Shades of Pink

If there’s one cake trend we’ve absolutely fallen in love with, it’s the ombré cake trend!  In French, it literally means “shaded”!  Beautiful gradients of color can be both whimsical and sophisticated.  We’ve had the pleasure of being able to create two ombré cakes recently: one for a gender reveal, and one for a wedding.

For the wedding cake, we made both the inside AND the outside ombré.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the inside of the wedding cake, but hopefully we can get a picture of what it looked like once it was sliced into.  The bride and groom picked out these beautiful rice paper butterflies from Etsy which added movement to the cake.

The flavors of this cake was pink velvet (gradients of pink inside) with a cream cheese filling, and vanilla buttercream on the outside.

For the gender reveal cake, the outside was frosted plain white and revealed a ombré of coral and peach inside to tell their party guests that they were having a girl!

It’s a GIRL!

Getting just the right colors was admittedly harder than we thought, but the payoff was so worth it!  The gender reveal cake was made with a simple white cake and vanilla buttercream.

We had SO much fun making these cakes!  Thank you to the expecting couple and the newlyweds for letting us bring out our girly pink side to creating these lovely desserts!

Cupcakes for a Rockstar

Our dear friend’s son was celebrating his 8th birthday, and Cathy was asked to make the cupcakes!  I (Cortney) had the pleasure of being able to see the final product and simply eat the cupcakes (clearly, the hardest part, right?).

No stamp? No problem! Cathy had the brilliant idea of using a potato!

The gumpaste guitar was made especially for the birthday boy!

Happy birthday, Elijah!

Gender Reveal Cupcakes

Lots of people have used cakes to share the gender of their baby, but Steffie and Joe wanted to do it using cupcakes, so that each individual person can experience the surprise!

Steffie opted for a classic chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream.  She wanted rainbow sprinkles on the top.  After receiving the exciting news of the gender of the baby, I filled the cupcakes with a colored buttercream.  Blue for boy, pink for girl.

Take a bite and discover…that it’s a BOY!

It’s a boy!

I wasn’t sure which liners to use, because I didn’t want to hint toward one gender…so I just chose plain white. =)

All packed and ready to go! I tied the box with some blue AND pink baker’s twine so that the guests didn’t have a hint as to what gender the baby could be!

Congratulations, Steffie and Joe!  Can’t wait to meet your baby boy!

Un bébé

It’s been a while!  Both Cathy and I have been quite busy with various things, so P&P has been taking a break for a while…

…but now we’re back!  I started a new job working with kids with Autism, and it’s awesome.  Getting used to a new schedule was a little tough at first, but I think I’m now getting the hang of it.  As much work as cakes can be, it’s also quite therapeutic for me.  Plus, I love hanging out with my baking partner, Cathy!  She’s the best. =)

Back in June (yes, June!), we got to make a baby shower cake for a friend, but never had the opportunity to post it.  The theme was a pink/white/black French type of theme, so we made a small cake to celebrate the arrival of this little one.

Cheers!

Cortney

Summer Tropics

It’s summer here in the Bay Area, and we’ve been getting beautiful weather!  Although the weather here can be a little finicky, the week that I worked on this cake was HOT!  I did a fun 1st Birthday cake for a friend’s daughter.

The theme was Hawaiian, which made me super excited!  I absolutely love Hawaii, and I can’t wait for the day I get to go back.  I remember warm breezes, bright flowers, Hawaiian music (which I streamed to get me in the mood), and of course…the food.  Oh, the food.

My friend Kiyoko requested that her daughter’s cake have colorful flowers on it.  I had an idea of what to do, but not really a concrete idea.  I Googled tropical color palette, and found a beautiful palette to work with.  I went back and forth between making it really “kiddie” or keeping it more simple.  I decided to do the latter.  Even for kids’ birthdays, I like simple, clean designs.  I wholeheartedly agree with the old adage that less is indeed more.

This cake was made with moist yellow butter cake and filled with a rich dark chocolate truffle filling.

Close-up

She also requested a dozen matching cupcakes for the kids at the party.  I added mini flowers and two-toned leaves to the cupcakes to make it a perfect set of sweets!

Yellow butter cake topped with chocolate truffle frosting

Happy 1st birthday, little Ava!

<3, Cortney

Joe + Kandace

“Tiffany blue.  Ivory.  And pearls.”  That was all she needed to say.  How could we say no?!

Our first meeting with Kandace, the (at the time) bride to be, was so much fun.  We met at a local coffee shop and gushed about her engagement, her vision for the wedding, and of course, the cake!

After seeing several pictures of cake elements she loved, we agreed to come up with a few sketches and have another meeting with her hubby-to-be, Joe.  We came up with three different sketches – all of which we loved.  After showing them to Kandace and Joe, we knew which one it was going to be.  Kandace kept coming back to the Tiffany blue cake with pearls and a shimmery ivory bow.

Here is the sketch that was chosen!

Since we had just finished doing a cake the weekend before, Cathy and I were in “cake mode” and had such success with this entire cake from taste, to baking, to construction, to decor.

Thank you so much to our friend Cathy Breslow for assisting us in taking pictures!  We’re bakers – not photographers, so being coached on taking quality pictures was so helpful!  We only hope to get better and better. =)

Securing the bow…

detail

We should also mention that this cake tasted delicious!!  It was chocolate cake with raspberry frosting.  The soft pink frosting with speckled raspberry seeds stood out against the dark rich chocolate cake.  It was so pretty (and yummy!).  We’re hoping that we can post a picture of a cake slice from a guest of the wedding or the photographer of the wedding, so come check back some time soon!

Thank you, Kandace and Joe for allowing us to make the cake for your big day!

Aaron + Corie

Last summer I had the opportunity to make cupcakes for some dear friends’ wedding.  The bride, Corie, just happens to come from one of the most beautiful families that I know.  Corie is one of nine children and they are such an example of kindness and love, the kind of kids you hope your own children will turn out like one day. It was such an honor for my husband Paul, who was officiating the ceremony, and I to share in this special family’s joyous occasion.  The bride and groom asked me to make almond cupcakes with vanilla frosting, while a family friend provided a lovely chocolate option. They turned out beautifully, with just a hint of almond flavor, perfect for a summer evening.

My son Elliot enjoyed every bite as you can tell from his cheeky grin!

Thank you Corie and Aaron for letting my family be a part of your beautiful day!

-Cathy

Wedding photo credit: Robert and Karina Gillette

Nathaniel + Chelsea

We’re obsessed with beautiful textiles.  Fabric is such a huge source of inspiration of design because of its geometry, color, and texture.  We absolutely love eyelet fabric for its dainty, feminine flair so naturally, we were quite enthusiastic when our friend and bride-to-be Chelsea asked us to make her wedding cake inspired by eyelet fabric.

Much of this design was inspired by Martha Stewart’s eyelet cake, including the tier separator and the “woven” ribbon.

Congratulations, Chelsea and Nathaniel!

Dinner for Good Official Photos

About a month ago, we posted some pictures from a special event called Dinner for Good that Petal & Posie got to participate in.  Being the novice photographers we are, we couldn’t wait until the official photos were done!  Well…they’re in, and ALL photo credit goes to the amazing Nick Chavez!

Setting up the tea cakes. We got a beautiful bunch of lavender from Whole Foods, and used it to adorn our little cakes.

Delicious and decadent!

Ken + Christine

Our friends Ken and Christine got married last weekend, and we had the pleasure of making their wedding cake.  There were three very specific instructions given to us for this cake: (1) it had to be navy blue, (2) it had to be chocolate with cream cheese frosting, and (3) it had to be dairy/lactose free!  In all honesty, we were a little nervous about this one.  Although we’re no strangers to cakes now, we had not yet been asked to do a dairy free cake for a wedding.

Cathy tried out a few recipes prior to wedding week, and the results were delicious!  The cake actually was fluffier than our normal chocolate cake, and the “cream cheese” frosting tasted almost exactly like cream cheese frosting!  You’d hardly know the difference! At the wedding right before the cake cutting, Ken announced to the crowd that it was a dairy free cake, and it will be the first cake Christine will have eaten in FOUR years!  What a special treat!

For design, the bride and groom requested ivory sashes with bows on their cake.  Here are the results!

The cake was displayed in a barrel room at a winery where guests went for a cocktail hour.

Gumpaste bows adorned the sides of the cakes to bring the sashes together.

bow detail

After we had set it all up and attached the bows, the groom came over and told us, “This is exactly what we envisioned.”  There’s no greater satisfaction than a client seeing their dream cake come to life!  We’re so happy to have been part of their special day.  Congratulations, Ken and Christine!