“Andrea, do you realize how long it’s been since you’ve done a post? I’ve been looking at these last two on flowers for about a month now. Show me the cake!”
Yes, I know. I’ve been neglectful! But I do have something pretty to show you (albeit, not a cake this time around):
Carondelet House entrance and its amazing painted, vaulted ceilings.
It’s Carondelet House. For those of you from Los Angeles, you have likely heard of the in-demand venue spaces called the Smog Shoppe and Marvimon. These locations specialize in featuring recyclable materials and eco-friendly plantings to enhance the open plans at both locations for maximum beauty, modernity, and hip factor. The latest addition to this family of locations is The Carondelet, so named for the street address, 627 Carondelet St.
Main room, set for dining.
When I first saw the property, it was for delivery of a large wedding cake for a photoshoot styled by Amber Gustafson of Amber Events. A few weeks prior I’d met the catering manager of Tres LA Catering who happens to manage the company out of the second floor of The Carondelet and was happy to reconnect with her at the shoot.
Cozy alcove complete with fireplace and club chairs.
We set up time to do a tasting and spent an afternoon tasting cake and talking about the importance of fresh ingredients, responsive client service, and a hot pair of high heels er, beautiful visual design. Ahem. Yes. Anyway, that meeting went well and I am very pleased to announce that Superfine is now a Preferred Vendor at the Carondelet House. It’s a very exciting honor for us, and we look forward to a long and happy relationship with Melissa, Steven, and the rest of the impeccable crew at Tres LA and The Carondelet.
Continuing our last post on sugar flower research, here are some lovely shots of the flowers in bloom up at Descanso Gardens. Enjoy!
Stunning roses are in bloom at Descanso Gardens making it the perfect place to snap pictures of exotic models for sugar flower-making. Check out what we captured on our trip there last week!
Descanso is divided into several gardens, all with one genus of flower in it: Lilacs, roses, irises and so on. Here is a shot of a bearded iris, and a rarely-seen-in-these-parts blooming dogwood:
An unusual variety of bright purple lilac with white-edged blooms.
I didn’t grow up with lilacs. My childhood sense-memory of these beauties was trained by cheap lilac soaps from the local grocery store and perfumes from Avon. So on my visit to Descanso Gardens in Montrose yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the beauty and variations on the looks and scents of these April/May stunners.
Click for a larger image of this blue-purple beauty.
Looking up through a deep purple lilac tree.
I think these deep purple lilacs mixed with the pale lavender ones at the end of this post are my favorite look. Contrast of two or more colors, even if they’re close to each other, seems to energize the whole look of an arrangement or cake for me. That also applies to flavors — I wouldn’t do a chocolate cake with chocolate icing: Your palate will numb to the flavor too fast. Instead, contrast it with mint, coffee, orange, raspberry, or something light like vanilla.
There were so many varieties of lilacs that I wanted to capture some of the most striking and unusual. This lilac is bright pink, and features uncharacteristically tiny flowers (usually each bloom is about the size of a nickel — these are the size of a pencil eraser).
A cascade of pale lavender lilacs.
Today the focus was lilacs. In my next post we’ll have the rest of the flowers: Poppies (the opium variety with extraordinary blossoms), tulips, bearded irises in impossible colors, and more. There is just too much beauty to post it all here. I need to give you a breather.
It looks so simple, doesn’t it? It’s white, no sugar decor, no fancy shapes, just squares. Slam dunk, right? Wrong.
Any caker will tell you that an all-white cake with no decor is likely the hardest cake to make. All flaws show. Especially on a square cake like this, if something is just 91* instead of a perfectly straight 90*, it will be obvious. The eye loves order, organization, straight lines. So when Kat and Oliver asked me to do a ‘simple’ buttercream stack of squares, the technical challenge got me.
Added to all the challenges of the mathematics and the steady hands needed to achieve them (no caffeine or alcohol 24 hours before final coating), this cake’s interior was chocolate cake. Not just any chocolate — our *black onyx* chocolate cake. That means not a single black crumb could exit the interior during buttercreaming. One small speck in this clean exterior and the effect would be ruined.
How did I do it? A strong crumb coat, and 20 minutes spent cleaning the board and surrounding area of any crumbs before final coat. Yes, I kept a needle pinned to my jacket pocket to pick out the one or two stray crumbs that escaped into the buttercream, so their 15 minutes of fame turned to five seconds as soon as they were discovered.
I do two kinds of exteriors on buttercreamed cakes: Rustic and Glass. Just like the names indicate, one is a little rougher (as on this cake) and looks more like food. Rustic-style is my favorite, and it worked for Kat because, being a chef herself, her top priority was the flavor and food-like nature of the cake. It had to smell, look, and taste right. Like food. Not a dress, not a showpiece — food. I share her passion for her love of the ingredient, so I did the rustic style for her and Oliver. Sometimes the formality of a design demands the more smoothe Glass finish. I’ll show you that one in a later post.
Many cakers are leary of florists. After an experience or two with florists that literally molest the cake with flowers, ruining the finish with nicks and dents and occasionally holes, I get it. But on this cake I worked with the fabulously talented Gilly and team at Gilly Flowers in Los Feliz (Sunset Junction). Not only is he gracious and kind, but he is careful and has exactly the same design sensibilty driven by shapes and the deep, subtle drama found in form that I have. He’s the only florist I feel I can set up the cake, tell him it’s ready, then just walk away — I trust him that much.
I’ve got more cakes on the horizon: One 40s style with a sugar brooch, a lovely cake featuring a sugar creeping fig growing up the side, and a lovely coral-and-lace number in May. More to come…
Two weeks ago we were honored to be asked to be a part of Unveiled: The Bridal Event held in Canon Gardens, just next to the Montage Beverly Hills. This outdoor couture event was a fantastic way to see the best of what Southern California vendors have to offer discerning brides.
Superfine contributed the above Mocha cake trio, featuring three shades and flavors of fondant — right to left, we have a chocolate fondant, white chocolate, followed by mocha fondant on the far right. Each cake features a variety of styles of sugar “fabric” flowers, gold buttons, and a couple of ribbons featuring secret love notes taken directly from the actual notes of the bride and groom that inspired this trio.
The note on the smallest cake (above) says “I’ll love you forever.” If you look closely at the chocolate cake, you’ll see a little ribbon on the ledge. That one says “You’re the bomb, babe.” Secret notes like this help personalize a cake the way nothing else can.
Presented along with our cake was a tasting-cake version of our Opera cake. Each slice was made with almond cake stacked with French mocha buttercream, then iced with chocolate ganache and topped with a thin sheet of 23-karat gold.
I wound the show down with friends and champagne on the adjacent Bouchon patio where we could watch the crowd mill about as the sun set. Some high points of the day included seeing friends at 100 Layer Cake, Green Wedding Shoes, Bouchon Bakery, the Montage (met and chatted with Richard Ruskell, current contestant and all-around upstanding chef at the Montage currently competing on Last Cake Standing for Food Network), and Margaret Rowe Couture Vintage Jewelry.
It was a great day and finishing it off with Kristeen LaBrot and Krista Mason was the perfect ending. Can’t wait for the next one!
Black and white ruffles were the order of the day when I got together with a group of amazing professionals in an 11th floor downtown Los Angeles loft in early March. We came together to do a really fun photoshoot inspired by the latest trends in ruffles, and accordingly I made the ombre ruffle cake above.
The decision whether or not to use a black or white sugar peony on this cake was a tough one. We were looking to show a little edginess in this shoot, the contrast between light and dark, and I decided to make the flower a little darker to contrast with the soft ruffle effect on the exterior.
We are honored to see this shoot featured on Grey Likes Weddings! Take a look and see more of the great work done by all the professionals. Our models’ hair and makeup was done by Susie Chhuor for Sunny LA., and the dramatic white floral designs were put together by Enchanted Garden Designs.
Several years ago I saw a chef on the Martha Stewart show. He was confident, in command of the segment, and had a clear vision of right and wrong when it came to cakes and their decor, including sugar flowers. I read posts about him, watched his videos on YouTube, and as Facebook and Twitter became part of our daily lives, followed him on both.
I learned a lot via observation and practice in my own flower-making. At culinary school I was lucky enough to study sugar flowers and cakes under one of his good friends, Alicia Boada, who taught us his methods. I came close to being able to replicate every fold and shading technique, but couldn’t quite capture the art I saw in his work.
That chef is Ron Ben-Israel, arguably the best sugar-flower expert in the US, and this past weekend I had the opportunity to spend three intensive days under his tutelage learning the intricate steps to produce flowers like he does.
I arrived around midnight the night before our first 9:00 a.m. class began. When I walked out of the hotel in the morning, I saw my first awe-inspiring Live Oaks each hanging with long, light tresses of Spanish Moss. Beautiful. I walked the two blocks under these trees to the class, hosted at Minette Rushing’s Custom Cakes in Savannah, GA. There were 20 of us RBI groupies, each excited to be there and get started. I had been circling his Facebook page like a shark…waiting for the next class to be offered. It turns out, so was Clay from New York, Laura from Italy via Montana, and Tina — she flew about 23 hours from Australia just to study.
An orange grouping of peonies and callas.
We learned how to make several complicated flowers, most petal-by-petal: The peony, rose, and tulip. The sweet pea, calla lily, hydrangea and filler leaves. Enough learning was packed into three days to be able to apply the techniques to just about any flower, so even though we may not have done the dahlia or snap dragon, I think I could safely reproduce them without embarassing myself.
Superfine Sweet Peas
I was really compelled to push myself by Ron’s perfectionism. My sense of order and pattern drives me to have everything level, square, and clean, but Ron’s keen eye for detail could see nature in every fold. He has a natural muscle and sense-memory for exactly how a sweet pea’s outer petal should move. An innate feel for for the curl and color of the aging edge of a rose petal. Does nature introduce cracks into a petal? Strange paper-like folds at the base of a lily? No. So fix it. Do it better. Try.
Sure it came at a cost. Studying with the best in the nation means you’ll be shelling out for the class, hotel, air fare and maybe some tools. Dealing with jet lag, sore hands, and the occasional admonition from the Sensei. But learning to see the fine details through his eyes was worth it. And the friends I made created a nice tight community of flower makers, any of which I feel like I could call on for input. Big hugs and shout outs to all of you and above all, many thanks to Minette and Ron!
Now, for your viewing pleasure, a cute shot of Ron dancing with Minette, all in the name of teaching, of course…
Ron and Minette demonstrating the way the spiral on a rosebud is made.
This Thursday I’ll be flying to Savannah, GA to meet a man I’ve wanted to meet for some time now: Ron Ben-Israel. He is known in the cake world and NYC event scene as a premiere cake maker and sugar flower sculptor, and backs up that reputation with a constant stream of amazing cakes, appearances in fashion magazines, and on the arm of Martha Stewart at so many industry shindigs.
Ron trained as a ballet dancer early in his life, but soon realized that it’s not a career you can easily continue into your mid- and later-life. He’s a natural artist, and decided to hone his sculpting and baking skills by training with the best teachers he could find. After educating himself, he spent years innovating his own style of flower making and building his cake atelier business in SoHo, NYC.
We’ll spend three days together at Minette Rushing’s Custom Cakes location in Savannah while he teaches us the intricacies of making sweet peas, gardenias, roses, peonies, and more. I’m thrilled to be going, and can’t wait to start adding these flowers to future cakes!
If you’d like to see Ron in action, take a look at this great interview I found of him on YouTube:
I love doing cake tables. Most brides come to me with ideas for lovely, modern stacked cakes which make up about 80% of my work, but then there are the brides who prefer something more deconstructed and playful, like a table full of cakes in related but different styles. This set was created for an NYC bride getting married in Los Angeles in August (click for a more detailed picture):
She sent me a couple of inspiration photos, her save-the-dates and invitations, a link to her wedding website, and more. All that collateral material around the event helped me visualize the sense she was going for, and I came up with many cakes in different styles for her to choose from. She chose seven of the 10 above — can you guess which ones?
I have another bride coming up in April who wanted a slightly more formal set of five, coordinated by color and shape:
My love of architecture frequently fuels at least one design element in my sketches, and the gold sugar bands in the set above were directly inspired by my photographs of the gold crown moulding taken during a walk-through of the venue, Castle Green in Pasadena. The sugar moulding will be replicated with various tools and molds then painted with 24K gold to get just the right look.
Thought the mouldings vary from room to room, these can be seen in the room that will actually hold the cake set, so the cake will look right at home.
I’ve also got a few trios on the books, but will save those for another post (maybe with the finished product?)
Oh, one last thing: A big shout out and thank you to Joy Cho of the Oh Joy! design blog for featuring us last week! She and her blog have appeared in Lucky, Forbes, Time and more for her design expertise. Known as the hipper Martha Stewart, Joy reigns supreme in the design blogosphere. Thanks so much, Joy!
Frozen one-year old cake? On your anniversary? What are you celebrating — the cold, hard, stale journey of your first year of wedded bliss?! Nooo…. Freezing the top tier of a wedding cake is a tradition that started over 200 years ago, at the beginning of the 19th century. Back then, weddings and childbirth were closely tied events, each expected to happen within 12 months.
Wedding cake top-tiers were originally preserved to eat at the impending christening. Since then the two events have become unlinked, but the question still comes up during tastings with brides: Do we save the top tier? We vote No.
Any baked good begins staling the second it cools. Left exposed at room temperature, the staling is fastest. In the fridge, wrapped up, it’s a little slower, and yes, in the freezer it stales at its slowest rate. However, it still dehydrates — cake left in a freezer for a month or two is dry and tough. After a year, well, it’s better used as a weapon than a celebratory centerpiece for your anniversary.
We encourage brides *not* to save the top tier, but instead offer a 6″ fresh-baked replica of their top tier for their one-year anniversary. Life’s too short to eat frozen year-old cake! Do yourself a favor, don’t freeze the top tier, always eat fresh cake, have more room in your freezer over the coming year, and get something delicious and beautiful on your one-year anniversary.
Friends don’t let friends freeze cake. Keep it fresh and sweet — like your marriage!
Tell us your thoughts: Did you freeze your cake? What was your experience?
Superfine Bakery is an appointment-only couture bakery specializing in custom cakes for clients in the Los Angeles area.
We are inspired by all facets of the baking tradition, but at Superfine we focus on the art of the edible celebration centerpiece. Our aim is to reinterpret and reframe traditional forms to bring modern, luxurious cakes to your event and make your cake as spectacular as the occasion itself.
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