Piece of Cake! by Marneycakes

Marneycakes chibi emblem

2012-01-27T23:55:00.001-05:00

We're so excited! Check this out!

Leslie Fedeau has just designed this fabulous new emblem to keep our logo company on our promotional materials! She captured every little detail that there was to capture!

I know Leslie's outstanding illustration work, and I didn't want to influence what she'd dream up for me. As an artist, I know I don't like to be micro-managed, so that's the last thing I wanted to do with her. So when I asked her if she would draw a chibi for Marneycakes, the only direction I provided was that I'd like it to include me and a wedding cake, with me in my signature blue chef's jacket, and my glasses on my head (the way they always are). Imagine my delight in opening the email that contained this drawing!!!

Leslie is also the artist who helped me come up with our Marneycakes logo.

One day I was doodling, stopped, and realized that I had come up with a logo! It was extremely close to what the logo is right now, without rosebuds, with a really large fully open rose, and with slightly different vines (way too many of them, actually). I sent it to Leslie, asked her to clean it up and standardize the size and scale of all the letters. She not only did away with the humongous rose that I had drawn (which didn't really work), but also added her simpler style of vines, added the rosebuds, and also found a font to complement it all!

So, the logo was a team effort. But I absolutely love what she did with my doodle! People have told me that it evokes a fairy tale feeling.

Thank you, Leslie, for another exceptional, unique and totally fresh work of art. You're the best! :)

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

Marneycakes wins 2012 Brides Choice Award - Press release!

2012-01-23T23:37:00.000-05:00

{Long Island,NY} – January 23, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation's leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce Marneycakes has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Wedding Cake!
The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, Marneycakes was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients for four years running.
Marneycakes, whose motto is "Our standard is perfection", is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.
“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Marneycakes for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”
We are happy to announce that Chef Marney White, a 2011 American Culinary Federation medalist for her wedding cakes, is one of the very best Wedding Cake professionals within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee.

They would like to thank their past clients for taking the time to review them on WeddingWire. Thanks to positive client feedback they were able to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for 2012.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/marneycakes-our-standard-is-perfection-huntington/3f2e01da36a9613c.ht.

To learn more about the Bride's Choice Awards™, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

About WeddingWire, Inc.

WeddingWire™, the nation's leading marketplace serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 reviewed wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. WeddingWire also offers a comprehensive suite of online planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire is the only all-in-one marketing platform for businesses online and on-the-go. WeddingWire offers one simple solution to build a professional network, improve search visibility, manage social media and reach mobile consumers. Businesses that advertise with WeddingWire appear on WeddingWire.com, ProjectWedding.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), Brides.com and Weddingbee.com.

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North Fork Weddings, Long Island

2012-01-21T23:29:00.000-05:00

Long Island is a popular destination wedding spot, with its verdant North Fork, and the several dozen wineries out there that serve as unforgettably gorgeous wedding venues. We love doing Long Island vineyard weddings! Thus, we have aligned ourselves with Judy McCleery and www.NorthForkWeddings.com.

If you're a bride and you want to avail yourself of top-quality vendors who service the North Fork, check out Judy's website! Also, the vendor links page of www.marneycakes.com will also give you top-quality vendors who service the North Fork, and beyond!

Enjoy!

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

Champagne Taste: Bordeaux Tasting at Lake Side Emotions Wine Boutiq...

2012-01-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

We have fallen behind in our duties to share the best information about the best wedding service providers available! Please accept my most profuse apologies, Dear Readers!

The exquisitely talented sommelier, Jacqueline Malenda, has penned yet another post that you simply must read. Jacqueline's services are available to help you plan your wedding reception menu with the best possible food and wine pairings, for any budget. She is also available to assist restaurants in building the best possible wine list to complement their menu. So...enjoy!

Champagne Taste: Bordeaux Tasting at Lake Side Emotions Wine Boutiq...: If there’s anything that will teach a wine drinker and keep a person’s palate honest, it’s a blind tasting. So many people have opinions ba...

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

Marneycakes wins 2012 Brides Choice Award

2012-01-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

Well, we did it again!

For four years out of four, we have been awarded the Martha Stewart/WeddingWire.com Bride's Choice Award! This is because all of our client reviews are 5 star reviews, making us among the top 5% of wedding cake service providers in the country! We want your experience of working with us to be so stellar that you can't wait to tell everyone you know all about it. That's our goal.

Loving what we do and doing what we love is the name of the game.

Thank you so very much for all of your loyalty and support, dear clients and readers!

xox,
Chef Marn

50th birthday cake

2011-12-25T20:43:00.000-05:00

Last week, we crafted a delicious cake for an annual company holiday party. To my delight, they let me know on the down-low that one of their employees was actually turning 50 the night of the party! So, they asked if I could please inscribe their cake to her. Of course, I was delighted to do so!

The bottom tier was our famous spice cake with meltaway caramel icing, and our top tier was our moist chocolate cake painted with Solerno blood orange liqueur, with a double-layer filling of chocolate ganache and almond. The entire cake was iced in almond buttercream, with all the contrast in milk chocolate buttercream. As you can see, we got our buttercream looking just as beautiful and smooth as fondant (as always).

We were most pleased to hear that everyone loved their cake, Gina especially! Happy 50th birthday, Gina, and happy holidays and New Year to you, too!

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

Bat Mitzvah Cake Winter Wonderland Theme

2011-12-25T20:30:00.000-05:00

Mazel tov to you, Nina, on your bat mitzvah!

We recently created a beautiful winter wonderland themed cake for the event. The cake was chocolate filled with chocolate on the bottom tier, and all vanilla on the top tier. Everything was iced in Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream, and the snowflakes were made of gum paste. The large ones were dusted in iridescent white pearl lustre dust, and the small ones where dusted in a frosty pale blue. Without the subtle contrasting color, all the considerable detail in those tiny snowflakes was lost.

To pull the look together and make it extra wintry and elegant, we put a beautiful blue velvet ribbon around the base of the top tier before we piped on the border.

Happy 5th night of Hanukkah everyone, and Merry Christmas.

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

Champagne Taste: Christmas Wines - Part 1

2011-12-25T19:29:00.000-05:00

The very talented sommelier, Jacqueline Malenda, has her recommondations for Christmas wines.

Champagne Taste: Christmas Wines - Part 1: We began our Christmas festivities last night, and usually for holidays, I like to go with dependable wines - there’s always time to experim...

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

More Muppets Cake photos!

2011-12-11T01:49:00.000-05:00

As promised, I have more Muppets Cake images! I am hoping to receive additional images of the birthday girl with her cake as well.

Jennifer, I hope you had the most wonderful birthday celebration of your life! Heaven knows your sweet hubby put his whole heart and soul into the planning. :) You've got yourself a good egg!

Enjoy the pics, Dear Readers!

Fozzie Bear contemplates his showbiz career....

Kermie musing on the challenges of being green....

Miss Piggy, ever the star, takes a bow in her rightful place, center stage....

...and all three friends are united for the photo once more!

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

The Muppets Cake! Miss Piggy, Kermit, and Fozzie Bear!

2011-12-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

Behold...just one image for now, as I've gotta go deliver this. Here it is, our pride and joy for Jennifer's 40th birthday celebration, our own little Muppet Show! More to follow, I promise....

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

Muppets cake coming...sneak preview #2

2011-12-09T01:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, people....here's sneak peek #2 for the upcoming Muppets cake...please give it up for Fozzie Bear! Yay!!!!!! (Can I get a "Wacka, wacka, wacka"?)

Fozzie is sculpted out of gum paste with a chocolate fondant hat (his hat smells like a Tootsie Roll!) I painted the spots on his tie with gel food coloring and a teeny, tiny paintbrush. Like Miss Piggy, Foz stands only about three inches tall. So, he's a small but mighty entertainer!

Can't wait to put it all together, and see the effect of all three friends together on their cake, with the sign announcing the birthday girl's birthday, Muppet Show style!

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

Muppets cake coming...a sneak preview

2011-12-02T00:13:00.000-05:00

Hello, My Dear Readers:

I trust you all had a satisfying and relaxing Thanksgiving!

I'm so sorry to have been off the radar! This running a business and wearing all the hats thing can really be all-consuming. My latest p.r. and marketing project has been Tweeting my tush off, trying to cast the net wider in building exposure, buzz and artistic reputation for Marneycakes. Spending 2 to 3 hours a night Tweeting at the end of a day spent on my feet isn't my idea of fun, but it's what needs to be done right now (and this is often when I normally blog). So you can follow me @Marneycakes on Twitter if you want to partake in the wedding, food and wine-related Tweets that I'm Tweeting, and re-Tweeting from others' interesting, unique and informative posts. There are myriad interesting ideas and beautiful images being shared out there in Twitterland!

Ok. Enough housekeeping.

I've got a fabulous cake coming up soon enough...here's a sneak preview of what's to come. She's a bit over 3" tall (but I won't give you her girth measurement - I don't want to incur her wrath, and find myself reeling in a karate chop-induced daze), and she'll be posed on a cake with two other friends and some other surprises!

Enjoy. :)

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

Chef's Secrets 7, benefitting LIAAC

2011-11-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

Last night, we had the pleasure of serving our cake at Chef's Secrets 7, a fundraiser at deSeversky Mansion for LIAAC (Long Island Association for AIDS Care). Chloe and Briana were missed very much this year, as they were away at college studying diligently I'm sure! :) Jacqueline and I carried on the tradition, missing our other Team Marneycakes members very much.

Cris at LIAAC was kind enough to accomodate our request to have our station adjacent to our favorite chocolatier, Afresh Approach of Bay Shore. Jeanne and Skip are the owners, whose shop is in the parking lot of the Bay Shore LIRR train station. If you have the good fortune to be in the area, we strongly recommend stopping in and sampling some of their fabulously delicious and fresh confections! Afresh Approach is the creator of all the chocolate favors on the Marneycakes website favors page and are as fanatical as we are about using the best and freshest top-quality ingredients in their treats. With that said, isn't it obvious why they are the only chocolatier to whom we entrust our clients?

Yum...truffles, truffles and more truffles!

Fortunately for Jac and me, Jeanne and Skip were sampling their delightful pumpkin-cheesecake truffles, seen above sporting toothpicks. :) Aaaaah, always amazing.

The Long Island Gay Men's Chorus kicked off the evening with a bubbly rendition of the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love" in celebration of our newly-won right to marry whomever you love in our fair state. What a wonderful victory to celebrate, and may the rest of the country follow our example of bidding farewell to outmoded laws that we've long ago outgrown...kind of like the old laws against inter-racial marriage that now seem so cruel and ridiculous.

With a few more songs from the chorus, the evening was well underway.

This room, the Grand Ballroom, is one of my favorites for Long Island weddings. For me, part of its stately magic is in the beautiful fireplace and the antique painting above it.

You'll see this mantle and the painting above it appear several times in the Marneycakes photo galleries.

Here are our cakes for the evening...this time, I piped a playful heart design on the third tier, with a quad-dot design on the second. The top tier was an oval...something a little different.

The top and bottom tiers were spice cake filled with meltaway caramel. The second tier was our made-from-scratch cannoli cream with mini chocolate chips and flavored with cinnamon and orange. We use fresh Calabro ricotta cheese in our cannoli cream...nothing but the best. (No supermarket ricotta for your Marneycakes!) Once again showcasing Solerno Sicilian blood orange liqueur, our third tier was chocolate cake painted in Solerno and filled with a double-layer of silky-smooth chocolate ganache and milk chocolate buttercream, and all tiers were iced in almond buttercream - the aroma of which greeted guests as they arrived at our table.

Overall, the spice cake was the hit of the evening, closely followed by the Solerno cake. One very sweet Southern man went out of his way to come over and tell me, after sampling the spice cake, that he had never had such a delicious cake in his entire life! Now, if that doesn't make your night, what can? Sure made mine! :)

We had an absolutely fabulous time, and we look forward to Chef's Secrets 8 in 2012! Thanks again for yet another worthy opportunity to give back to the community that supports us, LIAAC! Keep up your excellent work!

Mondeuse, from Jacqueline Malenda

2011-11-14T23:24:00.001-05:00

Here's a link to my favorite sommelier's blog, Champagne Taste. Read on, as Jacqueline Malenda reviews some Mondeuse from the Savoie Alpine region of France...most intriguing!

Last night at Chef's Secrets at deSeversky Mansion on the NYIT campus, Jacqueline and I had the good fortune to taste the Tamaya Chilean winery's Chardonnay Reserve 2010. Delightful!

Anyway, enjoy Jac's most recent blog post, and I'll be working on one for Chef's Secrets.

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

Indian wedding sneak peek

2011-11-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

Hello, Dear Readers....

MEGABLOGPOST ALERT: I'm collaborating on a mega-post of Hima & Srinu's Indian wedding! Here's a sneak peek at their cake.

Much, much more to come soon!!! I'm so excited!!!!!! :D

xo,

Chef Marn

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

Island Harvest, lean mean mitzvah machine

2011-10-26T00:22:00.000-04:00

Tonight was Island Harvest's 18th annual "Taste of the Harvest" charity fundraiser event at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, and this was the third year Team Marneycakes participated.

At this event, 40 restaurants and food vendors (like us) get together and feed lots of hungry people who want to support Island Harvest's work to feed Long Islanders in need. Many small business people all over Long Island generously donate fabulous prizes for an auction which are either raffled off solo, or packaged with other donations into incredibly enticing gift baskets.

(Beautiful venue, right?)

Of all the charity work we do, our work for Island Harvest makes me proudest. This is an organization that was smart enough to get most of its workforce from volunteers who donate their time, so that something like 96 or 97% of every dollar donated actually goes to feeding those with food insecurity on Long Island. The feed families. They feed children. They feed the elderly. Anyone coming to them in need of assistance with basic sustenance is treated with respect and dignity. Especially these days, the people they help come from all walks of life and live in all kinds of neighborhoods. There are people seeking help who've had difficulties for a long time, and there are people who have had a sudden reversal of fortune that they never anticipated in their wildest dreams. But no matter their story, Island Harvest is there to make sure that anyone in need here in our community has the basics.

Above are the little tasting slices we serve to everyone. I'm always tickled when people want to try all of our offerings! :) (Yessssss!)

This year, we made an especially fun raffle donation, and I can't wait to see who won it! We donated a gift certificate for a custom wedding cake valued at $2,000. Last year we donated an in-home cooking demonstration class, but I thought this idea was a little bit better, and might be more exciting.

David, Jacqueline and Laura joined us tonight to help serve our cake. For the flavors, we had vanilla cake painted with Solerno blood orange liqueur, a spice cake filled with meltaway caramel icing (it's something from my childhood in CA that I've never seen the likes of on the east coast), and a chocolate cake painted with Grand Marnier and filled with chocolate buttercream. Everything was iced in vanilla buttercream.

As usual, there were lots of people who approached us complimenting our cake design and asking whether our cake was fondant. I was proud to tell them that it's always buttercream! They're always amazed that we can get the finish so silky-smooth, and I explain that anyone with enough patience can achieve the same effect. My determination to make a perfect buttercream finish also arises out of my extreme aversion to fondant...the smell, the texture, the taste...no can do. Anyway, a couple who wants a very formal and elegant wedding cake can have the delicious buttercream cake they really want if they can find a craftsman patient enough to bring their vision to life in three dimensions. Thankfully, that's my specialty! :)

Words cannot adequately describe just how much I adore genuine buttercream, and I'm so happy to have such great clients who feel the same way!

Photos by Jacqueline Malenda...follow her on Twitter @JacsWineBlog, and follow us on Twitter @Marneycakes! We follow back! :)

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

New gay weddings symbol! Too cool!

2011-10-24T22:37:00.000-04:00

Check this out! Instead of anything rainbow-oriented, it appears that the new symbol for gay weddings is the double red hearts! Pretty cool, no?

We're now on www.GayWeddings.com, as well as www.EquallyWed.com, and are thrilled to pieces that EVERY PERSON in the state of New York has the legal right to marry the person they love. (This is one thing about NY's laws that's actually NOT backwards!) Let's all hope that it's this way everywhere soon. Someday in the not-so-distant future, the fact that we tried to prevent marriage equality through discriminatory legislation will seem as preposterous as our now-defunct laws prohibiting interracial marriage. They'll be just as embarrassing and shameful, too.

Anyway, I'm proud to support the rights of all brides and grooms, or brides and brides, or grooms and grooms to marry the person the love and get that shot at their very own happily ever after!

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

Best of the best of Long Island wedding service providers

2011-10-19T22:13:00.000-04:00

Last night, we did something kind of fun. Sommelier Jacqueline Malenda (@JacsWineBlog) and I put together a bridal professionals networking and tasting event last night at my home. We thought we'd keep it small, for starters. So, Jac made up a tasting menu paired with just the right wines.

I'm going to rely on her response to this blog post to give me the specifics on the wines she chose, and their pairings, so you'll get to see all that.

For cakes, she suggested I make my chocolate cake filled with a double-layer of apricot and chocolate ganache, painted with Grand Marnier and iced in Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream; my vanilla cake painted with Solerno blood orange liquer and iced in chocolate buttercream; my spice cake painted with Poire Williams pear brandy and iced in Madagascar vanilla buttercream; and a lovely gluten-free chocolate mocha cake doused in warm chocolate ganache.

Jeanne and Skip of Afresh Approach custom chocolatiers in Bay Shore made some lovely cheesecake bites and pumpkin cheesecake bites, as well as a breathtaking assortment of fresh custom made truffles.

Katherine Richer Collins of "Hey Cookie! by Kathryn Collins" brought some flawless iced shortbread cookies.

And Victoria Feroce of The Royal Tea Cup brought a lovely assortment of fragrant teas in proper English bone china tea pots.

What a fabulous evening!

The inimitable Laura and Shauna of A Modern Day Affair event/wedding planners came, as did Beth Njerve (makeup artist extraordinaire), and Lynn Volpe of Eloquently Designed (@eloquentdesignd on Twitter) custom invitations specialist. Jeff Press of J. Mitchel Photography impressed us all with his business and marketing strategizing, as well as his general talent and way with people.

What a fabulous crowd!

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

Real buttercream (not that white Criscocream) rocks

2011-10-09T23:42:00.000-04:00

Here's my nonsequitur for the night:

I understand that fondant is the standard style of luxury wedding cakes at the moment, and buttercream is frowned upon by other high-end cake designers. But I'm very proud to use a medium/ingredient for our cakes that's so flavorful, fragrant, and authentic. In the hands of a patient cake designer, real buttercream can be just as smooth as fondant anyway (as you can see)...it just takes lots and lots of time to get it that way! :) Authentic buttercream does not make sense for the high-volume cake designer!

For instance, that's authentic buttercream, not fondant...

...and so is that...

...and so it that...

...and so is that...

...and so is that (despite me screwing up and shooting this with too high an ISO, making the shot look all grainy. You can still tell the cake is smooth as glass anyway).

I'm a buttercream lover, I will always limit my bookings to remain true to our artistic and quality ideals, and I'm proud of what we do!

I'm profoundly thankful that our clients crave the same culinary experience that we do when they partake in their wedding cake! Man, if it's not going to taste as good as it looks, why splurge on a custom cake? Who wants to peel off the fondant before they eat their wedding cake? I want a dessert to completely floor me with flavor, aroma, and killer spot-on texture. I want to remember everything about the way it felt, tasted, and smelled long after I'm done with it. I want to re-live that experience and enjoy it again over time. Don't you? And for heaven's sake, if your wedding cake can't do that for you, well, then what's the point???

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

Mexican theme bridal shower cake

2011-10-09T19:56:00.000-04:00

Mike and Tammy are getting married in Mexico next month. Today was Tammy's shower, and of course, it had a Mexican theme. Bright pink and bright orange were the colors chosen, so we played off that with brightly-colored poppies, and a pale orange and hot pink accented cake drum for an extra dash of fiesta!

I asked Mike and Tam what flavors of cake they wanted (making sure to include extra for Tam to take home to Mike). As they agree with my favorite saying, "There's nothing like a good boozy cake", they chose Solerno cake and Mexican Hot Chocolate cake.

Our Solerno cake (not yet on the Marneycakes menu, but coming soon) is vanilla cake generously painted with Solerno blood orange liqueur, filled and iced with Solerno icing. Our Mexican Hot Chocolate cake was created a few years ago by request for an official Patron Tequila Mexican Independence Day celebration dinner at Cuvee Bistro in Greenport, NY. It's a chocolate cake generously painted with Patron XO coffee-flavored tequila (far better than Kahlua, in my humble opinion), and filled with a double-layer of chocolate ganache and coffee-cinnamon-chocolate buttercream. It's also iced in the latter.

As I don't really speak Spanish well, I contacted my Spanish-speaking FB friends, and asked them for some ideas on what would be an appropriate inscription for the cake. They came up with some pretty nice ones: "muchas felicidades" (much happiness), "que Dios los bendiga" (may God bless you), "mucho amor y felicidad" (much love and happiness), "lluvia de felicidad" (light of happiness), and last but not least, "deseandole muchas felicidades" (wishing you lots of happiness -- this is the one I went with in the end). I appreciated the help in carrying the theme through with authentic wishes for the occasion!

Have a wonderful trip and a beautiful wedding day, Mike & Tam! See you when you return...we love you!

xo,

Marn

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

Thank you!

2011-10-08T21:47:00.000-04:00

Hello, Dear Readers!

I know people often don't comment when reading blogs, and often don't officially sign up to "follow" the blogs that they read. (Chloe explained that to me.) But it's clear that you're out there, and you're reading! I want to make sure and properly thank you!

On 09-29-11, we broke through the 25,000 unique new page views mark! And less than 2 weeks later, we have nearly another thousand! Until now, we were getting a thousand over about 4 or 5 weeks' time. So, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading, and also for telling your friends about Piece of Cake! by Marneycakes. Clearly, that's what you're doing!

Well, I don't know who you all are, but I really do appreciate that you're out there and you're listening! I do my best to keep it interesting and entertaining for you. :)

You know I'm always talking about the fact that I have the good fortune of having the world's sweetest clientele. It's obvious that I also have the world's sweetest readership! Not only do I get the joy of pleasing people on their wedding day, and creating (literally) the sweetest piece of their wedding day memories, but I also get the joy of knowing that you're out there, supporting my efforts and cheering me on as I grow Marneycakes.

I do so appreciate you, Readers! :)

xo,

Chef Marn

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

Pink and ivory wedding cake

2011-10-08T21:34:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Nina and Nikko! :)

They are the proud expectant parents of a new baby, due around Thanksgiving, and very recently decided that they wanted to get married now. So about a week ago, I received a call to do a tasting, and we met up! Nina and Nikko really loved the vanilla-raspberry cake with Chambord, so that's what we did.

Their colorscheme was pinks, so we covered that base as well! I was going to use a hot pink ribbon around the edge of the cake drum. But when I put it together, it clashed with the natural raspberry buttercream trim on the cake (since I don't use artificial color, so the raspberry buttercream is a very muted pink). So, back to the drawing board I went, and edged the cake drum in white. Besides, the drum was covered in pink fondant and had a pink baroque gum paste medallion up front. We covered the bases with our pink between that, and the sweet peas. There was deeper pink shading on the sweet peas, too.

Their reception venue, Zengo on 3rd and 40th in NYC, was gorgeous! Irene and the rest of the staff were most helpful to me while setting up, as was the florist who brought rose petals for me to scatter on the cake table.

Much good health, happiness, love and prosperity to you and the new baby, Nina and Nikko!

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

Pro pics from Amanda and Sathish

2011-10-07T17:32:00.000-04:00

JoVon Photography was kind enough to share their beautiful images from Amanda and Sathish's wedding at deSeversky Mansion last month. What taleneted photographers they have!

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

I love my clients.

2011-10-02T21:54:00.000-04:00

This is what makes what I do such a joy. This is a review posted today on WeddingWire.com by one of my brides. I'm also posting my reply to her.

I know I've said it a thousand times, and I'm sure I'll say it ten thousand more times before I'm done: whose job is better than mine???

Here's the review:

After designing and creating my sister's wedding cake (a true masterpiece), I immediately reached out to Marney to create my wedding cake after I got engaged. Not only is Marney a true artist and master cake designer, she is one of the most professional, creative, thorough and dependable people I have ever worked with (I have worked in Special Events for over 10 years).

Marney exceeded all expectations when she created my dream wedding cake and I look forward to the opportunity to work with her again on other cake designs. You will be hard-pressed to find a more talented cake designer on Long Island, let alone the tri-state area. You will not be disappointed! Marneycakes: Our standard is perfection responded with the following comments:

(Here's my posted response): Wow, Dina...I'm speechless! I know your standards are high, and I'm delighted to know I've met and exceeded them! It was an absolutely pleasure to work with you and your sister, and your sweet parents. It would be my pleasure to continue to work with you going forward, and I eagerly anticipate it! Again, thank you for your trust, and for the honor of bringing your wedding cake vision to life on your wedding day. Working with someone who had such a clear vision was extremely helpful to me, and I thank you for that as well!

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

QR codes...how freaky!

2011-09-28T02:03:00.000-04:00

Aren't these things freaky???? I mean, I know I sound like such an old fart saying that. But this stuff is really futuristic and surreal. The thought that people can scan it with their smartphone and pull up wedding cake reviews is unbelievable to me. Seeing them everywhere I go freaks me out even more.

Told you I sounded like an old fart.

Anyway, if you want to read some rave Marneycakes reviews (this is one of the two places we have reviews) on WeddingWire.com, scan this QR code thing, and it'll get the job done.

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

Movie themed groom's cake

2011-09-24T23:28:00.000-04:00

The client for this cake was beyond sweet and thoughtful, and this cake was so much fun to make!!!

Camille wanted a tasting for her fiance's surprise groom's cake for their rehearsal dinner. She was intent on providing him something memorable and unique that would utterly surprise and delight him. As he's in the film industry, Camille had a few photos of movie-themed cakes, aspects of each that appealed to her. We merged elements of each into her perfect groom's cake. :) The most important thing was that the cake have that wonderful, fragrant almond flavor, like that of a rainbow cookie. So, we made the cake almond-flavored, and filled it with organic raspberry jam (with no corn syrup in it), marzipan, and raspberry buttercream. Yum! It smelled like heaven in the oven...almond is such a magnificent flavor and aroma!

Camille wanted a clapboard incorporated into the design, and came up with the very adorable, "Take one and only scene, Camille and Joe" inscription for it. I made mini film reels from gum paste, and made the clapboard from fondant. To make sure it was stuff enough to stand up, I put everything in the dehydrator. (Otherwise, the fondant would have flopped over upon itself.)

Here's the result of my creative collaboration with Camille!

Now, here's the part I love talking about most: how great my clients are. Camille actually sent me a message from their rehearsal dinner to tell me how beautiful the cake was, and how much Joe loved it! (It hadn't been served yet... she said she couldn't wait to taste it!) How many people would take time out from their rehearsal dinner to send me a message? See? I have the greatest clients!

I am the world's luckiest cake designer....whose clients are better than mine??? :) Noooooobody's!

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

Sister Act - Nautical Weddings

2011-09-22T09:51:00.000-04:00

Ah, beach weddings, and nautical wedding cakes. They're so serene and elegant! Nobody does them like the Lawrence Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, either.

Two of my favorite brides got married about a year apart at Lawrence Beach Club, which is one of my favorite venues.

Dina and Chris were married this month, and Dina has a real discerning eye for design. She chose design elements from her invitation and bridal party color scheme, and we carried it through to her cake. Clean and simple were the name of the game, so Dina chose a simple dots pattern with navy ribbon at the base of each tier. With her Martha-esque aplomb for elegance, Dina also envisioned a monogrammed placard flanked by sea horses, so we incorporated those design elements in her cake.

Sea horses flank the monogrammed placard

When I arrived to deliver the cake and set it up, I asked for some magenta flowers to scatter around the cake table in order to pick up Dina and Chris' other main color in their wedding color scheme.

Scattered hydrangea blossoms grace the cake table for a pop of cheerful color

The result: this simple and beautiful nautical wedding cake.

Like her sister Devon's cake last summer, Dina also chose three tiers of Neapolitan (within each tier is a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of vanilla cake, filled with natural strawberry buttercream and iced in vanilla buttercream). Dina and Devon remain my only two brides who have chosen all three tiers in the same flavor (and whose husbands share the same first name as well)!

Congratulations, Dina and Chris! Many happy years of good health and prosperity to you! It was a pleasure and an honor to make your wedding cake, as it was to make Devon and Chris' cake.

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

Vegan wedding couple featured on GreenBrideGuide!

2011-09-21T19:06:00.000-04:00

Wow, Kristyn and Mike's wedding just got some nice publicity! Just click on the title of this blog post...it's a link to the feature story (or cut and paste http://www.greenbrideguide.com/realgreenweddings/vegan-vows-0 into your browser). www.GreenBrideGuide.com featured Mike and Kristyn today on their "Real Green Weddings" feature.

Mazel tov all over again, you two! Fabulous photo, btw! (Nice job, Twelfth Night Photography!)

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

Vegan Wedding Cakes and Twelfth Night Photography

2011-09-20T23:06:00.000-04:00

Ah, we love our vegan wedding cakes.... :)

Just as we promised...the professional photos from Kristyn and Mike's vegan wedding cakes are here! Twelfth Night Photography in Garden City Park is the crew of artists who shot these works of art.

Given how high in moisture and therefore hard to control that vegan "buttercream" is, and given the impossibly high humidity from the torrential deluge on the day of this wedding, they really did a great job capturing the cakes.

The Bridgeview Yacht Club in Island Park was a stunning venue for this fete, despite the downpour. No matter the weather, indoors or out, it makes for an absolute vision of a backdrop against which to stage a wedding.

Enjoy!

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

Elegant wedding cake at deSeversky Mansion

2011-09-17T22:08:00.000-04:00

This is an especially elegant wedding cake for one of those beautiful, sophisticated Long Island weddings. This wedding was at deSeversky Center in Old Westbury, which is one of my very favorite venues. Not only is stepping inside the deSeversky mansion taking a step back into old world grace and elegance, but the staff is superb. From the catering managers to wedding coordinators down to the chef and kitchen staff and the servers, no one could possibly be more gracious, efficient, or well-mannered.

The grand ballroom is my very favorite room. Over the fireplace mantle hangs a stately old painting, and the lighting's warm incandesent glow adds an air of romance to the room...something so special that sets whatever is going on in that room apart from the ordinary.

We recently created a wedding cake for Amanda and Sathish. I met with Sathish and his mother-in-law, Bonnie, for the tasting. Sathish and Amanda live in Chicago, and Amanda is from right here on Long Island. As Amanda told me, "I always knew I wanted to get married in a mansion setting and deSeversky was perfect!" So, Sathish and Amanda planned remotely when they had to, and planned locally when they could get in town.

Their colors were a classic black and white selection, as black is Amanda's favorite color, and she felt that black and white are elegant and work well with the atmosphere of a mansion setting. To coordinate with their colors, Sathish and Amanda chose a square wedding cake of three tiers. The entire cake was adorned with a swirl pattern, and rather that use black ribbon to encircle the base of each tier, they chose blackberries for their dark accent on the cake. Along with a little black grosgrain ribbon with white stitching on the cake base (in a little nod to a classic Kate Spade-type design), the berries accented their wedding cake with natural elegance.

I can't wait to receive JoVan Photography's photo of the cake, as they noticed me struggling in vain with my camera, and were so helpful in coming over to get a few shots of the cake. Believe me when I tell you theirs put mine to shame! Rest assured there will be an updated pic to share with you later on.

Anyway, it was a pleasure and a true honor to be able to create your wedding cake, Sathish and Amanda. I wish you a very long, healthy, happy and prosperous life together.

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

Don't waste at your reception - Island Harvest picks up unserved food for the hungry!

2011-09-13T23:13:00.000-04:00

Weddings and other celebrations can be sources of great waste, if you don't know how to plan. People generally want to be gracious hosts, so they frequently order more than they need of everything. Anyone who's ever attended a wedding reception, shower, bar/bat mitzvah, graduation party, Sweet 16, etc. has probably noticed just how much of the bounty is not consumed. Often, it's thrown away. But, it doesn't have to be!

Here on Long Island, there's a fantastic organization named Island Harvest that not only runs food banks for those in need, but also performs "food rescue" services. Here's a link to some information about that from their website: http://islandharvest.org/page.aspx?id=78&name=lifecycle (just cut and past it into your browser). Your caterer or wedding planner can contact Island Harvest and coordinate arrangement for Island Harvest to arrive, complete with appropriate containers, and whisk away the unserved excess food at the conclusion of your wedding reception, shower, etc.

For those concerned about liability, there are "Good Samaritan laws" in New York state that hold you harmless from any food donated in this manner. So, that shouldn't be a stumbling block to preventing waste, and helping to bring aid to people in need locally.

Something that makes me especially proud to support Island Harvest in their efforts is the fact that they are so efficiently run. Because of their reliance on volunteers to do their amazing outreach work, they are able to put 97 cents out of every dollar to work in combating hunger right here in our community. Impressive, no? I think it's pretty cool that they're so focused on being effective, and having maximum impact.

I have the good fortune to be on the planning committee again this year for Island Harvest's annual "Taste of the Harvest" fundraising event (cut and paste this URL into your browser http://islandharvest.org/page.aspx?name=fundraisingevents&eventid=83 ), where a few dozen restaurants and food vendors gather at Crest Hollow Country Club with 400 or so of our closest friends, and have a fun and delicious evening sampling sumptuous morsels while bidding on raffle baskets full of tempting gifts, donated to help raise money for the cause. (This year, in fact, Marneycakes will be donating a gift certificate for a $2,500 custom wedding cake for the raffle.) My crew and I enjoy being a part of the evening, which always ends in a presentation of the specific ways that Island Harvest addresses the hunger need locally, the positive impact they make, and members of the community who have done exemplary work to help. By the end of the evening, Team Marneycakes feels so lucky to be able to align ourselves with such a focused and effective charity, and so proud to have taken part in Taste of the Harvest.

Chef Marn and Monique Zorn at "Taste of the Harvest"

Island Harvest has an affiliate called City Harvest in New York City that does the same work. As there is for Island Harvest, there are numerous fundraising and outreach events that go on every year to help them in their quest to address the hunger problem. Actually, the cake designer and pastry chef I admire most, Chef Ron ben Israel, is a devoted supporter of Island Harvest, as well as God's Love We Deliver - a charitable organization that does similar hunger relief work.

I'm proud to do everything I can do support such a great organization through Marneycakes, and am also proud that leaders in my profession are also devoted to a similar mission.

If you've never experienced the satisfaction that comes from reaching out and helping, I can't encourage you strongly enough to find a charity whose mission resonates with you, and get involved. Become a lean, mean mitzvah machine! :) I always loved that the definition of the word mitzvah carries the dual meaning of a commandment, and also of a charitable act or good deed. We have an ethical responsibility to reach out to those around us who are in need. I'm not even religious anymore, but I still feel that obligation to do a mitzvah whenever I am able, just out of a basic sense of decency.

If you're not yet in the habit, give it a try. Whoever you help will feel better as a result, as will you. You might even inspire someone else to reach out and give of their time, talent, or resources too!

Anyway, long story long, Island Harvest can help prevent waste at your wedding reception, and help people around you in doing so. Check it out.

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

Wine and champage as a wedding gift

2011-09-03T10:47:00.000-04:00

Another brilliant and very useful piece from sommelier Jacqueline Malenda.

Just cut and paste this into your browser, and read her piece on www.TopWeddingSites.com. http://www.topweddingsites.com/wedding-blog/wedding-gifts/wine-as-a-wedding-gift

Cheers! :)

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

Please vote for us!

2011-08-27T22:38:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again...

Long Island Press is doing its annual vote for the Best Of Weddings 2012 list. Could you please take a moment and cut and paste this link and type in your vote for Marneycakes for best wedding cake? Thanks so much!!!! This actually means a lot. :) We really appreciate your support!

http://vote.longislandpress.com/engine/YourSubmission.aspx?contestid=33934

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

Vegan wedding during a deluge!

2011-08-14T16:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a day for a wedding! The storm that hit Long Island today was a storm completely without mercy. Parkways flooded with more than three feet of water in places, and surface streets closed due to flooding all around the Island.

Luckily, this didn't stop Kristyn and Mike from hosting their perfect vegan wedding!

Chloe and I arrived to unload the cake boxes, and after bringing in the first of the six cake boxes I was already soaked down through my undies. We simply protected the boxes with large plastic bags as we brought them in. (I never transport a stacked cake, as I respect the laws of physics, and understand what would happen to an assembled cake if I had to slam on the brakes while driving on the parkway.)

As we entered Bridgeview Yacht Club, we saw mounds of gorgeous blue, yellow and white flowers...lots of hydrangea, roses and stock. The entire room smelled heavenly!

(photos by Chloe Volz)

I busied myself with the task of assembling the cakes, as I always do upon delivery. My hair and clothing were still soaked through, nonetheless. :) (I think you can see the water running down the side of my face, as well as dripping from my saturated sleeve onto the tablecloth! The tablecloth dried before we were done.)

(photos by Chloe Volz)

Kristyn and Mike selected two flavors of vegan cake: Neapolitan (the round wedding cake) and Chocolate All the Way (the square wedding cake) for themselves and their guests. They had decided to go all-vegan with their reception, and found a venue (Bridgeview Yacht Club in Island Park, NY) to cheerfully accommodate their desires. We decided to do two separate cakes merely because vegan cake is quite a bit more heavy and dense than traditional cake. If I were to have used pans large enough to accommodate their generous guest list in one very large cake, I had a very legitimate concern about the largest tiers becoming somewhat unwieldy to work with in the preparation stages.

A lot of people get confused about what constitutes vegan food. It is merely vegetarian fare prepared without any animal products whatsoever...that means no honey (bees produce it), no eggs, and no dairy, etc. I could have used traditional white bakery icing (what most bakeries call "buttercream" that contains only Crisco and sugar), but I felt that using Earth Balance vegan "butter" would produce a far more traditional flavor and texture experience for their predominantly non-vegan guests. The only difficulty in working with a butter substitute is that it is VERY soft, and therefore is easy to mar. (Nerve wracking for the perfectionistic artsy-type.)

The other factor we had working against us today was the extremely high humidity from the downpour, which is no friend of sugar!

We iced the exterior of both cakes in vanilla "buttercream", and filled the chocolate cake with chocolate "buttercream". The Neapolitan cake was a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of vanilla cake in each tier, filled with natural strawberry "buttercream" (since I use no artificial color, it's not really too pink, but you very much taste the genuine strawberry flavor.

Kristyn and Mike chose gum paste stephanotis and hydrangea to adorn their wedding cakes, which I think was a perfect choice. They also chose Swiss dot as their design treatment, which I applied a bit differently than usual, concentrating most of the decoration on the tops of the cake rather than on the sides. Looking at the way the cakes were shaping up as I assembled them, they simply called for something fresh and new!

(photos by Chloe Volz)

GreenBrideGuide.com will be covering Mike and Kristyn's wedding soon as one of their featured Real Green Weddings, so expect a post about that as soon as their story is released. I know they and their vendors will be hearing from GreenBrideGuide.com soon after they're back from their honeymoon.

What a delightful couple, and what a beautiful venue for a wedding (rain or no rain!) Thanks for the honor of making your vegan wedding cakes, you two. I wish you all the happiness in the world! :)

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

Champagne Taste: 2010 Celliers Contemporains Cinsault Rose

2011-08-12T10:54:00.000-04:00

Sommelier Jacqueline Malenda shares her thoughts and observations on some summer Rose wine. Jac never disappoints! I never knew that there were dry Roses!

Enjoy!

Champagne Taste: 2010 Celliers Contemporains Cinsault Rose: "For the past month or so, I’ve been writing posts on recent tastings I’ve done at several wineries, mainly on the North Fork of Long Island..."

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

Beach bridal shower cake

2011-08-02T00:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, so check this out.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm the luckiest person in the world, having such wonderfully sweet clients. Check out the review I received today from Denise, her sister's maid of honor. Denise contacted me for a beach-themed bridal shower cake, and so that's what we did for her!

Here's her write-up:

Professional!!! Delicious and beautiful!:

I have to say Marney is probably the easiest person I have worked in planning my sister's bridal shower. I told her what I wanted and she designed a beautiful cake! It was a huge hit at the bridal shower and it tasted amazing! I can't thank her enough. She was so professional! I will use her for all celebrations to come. :)

Does it get any better than this? What a gracious, sweet review. Moreover, her sister Danielle (the bride) posted a kind comment on the Marneycakes FB:

I'm the bride, you made my day so special. One of the best cakes I've ever seen or eaten. Thank you so much!! :)

I love, love, love what I do. With clients like this, is it any wonder why? :)

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

In celebration of the Right to Wed being extended to all NY'ers....

2011-07-30T22:35:00.000-04:00

I am so incredibly happy, moved and relieved to see that New York has FINALLY crawled out of the Stone Age, and granted that basic human right of being able to marry the person whom you love to all of its citizens. I swear, we'll look back in 20 years, and the fact that there was ever debate on this topic (much less so much outright resistance to marriage equality for all) will seem as preposterous going forward as the former ban on interracial marriage seems to us today. For a change, we got it right. It's about time!!!

So, a humongous and heart-felt MAZEL TOV to all the same-sex couples tying the knot out there.

To honor your hard-won victory, we are extending a $250 discount on weddings for 100 guests and more, or waiving your delivery and setup fee for weddings under 100 guests for all same-sex weddings booking in the 2011 calendar year (whether the wedding is to take place this year, or in 2012).

My heart goes out to you, and bursts with pride that our state finally did the right thing!!!! I am only sorry (and embarrassed for my state) that it took so damn long.

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

Enchanted Forest wedding cake

2011-07-25T01:06:00.000-04:00

Today, I had the honor of creating Irene and Gary's wedding cake! Irene had a definite vision of what she wanted. She was after something elegant, yet fairly simple, and wanted the cake to have an "enchanted forest" feel to it.

She also fell in love with a new cake that I added to my menu especially for them: a vanilla cake filled with both coconut buttercream and a layer of white chocolate mousse. So, that was the bottom tier of their cake. The middle tier was my new gingerbread-carrot cake painted with Bailey's Irish Cream, and the top tier, in a nod to Gary, was the Mexican Hot Chocolate cake. That one is painted in Patron XO tequila...all the grooms love it. :)

I adore Gary and Irene's venue, too. DeSeversky Mansion in Old Westbury is so elegant, and the staff is so incredibly capable and gracious! it doesn't hurt that the location is breathtakingly beautiful, either.

A big mazel tov to you, Irene and Gary! May your life together be as enchanted as your cake. :)

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

What??? No reds???

2011-07-24T01:18:00.000-04:00

I went to pour myself a glass of wine tonight, only to find that I didn't have what I was craving - or anything else close to it - in the house! Fourteen of the slots of my wine rack were full of whites, and there were no reds! I had a huge jones for some 7 Deadly Zins, too. What a bummer!!

Are there any other 7 Deadly Zins fans out there? I believe I used up the last of mine adding it to a pasta sauce. Strategic error on my part! D'oh! Oh well...it was a killer red sauce. ;)

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

New class coming up at the Harborfields Public Library

2011-07-24T00:09:00.002-04:00

Chef Marn will be teaching a class at the Harborfields Public Library in Greenlawn, NY on Monday October 17th from 7 - 9pm. They've got a demonstration kitchen room there, which is where the class will take place. It's the "Tips and Tricks for More Professional-Looking Cakes" demonstration class.

There are only 25 spots, so if you want to attend, please contact Ms. Susan Hope, Program Coordinator, at shope@suffolk.lib.ny.us (cut and paste that email link) for details. I've been advised that, since there are limited spaces, the library's policy is to open the class to Harborfields Library cardholders only at the beginning of the registration period. If space remains, then they are happy to allow non-residents to register to fill the class.

Every participant will enjoy samples, and will go home with a cupcake! It promises to be a very entertaining and informative evening!

Ok, so the snow pic was just a tease in this beastly hot weather. :) It was too pretty to resist posting it. Just wait until you see the children's section of the library! It's absolutely gorgeous!!!!

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

Encore, Michele and Danny!

2011-07-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

Thankfully, a wedding guest posted this great pic of Michele and Danny with their wedding cake. Didn't they look smashing??? And they were both so thrilled to be marrying each other. What a great couple.

And here are Danny's stepdad and mom, Skip and Jeanne of Afresh Approach custom chocolatiers. Now, is this the picture of pride and happiness, or what? If you haven't yet been to Afresh Approach in Bay Shore (it's in the same parking lot as the train station), you REALLY need to go. They have the best, freshest chocolates I've ever had, and their service is superb.

What an honor to work with this fabulous family!

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

Random wedding gown thought

2011-07-17T18:23:00.000-04:00

Chloe and I are talking about wedding gowns, and wedding style. That, of course, will always end in a discussion of 1950's style and glamour (of which Chloe is a serious aficionada). So, with that background explanation... here's my wedding thought for the day.

This is Chloe's and my favorite image of our favorite wedding gown of all time: that of Princess Grace of Monaco, from her 1956 wedding to Prince Ranier. Isn't it stunning?

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

Solerno blood orange liqueur

2011-07-17T01:04:00.000-04:00

Ok, let's talk megayummy.

The good people at Solerno have sent me a bottle of their magnificent blood orange liqueur to play with! I had a cake vision in chocolate ganache and blood orange. Next week will be testing time! I'll keep you posted. ;)

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

Michele and Dan's vineyard wedding

2011-07-17T00:24:00.001-04:00

Michele and Danny were married at Vineyard Caterers, which is an incredibly lovely venue. In my mind, there's nothing quite like a North Fork vineyard wedding for elegance, beauty and romance. When Michele came up to Chloe and me to say hello and see her cake, she was a vision! I love it when we get the privelege of seeing the bride, and her reaction to her cake.

Anyway...Michele found these adorable lovebirds for her cake topper through Etsy, and had them customized to her colors (eggplant accents to match the guys' ties, and the bridesmaids' dresses). I put eggplant satin ribbon around the base of each tier, and colored the fondant on the cake board violet.

The top two tiers were lemon cake with raspberry filling, the third tier was gingerbread-carrot cake painted in Bailey's Irish Cream, and the bottom tier was chocolate cake with a double-layer of chocolate ganache and apricot brandy filling. The entire cake was iced in almond buttercream, except the bottom layer, which was iced in milk chocolate buttercream.

We simply made gum paste gardenias and stephanotis for this cake.

Michele said she definitely didn't want something too studied and uniform...she wanted something funkier. So, with a funky twist on our usual elegance, we mixed it up a bit for Michele and Danny.

Danny's mom and stepdad are the owners of Afresh Approach custom chocolatiers in Bay Shore, Long Island. Needless to say, the custom chocolate favors were amazing! Afresh Approach is the best chocolatier I know, anywhere. Hands down.

Best wishes and lots of love to you both -- a major mazel tov!

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

Shawn and Robert's wedding cake

2011-07-17T00:13:00.002-04:00

Shawn and Robert's cake was such a joy to make!

Photo by J. Mitchel Photography

Shawn found me through www.WeddingWire.com, and booked me 2 1/2 years in advance, to make sure I could create their wedding cake. Every detail of their wedding was planned with the utmost thought and care, and Shawn was a very enthusiastic bride. In the end, she said that she and Robert had decided that they wanted me to completely surprise them with flavors, and design. The guideline I had to work with was their color palette, which included tangerine, mango, persimmon, peach, white, ivory, etc. And I knew Shawn wanted a lot of beautiful gum paste. So, I fashioned poppies, gardenias, Oceania roses (to match the ones in Shawn's bridal bouquet), and stephanotis.

As for shapes, I decided to mix things up a little to keep the cake original -- unlike any other cake I'd ever done before. The flavors were original as well: vanilla with raspberry filling painted with Chambord, vanilla cake with peach filling, and chocolate cake painted with Grand Marnier and filled with a double-layer of chocolate ganache and apricot buttercream.

Shawn was so sweet and effusive...she said she cried when she saw her cake, she was so overjoyed with what she saw! :)

I also created a surprise Yankee baseball groom's cake for Robert. It was vanilla cake with my cinnamon-orange cannoli cream, and Robert and his friends were, in Shawn's words, "over the moon" for it! :) Couldn't have heard better news!

Lots of love, laughter and good wishes to you, Shawnie and Robert! :)

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

We're coming to downtown Riverhead!

2011-06-22T10:41:00.000-04:00

Paste this link into your browser to read an exciting announcement about Marneycakes....we're coming to Downtown Riverhead! :)

Thank you, Vera Chinese of the Riverhead News Review, for a fantastic story!

http://riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com/2011/06/17238/cakemaker-to-bring-high-end-wedding-cakes-to-downtown-riverhead/

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

Chloe's graduation party cake

2011-05-24T23:58:00.001-04:00

Man, I can't believe it's really here. My daughter Chloe is really graduating high school, and going to college in Los Angeles. My sweet little Chloe is all grown up, and I'm so proud of her. But when did this happen? I'm incredibly happy and excited for her, but she's so dear to me and I'll miss her so much that it's going to be a huge adjustment after she's gone. My son, Sam, is already living in Los Angeles with their Dad, and Chloe will join the boys there. So, at 47, I'll be an empty nester. Never really saw that one coming. I know there's a lot to look forward to for David and me, of course, and I eagerly anticipate all that. But this is still going to be an adjustment. I'll miss the sound of her musical laugh in my home, and I'll miss her artistic collaboration and guidance. I'll miss having her help at charity events. I'll miss hanging out with her, and watching "Wayne's World" for the 500th time together, or cruising LOLCats and laughing our heads off.

Here's my sweet Chloe. Isn't she beautiful? Beauty isn't the most important thing, by any stretch of the imagination. But the cool thing about her is that her heart is just as beautiful, she's not ashamed to be intelligent and articulate, and she's a talented jazz singer (who made the auditioned all-state jazz honor choir), too.

Enough kvelling.

Anyway, this blog is supposed to be about cake, which is what my gazillions of readers (NOT!!!!) follow me for. So, I'll get back to cake.

Chloe and her girlfriends all love my lemon cake, and Caitie in particular loves my lemon cake with raspberry buttercream filling. (Actually, Sam's friends love my lemon cake, too.) Nicole loves the straight-up lemon, and Emily's just happy to eat cake. :) So, Chloe asked me to do 2 of her 3 tiers lemon and raspberry. Done! :) She also asked for the top tier to be chocolate cake with a double-layer filling of ganache and milk chocolate buttercream. She asked that the whole cake be iced in vanilla, so it was. Here are the girls at Chloe's graduation party.

(left to right: Nicole, Chloe, Emily and Caitie)

And here's Chloe cake at her party. Her only design request was that it have poppies on it. So, poppies it had!

Happy graduation, Chloe. I wish you all the success and happiness in the world in this exciting new chapter of your life. You and Sam will always loved and welcome here at home in New York, and we look forward to your visits.

All of these photos are courtesy of Jeff Mitchel Press of J. Mitchel Photography, btw. He's an amazing photographer, as well as a good egg. Click on the title of this post to go to Jeff's website.

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

Denise's baby shower - welcome, Baby Liam!

2011-05-22T18:11:00.000-04:00

My dear friend and neighbor, Denise, is having a baby! Actually, Jim and Denise are having a baby, and his name is Liam! I asked Jim when the shower was, and he had me contact his sister, Karen. It was really important to me to be able to make her shower cake as my gift to her, and to be able to make something really special for her (with lots left over for Jim, of course). Karen told me that she shower invitations were going to match the nursery decor, Ahoy Mate by NoJo. (See picture, above.) So, I Googled it, and the ideas started forming in my little blonde head. I decided I was going to sculpt palm trees, monkeys, and whales for Denise's shower cake. When the invitation arrived in the mail, it was even more apparent those items would be fantastic for the cake.

See? Works out perfectly! The nautical theme is a nod to Jim, as he's an avid fisherman. :)

So, here's the cake I came up with for Denise's shower. I told Denise I'd like to replicate their wedding cake flavor for the largest tier. It was vanilla cake with strawberry cannoli cream, which her baker was actually reluctant to make for her. It was his feeling that that wasn't a good combination. Now, if you already had orange and cinnamon in your cannoli cream, I could see that. But to make plain cannoli cream and just add a little natural strawberry extract and very thinly sliced strawberries, and of course the little chocolate chips...those flavors work very well together! So, the larger tier was Denise and Jim's signature strawberry cannoli cream cake (which, by the way, was so good that it's being added to the Marneycakes menu). When Denise recently tasted a chocolate cake with a double-layer of ganache and milk chocolate buttercream fillings at my daughter's graduation party, she asked if one of the tiers could be that. So, that's what the top tier is. :) (That went home for Jim to enjoy.)

Without further ado, here's her cake!

It's always a special honor to be able to do a cake for people you love. Lucky me! :)

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

Logan's 1st birthday cake

2011-05-22T17:39:00.000-04:00

When Patricia called me in February to book her son Logan's first birthday cake, I knew I was in for a treat. She said she was an avid baker! :) I love working with people who love what I love. She's also an avid fan of Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, as I am. Yum. A few days before delivery when we touched base, she said she had just made Logan a Mary Ann cake with Marscapone icing and fresh berries. Love those bakers with great taste!

Those are MaryAnn cakes. They look delicious, no? (You can get those Mary Ann cake pans and recipes from Williams-Sonoma, btw.)

Anyway, back to Logan's cake.... Patricia's main aim was to weave meaning into his cake, and also make it delicious.

As it turns out, Patricia and her husband call Logan their "little monster". And although they are 16 and almost 18 now, I used to call my kids my "little monsties" when they were very small. She wanted to incorporate something with monsters, to make the cake boyish. I mentioned that I could do some butterflies and dragonflies in gum paste, and suggested that I could also sculpt a caterpillar to round out the bug triumverate for the cake. We decided to go that direction, rather than also do monsters and just have too much going on on Logan's cake. So, caterpillar, dragonflies, and butterflies it was!

When I went to deliver the cake, I got to meet Logan. He's ADORABLE! He's just a little blonde morsel, and a shy one, at that.

Patricia and her hubby loved his smoosh cake when I took it out from the box to show them. I'm so glad I came up with those little personal baby cakes. You want your child to be able to dive into their first birthday cake, and have their way with it. This is a great way to accomplish that, without schmutzing-up the big cake for everyone else! ;)

Happy birthday to Logan, and congrats to his parents on completing their first year of parenthood!

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

35th wedding anniversary cake espionage

2011-05-18T22:27:00.000-04:00

Here's the other half of my cake espionage story! Laura hired me to do an updated version of her in-laws' wedding cake (or what we could see of it, from a on old photo where everything was pretty clear, except for the cake).

Laura's in-laws had no idea that their kids were planning a surprise 35th wedding anniversary celebration for them. Laura, of A Modern Day Affair here on Long Island, is a wedding and event planner extraordinaire, so her in-laws were in good hands.

From what we could make out on that photo, there were roses and shells on the cake, both piped in bakery "buttecreme". What I couldn't discern (Laura clarified for me) was that there were also orchids on the cake. As I had to keep it all consistent with our quality standards, I said I'd need to do the roses and shells in gum paste. I'd also do the orchids in gum paste. Not accustomed to using plastic pillars, I chose clear ones. I figured that updated it as much as I could really allow for, still staying true to the basic original design concept. The coolest thing ever was that Erin, Mike's sister, was able to find and smuggle out the original cake topper! Like all toppers of its vintage, there was old icing stuck to the base, discoloring it. I was impressed at Erin's soaking and cleanup job, as when she was done, staining around the base was really very minimal, and I was able to cover it easily with buttercream piping. But alas, the tulle arch around the bride and groom did not withstand the ravages of Father Time so well. (Of course, I'd expect that. Tulle's not exactly built for sturdiness.)

I was setting up the cake at the venue when Laura and Mike arrived. Their delight at seeing the cake made my day. :) Even better than that was the photo Laura posted later that day of Mike's parents cutting the cake together.

When Erin, Mike's sister, picked up Mike's surprise party cake a week later, she shared with me that her dad wasn't usually the emotional type, but even he was getting a bit misty as a result of the wonderful surprise that their children arranged to celebrate their marriage, and all the love and wonderful things that have resulted from it over the years.

What a great story! Happy 35th anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Seylar, and many more! :)

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

Marvel Comics logos birthday cake

2011-05-13T23:04:00.000-04:00

This one was a stretch for me.

This is one of the cases of cake espionage that I was talking about a few months ago. Now I can spill the beans about it! :)

A client of mine asked me to please create a birthday cake for her husband incorporating Marvel Comics character logos. Now, what I really love to do is just make things beautiful. After all, I was the kid who always wanted to be a bride or a princess for Halloween. But me? Make comic book character logos? I'd never even doodled one on a page! I was a bit nervous about being able to deliver to my usual standards on this one.

The inside of the cake was to be as playful as the outside, too. With a nod to Reese's peanut butter cups, Laura ordered Mike a chocolate cake with chocolate-peanut butter filling and vanilla icing, so that's what I gave her! :) That was absolutely fitting, as Laura and Mike are some of the sweetest and most playful people that I know (and it's an absolute honor being chosen to handle their family's celebration cakes).

I ended up making the character logos for Superman, Robin, The Hulk and Captain America on Mike's 31st birthday cake. To my surprise, I had a great time "jumping off the hamster wheel", and creating a theme so very different from the themes I've done before.

Happy birthday, Mike! Hope your surprise party was the best and most fun ever! :) Hope your cake delighted you, too!

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

OK! Magazine: First For Celebrity News :: Latest Celebrity News :: Royal Wedding: Prince William and Kate enjoy EIGHT-tiered wedding cake

2011-04-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

Brava to Chef Fiona Cairns and her team. Their 5 1/2 weeks of toil and care to produce the royal wedding cake was worth every moment. The layered string work is a technique called Lambeth that is one of the most advanced techniques in the pastry arts. It takes an exceptionally steady, strong hand to be able to achieve this brand of perfection. Of course, realistically speaking, it would just about ruin one chef's hands to do this solo...it would probably be physically impossible (unless you had unlimited time, and were working on a display cake that had no "expiration date"). A team of talented chefs created this magnificent Lambeth work, I'm sure. Her gum paste work is exquisite as well.

This wedding cake is one of the most gorgeous I've ever seen... truly a master work of art.

If you read my blog, you know how I usually feel about cutting the wedding cake: I love the idea, and have no problem with the fact that what I've created is going to be eaten. But in the case of this cake, after 5 1/2 weeks of all that Lambeth and gum paste intricacy, I am not quite sure whether my usual sentiments would still be the same! :)

All the best to you, William and Kate.

OK! Magazine: First For Celebrity News :: Latest Celebrity News :: Royal Wedding: Prince William and Kate enjoy EIGHT-tiered wedding cake

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

Champagne Taste: Good Value

2011-04-24T18:09:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to everyone! Jacqueline is at it again with another informative blog post. This is one something we are all interested in: good value wines!

Enjoy.

Champagne Taste: Good Value: "So many people whose palates have begun to develop suddenly shy away from the wines in the lower price ranges. But there are lots of bargai..."

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

American Culinary Federation bronze medal

2011-04-03T23:28:00.001-04:00

We are so proud to announce that we won bronze at the American Culinary Federation competition yesterday for our wedding cake entry! ACF competitions are as tough as they come, and some of the most accomplished pastry chefs I know have entered and not placed at times. In these competitions, you compete against very strict standards, rather than against individuals. So, those who perform to standards are eligible to win medals, and those who do not are not. In other words, these competitions do not guarantee that there will necessarily be any "winners"! ACF is the entity from whom professional certifications are granted here in the U.S. So winning ACF bronze is a very big deal!

This competition was based upon appearance only, and not taste. In competitions where taste is judged, the cakes assembled and decorated on site. Although we always assemble wedding cakes on site, and never, ever transport them assembled, we did pipe the decorations prior to the event and brought them decorated.

In any case, our top tier was vanilla cake with signature Marneycakes orange-cinnamon cannoli cream, middle tier: lemon cake with blackberry-raspberry filling, and bottom tier: vanilla cake with peach-Prosecco filling. The entire cake was iced in almond buttercream.

Here's our cake before we added our gum paste flowers:

And here are shots of our finished cake:

Briana, Chloe, Jacqueline and I are very eager for the next competition! I love Jacqueline's pictures of the cake. :)

Enjoy!

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

Champagne Taste: Getting Reacquainted with Zinfandel

2011-03-26T23:00:00.000-04:00

Champagne Taste: Getting Reacquainted with Zinfandel: "White Zinfandel has never been for me. And unfortunately over the years, red Zinfandel has never ranked among my favorites, either.&nb..."

My dear Jacqueline outdoes herself again with another fabulous wine blog posting. I highly recommend 7 Deadly Zins, by the way!

Enjoy! (Or should I say l'chaim, cheers, or whatever toast floats your boat!)

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

High tea on Long Island

2011-03-09T08:25:00.000-05:00

There's an elegant and gracious woman by the name of Victoria Feroce who provides a unique and beautiful service to Long Islanders. She is an aficionada of all things tea, and she orchestrates and brings right to your venue a lovely high tea, with all the right details, down to the fine china and cucumber sandwiches.

Click on the title of this blog to go to her website and see what she does! Her site is www.theroyalteacup.com.

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

Bridal shower cake

2011-03-06T00:53:00.000-05:00

Here's a shower cake for one of my favorite photographers, Liz Pollizzotto of White Pear Photography Studios. I love her work! She is all about beauty in simplicity, and knew from the start that she wanted this very simple design for her bridal shower cake. The top tier was vanilla cake with a filling of marzipan sandwiched between thin layers of cherry buttercream, and the bottom tier was vanilla cake filled with my signature cannoli cream. I make it with fresh ricotta straight from the Italian deli (no grocery store national brands here), and flavor it with natural orange flavoring, Saigon cinnamon, and those lovely mini chocolate chips.

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

Teen celiac blogger

2011-02-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

Check this out, you celiac readers. My friend Chef Brian Fishman of Sweet Karma Bakery in East Meadow told me about his mother and daughter clients, the latter of whom has started a blog! A teen celiac blogger! How much initiative does that show? I want to support her efforts, and put her URL up for my celiacs to peruse. Here it is! Enjoy!

BTW, I refer to Chef Brian either when I'm booked up, or someone wants something I don't do that's much more Chef Brian's style. Although we both do GF, he's got a traditional bakery, and has a bunch of it already made up and ready to sell at any given moment. With me, it's baked to order, and the minimum order is for 50 people. So if you're celiac and you're on Long Island, check out Sweet Karma, and tell Chef Brian I sent you. :)

http://myceliac.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/not-many-bakeries-like-this/#comment-40

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

My vegan bride inspires me

2011-02-25T22:20:00.000-05:00

My vegan bride has inspired me to say something about The Green Bride Guide. I'm a resident expert there, posting an article monthly. They have all kinds of ideas and helpful information on lessening your wedding's impact on the planet, and are just a really good bunch of people. They're about to post a piece I wrote on green wedding favors. In any case, they're totally worth the time it takes to check them out. The title of this post is a link to their site: click through and visit.

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

Champagne Taste: Sauvignon Blanc - Vive la France!

2011-02-25T21:16:00.000-05:00

Ms. Jacqueline Malenda is at it again, with her expert wine blog. This post is about my favorite wine of all, sauvignon blanc. And she mentions one of my favorites overall, Kim Crawford sauvignon blanc, from New Zealand.

Enjoy her outstanding post!

Champagne Taste: Sauvignon Blanc - Vive la France!: "I’ve noticed in the past year or so that fewer and fewer people are going for Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio and more are picking Sauvignon Bla..."

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

More cake espionage

2011-02-24T07:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, more news from the cake spies. We've got pale pink roses, shells and some orchids on the cake. I begged my client to let me do those in gum paste, so we don't have to use Criscocream (which would hold best in icing for those things) on one of my cakes. (A fate worse than death for me!!!) Thankfully, she's down with that. Now, we also know that the original cake topper is still around somewhere! Yay! And here's something else: evidently,

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

Cake espionage

2011-02-20T17:41:00.000-05:00

A client and I are currently plotting to recreate a vintage wedding cake for a surprise anniversary party. Undetected, she has secured original cake photos, so....here we go! I hope they still have their original cake topper sitting in a china cabinet somewhere.

This is going to be a blast! Can't wait to tell you more, as I'm able! :) Don't want to ruin the surprise with specifics!

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

Sunflower cupcakes

2011-02-20T12:11:00.002-05:00

I was looking through old files and found two great pics of one of my favorite cupcakes: my sunflower cupcakes. These were done for Pindar Vineyards for their Suffolk County Make-A-Wish Foundation fundraiser a couple of years ago, where there was a sunflower theme. The chocolate-covered sunflower seeds came from www.NutsOnline.com, which is a family-owned NJ based business who have amazing products and fabulous, friendly customer service. (For pecans, you know I'm loyal to my cousin's organic pecan farm in Texas, www.wfpecan.com, Weyrich Farms. I've never had more tender, moist pecans than Kurt and Marys'.)

Aren't they beautiful? I have to give credit where credit is due for the design: "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes" was my inspiration. I also love her chrysanthemum and bee cupcakes. If there's a cake designer out there who has figured out which tip to use for that design, please let me know. Cuz I've racked my little blonde brain and have tried all kinds of things, and have not yet hit the magic solution to this problem. I need that tip, cuz I love that design!

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

50th anniversary cake

2011-02-20T11:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm seriously hoping that my client got a pro shot of this beautiful cake, cuz this one isn't so hot. But the cake was gorgeous. He said his mom loves yellow flowers, so i made yellow sweet peas, highlighted in bright pink (which didn't come through in this photo...the color is kinda drab here, but that's not at all how these flowers looked).

I got carried away with way more piping and gum paste than I charged for...I get so enchanted with the romantic notion of 50th anniversaries... spending 50 years together is no small feat. I mean, no matter how much in love you are, I think that most couples who have made it there would say that it takes both a lot of love, AND a lot of work to stay married for that long. Not just married, but happily married. The other factor that inspired me was that this new client was so sweet in throwing this golden anniversary party for his parents at one of my favorite Long Island wedding venues, the deSeversky Center. Whenever I approach it, and can begin to see it through my windshield, I can't help but think what it would have been like to live in it...so elegant and stately, with beautiful grounds. What a lovely place to celebrate 50 years of marriage, and how special and cherished that must have made his parents feel.

So...the cake. There were about 75 guests, but as always, I gave them more than they needed. And I got all excited and did more piping and gum paste than I usually do at this price point because I wanted to make Fran and Ray's 50th anniversary cake a delicious and gorgeous part of their memories from the evening's festivities. My client asked for chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream icing, so they got a moist, fudgy chocolate cake with a fragrant Madagascar vanilla buttercream icing. There were kids with egg allergies as well, but the client said they might have had other allergies. So to be safe, I made three little gluten-free, vegan cakes. Figured that about covered all the allergy bases. I hope they enjoyed their personal gf vegan cakes. If I was a kid, I'd love to have a personal cake. :)

Happy 50th anniversary, Fran and Ray. And many more.

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

Still learning how all of this stuff works...help me understand

2011-02-20T11:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, help me understand something, please.

How come I have my itty bitty followers list that shows just 34 people, but I meet and speak to people all the time who say they read every post I write, and can't wait for the next one? I mean, they're not b.s.ing me...they're quoting what I write about.

Do people just go on and keep checking back, without officially "following"?

I'll just keep writing...eventually, someone will explain it to me. I'm confuuuuuused!

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

Champagne Taste: Gewurztraminer - My First Love in the Wine World

2011-02-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

Another post very worthy of your reading time from Jacqueline Malenda, wine maven extraordinaire and Team Marneycakes member.

Now that I know gewurtztramier has a lychee note, I understand better why I love it! You'd never guess it (ha!), but I have an egregious sweet tooth, and especially love fruits.

Enjoy!

Champagne Taste: Gewurztraminer - My First Love in the Wine World: "Some years back, when I wasn’t a wine drinker, I heard a word that caught my attention – Gewurztraminer. It was hard to say and even h..."

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

Champagne Taste: Beneficial Diseases?

2011-02-13T16:29:00.000-05:00

Jaqueline Malenda, wine maven and sometime Team Marneycakes all-star, knows so much about wine that it's amazing. And to think: until this moment, I thought "dead arm" was something that my brother and I used to give each other!

Enjoy Sicilian Bella Jaqueline's wine blog post.

Champagne Taste: Beneficial Diseases?: "It still amazes me how some diseases can be beneficial in winemaking, that is, if they’re properly understood and used to the winemaker’s a..."

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

2011 Bride's Choice Award winner

2011-02-01T00:28:00.005-05:00

Woo-hoo! We've done it again, for the third year running!

Marneycakes has been awarded a Bride's Choice Award from Martha Stewart's www.weddingwire.com!

Here's the press release, below!

Marneycakes, Inc. Wins 3^rd Consecutive Martha Stewart/WeddingWire.com Award

Oceanside, NY – January 28, 2011 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Marneycakes, Inc. has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Cakes!

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Marneycakes stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Chef Marney White and her staff for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Marneycakes is among the very best wedding cake vendors within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/marneycakes-inc-the-foodies-cakes-oceanside/3f2e01da36a9613c.html.

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

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

Cherry blossom shower cake, golf groom's cake

2011-01-28T22:43:00.002-05:00

I had a thoroughly enjoyable tasting this afternoon. In fact, yesterday and todays' tastings were all the more enjoyable because Mother Nature had postponed both several times! Thankfully, she saw fit to allow us all to move ahead at last.

I met with Nicole about her shower cake, and about her fiance Mike's groom's cake.

Nicole was exceptionally enamored with my gum paste work, as she's a painter, and has a keen appreciation for photographic realism. She said she had wanted to do something whimsical, until she saw the gum paste flower samples that I brought for her to view. So...for her shower cake, she chose one tier of Mexican Hot Chocolate cake (the one painted with Patron XO coffee-flavored tequila, that I created for a Patron event last year), and another of vanilla cake painted with Chambord, filled with a double layer of chocolate ganache and raspberry buttercream. We're going to ice it all with Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream. Her design is going to be really delicate and gorgeous. Nicole attended college in Virginia, and has an especially keen appreciation for cherry blossoms. So, we're going to do traditional pale pink cherry blossoms on chocolate ganache branches. She loved my "cherry blossom" wedding cake in pictured here, and also in my sample book. But this time, we're doing the traditional pink. (The bride who ordered this cake wanted them white with yellow centers.) For Nicole's cake, the pale pink blossoms will also have kinda fuzzy centers as well.

Mike enjoys golf, so his groom's cake will reflect that passion. For his cake, we'll be doing a 2-tier cornered square cake (that's a rectangle with the corners cut off, resulting in a very masculine, stately shape), and will be working gum paste golf motifs in appropriately. Mike loved my coconut buttercream, and wanted that to fill and ice both tiers of his cake. The bottom tier will be chocolate cake, and the top tier will be lemon cake. Both combinations work really well, and have completely different effects.

Anyway, I wish I didn't have to wait until July and September, respectively, to create this couple's cakes, but I know the wait will be worthwhile.

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

Sans Gluten Sisters' wedding cake tasting

2011-01-28T00:29:00.008-05:00

This was another of my many "I love my career" nights. :)

Tonight was Dina and Chris' wedding cake tasting. We met at Dina's sister Devon's place. Get this: both sisters' hubbies will be named Chris! They're both great couples.

Dina and I had been corresponding for months, rescheduling around the the bustle of the holidays, and around Mother Nature unleashing her wrath this winter. But it all came together at last.

Dina and Chris chose my Neapolitan cake (a layer of vanilla cake, and layer of chocolate cake, filled with strawberry buttercream and iced in vanilla buttercream), a vanilla cake filled with a double layer of white chocolate ganache and raspberry buttercream, iced in vanilla buttercream, and a chocolate cake with a double-layer of chocolate ganache and rapsberry buttercream for their tasting cakes. Ironically, Devon and Chris are my only couple who have chosen all the tiers of their wedding cake in the same flavor (Neapolitan...that's their wedding cake pictured here), and it looks like Dina and Chris will probably be going in the same direction! They love the Neapolitan cake, too!

Devon had her own gluten-free Neapolitan "smoosh cake" on her wedding day (although some very efficient staff swept it away before she was done enjoying it), as she is celiac. So, this evening, I brought a box of gluten-free chocolate-espresso cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing to enjoy over the weekend as a surprise treat.

They're such a great family.

You should have seen their dad at Devon's wedding...he's so sweet and gracious! When we were setting up the cake, he thanked me for making the cake, and said what a work of art it was! How sweet is that, to take the time to say something so kind? He looked and acted ever the gentleman, and appeared to have just stepped out of a Ralph Lauren print ad, too! :) Adorable!!!!

I'm so lucky to have great clients like this. My clients are the best EVER! No 'Zillas, just sweeties. They'll be launching a blog called "Sans Gluten Sisters" soon, so expect to see their blog entries reblogged here!

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

Peach and Prosecco wedding cake

2011-01-22T21:39:00.006-05:00

Mmmmm......

Tonight's tasting went well! I loved meeting Lauren and Eric. As it turns out, Eric is from Wading River - and area of Long Island which we love, and are considering relocating to this summer. Small world. Anyway, the new take-off of Lauren's aunt's cake looked beautiful and tasted great, too. I ended up making a vanilla cake with 4 very fine layers of filling...it's important not to overpower a cake with too much of anything. So, on the top of the layers was a peach-Prosecco mixture. Underneath it was a white chocolate mousse, followed by a very thin layer of marzipan, and finally a layer of lightly sweetened pure raspberry puree. It really was pretty when sliced!

Eric and Lauren also loved the cherry-almond-marzipan cake. That one is a vanilla cake filled with a layer of marzipan sandwiched between two thin layers of sour cherry buttercream. That buttercream (and anything lightly sweetened with sour cherry) brings me back to my mother's really delicious cherry ring, made from scratch. Man, was that was delicious! I actually just emailed my mother and asked her for the recipe, although I don't know when I'd make it. Professionally, I only do cakes of 50 servings and up, and I don't like to bother with mass amount of pastry. I enjoy doing large celebration cakes, so that's what I do! Anyway, my point it that no one in my family but me is a big fruit person. As a result, I don't know what occasion I"d have to concoct this incredible cherry ring for.

Lauren and Eric's third and final tasting selection was the Maui Coconut cake. That one is sooo tasty! It's vanilla cake (see a theme in this tasting?) iced and filled with coconut buttercream, with fresh unsweetened grated coconut smooshed into the buttercream on the sides of the cake. I don't like using sweetened coconut, because it's just too sticky and, well, sweet! The crowning glory of this cake, however, is that it's painted with Ron Bacardi Black Label Reserve dark rum. That's such a nice pairing...tastes like vacation. Actually, the flavor of dark rum reminds me of lounging poolside in Jamaica, sipping banana daiquiris. :)

Ok, back to the cake.

Lauren's not only a healthcare professional, but also a talented sketch artist! She came prepared with some potential colorschemes, as well as sketches of some design ideas. She's blending vineyard and beach elements, and I know the result will be stunning!

Anyway, I'm so excited to create Lauren and Eric's wedding cake! :) I mentioned to them that I can hook her up with French macaron cookies for wedding favors, which elicited an "Oooooooh!" from Lauren. :) If she had tasted Macaron Couture's macs, she REALLY would have made a yummy sound! Those things are amazing! (Mac photo by Kelly Fowler of Macaron Couture.)

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

Disneyland comfort food

2011-01-20T20:38:00.002-05:00

Chloe and I just made a Trader Joe's run. She spied a box of frozen chocolate-covered bananas, and we snatched them up! Know what they remind me of? Disneyland. Being that rare thing called a former native Californian (and Los Angelina), trips to Disneyland were part of our quality of life (mostly because we got in free, so we went several times a year!) I recall so vividly devouring those frozen bananas in New Orleans Square and outside Small World on hot summer days.... Yummmmmmm......

Glad we got those frozen bananas.

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

AboutLI.com Reader's Choice Awards

2011-01-20T18:10:00.003-05:00

I'm re-posting something from Linda Tagliaferro of AboutLI.com, below:

About.com Readers' Choice Awards are nominating goes on until the beginning of February... The link is at http://longisland.about.com/od/familiessinglesseniors/l/blnominate.htm

The top 5 finalists will then be voted on ... I forget the time frame, but it's in February some time.

They start accepting nominations starting Thursday, January 13, 2011 for the Best Beach on Long Island, Best Long Island Product, Best Seafood Restaurant on Long Island, Best Children's Attraction on Long Island and Best Winery on Long Island..

Again, nominations are open through February 4th. From February 11 through March 8th, readers will vote on the top five finalists. Winners will be announced on March 15. There's no prize -- just the bragging rights that come with getting recognized by the readers of a leading network of websites owned by The New York Times Company.

To learn more about the awards programs running on the Long Island site, please visit http://longisland.about.com/od/familiessinglesseniors/l/blnominate.htm. To learn more about the overall awards program across the online network of over 700 websites on a wide range of topics, please visit awards.about.com.

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

History of Wedding Cakes

2011-01-20T11:32:00.004-05:00

For those of you who have ever wondered how we ever got to celebrate weddings with a big ol' fancy cake, I've got answers for you. Just click on the title of this blog post from TopWeddingSites.com to be taken to "How Did We Come to Celebrate Weddings with Cake? A brief history of wedding cake".

In my piece, I take you from ancient Roman customs through Medieval times, to the French and croquembouche to Victorian England, and right up to modern times. So, it's all there (in brief).

Enjoy! :)

Oh...I had to throw in the cute pic of Chloe and me from an Island Harvest cupcake bake sale at Viking Cooking School in Garden City a Halloween or two ago. Love this pic. I will miss her so when she goes away to college! But what an exciting time in life for her.....

Marneycakes: "There is always room for dessert!"

Carousel birthday cake

2011-01-19T21:41:00.003-05:00

I had a special request for a very special birthday girl, Sunny. Last year I created a carousel cake for her 2nd birthday (www.marneycakes.com/novelty.html) , and her mom asked that I made the cake completely different this year. So...that's what I did! I must admit, my favorite part of making this cake was painting the butterflies with lustre dust. I painted a couple that Chloe and I didn't like so much. Then, I came up with this color combination. We both knew it was the right one to delight Miss Sunny! And Erica, her mom, informed me that Sunny's teacher relayed that Sunny said the butterflies were her favorite part of her party! Never would have expected to hear that, but hey! I'm glad I hit the mark! :)

Anyway, since she's just a little midgela, I made sure to cascade the flowers and butterfly down the front of the cake so Sunny could see and enjoy them without needing a boost.

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

Blogging on the fly

2011-01-19T21:07:00.003-05:00

Ok, I'm trying something new.

I got a netbook so I can blog on the fly. It's just too much to blog with my thumbs on my BlackBerry, especially if I'm writing one of pieces I'm submitting for http://www.topweddingsites.com/ or http://www.greenbrideguide.com/. Those puppies run at least 700 words each, and my thumbs just don't have that kind of stamina. :) I don't think it would be good for them anyway.

This little machine seems kinda cool...I opted for the Asus Eee PC, and so far, so good. Seems pretty groovy. (Anyone who knows me IRL knows that "groovy" is my favorite word, next to "dude", that is.) Oh yeah...it's kinda cute, too. Utility and value are crucial, but cute counts too.

Seems like this could be a very cool thing...small, light and convenient enough to take along anytime I need Word, Excel, or the internet.

Wish me luck! :)

OH YEAH - before I forget! Check out the new cake flavor! A bride and groom for whom I'm doing a tasting on Saturday have made a special request: white cake with peach-flavored white chocolate mousse, raspberry gelee, and marzipan thrown in there somehow. It's one of the bride's favorite creations made by her aunt. My twist on it? My moist vanilla cake filled with a triple layer filling of white chocolate-peach mousse with a touch of prosecco, fresh raspberry puree (that gelee stuff kinda skeeves me, with all that corn syrup and/or corn starch...I really hate the gooey gloppiness those ingredients produce), and marzipan. It'll all be iced in almond buttercream. Does that sound like a righteous cake, or what??? It could actually be painted with prosecco, come to think of it. Hmmmm..... (I know I'm hearing from The Talented Mrs. Ripko about this one....) I think it needs to be named after the bride, so it will forevermore be Lauren's White Chocolate Peach Fantasty. Sounds good?

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

Long Island private baking classes

2011-01-10T22:21:00.009-05:00

I love teaching. In fact, Marneycakes offers private in-home baking classes for up to 6 people per 3-hour session. The fee is $550 (within a 30-minute commute), and I bring any equipment you don't already own. All you take care of is rounding up your fellow students, and completing the short shopping list. (A bottle of wine to share with your friends during the demonstration is completely up to you!) :)

There's a class on tips and tricks to make your baking more professional, upon the conclusion of which you have one finished cake and one baked cake ready to finish, as well as a fantastic recipe for cake and buttercream.

There's also a class on preparing a tiered cake, for the baking enthusiast who's ready to go to the next level (literally and figuratively). This cake also comes complete with a great cake and buttercream recipe.

There's a class on pies, where I teach you how to make the PERFECT tender, flaky butter pie crust from scratch, and make a killer apple pie with crumb topping, and the best pumpkin pie ever, from my cookbook "Healthy Body, Happy Life". Of course, as always, my recipes are included.

If there's a specific topic you'd like to focus on, I can design a class just for you.'

Classes book up quickly, so book soon for Valentine's Day gifts!

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

Timothy Lee Photographers

2010-12-14T19:55:00.009-05:00

I've been fortunate to finally receive a few cake photos from brides and grooms this week. While I'm a decent shot, I'm sure not a professional photographer. Whenever I deliver a wedding cake, I always shoot it just to have a photo to use for a while until I can get access to a pro image.

People tend to think that because anybody can pick up a camera, anybody can shoot like a pro. But, it's just not so! There's so much to know about...how to light properly, how to find good natural light, composition, recognizing an interesting background, putting your subject at ease, and more. Due to this lack of understanding of all that goes into being a talented pro photographer, the pros often don't get the respect they're due (and people sometimes have non-pros shoot their wedding, usually losing priceless moments forever and regretting that decision as a result.)

It's nice to have the real deal, from the real deal. :)

Anyway, enjoy these shots from Sinead and Mike's wedding this past fall. They were shot by Timothy Lee Photographers in NYC.

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

Organic Flowers - Necessity, Not Luxury

2010-12-14T10:21:00.005-05:00

In February 2008, the New York Times ran a very important piece. It exposed the ways in which the toxic pesticides used to farm non-organic flowers poison not only the planet, but the workers who tend and process them. It was a pre-Valentine's Day story, urging people to be green and buy organic if they were buying flowers for the one they love on Valentine's Day.

The story is still as relevant today, and needs to be read. So, here's a link to "To Pull a Thorn From the Side of the Planet", by Mireya Navarro. If my link doesn't work, just copy and paste it into your browser. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/fashion/03flowers.html

Here's one of our cakes, adorned with fresh, organic flowers.

Of course, I prefer gum paste so the bride has a beautiful keepsake from her wedding cake to preserve forever, but there are lots of brides who want fresh flowers on their wedding cake. So for them, organic it is! :)

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

Another article published on TopWeddingSites.com!

2010-12-13T21:12:00.006-05:00

Marneycakes has a new blog post on TopWeddingSites.com. The link is the title of this blog entry, actually. Just click on it.

Anyway, it's all about the differences between fondant and buttercream, and what might make one more appropriate than the other for your wedding cake.

Enjoy! :)

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

Cake Designer Central - Coolest of the Cool

2010-12-05T22:38:00.006-05:00

I had such a wonderful night last night!

I had the distinct pleasure of attending Ron ben Israel's holiday party last night at his studio. He very kindly invited me to attend after being alerted to the blog post in which I last wrote about him, and said nice things (what could you say about Ron that isn't nice???). It was incredibly nice of him to include me at an event where the guest list read like a who's who of cakes on the eastern seaboard. These are people whose work and accomplishments I've admired for years. Of course, our mutual teacher, Master Sugar Artist Betty Van Norstrand was there, too. (She told me she loved the chocolate-Grand Marnier cake I brought up for her at my last lesson. She said she ate the entire thing, and there wasn't a crumb left! I'll have to bring her another one next month when I go up for more lessons!) At the time what made me feel wonderful was that Betty, who has judged a gazillion culinary competitions, was marveling on how smooth I had gotten my buttercream, and how moist and delicious the cake, filling and frosting was. For Betty to marvel is a big deal, as she's not shy, and would say if she saw something that needed to be corrected or improved.

Ron has a fantastic studio space...it's very open, with beautiful skylights and honey-colored wood floors. He's the host with the most, greeting everyone personally as they enter, and posing for photographs taken by the very personable Rob, a pro photographer (can't wait to see the images!) Rob's also just the nicest guy.

Walking around, looking up at all the display cakes I've seen photographed for cake stories in bridal mags over the years was like walking through a cake hall of fame. There's one cake in particular that I have admired for years that I saw on top of a cabinet, high above my head: his pink carnation cake. It was surreal seeing all of those display cakes in person. The next too-good-to-be-true sight was dozens and dozens of perfectly-formed gum paste blossoms, buds and leaves in dozens of huge storage bins, carefully labeled and organized. The influence of Ron's professional ballet and also military training comes through in every blossom: you see the intent to hit the mark on every one, making each piece perfect and uniform. All of his artwork exudes not only the joy that he radiates, but also his intense self-discipline and drive.

Watching him in a video, he commented that creating a wedding cake is like a performance: once the curtain goes up, you keep going until it's complete. I never thought of it like a performance before (I'm a long way from the days when I was a voice performance major at Pepperdine, but I do remember living for the performances), and I do live for the occasions when the bride arrives very early to have her photos done as we're setting up her wedding cake (when we're lucky enough to see her on her wedding day). Our brides' reactions have never been short of delight and joy, which of course infuses us with their sentiments, and inspires us!

Anyway, speaking of inspiration, being in that studio last night with the likes of Ron, Betty, Toba Garrett, Kate Sullivan, Elisa Strauss, Elizabeth Hodes, Colette Peters, and Michelle Doll-Olsen felt like walking around in a dream. Seeing the faces I've only seen in still photographs suddenly walking around in three dimensions hardly seemed real to me! It was also truly humbling...their individual knowledge is encyclopedic, but harness it together, and the combined breadth and depth of it is unimaginable! I believe I was experiencing Small-Fish-in-a-Big-Pond Syndrome last night, and I'm accustomed to feeling like a big fish in a small pond! :) But a dose of humility to keep everything in check never hurt anyone, myself included.

I got the chance to speak to seasoned pros, as well as other up-and-coming cake designers like me. There were three such young women just opening their own bakeries in their early to mid-20's! I was so impressed! They all came from a background of being part of family bakeries with a following of many decades of customers. Interestingly enough, all of their families did their best to dissuade them from going into the business. But they all felt that baking was in their hearts, and they needed to do it anyway. Despite having very different business models, we discovered that we basically were experiencing the same growing pains and joys as owners of fledgling startups.

There's something comforting in knowing that you are running the same grueling love-fueled gauntlet in building something very successful...that you're not the only one working 16-hour days (mostly spent on your feet), and being really slow with weddings in the winter (here in the Northeast, it's something we all deal with...and that's when we teach!) We shared about how we're all learning new things in the course of our everyday work routines that no one can ever tell you in advance. And, we all agreed that none of us would ever choose to do anything else despite it all, because we have the coolest, most gratifying, bliss-inducing job on earth!

Man, what a great night.

Anyway, seeing all of Ron's beautiful, perfect work further inspired me to push myself harder and make what I have already learned better, as well as learn more new things and strive to perfect them.

Oddly, I realized that the medium of choice of all of these top cake designers is fondant, and I'm sure that's because it's such a wonderful blank canvas and photographs so flawlessly. But, I also realized that I am still committed to showcasing genuine buttercream because of its sumptuous, silky texture and incomparable flavors. And, I remain committed to keeping all of my artificial colors sequestered in my gum paste art (cuz who eats the gum paste???), as keeping the actual cake itself free of all things artificial is still a worthwhile quest. I know it's not cake-hip to say that, and I know that people at the top of the art form even kind of look down on using buttercream in lieu of fondant, but I guess I'll always take pride in getting my buttercream perfectly smooth and beautiful (to the degree where people have to ask me whether it's really buttercream).

I still love buttercream above all else, whether or not it's trendy to do so. And I'm proud that that's my calling card in our profession.

Now, please excuse me...I feel inspired to go and completely revamp and improve my peonies! :)

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

Giving back

2010-11-26T21:44:00.010-05:00

Happy holidays, everyone! It's hard to believe that it's already that time of year again. We're thankful for an absolutely fabulous 2010, filled with the world's best clients. Additionally, we're thankful to be able to things to "give back", and support the community that supports us.

Toward that end, Team Marneycakes had the privelege of lending our aid to two fantastic fundraising events this fall: Island Harvest's "Taste of the Harvest" at Crest Hollow Country Club, and LIAAC's "Chef's Secrets" at deSeversky Center. Usually 300 - 400 people buy tickets to each of these events, which are essentially tasting events where really fabulous prizes donated by local businesses are raffled off to raise money for the cause being supported. The organizers get dozens of restaurants, wineries (and other specialty food and/or beverage vendors, like Marneycakes) to commit to donate and serve magnificent wines and foods for people to taste and enjoy all evening, and the variety is mind-blowing! These are events that the Long Island foodie and fundraising crowd eagerly anticipates every year, and they're not only something that we're proud to support, but also something that's a blast to be a part of. Another fun event is sharing the experience with other vendor friends with whom we also work...there are lots of familiar faces behind the serving stations every time. :)

For Taste of The Harvest, Shannon, Chloe, Jacqueline and I served a wedding cake with a southern feel, decorated with gum paste dogwood blossoms. (The next time, I think I'd use three gum paste magnolias on the top tier, and forego the top row of dogwood blossoms, to really go all-in with the southern theme.) I piped a pretty scrollwork design on all three tiers. The bottom tier was lemon cake filled with almond buttercream. The middle tier was chocolate cake, painted with Grand Marnier and filled with chocolate buttercream. And finally, the top tier was almond cake filled with coffee buttercream. The entire cake was iced in almond buttercream. I found that, as always, the chocolate tier disappeared in literally 5 minutes! Chocolate is always my most popular cake flavor.

For Chef's Secrets, Briana, Chloe and I served a wedding cake that just felt like April...it was all about spring, with its gum paste sweet peas, stephanotis, and miniature calla lillies. Although I probably should have made something other than an all-chocolate cake for people to sample, I was just in a chocolate mood. So, all three tiers were chocolate! The big ol' bottom tier was my Chocolate-Grand Marnier cake painted with GM and filled with apricot buttercream. The middle layer was a very wintry and refreshing chocolate cake filled with a double-layer filling of Belgian chocolate ganache and peppermint buttercream. If you like peppermint patties, you'd LOVE this cake! :) Finally, the top tier was chocolate cake filled with a double-layer of Belgian chocolate ganache, and chocolate-coffee buttercream. This time, the favorite was definitely the chocolate-mint tier!

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

Confection Connection: What Fun!

2010-10-23T19:53:00.017-04:00

Chloe and I had the greatest time today at our Confection Connection event. We made a Confection Connection (which is a gathering of Marneycakes, Macaron Couture, and Afresh Approach and their custom gourmet chocolates) of Jeanne and Skip's grand opening of their new shop in Bay Shore, called Afresh Approach. They're one of the shops with buildings along the parking lot of the Bay Shore train station, actually. I adore the new space...it's got original
tin wall and ceiling tiles that remind me of so many places in the city, and it's absolutely warm and charming. Skip's brother's exceptional photography lines the walls, further augmenting the feast for the eyes...and more. Even if you just drop in without an appointment, there are always ample fresh samples just waiting for your enjoyment, made from the best ingredients available. Truly, no chocolate that I've ever had compares to Afresh Approach's mastery of the art of chocolate. Moreover, everything's beautifully and meticulously formed and decorated, as well.

Jeanne and Skip had their usual phenomenal assortment of chocolate truffles, toffees, almond brittle, chocolate-dipped marshmallows, their take on the classic Big Hunk candy bar, and more. They also had some trays made up, ready for purchase (those didn't stick around long).

Brian and Kelly Fowler of Macaron Couture (and Fowler & Co. Catering) brought a dizzying assortment of tender, delicate French macarons. French macs aren't the slightest bit similar to the chewy coconut macaroons that you're familiar with from, say, Passover celebrations. The French ones are light as air, and are filled with either buttercream, or chocolate ganache. (They make spectacular favors, packaged beautifully.) Brian and Kelly had flavors like pumpkin, pear, violet (how very British!), chocolate-peanut butter, rose, and raspberry filled with chocolate ganache (to just scratch the surface of the assortment they created this time). The pinnacle of difficulty in the pastry arts is said to be the French macaron. Chef Brian has thrown himself into the quest for making the perfect macaron, and has succeeded with aplomb! Truly, I've never met another chef who is more expert in food science, and knows more about the chemistry of the culinary arts; he's a professional and an expert in every sense of the word.

Today, the cake gods seemed to want me to make chocolate cake filled with chocolate buttercream made from ganache made with Callebaut fine dark chocolate, chocolate cake painted with Grand Marnier and filled with apricot buttercream, and almond cake filled with coffee buttercream -- all three tiers iced in almond buttercream. So, how could I not make the indicated cake offering??? :) Gotta keep those cake gods happy, you know. It can get ugly if you displease them.

Anyway....

We proudly cross-refer with Afresh Approach and Macaron Couture, as we all have the same perfectionistic standards for freshness and the best ingredients. In fact, you will see their work on the Favors Gallery in the Marneycakes Galleries pages. It's wonderful to be able to work with professionals like Jeanne & Skip, and Brian and Kelly.

Add this good fortune to the wonderful clients who find me, and you have the vocational "perfect storm"! :) I AM SO LUCKY to be doing what I do!

Anyway, before I duplicate another "I love my clients" paean (it's so easy for me to get into that joyful gratitude groove, and wax poetic), I'll just say thank you to all the people who came to enjoy our offerings, and we can't wait to see you all next time!

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

Bad-ass and beautiful!

2010-10-10T21:33:00.005-04:00

One of my brides sent me a pictures of a Harley Davidson logo cake, and asked me if I could do something like it for her fiance as a surprise groom's cake for their wedding. I said that I sure could, only we'd be doing something different than the red and orange flames, since I don't use anything artificial in my food, especially artificial color. (The exception to the all-natural rule, of course, is fondant -- when weather conditions require it for food safety reasons, or when the client really wants it, and it's a project that I want to create regardless of how much fondant grosses me out.) I said we'd be doing flames in gradations of chocolate, instead! That was just fine by my chocolate-loving bride. In fact, this cake is a chocolate-lover's dream: fudgy chocolate cake with a double-layer of Belgian chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream, painted generously in Grand Marnier, and iced and decorated with two more chocolate buttercreams and ganache.

I had the best time creating this cake! It was so beautiful but bad-ass, so it was kind of fun and amusing to make. :) Anyway, here it is!

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

Cutting the cake: pleasure, or pain?

2010-09-30T21:18:00.006-04:00

Anyone who follows my various FB (there's a Marneycakes, Inc. page) and blog posts knows that Ron ben Israel is the master cake designer who most inspires me. Actually, I think what I feel for Ron likely transcends admiration, and crosses over to worship. LOL We have both studied gum paste with master gum paste instructor Chef Betty Van Norstrand, and I was absolutely thrilled to hear from Betty that Ron is as nice a guy as I had imagined he is. (He seems like he's such a fun, sunny person!)

Viewing a recent video of Ron ben Israel on YouTube, I was tickled to hear that he shares my sentiment of the bride and groom cutting into their cake being a delightful thought...I never understand it when pastry chefs say they can't bear to have their cake cut into "after all that work". The effort, the love, the joy, and all of your best intentions for a couple that you put into every wedding cake is a gift! It's your gift to them, and the honor of creating it is their gift to you! For heaven's sake, their first act as a married couple is cutting their wedding cake and feeding each other (Ron adds to my thought: and kissing each other with a mouthful of that cake). How much happier does it get than that? :)

Go ahead! Cut the cake! Enjoy! :)

Good food is really all about pleasure, joy and memories anyway, isn't it? I just don't get how someone who really loves what they do could be upset by the thought of a client reveling in their work. (Actually, I'd probably develop a twitch and need therapy if I ever learned that I'd disappointed a client, which is why I always want to go the extra mile and deliver more than is expected.)

Man, I chose the right profession...I sooooo love what I do and the whole process brings me so much genuine satisfaction and elation. I get to choose to work with nice people whom I really like, who always end up energizing me! How cool is THAT??? :)

I'm so thankful!

More than anything though, I'm thankful that my wonderful family and friends are so supportive of the long, crazy hours that it takes for someone as OCD as me to get it all down right every time and build a successful business to high standards. Chloe and Sam always tell me how proud they are of me and my work, and even help out on my deliveries sometimes. Chloe even found me my fabulous assistant, Briana! Every time I fall into bed, apologizing for working until 2am again, my sweet David always says to me, "Honey, I'm so proud of you. Don't ever apologize for working hard." They know I'm building my dream. My friends totally understand me disappearing for weeks (or more) because I'm working and building my business, and they just cheer me on, schedule get-togethers around my weird hours, and never complain. (I still feel guilty about not spending enough time with any of them right now, no matter how kind they all are about it. Building momentum and a name is more of a marathon than I ever imagined, despite that I knew it would be hard work and a steep climb.)

I really am ridiculously lucky. And profoundly thankful. :) I mean, in a thousand lifetimes, how many people get to love what they do this intensely?

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

A frustrating surprise

2010-09-24T12:01:00.013-04:00

We had a frustrating experience a few weeks ago.

Briana and I delivered and set up a cake for a lovely couple at a beautiful wedding venue. Their wedding cake was 4 tiers (sorry, we've just got cell phone shots for now), and chocolate. Yum!

After the wedding, I heard from the couple that the venue had taken it upon themselves to MOVE my assembled cake (which, by the way, is about 2 1/2 feet tall, and weighs probably 75 or 80 pounds) into their walk-in refrigerator, and then retrieve it much later to be served COLD! Butter cakes take a good 90 minutes to reach room temperature through to the middle, and become soft enough to serve and enjoy at their best texture. When a butter cake with real buttercream is cold, but the flavor is also far less full and full of nuances than it is when a cake has had the chance to reach room temperature. And there's visual damage as well: putting the cake in the humid walk-in refrigerator would have also made the dark chocolate fondant on the cake board all wet - probably the gum paste, too.

Man, was I upset. No venue has ever done this with one of my wedding cakes. Ever.

The chef specifically asked me when he was watching me set up whether the wedding cake needed to be refrigerated, and I said no, it would be just fine (we finished setup 30 minutes before guests were due to arrive, at this indoor, air-conditioned venue, and would have been just fine through the end of the reception). So....WHY did they take it upon themselves to risk moving an assembled 4-tier wedding cake, and serve it COLD, as it's never meant to be served??? I don't even move them assembled! The amount of risk involved in moving a tall, heavy cake is why I assemble them all (and pipe the trim) on site at the venue! (God forbid I have to hit the brakes with a tall assembled cake in the delivery van!)

:/

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

2010-09-24T00:07:00.007-04:00

Last weekend's vineyard wedding cake was so much fun to put together! Sinead and Mike chose fresh raspberries and fresh champagne grapes as the garnish on their cake for 150, and they wanted the cake to be chocolate. So, it was chocolate cake, double-filled with a layer of chocolate ganache and milk chocolate buttercream, then painted with Grand Marnier. Then it was iced in milk chocolate buttercream, and piped in ganache.

Soooo fitting for a late September wedding on the beautiful, bountiful North Fork! :)

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

Crescent Beach Club, done to perfection

2010-08-08T20:48:00.005-04:00

Well, Annette and Phil are married now! This was one wedding where I was able to stay and be more than the fly on the wall I always say I want to be when the bride and groom get their first bite of wedding cake. It worked out that this was my only event this weekend, so David and I were able to attend. Normally, I rest after doing a wedding cake, as it takes me 2 consecutive very long, physical days on my feet preparing it (because I do everything fresh, and I'm such a freakin' perfectionist. I've always said that getting into this business was putting OCD to work for me. LOL).

I can't say enough good things about the Crescent Beach Club and its staff. Their service was 5-star, all the way, and beyond gracious. It's an absolutely breathtaking venue for a beach wedding, too. Everything was delicious and beautiful, done to perfection.

Because they never get to partake in the goodies, I brought a bunch of cupcakes for the staff to enjoy, and they were beyond gracious in expressing their appreciation. Clearly, these people are in the business because it pleases them to be gracious hosts, and provide their guests with outstanding service. You just don't see this every day. That they are able to attract this many excellent professionals speaks volumes about the kind of place this is; everyone's devoted to providing an outstanding experience.

And as for the cake...Annette wanted more seashells than were on the last beach wedding cake. She had about 6 different types of shells, plus urchins, starfish, sea horses, and sand dollars. I mottled the gum paste to give everything a realistic look, then dusted them with antique gold lustre dust for a feeling of fantasy and romance.

As for flavor combinations, Annette came up with something really delicious, and we made it the top tier of the cake: vanilla cake with lemon cannoli cream (made from fresh ricotta). The middle tier was chocolate cake painted with Grand Marnier, and filled with the richest chocolate buttercream. The bottom tier was vanilla cake filled with strawberry buttercream (which Annette adores...she had me use those flavors in her godchild's 1st birthday cake last year...little Isabella was the flower girl at the wedding! She's sooo big now!) She had me create a cupcake in a clear box for each guest: vanilla with vanilla icing. People were delighted with favors (which delighted me).

Anyway, it was a very happy night, and I was honored to create the wedding cake and boxed favor cupcakes for Annette and Phil. I hope they're having a wonderful honeymoon in Mexico right now, and I know they'll have a beautiful life together!

MAZEL TOV, YOU TWO! xoxox

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

Wedding for a dear friend

2010-08-05T23:51:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it's 9 minutes until Annette and Phil's wedding day. The next wedding cakes that have this much extra love baked in will be my children's! I'm nibbling on the chocolate and vanilla cake scraps left over from me leveling the cakes, and they're SO MOIST!

I can't wait to put this one together! It's such an honor to do a cake for such a great person and friend, as well as for another culinary. The moment Annette tasted my cake scraps (about a year ago), she said, "You are SO doing my wedding cake!" LOL

I definitely get a little thrill when I taste another chef's goodies and they're really outstanding. For example, Chef Brian Fishman's plated desserts are out of this world. I love being at the Taste of the Harvest or Evening of Good Taste fundraisers in adjacent stations, because we get to pass samples back and forth. Yum! It's really fun. And we're doing a mitzvah while we're there! What a winning combo.

But I digress...it's time to call it a night. My dogs are barkin', and I want to give them a rest. :)

There will be photos either late tomorrow or early Saturday of Annette and Phil's beach wedding cake. :)

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