NYC Cake Decorators Member Medals in ACF Competition

Bronze Medal Prize Winning Cake designed by member Natalie Johnson, A World of Cakes.

This past weekend NYC Cake Decorators Meetup member Natalie Johnson entered a cake competition sanctioned by the American Culinary Federation/Long Island Chapter (ACF/LI). The ACF/LI had a "cold salon" for cakes, chocolate sculpture,etc., as well as live savory cooking competitions.

The entry had to be a real cake and it was a tough competition! In the whole event, there were no Gold medals awarded, only 3 Silver and 6 Bronze. Natalie's stunning tiered wedding cake earned her a Bronze medal! Check out Natalie's work at A World of Cakes.

Great Spring Cake Decorating Ideas

Cake designed and decorated by member, Vicki

Need ideas for your Spring Cakes? This stunning gumpaste flower spray was handcrafted by Vicki and features peonies and roses atop an elegant white cake.

Basket cake was designed and decorated by Dina, Sugar Designs NYC

A basket of posies is another idea for a Spring cake or Mother's Day Cake. This cake features royal icing roses, daffodils, daisies, violets and a morning glory. The hand painted butterfly is made from gumpaste.

Butterfly Cupcake

This scrumptious cupcake is just the sweet treat to savor on a warm Spring day. The cupcake is a yellow cake, frosted with buttercream using a No. 12 tip and topped with a hand painted sugar butterfly. The butterfly cupcake wrapper was purchased at Fancy Flours and serving tray is a discount find at Michael's craft store!

May 2009 Cake of The Month

This cake was designed and decorated by member Annette.

Annette's stunning edible creations take your breath away. She is currently baking for friends and family and shares her passion for sugar art at her blog, Ladybug Luggage.

Join Us at Our 2nd Day of Sharing June 7th!

Ximena will teach how to create this sweet little fondant baby & teddy bear.

The New York City Cake Decorators is proud to announce that our 2nd Day of Sharing and Sugar Art Show will take place on June 7th in New York City. Our special guest sugar artists this year are Chef Toba Garrett and Ximena Sempertegui.

Anyone who is obsessed with sugar art has heard of Toba Garret. Chef Toba is a noted cake decorating book author, cake show judge, multi gold-medal winner, and the foremost authority on precise and intricate piping. She is a fixture at I.C.E.S. Day of Sharing (DOS) and Weekends of Sharing (WOS), an instructor at the annual Cake Cruise, and an instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. We are very honored to have Chef Toba with us this year.

Ximena Sempertegui is an outstanding cake designer from Miami, Florida who specializes in breathtaking sugar figurines and 3D cakes. She has her own business, Cakes by Ximena, is a vendor at The Great American Cake Show and was a gold medal winner at the 2008 Societe Culinaire Philantropique cake competition at Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

If you would like to attend our Day of Sharing/Sugar Art Show or would like more information, please contact Dina, NYC Cake Decorators Meetup.

Cake 'n Crumbs and Sunshine Suites are Sponsors of the NYC Cake Decorators Meetup.

Dianna Lopez a Serious Competitor at National Capital Cake Show

Dianna and her entry

Member Dianna Lopez was honored to compete against sugar art heavy weights, Courtney Clark, Cakediva, and Anne Heap at the National Capital Area Cake Show. Cake challenges are not for the faint of heart and Dianna and her partner Vanessa were certainly up to the challenge of creating their "fairy dreams and castles" masterpiece in 6 hours.

Lopez, who lives in Kearny, N.J., began decorating cakes a few years ago. Her cakes won their division in the Mid-Atlantic Cake show in 2007 and again in 2008. But mostly she decorates for family and friends. The contest in Burke is the biggest she has entered. Dianna didn't take home first prize but she was a winner to receive the coveted invite and completed the challenge. The icing on the cake was an interview and subsequent article in the Washington Post. Dianna is an intern at Buddy Valestro's Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey.

What's Your Style?

Cake deigned by Colette Peters

Cake designed by former partners Lori Ditunno and Ruth Drennan

Cake designed by Sylvia Weinstock.

Cake designed by Margaret Braun.

There's a saying that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". Problem is imitating a work is often looked upon at the very least as someone trying to get attention for oneself by copying another's original ideas, and at the very worst, could get the imitator into some very sticky situations.

Cake designers who study under one or more outstanding sugar artist are bound to absorb some of their teacher's style, however, the ultimate purpose of such study is not to become their clone but to learn the technique and move on to develop your own signature look.

Start by looking at lots of cakes in cake decorating books and magazines and thinking about what you personally like or don't like. Do you love cute and whimsy, 3D cakes, lots of piping and floral work, clean minimalist shapes? Do you love lots of bold color or soft pastels? Are you trendy, edgy, whimsical, traditional or a blend of two or more points of view? Giving thought to what you personally love the best about cake decorating and sugar art can form the foundation of your own signature look. Each of the cakes created by the top New York City sugar artists listed above, has it's own distinct style. What is your style?

Cooking Up A Recipe for Success

You've made the plunge and learned how to bake and decorate fabulous cakes, cookies, and cupcakes and you've discovered that sugar art is your passion. Or perhaps you have an heirloom recipe for brownies or pie that you would like to market. What do you do next? Many bakers/cake decorators begin by giving or selling their decorated cakes, cookies, and cupcakes to family, friends, co-workers, and community organizations. However, cake decorators in New York City who want to start a part-time or full-time business soon realize that they must be licensed, have insurance, and operate from a commercial kitchen. Costs for start-ups to open a commercial kitchen in New York City are prohibitive. However, there are ways that the most determined sugar art designer can start a legal business:

• Get Free counseling from S.C.O.R.E. For example, on April 30th, the NYC branch of S.C.O.R.E. will host a seminar on writing a business plan and on May 2nd they will host a seminar for women on how to start a business. LaGuardia Community College Small Business Center also offers advice on how to start a business.
  
• Get licensed. In NYC you will need a Food Handler's license from the Department of Health and possibly a NYS Agriculture and Market License. Currently, you can take the Food Handler Protection course online for free.
• Get a tax ID number and tax resale ID number.
  
• Get product liability insurance. Travelers is one company that offers such insurance but certainly is not the only company, so do your research.
• Get a copy of Bringing Home the Baking: How to Start a Licensed Home Based Baking Business by Quincella C. Geiger.
• Get connected with a kitchen incubator. A kitchen incubator makes it financially possible for most start-up businesses to legally operate in New York State by offering leases or daily/hourly rates for commercial kitchen rental. There are several well-known incubators in New York City such as Mi Kitchen Es Su Kitchen in Queens, Kitchen for Hire in Brooklyn, and DRM Baking Center Incubator in Manhattan. Outside NYC are several kitchen incubators such as Chef Delivery Kitchen for Rent in Long Island, NY.

If you are outside of New York State the online Kitchen Incubator directory will connect you with kitchen incubators in your town.

Get ready to put in the sweat equity you are going to need to cook up your own success story!

Back to Basics: What Ever Happened to Piping?

This stunning cake was designed and decorated by member Jessie.

Some credit Martha Stewart with taking fondant covered cakes to couture status, and I agree that fondant gives the cake designer an incredible medium to work with. Notwithstanding, with all the rage about fondant cake designs, there is less public attention on cakes that feature really superb piping. Neat and precise piping is a basic cake decorating skill that in the right hands, can be elevated to an art form itself.

Many cake decorators learn and develop their piping skills at a Wilton Method Cake Decorating Class. Newbies can learn basic cake decorating techniques at Michael's or A.C. Moore Craft Stores Wilton Method Cake Decorating Class, their local adult continuing education class, or with NYC Cake Decorators Meetup. The Institute of Culinary Education (I.C.E.) in New York City also has an outstanding cake decorating course for serious amateurs taught by Chef Toba Garrett. Alternatively, newbies with an eye on their wallet can teach themselves how to decorate with a basic set of tips, practice board, online instructions from Wilton, and a lot of determination. The Wilton Yearbook is a wonderful idea book, full of hints, tips, and instructions for beginners to make their first breathtaking cakes for family and friends.

Basic Terms

Decorating Bags hold the icing and decorating tip so you can create a variety of decorations: (a) Featherweight bags are reusable bags made of flexible, coated polyester; (b) Disposable Bags are made of strong, flexible plastic, and (c) Parchment triangles are made of grease-resistant vegetable parchment paper.

Pipe/piping is a term that describes the technique of squeezing icing in a decorator bag through a cake decorating tip.

Tip Coupler is a two-part plastic device that enables the decorator to change tips without changing the bag.

Tips are plastic or metal devices that enable the decorator to pipe buttercream or royal icing into various shapes, i.e., leaf, dots, flowers, stars, figures, and to write messages on the cake. Tips are categorized into Star, Round, Petal, Drop Flower, and Leaf shapes, and can be bought singly or in sets.

Cake Leveler is a tool that enables the decorator to level the cake and split the cake in layers for filling.

Practice Board is a tool that enables the decorator to practice techniques with icing to obtain skill and speed. The practice board can be bought singly or in the Wilton Method Course Kits. An alternative to the practice board is to practice directly on a cake pan or cake dummy.

Icing Consistency is a fundamental concept in cake decorating: (a) Stiffer icing is good for making roses and other flowers which have upright petals; (b) Medium consistency icing is great for borders, figure piping, and flower petals that lie flat, and (c) Thin consistency icing is great for leaves, writing, and stems.

There are many recipes for buttercream icing. The basic Wilton Class Buttercream icing is excellent for beginners to practice and learn how to decorate a cake. The icing can stored in a container and reused again and again:

Practice Buttercream
1 cup solid white vegetable shortening
1 tsp Wilton flavor
2 tablespoons water
1 lb pure 10X Confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon Wilton meringue powder
A pinch of salt (optional)

Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy.

Sweet Regards,

Dina
Organizer

Pink Cake Box's Spring Cupcake Ideas

Happy Easter!

This sweet example of cookie art was designed and decorated by member Jason Gottlieb, owner of Flour Patch Bakery in Montclair, New Jersey. This edible cookie could be used as a whimsical favor or place card for your guests.

Yummy Butter Cookies!

These yummy wedding cake butter cookies were baked and decorated by member Linda

This yummy recipe for butter cookies is compliments of the New York State Chapter of the International Cake Exploration Societe.

Butter Cookies Yield: 3 to 4 dozen cookies

1 cup (8oz) unsalted butter
1 cup (8oz) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups (12 oz or 340 g) all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out dough

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with a mixer paddle attachment for 2 minutes. Stop and scrape the bowl.
   
3. Cream the mixture for an additional 60 seconds. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until well combined.
4. Sift together baking powder and flour. Add the flour mixture 1 cup at a time to the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly after each additiona.
   
5. Knead the last cup of flour by hand. The dough will be stiff.
6. Divide the dough into two balls. Wrap one ball into plastic wrap until ready to use. Further divide the un-wrapped dough in two parts.
7. On a floured surface, roll out one of the halves about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Use a large offset metal spatual to run under the dough to prevent it from sticking. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters, dipping the cutters into flour before each use. Carefully place the cut-out cookies onto an ungreased nonstick cookie sheet or a parchment-lined half-sheet pan.
   
8. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until the edges of teh cookies begin to brown lightly. Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet until ready to use.
   

A New Take on a Basket Cake!

Photo courtesy of Helen's Cakes, LLC

This stunning cake designed by member Helen Murphy, Helen's Cakes, is a unique take on the traditional basket cake design. Colorful sugar lilies spill over a handmade bamboo basket made of gumpaste. For a more spring-like feeling lighten the colors and add violets, tea roses, baby's breath, apple blossoms, peonies, and a more traditional woven sugar basket. For a tropical twist, change out the flowers for bird of paradise, hibiscus, or gumpaste orchids. Another idea is to incorporate the recipient's favorite flowers into the basket. A breathtaking alternative to a floral bouquet for birthdays and even Mother's Day!

And Even More Cupcake Ideas!

Cupcake was designed and decorated by Dina, Organizer, New York Cake Decorators Meetup

Violets are one of the first flowers to show their beautiful blossoms in spring. This sweet little cupcake was iced in buttercream. Then a small amount of buttercream was tinted with Wilton leaf green paste color and the "grass" was piped with a grass tip. Perky little gumpaste flowers and leaves were wired and attached to a small toothpick that was inserted into the cupcake. These cupcakes would be so special as favors for a spring bridal shower, baby shower, or garden party.

More Cupcake Ideas

This dainty collection of sweet cupcakes was designed and decorated by Linda

Passover starts at sundown tomorrow and for those with a sweet tooth, The Kosher Cupcake at the Market and The Kosher Cupcake feature a tempting array of tasty treats and recipes. Lace cupcake wrappers can be found at several online shops including Fancy Flours.

Just in time for the holidays: Cute Cupcake Designs for Newbie Cake Decorators

Presentation is Everything....

This tiered cake was designed and decorated by Isabel (Isa) Sanchez, Isa's Cakes

How many cake designers spend hours decorating their cakes right down to the finest detail and then present their cakes in photographs poorly. Take time to style your cake to show off your work to its best advantage. A neat little book devoted entirely to this topic is Cake Styling by Nicholas Lodge.

NYC Cake Decorators - Isa's 9 Petal Rose Tutorial

Wedding Cake Talk From Bronwen Weber

Spring Cake Designs

The wine and fruit basket cake was designed and decorated by Helen, Helen's Cakes, LLC.

This stunning wine and fruit basket cake is the perfect dessert for your spring event.

More Easter Cake Ideas

Egg cake designed and decorated by Grace.

Easter Bonnet Hat Cake designed and decorated by Yvette

Stumped for a message for your holiday cakes? Here are some ideas:

Egg-cited for Easter
Happy Springtime
Bunny Love
Ears to You
A Very Bunny Day

Cake Decorating Time and Cost-Saving Tips

This beautiful baby cake was decorated by Shauna.

Let's face it, times are rough--even for us cake designers. Our members are great at sharing ways to save money with sugar art:

1. Use a cheap kitchen cabinet space saver to dry gumpaste flowers. - Dina
2. Wet and wring clean old towels and use in place of store bought baking strips. - Jessie
3. Make your own cake release by mixing equal parts of flour, shortening, and vegetable oil. - Jessie.
   
4. Fondant rolling pins are often expensive and are too small for large jobs. Take a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's plumbing aisle and pick up a piece of PVC pipe long enough to cover a large cake.- Dianna L.
   
5. Pick up a piece of clear vinyl from a fabric store to cover your working surface. You can use this to help pick up a large piece of fondant to drape your cake without sticking your fingers through it. Another thing is if you fold it in half and roll out your fondant in between it - it helps keep your fondant from drying as you roll it out. - Dianna
   
6. When not in use, a long bread tin can be used as a flower former. - Lynn
7. During your downtime, makes lots of buds and flowers in one color (such as white or light pastel). When you need to decorate a cake, airbrush or dust those stored flowers with color to suit the occasion. - Jessie
   

Gumpaste Peony Class with Chef Ruth Drennan

Members proudly showing off their gumpaste peonies with Chef Ruth Drennan (back row R), Ruth Drennan Cakes

Iva's gumpaste peony

The Gumpaste Peony Class with Chef Ruth Drennan, Ruth Drennan Cakes, was a lot of fun! Ruth is a very patient instructor with a relaxed style that made it easy to learn the flower. She graciously shared behind the scenes information about her experiences on "Amazing Wedding Cakes" with former Cake Atelier partner, Lauri Ditunno, and tips and hints to improve our gumpaste work. One helpful tip is to purchase a cheap white knee-high stocking and use it to hold cornstarch. Works like a charm! Why not join us at our future meetups? For more information, contact Dina, NYC Cake Decorators Meetup.

See you there!

Dina