Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Orange Vanda Orchids Wedding Cake



The fruit of my labor from the previous blog post is shown here: A square three tier wedding cake made of lemon coconut cake with passion fruit filling, and on the top tier a pure vanilla cake with dulce de leche cream filling.

The hand crafted orange sugar Vanda Orchids cascade down a branch on the front of the cake covered in light yellow buttercream. In addition, some scattered musical notes are piped around the cake to match the theme of this wedding reception at the Shanghai Jazz restaurant in Madison NJ.

Friday, July 23, 2010

How to make Vanda Orchid sugar flowers

I thought it would be fun to share with you how I make sugar flowers, in this case I am working on some bright orange Vanda Orchids for a wedding cake.

First of all I gather together the necessary tools: small rolling pin, ball tool, cloth covered wire (20g and 24g wire), Vanda Orchid cutter set (throat and petals), veiner, petal mat with clear cover, a thick and a thin foam pad, plus floral tape.



I color and roll out sugar paste to cut out the throats. On the thin pad press the ball tool into the center of the upper section, cupping upwards. Then I ruffle the sides of the lower section. For the tongue, roll out a ball of sugar paste into a small cylinder shape.

With a needle tool mark a line in the center. Insert a damp hooked wire (20g) into one end, pass it through the center of the throat, stick it with a dab of sugar glue and let the whole thing dry having placed them in the forming trays (egg cartons!)



For the petals, roll out the sugar paste, press with a Vanda Orchid veiner, cut out the petal and insert a wire carefully. On the thin foam pad, lightly thin the edges with a sugar flower ball tool. Let the petal dry flat and repeat with the rest of the petals (5 per orchid).



Each set of petals and the throat is assembled by wiring the pieces together and then wrapping white floral tape around the wires. Next I dust the flowers with petal dust to match the desired color scheme.




Here is a close up of the final result. For the wedding cake I was preparing, I attached each flower to a long brown stem.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Seashells and Cattleya Orchids Wedding Cake


A perfect aqua colored cake for a summer wedding at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club in South Orange NJ. Groups of shells and pencil starfish decorate each tier, with a small bouquet of Cattleya orchids on top. Each of the orchids contained a small fondant pearl. Inside are two tiers of chocolate pecan cake with chocolate cream filling, while the others were red velvet cake and cream cheese filling.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Blue Hydrangea Wedding Cake


A customer celebrating their 40th birthday never had a formal wedding cake, so that is what we made for their big celebration in South Orange NJ. This traditional square four tier design has two tiers of pure white vanilla cake with dulce de leche cream filling, and the other tiers of red velvet cake with cream cheese filling. White fondant covers the cake, and it has fondant drapes shimmering with silver, fondant pearls encircling each tier, a piped monogram with ribbon wrap-around and bunches of cascading blue hydrangea sugar flowers.