The Chatter

I am a caterer by trade and I love/hate to bake. It truly is a love/hate relationship because I get such a high from making really awesome desserts and cakes but sometimes I get so bogged down in the details I have to force myself to finish certain projects!

I am self taught and love to work with chocolate and can’t get enough of reading cake books and clay books (yes clay because now just about anything you can make out of clay can be made out of chocolate clay and put on a cake!!) I love pearl dusts, petal dusts, lace molds, edible glitter, etc.

What I hate are cakes that are made out of all things inedible! I sometimes watch these cake contests on tv and just cringe because three quarters of their work is inedible (Beautiful but inedible) That makes it hard for the rest of us because many people watch  these shows or see pictures of these cakes and think we  (cake bakers) can just make one in a day for next to nothing……But that subject is for another day.

Anyhow I have recently had a lot of inquiries about first birthday cakes. I had a gentleman send me an email with pictures of three very detailed whimsical cakes with all the bells and whistles for a first birthday cake. He told me he needed it to feed 40 people, needed 3 different flavors, needed it travel for 4 hours.  The pictures he sent me were of cakes that would feed about 130 people and all covered in fondant with multicolor fondant accessories and gumpaste butterflies and bows,  and crowns, etc. 

People do not realize that as you start stacking tiers on a cake the number of servings really grows.  You also need to be mindful of the width of the cake below each cake as if it is only 2″ different it leaves little or no room  between layer edges and can throw off the design. This is the same with wedding cakes. I am always advising brides not to just look at the design on the cake but also the construction as it plays a large part. So if you go to a 4″ difference in widths your cakes are now feeding at least 100!

I don’t want to sell people more cake than they need. That is wasteful and expensive. So I try to advise my First Birthday clients to maybe make one large cake for the friends and family at  the party and then make a small (3″ or 4″) cake for the birthday girl/boy (usually called a “smash cake”).

Save the bells and whistles for the birthday’s they will remember. Like the Never Land Cake I made for my son on his 4th birthday.

Of course now each year he usually wants a very detailed cake so beware!!

MdCaterer