Holy First Communion Cake - NJ Cake Bakeries

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We created this pretty bible book cake for one of our favorite customer's daughter. She celebrated her first holy communion in style!

Happy Birthday Purse Cake - Bergen County NJ Bakery

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Another purse cake from us at Confectionary Designs! Everything you see is edible, including the scarf, jewelry, purse handles, etc...

 

This cake was made for a 'fashionista' birthday party. The lovely recipient is known for her saying "it's all about the accessories!" We hope she liked gobbling up these sugar accessories.

Corporate Logo Cookies from our New Jersey Bakery

Confectionary Designs

 

 

Thinking of a favor for your next corporate event? We have the perfect solution: yummy sugar cookies with your corporate logo printed on our edible sugar 'paper.'

 

 

We made a few hundred of these little goodies for a Sperry Top-Sider party. The sailboat artwork was commissioned by an amazing watercolor artist.

 

Thank you for visiting!

Guitar Cake - NJ Cake Bakery

 

Confectionary Designs

 

Anyone ever play a sugar guitar :)

 

We made this cake for one of our clients who presented it to her boyfriend for his 30th birthday.

 

The book cake contains his favorite quote from John Lennon's lyrics of "Beautiful Boy": Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."  So very true!!

Old Fashioned Telephone Cake

Confectionary Designs

 

 

Some of the younger crowd may not recognize this as a phone but this is the way phones looked when the birthday girl was born!

 

This was such a fun cake to make for a really lovely lady. The biggest challenge with this cake was the support system to hold the phone handle in place. We went with a series of dowels and pipes - yes....all food safe!

 

I hope you enjoy viewing our most recent work.

 



ASPCA Cake - NJ Cake Bakery

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Some of the cakes that come out of our bakery are a 'labor of love.' This cake, made for an ASPCA fundraiser, was one of those. The event was held at a dance studio in NYC, hence, the dancing theme!

 

The dogs, cats, and dancer silhouettes were created using digitized images and an electronic cutter to to cut the gumpaste. 

Neon Candy Theme Cake - NJ Cakes

Confectionary Designs - NJ Custom Cake Bakery

 

Here is a fun little topsy turvy cake we made for a candy-themed bridal shower. The lollipops were made from rolling fondant.

Homemade Graham Crackers for S'mores

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com

 

 

Earlier this week I shared a post for homemade marshmallows. Of course the next logical step is to share a recipe for homemade graham crackers so you can create the widely-loved S'mores!

 

One fun aspect of making your own crackers is the endless possibilities for shapes. How about heart shaped crackers with strawberry-flavored marshmallows for Valentine's Day? Or maybe duckie shaped crackers with lemon-flavored marshmallows for a baby shower? You see where I'm going...

These crackers are super easy to make and the taste will delight your guests!

Ingredients:
2 ¼ all-purpose flour (I prefer unbleached flour)
 ½ cup packed brown sugar
1¾ teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
3 tablespoons cold water
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:
1. In a bowl whisk together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. Work the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingers. The mixture should resemble cornmeal when you are finished.
3. Stir in the cold water, honey and vanilla.
4. Form dough into a ball. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
6. Roll out dough to your desired thickness between two pieces of parchment (dust lightly with flour if it is sticking). Cut into squares with a pizza cutter or use a cookie cutter for different shapes. Place on lined cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Use a fork to make indentations to your liking.
7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let set for 10 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

Baby Shower Cake Inspired by the Invitation

One of the best parts of our job at Confectionary Designs is coming up with a design that fits the occasion perfectly! We look for inspiration everywhere by working closely with our clients to understand their needs. One of our clients brought along the invitation she had sent out when she came to us for a consultation and tasting session. All of us knew immediately the cake had to be designed from the tree and bird's nest on the beautiful invitation. Pam carefully drew up a sketch for the client and I loved seeing this cake come to life with the sprawling tree and edible bird and nest.

I hope you enjoy viewing this cake!

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Our Cake is Now Officially a Masterpiece!!

http://www.zwarenstein.com

OK, so maybe not the cake itself, but the painting above is definitely a masterpiece!  We were lucky enough to have a 36" x 24" oil painting done by a world-renowned artist, Alex Zwarenstein.

Alex holds a MFA from the Royal Academy of Arts in London, teaches at The National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York, has received numerous awards, and his work is often exhibited at various prestigious galleries around the world.

Alex came to our New Jersey bakery armed with his camera and within a few weeks he had my jaw dropping when I saw what he came up with. He made our cake come to life!

Thanks, Alex! This piece of art will have a special place in our hearts and our bakery.

Below is the cake Alex used as an inspiration:

Some of our latest cakes...

As much as I enjoy blogging sometimes I need to let posting go so we can work on bakery orders. We've been quite busy lately with an great selection of occasions to make cakes for! Spring and Summer are a big season for baby showers (hmmm....I wonder why!), graduations, and weddings.

Following are a few of the cakes we've recently created:

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com

The above cake was created for some great gals throwing a bridal shower for their friend, or maybe as fun as the photos they sent us looked, this would be described as a bachelorette party! The cake was made by carving a sheet cake and adding two ball pans for that extra dimension.

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com

This cake was created to welcome a new baby. The design for the cake was inspired by the cute invitations for the baby shower. The little bird and nest on top are entirely edible!

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com

Of course with all the new babies, there is always a need for new OBGYN doctors. The cake was ordered for a woman graduating from medical school. As all of our cakes, everything is edible including the doctor and patient.

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Last, but not least, the above cake was ordered by the mother-to-be's sister to welcome her first niece into the world. The party was designed as a princess fairy tale theme and the cake fit in perfectly with the decorations the soon to be aunt set up!

Painted Purse Cake

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We loved making this sculpted purse cake for a very special client! The process of hand-painting with cocoa butter and petal dusts took quite some time, but we think the result was well worth it. I've practiced the cocoa painting method on small test plaques, so I was a little nervous when I needed to paint an entire cake!

Bowling Bag Cake and Edible Shoes

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It's an old cliche that we are our own worst critics, but the saying holds so true when it comes to making custom cakes for our clients. There are not many cakes that leave the shop that I look at and think "we could have done something a little better on that cake."  Then the client sees the cake and just loves it!

The bowling bag cake pictured above is definately not one of the cakes I think this about as it is probably one of my favorite cakes we've done (OK, so I have to give Pam the credit for a great cake!). I love the shape, the decorations ,the vibrant colors, and the edible shoes are so perfect!

This is the third bowling-themed cake we've done for the same client who holds her birthday parties with a bowling bash every year. Can't wait to see what next year's cake looks like!

Here's a picture of the edible shoes drying (we use plastic wrap to help hold the shape as it dries).

Onsie Baby Shower Cake and Cupcakes

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Northern New Jersey

Inspiration for a cake design can come from just about anywhere. I knew I'd turned into a real 'caker' when I starting seeing items such as a scarf and instead of thinking "wow, that's a perfect color for me" I now think "hmmm....how can I interpret that into a cake design."  These thoughts seem to invade my mind with so many other elements that surround me, be it architecture, a painting, or patterns the clouds make in the sky. 

For this baby shower cake we were inspired by the design of the event's invitation. The avocado green and baby blue were a perfect combination for colors and the onsie on the invitation was incorporated into the cake design and the cupcakes. The little sugar bears climbing on the cake were also dressed in onsies!

 

la Quinceanera Cake

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bogota, NJ

In every little girl's upbringing, there is a special moment to which she looks forward with excitement and pride. It could be a bat mitzvah for a young Jewish lady, a communion for a Catholic girl or she could be making her society debut. When a girl reaches her fifteenth birthday in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Central and South America, she celebrates her Quinceanera, and her entire family treats her like a princess for her special day.

Historically speaking, Quinceanera traditions date back to ancient Mexican society. The origins can be traced back to the Aztecs in 500BC where it was used as a form of initiation to instruct and reinforce important cultural ideals. These days, turning fifteen years of age is acknowledged with the Quinceanera and the ceremony is a reaffirmation of the baptismal vows made by her parents. Now, as then, a candle is lit during the ceremony to signify this.

We made the above cake for a lovely young lady for her special day. We incorporated edible items in the cake that are symbolic in many Qunceanera ceremonies, such as the royal icing tiara, the high-heeled shoe, and the gumpaste scepter.

Playstation 3 Cake

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This Playstation 3 cake was a real challenge to make! It was made for a great lady to surprise her boyfriend on his birthday. She only needed to feed 8 people but in order to make a big impact and look like a real Playstation we needed to make a much larger cake that serves about 35 people. We gave her our usual instructions to wrap the leftovers in plastic wrap, store in the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature before serving.

The Playstation is carved from our Red Velvet cake recipe and filled with a yummy cream cheese filling. The controller is molded from cereal treats and covered with fondant. Even the Madden game on top of the cake is edible as we used our dedicated food-safe printer to create the image. Oh, and the Gucci wallet and $100 bill are also edible!

Our Wedding Cake Video

Yesterday I posted that we are in the middle of the season of marriage engagements. I thought I would share the following video with you that has several of our wedding creations. Enjoy!



http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bogota, NJ



The Season for Engagements!

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Bogota, NJ

I came across a statistic a few days ago that states 40% of all marriage engagements occur over the holidays. The reason for this is that the holidays present an abundance of opportunities for memorable proposals to take place.

I have to add myself to this statistic as I became engaged at midnight at the beginning of the new millennium. Just like so many other brides-to-be, the very next day I was surfing the internet for information and running out to the newsstand to buy every bridal magazine there is. Six months later we were married in Las Vegas with 50+ of our friends and family in attendance (and, no, Elvis did not perform the ceremony!).

Looking at the statistics on our website and blog it looks like many of the newly engaged couples are doing the same thing I did. The most popular search term coming into the blog is "Engagement Cakes" followed closely by "Wedding Cake Designs."

So a big congratulations to all those recently engaged couples (and those that will become engaged on New Year's Eve!).

Black and White Birthday Cake - NJ Bakery

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bogota, New Jersey

Our client came to us requesting a 70th birthday party cake and wanted the following elements incorporated into the design: black and white films, family, sudoku, bowling and gardening! At first, adding all these elements in a creative way was a bit intimidating, but once the creative juices started flowing it all came together in a cohesive fashion.

We used a graphics program to create a simple sudoku and made a black and white film strip with photos of her children and grandchildren. These images were then printed on frosting paper using edible ink and applied to the cake with a few dabs of water.

The '70' topper was made using sugarpaste and an exacto knife several days in advance to allow drying time. Once it was dry we painted it with silver luster dust and sprinkled edible glitter to add a little extra bang! The bowling pins/ball and plunger flowers were also made from sugarpaste.

Overall we were quite pleased with how all the elements worked together in this cake and, more importantly, the client loved it!

Happy Holidays from Confectionary Designs!

Please view our holiday card created for all our readers!