"One slice makes you smaller
and one slice makes you tall.
And the cakes that mother gives you
don't do anything at all."
- Not Jefferson Airplane
Welcome to our rabbit hole everybody! Husband Mic here with all the slides and travel photos of our trip "Through the Looking Glass." We've been tremendously fortunate to be able to bring you some very personal cakes on the show. The Renaissance Cake from Season 2 held the most meaning to Reva and I as it fell on the week leading up to our anniversary and we met at a Ren Faire. It was so much fun to bring our lives into a cake like that, but this one is our most personal project yet on Amazing Wedding Cakes.
I first met C.J. Metzger in 2005 at the famed San Diego Comic Con. She had a booth with her sister, the fabulous Miss Mindy, and I immediately fell in love with their work. I purchased my first ever original piece of art from C.J. that night and now, if someone asks how our home is decorated, I just tell them it is an "Artist Sisters original." Seriously, it is hard to turn your head in this place without seeing something on the wall from either of them!! Including the two reference pieces they brought to the consultation. *wink*
Enough back story! Enter production on Season 3 of AWC! As we sat down with our producers to discuss which cakes we could use for the show, Mindy and C.J. mentioned to us they were planning on throwing a little surprise shindig for their awesome parents, Terry and LInda. It would be a *gasp* 40th anniversary! Now, we've seen their idea of a party before, these are artist folk my friends, through and through, and we knew it would be the perfect opportunity to bring our friends on the show and smash our two worlds together in an explosion of awesome! Hell, you've already watched the show, let's take a gander at this cake!
Ahhhh!!!! Choirs of angels sing in its presence. A little bit of C.J.'s art, a little bit of Mindy's art, a little bit of Reva's art, and a little bit of Marc's art all coming together to celebrate a milestone for Terry and Linda. Naturally, the consultation was a gas. C.J. and Mindy are crazy separately, but put them together and oh my, everyone was getting silly. It was so much fun! I'm gonna say that a lot, so get used to it.
Once we stopped acting like high schoolers and shuffled the sisters out the door, we got to work on creating something to blow their minds wide open. First up, the inspirations:
Having real life artists as clients is awesome! They brought us so much cool stuff to work with, including the invitation for the party (always a good idea when you meet with you cake maker my friends) and that super cute cardboard standee from Miss Mindy's book "Sassy Paper Doll Bonanza." Astute viewers will be able to spot that pin-up standee in the background throughout the season!
But before we get to all the pretties, here's the catch. These are friends. These are comrades. These are creative people. Sure the outside of the cake looks incredible, but no, we needed to go the extra mile. That's where I come in. I'm an idea man. I know the show doesn't like to let you in on it, but really, I'm a huge creative force at Merci Beaucoup, a juggernaut if you will. So, I stepped in, pulling from my countless hours wandering around Sur La Table while Reva shopped and yanked out a little nugget from the clearance shelf. I pictured the box with the pan and I looked at Reva and said two words: "checkerboard cake." BOOM!! Magic was born.
Now, the episode didn't show ANY of the cake assembly, which is a shame, but here's the deal. When you cut it open, black and white checkers that matched the cake board! Terry and Linda loved it and it is really quite simple. You essentially stack each tier with alternating rings of chocolate and vanilla cake. Here what it should look like.
Now, we hand cut these rings, but like I mentioned, there are pan sets out there where you just alternate the batter you pour into the circles. The next layer within a layer should be black/whit/black. Alternate like that, adhering them with thin layers of buttercream to keep the pattern tight, and you end up with:
I honestly thought they would talk about it on the show, but there was a lot going on for this one, so I can see how it got edited out. Either way, you should try it in your cakes because it really is a cool effect!
On to the decorating! The fondant colors came from the invite and were wonderfully colorful. Add some simple fondant pieces in stripes, swirls, circles, and diamonds and we got a crash of patterns suitable for the theme. Beyond that, Reva added lots of sugar flowers, the two golden crowns up top, some butterflys, and the fondant mushrooms which were specific to the party location. They actually have a mushroom playhouse in the backyard!
While Reva went to town with her specialties, Marc went to work his. He is great at reproducing artwork or in this case, Terry and Linda's wedding photo where they were cutting their original cake. He "painted" it on a piece of dried fondant and then we added the gold frame which was made out of chocolate.
We also had this postcard that Mindy gave out a few years back that I, of course, grabbed off the office wall and had Marc recreate for the cake. When Mindy saw the postcard she kind of wanted it back! She didn't have any left! No postcard for you! You only get a gumpaste version!
The final task for Marc was the rabbit C.J. used on the invitation. He had a horn and a Queen of Hearts uniform and was to sit next to the cake on a little fondant hill.
Where'd that cricket come from?! I swear, we were putting all sorts of neat details on this cake right up until we carried it down to the table! How about that board!
Reva and I tag teamed the board design. As you can see, we measured the bottom of the stand so we had a cut out circle for it to sit in. Then we we used a diamond cutter to cut out pieces of fondant and started laying them out. When we got to the edge, a quick *swish" with a knife to trim and we had our board covered! I've actually done this a couple more times for other cakes and it never fails to wow the crowd.
The cake stand is from Cake Study, which is a company started by the amazing Bronwen Weber and Francois Long. They call it the "Caddy Wampus" and there is a square version as well. Interesting side note: I saw Bronwen in L.A. while we were filming this season! She was doing a class at Caljava and I caught her outside during a break from her lessons while I was picking up supplies. Small cake world eh? It's a great stand and very versatile. Pricey, but the cost should be absorbed with no more than a couple orders. The first time I put it together, I could see the extra large couplings would be problematic. The other hitch was the base. The way the PVC coupling screws in to the bottom plate (which is threaded), inorder to make it snug and secure, you end up with pipe passing through and giving you a small "bump." This made the stand wobble, but simple fix was to use some self adhesive felt tabs, like you put on furniture legs, to raise it up and balance everything out. Quick and easy and inexpensive too.
We did a "dry run" on the assembly, but we couldn't actually put the stand on the board until we were ready to deliver. The board was a whopping 36", i.e. too wide for our to fit in our fridge. The final placement of the rabbit and the frame etc. happened right before we loaded her up into my car.
Wow, are you still here? There is so much to this cake that I am splitting the blog up into two parts. Look for "Part 2" where I show off some of the beauty shots of the finished product and discuss the super wacky delivery on this coming Wednesday, November 3rd! Thanks for watching and come on back in a couple days!!
Reva, Mic & Marc..cannot tell you how much we "blown away" by your cake! It was literally a "work of ART"! We didn't want to cut into it & eat it - though absolutely delicious (checkboard pattern & all). Having the girls involved in the creative experience w. you was so heart-warming. Loved the show, loved the "making of the cake", loved the incredible party, love YOU GUYS!! Thank you so much. Linda & Terry Allen
Posted by: Linda Allen | 02 November 2010 at 11:18 AM
WOW!!! Amazing! Would love to see these in real life. Who ever orders your cakes must be thrilled.
Posted by: Hypnotherapy London | 05 January 2011 at 02:58 AM