I have lost count…

I have lost count of how many cakes I have made.  I can show you my very first fondant wedding cake I made at school.   However, it would be a nightmare to try to chronologically go through all my pictures and show you them in order from oldest to newest.   I will be slowly adding pictures and a descriptions of all of my cakes.  Each one has a story, each one was either a pain in the ass or wonderful, or both.

This was the first tiered wedding cake I ever made (Napa Valley CA, CIA campus some time around 2005).  In class we were asked to make a tiered wedding cake covered in fondant.  We were not given any other parameters.  Our chef instructors wanted to see what we would come up with, what our design skills were like.  I wanted to try a detailing decoration that I had seen in a picture.  I had no idea what it was called and or how to do what I know now as brush embroidery.  As you can see I used two shades of lavender, and white fondant.  For the brush embroidery I used a lavender and white, alternating on the opposite colored tiers.  I completed my assignment, waiting nervously for the critique.

My Chef instructor came around looking at my cake, making notes, and looking at all angles of my masterpiece.  He nods, then tells me it is good (note: it is not that great is impossible just that those words are rare from his lips) color and composition are very good.  He liked my brush embroidery.  My what?  I had no idea what he was talking about, and must have looked like it.  I was informed that the decorations/design I made were brush embroidery.  Apparently he was somewhat impressed I could copy a style without step by step instruction.  Needless to say I went home with a huge smile on my face.  I found one of my passions in the B&P world.