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!

Victorian House

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

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...

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!