When we first fielded the call for a cheesecake that looked like a wheel of cheese, we thought, "hell yes!" What surprised us was when the bride Gina told us how many bakeries she spoke to that said "hell no." What are you afraid of out there cakers? Scared of a little mouse? Discriminating against the glory of cheesecake? Well, we here at Merci Beaucoup weren't afraid to tackle the monster known as the Cheesecake Cheese Cake!!! Bring it on!
Hello everyone, it is I, Husband Mic (nonregistered trademark) with the behind the scenes on this week's particularly "cheesy" episode of Amazing Wedding Cakes. *insert grunting noises and crowd moans here* Interesting sidenote, Reva adores herself some cheese. She really, really digs the fromage. We even have issues of "Culture" magazine strewn about our home. Last New Year's Eve, we had a cheese party with our friends Russ & Alysse and Reva has more than once mused about becoming a cheese maker after she retires from cake. But let's be real, that girl ain't ever retiring from cake, and with clients like Gina and Joseph, she won't have to!!
Like Reva mentioned during the consultation, the biggest obstacle in creating something like this is temperature. Cheesecake is not meant to get warm and with the addition of a layer of fondant, we weren't sure how it would hold up. The overall design wasn't the most challenging thing we've ever done, but the constant need to put it back into the fridge made the process longer than usual. Maintaining temperature was key, and you know what? Those lights they attach to our ceiling for filming are hot!!!
Construction started like any other cake (plus the maintaining temperature angle). Reva stacked the (very large) cheesecakes and crumb coated them, scooping out some little cheese holes before covering the cakes with the yellow fondant.
When they cut the slice out, I was transported back to the 80s and the epidemic of Pac-Man cakes I used to see at my friend's birthday parties!! Am I alone here? You know, originally he was gonna be called puck man but... I'll stop quoting Scott Pilgrim now.
Something they didn't show was we added some airbrushed touches of a darker yellow inside the holes of the cheese wheels to give them some shadowing and depth. And yes, pay attention to the beginning of the show and you might just see where we pulled those gum paste grapes from! Well, at least a couple bunches were on a display cake behind Reva, literally right underneath our noses. So, we cleaned them up a little and put them on the cheesecake and they looked super cool. As someone from the North Bay region of Northern California, you can't have cheese without some grapes!!
Marc did an awesome job on the little mice. They were so cute, and as Reva pointed out, displayed his "pipeability." We specialize in coining phrases here are Merci Beaucoup, so look for our trademarked Pipeability t-shirts this Holiday season! Here's a shot of his "plate sketch" and the final squeaky couple.
The delivery was pretty easy, but one drawback to being in Hollywood, is everyone has an idea how the industry works and wants money. So, I guess the site we delivered too (a pretty big wedding venue out here) has come to know what is what and wanted some compensation that was a little too steep for our tiny TV show. Sucks for you, because the place looked incredible, but wasn't that picture of our couple with the cheese cake so cute?
Interesting anecdote, while we were there a couple of the catering staff kept referring to us as the TV cake show. As I was walking out the door I heard someone say "oh, Ace of Cakes!" Oh brother!! For the last time, I do not look like Duff! Argh, here's some beauty shots of the Cheesecake Cheese Cake for you while I go shave and burn all my hockey jerseys:
I guess the big question is, "did the cheesecake ever melt on you?" The short answer is yes. We did have some leakage in the early stages after the fondant was on and as you saw in the show, Reva put a little dam of fondant on the bottom to keep leaks contained. Basically we had a couple drops of "melt" I guess you'd call it come out in one spot, but overall it was a big success story for cheesecake fans everywhere! So go ahead friends, don't be afraid, we want to see some cool cheesecake ideas out there!!
A super huge gigantic happy sugar "merci" to our couple, Gina's delightful mother, and their whole family for being amazing clients. They were involved, trusting, generous, and so excited to be a part of this process. They really were just perfect and when you have a great connection with a couple like them, it makes it so much easier to create a beautiful cake. In fact, we love them so much, they will be back on Amazing Wedding Cakes in a few weeks! Hey, we filmed in October, there's not a lot of weddings in October that don't involve Jack Skellington, so Gina & Joe will be back on October 17th with a masquerade cake!! Although astute viewers already figured that out during the consultation ;)
Look at our kick ass crew up there!
No Merci Beaucoup next week, but we will be back on 10/10/10 with the "Taylor Stripe" cake and let me tell you, it is one sexy pastry. Then we're on every new episode all the way til the end of season 3!! Yeah us! Thanks again for watching everybody!!
Three cheers for innovation! It looks very cheesy, and cheesecake must have been a delicious surprise for the guests.
Posted by: Cricut Cakes | 18 October 2011 at 11:22 AM