and cake, so she came to us.

We all know that Artie loves our chocolate vegan cake (which tastes phenomenal) and mocha truffle, so those two flavors were a must.  We decided to make the cake in the shape of a monster truck, complete with big wheels and Artie driving at 13!  We started off with the chocolate vegan cake as the truck and added big mocha tires.  The truck was iced in green buttercream, one of his favorite colors.  We then rolled fondant with tire tread impressions to wrap around the mocha rolls.  We added in a few more finishing touches, like the custom license plates with his name and Brides & Weddings of Northern Virginia, then added writing around the truck.

We always have a fun time, and are looking for new projects and cakes to add to our portfolio.  So please let us know if we can help custom create a cake for your next party or event.  In the mean time, come visit us at either location and mention this blog for a free cupcake through Friday, April 22.  More photos can be viewed on our website, www.CakesbyHappyEatery.com.

Our Run on Broadway!

Welcome back and we hope you are staying dry on this very wet day.  We have a fun story for you about one of our most beloved groomscakes – the Bleeding Armadillo.  Yes, you read that right, we made a Bleeding Armadillo for two Broadway fans.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this famous Bleeding Armadillo groomscake, you must rent Steel Magnolias with Julia Roberts, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine and Dolly Parton.  The interaction between them is hilarious, but look out for the wedding scene and you will understand the Bleeding Armadillo.

So when we met with Kevin and Joey, they were getting married when Steel Magnolias was opening on Broadway, and they had many friends that were going to be in attendance who shared their love of theatre.  Well, Emily had seen this movie many times, so how could she resist recreating one of the best lines??  After quite a few laughs and a very shocked Victoria (she hadn’t seen the movie yet), we wanted to make it authentic, and Joey wanted to make sure the cake bled red.

On the morning of the wedding, we started with a blood red velvet cake, some very red cream cheese, and a dark layer of gray to cover the entire cake.  Well, Victoria had seen the movie at this point so that she could understand the cake, but our other sister Charlotte was in town and had no idea.  As we were layering each color, Charlotte looked in amazement and asked if we were in our right minds.  We told her to wait, because there was more.  We finished off the cake with the feet, head, long ears and scaled look, and we had to admire this strange, and now adorable, animal.

Kevin and Joey held their wedding at a church in Old Town Manassas.  When we delivered it, Kevin was the first to take a peek and was delighted.  They had a table ready for us with funny quotes from the movie to keep everyone laughing.  This is always a fond memory for us and a great story.

Well, until next Tuesday and another great story.  In the mean time, you can always find us at either location or visit us at www.CakesbyHappyEatery.com for more information.  Mention this blog through Friday, April 15 to receive a free cupcake and don’t forget your tax returns.

Victoria and Emily

A Very Thrilling Ride

Everyone always has their ups and downs, and the bakery is no different, especially when you come along on our roller coaster ride!  One of our customers was having a very special birthday party for her son, who happened to love roller coasters.  She wanted something colorful, fun and different.

We came up with the idea of roller coaster cars going around the top of the cake along a track.  But the best part of riding one is the ups and downs!  So how were we going to achieve that???  After some thought and consultations with the decorators, we decided that Cathy should take all of our input and be in charge of the cake.  She did us proud.  She created all the cars and the people.  We changed the design so that the tracks went down the side of the cake, over the first hill, up the side and over a pond.  Now we know that everyone has some hair-raising moments, so she made sure to include those.  She did not even forget the ever-present bald man with lots of chest hair in a tank top or the floating flip flop someone lost along the ride!

As you can see, it takes our village of sales associates, decorators and bakers to manage all the details that go onto a cake.  We welcome any challenge you come to us with, so feel free to bring us your desires for your next party.  In the mean time, come visit us at www.CakesbyHappyEatery.com or stop by either location and mention this blog for a free bubble tea through Friday, April 8!  If you don’t know what a bubble tea is, then you must come in for this tea lover’s version of an iced latte served over tapioca pearls!