Cake Fiction

If you can't decide your favorite flavor, then you have to have them all! Inside this three tier Mardi Gras theme cake is a chocolate sponge with raspberry cream filling, red velvet with cream cheese filling and vanilla cake with dulce de leche.

The cake is covered in purple, green and gold fondant, decorated with stripes, stars and diamonds. On top is a Mardi Gras mask with feathers and shooting stars.

Delivered to a Sweet 16 party at the Stoney Brook Grill in North Branch NJ.

A three tier sweet sixteen cake decorated with white fondant drapes and sugar Calla Lilies, each with a touch of pink or blue. One tier has red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, and the others are vanilla cake with dulce de leche butter cream. Silver fondant pearls surround the base of each tier, silver dragees adorn the cake board, and we placed a big number sixteen on the middle tier covered in sugar diamonds and sapphires. The cake was delivered to a garden birthday party.

A vanilla cake with dulce de leche buttercream in the top tier and a red velvet cake with cream cheese filling on the bottom. White fondant is covered in multicolored stripes and decorated with jungle animals (my perennial favorites: the lion, elephant and giraffe) modeled out of gumpaste. A seal is demonstrating its juggling skills with a red fondant ball covered in white polka dots. We delivered the cake to a Baby Shower in Jersey City near the waterfront.

Earlier in the summer we held a cake decorating class to demonstrate how to make a handbag cake. It was a fun group and we had a great time.

We learned how to carve the cake into a handbag shape and then crumb coat the cake. Once the cake was slightly chilled we added a final coat of buttercream and then covered it with a piece of rolled fondant.

Finally each of the students chose whatever decoration they wanted to complete the bag design: fondant bows, cutouts, stripes, polka dots etc..

Special thanks to Lisa, Nancy and Cora for organizing the class.

A 3D Dora the Explorer surprise birthday cake, with chocolate fudge cake and Madagascar Vanilla bean filling. "We did it!"

We constructed a frame for Dora using PVC pipe and joints, with several wood platforms for the body and head.

The PVC pipe is not easy to work with, as it is difficult to make the Rice Krispies and fondant stick. That was until I tried my secret weapon from Argentina - homemade Dulce de Leche.

Various photos in this post show how we built her up, added the cake and crumb coat, then working up the body adding her multi-colored outfit and backpack. Her hair is made up from Rice Krispie treats, covered in brunette color chocolate fondant.

Apart from getting her facial expression right, the cake proved quite a challenge to deliver, since Dora is very top heavy, but we made it!

For a deserving graduate from Seton Hall University in NJ we created a two tier Graduation Cake decorated with yellow Cymbidium orchids, lavender and light pink Sweet Peas. The bottom tier is a red velvet cake with cream cheese and Callebaut white chocolate filling, then a top tier of walnut almond cake with dulce de leche buttercream. The fondant covered cake has a trim of purple rope drapes and yellow pearls.

I love Paris and began my culinary studies there, so I was delighted when asked by a sweet sixteen birthday girl to design a cake incorporating a French theme, fashion and pink poodles!

We created her a three tier topsy turvy cake, topped with a golden Eiffel Tower. The bottom tier is chocolate fudge cake with dulce de leche buttercream filling, covered in a pink fondant and decorated with fondant buttons. The other tiers are vanilla cake with strawberry mousse filling. A purple bow is wrapped around the middle tier, while the top tier is purple fondant covered with green diamond shapes. A small pink handbag, shoe, a ring and a purple necklace also bring in the fashion theme.

A white two tier vanilla cake with dulce de leche buttercream which we delivered to West Orange NJ for a double graduation celebration.

Lime and melon colored fondant shapes and shooting stars decorate the cake, which is topped with a black graduation cap.

Our Sweet Sixteen wanted a guitar theme cake for her party at Portobello in Oakland NJ. This three tier wonky cake had vanilla, chocolate fudge and walnut almond flavor cakes with chocolate raspberry, vanilla and dulce de leche fillings.

The cake is covered in red and chocolate fondant, chocolate stripes and a white fondant bow. The cake is topped with white and red anemone sugar flowers, and hanging guitar charms complete the decoration.

Recently the most popular filling requested by my customers has been Dulce de Leche. When combined with buttercream it makes a perfect match for Walnut Almond cake, Pure White Vanilla cake, Chocolate Fudge cake and how about Banana cake?

The trick when baking is to use Dulce de Leche Pastelero (this literally means Dulce de Leche for Pastry), which has been condensed so that it will not run or be displaced by the cake or pastry layers. It is also commonly used in Argentina in ice cream, where again it maintains its thick consistency.


My preferred recipe:

I make my own Dulce de Leche, although you can now purchase small jars imported from Argentina, almost all the brands are regular Dulce de Leche and not suitable for use in pastry. Here's the recipe I have found to be most reliable:

Ingredients
* 2 liters of whole milk
* 1 kg of sugar
* 1 Vanilla bean (or 1 Tbsp of Pure Vanilla Extract)
* 1/2 tsp of baking soda
* 2 Tbsp of corn starch dissolved in 2oz milk
* 1 Tbsp of glucose

1. Pour the milk into a large pan, together with the sugar, the vanilla bean sliced in two, and the baking soda. Raise the heat until it reaches boiling, and then lower the heat to simmer, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.

2. Keep stirring occasionally, to ensure that the mixture does not burn at the bottom of the pan. Some people like to put 3 glass marbles in the pan, which can help prevent the mixture from burning. Continue to let the mixture simmer until it starts to turn a light caramel color and begins to thicken.
Take out the vanilla bean, if you are using this.

3. Add the corn starch dissolved in milk and the glucose. Stir and let it boil until the mixture reaches 106 celsius, then remove from the heat.

4. Pour the mixture into sterilized glass jars and seal. The jars should be kept in the refrigerator, and will last there for up to a month.


The Origin of Dulce de Leche:

I was brought up to believe in the popular Argentine story about the origin of Dulce de Leche. Supposedly in 1829, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Argentina's President, and his political adversary Juan Lavalle were due to meet to sign a peace agreement in Rosas' estancia (ranch) at Cañuelas in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Lavalle was the first to arrive, somewhat tired he fell asleep in Rosas' bed! A maid in the household was warming milk with sugar (a concoction know at that time as lechada) to accompany the afternoon mate (mate is a very popular herbal tea drunk widely in Argentina and Uruguay), but she stumbled across the sleeping Lavalle in her employer's room, which she believed to be a great insult and went straight away to advise the guards.

Rosas arrived soon after, but he wasn't angry at Lavalle and ordered the maid to bring in mate with the milk. She realized that she had left the milk simmering on the stove for ages. When she got back to the kitchen, she found the pan full of a thick and caramel colored substance. Rosas tried this "dulce", which he thought very pleasant, and he shared it with Lavalle while they discussed the terms of their agreement. So we are told, this is how dulce de leche was accidentally invented.

This weekend we made an offset two-tier square cake with a light purple fondant and wrapped in white fondant ribbons, then topped with small bouquet of purple cymbidium orchids.

One tier was vanilla cake with dulce de leche buttercream, and the other was red velvet cake with cream cheese filling.

We also made three dozen cookies (half flavored with vanilla, the others lemon) to match in the shape of the number sixty, covered in a lavender color, and with a small white flower. Each cookie is wrapped in a cellophane bag and tied with a purple ribbon.

For a special birthday celebration in Fords NJ.

This two tier square cake was decorated with a piped staff and a selection of fondant cutout notes. The bottom tier is vanilla cake with dulce de leche buttercream, the top tier is chocolate fudge cake with Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream. Larger black and silver musical notes shoot out the top of this ivory colored cake. We delivered the cake to Alessio Restaurant in Metuchen NJ for a 50th birthday party.

This Juicy Couture handbag cake was created for a Sweet Sixteen party at the Regency House Hotel in Pompton Plains NJ.

The handbag is made with walnut almond cake and homemade dulce de leche buttercream. It is covered in a pink fondant and decorated with pink and chocolate fondant bows and assorted hanging charms, plus a personalized key chain.



The bag is placed on a quilted pink cushion made with red velvet cake and white chocolate ganache filling. A trim surrounds the cushion and has pink fondant tassles at each corner.

What a fun cake with three multi-colored building blocks, animal shaped fondant cutouts, the birthday boy's initials, and an edible picture frame with his photo!

Each block has a different combination of cake and filling: coconut cake with dulce de leche buttercream, chocolate fudge cake with Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream and red velvet cake with raspberry cream filling.

Shooting stars, colored balls and fondant twists surround the the Cookie Monster who is bursting out of the top building block to surprise the guests at the birthday party in Cedar Knolls NJ.

We were commissioned to create a three tier chocolate cake for a 30th wedding anniversary party in Llewellyn Park, West Orange NJ. Almond Walnut cake and Dulce de Leche buttercream, and Chocolate Fudge with Callebaut Chocolate Ganache were the favorites they picked.

A red fondant ribbon surrounds each tier, and the chocolate fondant covered cake is topped with a bouquet of hand-made sugar flowers in different shades (dark red, light red, dark orange were the color palette), they included poppies, lilies, roses, buds, blossoms and leaves.

We were asked to make a spooky cake for a Halloween party in Short Hills NJ. The tall tier is chocolate fudge cake with dulce de leche buttercream, while the top and bottom tiers are carrot cake with orange chocolate buttercream. Orange fondant covers the cake, a large black spider sits on its web, while flying bats circle above and below. Whooooo!!!

Our bride from Lodi NJ chose a formal white colored wedding cake with bunches of pink and peach colored roses on each of the three tiers. The bottom tier was hazelnut cake with dulce de leche cream filling, while the top tiers were red velvet cake with Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream. We delivered the cake to Highlawn Pavilion in West Orange NJ, what a popular venue!

A birthday cake for a dancer and Playboy bunny fan delivered to Newark NJ. The bottom tier was walnut cake and dulce de leche buttercream with Playboy bunnies cut out of black fondant. The second tier was vanilla cake with praline buttercream filling and dancing silhouettes on a white fondant. Each tier had silver and black fondant mosaic ribbon and then on top we placed a silver disco ball and black shooting stars!