The Force Was With Me

I just got done delivering a 3-D cake. The theme was from Star Wars The Clone Wars. I made chocolate butter cakes (quite a few of them) and some milk chocolate pastry cream along with chocolate butter cream. The bottom layer was quite easy although I was not achieving the colors I had wanted (dark blue and black swirled together). Eventually I settled on the blue/green and when swirled with the black I thought it looked pretty neat.

The top of the cake was modeled after Captain Rex. Anyone who has a young son should be familiar with the Captain Rex voice changing helmet that was almost hard to come by this past Christmas. With that as my guide (almost made me nervous as if it was watching me) I carved away the six layers of cake, put on a crumb coat and called it a night. Normally I like to finish a cake the night before delivery and then just put some finishing touches on them right before. However --- you live and you learn.......I decided to fill my cakes with pastry cream. So good and delicious and SO WRONG for a cake that needs to be covered in fondant. Fortunately I did my home work on the subject matter and waited until two hours before delivery time to cover the cake. It certainly didn't help that it was 80 degrees today - so not a typical day for us here on Long Island in May but never-the-less work had to get done.

To go along with the cake I made some fondant/gum paste figures: Yoda, R2D2 and some droid. I'll have to ask Jack, the happy birthday boy, to see what exactly the name of that droid was. I'm a big star wars fan but not so much into the clone wars.

As always, I had fun doing this cake. Staying up late (since I have to wait for all the kids to be asleep before I can even begin working on anything) and squeezing in fondant fun while the baby naps certainly does make to a complete day.

I hope you enjoy - and contact me if you're interested in a cake ---- or anything sweet for that matter: vicki@gergely.com.

Alexis's 9th Birthday Cake

Here is my first attempt at using fondant. I learned a lot during this decorating time. The cakes are strawberry and filled with chocolate ganache. I got the idea for the striping pattern off of the birthday plates I ordered. My daughter wanted a butterfly theme and pink (I believe that all her thoughts in her head are PINK).

The duck that is sitting on the top is a creation based off of her "duckie" that she has been hanging onto since she was 10 months old. I just had to include it. And it wouldn't be complete without the fondant and pearl butterflies and a pink gum paste ribbon to top it off.

First Decorated Cake

My son's first birthday cake - Yo Gabba Gabba theme.

This was my very first attempt at decorating a cake of this nature. The bottom layer is a chocolate cake with cannoli cream filling and frosted with white chocolate buttercream. The top dome is a white sprinkle cake with chocolate pastry cream filling and frosted with the white chocolate buttercream. The figures on the top were all hand made out of gum paste and the multi-colored balls around the edge were made of marshmallow fondant. It was delicious!

Let's Get Started

I love to cook. Even when I'm helping the kids with homework, the baby is pulling on my pants and the dogs are crying to go out - I love to cook. I manage to get it done during all these crazy times - even when I have to drop off my daughter for one one her six dance classes, or take my son to lacrosse practice (or hockey practice or soccer practice - can hardly keep track of his days), or get ready to go and teach a cooking class. Somehow, when you love what you do you get the job done.

I'm so excited that I'm starting up a cake business. I went to culinary school (ICE in Manhattan) and worked as a Pastry Chef in a fancy french restaurant. Since the addition to the family (the baby of course not the puppy) I have left the restaurant and have been busy by teaching cooking classes, catering private parties and making custom designed cakes.

Life is good, family is great and today is my 13th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary Mark - I couldn't have done any of this without you.