Piece of Cake! by Marneycakes

I'm on Best Hamptons Weddings! Cool!

2009-11-10T11:05:00.002-05:00

Well, what do you know? I'm searching to see where I'm listed, and I find that i now appear on http://www.besthamptonsweddings.com/ !

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

We have favor cookies!!!

2009-10-30T00:17:00.003-04:00

Check it out! Sharisse James, of the Marneycakes Crew, is our cookie expert. Here is the first peek at her work! She can create cookies to be enjoyed at any occasion...or afterwards, as a favor.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Taste of the Harvest, and Middle Bay Country Club

2009-10-29T23:58:00.011-04:00

Well, Taste of the Harvest was absolutely inspiring.

I had no idea that 96,000 children on Long Island depend on Island Harvest for their food. And I had no idea now generous its supporters can be. There were people bidding to contribute funds to transport collected/rescued food to the hungry....$800....$2,000! Hundreds of people gathered along with us at Crest Hollow Country Club to have a good time, and support our cause.

As a result, Marneycakes has forged another professional relationship...with Middle Bay Country Club in Oceanside. Too cool.

Our fabulous crew, Chef Shannon, Chef Jason, Sharisse, Chloe and Jacqueline were wonderful in getting everything done, and getting samples of our cake to the guests and vendors alike. Lori Miller (of LoriGirl Creations), Adrianna, and Julie decorated our station fabulously! Thank you, Ladies (and thank you, De Voile Couture for lending us your gorgeous bridal veil!)!!!! Mike and Miguel Hernandez of Numa's Florist in Wantagh, thank you for the gorgeous flower arrangements and raffle prize!

Here are some fun pics of the evening.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Kiwi Cake Love

2009-10-25T08:53:00.005-04:00

A big mazel tov to Heather and Micah, who will be making their home in Micah's native New Zealand. They were just married at East Wind Caterers in Wading River on 10-16-09, with their vegan Maui Coconut Marneycake.

Their maid of honor, Tracy, was good enough to send along this pic, taken by the bride's brother. Aren't they adorable???

Heather and Micah are fortunate to have a devoted friend like Tracy, who handled most of our transaction, seeing as she's local. Everyone was just a joy to work with.

Here's a close-up of the cake as they're cutting it.

What a big adventure, to grow up here, fall in love, and move halfway 'round the world. Best wishes and lots of love to you both! Thanks for the honor of creating the wedding cake of your dreams....

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Anticipation....

2009-10-25T00:43:00.002-04:00

I absolutely, positively cannot wait for Taste of the Harvest. Interior designer Lori Miller of LoriGirl Creations and Michael Hernandez of Numa's Florist are decorating the Marneycakes, Inc. station...Lori's friend Julie, who specializes in dried flowers, is also in on it! These are three really brilliant aesthetically-focused minds, and we're going to have a positively amazing station!

Tonight, I made 113 rose leaves, and one red peony, all in gum paste. I won't give away the design scheme in advance, but suffice it to say, I can't contain myself! I want to see the cakes and our station all done-up!

I'm forcing myself to call it a night, because otherwise, I could stay up all night making these peonies. They're simultaneously exciting and relaxing to make, and make such a statement of elegance once they're all dried and hand-painted! I wonder, is there a way for me to just do gum paste, day and night? Naaaaaaaaw....then there would be no time to create the cakes that go with them! Gotta have cakes!

Chloe will be taking pictures of our setup process at Crest Hollow next Tuesday night. She, Sharisse, Shannon, Jason, and Jacqueline will all be there, as well as Lori and Julie. Hopefully, there will be a representative from Numa's as well.

Woo-hoo! We're gonna create some beauty, and raise some money for a very important cause!!!!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Vegan coconut-rum wedding cake for Heather and Micah

2009-10-19T12:05:00.003-04:00

I just heard back from the maid of honor for the Kiwi couple whose cake I did last weekend at East Wind Caterers in Wading River. Knowing that her friends were probably already abroad again, or preparing to go there, and because she's been my contact for most of the wedding planning, I emailed her and asked how everyone liked the vegan wedding cake last Friday. Here's the email she sent me that made my day:

Hi Marney!

The wedding was fantastic and the cake was AMAZING!! It was THE BEST cake I have ever had!! Heather and Micah have been here in NY this weekend saying goodbye to relatives and friends who have come for their wedding from New Zealand, London, Singapore and everywhere else. They are leaving tomorrow morning for their honeymoon. I did see Heather yesterday and showed her this email. Heather's brother took some great pictures and I will send them to you this week. They also loved the hand sculpted peony- it was beautiful! Heather had some cake left and I was lucky enough to have some more this weekend. My goodness- it is still amazing 2 days later! :) I would recommend you to anyone Marney, you did great job! Thank you for all your hard work and for making a great cake that Heather and Micah could enjoy at their wedding.

Speak to you soon when I send the pictures.

Tracy :)

I put another gum paste peony on top of the wedding cake, just as a surprise. Evidently, it went over well!

I love my clients.....

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Gum paste peony for Margaret!

2009-10-15T21:10:00.004-04:00

Check out Margaret's Blackout Fudge-Almond cake, with the gum paste peony on it (this shot is more about the flower than the cake). I delivered this tonight, and sat with her, her husband Sal and daughter Antonella to chat for a while...I love having the opportunity to chat with my clients and get to know them better. What a nice family...really warm, gracious people. I love that Margaret calls up, and has an idea for a cake in mind, and asks me to make it for her! This time, she wanted something "really fudgy". Well, I can definitely do that! :)

The day after I delivered our first cake (it was vanilla with cannoli cream), she made a point of going out of her way to thank me in person, and tell me how good it was and how much she and her family loved it! What a sweetheart, huh? When one of my Italian clients goes nuts for my cannoli cream, I always take it as huge compliment (especially given that the first cannoli I ever tasted was just a couple of years ago).

Man, do I have amazing, warm, wonderful people as clients. I am one lucky Cake Girl.

Anyway...since she asked me so sweetly this evening, I promised Margaret I'll teach her how to make an apple pie. Funny thing, I've been making it for so many years, and that's been done in a custom super-deep-dish pie dish for so many years (it takes 22 really big apples to make this pie...David got it for me at D. Lasser Ceramics Studio in Woodstock, VT), that I've really got to think about the recipe (which I always just throw together...I don't think I've ever used a recipe), and scale it down for a normal deep-dish pie plate. Anyway, they went apple picking, and she's got some beautiful specimens sitting on her dining room table. She said Sal has always wanted her to bake him an apple pie, so I've got to get her set up to do that, after I finish with tomorrow's vegan wedding cake!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

This is such a Gatsby cake!

2009-10-11T21:55:00.003-04:00

...so I think that's what I'll call it: The Gatsby Cake! This is for the wedding reception (they were married in Hawaii last month) of Janice and Richard, a truly sweet and gracious couple. They wanted something simply elegant, and they placed their order just after I did my gum paste class with Betty Van Norstrand, so I included a few gum paste poppies on their cake. I also edged it in black grosgrain ribbon with white stitching on it, not only around the bottom of each tier, but also around the bottom of the cake round.

It's as elegant as they are!

Much happiness to you, Janice and Richard!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

A new logo for Marneycakes!

2009-10-09T22:02:00.004-04:00

How exciting is this??? We've got a new logo!

After I finished sketching Christine and Dong's wedding cake...before I started the process of bringing their wedding cake from inside my brain to our three-dimensional world...I was doodling down on the corner of the page where one would sign a drawing. Before I knew it, I looked at it from a distance, and thought to myself, "I think I have a new logo here!" How cool, no?

Well, I knew my letters weren't all perfectly sized, knew it needed to be otherwise "cleaned up", and knew I'd want a complete font to go along with the lettering in my logo. So, I turned it over to Leslie Fedeau, and I'm so pleased with what she did! She's such a gifted artist.

Now I've got a logo as personal and customized as the wedding cakes I create! :) Now I can have banners made in time to disply it at my next three charity events for Island Harvest!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Progress!

2009-10-06T00:06:00.004-04:00

Wow!

We're up to 22 cakes on the Marneycakes menu, plus the ultra-specialty Versailles wedding cake, and 8 coffee cakes (just perfect for your breakfast meeting, or the morning of the wedding).

Check it out!

http://www.marneycakes.com/MenuAndGallery.html

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

"Cherry blossom" wedding cake

2009-10-04T20:51:00.011-04:00

This morning, I delivered Christine and Dong's wedding cake to DeSeversky Center in Old Westbury at NYIT. They wanted a cake with cherry trees and blossoms on it, but with yellow centers. Since that's defintely a new twist on the color of a cherry blossom, I took the liberty of doing my own whimsical interpretation of a wedding cake adorned with cherry trees, complete with white and yellow blossoms. I had such a great time making it for them! Their other request was that we make this a 3-tier cake, and that I surprise them and choose three complementary shapes for the tiers. After checking the yields for different pans, I thought that the best combination for them would be a large petal pan for the bottom tier, a tall round pan for the middle tier, and an oval pan for the top tier.

The cakes they chose for the top and bottom tiers were my neopolitan cake: one layer of chocolate and one layer of vanilla cake, filled with strawberry buttercream. The middle tier was a chocolate cake filled with my signature double-layer filling...this one was ganache, and raspberry buttercream. The entire cake was iced in a Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream (which has the "flecky" appearance of cookies & cream ice cream). I piped the cherry trees from ganache, and made 140 gum paste cherry blossoms with which to fill the branches. I not only arranged them along the branches, but also randomly scattered them on various parts of the tiers, just as cherry blossoms would float down from the tree and land on the ground below.

I'm so happy with the way this cake turned out, and it was a joy to make it for this really sweet couple! :)

Last night, my daughter, Chloe, was playing with some of my other gum paste flowers for an assignment she had for her photo class at school. She took some really sweet images of gardenia, a poppy, sweet peas, those little cherry blossoms, stephanotis, and a small purple filler flower. I'll include a couple of the ones she's edited so far...she promises me that she's going to do more and send them to me...once that happens, then I'll post them! Chloe also shot the cherry blossom wedding cake.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Ain't Love Grand?

2009-09-21T00:24:00.005-04:00

What a great week.

This week, among my orders was a 30th wedding anniversary cake for Karen Rifai (the owner of Artrageous, the clay painting studio in Rockville Centre). Karen Rifai is one of the sweetest people you'd ever want to meet, and has gone above and beyond in lending her marketing expertise to help me successfully launch and promote Marneycakes. In the beginning, I was at Artrageous on Friday nights, giving out samples at her BYOB night (and taking orders, too). That's a great event....it's mostly women my age, getting together and being creative over a bottle of wine. There are some really fantastic projects that come out of that, and Karen even has a bunch of regulars in attendance! Anyway, Karen's been so good to me that I asked if I could please do a cake for her as a small token of my appreciation. She said that, in fact, her 30th anniversary was coming up, and she would like a tiny wedding cake marked with hearts and 30's for her celebration with her husband. So...it was my great pleasure to create it for her! She thoughtfully sent along a photo of their celebration.

Here's the photo, above...is this sweet, or what??? I've only met her hubby once, and he seemed every bit as warm and sweet as Karen (no surprise there).

As if the weekend was already satisfying enough...I also had the pleasure of doing a wedding cake tasting for an adorable bride and her parents in East Hampton on Saturday. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love to have any excuse to go out east - it's so perfectly beautiful out there, and David and I can't wait to move once Chloe graduates high school in a couple more years. So...this couple is still deciding what they want to do stylistically with their cake...either fresh flowers, or fresh fruit. But we know it's going to be a chocolate lover's delight! The wedding will be at Macari Vinyards, on the North Fork. Their new facility is going to be stunning! Can't wait until it's done. When last I spoke to Barbara, who interfaces with the brides and grooms there, she anticipated completion this November.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Great clients, great friends: Bella's 1st birthday

2009-09-16T11:39:00.002-04:00

I'm so fortunate to have such great friends, and also such wonderful clients. They begin as one of those, and become the other... or vice versa. My loyal friend and loyal client Annette FB'd me last night to tell me that all of her family and part of her husband's family were fed and sated by the first birthday cake that I made her niece Isabella for her family 1st birthday party, and said that there are no words to describe how good the cake was. For this weekend, I'll be doing a big 1st birthday cake for Isabella for her big friends & family party, and I can't wait to create it. How sweet is that, to not only let me know how much they enjoyed their cake, but to also post that on FB??? Annette & family are the greatest.

I'm doing the cake (of course I am) for Rosh Hashana dinner at Julie's house on Friday night, as well as 4 small 6" cakes for Sinead and Mikes' tasting in East Hampton on Saturday. I love it when couples want to try more than the standard 3 tasting cakes...after all, why not? I sure would!

After the tasting, I think I'll sit down and rest my back a while! :)

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Julie and Julia, and creating real gourmet foods

2009-08-30T12:54:00.006-04:00

Last night, my best gf Julie and I went to see "Julie and Julia". What a wonderfully fun movie!

After having experienced the joy that preparing high-quality, beautifully-presented gourmet food has brought me, I really connected with the characters in the film, and the joy that they found in the process of preparing what they cooked and baked.

Julia was looking for a way to fill her days while her husband's diplomatic assignment took them to Paris, so she enrolled in cooking classes. Unchallenged by the course and unstimulated by her classmates, she took things to the next level, and enrolled in a diploma program at the Cordon Bleu. There, Julia found her joy in cooking.

Julie was a young woman looking for professional fulfillment on a par with that of her (obnoxiously) successful girlfriends, and found it through blogging about the experience of living through her self-imposed challenge of cooking her way through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". Upon undertaking her year-long project, Julie realized that (to paraphrase), after a day at the office when nothing goes right or seems certain, she could come home to her kitchen and combine chocolate, flour and butter, and know with certainty that they will thicken into something delightful. She also realized that benefitting from one's own culinary creativity is not only pleasurable, but also soothing.

What I have always loved so much about cooking and baking are the combined elements of (compartively) immediate gratification, creative productivity, and nurture. Whether cooking a meal for my family or preparing a dinner party for friends, I get to make something beautiful and tasty that's also nurturing and pleasurable.

I loved watching these two women cook from scratch in the movie, as I do, using fresh and authentic ingredients (even if I was a bit traumatized by the lobster scene). There is just no substitute for this kind of cooking and baking. In this country, it's a dying art.

Hopefully, this movie rekindles an interest in the pleasures derived from authentic gourmet cuisine. Life's just too short to eat quality-compromised, flavor-hampered, artificial foods.

I've always said, I feel sorry for people who don't derive as much pleasure from eating as I do, since eating is something that everyone has to do to live. Perhaps I should count myself lucky to have been born with this passion for exceptional cuisine.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Facebook is such a cool phenomenon. Who knew?

2009-08-17T00:13:00.004-04:00

Ok, this is slightly off-topic for me, but I feel compelled to share something. I'd love for people to post their reactions....

You know, aside from being a cool way to market what's up with Marneycakes, I am just realizing the impact that Facebook has had on my everyday life.

Sure, it's wonderful for posting my charity events past and present, for posting where I'm featured most recently for my wedding cakes, and for posting photos of the latest work for my beloved clientele. But this week, the impact that Facebook has made just dawned on me.

Anyone who knows me here in Long Island knows the crazy hours I work. Driving myself as hard as physically and mentally possible to ensure that Marneycakes is a success leaves me trading baking time for family time, social time, and all too often, adequate sleep. But, this is what I signed up for when I decided to go into business! :) (Being incredibly busy with orders is a good "problem" to have for someone who officially started up just 18 months ago.) I've recently realized that, by dedicating a few minutes each day (often via BlackBerry), I am able to hear snipets of the daily lives of a number of friends and family far more numerous that I have time to converse with regularly. Even when seeing people in passing, I've had the odd realization that I know what's happening in their lives, despite that neither of us has necessarily had time to converse one-on-one. This amazing social networking tool has given those who choose to use it a wonderful way to stay connected in a hectic world. Now, don't get me wrong -- I wouldn't want to reduce all of my interpersonal communication to Facebook snipets. But, it does provide a vehicle for feeling connected to all the people you care about when you're otherwise fairly islolated, for one reason or another.

Through Facebook, I've managed to reconnect with friends from high school (in California), and I realize that I have a good broad-stroke picture of what's happening in their day-to-day life from across the country, after previously going years wondering where they were, and what they were up to. Now, it's so easy to find someone if they're on FB, and connect/reconnect.

Even people I know who previously viewed FB with disdain -- as something utterly self-indulgent and frivolous -- have been converted to the fold of the FB faithful after their child creates an account for them, and they've repaired old broken links with lost (but still precious) pieces of their past, as well as fortified present connections.

When my daughter created my account for me last October -- when she explained the in and outs of posting things, sending private messages vs. posting on someone's wall, and "poking", she opened not only a portal to a continuum I'd abandoned for a time, but she also opened a door to new possibilities!

Thank you Chloe, and thank you Facebook! This is pretty cool stuff.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Pindar Vineyards Make-A-Wish Foundation fundraiser

2009-08-10T02:17:00.004-04:00

I've got pictures to share of my sunflower cupcakes that went with the Pindar Make-A-Wish foundation fundraiser luncheon! These were chocolate cupcakes with almond buttercream icing, scattered in the middle with chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. The fundraiser, and the cupcakes, were a success!

Photos by Chloe Volz

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Jason's Vineyard opening party

2009-08-07T00:05:00.005-04:00

Jason's Vineyard has opened! I did the cake for the private party. Jackie, the owner's wife, said that she was particularly fond of lemon cake with raspberry, and in fact, that that particular combination is a family favorite. With that in mind, and knowing how popular my blackberry buttercream-filled lemon cake is, I created this cake for their opening party, and accented it in their beloved raspberry buttercream. Jackie said it was a big success! I couldn't be more delighted.

Jeff Mitchel of J.Mitchel Photography shot this cake for me. He really has a fresh approach to wedding photography, believing that it should never take an assembly line/photo factory approach. His work (if you look at the link at the end this entry) is very personal, warm and intimate. As if that wasn't enough reason to work with him, he's also easygoing, accomodating, a creative problem-solver, and a generally nice person!

Thanks for the fabulous cake shots, Jeff.

The website to Jason's Vineyard isn't quite up, but here's a link to a place to buy their wines, as well as read some reviews.

http://www.snooth.com/winery/jasons-vineyard/

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Baby Charlotte is born!

2009-08-02T21:41:00.004-04:00

Beth and Karl's daughter, Charlotte, has arrived! :) Welcome, Sweet Charlotte!

I realized that I never posted Beth's shower cake, as I was leaving for a trip to Turkey the afternoon of her shower, and didn't think it right to post a photo before anyone got a chance to see the cake in person! Since I've returned home from vacation, it's been all cake, all the time. Only receiving Beth and Karl's new family photo jogged my memory. Anyway, here's Beth's shower cake.

Beth's cake was vanilla with chocolate buttercream filling, the top tier iced in blackberry buttercream, and the bottom tier iced in raspberry buttercream.

Enjoy!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

I'm in gum paste heaven.

2009-07-22T00:10:00.004-04:00

I've got very exciting news! I'll have the privlege of studying gum paste flower art one-on-one in August with Chef Betty van Nostrand, reknowned pastry chef and sugar artist.

Chef Ruth Drennan, Co-Owner of the Cake Atelier in NYC, has studied with Chef van Nostrand. Cheryl Kleinman, of Cheryl Kleinman cakes lists Chef Betty as one of her favorite cake designers. Both Sylvia Weinstock and Ron ben Israel are rumored to have studied under Chef Betty as well.

Although she mentioned to me that her days of making cakes are over, Chef van Nostrand still teaches Cake Decorating at the Culinary Institute of America.

This will take me to a whole new level of cake design, and I can hardly wait! Sugar art is so magnificent...the Brits have been doing it for ages, and it's just now reaching its height of popularity here in the States.

Another gifted sugar artist is Alan Dunn, of the U.K. Here's a cover for one of his instructional books on gum paste (also called "sugar paste") roses...can you believe this isn't a live rose??? What a cool art form...it's the quintessence of elegance and sophistication!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Press release: Marneycakes is Wedding Wire 2009 rated!

2009-07-14T22:01:00.002-04:00

Marneycakes, Inc. is WeddingWire rated for 2009!

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, has just announced that Marneycakes, Inc is officially WeddingWire Rated 2009! WeddingWire created the annual Rated program to honor wedding professionals, like Marneycakes, for their excellence and to help brides and grooms easily find the right wedding professionals to match their needs.

“We are excited to unveil WeddingWire Rated 2009, now in its third year. With hundreds of thousands of reviews, WeddingWire has made it easy for engaged couples to find the nation’s very best wedding professionals,” according to Sonny Ganguly, WeddingWire’s Chief Marketing Officer. “WeddingWire Rated is an excellent way for businesses to showcase their continued success in the wedding industry.”

Marneycakes has reviews with an average 4.9+ rating, making us eligible to hold the Rated title on the WeddingWire Network. Each review has been written by our former clients and includes detailed ratings and insightful descriptions of their experiences with our services. These reviews not only enhance our credibility, but also help differentiate our business within the WeddingWire Network.

Marneycakes would like to thank our past brides and grooms for taking the time to review our services on WeddingWire.

If you are a past client of Marneycakes and have yet to provide us with your feedback, visit reviews.weddingwire.com and review our services today.

#####

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

A baby shower, a devoted friend, and a fundraiser!!

2009-06-24T19:52:00.005-04:00

The orders due by the end of the week will be baked quite joyfully.

First, there's a surprise cake from Shelley to Josephine, for being a world-class friend. Shelley was blown away by a lifetime of friendship, but most of all, by Josephine's devotion and support when Shelley's mother died. That day was Josephine's birthday. Shelley is so very grateful that Josephine insisted on staying by her side that night, regardless. Shelley wanted to say thank you and express her appreciation and gratitude for Jo's selflessness, and she's saying it in chocolate!

Next, there's the baby shower cake...a little girl is on the way! Per Mommy Beth's request, I'm doing a 2-tiered vanilla cake filled with chocolate buttercream. The lower tier will be iced in blackberry buttercream (with those juicy hunks of blackberry peeking through), and the top tier will be iced in raspberry buttercream. On the outside, there will be royal icing designs that will have the appearance of embroidery. Should be really pretty! Lavender, pink, and white! VERY girly!

I'm deciding on cupcake flavors for the Island Harvest bake sale fundraiser this Saturday. Of course, I have to do lemon - it's summertime! Then there will be chocolate, because there just has to be chocolate. I think I'll also do a peanut butter cupcake with peanut butter icing as well...the other flavors are still up in the air. Perhaps a mocha? Gingerbread? I'm inspired by my copy of Martha's newest cupcake cookbook that arrived in today's mail.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

The hydrangea wedding cake

2009-06-02T01:02:00.006-04:00

I had the most fabulous time making a wedding cake last week for Arielle and Ben's wedding! They chose a 3-tier cake for 200+. The bottom tier was vanilla cake, filled with a double-filling of marzipan and cherry-almond buttercream, iced in almond buttercream. The middle and top tiers were chocolate cake double-filled with chocolate ganache and raspberry buttercream, iced in almond buttercream.

The bride's chose hydrangeas for her flowers, which we incorporated into the cake. The florist, Felipe, supplied us with the fresh flowers at the venue, which we mounted between the tiers of the cake. Chloe and Chef Jason were there to help make it all happen, and Chloe also took photos of the process of the cake coming together.

Chloe and Jason cut the hydrangeas, and Chloe and I placed them on the cake. Once we were sure we'd completely covered the pillars, we knew we'd included all the flowers we possibly could. Then, with the flowers securely and densely in place, Jason and I piped the borders - I went around with the milk chocolate pearl border, and Jason followed me with the chocolate ganache.

Not long before the wedding, the bride's grandmother found her wedding cake topper. Naturally, it had to be on the cake! How amazing that she was able to see her cake topper reemerge on her granddaughter's wedding cake. I put a glass bowl on the top of the cake to elevate the small statue above the hydrangeas, then secured it with a dab of buttercream.

Not only was it exciting to assemble the cake while being able to catch glimpses of the bride and groom exchanging vows through the window, but it was also energizing to be part of something collaborative and creative...it always is! That night, I had a great sense of happiness and satisfaction from the opportunity to add even more beauty and sweetness to such a joyous event....

Our efforts paid off, as the mother of the bride relayed that both the coffee cakes for the morning of the wedding and the wedding cake were all beautiful and delicious.

Another happy cake ending!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

I've found the Holy Grail of Chevre.

2009-05-05T21:53:00.003-04:00

I was finally able to share the Holy Grail of Chevre with my Other Half and daughter last night.

Last December, David and I met Karen and Michael Catapano at some friends' holiday party. I had brought a spice cake, and the Catapanos brought three kinds of chevre: plain, chevre rolled in cracked black pepper, and chevre rolled in fresh herbs. Lacking the time to go out to Peconic since that party, I have not forgotten those amazing cheeses, but instead have fantasized about them regularly for the past 5 months.

A few days ago, I was out east seeing wineries, and took Karen Catapano up on her offer to stop in and say hi if ever I was in the area. Long story short, I left some cakes with her, and she sent me home with chevre and some gouda.

Elated that Chloe and David don't care for gouda, I devoured every molecule of it in the car over my two-hour journey home. Only because I love them and want them to share the things that give me pleasure, I was able to restrain myself and leave the chevre untouched!

David greatly enjoyed the chevre, as did Chloe. She understood why I call this cheese the Holy Grail of chevre. :) Forget the award for best cheese from the American Cheese Society's national competition - if you can impress the hell out of a picky teenager, you've really accomplished something! :)

Whoever is ever remotely close to Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic HAS to be sure and stop in, tell Karen and Michael that Marney sent you, and get yourself some of their magical cheese.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

The Rockin' Vineyard

2009-05-05T07:55:00.003-04:00

I have found my first rockin' vineyard.

Yesterday, I met with Sharon of Baiting Hollow Farm & Vineyard in Baiting Hollow, near Calverton, on the North Fork. I arrived, and Susan and Janet made me feel at home while waiting for our meeting to begin. After I unpacked my sample cakes, Susan and Janet gathered around in anticipation of their samples, which I was happy to share with them. At the same time, Susan graciously poured me a tasting of two roses, as well as the vineyard's claim to fame: their reisling. (I couldn't leave without a bottle of that.) Susan also showed me around the tasting area, including their new construction to better accomodate events such as weddings, bridal showers, anniversary celebrations, etc.

Steve came down, in the middle of taking care of the construction project, and made sure I was being taken care of. Sharon and Steve are the owners of the farm & vineyard. He was also quite gracious.

What was so obvious and different about being in this space was the great music: I walked in to Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion", which was followed by a string of favorite classic rock. How cool!

Sharon arrived, and she and Steve sampled two cakes: the chocolate with apricot-Grand Marnier buttercream filling & almond buttercream icing, and the yellow cake with a double-layered filling of chocolate ganache and blackberry buttercream, iced in milk chocolate buttercream and accented in ganache. The cakes were a hit. She said they'd be happy to recommend me as a wedding cake vendor to their brides! Sharon wants to work with me on designing a signture cake with a farm theme for children's birthday parties - something with "a look all its own", as she so aptly put it.

That's what I'll be doing over the next couple of days...coming up with the concept and getting her a sketch, if not a sample.

From there, I visited The Old Field Vineyard. Perri was good enough to see me, as she and Alex sampled my cakes. I missed Roz, who had to run out before I got there. Their house is charming and historic, as the family has owned the farm for 5 generations in that location. Their barrel chardonnay was delightful, and they said they'd be happy to refer me to their brides for wedding cakes. Welcome to Alex, who just arrived from PA! Yesterday was his fourth day on the job at The Old Field.

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"

Fun morning at the vineyards!

2009-05-01T00:53:00.007-04:00

I went out east today to see Kerry, the Events Coordinator at Duck Walk Vineyards. What a great morning it turned out to be! I brought 3 cakes for her to sample: lemon cake filled with blackberry buttercream and iced in lemon buttercream, chocolate cake filled with apricot-Grand Marnier buttercream and iced in almond buttercream, and yellow cake filled with raspberry buttecream, iced in milk chocolate buttercream and accented in chocolate ganache. She was there to sample the cakes, as were Michael and Gina of Duck Walk as well. To my delight, the cakes went over quite well!

Kerry generously bestowed a handful of bottles of wine on me: the Duck Walk Windmill Blush, the sauvignon blanc, the blueberry port, and a boysenberry dessert wine. Frankly the latter two beg to be incorporated into an icing or filling, and tested on a new variety of cake!

Tonight, I tried the Windmill Blush at home, after trying it and falling in love with it in the tasting room today. Mmmmm! It's wonderful chilled, and can see how it would be especially refreshing and satisfying on a hot summer day. Leslie, the owner of Rita's Ices in Oceanside, sent me on a quest for Pindar Summer Blush. Although Summer Blush and Windmill blush are both made from the same single grape, they're made by different winemakers. Thank you, Leslie, for my new discovery!

I'm very excited to have been included in Duck Walk's preferred vendor list for wedding cakes, and am eager to work with Duck Walk's staff, as well as their brides and grooms. This is going to be great fun!

Next time, I'll blog about Barbara at Macari Vineyards. But for now, it's off to sleep for me!

Marneycakes: The Foodie's Cakes. "There is always room for dessert!"