Mardi Gras in Jersey

Time for some brutal honesty (as if that's anything new):

THIS POST HAS NO PURPOSE OTHER THAN I FELT LIKE PUTTING UP A PHOTO!

You may now return to your regularly scheduled browsing.....

Can you ever have too much CAKE?

Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, Amazing Wedding Cakes, The Next Great Baker, The Ultimate Cake Off, Fabulous Cakes, Cupcake Wars, DC Cupcakes......

It seems like everyone and their mother has a cake show on TV or an undercover black market cake shop on the internet. Not to mention the billions of people that suddenly decided to get in on the hype and pick up a spatula. But is oversaturation cutting the quality? Better yet, is it killing the originality that made all of these sugar sculptures so friggin' SICK in the first place?

I think so.

Why come up with an original design or learn a new technique when all you have to do is Google "________ cake" and you have a thousand photos of cakes you can copy? My work has been cake jacked* three times already in the 2 years we've been officially open!!! What happened to the concept of ORIGINALITY and CUSTOM work?

Don't take this as knocking the people that take the time to be creative and dare to push limits; to be different. That's what I love most about the concept of food art, creating the unexpected. This isn't about you. This is about questioning the fact that if anyone can slap some icing on something anykindaway or cake jack someone else's hard work then what's the point. And don't get me started on subquality baking in the first place...

Yes, I am venting but sometimes there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

*In case you had no clue what I was talking about lol.
CAKE JACK: To steal cake photos, concepts or designs from another artist and claim them as your own original work.


Stay Cakin'

It's Official! CAKEDDS.com is up!

One step closer to awesome.....

We took the free route. We did the Facebook page and obviously we did the blog. Now the official CAKE! Dessert Design Studio website is alive and kicking.

Here you'll get a little taste of the personalities behind the company as well as a peek at some of our work.

On a completely unbiased note, I find the site quite sexy!

Stop in, have a look around, peruse some contraband and enjoy the deliciousness that is CAKE!

Stay Cakin

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Stressed spelled backwards is
D E S S E R T S.... Think on that one.

It's definitely a love/hate relationship.

Stay Cakin'

Bronwen Webber Comes to NYC!!

Have I told you how much I LOVE Meetup? Well the New York Cake Decorators gave me two more reasons this past Sunday when they brought Bronwen Webber and her husband Francois Long all the way from their shop Frosted Art in Dallas, TX for a full day workshop.


The topic of this 8 HOUR extravaganza was airbrushing and cake carving and who better to learn from than two of the best doing it? Exactly....

After some extensive discussion and practice on the art of airbrushing we started carving our cakes into Geishas. Yes, I said it CARVING A CAKE INTO A GEISHA!!!! C'mon how difficult could it be? (Insert dripping sarcasm here). As if we didn't already know, this is where the class discovered just how SICK this woman is when it comes to caking. She was able to do hers in like 30 minutes while the rest of us cried, threw temper tantrums or just stood there dumbfounded. I'm pretty sure I performed some strange combination of the three.

We were all so into our cakes that the majority of us ran out of time before we could finish. Bronwen's was GORGEOUS of course. Mine, not so much.

To me it ended up looking more like an angry samurai than a demure Geisha. (Remember that whole PRACTICE thing I talked about earlier? Yea, gotta do that.) It's a work in progress....



At the end of it all it was well worth fighting the ridiculous NYC traffic (stupid street fair) and the heat and parking in a pile of glass so I didn't have to spend more money for a garage (in Jersey we have these things called parking lots and they're FREE. Somebody wanna break the news to New York?) to learn from these great artists. And yes, I'd do it all over again if they decided to come back hint, hint...


Obviously this was pre meltdown lol. Ok, it was more like a very frustrated drip.


Anyway, follow Bronwen on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/FROSTED-ART-BAKERY-STUDIO/164192857668?ref=ts&v=wall

Or visit her website at http://www.frostedart.com/


Stay Cakin'

CAKE! Loves the Kids

On Friday June 4th Julius Bellamy, co-owner of CAKE!DDS spoke to 2nd graders from Lincoln Elementary School for their annual career day. According to the teachers the purpose of career day is to give the students a chance to familiarize themselves with various career and begin to think about what they would want their ideal career to be in the future.

Mr Bellamy spoke about the art of cake baking, design, and the fun of being your own boss. The kids were more than ready for him with questions ranging from food allergies to what's the craziest cakes to his marital status. The presentation finished up with a mini slideshow of some of CAKE!s favorite creations and cookie samples for everyone.

Rumor has it the kids voted it as their favorite presentation!

Cakin' Comes to Harlem

Danielle Moore, Founder of NYC Cake Decorators Meetup, and owner of Annie Mae's Cheesecakes, is planning to produce a Cake Show in Harlem this fall, "Dreams are Baked in Harlem".

" Dreams Are Baked In Harlem is a competition being held at the Hip Hop Culture Center located inside the Magic Johnson Movie Theater in the heart of Harlem, NY on October 23, 2010. It invites the best bakers to compete for cash and prizes in various categories.

Pastry Chef Danielle Moore is creating a platform for cake Designers/Decorators to display their skills for bragging rights and a chance to win $5000 in the following categories: Wedding, Birthday, Children's Cake, Baby Shower, Bridal Shower Cakes, Cupcake, Sports Themed Cake, and a Celebrity Cookie Bake Off for Charity. There will also be a special Teen Cupcake category that will highlight talented teen bakers who will compete for $1,000 business startup account at a participating bank partner to help them with school or business expenses.
Each category will have up to 12 and not less than 5 participants.

Money will be donated to the Hip Hop Culture Center, Cancer Care & scholarships will be created for the winner of the Youth category.

The Winner in each category will win $1,000 in cash with the over all best baker winning an additional $3,000 in cash and a special trophy. In addition to the winning bakers, Dreams Are Baked In Harlem will award $2,500 in college scholarships to 3 dynamic youth that live in Harlem. There will be a special raffle of a trip for 4 to a location TBA for all who attend the event. Contestants will pay a $125 tax deductible entry fee to the Hip Hop Culture Center in Harlem.

Event Schedule:
10am – Viewing of all entries
12noon – Judges score on presentation
2pm – Judges score on taste
3pm - public tasting
6pm – Judges Decision
Winner and Prizes Awarded
7pm – House is cleared
9pm – Celebrity Performance

Judges will consist of Celebrity, Local and Media people.

Admission to the event is $10
Admission to event and benefit concert is $50
Registration is $125 per category and you can enter as many as you like.

For any questions go to their Facebook fan page: Dreams Are Baked In Harlem or contact Danielle Moore at 646-326-8999. Email Allaboutanniemae@aol.com

Registration begins Monday May 17, 2010.