NJ Wedding Cakes - White Velvet Cake Recipe

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bogota, NJ

One of the best parts of running a custom bakery is coming up with designs that fit the client, the venue, and the overall affair. The above cake just says "winter wedding" to me! OK - so there are no snowflakes, or sugar paste elves, but my partner did a great job designing this wedding cake for a very elegant, black-tie wedding. This white cake with black and super-pearl accents looked perfect on the cake table and complemented the classic decor.

So often we hear from clients "I want a simple cake" - this often makes me cringe as simple is often harder to do than a decorative cake. There is no room for error as the fondant and all the accents must be perfect because you can't hide anything!

All three tiers are made from our White Velvet Cake recipe which produces a wonderful, velvety texture. We needed to make 6 batches to complete the above cake. That's when a 20-quart mixer and 5-rack oven come in handy!

White Velvet Cake:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter, room temp
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F . Grease and flour 2-8 inch" round pans
2. Sift the flour and salt together and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
5. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk.
6. Alternately add flour and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool cake,

From Pencil to Pastry: NJ Birthday Cakes

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bogota, NJ

When Confectionary Designs first opened it's doors in Northern, NJ, I had a vision we would be the cutting edge bakery regarding technology. After spending over 20 years in the Technology field my thought was "automate everything!" from inventory to finances to customer orders.

So when it came to creating a rendition of a custom cake for the client, I rolled up my sleeves and starting using the latest and greatest graphic program.  WRONG - stop right there!!  My partner pointed out to me that our customers get a special feeling when they see a hand-drawn rendition of their soon-to-be cake.

There is the question whether we are bakers or artists first - in my opinion, neither outweighs the other -  we are bakers AND artists. Our customers know we are making their cakes by hand and so it follows we should also be sketching their cakes by hand and that is the philosophy that our company has adopted.

I enjoy comparing the original sketch given to the client to the finished product. In the Betty Boop birthday cake above there is almost no deviation from the original drawing. This is the case with many of our cakes, but it does happen that as we are working on a cake we just know a banner would look better in 3D, or we need more roses to fill up a section, or a bead border will look better than a shell border, etc... and so we do some real-time design right on the cakes themselves.

Christening Cake - Lemons and Raspberries

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bogota, NJ

The above is a gift box cake we did for a dual baptism for two beautiful little girls. I really enjoy doing cakes like this because several of the design details can be made in advance and we are not rushing around trying to get the details together. For example, the gumpaste roses and the top tier's lid were all made several days in advance which allows for sufficient drying time.

Both tiers are a lightly-flavored Lemon Cake filled with Raspberry Meringue.

Lemon Cake: (note: this recipe can be halved to bake 2-8" pans)

• 8 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature
• 20 oz. cake flour
• 2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 24 oz granulated sugar
• 4 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 tsp. lemon extract
• 20 fluid oz. whole milk
• 8 fluid oz. egg whites (about 8 large)

1. Preheat oven to 350F; butter and line baking pans (we used 2-10" and 2-7" pans)
2. Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in the lemon zest and extract
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and egg whites
5. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter and sugar and beat lightly; scrape down bowl; beat in half the milk and egg mixture; add another third of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated; add the remaining milk and egg mixture and mix until incorporated; add the rest of the flour mixture and beat until just absorbed.
6. Fill pans about 1/2 full (if using 2" pans) and bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.
7. Cool layers for about 10 minutes, invert onto racks to cool

5 Days of Christmas: Part III

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Here's a pic of our carved Christmas tree cake. Although it looks a bit difficult it was actually quite simple to make once we broke it down. The hardest part of making this cake was going back to high-school math to calculate the angles (yes, my teachers were right when they told me 'you'll use this again!").

Its a three-tier cake with each tier carved at an angle, covered in fondant, and stacked using pillars extending above the tiers (we wrapped the pillars in red fondant). The cake is sitting on a base of styrofoam draped in red fondant for the tree trunk.  

Anyone who knows my decorating methods will recognize my favorite part of this cake - the little gumpaste figures under the cake. I can work on these little things all day!

Our Latest Purse Cake

We made this purse cake for a dear friend of ours for her birthday. Its a red velvet cake with Toba Garrett's cream cheese frosting recipe, iced in a white chocolate vanilla ganache, and decorated with fondant.

Next week we will be publishing a post documenting all the steps to creating a wonderful purse cake like this, so please check back.

Listerine Cake

We were asked to make a cake for Johnson & Johnson for one of their employees celebrating an anniversary. She worked in the personal care division and this is what we came up with (luckily they didn't ask for a box of Tucks!). The cake was made by carving two sheet cakes to the shape of the bottle, covering in Satin Ice Rolled Fondant - White - Vanilla - 2 lb, adding the bottle top, and applying an edible image.

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Sweet Sixteen Birthday Cake

This was a really special cake to design and make. The birthday girl received an airbrushed guitar for her big day and her father wanted us to replicate the design. Putting the two masks together was a bit challenging, but, hey, we are always up for a challenge!

Like most sculpters, we just took two sheet cakes and carved away anything that didn't look like a mask (OK - so that one is getting old!). The cake is covered in fondant, airbrushed, and we added lots of black edible glitter to the design.

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/birthdays.htm