Going to Pittsburgh

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

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!

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

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

"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!

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Austin is Awesome

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)

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!