A Good Cause

I have always been an animal lover, but I have not always been a shelter lover. We adopted a lot of shelter animals when I was a kid, but going to select a new pet was always a somewhat depressing experience. We knew we were helping our new family member, but you couldn't help but feel sad for the other animals left behind in cold, metal cages.

Last spring, my boyfriend and I decided it was time to get a friend for our cat, Ace. Ace is very social, so I knew we were going to need an animal that was absolutely perfect for him.

When I stepped foot into the Humane Society for Greater Savannah, I could see it was a different place than the shelters I had been to as a kid. The walls were all brightly-colored, the staff was excited, and the animals actually looked.....happy.

Friendly cats were allowed to roam in a big screen porch area. Dogs had a lot of area to play. We found our new cat, Kenobi, there, and began the adoption process. The staff were sad to see the kitten go, which showed real compassion for their charges.

I knew I'd really found a great organization when, right before we took Kenobi home, one of the staff members picked him up and gave him a kiss on the head. For an industry where it is easy to grow numb to the troubles of homeless animals, I knew Humane Society for Greater Savannah was different.

Since then, I've tried to help the organization as much as I could. We donated a cake to last winter's fundraising event, and it was such a big hit! We also do our best to try to help make the community aware of when the shelter could use a little help.

Now, we'd like to help again. Humane Society for Greater Savannah is holding a "Dog Lovers' Walk" at the Landings on February 25th. This is their biggest fundraiser of the year, and they could use your support! You'll also find an ad for TIER Luxury Cakes in their program! If you aren't in Savannah, consider making a donation to help them help homeless animals this year.

This is a organization that I feel 100% awesome about supporting, and I hope you will, too!

Food into Cake? Cake into Food?

Making a cake into something that resembles another food is always a weird thing. It is certainly deceiving to the brain ("Is that really a burger? What am I looking at??"), but always a BLAST for me to create!

Alfredia came into my shop looking for a groom's cake, but wasn't sure yet what to do for it. When she told me that her fiance was the owner of 520 Wings on Victory Drive, I knew we had our answer!

I began work on the big bowl of wings the day before her wedding. The first step was to create all the pieces. First, I made a bunch of sugar celery and a little bowl of "ranch dressing" to go on the side of the cake.

The celery was created from pale green sugarpaste. I formed them to shape with my hands, and let them dry over a wooden dowel rod to keep their shape. When they were ready, I airbrushed them slightly for depth, and used a fine paintbrush to add the lines. For the dressing, I just took some frosting, crumbled some chocolate cake crumbs in, and piped it into a sugarpaste "bowl".

Of course, the next step was the wings! Being a vegetarian, I was sure to pull up tons of reference photos to make sure I was getting them right. Alfredia sent me some photos of his wings, too.

I started with chunks of pale orange fondant, and formed them to shape. Next, it was time to airbrush! The airbrush color is specifically made for cake decorating, and is really just watered down food coloring. I started with a layer of orange airbrush color to add depth, and them used a darker brown to add the "burnt" areas.

But they were still looking a little flat. The answer: a paintbrush, and some darker brown food color for accent areas!

Now they're starting to look like wings! Once they got onto the cake, they were looking great, but I knew they needed a little extra "umph"...

Ah, that's it! The sauce on wings makes them glossy! So I whipped up a little orange piping gel, and used a big fat paintbrush to spread it onto the wings in the bowl. A few little drips of the "sauce" and now we were in business!

What fun!! I always think people probably feel a little deceived when they cut into a cake that is in the shape of another food, but I suppose that is part of the fun!

Until next time!

Anna's Birthday Cake!

It is always a pleasure when I get to create birthday cakes for my friends. When you know someone really well, you can always create something for them that you know will fit their interests perfectly. And the especially fun part is that: you often get to have some creative freedom!

I haven't known Anna very long, but we've become fast friends. So when her mom called to ask if I would make her a cake, I was quick to say "yes!". Anna is a member of one of Savannah's favorite local bands, General Oglethorpe and the Panhandlers, so the easy way out would have been to make a guitar shaped cake or something of the like. But we knew better than that!

Anna's boyfriend, Nate Marsh, also happens to be a fantastic illustrator. Anna's mom suggested using one of his drawings on the top of the cake, so I got him on the phone! He was quick to send me an illustration to use on the cake; Anna's favorite character of his: a dog riding a unicycle.

(this is hand-painted in food coloring, using Nate's drawing as reference)

So I had the top of the cake figured out. But what to do for the rest of it?

I was thrilled when Anna stopped by the shop the day before her birthday (not knowing I was making her cake), and pointed out her love for the silver bird on one of my cakes in the showroom!

Perfect! So I whipped up this cute, hipster-vintage birthday cake for Anna. The especially good news: she loved it!!

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Happy birthday, Anna!

Your Wedding Cake vs. Southern Sun

I get it. Really, I do. It's a great, romantic notion. Your perfect day in the sun, and you and your love cut your wedding cake in the beauty of the Southern outdoors.

Sounds great! The reality is, however, that sun and heat can take a toll on a wedding cake. Remember that, while your wedding cake may seem to you like a monolithic pillar for your wedding day - a statue, almost! - it is still just eggs and flour.

Even the most well-built wedding cake (tiered cakes use a table-like structure system of plastic dowels and cardboard plateaus to stay aloft) will begin to melt in the heat of the American South. Trust me, I've seen it.

Does this mean you have to abandon all of your hopes and dreams for your perfect outdoor wedding? No! You have lots of options to make sure your artistic dessert continues to stay perfect.

1) Consider putting your cake indoors. Most outdoor venues that I have been to have some sort of indoor area around them. Usually it is the clubhouse for the golf course, or the inn which has that great outdoor courtyard for your reception. Put your cake inside the door to your outdoor area, that way it can benefit from the air conditioning, and still be seen by your guests on their way to your reception.

2) Go with fondant. No matter how much you decide you don't like it, fondant holds up better in the heat. It acts as a "hug" for the buttercream underneath, and will prevent the buttercream from sliding down the cake, which is what would happen if you had an all-buttercream, no-fondant cake.

3) At the very least, put a tent over the cake. For bigger budget weddings, consider an air-conditioned tent. But if you're on a budget, keeping the cake in the shade will help to prolong its life a little.

4) Cut the cake early. To give you an idea of the life-span of your cake before it meets you at the reception: your wedding cake will be refrigerated at the cake shop until about an hour before your guests arrive to your wedding. It thrives in the cold, so if you absolutely must have your cake in the Southern heat, try to cut it while it still has a little bit of that refrigeration left in it.

All in all, it is best to avoid putting your cake outdoors as much as possible. In fact, I try my hardest to sway my brides away from putting cakes outdoors ever, even if it is the fall or the winter. And the bigger your cake is, the more susceptible it will be to melting in the sunlight.

I have never had a cake fall, and I don't intend to start now!

Ask Ashlee: "What Is It Like Being On Food Network Challenge?"

When people come into my cake boutique in Savannah, Georgia, usually the first question out of everyone's mouth is the same:

"What was it like being on Food Network Challenge?"

I have appeared on five episodes of Food Network's competition-style show "Challenge". They are, in no particular order:

- Beauty Pageant Cakes

- Extreme Wedding Cakes

- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Cakes

- Paranormal Cakes

- LEGO Cakes

Okay, I lied. They're in chronological order.

All of my experiences with Food Network Challenge have been absolutely delightful. The show has changed a lot over the time that I have been participating on it. When I filmed the first two episodes, they filmed the show in a small studio, and we were each given a small kitchen to work within. By the time I got to my third Challenge, the show had been given a great big new studio, and we each had these impressive, circular kitchens to work in. It was amazing!

I feel like, because of this, I have sort of been able to wean myself onto the experience of the competing on Food Network Challenge. The first couple episodes felt somewhat cozy and close. It was a different kitchen than what I was used to working in, but still felt very much like my shop back in Savannah.

When the new studio was built, there was this AMAZING new dramatic lighting in the studio that made me feel like a movie star. The spotlight rose on you at the beginning of the day, and fell at the end - literally!

But enough about the studio (it is amazing). The show is hard, hard work. Yes, it is really filmed in 8 hours. But what is even harder than that is that there is several hours of filming around that 8 hours. You spend a lot of time getting makeup on, waiting for lights to get set-up, getting instructions, waiting for the judges to make a decision, etc. It is absolutely exhausting. I have never worked harder in my life than I do on Food Network Challenge.

The weird thing, though, is that due to the show being filmed at a top-secret location with a climate very much unlike the one I live in, I often experience the worst sickness the day after the show films. It is not unlike a terrible hangover - but I didn't have anything to drink! We hardly eat or drink during the filming of the show, so it is hard to keep yourself healthy while you're on the set. It happens every time, and I have learned to prepare for it, but man - what a shock the first time I experienced it!

Everyone always asks me what the judges are like. Let me tell you: they are great, all of them! We all have a "character" we need to play on TV. Mine has sort of become the "rough, cocky youngun", and the judges have characters they play, too. It's what people like to see! What you don't see on TV, however, is that the judges really do care for you and your work, and after every Challenge make an effort to come to you personally and tell you about how they felt about your performance that day. They are the judges on a hit Food Network show for a reason, and their input is so, so valuable.

It is such an honor to be able to have been included in the roster of Food Network Challenge competitors, and I hope cake television never dies! There are a lot of television programs about cake, these days. Maybe not as much as there was a couple years ago, but it is still pretty prevalent.

Many people I have talked to say that they think cake television will never go away. People liken it to sports on TV. People will always have a want to see their favorite team compete on television!

Will it always be the same for cake design? What do you think?

How Much Cake Do You Really Need?

Deciding how much cake to get for your wedding day can be a tricky conundrum. On the one hand, you'd hate to pay for cake no one will eat, but on the other, you want to make sure every guest gets a bite.

Since it is good practice to order your wedding cake at least 6 months before your wedding, as well, it can be tricky determining just how much cake you'll need. After all, you probably don't have invitations sent out yet, let alone having got them back! Lucky for you, I'm here to give you a few tips on how to decide how much cake you'll need for your wedding day.

1) Start with the number of guests you'll be inviting. Let's pretend you're inviting 120 people.

2) How close is the wedding to where you are from? Standard fare is to assume that 80% of guests invited will come to the wedding, but if you are having a destination wedding, where guests will have to travel further, you may be able to consider even less. I find that generally my destination brides have about 70% of their invited guests attend. Let's assume that you are a destination bride. This means you're now looking at a cake for 84 people. And with a wedding cake, that can be a big difference.

3) Are you having a seated/plated dinner, or serving hors d'oeurves or a buffet instead? If you are having a buffet style or hors d'oeurves style dinner, you might be able to knock a few more servings off. Be careful with this one, however. You'll need to keep in mind that while some people may not eat cake, others may grab two or three plates. If you are having a seated/plated dinner, do not skimp. Play it safe: if you are having a plated dinner, get a cake that will feed all invited guests, just in case. You will look pretty silly if not everyone gets served a slice of cake.

4) Are you having other desserts? If you are having a groom's cake, divide your servings between the two. If you are serving things like cookies or pastries, then your guests may not also grab a slice of wedding cake.

In general, however, it is better to have too much cake than not enough.

You will also need to keep in mind that, of course, as you scale down the number of servings for your cake, your cake will become smaller. This sounds like common sense, but I frequently have brides who will say:

"I only need my cake to feed 75 people, but I want it to be HUGE!"

These things do not go together. Only you can prioritize what is important to you. Is it more important that you have a large cake, or is it more important that you don't have any leftover cake? Different things matter to different people.

Take a look at what your whole reception looks like, talk to your planner, and most importantly, talk to your cake designer. They are professionals, and will be able to tell you what will best fit your special day.

Much Ado About Groom's Cakes

I'll admit, as a damn Yankee, having grown up in New Hampshire, the first time I ever heard the words "groom's cake" was well into my adulthood. With the majority of my cake-making history having been rooted in Georgia, however, the concept of creating a groom's cake to accompany the wedding cake is not foreign to me.

The concept of the groom's cake originated in Victorian times, but is most frequently attributed to the American South. The idea was that, back in the day, the bridal cake was pretty boring. It was usually a white or vanilla cake, frosted with vanilla buttercream, with white decorations. Yawn.

So it became commonplace for the groom to order a chocolate cake for himself, often frosted with chocolate frosting and decorated with fruit, to add a little variety to the dessert selection, and provide something that wouldn't put him and the groomsmen to sleep.

The groom's cake has evolved greatly over the years, however, with much of the transformation happening in the short time I have been in the cake industry.

At first, the groom would order a logo on top of the chocolate cake instead of fruit. Usually it was an alma mater or a fraternity.

Then it started to incorporate sculpted elements, maybe a solid chocolate replica of his pet, or something having to do with his profession.

Which then, of course, evolved into the sculpted groom's cake as we know them today. Now, I frequently create three-dimensional sports stadiums for the groom's cake, which can sometimes cost up to thousands of dollars. Oftentimes, the cake is something that reflects an interest that both the bride and the groom have.

Some of my favorite groom's cakes have included:

1) A half-constructed house, with the construction-worker groom outside in hunting garb, and a scared-looking deer peeking around the corner of the house.

2) A replica of Clemson's football stadium, with the bride and the groom tailgating out in the cake-parking-lot.

3) Han Solo in Carbonite.

4) A cruise ship pulling a dinghy with the groom hanging pathetically out of it, with a banner reading "You Have Been Adrift Long Enough".

5) A fondant cut-out of the couple's dog drinking a Dos Equis, with the description "The Most Interesting Dog in the World".

So as you can see, the sky is the limit when it comes to groom's cakes! And listen - it doesn't have to be chocolate anymore, either! Usually the groom's cake is still a fun flavor. We often create them out of banana cake, red velvet, or chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse.

So start making a list of all your groom's favorite things, now!

"I absolutely DO NOT want fondant!"

Probably 90% of my brides begin their consultation with this statement. And trust me, I understand the sentiment. I have also had some amazingly terrible fondant in my days. I have had some that I am certain may have actually been white Play-doh.

Fondant (French for "melting") has been around for a while, but the trend of covering all formal cakes in fondant really came to a head in the height of the television cake craze. Suddenly, everyone was seeing these beautiful cakes being created by wonderful artists unlike anything they'd ever seen. And so it started to become ordered more and more and more.

For some reason, however, there reached a point where everyone decided that since they were only seeing these beautiful cakes on television, and not tasting them, fondant must, therefore, taste awful. After all, it just looks like clay!

I am here to tell you, my dear friends, "oh, contraire!". Fondant comes in many, many varieties. Actually, you may be most familiar with fondant in a different form from your childhood: the filling inside Cadbury eggs! Fondant can be marshmallow flavored, white chocolate flavored, mocha flavored, and Savannah based fondant producer, Fondarific, even makes fondant in flavors like chocolate cherry, melon, and peppermint!

Fondant can also come in many differing levels of quality. McDonald's makes burgers, but would you characterize every hamburger based on what you received at McDonald's? No! You know that a burger can be made to be a work of culinary genius!

When I talk to my brides more about what scares them about fondant, the truth comes out:

"Well, one time my Aunt Mary made a cake for my cousin Larry's bar mitzvah and it tasted awful".

Fair enough.

Aunt Mary probably wasn't using the kind of fondant that the pros use.

And beyond taste, just look at the difference between the aesthetic that fondant provides! If you look at some of the world's finest cake designers, you will often find one common thread: they are masters of fondant decorations.

Now, this isn't to say that fondant and beautiful work are mutually exclusive. There are some AMAZING cake decorators and designers out there who are, quite simply, buttercream charmers. But it can be a somewhat limited medium.

Also, consider the way that a wedding cake is cut. Wilton has a great guide to cutting a wedding cake which will illustrate to you that a large, formal cake is cut into 2"x1" rectangles. What does this mean? This means that only a very small percentage of of the slices of cake at your wedding will have a piece of fondant on them. If Cousin Larry still isn't adventurous enough to try a new gourmet treat, then there will only be a little sliver of fondant for him to eat around.

And so, I am often surprised when a brides comes to me with a request for no fondant. Why compromise the aesthetic of your wedding cake based on what you heard around the water cooler?

After all, you only get one wedding day (or sometimes two or four), and the photos of the cake are photos that will hang around for the rest of your life.

The Birth of a Cake Blog

When I began my foray into the wild and wonderful world of cake design, I was 18. I was a sophomore at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and the high tuition of art school was running me dry. I had worked since I was 13, so I was accustomed to working hard, and a job at the local ice cream shop seemed like a piece of cake (no pun intended) after some of the jobs I'd had in my early teen years.

But it wasn't. Oh, it wasn't. The customers were harsh, I was picking up shifts for almost everyone I worked with, and the co-workers I was blessed to be spending 4pm-midnight with were crass and rude.

When I told a friend of mine about how worn down I was feeling about the dead-end retail job I was working, he said "you decorate cakes, right? Why don't you go see if my mom needs any help?"

I knew who his mom was. Most of Savannah did. Minette operated Custom Cakes, the finest in Savannah's high-end cakes. But what she did included chocolate cake sculpted into bulldogs wearing UGA jerseys, and 6 tier wedding cakes that were immaculate and elegant. What I did was scribble "Happy Birthday" on a frozen slab of ice cream with a mushy bag of frosting. It was hardly the same thing.

But Minette took me in. It was hardly a reprieve from the hard work at the ice cream shop, at first. I worked late into the night with her and her small staff. I was on my feet all day, and sometimes there wasn't any time to sit down.

But this was different than the ice cream shop. I was sculpted food into art. I remembered being young, and the life-size paper-mache animals I used to create when I came home from middle school. This was the same thing! And I was getting paid for it.

Minette was generous in giving me a lot of creative freedom. She will still tell the story of the globe cake we one day had to create, and she needed to be away from the shop while the cake was still just un-frosted cake. Knowing we were in a time crunch, I took it upon myself to finish the damn globe cake. And I did. Without ever being shown how to use fondant before. And it was awesome.

The cake industry has been good to me since then. I have since participated in five episodes of Food Network Challenge, one episode of TLC Ultimate Cake Off, and taught classes all over the country.

Last November, however, I left Minette's wing to start my new venture, TIER Luxury Cakes. The quaint cake design in the heart of downtown Savannah has afforded me all kinds of new adventures. I hope to share with you, my brides and my community, what I have learned so far.

Lord knows it has already been quite the journey.