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.