We are also adding a few specials to our daily selection of desserts.  Each decorator is coming up with their own concoction-  this week we have:

S’Mores:  chocolate cake, ganache, homemade marshmallo and graham crackers.

Cappuccino Chocolate Chip:  chocolate chip cake and  cappuccino mousse

Banana Cream Pie:  Vanilla Cake, fresh bananas, vanilla wafers and pudding

Lemon Icebox pie: Individual graham cracker crusts with lemon icebox filling.

Apple Pecan Cupcakes with cream cheese and caramel

Get your orders in for Ocober!  We are filling up fast for the weekends.  Oct. 23 and 24, we will only be taking a limited number of orders due to a heavy wedding schedule, so get those in ASAP!

Frosting & Fondant Decor:  Learn to fill and frost an 8″ round cake.  Make a variety of decorations, such as fondant flowers, ribbon bow and a fun candle.  Each student will take home a decorated cake.   limit 6 students.  Sunday September 27  1pm-5pm.  $75

Whimsical Tiered Cake:    4″, 6″ & 8″ topsy turvy madhatter cake, covered in fondant, with different designs for each tier .  Each student will take home a three tiered cake.  (Frosting & Fondant Decor class required or prior experience) .   Limit 4 students.  $125   Sunday, October 4  1pm-6pm.
 
Petit Fours:  Learn to mold, cut and dip 2 dozen classic almond petit fours.  Learn different designs, such as blossoms, monograms, fun flower and polka dots.  Each student will take home 2 dozen petit fours.  Limit 6 students.  Sunday, October 11  2pm-5pm  $60

Fondant Purse Cake:   Carve, frost and fondant a cute purse shaped cake.  We will cover different designs, such as zebra print or damask, and accent the cakes with a fun bright flower or bow.  We’ll also hand model some jewelry and make-up.  Limit 6 students.  Sunday November 8  1pm-5pm.  $75

Gingerbread House for Kids:  We supply the houses, candy and frosting.  Bring your kids and help them decorate a miniature gingerbread house.   Hot Chocolate, punch, cookies and pastries will be served.    Limit 10 kids .   Sunday December 6  2pm-4pm. Each house is $30.  We recommend that a parent helps with kids under the age of 6.

 Steve is also hard at work, putting together the “Cake Bar”!  You will be able to come in and pick your cake, filling and frosting and have it made while you wait.  We will also be offering cake shots and cupcakes, espresso drinks, and some new pastries.  Hopefully, the bar will be ready in a couple of weeks-  it’s been so busy at the cake shop that we haven’t had much time to work on the construction of the bar.  Not that we’re complaining-  thank you so much for all your business-  this has been our busiest year yet!

Each bridal fair, all the decorators get to contribute a cake that they design.  Everyone did a great job this year and we had a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures of everyones cakes:

The bleeding armadillo- this one’s a little chunky, but so cute!
 

This is a pirate ship (actually from the week before). This is for the son of one of our favorite customers- she gets just as excited about cakes as we do, which means we get to have a lot of fun!

And this wedding cake was delivered to the Art Center and is probably one of the most fun and creative weddings we have been a part of. The wedding cake was placed on an acrylic column/stand- I don’t know what its called, but it stood alone, and actually scared me a little. But the thing is so sturdy and your cake looks like it is floating in the air. Tanarah, from Destinctive Designs, provided the stand and did an amazing job with the decor. The cake itself was a topsy turvy creation (an illusion actually, because we carved the middle of each cake so each tier sits into the cake below, but the edges of the cakes are still slanted) covered in white fondant and handpainted.

The grooms cake was based on Andy Warhols artwork and each tier featured a different element. One of our decorators, Kelly, along with Lena, did the artwork featured on the cake. They handpainted bananas and cows, cut out poppies and posterized photos of the couple (the photos were provided by Christy Hollingshead Photography).

Speaking of Kelly, she has been with us since our other decorator, Amanda, left for culinary school in Napa Valley (Amanda will be back in 2 weeks!). She has a background in graphic design, which is very useful in cake decorating. She finds joy in the oddest things, such as discovering a millenium falcon box by the dumpster (along with Lena and our baker Tiffany, not pictured)- that’s why we love her!

Around our shop, you will see some wonderful paintings of cupcakes, cakes, petit fours and flowers.  This is the work of Leslie Toler, who comes in every so often and takes pictures of different desserts and turns them into works of art.  It’s inspiring to see our desserts thru her artistic perspective.  She has also painted a couple of our wedding cakes designs, one of which was purchased by a bride who had ordered the exact cake…

So, for a cake that will last forever, or to commission her for a painting,  just contact Leslie-  here is a link to her website:

http://www.lsmtcreations.com

Anyone trying to order cakes recently have probably noticed that we are booking up earlier than usual.  We are completely booked for this weekend, but we are still taking orders for next weekend, so get your order in ASAP!!  Other dates to watch for are the weekend of June 6 and the weekend of June 20.  We will only be taking a limited number of orders those weeks, so order as early as possible!  We hate having to turn customers away, so please be understanding-  we are a small custom cake shop and there are only so many hours in a day…

We’ve also had a lot of interest in our cake classes.  The next round is coming the month of July.  We will be holding a series of 6 classes.  We are holding the classes thru the Pulaski Tech Community Education and will be posting the official schedule the beginning of June.  Sign up info will be posted then-  registration will be thru Pulaski Tech, not thru Blue Cake.  Here is a sneak peek at the upcoming classes and tentative dates:

Birthday Cake Series:
Frosting & Fondant Decor:  Learn to fill and frost an 8″ round cake.  Make a variety of decorations, such as fondant flowers, wired decor and a fun candle.  Each student will take home a decorated cake.  Wednesday July 1  6pm-9pm 
Cupcakes and Flowers:  Practice your buttercream flower skills on 2 dozen cupcakes.  We will cover roses, pansies, daffodils, daisies and poppies.  Each student will take home 2 dozen decorated cupcakes.   Wednesday July 8  6pm-9pm
Whimsical Tiered Cake:  6″ & 8″ tiered cake, covered in fondant, with different designs for each tier, plus a fun loopy bow to top it off.  Each student will take home a two tiered cake.  Wednesday  July 15  6pm-9pm  (Frosting & Fondant Decor class required or prior experience)
 
Wedding Cake Series
Petit Fours:  Learn to mold, cut and dip 2 dozen classic almond petit fours.  Learn different designs, such as blossoms, chocolate butterflies, monograms and tuxedoes.  Each student will take home 2 dozen petit fours.  Wednesday July 22  6pm-9pm
Wedding Cake:  Fill, frost, fondant and decorate a two tiered wedding cake.  We will cover frosting and fondanting, ribbon roses, elegant rolled roses and handpainted swirls.  Wednesday July 29  6pm-9pm  (Frosting & Fondant Decor class required or prior experience)
Grooms Cake:  Sculpt a 3D razorback!  Red velvet cake and cream cheese filling-  we will cover cake carving techniques, fondant and detailing, airbrushing and strawberry dipping.
Wednesday August 5  6pm-9pm  (Frosting & Fondant Decor class required or prior experience)

Pricing for the classes range from $60 (petit four) to $100 (tiered, wedding and razorback).

We’ve also had a lot of calls wondering if we are open by appointment only or if you can come in anytime-  Customers are always welcome!  We try to keep  our display cases stocked with goodies, such as cookies, cupcakes and an assortment of desserts, such as tres leches, cheesecake, birthday cake slices…..We do try to keep ready made cakes in our case, but those don’t last very long.  We are doing our best to put out extra cakes this week and will be producing 8″ round vanilla and chocolate cakes (birthday and dessert style) and our choc/vanilla layered present cakes.  We can add messages to our cakes, but we cannot change decorations or colors due to time constraints.  For best availability, call or come by Thursday or Friday to reserve a cake (payment is required to hold a cake).  We don’t put out any more cakes on Saturday, so when they’re gone, they’re gone.

GO KRIS ALLEN!!!  As a huge American Idol fan, I had to post this cake (for another fan). The picture is missing the figurine we made to resemble the birthday girl, but check out the all important cellphone, microphone and of course, lots of sparkle. 
 

Meet Lena, our customer service girl and super talented cupcake icer!  She’s usually the first person you will talk to, either on the phone or at the shop.    Come visit Lena and she will help you design the perfect cake for your event!

This is a buttercream and fondant decorated wedding cake, which we delivered to the Arkansas Art Center, in their lovely patio area.  The five tiers of vanilla buttercream cake are covered with floral piping and cut out flowers, with cutout fondant borders.  The cake is accented with fresh orchids and stephonotis.

This black and white fondant covered cake was delivered to the Hamilton House.  It allowed us to try a few new techniques, such as the damask stencil, gumpaste jewels and bow making out of real ribbon.  Never thought I would say fondant bows were easier, but a lot of time went into that satin bow.

Plates ready to go for a day of tastings

Every wonder what a tasting is exactly?  Usually complimentary (unless you have more than 4 tasters), we offer a variety of cakes and fillings to try.  If you want to try something specific, like a type of icing or mousse, mention it and we’ll include it on the plate, otherwise you’ll sample our vanilla butter cake, chocolate cake and then depending on what we have made that week, our strawberry, italian, or red velvet (we have just started to offer Pillsbury White cake, for that light and fluffier cake some of us grew up on).  Then we try a variety of fillings, such as cream cheese, white choc mousse, lemon, raspberry, caramel, chocolate something……  usually 3-4 different types.  Last but not least, our sweet buttercream, chocolate buttercream, chocolate ganache and white chocolate buttercream.  We keep everything separate so you can come up with your own combination of flavors-  chocolate cake, lemon curd, white chocolate mousse and ganache???  Sounds different, but surprisingly good!

While you are tasting our cakes, we go over the colors, theme, style of your reception and discuss the design of your cake.  It is best to do a little homework before you come in and bring pictures, colors, etc. of what you are interested in.  That way we can give you a firm quote and a rough sketch of what you are looking for.  Usually everything else we can accomplish thru email (snail mail in our case because we are that slow, but we try), over the phone and sometimes one final visit a couple of weeks before your wedding to finalize the details.  If you decide to book us, it’s a $100 deposit to hold the date-  after that, you can take as long as you need to finalize your design and your numbers. 

So, really, it’s as easy as eating cake and talking about your wedding- both things we love to do!

If you’d like to set up a tasting, just call Lena or Jan at 868-7771.  If your wedding is during a busy time, such as May or June, September or October, you might call us sooner than later.  We look forward to meeting with you!