Jackson Pollock Wedding Cake

When I ask brides to describe the kind of decoration they want on their cakes, I hear a lot of the same key words: "something floral," "Martha Stewart-like," "simple and elegant." At this wedding tasting, I had the pleasure of sitting down with both the bride and the groom. I asked Will, the young man getting married, what he would like the cake to look like. He said, "Oh, you know, maybe something in the Jackson Pollock style." The response was so smooth and witty... or so I thought. The bride and I both started laughing, but he was serious. The three of us all decided to commit to this idea. I got my paintbrushes out and dripped and squiggled red chocolate over this fondant-covered white wedding cake. Edible abstract art? Why not?

Happy Birthday, Stranger.

After an hour spent meticulously molding the letters of her name out of dark chocolate a friend watching me work asked, "So how do you know Kimberley again?" It was a funny moment when I told him, "Well, I don't." I've never met her, don't know how old she is turning and know little else about her than these three key facts: Kimberley likes the color orange, loves the taste of chocolate and has a sister who ordered a cake for her from Sweet Peony. We never did meet. Cake-Maker and Birthday Girl remain strangers connected only by this double-decker Devil's Food cake.

October Wedding Season is Here!

Congratulations Jamie and Bill! This lovely bride and groom had a gorgeous wedding this weekend in Healdsburg -- complete with a Sweet Peony (that's my wedding-cake company!) 5-tiered Pumpkin Spice Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and topped with some Shortbread Crumbles, Rose Hips and Huckleberry Sprigs. This "bruiser" of a cake stood over 2 feet tall on the reception table and weighed just about too much for me to lift on my own. That's a lot of cake! Happy October, everyone and get ready for a month full of wine-country weddings...

I Don't Think It Gets Any Better

Baking with kids might be the greatest thing ever! Add on top of that -- the chance to make a cake with my adorable nephew, Chef Sam. In fact, Sam graduated from Jr. Chef to Chef this summer when he not only made the cake (maybe he had a little help from Aunt Katie) but he also designed the decoration!

Way to go, Sam! If you have a Little Chef interested in making a cake, cookies, ice cream or other favorite sweet treats, email me at info@sweetpeony.com to register for Sweet Peony Baking Lessons -- Baking classes & parties for toddlers and children in your home.

She Slipped Away to her Garden

Oops! Sorry to disappear like that! I heard my roses and zinnias whispering to me and I had to fly 3,000 miles to heed the call. This happens every year. Though happy and busy cooking the days away in California, when summer comes, I know there is only one place I can be: down a long dirt road - in a barn - next to a garden - overlooking a meadow. So up, up and away, over the country I went to that little Island where my family and my garden live. But Fall is here. And I'm back in the kitchen... That means more desserts are on their way!

Happy First Birthday!

This cake has 45 hand-cut black fondant polka dots spotting its vanilla buttercream skin. One of the polka dots represents this birthday boy's age... and he got 44 others for good luck! When "mom" asked me about making this cake for her son, she made me swear to never divulge how much design work, thought, baking, assembling and decorating went into this project for the baby. So, Mum's the word.

Thanks so much, Andrew for taking these great photos! Check out more of Andrew's work: andrewweeksphotography.com

A Commercial?!

Yes, it's true. Sweet Peony, my tiny little dessert catering company has its very own commercial... made by the oh-so-fabulous Scott McCabe and Tory Stanton of Two Trick Pony Productions. Scott and Tory have started a rockin' film studio in Berkeley and were generous enough to create this commercial. Check it out:

Check it Out

So exciting! My cupcakes were featured on "Style Me Pretty -- The Ultimate Wedding Blog" yesterday. I would have had no idea except that I started getting emails from strangers who read the blog asking to order cupcakes for their weddings... wow! The internet is amazing. That's all the news I have to impart today.

Check it out: http://www.stylemepretty.com

Emilie and Gray (the lovely couple I got to know by making these cupcakes for their reception) had a simply divine wedding in Sonoma last Spring. Congrats, folks! And the photography... nice work, Kate Webber!

Valentine's Day 2010

I think it's a shame that most people only get to design and eat their own wedding cake once (or twice, or thrice). They are such wonderful, gigantic, over-the-top desserts. And to only allow yourself one (or two, or three) in a whole g

reat lifetime... tragic. That's why I have decided to make a wedding cake for myself (and any others who want to partake) every year on my favorite holiday. (I started in 2009.) The jingle of sleigh bells do nothing for me. Scary masks and cheap candy bars... nothing. Too much dry turkey and a stomach ache... nothing. But Valentine's Day -- that's the one holiday that really makes me tick. So I decorate my house, I wear all the pink and red I can pull out of my closet, craft heart-shaped candies, make goody-bags for friends and students, fill the house with sweets and pink-colored savory foods... and slowly, but surely, work to convert all those Valentine's-Day-haters to loving (or at least tolerating) the sweeter side of the day. I find the best tool for such

a job to be 4 tiers of cake.

Valentine's Day Cake

Tier 1: Chocolate cake with Strawberry Buttercream

Tier 2: Vanilla cake with Passion Fruit Buttercream

Tier 3: Lemon cake with Blood Orange Buttercream

Tier 4: A teeny,

tiny, vanilla cake

Decorated with hand-made gum-paste and buttercream roses

Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

... Especially when the diamonds are edible, sweet and pink. I found incredible candy molds from a catalog that enable you to make chocolate in the shape of diamonds, saphires, and rubies, oh my! Like real jewels, I could not wait to get my hands on them. I dyed my chocolate different shades of pinks and reds and eagerly poured it -- warm, melted and silky-- into the tiny jewel forms, waiting impatiently for the chocolate to harden up into its new gem identity. There's something intoxicating about sparkly jewels. Something totally captivating. And why? They are useless, really. But oh so beautiful. And at least these... you can eat!