Wednesday 25 July 2012

Quilted Country Birthday Cake

Hey there! Hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather we're having this week! FINALLY, some rain! Although my grass is still looking really sad, I'm starting to see a little bit of green popping through :) Never thought I'd be so excited to see green grass!

Anyways, before I write a novel about our weather, lets get on with this weeks blog. At the end of last week, we received a phone call from a lovely woman by the name of Jen, from the Winchester Nursing Home (located approximately 35-40mins from our shop here in Cardinal). At the nursing home, each month someone is in charge of planning that months' birthday party for all of the residents (how cute) :) Jen was in charge of July, and really wanted to do something special for all of the July "friends". She called us, hoping we could do a special cake for her and the residents - how could we say no! The theme was "Country Quilts" - again, very cute! My mind started racing with ideas as soon as she mentioned the topic; however, once I got off the phone with her, I really had no idea where to start. Quilts are incredible works of are - so much details, stitching, colours, fabrics, designs, etc. How was I going to transfer such detail and design onto a cake? I went home and looked at a few of the quilts I have myself; all extremely beautiful, but with more of an elegant, soft colour look, than the country feel I was going for. I then turned to my best friend: GOOGLE :) Google is honestly amazing, and not surprisingly, when you type "country quilts" into the image search engine, you get a whole lot of results! After looking and searching, I put a few different quilts together and got my final design - I was SUPER excited - still unsure how I was going to pull it off, but excited for the challenge. This blog post is actually going to run through how we did the Country Quilt Cake, the tools/supplies we used and a few step-by-step pictures to go along with it! Enjoy :)

The first thing you need is the cake itself - we used an 11x15 slab for the required number of servings. Luscious Lemon Cake with sweet raspberry buttercream. After filling the cake and applying a few outer layers of buttercream, it was ready to decorate! The first thing we did, was to cut out a large piece of fondant to lay over top of the slab cake, to look as if the quilt were laying on the cake, as opposed to BEING the whole cake. We wanted it to literally look like a piece of a quilt - having a few pulled up edges, some creases, etc. We used one of our "crimpers" with the heart design, and added a stitched edge detail around the perimeter of the fondant "quilt".

What you'll need to finish decorating the cake is: pre-coloured fondant (we use satin-ice), textured rolling pins or textured impression mats, 3 different sizes of square cutters, water and a paintbrush.




In order to get the impressions onto the fondant, you need to first start by taking one of the colours of your choosing, roll it out thin, place the impression mat over the fondant, and using either rolling pin or fondant smoother, press the impression mat gently over the fondant, making sure to press hard enough for the impression to make the design on the fondant. From there, cut out approximately 24 little squares using your smallest square cutter. Set them aside, and cover with saran wrap to ensure they don't dry out before you get a chance to put them on the cake. Repeat this with each colour you want to use for your small square. For the larger squares, you'll need 8 of the 2 colours you want to use for the smaller triangles and 4 of 2 colours you want for the big triangles. Again, roll out your fondant, using the impression mats, press in the design of your choice, then using the med and large square cutters, cut your squares, and then using a pizza cutter, slice them into triangles. Cover with saran wrap.













You then want to find the centre of your cake, as this will help keep the quilt centered. Start by placing 4 different colour small squares in a pattern as your center and build out from there until you have a 4x4 square (16 small squares). You're then going to add the larger triangles to form the big squares on the quilt - fit these together. Add 4 more 4x4 squares into the empty blocks of space until you have the complete quilt.




 You're almost done! Every single cake that leaves our shop, leaves with a finishing coat of Pearl Lustre Spray. Not only does this "finish" the cake, put when you have so many different colours, and especially when you have used fondant that has been imprinted with a design, the pearl spray really helps to "POP" that design! Voila - The final cake! 


Happy Birthday to all those celebrating July birthdays at the Winchester Nursing Home!

You can find all of the above mentioned supplies at www.icinginspirations.ca or www.goldaskitchen.com

We hope you've enjoyed this Step-By-Step Country Quilt blog - let us know if you try it yourself, and make sure to send us pictures!

We hope everyone has an amazing weekend full of friends, family, laughter and joy, and stay tuned for more Cakes From The Country!

Miranda xoxo


Thursday 19 July 2012

From Sketch to Centerpiece - Part 2

Throughout the consultation process for a wedding cake, 9 times out of 10, the bride and groom (mostly just the brides) want a sketch drawn of their cake. Understandably so - this gives them the piece of mind that the designer listened to everything they talked about with regards to what they wanted in their cake, and they're able to change something that they may not be sure about, before the cake itself is made the week of the event. As someone who has never taken a single art class before in her life, this part of the wedding cake process I did not sign up for; however, I've practiced, practiced and practiced my little heart out, to try and produce sketches that actually look like cakes, and not just a stack of round or square boxes. Sometimes I need a couple drafts to get it right, and sometimes I surprise myself the first time. I've come to realize that doing a sketch for a bridal couple is an extremely important aspect of a consultation, not just for the couples benefit, but for mine as well when it comes time to actually creating the cake. Having that picture next to you when decorating the cake has proved to be extremely useful, and I find myself doing up little sketches for even smaller celebration cakes. Who knew?! :)

The cake I want to use as an example today, was custom designed for an amazing couple that was just recently married on June 30th, 2012 at the Glebe Community Centre in Ottawa, Ontario. Angela and Christian were such a fun couple to work with! When they came in for their consultation, they actually brought a fair number of friends/family members with them to help decide the flavours of the cake; however, when it came down to the design of the cake, Angela knew exactly what she wanted :) They were basing their wedding on a Marie Antoinette Theme - how amazing! "Let Them Eat Cake"! Before the consultation, I had been emailing Angela back and forth about the design, with her sending me a few pictures she had found online, with a few details that she liked from each cake. We had come up with quite an elaborate design/sketch, but when she came in for her consultation, she had changed a few colours, a few of the flowers, so an additional sketch was in need, and this happens more often than you think! Below is the first copy of the sketch, with the original design and colours, as well as the second copy with the updated details.

















As you can see, she took all of the pink out of the cake, added more simple white and switch a few of the sugar roses with sugar CasaBlanca Lilies. We thought that both designs had incorporated exactly what she wanted, but the second sketch, had more of a wedding elegance to it. Had we not done the original sketch, who knows if we would have switched the colours/flowers, and if she would have been as happy the day of her wedding, as she was with the second design. This is why some form of a sketch - not just black/white - but one with colour, is such an important part of the wedding cake designing process, and one that not many people think about. Couples spend a large amount of their wedding budget on the cake, and you want them to not only have the confidence in you as their designer to give them exactly what they want, but to know that their money is being well spent on the perfect cake.

Here is the picture of Angela and Christian's Marie Antoinette Themed Wedding Cake! As you can see from the picture of the actual cake, the "Fleur-de-lis" didn't make it onto the cake as my mould for the piece went missing a week prior and I wasn't able to get another one in on time, and so we switched it up with some really pretty gold cameos - which fit perfectly with the theme of the wedding. *Adaptability* Also, very important for a wedding cake designer, but we'll hold off on that for another week :)

The topper that was put on the top of the cake was an incredibly gorgeous Marie Antoinette China Piece, which played a big part in the colours that we chosen for the wedding - so pretty :)

Congratulations once again Angela and Christian, we wish you both all the best in your future together! :)


For the rest of you, thanks so much for reading, and stay tuned next time for more Cakes From The Country!

Miranda xoxo

Wednesday 18 July 2012

From Sketch to Centerpiece! Part 1

When you walk into the reception venue after witnessing a beautiful wedding, whether it be a ballroom, an outdoor tent or a hall, one of the first things a lot of people look for these days - besides where they're sitting, and who they're sitting with - is the cake. Wedding cakes are HUGE right now, and most guests are always interested to see how big or small the cake is, what colour it might be, are there flowers, is it plain, simple, etc. What people may not realize though, is the process that is taken to go from an idea inside the brides head to an edible work on art on that cake table at the reception hall, that is later eaten during dessert or the late night buffet.

I thought I would use a couple of our most recent weddings as examples :)

The first being a wedding that took place on May 26th, 2012 at Stanley's Maple Farm in Edwards, Ontario. When I first met this couple at their consultation in September 2011, I thought they were the most adorable couple I had ever met. The way that Erin and Trevor looked at each other, and even communicated with each other, is something that you don't see everyday - this was true love. Now with regards to their cake - they weren't 100% sure on what they wanted the cake to look like, but they DID know 2 important things. They wanted the cake to be simple, and Erin wanted there to be flowers on the cake to match the flowers in her bridal bouquet. Erin and Trevor gave me 2 pictures, as shown below and put their trust in me to put those two "wants" together, and deliver a beautiful cake to their wedding.


In addition to coming up with a completely custom design for this incredible couple, we also came up with some new flavours! This required a couple of our sample boxes, one of which Erin came to the Ottawa Bridal Show to pick up from our booth. They wanted to try a lavender buttercream - this is something that I've never tried, or even heard of - but we will do anything for our brides :) I was able to get in Lavender Flavour Oil, added it to some of our swiss meringue buttercream, tinted it a light purple, and voila! Now I will admit, it smelled like a bubble bath here in the shop when we first made the buttercream, but it tastes wonderful! So light, so organic and natural - especially when paired with our lemon cake!  They tried it, and they loved it, using it for 2 of their 4 tiered wedding cake.

The day before the wedding in May was here before we knew it! We really wanted to match the flowers and especially the colours of the flowers as best we could. It took a lot of mixing and matching of petal dusts and paints, rearranging of the flowers on the cake, adding some little filler flowers and taking some out - but all-in-all we were super duper happy with the result of their cake when we were finished with it. Check it out below :)
                                                                                                                                                            
We've spoken with the bride Erin since the wedding and heard that both her and Trevor LOVED the cake "it was absolutely perfect!! everyone loved it! sooo beautiful!! Thank you again for going that extra mile for us!" - Erin Cowper-Johnson

This is just one example of how an idea that our bride Erin had for her cake, using a few different pictures, became one wedding cake - one that we absolutely love :)

Stay tuned tomorrow for more Cake From the Country, and how one bride took a Marie Antoinette Theme for her cake to the next level :)

Miranda xoxo

Friday 13 July 2012

First Blog Post!

Alright, so here goes! I am not much of a "writer" at all...but I've had a few people tell me that I should start a weekly blog in addition to my website www.countrygirlcakes.org, so I thought I'd give it a shot :) Basically what I thought I would do, is to write a blog each week, featuring either one of our favourite cakes from the week before, a new fav recipe or something new and exciting coming up in the world of Country Girl Cakes! If there's something you would like to see us talk about, don't hesitate to ask! We're always up for something new :)

For our first blog, I thought I would start by introducing myself and the company. So to start, my name is Miranda Kenney-Pellett, and I am the owner of Country Girl Cakes. Country Girl Cakes is located in Cardinal, Ontario - a small community on the beautiful St. Lawrence River, just 45 minutes south of Canada's capital, Ottawa! Country Girl Cakes started just over 2 years ago, when my "hobby" of cake decorating started turning into more of a local business (much to my surprise). The name was based on the fact that, well, I'm a country girl at heart :)

 I've lived in Cardinal for the majority of my 26 years, with the exception of 6 years spent in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, where I attended Wilfrid Laurier University, graduating with a degree in Psychology. After 6 years in the city, I knew the country was where I needed to be :)

After doing cakes out of the basement in my house for a year, we decided that we needed to start thinking about the possibility of opening a retail location, but weren't too serious about looking for anything as we weren't really busy enough to cover such finances as overhead, utilities, etc. We attended the Ottawa Bridal Show in Spring 2011 as a vendor for the first time (which was mind blowing to say the least), and after booking 20+ wedding cakes at that show alone, we knew it was the right time. That weekend after we unpacked the vehicle from the show, we called up our real estate agent, and bought a commercial building a few days later. We now call that commercial building, the home of Country Girl Cakes :)

We had our grand opening here at the shop July 31st, 2011, where we had a large group from both the community and surrounding areas show up for a great BBQ, lots of cupcakes, and a ribbon cutting ceremony, which was attended by our local mayor, MP, MPP and a representative from GCFDC! It was a very proud moment in my life, as I NEVER expected to be someone opening up a business, let alone a cake decorating business. We accomplished a lot in a little amount of time, and life has been a whirlwind ever since!

We were featured on the SLICE network's Cake Walk:Wedding Cake Challenge in September 2011 in the second episode titled: "Shakespearean Masquerade" ! It was one of the most stressful moments of my entire life, but as I tell everyone who asks, I would do it again in a heartbeat! We didn't win the overall prize of $5000, but we did win the taste-test portion of the competition, and being someone who prides herself on the taste of her cakes, that was just as important to me as winning the overall prize :)

It's been a year since our grand opening and Country Girl Cakes is busier than ever. In 2012, so far we have created over 40 wedding cakes, with 28+ wedding cakes still to make this year! We've recently hired our first part-time employee, which was SO exciting :) I never thought I would be so busy that I would need help from someone who wasn't my mom or husband. We now offer cake decorating birthday parties, decorating classes and much more! Everything just seems like a dream, like something I only ever thought about while sitting in a lecture hall at University day dreaming, something I thought only happens to the lucky people in the world, but I guess I am one of those lucky people! I have been so blessed to have been constantly surrounded by amazingly supportive friends, family and a local community, who would refuse to let me give up on my dream. Who were always there and still are, when I think I can't go on, when I'm too stressed to finish a cake, or when times are slow. It's those people, it's YOU, that keep me going and that will keep me going in this cake shop. When someone comes in to pick up their birthday cake, and I see the smile on their face, THAT is what keeps me coming back everyday. I absolutely LOVE my job :)

Stay Tuned in the coming weeks for more Cakes From the Country!
Miranda xoxo