Cakes Posts

21Feb
0

Dessert So Good, TV Shows So Bad

I’m a big Food Network fan. I can sit there for hours watching Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives or The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Cooking competitions? Sure, bring it on! Food is glorious and watching people treat food as though it were art, which I think it really is, is so fascinating. Even though I salivate as I watch others eat, I can’t get enough of it. So why, oh why, do I have such a disdain for shows about dessert? Cupcakes, pies, cookies, brownies, I love them all but they’re just not as interesting to watch on screen.

I was so excited when Top Chef: Just Desserts was announced, but I quickly realized all the contestants were whiny little brats. Maybe that was just bad casting, but even the challenges weren’t that special. I think I watched to the end of the series, I can’t even remember. But I can easily spout off every winner of Top Chef. The only show that vaguely interests me is Amazing Wedding Cakes on Lifetime. Mainly because I can’t believe people can afford to drop thousands of dollars on a cake recreating an entire scene from Alice in Wonderland.

Maybe it’s because most baking involves a lot of stirring batter and not much else. Even cake decorating, which I admire greatly, is just extremely tedious work. I’d rather watch someone light a pan on fire and use liquid nitrogen in soup. I love you dessert, more than you’ll ever know, but I just can’t watch you on television.

Posted by KristenM in Dessert News and tagged with , , , , , ,
19Jan
0

A Stormtrooper for Dessert

dessert

Stormtrooper Cake Copyright of Oakleaf Cakes

I often watch shows like Amazing Wedding Cakes and Food Network’s Challenge where bakers are put to the test to create ridiculous cakes. But they have all been put to shame by Oakleaf Cakes in Massachusetts who created a 6-foot Stormtrooper cake. As you can see from the picture, it’s pretty intense. The cake consisted of 300 pounds of frosting, cake, and Rice Krispy slabs. I guess one could say Oakleaf Cakes really took the cake! *insert knee slap here*

The cake was created for over 600 sci-fi geeks at the Arisa Sci-Fi Convention in Boston. It took nine people, two weeks of planning and execution, and a little bit of engineering skills to complete the epicness that is this dessert. Every time I see these incredible cakes I always wonder if anyone dares to eat it. It’s just too beautiful and too awesome to cut into. Rest assured that not a piece of cake was wasted. I cannot speak for the other intense desserts though.

Want the recipe? Good luck. It’s a bit past my skills. To create incredible cakes you need a little architecture and engineering knowledge so the cakes do not collapse in on themselves. I recommend an internship with the Cake Boss.

Posted by KristenM in Cakes, Dessert News and tagged with , ,
05Jan
0

Viniero’s Bakery

I have always loved history and dessert foods, so it makes sense that my all-time favorite bakery has existed since 1894 and has the widest variety of tasty desserts of any bakery I visited (and I make it a point to visit many). bakery

Viniero’s is located at 342 East 11th Street and 1st Avenue and has existed within the same building since it was established by Antionio Veniero. The bakery maintains many of its original features, including hand-stamped metal ceilings, specially designed etched glass doors, highly polished wood mirrors. The lavish marble floors have only been restored once in the past 117 years.

As you enter Viniero’s, your eyes are immediately drawn to the huge display case that contains every Italian confectionary of which can conceive, and then some. If you are getting an order to go, you grab a number from the dispenser and wait on the line. No matter what hour of day or night, I have never seen a line that did not reach the door (do not let this intimidate you; the line moves quickly and the pastries are well worth any wait).

If you walk past the display case, you come to the cafe area where you may sit and peruse the dessert menu, which is several pages long. Regardless of the actual sweetness of your sweet tooth, you will be able to find something positively scrumptious to eat (and drink!) at Viniero’s Bakery.

Posted by tarae in Cakes, chocolate, Cocktails, Cold Desserts, cookies, Healthy Desserts, Italian, Recipes and tagged with , , ,
17Aug
0

Cuteness Overload with Alice’s Cakes

Sometimes my inner girlyness shines through at the most unexpected moments. People assume because I can handle myself at a metal concert that I must not find the joy in cat videos on YouTube or in objects that glitter, but I do! And despite not liking pink and frills on anything, I adore the cakes made by Alice’s Tea Cup. Alice’s Tea Cup is a restaurant/cafe based on Alice in Wonderland with three locations in Manhattan. Despite serving scrumptious French toast for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, they really know how to put together a tasty dessert for your pot of tea.

But if you’re searching for something a little more filling, or rather, something to fill about 12 people, you can order one of their custom cakes. Who wouldn’t want cakes that say “Eat me” on them or with Alice’s picture on it? Pink, turquoise, lavender, these are the girly/spring colors that make every woman squeal, unless she’s to goth to handle. But you can ask them to make whatever design you want, for a little extra money. They even make wedding cakes, which will be awesome for anyone with a Mad Hatter tea party theme!

All I know is that these cakes looking mouth watering good and if their food is any indication for their cakes, you’re in for a real treat!

Posted by KristenM in Cakes and tagged with , , , , ,
01Mar
0

Cake Wrecks — A Humorous Look at Disastrous Desserts

Desserts don’t always turn out as sweet as intended. Every once in a while, the soufflé falls, the bananas foster singes a hairpiece, the crème doesn’t brûlée.

But sometimes an error isn’t technical. Sometimes it is but a symptom of a breakdown in communication between client and chef. And that’s where Cake Wrecks comes in. One of our favorite blogs, Cake Wrecks documents confectionery disasters resulting from said breakdown.

It’s easy to imagine the conversation that lead to the atrocity above, Cake Wrecks’ “Cake That Started It All.” The client obviously requested two lines, only the instruction to do so wound up misheard and, tragically, inscribed on the cake. Suzanne was probably pleased.

We love the pic below too, where the client’s color preference was likewise written in icing — and in the wrong color.



Check out Cake Wrecks for even more frosted flops.

Posted by Sarah in Cakes, Creative Ideas and tagged with , , , ,