Champagne: Chic and Elegant

Sometimes folks feel that white-on-white cakes don't pack enough punch; but they don't want to go crazy with color.

How about champagne??

Champagne is a deeper, fuller color than ivory (we wouldn't even consider it on the "white" spectrum), but it's still muted, classic, and elegant.

For this couple's wedding, we went with modern, square tiers and bamboo borders.  The cake was covered in champagne-colored rolled chocolate  (softening the corners of the square tiers), and then the fern design from the couple's invitations was translated into white rolled chocolate applique decorating the tiers.

Swiss Dot and Fresh Flowers!

 Becky and John's wedding cake was a beautiful demonstration of how fresh flowers can transform a wedding cake! 

Dessert Works decorated their cake with our sweet and simple Swiss Dot design.  On the bottom tier only, we brought in the couple's blue accent color with a fabric ribbon.

Fresh hydrangea poms, blossoms, and blush pink roses provided the finishing touches to pull everything together!  The fresh flowers then coordinated perfectly with the girls' bouquets, which provided additional decor to the cake table.

Edible images on a wedding cake!

We loved Kendra and Mike's thoughtful idea for a truly personalized wedding cake.  They decided to treat their wedding cake like a photo album, and to decorate it (literally) with memories of times shared together!

Each picture on the cake was printed in black and white as an edible image on sugar paper, then cut to size, applied on the cake, and "framed" in vanilla buttercream.  On the alternating tiers, the couple opted for Dessert Works' Wallace Scroll design in white to contrast and set apart the photograph tiers.

The bride's flowers included fuchsia Gerbera Daises, which Dessert Works created in edible form from buttercream for the cake's top bouquet.  Their honeymoon cake even included miniaturized versions of the pictures!  For an event that is a celebration of the couple and their relationship, how much more fitting could this design be.  Our best to the happy couple!

 

Made To Order Cannolis

To all you loyal fans of Dessert Works, I have some exciting news! We are now offering made-to-order cannolis in two different sizes, with or without chocolate chips. This is a new step for us at Dessert Works, and we strive to provide our customers with the ultimate in freshness and deliciousness. We hope you'll come in and get one.

• Small: $1.50
• Large: $3.00
• Add Chocolate Chips: $0.25

Filling cannolis is really fun.

Amy is filling the various sizes of cannoli shells.

Such Focus!

Small, small with chocolate chips, large, large with chocolate chips

New England Fall Foliage Wedding Cake

 Fall weddings in New England are in high demand - the region's autumn foliage provides a such a stunning backdrop; couples reserve fall dates far in advance to take advantage of the landscape.

With fall coming up quickly on the horizon, we thought we'd remind you of our decorators' talents in rolled chocolate.  We're honestly capable of paralleling and capturing nature's beauty on your wedding cake!  (**If you're unfamiliar with rolled chocolate, it's Dessert Works' preferred alternative to fondant.  Check out our previous blog post on this topic for more info on this medium.)

Here's a cake from September 2010: we did a top bouquet of rolled chocolate roses, calla lilies, autumn leaves, and even a baby pumpkin for the season!  We brought in a range of beautiful hues such burgundy, eggplant, deep sage, and burnt orange to evoke the feeling of autumn.

The sides of the tiers were decorated in our "Ivy with Fall Leaves" design, where both the ivy and the tiny "leaves" are piped on in our delicious vanilla buttercream. 

Royal Wedding Cake

Forgive us, things have been so busy at Dessert Works, we forgot to ask!

What did you think of the Royal Wedding Cake???

Fresh Flowers and a Classic Wallace Scroll

Christina and Mark were married in Fall 2010 at the Four Points by Sheraton, in Norwood, where Dessert Works is the package wedding cake provider for receptions.

Their design was completely in package (i.e. no additional out-of-pocket expense to the couple!) -- it included our classic Wallace Scroll design piped in white buttercream, accented by fresh flowers and a topper of the couple's married last initial.

Quite simple, yet quite elegant at the same time - wouldn't you agree?

Stanley Cup Wedding!!

What a fun wedding!!

Bradley and Kevin made a bet back in December... if the Bruins won the playoffs, then the wedding cake would be a Stanley Cup.  Flash forward to August ...  :)

We started off designing a Stanley Cup "inspired" wedding cake that still had the look of a traditional, tiered cake. Ultimately though, the CUP design won out!!

This cake featured vanilla buttercream frosting and design work (a variation on Dessert Works's Wallace Scroll design), with white rolled chocolate crossed hockey sticks and detailing to create the wedding-version of the cup.

Can't wait to hear what the couple thought of the finished product!!  Go Bs!!!!

 

Wedding Cake Trends

According to The Knot, here are 7 trends in wedding cakes these days:

1. Wedding Cake Trend #1: Buttercream-frosted Cakes The cake shows you see on TV may tout fondant coverings, but Dessert Works has long been a supporter of a buttercream finish.  If the decorator is talented enough, which ours are, you can still achieve a nice smooth finish.
   
2. Wedding Cake Trend #2: Haute Chocolate Cakes
   We've done the ganache-covered chocolate cakes!  White may be traditional, but Chocolate's haute!
   
3. Wedding Cake Trend #3: Playful Lines
   We've certainly seen this trend, particularly in the use of banding.  We can colorize rolled chocolate to create this look, whether in uniform bands across all tiers, or playful geometric perpendicular lines!
   
4. Wedding Cake Trend #4: Dramatic Color
   Don't be afraid to incorporate bold colors into your wedding cake!   
5. Wedding Cake Trend #5: Cake TriosThe symmetry in 3s makes for lovely balance.  We've done mixes of cakes from 1/table, to 1/person (our mini-cakes were used as favors!), to a mix of sizes on one dramatic cakes display table.
6. Wedding Cake Trend #6: Global PatternsWe would welcome more heritage-inspired decor!  When weddings are truly personal, details like this are not lost on others.  The wedding is a celebration of the couple and their relationship, why not incorporate culture.  
   
7. Wedding Cake Trend #7: Sophisticated MonogramsHere's a fun way to take a symbol of tradition, the monogram, but spice it up -- whether with placement, or execution (how about a layered rolled chocolate plaque?), or color - Dessert Works can provide!

What look do you prefer?

What's the Story on Cake Toppers?

People often ask me: do people still use cake toppers?

YES, THEY DO!

Perhaps there was a time when cake toppers were much more mainstream (nowadays, where decorating has come such a long way, a top bouquet of either hand-made rolled-chocolate flowers or buttercream flowers is probably more common), but many folks still go with toppers.

We've seen them all:  traditional bride and groom figurines, lovebirds, custom clay-casts in the likeness of the couple, a pair of Black Labradors on the top... anything goes.  It's your cake!

So how does it work, if you want to use a topper?

1. You provide the topper.  You know your style best, find something that fits your relationship and the theme of your wedding.
2. The topper does not stay with Dessert Works.  Your cake would never travel on delivery with a topper (it's too precarious to risk) -- so your topper will be placed at the venue once the cake has arrived.
3. Dessert Works does need to know (a) the dimensions of your topper's base and (b) its general material.  You can email us measurements, send us a link to the topper picture online, etc.  If your topper is made of a heavier material (clay, ceramic, etc.) - we may dowel the top tier to ensure it is fully supported.
4. Should we decorate around your topper with a ring of flowers, or accent bunches of flowers?  Or, should the topper be the sole focal point?  We'll sort out all these questions in the process of designing your cake.

What do YOU think about toppers?  What the best cake topper you've seen?