Confetti Cakes

The 2nd Birthday Cake

2011-11-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

I really didn't think my life could get any busier then it already was, but then just over a week ago my daughter turned two. There is always extra work when throwing a party, but I know all of my cake decorating buddies know the pressure is on to make your own kid's cake. Once again my husband begged me to order cupcakes or cake from a local bakery, but again I would not even entertain these thoughts, even if it put my health in jeopardy. After all, we are talking cake!

About a month before the birthday I had started thinking about a theme for my daughter's cake, knowing at two that this may be the last time I have any say in it...and had I given my daughter some input she probably would have told me this year what she wanted too!

So I picked the adorable main character from the book by Taro Gomi, My Friends. In the back of my head I had the image of an amazing cake by one of my favorite people and an incredibly talented cake designer, Kate Sullivan (her blog Cake Power is really cool too!). She made a sculpted cake of Frida Khalo and I have always loved it.

Here is a TINY image...visit Kate's website under "defying gravity" to really see the cake!

I'm sorry to say I didn't take any process photos this time because I was rushing like a mad woman late into the night. But my AMAZING friends at Satin Ice were kind enough to send me the pre-dyed Pink Fondant....It saved TONS of time. I just mixed the pink with a little of the Satin Ice Baby Blue and was able to recreate the intense fuchsia pink color I wanted.

The cake was delicious white cake and chocolate buttercream from our first book.

And it was all worth it when Sophie said, "Mama, I want to hug my cake!"

She also wanted to eat the bird!

Halloween Class at Make Meaning

2011-10-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

Just in case you have been following my frenetic pace and wondering what is keeping me so busy I am excited to share the news!

Besides running the day-to-day operations of Confetti Cakes, teaching private lessons and making 600 desserts for the NYCWFF last week...MOST of my time has been taken up working for a fabulous craft company as a consultant. (oh right, and I'm 6 months pregnant and have a toddler at home!)

I was hired by Make Meaning a few months ago to develop, the first of its kind, a walk-in cake decorating experience. We are about to launch the experience in the beautiful, brand new store opening in November but I have even more exciting news.

I'm holding two classes to TEST the experience in two weeks and you and your kids can come!

Since it is right before Halloween, each guest will receive a cake (pre-baked, filled and iced in rolled fondant) that you can spend over an hour decorating with all of the fun embellishments-from disco dusts and sprays to stencils and edible markers and beyond.

Here is all the info:

Wednesday, October 19th

4-5:30pm: Kids Class (7 & up)

8-9:30pm Adult Class

Learn more about Make Meaning: watch their video

NYC Wine and Food Festival

2011-10-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Our Banner

As I sit here devouring one of the gifts of Dorie Greenspan's Cookie Bar (chocolate cookie!) I am reliving the events of last nights SWEET Event from the NYC Wine and Food Festival which I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in. The event was completely sold out weeks before and now I know why.

Besides all of the proceeds going to benefit SHARE OUR STRENGTH, it was an amazing event, which brought together some of the most talented and well-known Pastry Chefs in the world.

There are too many things to talk about at length so I decided to make a Top Ten list of my favorites of the evening.

Our Table all set-up for service

1) Talking with the famed author and one of the nicest people you will ever meet: Dorie Greenspanand meeting her sweet son Joshua and husband.

2) Meeting Sprinkles Owners, Candace Nelson and her husband , being completely inspired talking to this entrepeneur-mom, tv star (judge of Cupcake Wars)...oh and she is SO nice AND Beautiful, and their cupcakes were delicious too! They have a new NYC store

3) Watching Jacques Torres eat one of our push pops, layer by layer commenting (in front of me) how delicious he thought the buttercream was and how moist the cake was! And meeting his beautiful wife.

4) Seeing my great friend Ron Ben-Israel and his most lovely office manager (and talented photographer) Rebecca. She will be posting photos soon!

5) Meeting Karen DeMasco of Locanda Verde. My favorite restaurant in NYC and every dessert she makes is outstanding. Meanwhile she is so talented and modest and sweet at the same time.

6) Eating the S'mores from The Sea Grill and reconnecting with Michael Gabriel

7) Hanging out with long time colleague and Top-Chef Judge Johnny Iuzzini and hearing about his recent escapades.

Me, Dorie and Johnny

8) Meeting Alessandra Altieri from Bouchon bakery, she as so kind to come over and introduce herself, and her desserts were delicious.

9) Enjoying a fun dinner beforehand at one of the best Mexican joints n NYC, La Esquina and working with the two best assistants a girl could ask for, Liz Shim and Holly Bollig.

Holly and Liz

10) Meeting Christine Quinn and having her rave about my sweet husband (who used to work with her) and I couldn't believe she remembered the cake I made for City Hall's 200th birthday.

Push pop with two layers of cake and three layers of Buttercream

It was great seeing so many wonderful friends and colleagues and I was very

pleased that the 600 desserts were loved by so many and people commented that they had never seen the push-pops before and thought they were delicious. They were all gone under 3 hrs. My only wish was to have more time to check out the other tables, it was a big event with three separate rooms. Probably better for my health :-)

Marlin Cake

2011-08-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Whoa, this summer is flying by. It took a hurricane for me to sit long enough to post a new cake entry. I made this cake for one of my favorite clients, I think out of his six birthday's I have made five of his cakes! (See Oscar's fifth cake here)

Oscar has been spending this summer near the water, his Dad drew a Marlin fish to put on his birthday invite and his mom (who is a very cool designer) orchestrated the cake. I came up with a sketch based on her direction and away we went. It's a completely designed nautical themed cake, with a sugar Marlin popping out of the top, half vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and the other half was a decadent chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (I used the recipe from our kids book: Confetti Cakes for Kids).

Enjoy the photos!

Marlin fish made out of white gum paste on a wooden skewer and painted with luster dusts and gels.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Buoys painted with candy colors and petal dusts

Oscar's name spelled out to look like rope. I used gum paste and a clay gun.

Jedediah Revisited

2011-06-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, My mom and Aunt went to lunch out Jamesport, N.Y. They were visiting the Victorian home, now turned into a restaurant and hotel, Jedediah Hawkins Inn. As my mom described the house I relived the making of a wedding cake we did a few years ago. It was an exact replica of the home. We tried to execute every last detail down to the paint colors and the hydrangea bushes that were recently planted.

The actual cake was Banana (one of my favorites) paired with Chocolate Ganache. Since the cake took place in August and it was extremely hot, and the wedding was to take place in a tent (read: NO Air Conditioning) I convinced the mother of the bride away from Chocolate buttercream in favor of the Ganache for stability reasons, thank goodness she agreed!

Anyway, I thought it was fun to look at the actual photos of the Inn next to the cake!

Valentine's Demo

2011-02-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

This Thursday, February 10th join me as I demo our decadent brownies in Yonkers, NY. First 20 attendees will get a FREE copy of our best-selling book: The Confetti Cakes Cookbook (it's in its sixth printing!)

Here's the info:

Sweet Valentine’s Day Treats With Celebrity Chef Elisa Strauss

Hosted By Westchester’s Premier Waterfront Condominium- Riverview Club

***

FREE BAKING DEMO on Thursday, February 10 From 6pm to 8pm

Learn How To Whip Up Tasty Indulgences

***

Your Coverage Is Invited

Yonkers, NY – February 2, 2010 – Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Elisa Strauss, owner and designer of Confetti Cakes®, will be demonstrating how to bake perfect holiday desserts at Riverview Club, Westchester’s premier waterfront condominium. On Thursday, February 10 from 6pm to 8pm, The Food Network veteran who frequently appears on “Extreme Cake Challenges,” will be offering up her expertise and showing guests how to prepare and decorate delicious Valentine’s treats. Scrumptious samples of her award-winning recipes will be served throughout the presentation.

The event is FREE and already filling up fast; those interested are encouraged to RSVP quickly to Staci Zampa at 914-965-6360 or email info@riverviewclub.com while there are still spaces available. The first twenty attendees will receive a complimentary signed copy of The Confetti Cakes Cookbook

Blast from the past

2011-02-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

What's the saying? "Imitation is the sincerest of flattery" by Charles Caleb Colton

Just yesterday I was walking down Amsterdam Avenue and I was stopped dead in my tracks by a wedding cake magazine I saw in the window. I felt like I was dreaming. I was looking at my design on a cake, yet I hadn't made the cake. Yet, the design, piped in Royal Icing and using the brush embroidery technique, was what I had piped with my own two hands, but I didn't. You know what I mean.

It was my pattern but to be honest it was executed much better, much cleaner then I had! So I went inside the store to see who did it but alas it didn't say on first glance but I took a photo so you can see. The magazine looks to be from Australia which is such a coincidence. I have at least three classes this year with students flying in from Australia.

My Original Design

I looked up the original version that was featured in Modern Bride Magazine (R.I.P.) in 2003! The cake isn't even on our website anymore (besides the press section).

Well, I'm flattered.

Target and Confetti Cakes

2011-01-30T21:24:00.000-08:00

Have you been in a Target store recently?

If so then maybe you have seen some of my handiwork.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of working with the uber-creative design team behind the Target in-store ads for Valentine's Day! Since it is February, I thought it was time to share the awesome process I was apart of. I was asked to design cookies and cupcakes that complimented the look of the Target products. This was one of my first gigs as a food stylist but with my background in art, design and fashion (oh right... two books and ten years of cake making too) it all felt really natural.

Thanks to the amazing stylist Joe Maer for hiring me and my friend Mary from Cake girls for recommending me. Let me know if you have a chance to see the ads!

Happy Birthday Vassar!

2011-01-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

It's the 150th Birthday of Vassar College, my alma mater where all my baking began in my senior year of college. Fast forward a number of years (just a few years of course) and I am a professional cake designer. I'm honored they chose to feature one of my cakes in the advertising.

It is ironic since I studied studio art at Vassar and the cake shown, made for Bride's magazine, was inspired by the artist Wayne Theibaud.

Also, check out the latest blog posting of Sweetest Couture, they included us with some of the BEST cake designers on Earth, what an honor!

Classes Update

2011-01-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

Just a little update on a class coming up at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City this March. The class is for professionals and individuals that have some experience with cake design. Here is the description for the class (a lot of techniques are covered):

Elisa Strauss, Sculpted Cakes, March 21, 22, 23, 2011, 7:30am-12noon, $750.00
Any fashionista will adore this bag. It makes an unforgettable Mother’s Day or birthday gift. By changing the shape and adjusting the handle, you could make a briefcase-style bag, too. If you can make this cake, you will have the fundamentals to make any sculpted cake. Although not obvious as a tiered cake, this doweled creation is made unique by gum paste decorations that personalize it to any occasion. Students in this class will receive credit from the ACF.

If you are interested in registering please check out ICE's website.

On another note, I will not be teaching in Paris this year. Unfortunately we could not get all the details squared away in time but I hope to be going in the future. In the meantime, the owner has just had a baby so hasn't taken down the course description. Please DO NOT sign-up for this course.

As always, I am teaching PRIVATE classes to students from all over the world and working on a whole bunch of creative projects that I hope to be able to reveal later this year. I'm also excited to be moving my studio next month; so lots of exciting changes in 2011!

I tweeted but not sure if I mentioned in my last blog, our first book The Confetti Cakes Cookbook was just re-ordered for its SIXTH Printing.

Hello....Kitty

2010-12-22T18:26:00.001-08:00

Finished Kitty Cake

I've been wanting to post this cake for awhile but since I made it at the beginning of December, and tis' the season, my time has been taken up with teaching and lots of other fun stuff. I've also had some time to reflect on the past year and it has been AMAZING. I've had so many awesome students come from all over the world, been sharing my bakery space with one of my sweetest friends and have been so fortunate to have been in touch with so many people through facebook, twitter, etc. It has been so exciting and I am so grateful for all of it.

Nude Kitty (made out of gum paste)

Of course since it is December the Food Network has been re-airing the Holiday Cake-off from MANY years ago! (I think about five years or something like that)

Sugar bow with disco dust (glued on with egg whites)

I'm also looking forward to next year with lots of projects underway and teaching internationally.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday filled with lots of sweetness. I told Kitty it wasn't nice to ignore me while I was working on her...hee, hee! Happy New Year!

THE First Birthday Cake

2010-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it's only my fellow cake designers who can understand the stress (I put on myself) for my daughter's first birthday cake. In fact, my husband jokingly reminded me TWICE that he ordered a sheet cake, NOT a sculpted cake (a.k.a. cake that will take days to bake, sculpt and decorate) but OF COURSE I was not going to serve a sheet cake at my own daughter's first birthday party.

"Owl Eyes"

So the stress actually started months ahead of time deciding on a design. I finally chose an owl because we affectionately coined the phrase for my daughter "owl eyes" for when she should be sleeping in her stroller but we see her bright large eyes looking back at us.

My inspiration: sketches and tear sheets

The colors came from the plates and napkins I chose, and the style was modeled after all those fabulous Owl pillows, back packs, change purses that are around now. I used a special textured rolling pin to make the medium-pink color look like corduroy on the back and in the ear and pocket details. I hadn't used that rolling pin since the first sock monkey I made, in 2005 on the first Food Network Birthday Cake challenge. Lots of stitching, everywhere to make a cute and cuddly owl.

It was made of our old-fashioned vanilla cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, very simple but delicious.

And it is kind of appropriate I joined twitter today and I am using this "bird" cake photo for all my tweets! Follow along...

**Top photo by my talented cousin Jordan Pique

The Cake Boss is coming to Town Hall

2010-10-26T18:13:00.001-07:00

One of the sweetest guys around is my friend, Buddy Valastro. It's hard to look at all the styled photos of him from his TV show because he looks so serious and that isn't him at all. He is the type of guy that would do anything to help anyone. He is releasing a new book and is giving a live performance next week at Town Hall, it should be a lot of fun!

Here is a special discount code for the tickets:

Discount offer valid October 4th 10am – November 2nd 10am.
Password: CAKE
$5 savings on price level two and three tickets.
Previous purchases do not apply.
Valid online only.

PRESS RELEASE:

Buddy Valastro: The Cake Boss

The Bakin’ with the Boss Tour

The Town Hall · November 3rd · 8pm

- Tickets are on-sale Now -

America’s favorite baker Buddy Valastro will bring his “Bakin' with the Boss Tour” to The Town Hall on Wednesday, November 3^rd at 8pm. Tickets are on-sale at ticketmaster.com, 212.307.4100, or The Town Hall Box Office. Tickets are $39.50, $49.50, & $59.50 plus applicable service charges.

In this live interactive event, the baker and star of TLC's “Cake Boss” will share the stories behind his hit TV series and his colorful Italian family, answer audience questions, and give a live demonstration of the techniques that have made him one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the nation. Buddy will even invite audience members to join the fun on stage. The whole family is invited for a night of “bakin’ with the boss” one will not soon forget.

One of the centerpiece shows of the TLC network, a third season of “Cake Boss” debuted May 31^st on TLC. Viewers continue to celebrate the mouthwatering desserts and not-to-be-missed Valastro family moments occurring in bustling Hoboken, NJ, home of Carlo’s Bakery, which celebrated it’s 100^th anniversary in June. On November 2^nd, Free Press (Simon & Schuster) will publish Buddy’s first book, Cake Boss: The Stories and Recipes In the book, Buddy shares recipes and his family’s inspiring, fascinating, and poignant life story.

Columbus Day

2010-10-11T17:17:00.001-07:00

This cake wasn't done for Columbus day but the theme seemed fitting. The cake was created recently for one of my favorite clients. It was her son's fifth birthday and he is interested in world soccer and flags. Since Columbus supposedly sailed around the world, here is a world globe, an airplane and flags of over thirty countries made out of sugar. All the details on the globe are piped in Royal Icing and then hand painted with petal (flat) powders mixed with lemon extract. All the flags were made individually out of gum paste, that's right each one was researched and then created by me, one at a time! Some flags took over two hours....check out the British flag, that's a lot of stripes!

The cake was our traditional Vanilla cake with Chocolate ganache and Vanilla Buttercream.

Martha Stewart Radio

2010-10-05T17:59:00.001-07:00

It's almost Halloween! One of my favorite holidays filled with costumes, candy and fun desserts. Tomorrow, October 6th at 3pm I will be the guest of Mario Bosquez, the host of the Living Today show on Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius Satellite. We will be discussing Halloween Cake Ideas. The show airs live so I will be taking all sorts of baking and decorating related questions.

Just in case you can't listen live or if you want a copy of the interview:

you can sign up for a FREE 7 day subscription at http://www.sirius.com/freetrial/register, and record the interview while it’s LIVE onto your computer.

Icing Smiles

2010-07-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

We were recently introduced to a non-profit organization that is using the incredible talent in the baking industry to improve the lives of critically ill children.

As if Kate Sullivan wasn't already my cake hero. Now there is just one more reason to love Kate, owner and master creator of Lovin Sullivan Cakes in NYC. She recently made a cake for the organization Icing Smiles.

Cake by Kate Sullivan of Lovin Sullivan Cakes

Tracy Quisenberry is the founder and executive director of this AMAZING organization. Icing Smiles just became operational in January and already has volunteers in 31 states consisting of both professional bakers and hobbyists. They are working hard to expand their network of bakers, volunteers and donors to serve as many families as possible. Please take a minute to check them out and consider how you can help "Bake a Difference" You do not need to be a professional cake designer to help. Read more about the cake Kate made for Icing smiles here on her blog. You can also stay in touch with Icing Smiles via Facebook. We are on sabbatical until the Fall but Confetti Cakes is looking forward to joining this organization's list of generous and talented cake designers.

Rachael Ray Airdate

2010-04-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring!

Make sure you tune in to the Rachael Ray Show on Monday, April 26th at 10 am (in New York) on ABC. Me and my friend, Buddy Valastro (a.k.a. the Cake Boss), will go head-to-head to see who can provide the best cake tips!

The show is syndicated, so please click here to check your local station and time. If you miss it, don't worry-there will be a clip of the segment on the Rachael Ray website once it airs.

Cake Girls

2010-04-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't heard my friends, Brenda and Mary Maher of Cake Girls lost their bakery in a fire last month. You can help by purchasing a t-shirt, the proceeds go to help their staff while they rebuild their bakery. Aside from being AMAZING cake artists they are super kind-hearted people.

Here's the link: http://www.thecakegirls.com/

Private Lessons

2010-03-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

We are back to work with a new line-up of private classes
being offered!

I will be teaching on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
starting this April.

Feel free to visit our Classes page to see all the info and take a look
at our class list to see what we are offering.

If you are interested in taking a private lesson, contact us with the

following information:

Name:

Email:

Telephone:

Possible Dates for classes:

# of Days:

# of People:

Class interested in (i.e. Cookies, Cupcakes, Sculpted Cakes, etc.):

For any other special requirements or questions you have, feel free to

ask us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks again for your support!!

Best Wishes!

February 2010

2010-02-26T09:57:00.000-08:00

Our producer Stefanie

I am officially back to work this month. There is nothing to get you going like a TV segment on national television. Two weeks ago, I was on the set of the Rachael Ray Show with my friend Buddy Valastro, a.k.a. the Cake Boss. It was a lot of fun, despite having to fit my post-baby body into my pastry jacket; thank goodness for my mom who knows how to move some buttons over and I knew where to find Spanx :-) It was especially exciting to see familiar faces since I was on the show last year. This time I had the much bigger dressing room; last time Paula Abdul was assigned to it. The show date is TBD but should be in March, I’ll keep you posted.

Gotta love false eyelashes from the Rachael Ray Show

This month, Bride's magazine hit newsstands with its annual edition of the 50 Best wedding cakes in America, which I am honored to be a part of. I haven't seen the entire magazine yet but I loved the way our cake turned out. It was my first time designing an oval cake. I think it was a nice marriage between the classic look of the colors with our hand made sugar flowers. I decided to create Japanese Anemones after seeing a spread in Martha Stewart Living showing the real life anemones.

This past week I had a very talented student from Thailand. We created two sculpted cakes, a handbag and an open gift box. We also had a surprise guest. Nick Malgieri, head of the pastry program at ICE, stopped by and gave my student and me signed copies of his gorgeous new book, The Modern Baker.

That’s all for now, if you would like to be notified with our new class list then please join our mailing list by contacting us here.

UPDATE: NY CAKE CONVENTION

2009-12-30T06:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to announce (and it is a long story) I will not be attending the NY Cake Convention this year. Wishing everyone involved a successful show. Happy New Year!

Heading Back to work…

2009-12-27T17:29:00.000-08:00

Let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend heading back to work just a week or two after the birth of your first child. But like many of my friends and colleagues that own small businesses, especially cake designers, we all have this gene within us that makes us do crazy things. I had to pass on segments on Oprah (yes the Oprah), Good Morning America and a Food Network Challenge but I just couldn’t say no to a recent cake.

One of my wonderful clients that we have done cakes for before had purchased a cake at the silent auction for a charity I support every year called C-CAP . Out came a two-tiered holiday cake with a gnome theme.

While feeding my new baby, running back and forth between home and bakery (with gum paste and fondant in hand) the cake was completed. And I could not have done it without the help of my amazing assistants who baked and built the two cakes, and made all the arrangements.

Now I have to go cut some brownies but after this I am REALLY taking maternity leave…at least I think I will.

My Greatest Creation Yet!

2009-11-27T17:58:00.000-08:00

On November 17^th my husband and I introduced our daughter Sophie Pearl Ricks to the world. She weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She is by far my greatest and most creative endeavor to date.

Thank you to all my clients, students and friends who have sent good wishes.

I will be on sabbatical from teaching, making cakes and Food Network Challenges until February but will keep you updated with a few events here and there. I will be giving a demo and teaching a class at The NY Cake Convention in January.

I have already started thinking about Sophie’s first birthday cake but luckily I have some time before then!

CAPS Class and the NY Cake Convention

2009-11-02T05:43:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I taught a class at the Center for Advanced Pastry Studies (CAPS) at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), of which I am a proud alumna. These classes are extra special because everyone in the class has at least a working knowledge of sculpted cakes and some have their own businesses. It was a three-day intensive hands-on class...I didn't let them sit for a second! As you can see from the photos they did an amazing job with the gift box cake. It was such a wonderful group of people filled with terrific questions, work ethic and a sense of fun!

My next group class will be at the NY Cake Convention held in New York City on January 2-5th, 2010. I'll be doing a demonstration on Saturday, January 2nd from 9AM-11AM and a hands on class that same day from 1PM-4PM. Sign-up here. There will be many amazing cake designers from all over the world.

And did I mention our first book, The Confetti Cakes Cookbook is in its fifth printing?! Thank you to everyone who has bought our books and for all your wonderful feedback!
Here are some great reviews.
1) Latest Addictions
2) Epinions
3) Pickii

Snowman Cupcakes

2009-10-31T06:31:00.000-07:00

Photo by Alexandra Rowley

I know it is only November but it is never too soon to talk about dessert for the holidays. Especially when the cupcakes are delicious and adorable. Here are our Snowman Cupcakes from our first book, The Confetti Cakes Cookbook (2007). I love to make these cupcakes with our moist Red Velvet Cake and our sweet Cupcake Frosting. The combination of the two balance each other perfectly.

Everyone is busy, especially during the holidays, so this is a perfect dessert for those who have short amounts of free time. You can make the snowmen ahead of time and then whip up the cupcakes and frosting right before the festivities begin! Just make sure to buy your cupcake wrappers ahead of time so you are ready to go.

People will be blown away by the cutest, most delicious dessert they have ever had.

Hot Tips:
* If you don't have or can't find rolled fondant for the snowman you can use, marzipan or marshmallows and white gumdrops with other candy.

*For a tangy touch you can pair the cake with a rich cream cheese frosting by just adding 1 cup or 8 ounces of cream cheese, and cut the butter in half of the original frosting recipe.

Snowman Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Cupcake Frosting

Lobster Cake

2009-09-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I did a cake for a wonderful client who had a beach wedding but was celebrating their marriage in New York City with friends and family with a party. The concept for the cake, as well as the entire event, was created by the amazing team at David Stark Design. The cake we created for the party was a lobster coming out of a pail, with a shovel, and shells, sitting on top of a sandbox.

I think the cake came out great but it was before I was really using an airbrush. The lobster was good but definitely lacked some depth. I still do not use the airbrush very often, usually just to cover a large area of cake (think Lego Batman or six-foot tall sock monkey) but every once in awhile a cake calls for it.

BEFORE Airbrush

AFTER Four layers of Airbrush color

Last weekend we made a similar version of the Lobster cake for a 60th birthday party at a beach house. This time after I made all the pieces of the lobster in orange gumpaste, instead of just dusting it I went ahead and created the shell effect by using layers of airbrush spray. I first started with a coat of yellow, then orange, red and finished with a touch of green to give the darker areas some contrast. Make sure that if you use an airbrush you do not use regular food coloring gels, you need airbrush color.

I also used some disco dust on this cake for the stars, which gives a nice glitter effect. We actually layered the cake with cupcakes around the base, with brown sugar "sand" and sugar shells, sand dollars and star fish but here is the final version before it left the bakery.

Martha Stewart Radio Show

2009-08-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

Today, Thursday, August 20th, I will be on Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius Satellite for the Living Today show. This interview will air LIVE from 3-3:30pm (EST), I will be taking questions from our listeners all about baking! The show's title is "Cake Baking Tips". This will be during their weekly Baking Segment, so while we will definitely discuss cakes, people are welcome to call in with all of their baking questions. I will also offer the top FIVE quick tips people should follow in order to make baking better!

The host of the show is, Mario Bosquez. I've been on his show a few times before and he is great and is actually a great baker himself. The last time I was on his show he made our hydrangea cupcakes from our first book, The Confetti Cakes Cookbook.

If you won't be around today and would like a copy of the interview, you can sign up for a FREE 7 day subscription at http://www.sirius.com/freetrial/register , and record the interview while it’s LIVE onto your computer. Feel free to record it on your own!

My first ICES convention

2009-07-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

I am leaving one big city (New York) for another (Chicago) this week to attend my very first ICES
(International Cake Exploration Societé) convention. ICES is probably the largest member based cake organization in the world. I can’t believe it has taken me so long to get to the annual convention. I am going just to check things out and to see the lay of the land. Maybe next year I will be able to take some hands-on classes or even demo myself. I plan to see lots of cake friends and students from all over the world so it should be really exciting. There is also a big vendor hall so I hope not to overdo the buying. I’m not sure if I am allowed to take photos but if I can I will report back with what I see.

Since we are talking about cities I thought I should post about one of our more recent cakes we did with a NYC theme. It is for one of my all time favorite clients. I’ve done many events in her family including other family birthdays as well as her sister-in-law's Bridal Shower cake and wedding cake. I feel so fortunate to have been a part of so many special events in their family.

In fact it was that wedding cake for her brother and sister-in-law, that needed to be delivered in Pennsylvania that almost sent my now husband running. I think we were only dating a month or two when we took that journey. Poor thing did not know how stressful (and COLD!) it could be to deliver a five-tiered wedding cake. Yep, my poor hubby got a taste of what was to come....four years later he still HATES to be associated with ANY part of a delivery. I can’t say I love it myself!

Join ICES here !

Wildflowers

2009-06-22T13:37:00.001-07:00

You wouldn't think that New York City is the place to find wildflowers but in the last few weeks two separate projects sprung up with them.

The first is The High Line, found down in the meatpacking district. It is a beautiful new park that was created on top of an old elevated train track that runs through Manhattan. It opened just two weeks ago with the help of NYC, The Parks Dept. and Friends of the High Line.

The second project blooming with wildflowers was a small wedding cake we created for Elegant Bride magazine. The official photographs will come out this Fall in the magazine but here is a preview. All the flowers are made of gum paste.

"Black and White Cookie" Cake

2009-06-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

One would think that making a cake in the shape of an old-fashioned Black and White cookie would not be too difficult, after all it is round and has just two colors of icing. But what if I told you that the cookie’s diameter was well over two feet and would serve close to 200 people? And did I mention that we do not have a walk-in freezer, therefore we had to build it in four separate pieces all the while making sure it formed a perfect circle, had the sloped sides of a real cookie and the domed middle. It was especially challenging because once the four cakes were “glued” together with buttercream we had to make sure that the “seams” would not show.

I love making cakes that look like real life objects, but I especially like making cakes in the shape of food. We have done sushi platters, a Philly cheese-steak, hamburgers, fries, lobster, etc.
The best way to do this is to go out and buy a smaller version of the item and copy it. You can see our “models” below.

We hope Dan was surprised because apparently Black and Whites are his favorite cookie!

Time keeps flyin'

2009-05-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already a week ago that I was in Pittsburgh. The Market District store was just amazing. Usually it's the country folk that are amazed by our lively New York city but my husband and I were totally amazed by this Mega store. Not only do they have amazing produce and prepared food, along with the cafe they also have dry cleaning and childcare AT THE super market. This is unheard of in NYC...just amazing. And they also had a beautiful kitchen in the round where many famous chefs have held demonstrations.

I had a great audience with lots of great questions and they didn't even boo me off the stage once my cake had some "melting" issues. I swear if something goes wrong with my cakes it is always during a demo (or live television!) Let this be a lesson to you...even if you stay up all night worrying that there is no mini-fridge in your hotel room AND that the cakes are getting too hot, you are probably right. So as you can imagine, my cakes were not cooperating but I think the audience got a lot out of my hour long demo (I hope so!) One of the things I always talk about is being organized when starting any project, here is a great article from the Pittsburgh-Tribune talking about that.

And the good news is that our topsy-turvy Bat-Mitzvah cake was delivered with no drama...always a good thing. About five years ago I started making a "styrofoam" base where the candles can fit, it's perfect for the candle lighting ceremony and keeps those long tapers away from the rest of the cake. Olivia's cake and Bat-Mitzvah theme were "Liv life...be happy"...sounds good to me!

Going to Pittsburgh

2009-05-12T06:35:00.000-07:00

The last time I was in Pittsburgh I saw a lot of the city. Over 26.2 miles exactly ! This happened when my friend Ashley got it in her head that it would be a good idea for the two of US to run a marathon together. It was a great experience and it was fun both before and after the race to see some of the sights in the city.

This Saturday I will be giving a demo at Giant Eagle, Market District (South Hills) from 11-1pm. I will be showing how to create our Spring Mini cakes and signing books. The mini cakes are one of the many fun ideas from our second book, Confetti Cakes for Kids. They are perfect for spring but could be easily translated to anytime of year!

We are also busy this week with a Topsy-Turvy Bat-Mitzvah cake, sketching some new cakes for an upcoming magazine shoot in June and getting ready for the demo!

Toronto Class

2009-05-09T11:01:00.001-07:00

Me and Flour Confections owner, Lisa

What started off as a dramatic trip to Toronto ended up being so wonderful. The drama began when I left my passport at home (after already turning around once in the car to go get my driver's license which I didn't need because you NEED a PASSPORT to go to a different country!) so my most amazing assistant Candice had to run to my apartment, retrieve my passport and meet me at the airport before they closed me out of my flight (she made it in 8 minutes!) Then once I got to Canada apparently you need a VISA to teach there which no one knew! But all ended well when Lisa and Robyn picked me up at the Toronto airport.

My fabulous class of professional cake designers

I taught the two day class at Flour Confections. It is such a great teaching space and kitchen with a beautiful store that is filled with tons of cake decorating equipment. The class did an amazing job and I love all the variety in colors and patterns. It was so much fun and I think everyone learned a lot. Here is a posting about the class from the owner of Flour Confections, Lisa Bugeja, on her blog.

Did I mention I love to teach?!

I'm back!

2009-05-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

One of our "bio" Bat-Mitzvah cakes

Once again I have let too much time pass between blog entries but I assure you it is not because I haven’t wanted to write nor has it been because I have just been hanging out!
Well, my brother tells me I put way too much thought into my blog entries and he is probably right (after all I am a perfectionist in all that I do) but it has also prevented me from updating the blog often enough.

As you can imagine the last Food Network Challenge took a lot out of me, emotionally and physically. But it’s really the stuff I do everyday, cakes and teaching that have kept me the busiest. I just returned from Toronto, Canada (and yes, you need a Passport to travel to Canada these days…let’s just say I had a little adventure at the NY airport) AND you need a VISA in order to teach there…yes, another adventure was had by myself once I arrived in Canada and was escorted to immigration! More on this class later.

The "Bald" cake before it is decorated (see above)

One of my favorite moments in cake design is when the “bald” cake is ready to be decorated. Bald, meaning a cake that is completely unadorned but has been baked from scratch, split, filled, covered in rolled fondant, even painted and is ready to be decorated with all of our wonderful sugar decorations. Here is one such cake, before and after decorating. Spring has brought us many Bat-Mitzvah cakes this year.

Yep, it's sugar!

So my next few postings will be fairly quick and will showcase some of our recent cakes and classes….not the cake we did for a celebrity because we had to sign legal papers that won’t allow us to talk about it!

Anemone Flower

2009-04-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

Photo by Jordan Pique

Since the Food Network challenge aired this past weekend I have had many requests for how we make our Anemone Flowers. A large version of this flower was on the dress in the first episode (which will re-air this Weds. at 7pm and again on Sunday) and was featured in my last blog entry.

A wedding cake with small anemone flowers. You can vary the size.

We actually did an entire spread in Pastry and Baking magazine in the first issue of this year. We have been honored enough to be selected to do six separate spreads for this magazine and the Anemone flower is one of them. You can visit the entire magazine online if you don't have your very own copy. Here I give you small versions of the photo layout with the instructions. Good Luck!

Last Cake Standing

2009-04-03T16:24:00.001-07:00

"Food Network Challenge: Last Cake Standing," premieres this Sunday!
In this series, six pastry chefs are thrown into a brutal four-round cake competition, where they are faced with a number of arduous tasks and weekly eliminations. The lucky winner takes home the biggest prize in Challenge history, $50,000!

When I was first invited to compete in this challenge I was extremely honored because it was called an All-Star Challenge. So we began the process of preparing for not ONE challenge but FOUR all at once. Along with my assistants Lauren, Liz, and Candice, we began to create a game plan. We even hired a professional sculptor to help with the armature supports. The more I planned, the more I couldn't believe what I got myself into. We had to ship ALL of our cake, and ALL of our equipment for FOUR challenges....and I used to think competing in one challenge was stressful.

But I became alarmingly concerned when I found out the weekend before we left that the name had changed from the "all-star challenge" to a much more dramatic one: The Last Cake Standing.

Regardless, this is one show that will be sure to please and will certainly be entertaining...I'm not sure I can watch it but if you do let me know what happens!

You can catch me and Lauren (and a bunch of amazing cake designers) this Sunday, April 5th at 8pm ET/PT on the Food Network for the first of four episodes.

And if you happen to be walking or driving by Chelsea Market look up...that's my face on a Billboard!

Join our FAN PAGE on Facebook

Austin is Awesome

2009-03-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

A Work in Progress!

Just got back from Austin, TX...and although I didn't see much of Austin the city, I got to experience the hospitality of the people everyday. I was a judge at the annual cake show, That Takes the Cake, where I was joined by an all-star team of fellow judges including: Bronwen Weber, Nicholas Lodge, Jacquy Pfeiffer, Debbie Brown (all the way from England!) and many others. We judged all day Sat. at the Crockett Center, then I gave a demo on Sunday of our gift box cake and on Monday I taught an all day, hands-on class of our sushi cake to 15 students.
All the cakes and the students were so impressive.

Here are a few photos from our class, I couldn't be more proud considering we had less then eight hours!Even one of my students posted about it!

You can see a bunch of photos from the demo's and the actual show cakes on the events facebook profile.

I'm off to Kansas but want you to get ready, the next Food Network Challenge we are in airs in just one month from today! More about it here.

Only in Texas!

Lily (1,2,3,4,5)

2009-02-26T14:38:00.000-08:00

When I first "met" Lily she was still in her mom's womb. Every since that day I have been lucky enough to be commissioned to make her birthday cake each year. One of the best parts of my job is to grow with my clients. I've been doing this so long that sometimes I am part of a couples wedding cake and then before you know it I am doing their child's first birthday too.

This week Lily turned five. So I thought it would be fun to do a rewind on all of her previous birthday cakes. In her honor we created a very chic and graphic princess cake for her fifth birthday party and topped it off with a golden tiara adorned with pearls (of course it is all sugar).

If you want to make this tiara you can check out page 171 in Confetti Cakes for Kids where there is a template, instructions and color photos too!

For her fourth Birthday she was feeling very close to Hop hop, her stuffed bunny toy. When Lily's mom handed over Hop hop to be replicated in sugar, we were terrified that the child would be without her favorite toy (sugar decorations are not made in one day folks!) it was then that we learned about the great wisdom a clever parent has...this was only one of three Hop hop's, the one that wasn't with Lily was in the laundry...Genius!

When Lily turned three, as with my precious niece Ruthie, she was in full swing with the Disney Princess Kingdom. So we made sugar replicas of the castle and princess Aurora to go with the elaborate gift box cake.

One of my favorite characters, Madeline, was center stage for birthday number 2. The Carlyle Hotel has a Madeline Themed Party that any child or parent would have fun at. Primary colors and Madeline directed this cake.

And the original cake that started it all...as you can see, Lily was always chic (you can see her Mom has always been ahead of the style curve) Pink and Chocolate was the way to go on her first birthday. And although Lily probably wasn't part of this decision, who can resist a cute teddy bear.
As Lily gets bigger you can see our cakes get better. Happy Birthday Lily!

Victorian House

2009-02-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

I am always asked, "What was your most difficult cake ?" Honestly there have been a number of challenging ones (think six-foot tall sock monkey) but one of the cakes that was both challenging and most detailed was a Victorian House cake we created over a year ago for a wedding.

The wedding actually took place at the Jedediah Hawkins Inn located in Jamesport, New York. The cake was an exact replica of the house from the structural details, down to the flowers outside the house.

One of my friends who is an architect came by the bakery to help me figure out the exact configuration of the roof. We even had the event planners send us the paint chips of the renovated house so we could match all the exact colors.

It was this project that first gave me the idea to film the building of our cakes (which eventually led us to shoot two videos on YouTube). Unfortunately I thought of it in the middle of this project so it was too late, but I did take some still photos that will give you some idea of the process. The entire house was Banana cake filled with Chocolate Ganache. I insisted on the ganache, since it holds up better structurally then buttercream, once I learned (a week before the wedding) that the cake would be displayed in a tent filled with 300 people rather then an air-conditioned room. Did I mention that this took place at the end of August (think very hot and humid)!

This week after we finish a five year old's princess cake, I'm off to judge, demo and teach in Austin, TX at That Takes the Cake Show. There are only a few spots left for my class on March 2nd. We are making the Sushi Cake from The Confetti Cakes Cookbook.

V-Day

2009-02-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Valentine's Day. Not a day goes by that I don't tell my husband that I love him but it is an extra special time to remind everyone of the loved ones in their own lives. (I also hate to admit it but I love all the cheesy decorations that go up in retail stores this time of year.) During the end of the year and all the holidays that come with it there never seems to be enough time to make things from scratch, but Valentine's Day stands alone, it's the perfect holiday to make something ...yes I have to say it...from the heart. And this year it is on a weekend, even better.

One of my favorites is a project from our second book, Confetti Cakes for Kids. But if you don't have all the materials used here then you can adapt this project to heart shaped cupcakes and ice with plain old frosting, Yum! You can also take this idea and decorate heart cookies either with a message or without. You can use edible food markers, royal icing or we use special Letter cutters called TAPS. If you do go the cake route then use our delicious Red Velvet Cake recipe.

The message is the best part. You can personalize the cookies, cupcakes and cakes with an inside joke that will make any friend, relative, girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse laugh...and of course be touched that you thought of them in the first place.

Check out this blog, they used our book to make their very own sweet treats.

We're off...

2009-01-18T15:08:00.000-08:00

I have already failed on my New Year's resolution to write more frequent blog postings but I have a good excuse. My assistant Lauren and I are off to Denver, Colorado tomorrow to participate in one of the biggest Food Network Challenges ever! I can't really tell you too much more then that but you will have to catch it on the Food Network when it airs this spring.

In the meantime besides shipping A LOT of cake and all of our equipment out to Denver we were busy do a demo at ICE, completing cakes and teaching too. I also had a chance to kick-off the Lower East Side Girls Club cupcake-of-the-month. Last week I headed down to The Sweet Things Bakeshop and we created a snowball cupcake for the month of January.

The last cake we did went out yesterday for a little boy's first birthday party. The theme of the party was from the movie Finding Nemo and the cake was created using some of our favorite cake recipes, Red Velvet Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Banana Cake filled with Chocolate Ganache.

I am also excited to tell you about two upcoming classes. I am spending a weekend in Austin, Texas the end of February as a judge and teacher at That Takes The Cake, Sugar Art Show and Cake Competition. I'll be teaching how to make our sushi cake and demoing a gift box cake.

In May I will be flying to Toronto to teach a class at Flour Confections. You can sign up here.

So we are off, wish us luck!

Buzz

2008-12-24T05:18:00.000-08:00

December is a crazy month for just about everyone, except Cake Designers. I mean if you have a retail bakery then of course you will be very busy with holiday orders but usually cake designers are not driven by holiday traffic, when people are baking at home they don't get married or have an elaborate cake at their family event, so we have our share of work to do but we are not "crazed with cakes." And although that is generally true, I have certainly done my share of Christmas present cakes and even a dreidel cake for Hanukkah. But when you run a small business I can say without hesitation you are ALWAYS busy. The end of the year brings a fervor of cleaning, book signings, photoshoots, planning for next year and year-end accounting (I love that quick books), not to mention celebrating! We had our Confetti Cakes Holiday party last week and then I was at Ron Ben-Israel's home (a.k.a. The King of Cakes) on Sunday making Latkes with my friend Zac Young (Executive Pastry Chef at Butter).

But of course when my friend called me up from Sports Illustrated Kids and said they needed a cake to celebrate their 20th Anniversary how could I say no? (Well, quite honestly I don't know how to say "No" and that is why I usually do not answer the phone!) So we replicated their mascot Buzz Beamer popping out of our delicious Chocolate cake. You will have to check out the issue in 2009, Buzz will be featured on the contents page.

So we all know what my new year's resolution is right? To write a more consistent blog...and to win the next challenge on the Food Network :-). The last one I did will air on Dec, 26th.
Happy Holidays to all!

The Style Network

2008-12-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

One of the three wedding cakes I made for my very own wedding

Am I the world's worst blogger? I know it! Trust me I am always filled with TONS of ideas to write about on the blog...I even keep a list of things I want to talk about! Somehow I just never find the time to sit down and write it.

So here is a good excuse...we will be featured on The Style Network tomorrow, Tuesday 12/16 evening at 9pm/8 central. The Show is, Martha Stewart Living: "The Art of Cakes II" A Wedding Special.

The awesome producers over at Martha Stewart Weddings came to the bakery and filmed us and sat me down for an interview over at the MS Headquarters. They also took the DVD and photographs from my very own wedding to incorporate into the show. They wanted to show what a cake designer, someone who is in the industry and designs wedding cakes for a living did for her own wedding. So check it out and see for yourselves.

Me and my hubby, October 6, 2007. Photo by Jamie Watts

Leaving on a Jet Plane.....

2008-11-15T13:20:00.000-08:00

That's right I am off to Savannah, Georgia on Monday to teach a class at Minette Rushing's. I'm very excited to meet all my students and to make one of my favorite cakes from our new book, the Safari Gift Box Cake. Last time I was in Savannah I was on Paula Deen's Show and I had to carry a huge sculpted disco ball and decorated sugar cookies, so I am happy to say that I am traveling a lot lighter this time. I have been so busy that I didn't even have time to write a blog entry but yep, our newest book, Confetti Cakes for Kids, came out last week on November 5th.

We have had a lot of events going on besides our usual cake orders so it was especially busy. We had one press event last Tuesday at Dylan's Candy Bar. We were lucky enough to have Rachel from the awesome blog Cupcakestakesthecake attend and she took lots of great photos.

Thursday I was talking with Mario Bosquez the host of Living Today on Martha Stewart Radio about baking secrets. I even brought him some of our cupcakes made with Brown Sugar Buttercream swirls on top...yum!

Then Martha Stewart Television is working on a special that will air on the Style Network December 16th so they came to visit us in the bakery. I've been lucky enough to be interviewed by many blogs recently so just in case I haven't had a chance to mention them before here are a few:
Cupcaketakethecake.com
Alistbaby.net
Cakelava.com

And of course I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the cakes we had this week too. We created a bottle of Champagne made out of chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream, standing on a silver platter, with grapes and a napkin all made out of sugar. Today we had a cake go out to celebrate a 70th birthday, how exciting! I wonder what I will be doing at 70? Probably still baking!

Coming up:
Tomorrow, Nov.16th we have a recipe in PARADE
Cake Classes, Dec. 4th (sold out) and Dec. 6th
Book Signing in CT, Dec. 7th

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T05:46:00.000-07:00

We have these little pumpkin cakes from our new book. I think they look like mini pumpkins with funny faces just like Mr. Potato Head.

I love Halloween! When I was a little girl I used to spend a lot of time planning my costume and then proceed to complain to my mom if she made me put a coat on to cover it up.

Well, yesterday was a lot of fun and a really hectic day. I started out at the Today Show in the morning, showing Kathie Lee and Hoda some of our cookie lollipops from our new book, Confetti Cakes for Kids. Instead of making them in the design of candy lollipops we created ghosts, pumpkins and witch hats. (kinda like we did in our first book, The Confetti Cakes Cookbook, but less fashion focused.Watch it here and click here for the recipe.

Everyone at the Today show was so nice to work with, it takes so much behind-the-scenes preparation for just a four minute segment! We had brought along a few cakes too but we ran out of time.

We made this Witch Hat cake especially for the show but I don't think anyone could see it!

After that show I ran over to Martha Stewart to shoot a segment for a wedding special on The Style Network. I'll let you know when that airs.

Well, we have a jam packed couple of days with more classes today and next week, while we work on sugar decorations for our upcoming cakes and start making cookie dough for our next big event! And the Food Network just called for a HUGE challenge....

Batman Lego Video

2008-10-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Cake is covered in rolled fondant marked with rolling pins to create brick effect

Remember a few weeks ago I told you that we were working on another video? Well it's finally done. It's of the Batman Lego Cake we made for the launch of the new Batman Lego Video.
The video is an abbreviated version of the process for making the cake and all the figurines but I hope it will give you a sense of it all. My friend, Lisa Stock, the amazing filmmaker edited down over ten hours of video tape and that was with stopping the camera every few minutes or else she would've had over 12 days worth of footage. The cake took about twice as long since we had all those stops but I hope you think it is worth it, see the video here. Here are some more still photos of the process.

Cake is airbrushed

I was hoping to get to my computer to write more but between cakes, classes, interviews and the release of our new book, Confetti Cakes for Kids, there has not been one extra second (or at least that is what I tell myself and thus the reason I have been avoiding the gym too.) Just to prove it to you (or me as the case may be) here are two great blog postings from two of my students from the last two weeks (I actually taught over eight private classes and four more this week too!) Tessa came from California and Bettinia came from Germany!

Just starting to decorate with the windows

Lastly, this Thursday morning I will be on the Today Show! I'll be on with the two hosts, Kathie Lee and Hoda around 10AM EST. So we are frantically trying to get all the cakes and cookies finished for that segment. I have a rehearsal the Wednesday night before so everything must be finished by tomorrow night...o.k. Bye!

Back of Cake

It's LIVE!

2008-10-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the cake Michelle made to surprise her College friends on "Rach to the Rescue"

After many, many months our brand new website is up and running! The new site will allow you to see some new cakes, link directly to our videos and pre-order our new book, Confetti Cakes for Kids, directly from us or Amazon. This is all thanks to countless hours from our amazing web designer Kristin Schreiber who is so creative and efficient and this all happened as she became a new mom! I swear she took less then two weeks off. So if you haven't seen the new website check it out here.

Behind-the-scenes at Michelle's beautiful house.

The last few weeks have been so busy and besides finishing up the site: we had three beautiful cakes go out, the segment of me on Rachel Ray aired (which I never got to talk about so here are some behind-the-scene photos), I did another segment on the show ABC News Now, and we were featured today on one of my favorite blogs, cakewrecks.com.

Delicious chocolate cake and swiss meringue buttercream!

Our Batman LEGO cake has gotten so much press I can hardly wait until our video comes out. I am meeting with the producer tomorrow to see the first cut so I'll keep you posted.

Michelle was a great sport and she received the VERY first copy of Confetti Cakes for Kids! The entire segment came together because of the two awesome producers Cara and Wes!

LEGO Batman comes to NYC!

2008-09-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday we delivered the heaviest cake we have ever made. Warner Bros. asked us to recreate the landscape of the new LEGO Batman Video game. This cake was comprised of three different cake flavors (vanilla, chocolate and red velvet) and was entirely edible. Even the sugar sculptures were made out of sugar. If this entry doesn't make much sense it's because there is a huge lack of sleep going on. We have been working on the cake for twelve days straight.

Dare I say this was the biggest cake I EVER made? Well, let's just say it was the HEAVIEST that I had to transport. This cake was close to 300 lbs. The six foot tall sock monkey we made for the Food Network's Extreme Cake Challenge was much taller and may have been up there in weight but it stayed in the studio. For this cake we had to enlist the help of SIX guys from the neighborhood to help us get it out of the bakery. That may sound like we just had to lift and go, but what I need to tell you is that you have to get through three doors, get over the foot of steel that extends toward the ceiling at the end of the stairs and then walk up four steep steps all before getting it into the van and driving in NYC traffic to our final destination!

An exciting part of this project is that we took over ten hours of footage depicting the making of the cake and figurines, and my friend Lisa will create a video similar to our first YouTube video.
Here's a quick video of the cake cutting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eggrollboy/2885022077/in/photostream/

This cake could not have been accomplished without the amazing work of Amanda, Liz and Jen (all pictured in the photo) and Edgard who came in to help too!

DJ Ray

2008-09-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

Despite making cakes for the last ten years I had never created a turntable. We are working on getting some newer cake photos up as we redesign our site but I could not resist giving you a sneak peak of one of our newest groom’s cakes. Our client, Rosalie was so great to work with. She wanted to make a turntable for her now hubby, Ray, with his favorite Depeche Mode album listing “their song.” Along with the cake we made some sugar decorations that brought us all back a decade. We recreated Ray’s DJ jacket (you know the kind that has satin fabric and old school embroidery!), a basketball since he played in college and a replica of his college baseball hat.

Rosalie said Ray was floored…well here you can see what she said for yourself:

Rachael Ray

2008-09-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

Logo made in sugar!

Big things are happening over here at Confetti Cakes. As I write this I am so excited I don’t know where to begin. First off I have to tell you the very first copy of our new book, Confetti Cakes for Kids has arrived! Even my parents haven’t seen it yet! It’s hard to believe something that we have worked on for SO long is finally here. It will be in stores by November 5th.

Next up, I’m going to be on the Rachael Ray Show…TOMORROW, Sept. 9th. Rachael is launching a very special new series called, “Rach to the Rescue.” Tuesday is just the first of the two segments I will be on. Stay tuned for the next big air-date but watch tomorrow so you know what is going on. I can’t reveal anything extra at this time but you know as soon as I can I will post some behind-the-scenes photos…all I can say is that this shoot was SO much fun.

We heard it was Rachael’s Birthday last week when we shot the first segment so Confetti Cakes made her a cute little popcorn cake to help Rachael celebrate her 40th birthday. The popcorn is one of our mini cake projects from our first book.

September has brought us a loaded schedule of private classes, PR for book #2, some HUGE cakes and we are getting ready to roll out our new website. Oh, and did I mention I’m moving too! As my mom would say, “life is never dull.”

Design *Sponge Podcast

2008-08-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just two weeks ago we created two beautiful wedding cakes with sugar flowers that we had never made before. One had gorgeous deep purple calla lillies and the other had large garden roses. I realize I am always talking about what's going on in and out of the bakery but I rarely share photos of our new cakes. We are in the process of a redesign of our website but in the meantime here are two of our recent cakes with flowers. Jessy from Fleurs was one of the amazing florists we worked with and was really helpful as we tried to match the flowers in sugar!

That same week we were visited by Grace Bonney of Design *Sponge. She and Christy Kolar stopped by to record a podcast, after listening I realize I need to strike the word "Um" from my vocabulary. I talked about how I got started in cakes and what it's like to be a small business owner, they also posted our chocolate cookie recipe from our first book. Design *Sponge is one of my newest favorites, it's so inspirational. Check out the podcast here.

Since we are talking about weddings and blogs I think I forgot to mention the fabulous blog post from Martha Stewart Weddings, The Bride's Guide by Darcy Miller from back in June!

November will be here before we know it!

2008-08-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

It has been too long since I last wrote. July and August have been really busy with working on our brand new website, and some other fun projects...you'll just have to wait and see. The most exciting news is that November will be here before we know it and you know what that means? Yep, our new book is launching! So we will be busy preparing for our book party and lots of demonstrations and book signings. People have already been talking about it and the book is even up for pre-sales on Amazon. Here's the cutest blog entry from Cake Journal, I love everything Louise talks about.

Some people have been so excited that they have already starting making our Monster Cake featured on the cover of our new book. Becky of Cake Confections made TWO Monster Cakes for her most special clients, her daughters Darby and Mekenna. They turned out great!

November also has me traveling back down to Savannah. The last time I was there I had the honor of being on Paula Deen's show, "Paula's Party" but this time I have the pleasure of being hosted by Minette Rushing who has an incredible custom cake company. I will be teaching our sculpted Safari Cake from the new book. For more info about the class check out Minette's Blog.

The coming fall has us booked with a ton of classes, lots of wedding cakes and as always our realistic sculpted cakes so stay tuned.

YouTube take II

2008-06-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

We had so much success with our first YouTube video that we thought it would be a good idea to put up my compilation reel. This reel takes little snips from some past television experiences and rolls it all into one. Watch it here.

We also posted one of our recent television segments from April on Youtube. The show is a creation of Gourmet Magazine and aired on PBS. The show (which is a James Beard Award winner) is called, "Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie," and the segment focuses on Trompe L'oeil: The Art of Culinary Deception. It shows me making our Sushi cake. Both videos were edited by my amazingly talented friend and film artist, Lisa Stock. Another woman made a YouTube video about our cakes too, we didn't even know but that was so nice, watch here.

The last two weeks have been really busy, a ton of great cakes, and six classes…not to mention installing my bathroom soap dish in the wall…I’m talking cement, grout and silicone…plumbing is just another art form. Here are some other cakes we've done that tried to "trick the eye."

Hi Y'all

2008-06-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Paula and me on set right after taping the show

Since I started my company many moons ago I have been so fortunate to be featured on numerous television shows. One of the best parts of my job is communicating to people the art of cake decorating. I'm able to do this through demonstrations, television appearances, teaching classes and through our books (our newest book just went up on Amazon for pre-sales!).

One of my all time fun experiences was with Paula Deen on her television show, "Paula's Party." It was a Disco-themed party, so we made her a disco ball cake with the show logo on it, (Do not ask how I got that cake on a small commuter plane from NY to Savannah). We also made disco ball cupcakes and some delicious platform shoe cookies, Paula was wearing the real shoes and a wig too.

As with all the shows I have been on the producers were amazing, so professional and organized and Paula was especially great! It struck me while I was on set with her how much she says, "Y'all" to the studio audience, and it is only now that I realize I am way out of my league when I use that same phrase during my demo's. Paula is FROM the South, I was born in the Bronx (and not the Bronx Zoo as my older brother told me) and grew up on the North Shore of Long Island. So even though I probably don't have the right to say it, I still do because it is such an inviting way of saying we are ALL part of one group! I can't say enough nice things about Paula (and her staff) so I am sure she would not mind the next time I say, "Y'all know what I mean" during one of my classes.

Producers Aimee and Michelle with me before the show

Ten Best

2008-06-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

Last night was the award ceremony held by Pastry Art and Design Magazine at ICE, honoring the 2008 recipients of the Ten Best Pastry Chefs in America. I was humbly included with nine other amazing pastry chefs:
*Chef Ciril Hitz, Johnson & Wales, Providence, RI
*Chef Vincent Pilon, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
*Chef Deborah Racicot, Gotham Bar & Grill, New York, NY
*Chef Gilles Renusson, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids, MI
*Chef Sebastien Rouxel, Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, New York, NY
*Chef Alfred Stephens, Olives, New York, NY
*Chef Alex Stupak, WD-50, New York, NY
*Chef Stephane Treand, St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach, Dana Point, CA
*Chef Jenifer Witte, Alex, Wynn Las Vegas Resort & Country Club, Las Vegas, NV

Look for all of us on the cover of the next issue of Pastry Art and Design. Each of us will be profiled with our featured recipe.

It also happened to be my birthday, so in addition to getting such a fabulous award I shared the evening with my family and friends. For the event we recreated one of the designs and recipes from our new book that will be out this fall, Confetti Cakes for Kids. We created 500 mini cupcakes using our vanilla cake brushed with raspberry preserves topped with lemon curd buttercream and three handmade marzipan flowers placed on each mini cake. Of course, I did not do this myself, without Kathleen, Amanda, Stephanie and Candice (not pictured) nothing would ever get done!

Go ahead brag about yourself...

2008-06-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

In my family we have many funny sayings, or as my husband will tell you, at least they are funny to the entire Strauss clan. So, whenever we mention something great that has happened to one of us a common reply from the peanut gallery is, "Go ahead brag about yourself" this keeps us all firmly planted on this earth. I love the fact that my family is so supportive and at the same time lets me know exactly where I stand...right beside them. And let me add that this saying has never stopped one of us from letting everyone know our good news...so here is a list of some great stuff that has happened to Confetti Cakes recently...and thanks I will go ahead and brag about ourselves!

1) Our YouTube Video has over 600,000 hits and a five star rating!
2) We were one of the featured videos and #11 most subscribed, #1 most subscribed this month, 18 most viewed on YouTube, thank you You Tube!
3) A nice feature on four NY Cake Decorators was in GOTHAM magazine's June/July issue, and we were one of them!
4) I was picked as one of Pastry Art & Design's, Ten Best Pasty Chefs in America for 2008, event on June 9th.
5) Our YouTube video has been embedded in a bunch of other great websites:
imcooked.com
abcnews.com
i-am-bored.com
6) iVillage.com posted some of our fun birthday cakes for some inspiring ideas in Dream Cakes and Be a Baker.
7) Last but not least our first cookbook has gone into its fourth printing!

O.k. back to making cakes!

Teaching, teaching and more teaching...

2008-05-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Me and Ana Ruiz, a cake designer from Mexico

So guess what I've been doing this week...you guessed it...teaching! When I started giving private lessons and group classes I had no idea what to expect. I've basically let my students guide the way, creating their own curriculum by telling me what they most want to learn. Students have come from all over the United States and all over the world including England, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and more! Many are professional pastry chefs and cake designers that want to master specific cakes from our book, or certain techniques such as sculpted cakes. Others are individuals that have full time jobs and cake decorating is a hobby that they love. We have also given some group classes but after ten people it is tight in our little bakery!

New York Cake Decorators- Meet up: group class everyone made a mini handbag

Tomorrow a woman is coming from Paris. She is about to open a pastry shop and wants to know all about running the business and how to make great cupcakes, cookies and mini cakes, that she can sell in her shop. In addition to teaching in my bakery, Thursday night I will be teaching at The French Culinary Institute. I am a visiting professor and go into the professional pastry classes to teach the basics of fondant and some quick decorations. It is so great after many years of making cakes to be able to give back to people who are just starting their careers. And I am happy to report in less then one week we have had over 3,900 views to our YouTube video. So I guess you can say I have taught over three thousand people how to sculpt a labradoodle out of cake...o.k. just kidding!

Me and Hiroko, from Japan. She made a giftbox cake with the lid open. The lid, box and tissue paper are all edible.

You Tube Video

2008-05-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

It's up! Our first YouTube video. As promised, we created a video of me creating my dad's birthday cake back in April of his dog, a golden labradoodle . My friend and amazing film maker Lisa Stock, lent me her camera, helped me film over five hours worth of the process and then she edited it down to a mere four minutes. As the video says "from 4 days to 4 minutes". This is the perfect format for people to see what I actually do. We build a block of cake, carve it down and then decorate. Sometimes I take still shots of the process but they don't do it justice.

For my dad's cake we started with our Old-fashioned Vanilla Cake and Vanilla Buttercream, (the recipes are in our book) split and filled 10-inch round cakes. Stacked them, carved them, and took the cakes apart to dowel so it was structurally sound. After the cake was sculpted I "crumb coated" the cake, which means I sealed in all the crumbs with a layer of buttercream. I made the head by carving styrofoam, because we had to drive the cake to my parents' house and I wasn't taking any chances. Then we covered the cakes with a mixture of white chocolate and vanilla rolled fondant. The plastic wrap and towels around the cake are to keep the icing from drying it. It took a long time to make all that fur!

The little birthday cake in front of the dog is also real cake and the "Happy Birthday" letters, collar and eyes are made out of gum paste. I hope you enjoy the video, watch it here.
Photos: Jordan Pique

Color Proofs

2008-05-08T09:28:00.001-07:00

This week is flying! We've been so busy in the bakery and wedding season has just started. Our week started on Sunday because I gave a demo for Pastry Scoop's Spring Conference at FCI on how to make our handbag cake and other sculpted cakes. The last few days I've been busy teaching private lessons, preparing for another demo that's tonight at ICE, working on a wedding cake filled with beautiful cherry blossoms for this weekend and then...more edits for our second book! We've already been through four rounds of edits concerning the text and the recipes, this time around we are seeing our first set of color proofs. This round is for looking at the photos to make sure they aren't too bright or too dark, including anything extra that you may have not seen when you took the photo, like a little extra frosting all over my hands! I put a picture here so you can see. Along the bottom you can see information written in Chinese, our book is being printed in China, and a chart telling what round of proofs we are on. At the top you can see the color breakdown. The color breakdown reminds me of my days working in textile design.

Lastly, with everything else going on, InStyle Weddings did a special segment on the Today Show yesterday and included our wine bottle cake to show one of our Groom's Cakes, I've posted the link here. And did I mention I planted flowers in front of the bakery last Saturday? Whew, o.k. gotta run!

"Joey" out of cake!

2008-04-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, April 24th was my dad's birthday. What I didn't divulge, for fear of him finding out, was that we planned two parties for his 60th. The first was an intimate gathering with the immediate family, which meant including the dogs as well! We all gathered at The Benjamin Hotel in New York City because they allow dogs. As a decoy I made my dad just a small cake, with his name spelled out in Nautical flags (since he has just bought a boat) and it had his favorite child, his labradoodle Joey squeezing through the number sixty.

The big celebration was a surprise party this past Sunday at my parents' house. For this I made a life-sized cake of Joey. I actually videotaped the making of the cake so I hope to have a short film of it soon. My filmmaker friend, Lisa Stock lent me her camera and is doing all the editing for it as well. You have to check out her website, especially her "Bride of Frankenstein Cake" video. It was difficult making something out of cake that you know so well. I wanted to keep adding fur to make it look more like Joey. My cousin Jordan took amazing photos that captured my dad's surprise as well as the cake cutting. Check it out:http://flickr.com/photos/jpop3000/sets/72157604767410663/show/
My brother Eric made an amazing video and posted it on his own blog too!

Revenge of the Sock Monkey

2008-04-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is the anniversary week of our winning the Food Network's Extreme Cake Challenge. I will never forget that experience for so many reasons. It was an especially auspicious day since it was my Dad's birthday (April 24th) and he was out in Denver with us. Poor guy was running around getting us breakfast, snacks and dry ice (to put in Mr. Sock Monkey's head) so his ears would steam. And we didn't finish that night until 11pm so the birthday dinner I had planned fell by the wayside.

Unlike any of the other competitions I've done it was so special to be judged by people who actually make sculpted cakes just like I do. Duff, Geoff and Mary Alice from Charm City Cakes and the stars of Ace of Cakes could not have been better judges. Not just to me, but they were complimentary to all the other contestants and Duff really understood the EXTREME stress we were under since he has been a participant in so many competitions too. Even with playing competitive tennis in college I have really never felt so much stress in my life. The competitions are usually great because the weeks before I go I am so nervous I drop at least five pounds.

Overall the experience was so amazing and of course winning the competition against so many amazing cake designers was the real highlight! We couldn't have done it without so many people: our armature welder, Matthew James who is a working artist and came to the rescue in helping us build the Monkey's internal structure;my good friend and cake designer Buddy Valastro who got the sparklers to us before we left and of course my dad who was a constant supporter and gopher, and didn't leave the stadium the entire competition!

Piecing Fondant

2008-04-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

It was a number of years ago that I realized when you are covering a huge amount of (or very tall) cake you can't always do it in one try. So I devised a technique that I call "piecing fondant" that allows you to apply fondant to irregular shaped cakes in well, you know, pieces (or sections). I am sure I personally didn't invent this technique although I can't remember where I saw it for the first time. I especially like to piece fondant on objects that would naturally have a seam, like a shopping bag, nap sack or handbags. You can piece the fondant and add some stitching marks and you'd never know it is a cake!
You can also use it for things that have an opening at the top, i.e. Popcorn bags, sand pails, and totes.

If you are in the New York vicinity on May 8th, I will be giving a demo at The Institute of Culinary Education on this technique.

Being a Bride

2008-04-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

It was just 6 months ago that I was a bride myself. When I was getting married the first question I was asked was not "who are you marrying?" but rather "who's making the cake?." I am happy to report that we had three wedding cakes (who could decide on just one?!), tons of cupcakes, cookies and brownies too (all made at Confetti Cakes, of course!) My friend Karalee LaRochelle, owner of Cocoa Locoa, made delicious salted honey caramels as our favors. We were married at Blue Hill at Stone Barns so the food was exquisite.
After making wedding cakes for so many couples over the years, I was overwhelmed with all the choices for our colors, flowers, themes, etc. As any good bride does, I religiously studied Martha Stewart Weddings but was happy to find so many fabulous blogs and websites to answer all my questions. Today we are happy to have been included in many wonderful blogs, here are two of our favorite wedding ones! The Bride's Cafe depicts the most beautiful weddings, Janie posted an interview with us today! Blush Events has the most up to date info on "what's new" and featured our cakes from Instyle Weddings. Oh and by the way, just in case you are wondering...I married an amazing guy named Marc. (Photo by Jamie Watts)

Gourmet's "Dairy of a Foodie"

2008-04-03T16:31:00.001-07:00

I want to tell you all about a television appearance coming up this Sunday, April 6th at 4pm on PBS (Channel Thirteen for New Yorkers). I will be on the show "Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie," the segment focuses on Trompe L'oeil: The Art of Culinary Deception. I will be showing viewers how we make our "sushi" cake. What I love about this television show is that it is edited by the actual magazine editors at Gourmet Magazine so it is really foodie-centric! (Yes, I just made up that word but hopefully you get it!) The show also talks about my style of cake: realism. I just love to make cakes look like real objects. One of my favorite blogs, Cakespy talks about this too. Not only is it a great blog with really interesting interviews and travel logs but Jessie also sells beautiful artwork, I am fortunate enough to own a few of her cake pins and a cupcake painting! Check it out!

Confetti Kids is Coming!

2008-03-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

O.k. well our second book, Confetti Cakes for Kids, will not be out until November, 2008 but I am so excited because we just received the blads. A blad is a catalogue of a few sample pages of the book and is used by the publisher for advertising purposes.

That said, this is just a sample cover, nothing is set in stone yet. I'm still in the process of editing, editing and then more editing. Before I wrote our first book I had no idea of how much work went into the process. I may be biased but I think making and writing a cookbook is more difficult than any other kind of writing. You have the basic writing and measuring of every specific detail, then you have all the recipe testing, then making all the product (in our case: cookies, cupcakes, mini cakes and sculpted cakes) to be ready all the same week so it can be shot by a professional photographer. For the photo shoot you need to do all the styling, so I was running around buying special backdrops and renting props from a special prop house! Then once all the photography is done I start with illustrations and templates...and did I mention the editing! This week I should be getting back the second pages (second round of edits) so I hope to have more to share soon!

Wedding Magazines

2008-03-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

Spring is definitely in the air. You can tell because the sun is slightly warmer, people are starting to wear brighter colors and the wedding magazines are putting forth their best features. Wedding season is upon us and with that we have been lucky enough to be included in a number of the top wedding magazines in the world! Check them out:
Brides featuring 50 of the country's best cakes, my friend Anne Chertoff wrote about them in her fabulous blog for ivillage.

I am really proud to announce that we have been honored with a full six-page spread in the Spring 2008 InStyle Weddings Issue. The photos were styled by Lynn Butler Beling and shot by Monica Buck.

Lastly, New York Magazine included us with a number of top NYC cake designers in their Summer 2008 Weddings Issue. New York Magazine holds a special place in my heart because this was the first magazine to publish our wedding cakes back in 2002. It's only appropriate that they also featured the rehearsal dinner invite and gift tag from my own wedding on page 69 created by Sesame Letterpress.

Women For Hire

2008-03-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

Today we are fortunate enough to have a video posted on the homepage of a wonderful organization, Women For Hire. Here's the direct link to the video:
http://womenforhire.tv/elisa-strauss-owner-confetti-cakes-bakery/
I'm sure there is a better way for you to view this but as my brother (the computer expert) can tell you I should stick to buttercream not streaming video! One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is not just making the cakes but sharing my experience as a small business owner. This video will give you a little glimps of that. Back in August of 2006 (yes... a long time ago) I recorded a short segment on ABC's Money Matters,
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2282439
Now I have a place to share it!

The FIRST Confetti Cakes blog!

2008-03-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

With the coming of spring I thought this was the perfect time to launch our very own blog!

Confetti Cakes has been so fortunate to be included on many other fabulous blogs and after a number of requests we thought it was time to let everyone know what goes on behind-the-scenes at Confetti Cakes.

During our last appearance on NBC’s “The Today Show” a few seconds before Al Roker and I started making cupcakes, a light fixture fell on set directly over our heads, luckily Ann Curry was there to catch it…next thing I knew “3,2,1…..”, live television before millions of people (just a little frazzled). My producer later said, “hey it’s something you should talk about on your
blog”…if only I had one…so here we are!

Besides making cakes we are busy finishing our second book, Confetti Cakes for Kids, due out November 2008. We've also been teaching a ton of classes and gearing up for a few upcoming demos!

On a happy note we have just gone into the third printing of our first book, The Confetti Cakes Cookbook. So thank you to EVERYONE who has made our first book such a success!

Please stay tuned for information about upcoming events, classes and of course discussion on cake!