Gardenia Wedding Cake

I am crazy about gardenias, they are perfect and smell wonderful.....but not logistically great for a wedding between the wilting and browning. Unless they are in sugar. The following is an in depth look into the making of a gardenia and gold kissed wedding cake.

Gardenias buds start with three interior, and five exterior petals, then to make the full size flowers we add another seven petals around the edge. To make the giant gardenias we added 5 - 7 wired petals (wired in order to make adjustments on site, and for weight and structure). Total we made 12 full size gardenias, 7 buds and 2 giant gardenias, totaling 280 petals!Along with matching waxy green gardenia petals which were made of gumpaste tinted green, then airbrushed for dimension and shine.For you bakers out there: the gold was made of 2 containers of Old Gold, 1 container of Apricot Sparkle and 1/3 container of Moonstruck for a more rosey, antique gold. There was a gold rope at the base of each tier, gold loop accents on the cake and small sprays of gold pearls. Each tier was covered in marzipan instead of fondant. The bride's affinity for marzipan was worth any additional challenge we faced with this new tasty but fickle ingredient. This is my friend Shaler who stopped by our Orlando bakery just as we were assembling the cake. The cake was actually in two pieces. The two bottom layers were real, and the top 5 were faux. In this case, we decided to do this for the efficiency of the cake service to the couples 600+ guests, but in the end we were happy to have 5 lighter tiers to assemble.
An then some images of the final assembly in our shop. When we first put the flowers on the cake, the realistic off white color of the gumpaste was too stark of a contrast on the marzipan covered cake. A little ivory shimmer added to the petals softened it just enough that the gardenias could still have their signature off white color, but also blended with the overall design of the cake.



The completed cake on site in the reception hall at the T.Pepin Hospitality Center in Tampa. We hope to have many more weddings at this stunning new venue!
Here is a little video that my pastry chef and assistant Megan took. Thank goodness for her brand new iPhone! You can turn the volume off (oy, my voice sounds weird).

To see more of our recent cakes, visit our website at www.thesugarsuite.com

The Hungry Caterpillar

Our little friends give us some of the most fun projects! The Hungry Caterpillar is an adorable childrens book, that we translated into cake for this little girl's first birthday. All of the food is made of colored fondant, including the polka dots at the bottom of the cake.

Earthy-Organic Styled Wedding Cake

Every now and then, a client comes along with such a clear idea of who they are that their style jumps out at you! Anik is gracious, earthy, generous, sweet and lighthearted. She wanted a cake that was reflective of the earthy style they brought to all elements of their wedding, including the tree stump cake stand and ETSY birdie cake toppers. The couple's faith is a big part of their identity, so we added the bible verse read at their ceremony as a subtle element on the base of the cake.The biggest honor came when she asked me for a copy of the sketch to serve as a menu in the rustic wooden frame next to the cake. We wish you every happiness Anik and JD!

Faux and Fabulous Wedding Cake

When this couple came to me, they had a grand plan to have a surprise wedding annoucement at their engagement party, followed by the rolling out of a huge wedding cake. Well, the guilt of hiding the secret got to them and they decided to have a small reception at a friends not so small house. They were only expecting 40 - 50 guests, but wanted large wedding cake as the centerpiece of the event. This is the perfect occasion for faux tiers!

Below is a picture of the 6 tiered cake, can you guess which 3 are real, and which three are faux?

Some other detail shots of the sugar flowers and monogram.

Eeyore and Piglet Baby Shower

Its the season for baby showers, and with the sea of baby room design choices its no wonder that we never see two of the same cakes! This cake and cupcake combination was for an old friend (yeah Facebook!) having her first grand baby. The little Eeyore and Piglet topper were made of sugar so that the mom could keep them if she wanted. The cupcakes were made of chocolate buttercream with a little fondant top to the "hunny" pot, and some vanilla custard as honey drops. I had so much fun with this project, I hope someone else orders Eeyore, Piglette and Hunny pots!!

House from the Heart

Growing up, I spend a lot of time at my best friend's grandparents house, which was walking distance from our school. We have so many warm memories of the super sloped driveway, the green and white awnings, the vegetable garden of and ghost adventures in the attic. When Grandpa Jerry's 80th birthday arrived, I knew we had to make a cake of the house he raised his 6 children and one grandchild (and one adopted grandchild, me!) in... 1023 E Livingston Street. It was my first building, and required way more time and detail than I anticipated..... but this project was straight from the heart to honor Grandpa Jerry!

Graduation Cake

There seems to be an ongoing dilemma when choosing which school to celebrate for graduations..... do they celebrate the accomplishment or the future that awaits them?! In this case, we said BOTH! The colors (black & gold, and royal & red) wouldn't be considered complimentary, but the significance of all four of these colors to the graduate was important.....so I went for it. We also needed to incorporate some "girly" elements so I made a large bow on the SMU tier. The mascot of her high school, the hornet, donned some eyelashes wispy wings, and a tiny little bow. Congratulations to all the graduates!