Starfish & Waves Birthday Cake: Marion, Massachusetts

The Artisan Kitchen created this tiered fondant cake for a birthday- based off of our starfish cake seen HERE http://theartisankitchen.com/cakes.htm

We created two fondant tiers in a pale teal tone along with bright teal waves and real starfish. The birthday celebration inscription includes all of the celebrated guests names. A happy birthday topper along with starfish complete the design.



This cake was delivered from our bakery to a private residence in Marion, Massachusetts.

Teal 40th Sea Shell Birthday Cake

We created this two tiered buttercream cake for Happy 40th! Over The Hill Birthday with a seashore, nautical seashell theme. Teal buttercream tiers are detailed with silver sugar pearls, white chocolate seashells tiny blue sugar starfish and sugar sand.

Mini Pastry Platter: Cake Truffles, Petit Fours, Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Our Favorite Things!

So today let's stray from the norm of cakes and pastries & well--think about a few of our favorite things!

I have to start by first extending my praise to high school classmate of mine, Lauren Methia of Lauren Methia Photography whose photographs blew me away at a recent Bridal Shower and Wedding that I attended she shot- absolutely amazing work! I highly recommend her for any event- wedding, shower, family portaiture--you can find her at www.laurenmethia.com



Another of our favorite things... Persimmon Restaurant in Bristol, Rhode Island! Find owners Champe and Lisa Speidel serving local and very very special fare at their cozy and friendly restaurant. I bumped into Champe, the owner, at a speaking engagement at Johnson and Wales University College of Culinary Arts-- we were both speaking to a class of Juniors and Seniors.

You can contact Persimmon in Bristol, Ri:

www.persimmonbristol.com
Champe and Lisa Speidel
401.254.7474
persimmonbristol@yahoo.com

Fender Stratocaster Guitar Cake

We created this fondant covered, round buttercream cake for a birthday. A red fender stratocaster guitar (we call this type of decor design Flat Art) was hand formed out of sugarpaste and is completely edible!

Wedding Cake: Buttercream Tiers with Sugar Calla Lilly & Wedgewood Blue Berries @ Pinehills Golf Club, Plymouth, Massachusetts

We created this three tiered buttercream cake for a wedding at Pinehills in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

White buttercream tiers are accented with sugar pearl borders. Clusters of calla lillies, white with yellow centers, adorn the tiers along with a large display of calla lillies as a topper. Vines of hand painted sugarpaste blue berries, to match the bridesmaid dresses and accents of linens on the tables add texture and create movement to complete the design.

We created this two tiered buttercream wedding cake with a damask pattern for an intimate wedding celebration on the South Coast of Massachusetts. All hand piped with buttercream. We tinted the buttercream a deep ivory and used a taupe colored buttercream for the piping for this classic antique design.



We delivered this cake to the Waterfont Grille in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Happy Easter from The Artisan Kitchen

Wishing all of our customers a Happy Spring, a very Happy Easter and Passover!

Baking Class: Custom Cake Decorating Class

We had quite the busy day yesterday! Besides dropping our cake off at the Boston Flower Show we continued our Winter Baking Class Series with a "Custom Cake Decorating Class" our hybrid "Buttercream and Fondant" cake was the subject for our two students, who had very little cake decorating experience

Here is the cake design for the class:



Checking the level on our 7" cakes:


Here are our students while crumb coating their cakes:



Making fondant ribbon roses:




Our Cake Decorating students with the final cakes, aren't they beautiful?


Our next classes will run in the winter and early spring of 2011! Including baking classes in the following subject areas:

1) Cookies 101
2) Cupcakes 101
3)Cake Decorating 101
4)Cake Decorating 102
5) Breads and Rolls 101

Each class is 3 hours in length, we run two separate sessions of each class. One is on a Tuesday evening and the other is on a Sunday morning, in order to accomodate a number of schedules. We do recommend taking the CupCake 101 Class before taking the Cake Decorating 101 Class. Also, the Cake Decorating 102 Class must be taken in conjunction with the Cake Decorating 101 Class.

We love teaching and although we've been baking here at The Artisan Kitchen since 2005, our new expanded kitchen space has allowed us to begin teaching this year in 2010!

The Artisan Kitchen's Cake @ Garden of Cakes, Boston Flower Show 2010

Our cake made it to the Boston Flower Show at the Seaport World Trade Center today. Although the rain caused an two and a half hour traffic jam, our cake is safely on display along with 11 other cake designers from around New England.

We must have gone through 40 different design ideas from birds and a nest to branches with small blossoms to an applique design and even a hand painted woodgrain "faux-bois" design. But in the end Jody worked her magic with a classic New England Spring Garden Theme, it was the Garden of Cakes! With all tolled over 20 hours of love, handpainting and sculpting of our completely edible garden adornments on the top of the cake was put into this design. Thank goodness the rain didn't stop us from getting to Boston!


Here is Jody our oh-so-talented artist with our cake in Boston:



A full view of our four tiered garden and a close up of the hand painted garden scene....and finally our Garden Cake Topper: tiny sugar adornments from a garden in bloom: a flower box, a wellie boot and even a trowel and bucket.....









We chose this particular design because we are a small bakery set in the pine trees and stonewalls of the woodland and country setting of the South Coast of Massachusetts, we are lucky to open our windows and hear the birds and look at our beautiful gardens on the property and our cake design reflects that!

A few other cake designers asked if the design was airbrushed, and absolutely not, this is handpainted in food coloring with a "OOO" and "00" brush!

Sculpted Cake: Submarine Cake for Lockheed Martin

We created this Submarine Cake for Lockheed Martin in Mario, Massachusetts.
The completion and success of a submarine contract was on the table for celebration and so was this cake!

Baking Class: Breads and Rolls MARCH 28, 2010 10:00am-2:00pm

Sunday March 28, 2010
10am-4pm

Winter Series BAKING CLASS
Breads & Rolls

This six-hour class will feature four recipes taught by our pastry chef and our baking assistants.

A hands-on class, lunch included.
All recipes included with detailed course guide with instructions, conversions, and resource guide.

All students will bring home 3 loaves of bread and 1 dozen rolls

We provide everything you need, just come hungry for knowledge and a good loaf of bread.
Ingredients will be available for purchase at the conclusion of the class.

PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL TO REGISTER!
Cost: $90.00
Last day to register 3/22/10

Buttercream Flat Art Cakes: Toyota FJ Cruiser

Here is a buttercream flat art cake that we created for a child's birthday party. Our buttercream flat art cakes are a simply frosted buttercream cake with a two-dimensional design on the top, in this case a Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Flat art cakes can be done in any number of designs, just remember that the design on the top is two-dimensional and sits flat on the cake itself. The great part about these cakes is that they are custom-- in any design and in any color scheme and the cake is iced in buttercream!

Buttercream Flat Art Cakes: Two Shih Tzus' Dog Cake

Our talented art staff created these two shih tzus' for the top of this cake: one tan & white puppy and one black & white dog. The tan shih tzus was created with a tiny bow!

This cake is one of our custom buttercream flat art designs- many customers ask us for cakes sans the fondant covering and this is a great altnernative to fondant while still having the look of a custom cake.





Here is what the birthday girl had to say about her cake....

Hello,

My sister Caty purchased my birthday from you and I just wanted
to tell you it was the most moist delicious cake I have ever eaten.

The two shih tzus' that you put on it look like the real thing.

I just wanted to express my thanks.

Regards,

J.D.

The Artisan Kitchen @ Garden of Cakes, Boston Flower Show 2010

We are so excited to be showing our design at the Flower Show this year in Boston. I'm not quite sure what the design will bring, but I promise that it will be something not to be missed.

The Boston Flower & Garden Show
Wednesday, March 24 to Sunday March 28, 2010
Seaport World Trade Center
Boston, MA 02210



Here is a little bit about the cake display at the Boston Flower Show from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society:
A new feature - The Garden of Cakes - will offer yet another way to appreciate flowers, as adornment on dramatic and romantic creations by some of the region's top professional cake artists. See the latest designs from well-established Boston bakeries as well as the work of smaller, more boutique-oriented shops on the leading edge of cake design.

http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=119890207765

Anniversary Cake: Tiered Buttercream Cake with Sugar Flowers

The two tiered buttercream cake was created for a 40th Anniversary party in Marion, Massachusetts.

The color scheme: a classic kelly green and cranberry was mimicked in the hand dusted edible sugar calla lillies, roses, ivy, and and berry flowers.

A small sugar plaque was created with a "Happy 40th" inscription. You'll see a closeup of the flowers below, and yes they are all edible and made by hand. We can create a number of cake toppers from sugar flowers in tens of different flowers and any color scheme. Think gerbera daisies and orchids, roses and hydrangea, dogwood flowers, or even tulips with hyacinths.

Buttercream Kayak Cake

I am so lucky to have such a great artist right on staff, Jody Church doesn some amazing sculpting and if I give her a picture she has a realist eye that is utterly amazing! Here you'll see a simple two tiered buttercream cake with a kayak theme. Jody created not only the kayak out of sugarpaste but oars, life vests, and an "Happy Birthday" plaque for the top of the cake reminiscent of woodgrained signs at National parks.

Specialty CupCakes: Chocolate & Peanut Butter

When winter arrives we get a little bit of time to do some recipe testing and of course....tasting!

Here we created a Peanut-Butter-Cup CupCake: a devilish chocolate cake with an intense peanut butter buttercream topped with chocolate shards and chopped toasted peanuts....YUM!

Lily Pulizter Inspired Birthday Cake

This third birthday cake was inspired by Lily Pulitzer a clothing line known for its brights fushia pink and chartreuse lime green color palettes.



This simple round buttercream cake is decorated with hot pink and lime green sugarpaste polka dots. The hot pink whimsical "3" is a great substitute for a traditional birthday inscription.

Graduation Cake

A few weeks ago we sent one of our most valued employees off to Culinary School and my alma mater, The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Dana was here at The Artisan Kitchen from the age of 16 and although we'll really miss him, I couldn't be happier to see him follow his dream at the country's premier culinary college.

Below, is Dana's high school graduation cake, a chef's toque. These are the tall hats worn by students and chef instructors at the CIA- quite fitting don't you think!



Best Wishes Dana!