Showing posts with label Perfect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Perfect. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Summertime Wedding Cakes....The Perfect Choice for Your Summer Wedding

Summer is wedding season. The airy attitude of summer will be reflected in your wedding's color scheme, menu, and location. Another way to emphasize summer is with a beautifully seasonal wedding cake.

When we think summer, we think fun in the water and on the beach. You can echo this theme on your cake. The ocean connotes timelessness and eternity, as well as suggesting our origins. All these images are perfect for a wedding. The muted, elegant tones of a beach can be carried through to your cake. Picture an ivory or pearl colored cake with edible "pearls" and sugar "sand" sprinkled all over. Add some real or faux seashells and starfish for decoration, and you will have a cake that's simple but stunning.

WATER AND CHOCOLATE STARFISH

Or, you can take advantage of summertime's clear, vibrant colors for your cake. The bright blue of the sky, dotted with flouncy white clouds would be perfect colors for a summer wedding cake. Roses this time of year bloom in bright yellow, mimicking the sun. Wild roses, found at the height of summer, are often a true, bright pink. Your florist and baker can give you further ideas for seasonal flowers that might cascade from the topper down the sides of the cake. Consider a wedding cake that's topped with and surrounded by beautiful berries. Berries come in all vibrant shades of red, purple, and blue, and are perfect for summertime. Remember to keep the colors pure and bright. Leave the dark or muted tones for winter and fall.

Regarding flavors, pumpkin, carrot, and maple are reminiscent of fall. For summertime you want brighter, lighter flavors. Lemon, raspberry, and coconut are among the flavors that shout summertime. You might even consider a light milk chocolate cake with mint frosting, as cool mint thrives during the hot summer months. In addition to keeping the flavor light, you'll want a texture to your cake that's airy. Now is not the time for creamy, rich cheesecake. Instead, opt for cakes with an angel-food lightness to them.

To break with tradition and be truly focused on summertime, consider an ice cream cake. These are becoming more and more popular, and can be created to look as beautiful as any traditional wedding cake. It might take a bit of research to find a chef, but imagine your guest's surprise and delight when they realize they'll be treated to ice cream.

A few don't for the icing: whipped cream will not last long in the heat. Fondant is a great icing, but tends to form droplets of condensation. The taste and texture of fondant will quickly be compromised in the heat. Cream cheese frosting is simply too heavy and sweet for summertime. The frosting that will hold up the best and be most appropriate in every way is buttercream frosting. In addition, it doesn't need to be held at a cold temperature to stay safe.

Dream about the flavors, textures, and activities you enjoyed during the summer as a child. Go from there to create a perfect summertime wedding cake.

Summertime Wedding Cakes....The Perfect Choice for Your Summer Wedding

WATER AND CHOCOLATE STARFISH

Friday, August 5, 2011

Kids Cake Toppers To Help You Create The Perfect Party Cake

Fondant works great for creating cake toppers. The texture is similar to Playdoh. You can buy it in various colors or use dye to create your own color options. You can roll it out as you would bread dough and cut out various shapes using cookie cutters. It also lends itself nicely to being shaped into various things like flowers, snowmen, animals, trees, etc. Another fun thing to do with fondant is to cover the entire cake with a piece of fondant in lieu of a whipped up icing or frosting.

Here are some other ideas that would be terrific for creating a scene on sheet cakes for kids cake toppers:

WATER AND CHOCOLATE STARFISH

Astronaut Scene Cake - Cover the top with dark chocolate frosting. Top it off with a plastic rocket, astronauts, and mini USA flag.

Construction Scene - Create a construction site using a plastic dump truck and cement truck. Add some trees and shrubs, along with some construction signs and workers. Throw in a few pieces of colored rock candy to serve as boulders.

Farm Scene Cake - Cover a sheet cake with green grass and brown sugar dirt. Add some plastic farm animals like pigs, cows, and ducks. Top with a plastic farm truck that is loaded with "hay", which could be frosting shreds. In addition, if you can find some little plastic fencing and a barn, those too would be great add-ons.

Firefighter Scene Cake - Cover a sheet cake with greenery and a brown sugar roadway. Top it off with a plastic red fire truck, some trees, a fire hydrant, along with some plastic firefighters and a little dalmatian.

Snow Scene Cake - Cover the cake with white frosting. Top it off with some plastic snowmobiles, snow skiers, trees, shrubs, and deer.

Train Scene Cake - Cover a sheet cake with a toy train. Add some trees, mountains, shrubs, and water as part of the scene. Be sure to add "All Aboard" and Happy Birthday (Name).

To get your creative juices flowing, think of things that your child enjoys and create a cake topper around a particular item. Here's some examples to help get you started: motorcycles, sailboats, race cars, skateboards, cars, airplanes, monster trucks, Army tank, golf cart, or police car are all options that work well for boys, but not necessarily.

Some ideas for girls might be a ballerina, mermaids, Barbie, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, or Precious Moments figurines.

Here's some other ideas ideas for kids cake toppers that I think would work out great:

Characters Popular TV and movie characters make for great cakes. Here are a few ideas to help get you started:
Barney Cinderella Dora the Explorer Elmo Minnie and Mickey Mouse Pirates of the Caribbean Scooby Doo Snow White and the seven dwarfs Spiderman Spongebob Star Wars Superman

If your child plays a musical instrument, you could easily center your cake around that instrument.

If going to the beach is something your child enjoys, then he or she is sure to love a beach themed cake. Top it off with plastic palm trees, ski boats, colorful fish, sailboats, BBQ grill, beach chairs, surfers, starfish, etc.

Just remember, if you're a little short on time, and then opt for fun kids cake toppers. They are the quick and easy way to doll up a cake real fast. You can make the cake look like you spent all day decorating it, just by using a little imagination, some fun toppers, and a wee bit of color.

Kids Cake Toppers To Help You Create The Perfect Party Cake

WATER AND CHOCOLATE STARFISH