Monday, May 12, 2014

Opulent Gold

All that glitters is not gold, but it should be when it's cake!  I had the pleasure of designing a very dramatic cake with gilded details and deep red roses.  I loved making this cake not only for the uniqueness of it, but because I got to do a lot of painting in the form of gilding.  It isn't the usual thing I do, although I often add lustre, this gold detail is a beast of it's own.  Very temperamental and required a very stead hand.  But in the late late hours of the night and early early morning I found it very soothing.  A tip to help keep the gold more "glittery" would be to use glaze instead of alcohol or lemon extract mixed in with your highlighting colour.  Glaze gives the gold more lasting shine.  I meant to use it on the blue gem details but time just ran out.  On a side though, make sure you have the cleaner that goes along with it as this medium will ruin your brushes.  I used a very fine nail art brush on the edges of my gold details and a small natural hair brush for everything else.  The deep red of the roses was achieved using an airbrush.  The blue gems and monogram used various shades of blue with silver to get a lustre. 


Thursday, February 6, 2014

Buyer beware!


 
I saw this funny inspirational quote, but it really spoke to me in a very non funny kind of way.  In this world of making the dollar go as far as it can there will always be short cuts.  I worry sometimes when a customer comes to me and says so and so is charging less.  This always concerns me since I do believe my prices are a fair reflection of what I produce.  My delicious cakes are baked from scratch with high quality ingredients, not a single short cut is made.  I believe this is why when at a cake sampling session, most of my customers faces light up with glee as they taste a really good piece of cake.  But more to the point, my cakes are beautiful because of many many years of practice and study.  If I say I can do something I almost always have the back up image of my work to prove it.  
To my valued customers I urge you to always dig deep into a cake designer's portfolio.  Confirm first and foremost that the images you see are indeed the work of the artist.  Look closely at technique, especially if you are asking for something that requires a high skill set.   Wedding cakes are expensive for a reason, and sometimes getting the cake of your dreams at a rock bottom price maybe something that quickly turns into a cake nightmare!