Chocolate Box Cake

Here’s a few shots of Sweet Element’s latest cake that was raffled off at a charity event last weekend.  Since our focus is on both cake & chocolate, I thought it would be a nice idea to combine the two mediums in a “chocolate box” cake.  And while I appreciate the simple chocolate sheen of well tempered bon-bons, I thought painting the chocolates as jewels with a little bit of luster dust would add a bit of elegance to this cake.  As a final touch, three gumpaste roses were added as adornment.

This cake was red velvet filled & frosted with vanilla moussaline buttercream and covered in fondant.  The dark chocolate bon bons were a combination of peanut butter & peanut butter caramels.

Congrats to the winner!

AT-AT Groom’s Cake … update!

It’s always nice to get feedback from my clients – especially those that I have only spoken with over email & never get to meet in person.  Here are some photos from the couple I made the surprise AT-AT groom’s cake for a while back. Congrats Steve & Christina!

The Best Man & the groom (both big Star Wars fans!)

Forest Animals Baby Block Cake

This past weekend I had the pleasure of making the baby shower cake & biscotti favors for one of my best friends in CT.  Another loooong delivery from NJ, but definitely worth it!  The theme of the baby’s new room is forest animals & mom to be liked the baby block cake concept, so we decided on a forest animal baby block cake.  The cake was red velvet, filled & frosted with vanilla moussaline buttercream.  The little owl (my favorite part of the cake), was made of rice crispy treats & decorated in fondant.  All block decor was in chocolate.

Cake Photo Shoot

I know I promised that I wouldn’t let the Sweet Element blog slide for long periods, but somehow, even without a corporate gig anymore – life is still hectic!  In between dealing with all the people necessary to get my cake studio completed (which seriously is a job all unto itself), I’ve been keeping my creativity flowing by making portfolio cakes, which is always gratifying as it allows me to experiment with different techniques and continue to push the envelope artistically.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be able to work with Mike from Arclight Images & got some great new shots of some of my latest portfolio pieces.  It was such a pleasure working with a guy with such a great eye & very creative mind.  After a number of shoots with magazines & their very simple backdrops for cakes, it was really fun to think of different settings for pieces – both in & outdoors!

Without further adieu, here are the photos!

Octoberfest Beer Stein Cake

Happy Octoberfest!  Here’s the latest Sweet Element cake that was made for a Octoberfest themed birthday party in Montclair this weekend.  Inside the stein was a black forest cake (chocolate cake, kirsch infused cherries & chocolate buttercream) and whipped cream topped the cake to make the “foam”. The pretzels were made of modeling chocolate & topped with salt.

AT-AT Groom’s Cake

I’ve seen some pretty impressive Star Wars cakes out on the web, but I have never been asked to make one until I received a request for this AT-AT groom’s cake.  While definitely a challenge, I really enjoyed the whole process of making this cake – and learned a whole lot about construction & what a difference an air brush can make!  Gotta admit it was a little strange taking my airbrush out for the very first time to make a cake look “dirty”, but that is precisely what it needed to do, and I am pretty happy with the results.

The cake was a yellow pound cake filled with peanut butter buttercream (one of my new favorites) & iced in vanilla buttercream.  The deco on the cake was done in a combination of fondant & gum paste.  In case you’re wondering, the actual cake part of this piece was the body & the head.  I try to make everything I can edible … but this one definitely needed some serious support!  I had debated creating one of the AT-ATs fallen over on its side, which could have probably been made all edible with sugar legs, but I think the overall appearance of one of these standing up is far more impressive looking.  My client also requested that there be something on the board to show the size of the AT-AT, so with the help of a few Star Wars buff friends, we decided to take a scene from the movie and add a crashed out snowspeeder.  I hope I did it justice!

Big thanks to Jay, my carpenter & all around handyman in the kitchen & workshop!  Couldn’t have gotten this done without you!

Without further adieu …. here’s photos of the latest Sweet Element AT-AT cake!

Baby Einstein 1st Birthday Cake

Here’s one of the latest Sweet Element cakes that is just too cute not to post!  As a former Scholastic employee, I am definitely familiar with the Baby Einstein franchise, so I was excited to make a cake in the theme of Baby Einstein for a very adorable one year old’s birthday.  Mom requested that the caterpillar & frog from the series be featured and also requested that the birthday boy’s name be made out of fondant covered rice krispy blocks.

The cake was a chocolate devil’s food cake filled & frosted with vanilla moussaline buttercream & decorated in chocolate.  The blocks in front are buttercream frosted rice krispy treats decorated in fondant.

And one detail photo sans blocks as well …

Patricia’s Yarns 5th Birthday Cake

Last weekend I had the pleasure of making a cake for Patricia’s Yarns who was celebrating their 5th year in Hoboken, NJ. As creative license was left up to me, I thought it would be a sweet design for this Hoboken yarn shop to have a messenger bag with 5 skeins of yarn spilling out.  Patricia had requested that her logo be incorporated, so I made it fairly prominent on the bag as the label.  There were also three “5’s” incorporated into the yarn – can you spot them all?

This cake was comprised of a chocolate devil’s food cake filled & frosted with vanilla moussaline buttercream and decorated in fondant.  The yarn skeins were made of rice crispy treats frosted in vannilla moussaline buttercream and decorated in fondant.  The needles were the only inedible piece to this cake, and were made out of sharpened painted dowels with gumpaste toppers.

If you’re a knitter & ever find yourself in Hoboken – you should definitely check out Patricia’s shop!  I spent about an hour browsing through her vast selection of yarn and left with two giant bags full of yarn for 2 scarves & a winter blanket.  Patricia was also kind enough to give me a swift [which I totally love ] as a thank you!

Here are some additional detail shots of the cake …

Deco Wedding Cake

Here’s the latest wedding cake creation from Sweet Element Cakes that was made for an upcoming issue of New York Weddings magazine.  I don’t fancy myself an expert piper by any means, so this was definitely a challenge!  All in all, I think it turned out quite well.  I’m hoping the gold metallic finish on the piping shows up a little bit better in the magazine photos – I don’t think my camera did it much justice!

Guinness Cake

I always thought that I’d be making a pint of Guinness cake as a grooms cake, but our friends’ Irish pub birthday party this past Saturday presented the perfect occasion to create this cake. If you ever find yourself in Hoboken, NJ – go visit Carpe Diem for perfect pints & excellent pub food!

Since the pub’s true birthday is 7/15, I included 15 clovers on the board, three of which were gold four leaf clovers, as the pub was celebrating it’s 3rd birthday.

The cake consisted of alternating layers of devil’s food cake & yellow butter cake that was filled and frosted with Bailey’s Irish Cream buttercream. A combination of chocolate & vanilla fondant was used to decorate the exterior of the cake.

I thought the guys would enjoy the little clover in the foam detail on the top

Joe & Billy in Carpe Diem’s dining room with the cake!