It’s been a while since I blogged about a wedding venue, so I decided to start those back up since wedding season is back and venues are in my mind again.  I wrote a while back about The Abbey on 5th Avenue in Banker’s Hill.  The same corporation that runs the Abbey also operates Hornblower Cruises which sail around the San Diego Bay.  You can book your wedding with Hornblower and get married “at sea” and then sail around the bay for about 3 hours for dinner and dancing.  It makes for a unique wedding and one your guests are sure to remember.  It’s also a great choice for destination wedding brides as Hornblower handles so much of the coordination.  They have yachts that hold anywhere from 25 to 1000.   To learn more about having your wedding on a Hornblower Cruise, check out their website:  http://www.hornblower.com/hce/port/category/sd+weddings

Hornblower sells a wedding package that includes the wedding cake.  There are a couple of cake vendors to choose from and I wouldn’t be writing about Hornblower if Twiggs wasn’t one of the options.  We’ve actually been with Hornblower for over 10 years now and we’ve seen about 7-8 other bakeries come and go in that time as other cake vendor options.    The unique thing about delivering to a boat is that you HAVE to be on time with your delivery.  If you’re too late, the reception site has set sail and there’s just no way to get the cake to the reception without the boat returning to dock.  At least one bakery got the boot due to consistent delivery problems.  I won’t name that bakery though I suppose it doesn’t matter, as they went out of business a few years back.  All the other bakeries that were options all dropped out by their own choice because delivering to a yacht is a complete pain in the neck at times.  You have to go out on a dock which generally has a locked gate.  Then you’re pushing your cart carrying the cake down the dock which is generally a very bumpy ride that jars the cake considerably.  But I’ve made peace with the delivery hassle of boat deliveries a few years ago as we get a lot of weddings through Hornblower.  This past weekend, for instance, we had three weddings with Hornblower.

Certainly no blog post is complete without a picture, so here’s a cake we delivered yesterday to a Hornblower yacht called The Emerald — probably the boat we deliver to the most.  When I was assigning decorating assignments for the weekend, I knew I sure as heck didn’t want to decorate this cake so I assigned it to unsuspecting Emily.  She about had a nervous breakdown piping all the dots.  I told her to think of it as a zen experience — mindlessly repeating the same task over and over to reach enlightenment, but that didn’t seem to work for her.  Still, when all was said and done and Emily’s hand had cramped up for the 10th time, the tedium was worth it.  The cake just looked fantastic.

This past weekend was super busy at Twiggs in all aspects.  The Adams Avenue Unplugged Street Festival was this past weekend and we had some performers in the cafe both Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  We’re always busy for breakfast on weekends, but this past weekend we were just slammed — particularly Saturday.  To top it off, we were just crazy busy for bakery orders.  We’d actually stopped taking orders for last weekend about 2 weeks prior we had so many orders.  Among all the orders were 6 weddings.  Usually when we have 3 or more weddings, you can count on one or two being rather traditional wedding cakes — triple swiss dot or something like that.  They make for classic wedding cakes but, honestly, as a decorator, they’re not particularly exciting to work on.  After you’ve decorated over 300 wedding cakes in a triple swiss dot pattern, it long ago became routine.  But this past weekend was unusual in that every wedding cake had a unique design or set-up.  It makes this job a lot more fun and interesting when you’re working on new things.   Emily delivered a few of the cakes so I don’t have pictures of them yet (she has Monday off).  So I’ll post three of the cakes I delivered.

Rebecca and David were getting married at the Martin Johnson House.  Rebecca had found a cake she adored in Martha Stewart.  Rebecca’s dream cake was a 7 tier fondant covered cake that would have fed 175-200 people.  Their wedding, however, was for 80.  I ended up already having the same stencils that had been used on the magazine cake, so I did a scaled down version of the cake featuring their wedding colors — a deep purple and gray.  When I got to the reception site, the florist had white hydrangeas and purple sweet peas to finish the cake.  I thought it looked great.

The next cake went to Park Manor Suites.  I’ve written a couple of blog posts about Park Manor and the story has changed about their future once again.  Initially, they were closing this venue and converting to time shares.  Then they were going to keep this venue open, but close the hotel to time share only.  Now the hotel will remain a hotel.  It’s owned by a time share company and will be available to their time-share holders as an option to vacation at, but it will also be open to the general public as a regular hotel.  The hotel is undergoing a major renovation and that renovation includes a complete remodel of the top floor / penthouse used as the wedding venue.  I had to stop and do a double take when I walked off the elevator.  The room used to have a very classic elegance.  Now it’s extremely modern and contemporary.  It still looks fantastic — just in a very different way.  It’s now all gray with white accents.  Gemma, the bride, took this into account when she designed her cake.  The cake was white with gray ribbon and branches with yellow flowers, similar to forsythia.  The cake looked like it was made for the room and really popped.

Finally, the last cake I delivered Saturday went to the serene Estancia in La Jolla.  The bride wanted a very unusual set-up.  I’ve done this offset stacking a few times and it’s always a tad unnerving, but I was the most relaxed doing this one that I’ve been yet.  Organic Elements did the flowers and they just did a great job.  It was a very unique wedding cake, for sure, and had to be a conversation piece during the reception.

Since we’re fortunate to live in “endless summer” here in San Diego, lots of couples get married and have receptions outdoors.  Of course, this means the wedding cake is getting set up outside as well.  You have to make certain allowances for a cake that’s going to sit out for 5 hours or so before it’s cut — which is a pretty typical time frame for most wedding set-ups.  I’ve actually changed some of my recipes and assembling techniques over the years to accomodate outdoor weddings, since we do so many of them.  When I first started Twiggs, I offered several mousse cakes, as that’s what I’d learned up in Northern California.  But mousses sitting for an extended time in some heat is a recipe for a collapsing wedding cake.  So I no longer offer any mousse cakes.  Also a big potential problem for a buttercream frosted cake is that it may “sweat” as it sits in heat.  You’re basically guaranteed of having a sweating cake if the bakery delivers a frozen cake, which several places do.  Twiggs will never deliver a frozen cake.  But even a cool cake can sweat if it’s sitting in 90 degree heat.  I played around with my buttercream formula so that now our cakes practically never sweat.  And no, I’m not divulging my secret.  It took me too long to figure it out — and actually came upon it by accident.

So what should you think about regarding your wedding cake if you’re having an outdoor wedding?  Here are things I’ve learned after delivering cakes for over 20 years:

1- Direct sunlight is the death of any buttercream frosted cake.  I know at least one bakery that refuses to do a buttercream frosted cake for any outdoor wedding.  But our buttercream frosted cakes will be fine as long as they’re in the shade.  Even if it’s upper 60′s, direct sunlight will ruin a cake.  It’s absolutely essential that your cake is in the shade.  If shade just isn’t an option for some reason, you’ll have to get a fondant covered cake.  I know fondant is more expensive and a lot of people don’t like fondant.  But you made the decision to have an outdoor wedding, not us!  Your buttercream frosted cake will NOT survive in direct sunlight unless it’s 55 degrees or colder.  And if it’s that cold, the wedding cake is the least of your worries with your outdoor wedding.

2- ants can be a real issue.  Do Not let the table cloth touch the ground.  Put the table legs in cups that are filled with water.  This way ants can not climb up onto the table and onto the cake.  I’ve delivered to some places where the table is already swarming with ants because they didn’t follow one of these two directives.  At that point, all hope is lost.

3- flying insects can be a problem.  We’re very fortunate in San Diego to have very few bugs.  But there are some places that have quite a few.  I’ve found anything near vineyards, especially, to be particularly buggy.  So what’s your option?  I’ve delivered to a few weddings that had the cake in a small pergula with mosquito netting around it.  But really, flying bugs aren’t a huge problem in San Diego.  Even the vineyards aren’t THAT bad as long as your cake is 15 yards or so removed from the vines.  Just don’t set your cake up next to a grapevine or horse corral.  Don’t laugh, I’ve done both.

4- if you’re near the ocean or the bay, you just have to have someone on seagull guard duty.  There’s one bayfront venue I deliver to (which shall go nameless) which has a real issue with HUGE seagulls that will swoop down when no one’s looking.  Make sure your caterer or one of your friends is standing on-guard by the cake table if seagulls are around.  Once a crowd gathers, they’re not so likely to attack.  But before the guests arrive is a real danger zone time.

5- as long as you’re in a coastal area with ocean breezes, you’ll be great with a buttercream frosted cake as long as it’s in the shade.  If you’re in Lakeside, however, in July with potential 100 degree weather, you’ll have to get a fondant covered cake.  Sorry, but the melting point of butter is about 96 degrees.  Don’t let a melting wedding cake be a sad metaphor for your future life together.

I think that covers the main points.  I hope they’re helpful.  If you get nothing else from this blog post get this:  NEVER SET YOUR WEDDING CAKE IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT!  

Finally, no blog post is complete without pictures.  Here are some cakes we’ve set up outside which had very happy existences.  The two on the first row were both set up at the Darlington House in La Jolla — a fantastic outdoor venue (as long as you’re not hung up on an ocean view).  The lower left picture is from Piatti’s restaurant in La Jolla Shores.  They have a lovely outdoor patio for smaller weddings.   The bottom right with the ducks in the nest topper is from the Martin Johnson House at UCSD Scripps Institute of Oceanography — one of my absolute favorite venues.  Actually, all three of these venues are personal favorites.    Click on any picture to see a larger view.

I love it when people hire Twiggs to make a cake buffet or cake centerpieces for their wedding.  Rather than one single wedding cake, we do several cakes with different designs and different flavors.  It allows the couple to serve a lot of different flavors at their wedding as well as having a conversation piece at their reception.

This past weekend we did the cakes for a cake buffet at Erica’s wedding at the Condor Nest Ranch in Pala.  The Ranch is pretty isolated.  You drive about a mile and a half past the Pala Casino on 76 and then turn onto a small, poorly marked road and head 3 and half miles up into the mountains.  You drive through an orange grove before eventually reaching a large ranch house with a spectacular view of the valley below.  It was a clear day and I could even see downtown San Diego in the far, far distance.  It’s definitely rural and remote, but it’s a pretty great place if you’re looking for that sort of venue.  Despite the seculsion, it’s not a secret.  They’re completely booked for 2012.  But here’s a link to their site if you’re considering a date in 2013 or beyond.  http://www.thecondorsnestranch.com/

 Erica wanted a cake buffet with a slightly vintage feel but using rather bright colors — a golden yellow, orange and fushia.  She sent a picture of a bunch of renunculus for the color sample.   I’ve done several of these buffets and centerpiece weddings.  A common denominator seems to be that the brides all like color — no all white cakes for these women.  I talked with Erica about what she was looking for and then sent some sketches with the cautionary note that this would be a very colorful display, just to make sure she was up for all that color.  She tweaked a few designs, but none of the colors.  Her mom had gone a little crazy on Ebay buying vintage cake toppers — more than they needed actually — so every cake had their own vintage bride and groom, which was great.  

I loved the display.  Below is a big picture of the entire display and then smaller photos of each of the individual cakes.  You can click on the smaller photos to see a bigger image of each cake if you like.  So if you’re up for a non-traditional wedding cake, you should consider a cake buffet which will allow your guests a wide variety of flavors.

      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. 

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. 

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:

One of the great, quintessential Southern California venues is the Scripps Seaside Forum at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla Shores.  Since all beaches in California are public by law, it can be tough to find an oceanfront venue that has some privacy and doesn’t have the unwashed masses walking past your wedding in their bikinis and wet suits.  Scripps Seaside Forum (and it’s older sister venue, the charming Martin Johnson House) are unique in that they’re on the tops of cliffs that overlook the ocean.  So anyone walking on the beach or in the ocean is way below you and not looking into your wedding.  You actually have privacy and a fantastic Pacific ocean setting — quite hard to find.   Plus the venue is brand new;  it opened about 2 years ago.  It’s a very contemporary building with a huge wall of glass looking out to the ocean.  It has a great lawn between the building and the edge of the cliff, so that’s a great place to have your ceremony and initial cocktail reception.

Although it’s brand new, it’s no secret.  I understand it’s almost completely booked for the next year and a half, so you really need to plan way ahead to use this venue.  But, of course, there are always cancellations, so you should contact them anyway just to see if something’s available.  We booked one bride and when we asked how they chose their wedding date, she said it was the only date available at Scripps Seaside Forum that year.  Here’s a link to info about the venue:  http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/About/Venue_Rentals/Scripps_Forum/

The last two weekends have featured a weddding cake from Twiggs at the Seaside Forum!  Our picture from two weekends ago was sort of washed out by the sun, but the one from this past weekend turned out well.  Karilyn wanted a contemporary cake in aqua and green that featured the patterns from her very contemporary invitations.  Karilyn and her bridesmaids actually showed up at the site when we were finishing setting up the cake.  That’s rare;  usually I never see the bride.  She seemed thrilled the cake, which makes it all worthwhile.

San Diego is a real military town and there are several military bases that have wedding venues on them.  To be able to use one of these venues, you either have to be in the military or have someone who is / was in the military sponsor you.  As I understand it, these venues are significantly less expensive than most venues which is one of their main appeals.  All the venues have something to recommend them and something you might have to compromise on in going with that particular venue.  I plan to eventually blog on all the major military venues, but today I’ll talk about the Oceanview Room at the Point Loma Sub Base.

The sub base is at the end of Point Loma on the east side.  The Oceanview room is at the end of the base — you can look up and see the Pt. Loma lighthouse and look out towards the opening of the San Diego Bay and onto the Pacific Ocean.  Honestly, the room itself isn’t anything to get too excited about, though when I delivered there last weekend, the whole building was undergoing renovations except for the Oceanview Room itself.  Perhaps the Oceanview Room is in store for some renovations, but I don’t know.  It really doesn’t matter.  The reason people want to book this venue is not the room itself, but a fantastic deck right on the bay/ocean.  The deck was redone a couple of years ago and is quite spacious.  Most weddings I deliver to there have all the tables set up on the deck — the room itself is merely used as a buffet station for guests to get their food and then go back to the deck.  There’s also a nice lawn area beside the deck where most couples get married prior to the reception.  Of course, with a winter wedding, you’ll be inside the room itself, but you’ll still have a great view of the ocean.   Of all the military venues, this has the best ocean view setting.   If you’re on a little bit of a budget (and who isn’t these days) and you have some military connection, I certainly recommend checking out the Oceanview Room.  But book early;  they sell out more than a year in advance generally. Here’s a link to their website:  http://www.sdbg.com/oceanview.php

Amanda and Justin got married at the Oceanview Room weekend before last.  They were a really nice couple and she wanted a simple cake — plain iced sides, white on the top and bottom tiers and grey on the middle tier with a black ribbon at the base of each tier.  There were some white orchids for me to place on the cake when I delivered it.  It’s a clean, simple cake that should never look out of style.  Sometimes, simple is beautiful.

About 5 years ago I did my first wedding that wanted cake centerpieces for each table rather than the traditional stacked cake.  The couple really gave me complete freedom with the designs.  I sat down with them and they said “here’s our colors, here’s generally what we like; Surprise us.”  I ended up having a blast doing the cakes, they were thrilled and I ended up with 2 other wedding cake centerpiece bookings from two couples who attended that wedding.

It’s really a fun idea.  You can have different flavors and different designs on each table.  The cakes become a conversation piece at the wedding.  Then when it’s time to cut the cakes, it encourages people to interact with other tables as people search out different cake flavors.

I’ve done probably 15 or so of these weddings over the last few years.  Some brides give me complete freedom.  Others want to approve each design and color scheme.  Either way is fine with me.  Honestly, you end up spending more on cake than you would otherwise, but you save a lot on flowers since you have cake centerpieces rather than floral centerpieces.  We also leave a cake box for each cake as there’s almost always leftover cake with this arrangement.  Rather than take a floral centerpiece home, your guests (at least a few of them) get to take cake home.

Last weekend we did wedding cake centerpieces for Deborah and Matt. They had an outdoor wedding at the San Diego Botanical Gardens in Encinitas (formerly Quail Botanical Gardens).  The gardens are beautiful and Deborah wanted to tie in the nature theme to her centerpieces, so they all included some sort of plant life.  Below you’ll find pictures of four of their cakes. 

So if you’re thinking outside the box for your wedding, think of having Cake Centerpieces for your tables rather than florals.