Happy Sugar Baking Land

We Love Busy Beaver!

Shut the front door!  Just got an email from the Busy Beaver Button Co. letting us know we're the "stars" of their blog today!  They linked to our button post and we think that is pretty swell of them.  You've made us blush beavers!

Check it out here and for heaven's sake if you need buttons you know where to go!!

http://busybeaverbuttons.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/buttons-break-ice/

P.S. The buttons are proving really popular, as friends, family, and business associates are running through the first batch!!  We'll need to get more soon and I'm thinking gold or maybe glow in the dark???  Marc and Mike might need some too.....

A Quick Hi-ya!! *updated*

Things are really cooking... er, baking here at Merci Beaucoup!!

We've got some new digs to haunt and we're loving it.  A little smaller than the last, but on the ground so no stairs for me and Marc to deal with and wait till you see our delivery door!  Still lots of work to do as we get ready to be invaded by the Amazing Wedding Cakes crew very very soon, but the move was a great idea.  Here's a peek:

See Marc & Reva inside!  No problem getting cakes in and out of that puppy, eh?  Now if we could just scrounge up the extra dough (ha! get it?) to pick one of these up:

It's this new small delivery truck that is perfect for cake delivery!!  Reva and I test drove one recently and it is awesome.  I put it on my wish list so if anyone over at Galpin Ford wants to donate one for use on national TV, let me know!!  Can't you just see our new logo on it?

Oh wait, you can't cause you haven't seen it yet!!  Soon, very soon.  Our good friend and artist extraordinaire CJ Metzger is almost done sprucing it up and making it all high res or something like that.  I predict a big reveal of the new logo sometime next week so stay tuned to Happy Sugar Baking Land!!

That's it for today folks.  I gotta get back to finishing loading in all of our stuff in the new place so our two happy bakers can get to work!  Au revoir!

- Husband Mike

P.S. So, some people have commented about the truck picture above.  It is, in fact, NOT a Dodge Sprinter like you've been seeing FedEx drive all over the place.  It is a Ford Transit Connect and it is much smaller, like a mini-van size.  It is perfect for cake delivery and I think all the cake world should unite and buy these up.  Let's start a trend!!

Get Your Button On!!!!

A few weeks ago we met a nice guy in an antique store in Petaluma, CA who recognized Reva from the show.  We're still pretty taken aback when this happens, but we really appreciate all of you watching Amazing Wedding Cakes and after we left we realized we didn't even catch his name!!  So, we talked about how to handle these moments in the future to make sure everyone knows how fun it is to meet all of you and this is one of the ideas we came up with:

BUTTONS!!!

These little 1" buttons telling the world that yes, you did indeed meet Reva, were created by the great folks at Busy Beaver Buttons.  Aren't they the cutest?

Want one?  Well, it's simple.  Spot Reva in the wild and say "hi" and she'll be glad to give you one of these little gems available in four fun colors!

Then, wear it around on lanyards or hats or backpacks, whatever you can pierce with a pin, you can have a button on it!  And if someone asks you if you're a big Guiding Light fan, tell them you met a real Reva!  And send us pictures if you do get one and I'll post it here on Happy Sugar Baking Land.

More to come citizens, so keep checking back!!

Amazing Wedding Cakes - Renaissance Cake..... Huzzah!

"The Renaissance Faire is no place for buttercream." - Reva

Good morrow good people!  Anachronistic Husband Mike here with all the time traveling scoop on my personal favorite cake of the season, Dan and Christina's Renaissance theme handfasting cake!!  Yep, they are technically not married, but rather are observing an age old tradition of handfasting, where a couple basically enters into an engagement with the intent to marry for exactly one year and one day.  Pretty neat-o huh?  That's the kind of peeps those two are and we love 'em for it.

See, Reva and I first met at a Renaissance Faire in Northern California that used to be in my home town.  That framed photo you saw in the show was us with our mutual friend (and the girl who introduced us) Tiffany.  That was the last day for that particular Faire at that location (Black Point for all you Rennies out there) and we were holding the sign from our booth, Single Tree Jewelry owned by my friend Paul.  Great times and great memories and by the look of me, quite a few slices of cake ago!!

Our crazy Faire Bride & Groom are performers and pillars of the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire community, so that is where we had to deliver this awesome cake.  So, of course, we took a little scouting trip a couple weeks prior to take a look at the wedding garden location and stock up on some of the yummy food they have at the Faire.  Gotta thank Dan for those free tickets, you are the man my friend.

While there we stopped by The Wheat Goddesses booth and Reva was immediately inspired.  They helped us find the perfect topper from there huge selection of awesome woven art complete with matching ribbon.  It looked great on top of the cake and obviously came from the Faire and belonged on a Renaissance Faire cake. 

 

Back at the shop, Reva brought in all of our costuming gear and accessories to share with Marc as they plotted out the design.  This led to a lot of silliness for the week, but it was great.  Those two spent a lot of time researching and sketching till they got the perfect blueprint.  Marc really jumped on board as Reva and I felt this one was personal and had to nail the theme perfectly.  I'd say they hit it out of the park.

Lots of elements went into the final product.  There were the hand painted Celtic pastillage, the buttercream Green Man, the fondant tree trunk pillars, some fondant bands of knot work, and of course the introduction of the Sugar Veil product to our bakery.  Reva has been eyeing this flexible icing for some time and it is actually pretty cool.  You pipe it out, let it dry, and then you can bend and shape it.  It added a nice three dimensional accent but let me tell you, it does not survive the fridge very well.  When we came back in the morning, a bunch of it had melted in the cold which was a total bummer, but we made some fixes and the cake still looked amazing.

 And I really do think this one was amazing.  The way the colors and the elements and everything came together, it went beyond our personal aspirations and took on the feeling of a Renaissance Faire.

The delivery was the best part!  The Queen showed up!!  Can you believe it?  Well, the Faire Queen, but still, pretty impressive to see Queen Elizabeth snacking on your creation!  I am super happy to see they showed a bunch of the ceremony and all the great costumes and characters who were there.  Along with a couple of chocolate decadence cakes, we served hundreds of Faire Folk and snuck in a couple of turkey legs for ourselves. 

 

Everything looked so great, I honestly think I want to deliver a cake there every weekend!

It was also a ton of fun to see our crew with all their cameras and sound equipment thrown into this world so completely, but alas, we couldn't con them into dressing up.  I hope they had fun, cause we certainly did.

Anyway, that's it for Season 2 of Amazing Wedding Cakes!!  We started filming back in March of this year, and while we know that is a long time, it seems like it went by really quick.  So quick in fact, we are a mere couple weeks away from Season 3!!  Yep, Merci Beaucoup will be back and we have some cakes in the oven that you should be lovin'!  

Also, very soon keep your eyes out here and on our website for merchandise including buttons, aprons, and t-shirts not unlike the fondant and buttercream ones you saw Reva and Marc sporting this week.  We have a new logo, some new digs, and plenty of fun to be had, so stay tuned here on Happy Sugar Baking Land and we will keep you informed along the whole crazy ride.  Thank you so much for watching, you guys have been the real amazing part of Amazing Wedding Cakes and we look forward to the future.

Marathon!!

Hey cake-heads, today WE tv is running a marathon of all of the Amazing Wedding Cake episodes with a season finale finish line where we get our Renaissance on!!  Tune in and get frosted up on all our adventures this year!

Amazing Wedding Cakes - Russian Wedding

Like most of you, most of what I know about Russia centers on old Yakov Smirnov jokes and that submarine movie with Sean Connery.  Thankfully, Marc and Reva knew more than me and whipped up a towering Russian architecture theme cake this week on Amazing Wedding Cakes!

Hey everyone, husband Mike here and I know it's been awhile, but things are literally and figuratively cooking over here at MB HQ.  Lots of stuff to talk about in the next couple months including shirts, buttons, and season 3, so stay tuned!!

This week on the show we were presented with the bright and colorful buildings of Russia as inspiration for a large and in charge wedding cake for Valeska and Jacob.  The couple got engaged over there and I gotta say, we see a lot of engagement stories here and never has anyone proposed in Moscow before!!  Gentlemen, time to step up your game right?  

Reva was all about pastiage this cake and I think it was pretty cool that the episode showed her making it etc. because we get a lot of folks curious about pastiage all the time.  It's great because it can dry super hard relatively quickly allowing for some elements to protrude from the cake and give it that 3-D look.

The heat did play a big part in the assembly of this cake.  We had a really hard time with the fondant and I think I even chipped in with working it on the table.  When I chip in, you know we're under the gun!  Although, I am trying to learn more stuff so I can be a bigger help!  Maybe next season.

For those of you eagle eyes, there were two styro layers to add some height and definition.  With the pair of satellite cakes we had plenty of actual cake for the event, so we threw in the two dummy tiers to add to the architectural feel.

The coolest part was the restaurant we delivered to, Romanov's.  It is stunning inside and I kind of wish we had a scouting dinner party before hand for um... inspiration.  We all want to go back really soon though.  The owner was describing their dinners and yum yum yum!

Check out this chandelier!!

Of course, we did have a little delivery accident on the way there, but it all worked out and as we found out later, it was not Reva's tool kit that hit the cake.  I'm not gonna say anything, but a certain piece of camera equipment might have nudged that cake coming off the freeway.  But I'm not gonna say anything about it.

We were pretty relaxed and goofy during these final two episodes because we filmed these a couple weeks after those first 9 cakes and had time to rejuvenate.  Filming can be very tiring, especially when you stop and start so cameras can move around or lights change.  It's a blast, and our crew was beyond awesome, but I think these last two were the most fun.  Hence the "vodka" party at the end.  I think my job is to be a bit of a clown sometimes so those two can relax.

And love the fireworks Cake Girls did this week!  We need to take a trip out there and hang out and eat pizza soon.

Well, only one more episode this Sunday and season 2 is complete.  And you know, this last cake is our favorite.  It is a really personal cake for Reva and I, done for friends and delivered to what I am gonna say is the coolest event of the whole show.  Here's a sneak:

Cannot wait for you to see the cake!!  Take care everyone!