This is another hodgepodge post about the most interesting cakes we did at Twiggs the previous weekend — this one the weekend right after Thanksgiving.

Paris was turning 13 and wanted a cute lion on top of her cake.  She was the rare kid who had a very clear vision for her cake and was very specific with what she wanted.  She e-mailed a picture of the cartoon lion she wanted brought to 3-D life.  We went through about 3 iterations of e-mailing a booking form and getting corrections before she was happy.  I thought the cake turned out great.

I got a call on Friday for a birthday cake to be picked up the next day.  Anne was turning 50 and they wanted two cakes in the shape of two fuzzy purple slippers.  That would have been fun, but we just can’t turn a sculpted cake like that around with 18 hours notice — especially with four wedding cakes and a host of other orders for the next day.  I said the only thing we could do on that timeline was a sheet cake with two fuzzy purple slippers on top, so they decided to go with that.  I was really happy with the result.

Finally we did a cake with Shamu on the top for Jacob and a cake with a sock monkey head on top.  Both were super cute. 

Pictures for all are below.  Click on any image to see a larger version.

I love doing wedding cakes here at Twiggs when I’m given a little creative license and a new challenge.  It’s also very gratifying to be able to give someone something unique for their wedding cake which really represents them.  This past weekend I had a fun challenge.

Brieanne grew up in an orange grove — her dad grows oranges commercially — so she wanted her cake to have an orange tree growing up the side of the cake.  We’ve done a lot of wedding cakes that have branches going up the cake with orchids or leaves on the branches.  Brieanne had seen these and that’s what initially drew her to Twiggs.  But she didn’t want just branches, she wanted the whole tree on a cake with square tiers.   As I thought about how to place the tree on the square tiers, it occured to me that it would be cool to have the main trunk going up one of the corners with the branches covering two sides of the cake. 

The reception was at the Southwestern Yacht Club on Point Loma.  Honestly, I don’t go there very often and it’s been a couple of years at least since I was last there.  It’s tucked away off a side street and right on the bay, of course.  I’m pretty sure the place has been refurbished since I was there last and is looking quite spiffy.  The carpetting and chairs in the main banquet room are navy blue and the room has wall to wall windows on two sides overlooking the marina and various boats in dock.  The orange theme was carried throughout the wedding.  Each name card was on top of an orange.  The oranges — both real and the ones on the cake — really popped against the navy blue that dominates the room.  The cake practically screamed “Look At Me!” from across the room.    Brieanne’s mom and bridesmaids all saw the cake when I set it up and were sure Brieanne would love it.  I hope so, because I sure did. 

We do more kid’s cakes than any other kind of specialty cakes here at Twiggs.  Thanks to the bakery, I’m kept up to date on all the latest cartoon interests of the under 6 crowd.   This past weekend, we did a cake for a cartoon I hadn’t heard of until we got the order.  Apparently it’s a fairly new cartoon called The Bubble Guppies.  While new to me, Alex who was turning 2 is a big fan so his parents wanted to get him a Bubble Guppie cake with all the characters. 

We do all these characters by hand from fondant so it can get pricey to get multiple characters.   Most parents balk when they get the initial quote for a cake with several characters on it and end up scaling back the decor to include the child’s one favorite character.   But Alex is an only child, so Dad was willing to splurge.  We ended up making all the characters.  It took Emily the better part of one day to make all the figures, but it just came out fantastic.  It’s really one of the cutest kid’s cakes we’ve done. 

So here it is. There are multiple pics — including two close-ups of individual Bubble Guppies.  There was just too much going on with this cake to appreciate it from one single shot / angle.   As always, click on each image to see a larger version if you want.

Hands down, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It’s somehow escaped the commercialization of Christmas and other holidays.  It’s about stopping for one day and reflecting on what you do have — rather than what you don’t have — and being grateful.  I try to take a minute every day and consciously be grateful for my life, as I have a lot to be grateful for.  I’m grateful for Twiggs.  There have been ups and downs for sure, but we’re still here 15 years after opening the doors and we’re busier than we’ve ever been overall.  Our original location on Park Boulevard is still buzzing along.  We’ve gone from being the only coffee shop in the neighborhood to having 3 strong competitors within a one to two block walk.  We took a dip when each opened, but now our sales are back and we’re going well.  Meanwhile, our bakery and cafe on Adams Avenue is going great guns.  We’ve had a great wedding season and now with our new chef Tony, breakfast is becoming super busy.  There’s generally a line to the door for most of Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Business is great and I’m very, very grateful as I know times are tough for many.

But now’s not the time to think of tough times, it’s the time to think of food!  We generally don’t sell pies, but Thanksgiving is a huge exception.  Thanksgiving is all about tradition.  Along with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, pies are a Thanksgiving staple.  When we first started the bakery, I thought I needed to do really unique pies to distinguish us from the competition.  But I quickly learned, people want traditional pies at Thanksgiving, not some high-falutin’ pretentious thing.  So I try to make sure our pies, while traditional, are the absolute best example of each one.  For years we only did pumpkin pie and a chocolate pecan pie.  But this year with a bigger staff and bigger customer base, we’re offering apple pies and jumbleberry pies as well.  

So order your pies now!  We’re open the day before Thanksgiving until 6pm and we’ll be open Thanksgiving Day until noon so folks can stop by and pick up their pies.  If you don’t pre-order one, we’ll have some set aside for walk-ins, but we can’t guarantee we’ll have your first choice. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!   I’m grateful you indulged me by reading this!   Both of you!

Justin’s a Navy seal stationed in San Diego.  He’s about to be deployed, so he and his long time girlfriend decided they want to get married before he leaves.  Since she lives up in Washington, Justin was left with doing most of the planning on his own since they were on a very short time line.  They decided to get married and have the reception on a Hornblower yacht, which makes things easier since they sell a package that includes many things.

When Justin sat down with Bernie for the cake tasting, he said he wanted the cake to have the Navy Seal emblem, the state of Texas since he’s from there, salmon since they met in Alaska when she was working at a salmon processing plant and ducks since he’s an avid duck hunter.  Um . . . okay . . . are you sure your fiance is on board for this?  He says she is.  Okay!  We’ve done some odd wedding cakes here at Twiggs, but this ranks up there with some of the most unusual.  It’s really much more of a groom’s cake, but to each their own.  And really that’s my philosophy.  It’s their wedding, not mine.  So if they want a wedding cake with ducks, salmon and Texas on it, that’s what they’ll get.

A few days after the tasting, Justin sends an e-mail saying they want the salmon to be silver, Texas to be red and blue, the Navy Seal emblem to be gold and the ducks to be brown and green.  Also, his fiance wants some blue on the cake.  It was a design challenge to figure out how to make that all work together — or at least not fight each other.  I had to smile and shake my head when we finished the cake.  I was concerned, however, that the bride might burst into tears when she saw her wedding cake — and not in a good way.    Fortunately, after a few days, the following e-mail showed up in my inbox:

     

I’m still working out this blog thing, but this is getting to be a regular sort of post.  We do lots of interesting cakes for birthdays and other parties here at Twiggs.  Individually, it’s hard to come up with a whole blog post just about one cake.  But if you group them all together, then there’s enough for a decent post.  So here we are again.

 Amber was turning 23 and wanted a cake shaped like a Red Ciroc Bottle.  I’m a wine guy and really don’t know any specialty liquors, but Google Image Search is my friend.  As an aside, the internet and google image search has made responding to specialty cake requests WAY easier than it used to be.  20 years ago, I would have had to walk across the street to the liquor store to see if they carried Red Ciroc and then buy a bottle of it.  But back to Amber.  She had one of the top two reactions to seeing her cake that we’ve had this year.  She was thrilled and insisted on hugging Emily and giving her a very generous tip.

Lee’s Dad was turning 80 and is an avid golfer in his retirement.  So Lee wanted a cake that combined “80″ and his favorite pastime.

Finally, Riley was turning 1 and has a favorite rattle shaped like an octopus.  His mom wanted a Topsy Turvy cake with a replica of his rattle on top of the cake.  It was very cute and mom was happy.

So here they are.  Click on any image to see a larger version.

This past weekend Twiggs did a wedding cake for Jeannie and Forrest who got married at the Kona Kai, a pleasant resort hotel at the end of Shelter Island.  While I was delivering another cake, I got a call from the bakery that one of Jeannie’s bridesmaids had called and needed to speak to me right away.  When I called, she said that the florist had not brought flowers for the cake.  Was there anything I could do?  I told her not to worry that I’d figure something out.  I’ve delivered several wedding cakes which did not have the flowers that were suppose to be there, so I’ve learned to improvise.  Honestly, I think a valid response would be to say “not my problem, sorry,” but I do want to do something if I can.

In 20 years of delivering cakes, this is the first time anyone called me ahead of time to let me know there were no flowers.  Usually I just show up at the reception site and find out then there aren’t flowers.  We had some gumpaste orchids that were white and lavender, so I took these with me on the delivery.   Once I got the Kona Kai, however, I realized the cake would stick out like a sore thumb if I put these on it.  The whole reception was fall colors.  To make matters worse, the cake was in the center of the room with every angle of the cake visible.  If the cake’s against a wall, you really just have to decorate the front of the cake and can leave the back blank.  I couldn’t do that here.

The first option for a cake where the flowers are a no-show is to see if there are floral centerpieces on each table that can be discreetly pruned.  By definition, the cake will tie into the rest of the reception if you do this.  Sometimes this isn’t an option if there’s a single protea in the center of the table.  But Jeannie’s wedding was a best case scenario.  The centerpieces were very full.  There were big stargazer lilies and spider mums which really couldn’t be harvested without a noticeable difference in the look of the centerpiece.  Those are too big to put on a cake anyway.  But there were a lot of tea roses and eucalpytus leaves filling out the centerpiece which could easily be discreetly picked out without anyone being the wiser.   So I went around to each table taking 2 or so flowers and some leaves from each centerpiece until I had enough to make the cake look pretty from all angles.  Jeannie had wanted a cascade of flowers going down the cake.  There’s no way I could take enough flowers to do that without really denuding some of the centerpieces.  So I took just enough to accent the cake and not make it look too bare.  I know it wasn’t what Jeannie wanted, but given the circumstances, I think the cake looked great.

Below are pictures of one of the centerpieces post harvest and the cake itself.   Click on the image to see larger versions.

One of my favorite things about doing wedding cakes at Twiggs is the variety of people you meet.  Some women have been dreaming of the perfect Martha Stewart wedding since they were 5 years old.  Others want something casual and fun.    After doing this over 17 years, I’ve really reached a point where practically nothing surprises me.  It’s the couple’s wedding, not mine.  I’m just there to help them fulfill their vision.

Every year we do at least one Halloween wedding.  For me personally, getting married on Halloween in full costume wouldn’t be my choice.   But again, it’s not my wedding and it does seem like a very fun thing to do if you really get into it.  This year we did two weddings for Halloween and both brides were really into it.

Brenda and Glen got married at the Abbey.  I wrote a blog post earlier specifically about the Abbey as a venue.  For Halloween, I don’t know a better choice.  With it’s dark interior with no real natural light, it really is perfectly suited for a Haunted House theme.  I’ve delivered a wedding cake to the Abbey practically every Halloween for the last 10 years or so.  With no offense to any prior bride, I have to say Brenda wins for best Halloween makeover at the Abbey.  The back drop for her wedding was a haunted house while ghosts and pumpkins filled the upper balcony.  Brenda was one of those brides who had a very clear vision of what she wanted her cake to look like and was very specific with her instructions.  She wanted an eggplant colored cake, black thorny branches, black and orange roses and tombstones with various inscriptions she’d come up with.  Then she had a huge meat cleaver to use as their cake cutting knife!   So here it is.

Next, Kathy was having a very casual Halloween wedding with a Day of the Dead theme.  Her first wedding had been a 400 person over the top affair that apparently she didn’t have a lot of input in planning.  She was determined that this wedding would be done her way and it certainly was.  Kathy wanted 4 cakes with a Day of the Dead theme.  She wanted one cake to be for her “Bad Ass Motorcyle Guy” finance (her words, not mine), one with a clear Day of the Dead theme and two slightly more traditional with Day of the Dead bride and grooms she’d purchased.  She wanted the main colors to be black, red and white and wanted all the cakes to coordinate.  But that was really all the direction she gave.  She really gave me a lot of freedom to come up with the designs myself . . . my favorite kind of bride.  When I delivered the cakes, she greeted me at the door in Day of the Dead white face which perfectly matched the skulls on the Day of the Dead cake we’d done.  I knew we were on the same page.  She absolutely loved her cakes.  So here they are.  Click on each image to see a larger version: