“Thank You Teachers!” by The Cake Artist



Teacher's Appreciation "Apple Cake"

My sweet niece, Katherine, the other day asked if I could provide a cake for her school’s Teachers Appreciation Day Luncheon. I was delighted because I thought it would be a very good idea to do an apple cake. I told Katie to let her teacher know that I would be doing an apple shaped cake.

To the left is the cake I made, a vanilla cake filled with vanilla buttercream, covered with a paste made of carved cake and buttercream. I love to use this under my fondant especially for carved cakes. Toba Garrett calls it “spackle” and I believe it’s a wonderful idea. I got the recipe from her book The Well-Decorated Cake (Oct 1, 2004).I colored the fondant light red then airbrushed it red and leaf green for depth. The ‘bookworm’ I created using fondant. The apple stem is actually the dowel that goes through the cake to the cake board and I cover it with chocolate fondant.

The Process

Carving the cake was a task. I set the cake up in three stacked tiers with the middle tier being the tallest. I baked 2x12x2-inch round; 1x10x2-inch round and 1x9x2-inch round cakes. Each cake is splitted horizontally into two layers. I filled the ten-inch round and placed on cake board, insert dowels; then placed another ten-inch board on top where I began stacking the 12-inch cakes. Dowels are inserted for support, then a ten-inch cake board is placed on top where the nine-inch cakes are stacked. With buttercream sticking out I placed the stacked tiers in my freezer to firm up for about one hour. After taking the cake out I carved from the top to form the shape I was looking for, then carefully flipped it over to carve the bottom…this is when I said a quiet prayer. Things can happen and if it does you will have a very entertaining ‘cake story’ to tell your friends. So be very careful when you are doing the turn. I stick the cake in my freezer  while I used the carved pieces with buttercream to make the spackle paste. I add a little little coffee creamer to soften the cake to form a nice paste. I remove cake from freezer and apply paste filling in all the open pockets and try to get it completely covered. I apply a real heavy coat because it does taste delicious under the fondant. Place cake in refrigerator this time for about 20 minutes to firm up. Remove and apply a coat of buttercream, I apply a light coat or enough to give a smooth finish. The buttercream helps the fondant to stick and I get no air pockets. The size of the fondant to cover the cake I calculate using an un-scientific method…do you want to hear it? Well, I use a product which I purchased from Sweet Wise called The Mat, I love this product. I can roll out my fondant between the mats and move it around without getting stuff on the fondant before covering my cake. So this is how I carved and covered the cake.

I Am a Cake Artist!

Well, Katherine’s teacher was beside herself when she saw the cake. She actually was expecting a sheet cake with an apple on it. So, this is what you get when you ask Auntie Jeannie to bake you a cake, I try very had to do ‘ordinary’ or simple,  believe me I really try. But every time I get the chance to push the envelope, I some times put it a little to far. Nevertheless, that’s the example I was to teach Katie that you can do whatsoever you set your mind to do. Katie said her teacher said, “Your aunt is an artist.” I  smiled when she told me because I am more and more seeing myself in that fashion: I am a Cake Artist!
Hope this information was helpful to someone. Drop me an email if you have any question or leave a comment on this post.
Walk good and happy caking…
Jeannie

Wedding Cakes–Summer of 2011

May and June were our busiest months this summer and we had more than enough cakes for our small operation. Can you believe that July and now August we purposefully took less orders in order to get a break? Well, July I took time to spend with hubby celebrating our anniversary as well as taking the time to focus our energies.

Here are a few of the cake we made:

Ariael & Brodrick’s Wedding - Fort Lauderdale, FL	Kathy & Marwan’s  Wedding - Fort Lauderdale, FL
LaToya & Markis Wedding - Sunrise, FL	Nancy & Joey’s Wedding - Pembroke Pines, FL
Fireproofing Your Marriage - Calvary Chapel Sawgrass Church, Davie, FL	Kendra & Steven’s Wedding - Boca Raton, FL

Answering The Tasting Question

It's difficult turning your beloved hobby into a business. Since it is not easy separating doing the things that feels good from the more practical thing which makes a business operates profitable and become prosperous. For me one of the challenge is answering the tasting question when potential clients call. There is a big difference between a custom cake shop and a bakery...I bake cakes to order, therefore I consider my business a custom cake shop. Cakes are not bake daily and placed in a glass case awaiting customers. My service is customized and personalized for my clients.
 
Being the owner of a very small custom cake shop I receive call and emails daily requesting quotes for cake and cake tasting. It's exciting getting calls and emails with the potential of getting new business, but the cost of cake tasting, when I was doing it FREE was killing my bottom line. I found I was baking more tasting cakes than I was baking cake for serious business. I was offering a delicious cake at a price reflecting the work that goes into my product, however, those requesting tasting would rather pay less for good work. When I have done that I found I was working twice as hard for far less doing more work which was not appreciated, not even with a "thank you" email later. For a while it was a turnoff because there was no way I could justify to my husband that I could make my business profitable if I ran it the way I was doing it. After getting tips from other decorators and planners I changed my operations.

First I realize I was not competing with the local supermarkets for cake business because my cakes are made from scratch. Next, I am offering my services to those wanting a special type of cake at their event because they have certain preferences, relishes the fine taste of a cake baked from scratch with their own personalized decorations. Plus they are willing to pay the cost for this type of service. In the process of marketing my business, it became clear to me last December that I was really under valuing my work. I took my album with pictures of some of my cakes to an event planner and he was very impress with my work (especially the sculptured cakes) and asked what my prices were. He was shocked when compared with cakes other baker created for some of his events how I was giving mine away!

Now I'm charging for tasting appointments and offering the purchase of tasting cakes if they want a specific flavor. The result, serious clients who are not wasting my time wanting five different flavors, sketches and loads of other stuff then later gives the business to someone else. I am getting more clients who book their weddings and parties after the tasting and consultation because they love what they tasted and would love to have more. That's how I see it.

In essence it is looking at the value I place on my work and less about the cost of tasting. What are your thoughts?

Inserted from: Dreamers Into Doers--Martha Stewart.com

Copyright by Jeanette Jackson of Blue Ivy, LLC. If you would like to post any of my photographs, please contact me. Thank you!