Cake Tuesday: summer continues.

Happy  post-holiday-weekend Tuesday-that-feels-like-a-Monday.

Things I did over the weekend:

Made a pile of wedding cakes.

Make hundreds (and hundreds) of miniature desserts.

Saw a terrible movie, and then a slightly less terrible movie.

Rode around town on a bike.

Played a zillion rounds of Words With Friends.

Bought some books.

Became an aunt for the very first time ever.

Ate corn on the cob and toasted marshmallows.

Things I did not do over the weekend (that I actually tried to do):

Get the new iPhone.

Eat vietnamese food.

Buy a loaf of banana bread.

See an (apparently surprisingly) pretty good movie.

Get some solid sleep.

More on books.

I am vowing never to buy another Kindle (for iPhone) book that is GOOD. It is ridiculous that when I finish a SPECTACULARLY GREAT BOOK I can't give it to a friend to read. So lucky for Daniel Woodrell I loved Winter's Bone so much that I bought all the copies that Bookshop Santa Cruz had in stock so that I can loan it out to friends and family and basically people on the street who look nice because it is THAT GOOD. And sadly the only other Woodrell book that Bookshop had in stock was Tomato Red, which I can't wait to start. And Jonathan Franzen wrote one of my favorite books of all time and this new one promises to be equally wonderful.

But back to the flawed Kindle model. I do love the iPhone app - it is dangerously easy to buy the books, and I love always having one in my pocket. Always. But there is plenty of Book CandyTM out there (Weiner, Griffin, Stephanie Meyer come to mind) - stuff you don't even really want to admit to knowing about but is actually pretty fun to read - that seems perfect to have on the phone. Easy to put down and pick up, but not something you're going to want to take up actual physical space on your bookshelf or loan to a friend or reference during a dinner party. So.

Speaking of dinner parties, we're hosting another one this Saturday, with a yummy Spanish-influenced menu. I think we can squeeze a few more folks at the table if you can make it - only $45 and you can bring your own wine or beer to share (or not).

So keeping the summertime theme going a little longer, here's a new take on the sandcastle cake - simpler than a whole shaped castle cake, but the crenellated edge gives it a nice castle-y feel. The laid-back beachy couple wanted their surfboards resting against the palm trees, with a flag bearing their initials waving above the cake.

I was really happy with it, and the bride's aunt tracked me down on Monday morning to see about special-ordering a cake, she loved it so much!

Winter in summer.

Winter's Bone is so beautifully written it hurts.

Cake Tuesday: no regrets.

When am I going to resign myself to the fact that more-than-weekly updates are just beyond me? The past seven days are a blur of fun - wedding cakes, anniversary cakes, my super-talented godchildren in town for our annual Art Camp, a super-fun show on Friday
night:

which included too many favorites to count AND a confetti cannon. And for those of you who find TMBG a little highbrow, Sunday we went to a matinee of Piranha 3D (beyond awful into silly and fun), followed by a totally spontaneous getaway night at the Dream Inn. Here was the view from our room with the almost-full moon over the wharf:

Ahhhhh. And Aquarius is one of the best spots in town - dinner was really wonderful. Now I'm back in the real world, which is tough since Santa Cruz has finally decided that it's SUMMERTIME - pure sunshine and 90 degrees. Can't I just go hang out on the beach? No. I have to make sugar surfboards and shells and palm trees and Korean ducks. (Life is rough.) 
When I was studying French in high school my friend Allison and I learned a couple of Edith Piaf songs to sing in a competition. I loved her name, obviously, but also her grit and passion. I still listen to her music, and the movie that came out a few years ago captured that spirit beautifully (the Academy thought so too).

I recently had a French client request a cake with Piaf lyrics around the central tier, in English and in French, and a tiny sugar Eiffel Tower and champagne bottle for the topper.

Very sweet and romantic, perfect for my client. Je vous adresse mes meilleurs vœux, Jacqueline!

Cake Tuesday: pillows.

Well, hi.

I've been flying around the country for annual family summer visits (coinciding with my dad's 80th birthday (surprisingly tough, despite his great health and humor)), and then got side-tracked with an unexpected surgery (nothing serious, but anesthesia messes you up for DAYS), and then had to pull it together for lots of weddings last weekend. The weather's been wonderfully cooperative and cool and everything went very smoothly, and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.

Here's one shot from the beach in North Carolina:

Isn't the sky amazing? I love North Carolina's coast. The water is so warm you can float for hours (as opposed to Santa Cruz, where you're hypothermic after about a minute and a half). Two other East Coast things sadly missed in California are thunderstorms and fireflies, and I got plenty of both on my visit.

I do have lots of stories and photos to post later this week, but here's one cake that I've been dying to show you:

I've seen lots of pillow cakes but had never been asked to do them before, so when a couple came in this spring and suggested pillows, I jumped at the chance. They had an Indian ceremony (and I know I've told you before how highly I recommend Monsoon Wedding!) which took place outside on wooded cliffs above the ocean; the groom rode a white horse, and there was so much color and dancing and it was MAGICAL.  If I get a link to the wedding photos I'll be sure to share it.

The bottom pillow matched fabric from the groom's outfit, the top pillow matched fabric from the bride's outfit, and the central pillow was a simple gold to tie them together. And a couple of the marigolds are real but most are edible white chocolate. It was a little nerve-wracking but everyone's reaction made all the work worthwhile.

Cake Tuesday: flights of fancy.

People who only see me at the kitchen might be shocked to know this, but I lovelovelove high fashion. I avidly follow the shows of my favorite designers and save up for key pieces that I just can't live without. Although it has sadly become my uniform in recent years, I do NOT love my cruddy jeans + batter-splattered t-shirts + professional kitchen clogs (although the latter are quite good at what they do and I would never wear anything else to work).

The fabrics and textures, the attention to detail, and the creativity involved in making breathtakingly beautiful things - wearable art. (A tiny bit like wedding cake design, I suppose - edible art.) 

So when a bride asked me to do a take-off on an Alexander McQueen headpiece, I was thrilled. First of all, my McQueen gladiator flats from a couple of summers ago are still in my pile of favorites despite the wane of the gladiator - I am wearing them OUT. Secondly, Lee McQueen was an amazing talent (check out the stunning slide show in this retrospective), and the world is certainly less bright without him in it. Thirdly, this was sitting on my office desk when she called to discuss this design:

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The cover of the New Yorker's Style issue in March was an illustration of the very headpiece my bride called to discuss, called "Homage", by Ana Juan. The headpiece itself was McQueen's tribute to Isabella Blow, his best friend and muse who took her life in 2007, so there are many layers of homage here. And I was captivated with the headpiece - the ethereal, floaty feel of it - which is why this cover was still in plain view three months later.

So I got to work. The color had to match the swatch the bride sent to me, which featured prominently throughout the wedding. I hand-cut each wing, painted every line and dot, glued each one together with royal icing, glued each butterfly to a single wire with MORE royal icing. The cake itself was relatively plain (elements from the bride's lovely, simple gown), but the topper is one of the most challenging things I've ever done.

But it worked. The same floaty, fluttery quality came through, as the butterflies swarmed the top of the cake.

Mr. McQueen, this one's for you.

Cake Tuesday: ranunculus.

It's remained awfully gloomy outside since last week, and the tomatoes in the garden are sulking accordingly. Granted I got them in late this year, BUT. The rest of the yard is finally lush and blooming, fully recovered from the disruption of the remodel. (I'll share pics as soon as I get some sunny ones.) Speaking of the remodel, I've been meaning to show you the new kitchen island I designed, which has turned out to be one of my favorite things in the room.

It holds full-sized sheet pans on one side, and stacking stools slide under the other. It's on locking wheels, so I can move it around easily (since the kitchen in still very tiny). And a lot of it is recycled! We used a leftover slab of marble from the counters for half, and part of the butcher block top from the old torn-out kitchen island for the remainder. And I had the legs shaped to match the stools, just for kicks (no pun intended). LOVE.

Marble counters are wonderful and I wouldn't trade them for anything but it is very nice to have a little bit of wood where I can slice lemons or spill red wine (both of which I do quite frequently...).

And back to favorite things - the cake today. Pale yellow buttercream tiers, with just a few sugar ranunculus tied with edible twine.

The whole wedding was gorgeous - rustic and elegant with just a touch of whimsy. I'm not sure how long this link will work but you can see the bee-YOU-tiful couple here, at least for the moment.  Enjoy!

Cake Tuesday: trio.

It rained this morning. At the coffee shop a somewhat crazy person grabbed my arm and said "CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S RAINING??"

"No," I said. "I cannot." I looked at the sky. "And yet, there it is."

"Are you being SARCASTIC??!" She looked annoyed. "Because I have lived here since NINETEEN-EIGHTY-FIVE and it has NEVER, EVER rained in JULY." 

Luckily it did not rain over our holiday weekend, which included the Avett Brothers (outdoors), a MOUNTAIN of corn-on-the-cob, and warm ollalieberry cobbler with homemade horchata ice cream (both were excellent and neither were made by me). Here is the chef, in fact, in his understated independence day attire:

Thanks, Brindon!  We also got a great hike in yesterday - somewhere between seven and eight miles with lots of climbing and not enough snacks.

Henry Cowell is just a few minutes away and is jam-packed with with small burbling creeks and very large redwoods, as well as a historic lime kiln and barrel mill ruins from the turn of last century.

I haven't been in years but it was as beautiful as ever.

Ok, ok, on to cakes. This one is from a few weeks ago, working with one of my favorite wedding planners and an honestly delightful client. Instead of settling on one cake, or having a single cake with sheet cakes in the back, the bride opted for three different cakes in similar designs, pulling in a pattern from the invitations that became a logo of sorts for the event. It was beautiful and simple and very, very elegant.

I really loved how they turned out. For the next week or so I'm going to be buried in a couple of designs that are equally elegant but not-at-all simple - I'm making hundreds of tiny edible jewels and dozens of brightly-colored butterflies. I'll post pictures when I can. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this sign I saw on the telephone pole just a block from my house. I cannot tell you anything about it other than it made me laugh out loud.

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