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Luckily, the food escaped the fate of the poor cake. The party was a cocktail-style party with easy to pick up and eat items. The menu included beet, pecan and ricotta salads in ramekins, spoons filled with melon gazpacho and spicy shrimp, Vietnamese meatballs, apple and blue cheese crostini, BLT sliders with a spicy homemade mayo, steak shoots with caramelized onion jam, couscous with chicken tagine en papillote (served in their own parchment paper parcels), chicken curry salad served in wonton cups and chocolate covered figs. The children's menu included shortbread cookies, cheese and chicken sandwiches and cupcakes. It was a lot for just one. Prep took a full day and a half and cooking took the full five to six hour duration of the party. I'm learning that even this size of a party desperately needs a sous-chef on board. But, the food was well received (except for the two older Brazilian women i overheard say "too experimental for me") but you can't please everyone now can you.
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Cake buckling under the heat |
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The final event I must share with you today occurred on Saturday--my first wedding cake tasting session. I was contacted with a request for a wedding cake for a May wedding (will be nice and cool weather!) a few weeks ago by a bride looking for a "naked cake." Naked cake....this term applies to any cake that does not have an outer frosting or covering. Personally, I think small, single tier cakes can be beautifully "rustic" when naked. But when it comes to a three tiered mammoth size wedding cake, they can be a bit tricky. The majority of naked wedding cakes are covered in strawberries and powdered sugar dust: tacky as...... The biggest issue with naked cakes is that there is no possibility for blemish control. If a cake comes out of the oven with an odd pockmark or a slightly darker colored bottom, you will see it in a naked cake. Another issue is that they dry out in a very short time. Frosting both holds in and adds moisture to the cake as it hardens slightly to form a protective "shell." Naturally i told her i would do it and then gave her my website to show her ideas for using natural flowers. After she looked through my site she decided to chuck the idea of naked cakes and order a butter cream watercolor cake instead. Pretty flattered i must say.
I gave her many flavor combination options and told her to choose three for a cake tasting session. For the tasting i made three small two-layer cakes; honey cake with lemon filling, brown sugar cake with dark chocolate cream filling, and dark chocolate cake with Irish cream truffle filling and vanilla cream. The tasting was in the client's apartment and i took a bottle of complimentary champagne with me. A bit over the top? Perhaps, but i want to stand out in this business here in SP. I want people to have an experience worth talking to their friends about. Fondant is the number one style of wedding cakes in Sao Paulo, butter cream really isn't much of an option at most bakeries. So I want to stand out on flavor and service. My cakes are natural. I want people to know that I use raw honey, real butter, free range eggs and real chocolate. Luckily it worked. They chose all three flavors, so each tier will be different (and able to disassemble). Needless to say, very excited for our first tiered wedding cake. Thankfully we have until May to practice.
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3 comments:
The cakes look absolutely divine.
Thanks Azura! very excited for the upcoming wedding cake :)
Loved this post and so impressed with you. Can't believe you have been so busy and accomplished so much! You need to hire help, I can't imagine pulling that off sozinha. You are something! Menus made me hungry and the cakes, oh the cakes, thank you and for BUTTERCREAM frosting (can't wait to taste one day!). I think bringing the champagne to the tasting was a very classy move, I see you being VERY successful my dear. You also gave me a lot of laughs, the love handles and your man arriving first...lol. Many things, you have a knack for clever writing. SO glad I found you! Parabens, and see you soon! bjs
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