By far the most birthday cakes we do at Twiggs by age is for first birthdays.  Naturally parents are excited about their kid’s very first birthday.  I love doing kids’ cakes.  I love the whimsy and charm in them.  This past weekend Shanna worked on a cake for Lucas who was turning one.  Lucas was having a jungle themed party, so Shanna made a cake covered in jungle animals.  It was super cute and mom was thrilled.  She was nice enough to write a glowing yelp review, which we really appreciate.  As she put it, this cake took the cake!  I included pictures from every angle as you really have to see all four sides to fully appreciate the cake.

     At the other end of life’s spectrum, we also did a 90th birthday cake this past weekend.  Emily worked on this cake and it turned out fantastic.  It really looked like a grandma cake — and I mean that in the best possible way.  It was vintage and beautiful.

     The pictures are below.  Click on any image to see a larger version.

      I posted a few months ago about my dismay at Park Manor Suites ending it’s run as a wedding venue.  Well, I’m delighted to report that news of Park Manor Suites demise have been greatly exaggerated.  There’s been a change of plans and Park Manor Suites will remain operating one of the best wedding venues in the city.  Even better, Jim Harmon is back as the coordinator there.  Jim is just a fantastic venue coordinator who really takes ownership of all the weddings there.  He’s like a mother hen running that place and I really mean that in the best possible sense.  And it’s just a great venue for anyone looking for a venue in the Balboa Park area.  The venue is the penthouse of the hotel taking up the entire 7th floor with lots of rooftop deck space.  You have an incredible view of downtown San Diego and the bay beyond.  Plus you’re right beside Balboa Park and all it’s beauty.  I just can’t recommend the space highly enough.  So if you’re still searching for a venue and want something in the downtown / near downtown area, I strongly recommend you check out Park Manor Suites. 

     In celebration of their return, here’s a couple of  cakes we’ve done for weddings at the Park Manor in the past. 

We do a lot of baby shower cakes here at Twiggs.  Either we’re getting more popular for baby shower cakes or there was something in the water in San Diego about 8 months ago because we’ve really been doing a lot of them lately.  I checked to remind myself when the massive power outage was that knocked out power to all of San Diego County, but that was in September.  So that doesn’t explain our mini baby boom right now.  But I expect a surge in baby shower orders in June — 8 months after the big outage.  Anyway, here are three of the six baby shower cakes we did this past weekend.  The first is a tiered cake with a baby carriage on top.  Next is a little baby bottom.  So many women find this cake adorable, but frankly I find it mildly disturbing.  It’s like the baby is buried in the cake.  But like the saying goes, “the customer is always right,” so I keep my mouth shut when someone wants this particular cake.  Finally there’s a simple cake welcoming Daniel to the world and his life.  We actually had a couple of cakes with this design this past weekend.  Maybe I should have included the other one because the woman who ordered it wrote a very nice review of the cake on yelp.  But I picked Daniel’s cake because I’m a Daniel, so I’m pro-Daniel.  This world needs more Daniels, so if you’re pregnant and haven’t decided on a name yet, why not give Daniel some thought?  You can click on any image to see a larger version.

This past weekend we did a groom’s cake for an Ohio State grad.  I’ve done an Ohio State “O” with buckeyes before as well as a Brutus Buckeye.  But this bride wanted a replica Ohio State’s famous horseshoe football stadium.  We ended up adding our own little touch of a scoreboard with Ohio State beating hated rival Michigan 24-0.  The cake turned out great.

I’ll post some more pics from this past weekend tomorrow, but for now, here are a couple of pics of cakes that were done while I was on vacation.  First is a 1920′s “Flapper” cake complete with tassles and feather headband.  That’s followed by a humorous cake kidding Diane on turning 65.  Click on either image to see a larger image.

Okay, I’ve taken a break from blogging because I’ve taken a break from Twiggs.  Every year Bernie and I take January off and spend the time back in the mountains of North Carolina where I’m from.  It’s a good time to be away from the bakery as January is generally our slowest month.  This January, however, proved to be pretty darn busy.  Emily and Shanna did a fantastic job pumping out cakes and doing the wedding cake tastings while we were away.  I’m very grateful I have two such talented and dedicated assistants.    So here’s some of the work they did while I was away.

The cigar box cake blew me away.  Seriously, I wouldn’t have done a better job on that.  Actually, I’m not sure I could have done as good a job.  Emily absolutely nailed it.

The other cakes, I’ll group below.  There’s a birthday cake for aspiring actor, Justin, a pirate birthday party, a Lego Ninja, a donkey with a Mexican blanket for a fiesta and a dalmation cake for a little girl who loved her puppy.  You can see larger images by clicking on each image.

I’ll post more cakes as I get more images from Emily and Shanna.

Overall, 2011 was our best year ever for Twiggs in the 15 years we’ve owned the business.  And 2012 is off to a fantastic start.  I’m extremely grateful.  It was great to be away, but it’s great to be back.  Happy 2012 everyone!

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: