Here is your journey into the world of Bridal Shows.. We have been doing more wedding cakes and wanted to go ahead and dive in into Bridal Shows... Bridal Shows are very new to us at Natalie Cakes and as you will read... we were pleasantly surpised and elated by how wonderful of an experience it was and will continue to be as we have already planned our next show.
This show was in beautiful Cape May, NJ, if you know about "Joesey" hehehe, Cape May is in the south on NJ... it's a small beautiful town with nicely decorated houses and many vacation homes, hotels, retaurants and more. We went to the Grand Hotel and they had the most amazing view of the ocean... we were all the way on the 5th floor (I know... not too high... considering we just cam back from staying on the 21st floor at the Tropicana in Atlantic City) but the 5th floor was the top floor... huge room and very nicely decorated... the staff was just so welcoming and helpful. The coordinators were atentative and there was always a rep close by in case you needed anything.
Above is the picture of the hotel sign and below is a picture of the breathtaking tulips they have all over the front of the hotel... the weather was nice... not too hot but not cold either... perfect for a day down the shore... The floor set-up was an open floor plan and they had ivory colored covered tables and they were all attatched, not like the other show set-ups I had seen before... Esach vendor had an 8 foot table to set their "product" on...so our assigned table was in the perfect spot... right in the walkway where everyone had to walk by to come in or out of the venue... then... God gave us a little "present"... there was a mix up in the vendor placement and the table next to us was assigned to a vendor that was not going to be there.. so they organizer approached me and asked if we wanted more room.. I of course was like: "Well... you need to talk to..." (I was wondering if we had to pay anything for the "additional space"...but before I could finish the sentence... he said: "Ohh no, no need to pay anything... there was a mix up and the table next to you is available, so if you want it, you can have it... of course I said a big huge Y_E_S_!_!_!... As it was.. it looked like our table was going to feel a little crammed because of the number of cakes we had to display and the tasting set-up we came up with, we had started thinking that we might have to keep some of the cakes boxed and just display fewer ones...so this was a blessing for sure... we went ahead and started to set-up our tableS (hehehe) and because we now had 16 feet to work with... it was super nice and roomy... we were able to display all our cakes... our sugar flowers.... and our tasting samples to name a few and we still had plenty of space so it didn't look crammed... Here are some pictures of the set up and of the display cakes we brought... Here is our Show Stopper.. this cake was hand-painted by my husband (let me just mention that we had no idea He posessed this incredible talent). Here is MY master piece.. this cake took over 40 hours to make but the end result is worth every minute I spent on this cake... everyone loved the cake and they refered to it as COUTURE... This cake is one of my favorites... Love making the chocolate fondant and the blue gumpaste roses give it just the perfect contrast and a great color combination. Always a crowd pleaser... the classic black and white it's always well received and it's a cake that can be incorporated into a summer wedding as well as a winter wedding... Here is our take on a nicely done pastel colored cake... it's a cake design that complements a sunny spring wedding, maybe even out doors.
Let me take a side turn here for a few.. I want to talk a little bit about how we got our samples ready for the bridal show. We were not sure if we wanted to take some basic vanilla cake with plain buttercream or if we wanted to do some specialty flavors to take with us. After carefully going over our options and doing some research on the subject, we opted for something in between.
We featured 3 flavors:
1.Cocoa Bliss, which is a super rich chocolate cake with Boston cream filling and a whipped chocolate ganache.
2.Vanilla Dreams, is was our famous vanilla bean butter cake with our signature wedding bouquet buttercream.
3. Velvet Dream, is our best selling Red Velvet cake, nice and moist with a hint of cocoa with our super delicious creamcheese buttercream.
Here is a picture of our Red Velvet freshly out of the oven.... notice how even it bakes and that famous deep red color that makes it look so amazing.
We took the cake and cut it in small bite size pieces (we debated on making cupcakes, but we kind of figure brides wouldn't want to be walking around looking at other vendors while eating a cupcake....) we did 1 1/5 X 1 1/5 inch sample and place them in a small lidded container labeled with our information and the flavor they tasted. We also got the cutest little silver little forks and the brides went crazy over them.... that was nice... cause it's all in the small details... well not all... but they do count! They were plastic, but looked like real silver!!! NEAT! I'm glad we opted for this, as we saw other cake vendors giving out cupcakes and most of them ending up in the trash can with just a bite off, not because of the flavor, but because of the size. With the way we did it, if they didn't want it then, they could take it with them or even take home a piece for someone they would've like to have a taste.
Here pictured below is how we placed our samples... as they were taken, we would just re-stock with more, it worked perfect.
Here is a close-up of our tasting samples, we added a label like I stated before, with our company name, website, telephone number and cake flavor. Notice the cute little forks?? hehehehe
(DO NOT ask me how I was able to fit all that into a 1 1/4 X 1 1/8 sticky label lol).
Here are some shots of our table (ahem... make that tableS! lol). Overall, very happy we did this, can't wait until we do another one and it's a whole new side of the business that I am excited about and working towards mastering.... Please feel free to comment, suggest, advice, etc. We welcome any and all you may want to share with us...
PS... Sorry about the amount of time it took for me to update this, we have been very busy with the CAKIN BIZ! :-)
Good Morning my dear readers... Another week.... another exciting project. This week we are working on a cake with "congas", which is a percussion instrument used mostly by spanish players. Here is a pic:
They "seem" fairly simple to do... but I can assure you... when it looks that simple is because is that much harder to achieve... So DH will be assisting in this project because he loves how good this instrument sounds... So far one of them is started and waiting on it to dry so we can add the details to it... Here are some progressions pics:
We will make the twin today and start the detailing on the first one also. The design for this cake will be so nice when it's finished... This is for a Band Player's surpeise birthday party and the colors are going to be very earthy, I can't wait to see it finsihed!Well... it's nice and early off to start some baking! YummY!!, will also start doing some of the details so they have time to set.... talk to ya in a bit...
Cya.... -------------------------
Wed-Feb-17-2010 @ 12:40 pm
Hi everyone!Well.. yesterday went very well... finished all my baking... now they are nice and sealed settling down... today it's time for buttercream!! YummY!! filling! double YummY and crumb coat... DH worked on details for the drums, here are some pics, and today i will be working on some music notes that I want to add as details on the side of the cake...
This seems weird because there haven't been too many issues with this project, I guess it's true... practice makes perfect heheheI am NOT saying I'm perfect but that the process becomes second nature the more you do it... We took the drums and added some really nice shine with some confectioners glaze and it looks amazing! take a look:
Well off to play with fondant! yeahhhhh Cya l8r... ----------------------- Wed-Feb-17-2010
Hya... it's me again hehehe Well... I worked on the music notes... not tooooo happy but let me wait until they dry and see how they look, I also took advantage to do the happy b-day letters so they can dry with plenty of time... I might want to color them also. My UPS haul is due to arrive today and I have one of my secret BC ingredients there so I can't start making it until that gets here... ggrrr... but I am doing other things while I wait so it's NOT time wasted! that's good... anyways... need to go out and make a run to the market...so we will chat later...
Cya... ------------------
Wed-Feb-17-2010 @ 5:56 pm
Well this is the time when UPS brings me my stuff (ggrr) so I wasn't able to do all I wanted to do today nice and early, Now it's dinner time... after dinner... time to make icing... then tmo will be for tort, fill & crumb.... On the other hand... very happy about the stuff I got... will post pics in my "haul" page!
Cya... ---------------------------
Thu-Feb-18-2010
Hi everyone.....
Very uneventful week and that's a good thing.... everything running smooth with my drummer boy project... I have some pics to share kater on tonite.... You see... I had an order for a music themed cake that looked promising... for x or y reason... the deal fell through.... well I had ordered some music cutters and a music sheet stencil.... but DH said: "How many music cakes will you do?" so I said... "guess u r right" so I cancelled the order.... next thing you know.... ANOTHER MUSIC THEME CAKE!!! hahahahaha So... I said... ok ok np! I can do the notes by printing them and tracing them with fondant.... well... no ink on the printer! lol.... SO I go to buy it.... they are out of the ink I need!! SO.... ok I say... let's do this free hand.... how hard can it be? yeahhhhhh well turns out if you are not a natural artist or good at drawing... that might be a challenge.... so I carefully... slowly... looking at the monitor.... and cutting my music notes... I got them done... they are good... but I wish they were better (that's always the case with me lol).
I did some research on the sheet lines and got some good ideas on how I might get them how I want them to be on the cake.. going to try it.... you will see if it works or not!
Now I'm going to do some more notes but they will be wired so they can be over the cake.... not many just 3 or 4... already added some CMC to my fondant and letting it settle now.... as you can see... uneventful might not mean the same thing to you and me lol...
I will be back l8r with some progression pics.. I promise!
Cya... -----------------------------
Fri-Feb-19-2010
Hi everyone!!!
Well things are running A OKAY! so far we are on time for this special delivery.... My music notes are all dried and set to go. This morning... I knead it the fondant and colored it in a light beige tone... then I covered my cake... we wanted different earth tones throughout the cake so I added a top in a darker shade that hangs on the sides... then a double border.... one being dotted with a bone tool... I also added some stripes, wavy and straight around the cake and put the HB Tom letters and some of the music notes.... it's coming out so good already.... Anyhow I promise some pics... and I have them! enjoy!
Here are the congas... shiny and all done up... hehehehe.. this was so much fun to do... they remind me of my childhood....
Here are the tappits (Funky Letters) drying alongside the music note... that I(BTW) did... FREE-HAND! :-)
These are the wired music notes that will be topping the cake...
ANd.... Here is the best part C A K E YummY!
Be Back l8r with the END RESULT!
Cya... --------------------------------
SAT-Feb-20-2010
Hi!!...well today is delivery day and I am very happy about the end result... it is a festive... musical... nice looking.... male birthday cake! Here it is.....
Well my baby girl's 4th b-day is on the 10th but we are celebrating it this Saturday, I will be starting on the cake details this morning so as you know there will be a lot of pics hehehe... I will be doing something inspired by the few cakes you see in the above picture...
My ideal cake would be very pink and cutesy with bows and maybe ballerinas and slippers and hearts and FLOWERS!!!!!! BUT...... she is into Ice Age now (a few weeks ago it was Lion King) so I kinda knew my pink cake dream wasn't going to be even before this lol. I keep buying her barbies and more barbie and you know what she does with the accessories the barbies' bring? she puts them on the ice age characters lol she put some high heels on dinosaurs and no matter how many Barbie's I buy... she goes back to her ICE AGE and Dinosaurs gggrrr but I have to do what makes HER happy not me lol..
Anyways... I will talk to u a little later on.... going to color the fondant/gumpaste in the colors of the characters and start baking on Wednesday so I have enough time to decorate without being in a rush...
After coloring, which took forever!!! this is what I have so far on Sid The Sloth.... The Head Shape... Looks pretty good.... now on to the body, I will add details after it dries... I don't' want to mess with is too much while is still wet cause I might... I know I will! discombobulate the shape of the head.... Cya! -------------------------------- Mon-Feb-8th-2010 @ 2:58 pm
Just did the body part... it looks okay kinda big bottomed lol... but he's kinda big at the hips... I also used the veining tool to add texture to the body and also the head... u will see in the next set of pics... now I will work on the arms, feet and tail... let it all dry well, 'til tmo then start assembling it and adding the details... but while that dries I will start on Mannie, what I'm gonna do it work on Sid and Mannie first... if it's too much then I will just do them both and the eggs (baby Dino's) 'cause she loves playing mami to them...
Ok Guys... the top pic is the body of Sid drying also and the bottom is Mannie's head and trunk... I am not doing the whole mammoth cause it would overtake the cake... so he's head is gonna peak out of the cake... still need to add the tusks, eyes, brows, hair and ears... when it's dried, so maybe tmo... Cya... ---------------------------------- Mon Feb-8th-2010
Ok UPDATE!!! Here is Mannie with ears, eye balls, eyebrows and some hair... need to keep adding hair but it's tedious lol so I am taking a break so I don't do sloppy work.... I am very happy because I didn't think I was going to be anywhere near as close to how they look as I have so far... to add more depth to them we are going to airbrush them once they dry. I am going to add the details to Sid right after dinner and I will update you on the progress (or just like the other times before lol, I might end up getting knocked out and not work on them anymore until the morning) hehehe... but just so you can see..
When we are looking at all this from the outside... we see people on tv having 6-7 hours to finish a cake and we are like: "Ohhh that's soooooooo easy I can do that in no time.. why do they need 7 hours?!?!", but when u want your work to be as professional as possible... it takes hours and hours to make just one character, let alone 4 or 5... but when you LOVE doing it (like I do) it's just fun fun fun to sit there and work on them...
for now... Cya! --------------------------------------------- TUE-Feb-9th-2010
Hehehe I told ya! I might not come back lol... after dinner DH came home and I just decided to spend sometime with him... and it was okay becaue everytime I checked the figures... they were still not as dry as I would have wanted them to be before I would start adding the details. So.. this morning... woke up not feeling all there at all.. not sure why, but what I did was a nice prayer to God... read some Psalms to make me see the joy in God's holiness and... I finished that... went to get the mail.. and there were some very exciting documents that came in that made me very very happy.. so now I am AOKAY lol...Anyways... this morning I already started to work on Sid the Sloth... I added his legs and claws.... glued that to the body and added his eye balls... now I am working on the right color for his lips... it's not pink, it's not red.. it's not brown, but it's like all those colors together... so I mixed few shades and now I'll give it 10 minutes to deepen so I can see which one works better....I will post the pics in my next entry.... Cya... ---------------------------- Tue-Feb-9-2010 @ 2:28 pm
Hi again my friends.... take a look....
This is what I have so far... it's not as easy as I thought lol... My daughter has the toys so in a matter of speaking I could have either just used the ones I bought or make a mold of them and call it a day... but then where is my artistic talent displayed? molds are just like making an ice cube.... I mean that's my opinion....
Well I'm gonna let this set now (I just need a break lol) then on to putting the arms and then glue the head... I get all desperate and just want to see the finish product asap, but i need to wait, cause patience is a virtue that I have not aquired/mastered yet lol...
Talk to you l8r... Cya --------------------------------------
Wed,Feb,10th,2010 @ 7:10 am
Good Morning to all.. First off.. Happy Birthday to my little Girl Natie.... she is 4 today... she was born at 7 am on a morning like this 4 yrs ago... I can still recall that it was a snowy (bad snow storm) back then also... my mom was here from PR and she is scaredddd of the snow lol, she was with me and DH at the hospital and when she saw the snow, she made DH rush home to take her cause she was scared... I miss and love her dearly, my brother (lives in Chicago) is visiting her in PR as we speak and they are in a nice sunny island :-)
Well back to THE ICE AGE lol.. last night I did the tusks and made them out of pastillage and that stuff is hard to work with because u need to work fast otherwise it dries on you.... When I kept rolling it to make it pointy at the end, it kept drying and would "separate", so I would have to add water, re-knead and start over... but eventually I got it.... I did 2 sets and here are some of the pics, I have not glue them to mannie just yet, but it gives u an idea of how it is going to look.
Today I will finish Mannie, and finish Sid, then start on Scrat and the eggs.... Be safe out there, Philly is covered in snow and they predict snow all day long.. on top of the 20+inches we had this past weekend.....
Cya.... ---------------------------
Cya.... ----------------------------------
Wed-Feb-11th-2010 @ 8:52 am
Good Morning everyone...
Well yesterday was an okay day... wasn't able to work on the figures as much as I would have liked due to other business matters that needed my attention. But I was able to finish with the assembly of both characters... As you can see Mannie, I say he's finish and you might be like... wait a sec... it's just his head?! Well that's all I need from Mannie for the cake design I have, his head will be kinda peeking out from the "cave" (cake).
I finished Sid... he was pretty easy to do... and the eyelashed which I thought were going to just brake off and fall (I made a lot of extras, just in case) none broke off or fell... that's good...
Mannie, his hair was a bit of a challenge because it's like a puffy thingy on the top and I had no idea how to build up all the puff without making a ton of hair and attaching it in layers... waiting for each layer to dry then add another... I found an easier way and I accomplished what I had envisioned...
This morning I will be painting them.. not the whole thing but just adding some shadings and depth to them... I had the beanie babies characters and some pictures as my "muse", but I think they ended up looking more like the stuffed animal version rather than the movie version, but I am okay with that.. I love how good they came out...
I will weight in whether I want to do the Scrat character or not... depends cause I have some orders that are due and I need to start some initial work on them... you will know before the day is over lol...
I kinda started doing some initial acorns just to see how they would look... here is a pic...
I like how they came out... with some darker paint on top and some highlighting streaks in the nut itself.. I know it will look awesome...
Anyways... let me get back to work... I will update you as things move along...
BTW: Another snow storm yesterday here in Philly.. and guess what?? remember I told you it was wishful thinking that our next door friends would use their snow blower to clear our house... well my kids did some shoveling in the morning when it was a mix of rain and snow... then it started to snow hard...so I told them to come in... well like at 8 pm our nice neighbors... went to clean their house and when I looked out the window.... they had clear our front...our sidewalk... and our driveway!!! so BIG KUDOSSSSS to our neighbors!!! Talk to ya later..... Cya... -----------------------------------------
Thu-Feb-11th-2010
Here are more pics you guys... :-)
Oh dear dear! lol... he was by far the hardest to do.... I did the color... and 3x the color was all worng... finally I decided to go with just a light orangy brown cause I just wan't able to get the right color...
So I start doing the figure... and for the life of me... at first I just couldn't get the shape of the face right.... I did it 2 maybe 3 times before I was able to do one that I liked... the one pic above is the best one and I am happy (not too happy lol) but happy with how it came out.... the gray thingy next to it, that's the tail drying before I glue it to the figure... and the acorm is next to them also...
Now I am going to add some paint to do some highlights to the figures... let's hope it comes out okay... I will let u know...
Hope u r still enjoying my progress... hardships.... dilemas... and all that comes with it... tmo I will get the cake fondanted so I can make it look like the north pole... but I'll let u be the judge of of lol... nite nite my peeps...
Cya.... ----------------------------------
Sat-Feb-13-2010
Taadaaaa....
Hello my dear friends...
Well whatcha think??? they are finally done.... Finishing them took a lot longer than expected due to little ol' me getting a cold and feeling so sick that I barely touched them yesterday, I feel a little better today.
I want to give kudos to DH because he did the paint work on them and they look great... I had done scrat in like an orange/brown color and it was all wrong, he used his "magic" and mixed some colors and got the right shade and it looks awesome...
Now on to putting it all together on the cake... so throughout the day, you will see how it all comes together...
I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far.
Our prayers go out to the family, friends and Olympic family of that young man that had the unfortunate accident that took his life...
Cya...... ------------------------------------------- Sat-Feb-13th-2010 Hi everyone.... Are you ready??? Here we go.....
Mannie The Mammoth...
Here is Mannie the Mammoth... finished... already in position on the cake... we made a "cave" out of RKT covered in fondant and placed his head there...as if he's coming out of the cave.... I love the way it looks like the snow is falling all around him.
Sid The Sloth...
Sid was place in the corner next to scrat and he is holding a snow ball just like the one on top of Mannie's head... he just threw one and is ready to throw another hehehe....
Scrat.....
Scrat came out sooooo cute.... I love it!... he has the acorn next to him "protecting" it as he hold a sign with the #4 for Nattie's age.... he's standing next to the cave.....
THE CAKE!
Here is a top/side view of the cake..... I love how cute it looks... it's very ICE AGE... nothing but ice and snow all over.... and they look just so good together....
DH working on the cake here he is adding the final touch ups.... some shimmer dust and sugar flakes to make it look like ice crystals all over.... I must tell you... I had the vision, but without him I could have not brought it to life.... he is amazing!
Here is a collage of the cake with some close-up pictures....
Here is the cake from various angles... I hope you guys enjoyed this adventure as much as we did... ironic.... me working on a snow themed cake during the worst snow storm in Philly hehehe.
PS. I need to share this with you 'cause I thought it was hillarious... So yesterday I go to Party City to get all the decorations for her party... And of course she went along with me and my middle son, he took her to another section while I went to get her things...
SO I am looking for Ice Age theme party accesories... of course they DO NOT have it... so I keep looking and based on what I sw... I "had no choice" but to get everything PINK with the princess theme ( YEAHHHH!!!) I said: "Well everything will be all girly girly in pink and she will just have her Ice Age cake!".
So as I am walking to the register to pay.... I pass by the boys birthday section, and of course what do I see?..... a jungle theme bundle (like Ice Age dawn of the DINASOURS) and I start thinking that, even though I might not like it as much as the pink princess.... it goes with the cake theme 100 times better... BOOOHOOOOO.
So... I start pouting as I sadly put all the PINK princess stuff back... and get all the Jungle Dinasour Theme Stuff...
AND!!! to top it all... there were like 3-4 other mom's getting all these nice girly theme accesories (Dora... Bratz... Hannah Montana... Pink Princess, etc...) It's just not fair!!!!
lol it's okay.... as long as she is happy.... I will do her birthday based on what she likes!
Anyways.... nite nite to all... hopefully my cold will go away soon. I will share the birthday pictures with you tmo...
Here is our Show Stopper.. this cake was hand-painted by my husband (let me just mention that we had no idea He posessed this incredible talent).
Here is MY master piece.. this cake took over 40 hours to make but the end result is worth every minute I spent on this cake... everyone loved the cake and they refered to it as COUTURE...
This cake is one of my favorites... Love making the chocolate fondant and the blue gumpaste roses give it just the perfect contrast and a great color combination.
Always a crowd pleaser... the classic black and white it's always well received and it's a cake that can be incorporated into a summer wedding as well as a winter wedding...
Here is our take on a nicely done pastel colored cake... it's a cake design that complements a sunny spring wedding, maybe even out doors.
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