Starting in 2006 with the Food Network Challenge series, a
set of countdown-style competitions that usually involved massive cake designs
and drama, the world of cakes and sugar artistry was opened to the average TV
viewer, and everyone wanted in. Due to the success of shows like Ace of Cakes
and Cake Boss, the popularity of cake design has gone through the roof, so
bakeries have upped the ante. Getting your own custom design in South Florida
is the way to go, and it’s so much easier if you know your sugar art. We’ve got
everything from the revamped classics to the newest trends of confectionary
design, so you’re ready for that next cake appointment.
Flora & Fauna
Any
hotel package cake book will tell you, fresh flowers on a cake are a good choice.
They match your décor, and they’re beautiful, and that’s fine. But the cake
artists at Ever After Cake Designs & Elite Cakes can do you one better:
edible gumpaste flowers made to look like the real thing. We’re not talking the
frosting roses we see made in the supermarket. Made from a paste of
confectioner’s sugar, cornstarch, and gelatin, these flowers are handmade petal
by petal, and then painted with food coloring and petal dust to perfection.
Once a land of simple roses and daisies, cake artists are pushing the envelope
with more intricate flowers like peonies, orchids, and lotus. No matter how exotic,
bring a picture and these artists can make it happen.
Fun with Chocolate
Ever
wanted to make a mini-version of yourself for your cake, but the plastic cake
toppers just don’t match? Cake design has always gone beyond the 2D fondant cutouts,
but the world knew little of it until now: modeling chocolate. The best of the
best in this category are definitely Elite Cakes’ divorce cakes and Mighty Fine
Cakes’ large scale creations, shown here. A mixture of chocolate and corn
syrup, it works just like clay, and under the right artist’s hands can turn
into any 3D decoration. When it’s dyed with food coloring or painted it doesn’t
even look like chocolate, but it’s edible. Cartoon characters, baby carriages,
dogs, shoes, and even people are all possible, and all delicious. Who wouldn’t
want a little chocolate version of themselves to munch on with their red velvet
creation?
Brushstrokes
Lots
of people probably know about piping on a cake or using a stencil, but
painting? Yes, painting & printing on cakes, especially wedding cakes, has
made huge leaps in popularity this year. We found these particular beauties, as
well as others throughout this article, at Elegant Temptations, one of the
premiere providers for over the top and luxurious cake design. After covering a cake in fondant, food
coloring is applied either through an airbrushing technique or literally with a
paint brush. For wedding or birthday cakes that want to be clean and elegant
but still have that pop of color and design, painted cakes are the chic way to
go.
Pop It
The
cake ball used to only have one purpose: to use up that stale, leftover cake by
crumbling it, mixing it with frosting, and then coating in chocolate or some
other sweetness. Now places like Kelly Diaz-Demoya’s Hey Cupcake Bakery will bake
these pops fresh, and create elaborate stands for events. The cake pop has even
recently evolved in structure, using special molds to bake little balls of cake
that are sometimes injected with sweet fillings. It’s improved upon the super
sweet original by making it more of a mini cake on a stick.
Unusual Cake Tiers
If
you’re looking to surprise your guests with something visually interesting and
off-kilter, then perhaps your cake’s tiers need to defy gravity. Jessica Rothschild
of Rock Star Pastries & Sandy Rios-Monsante of Sugar Fancies Cake &
Sweets Boutique are two great options for these creations. The “topsy-turvy”
cake, also called “whimsical” or “madhatter”, uses an optical illusion to make
the cakes look slanted, almost as if they’re going to fall. The secret? A
circular indent is carved in the lower tier that is the size of the upper tier,
so that when stacked the leveling is still even, with cake rising up around it
in a slant. For the formal wedding cake that’s cutting edge, maybe some of your
tiers aren’t cake at all. Glass stands or acrylic boxes filled with flowers or from
Elegant Temptations can add a special touch of luxury and intrigue.
The Gourmet Cupcake
Gone
are the days when cupcakes were just vanilla’s bake sale staple. Today’s bakers
are creating incredible things with cupcakes. The popularity of cupcake shows
like DC Cupcakes from TLC has given rise to similar boutiques across the
country, including here in South Florida. One boutique is the Sweetness Bake
Shop & Café. With over 100 varieties of cupcakes, baker Yamile has made
almost every kind of sweetness in cupcake form like the Guayabera and the Oreo
Overdose. For those 21 and over, there are even spiked cupcakes. For cupcake
design, two great choices are Sugar Fancies & Unique Designers Cake. Their
designs go beyond the frosting puff to include fondant, gumpaste, and anything
else you’d normally expect on the cupcake’s larger cousin. Whether it’s
champagne or sugar pearls, every cupcake at these two bakeries is a shot of
pastry goodness.
That’s Cake?!
To
completely wow your guests, the biggest and best is the carved or “3D” cake. Caroline
Montoya of Unique Designers Cake & Susie Stallings of Susie’s Scrumptious
Sweets take the cake in this category. With a thin pastry knife in hand, these
cake artists becomes a cake sculptor, shaving off pieces of cake bit by bit
until they’ve created the shape of whatever it is you want them to make.
Purses, food, motorcycles, most anything you can imagine can be turned into
cake these days. The key? Attention to detail. To make it look this good, cake
artists need lots of pictures. If it’s something portable like a camera, giving
them a model object they can touch and feel is best.
