Cake Decorating News

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Some restaurants aren’t even offering pre-desserts

For decades, Melbourne’s top restaurants have bid diners farewell with the classic petit fours, but finedining establishments are now toying with the traditional flow of entree, main and dessert by introducing pre-desserts and other tiny tempters before the main, creamy event. Some restaurants are even putting tasting platters and confection nibbles on the dessert menu for equal price or loose change. You have to wonder, are we deserting the dessert?

More in the original article.

Some brides choose to bake their own wedding cake. It’s a small percentage, one would assume, as baking a cake can be a daunting enough task for the “modern woman”, much less a cake for a crowd of a hundred or more people.

nynews.com has an article here.

The ceremonial wedding cake often is grand and elaborate, and many brides choose the design as carefully as they do their gowns.

Occasionally, a bride will decide to make her own cake or will accept the offer of a talented relative or friend. It can be done, although many wedding planners discourage it. The best way to manage a homemade cake is to consider baking two or three small cakes with fewer tiers, which makes the task easier to handle in a home kitchen. The cake’s design can be simply decorated but still imply elegance.

King Arthur Flour has an online cake-decorating class that offers simple instructions. “You can do wonders with basic tips and a vegetable peeler,” said Susan Reid, chef and editor of King Arthur Flour’s The Baking Sheet newsletter. Go to www.kingarthurflour.com, click on education, then click on “online baking classes/take a class now.”

“It’s the first class that comes up,” Reid said.

Read the full article for more.

Gloria Olson is often called “Cake Lady,” but she prefers “Cake Decorator.”

With single cakes sometimes requiring 15 hours of artwork, painting gold leaf patterns onto perfectly smooth fondant, her requested title seems reasonable.

Then again, you can see how customers who visit her home-based business in Windsor Heights, Glorious Desserts, for a consultation might try the simpler approach.

The fragrance of almond and strawberry and the sweet scent of cake batter hit you before you even enter the house.

Rather than vases or knickknacks, her front room is adorned with cakes, some of them several layers - and feet - in height.

And not just simple white wedding cakes, but the sort of “Wow!” pastries usually seen in bridal magazines or on the Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes.”

Full article here

From Country Weekly Magazine come a report:

Country’s top stars and their teammates will show off their cake decorating skills, and raise money for the T.J. Martell Foundation, at the Celebrity Cake Decorating Competition, Sunday, July 1, 1:00-4:00 p.m., at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville.

Montgomery Gentry’s Troy Gentry and Eddie Montgomery, along with their respective spouses Angie and Tracy, are entering the event, which also features the team of Lonestar’s Dean Sams and Michael Britt. Joining in on the fun are Aaron Tippin and wife Thea and Julie Roberts and her mom, Sandra. Each celebrity team will be paired with a renowned cake designer and will create a cake based on a song made famous by each star. The event benefits the T.J. Martell Foundation, a leading center for leukemia, cancer and AIDS research. Tickets are $20 and are available through ticketmaster.com or by calling (615) 255-9600.