THE Cake

With much fanfare, nervous waiting and royal waving, I'm almost a little sad that the wedding has come to an end. While they clean the surrounding streets of Westminster Abbey, the party continues in Sydney. Anna Maria knocked out this royal tribute in just two days, which will stand as the centerpiece of the Victoria Room's royal wedding high tea this morning.

So while the rest of the world eagerly awaited first glimpse of the Duchess' Grace Kelly-esque dress, the PC crew were all about the cake. The level of detail which went in to the traditional white fruit cake, resplendent with almost 1000 sugar flowers, was unbelievable, yet I have to say I just love that William chose his childhood favourite, McVitie's chocolate cake as an accompaniment! A comfort classic, coupled with a modern design took this cake to a whole new level.

Royal Wedding Fever

Being in the business of wedding cakes, it's little wonder that Planet Cake has found itself firmly in the grips of Royal Wedding Fever. While some wait, bated breath to catch the first glimpse of Kate's dress and others weep at Wills official jump off the shelf, we make no secret here of being all about one thing: The Cake.
Like just about every aspect of the royal extravaganza, speculation abounds in regards to the cake. With umpteem million guests, one assumes there will be tiers to the ceiling, however even we can only guess at what else it has in store. If past royal experience is anything to go by, we can expect the cake to be classically beautiful, towering in size, yet traditional in all the right ways. While fruit and marzipan are de rigueur, having broken so many conventions already, I can't help but hope for something truly unique and a little cutting edge. While I will have to wait, like the rest of us mere mortals for tomorrow, I thought I would devote today to some of the truly amazing cakes of royal weddings gone by.

For me, the wedding cake of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip is everything a royal wedding cake should be. Impressively classic, with just enough touch of Rococo pomp.

Prince Rainier of Monaco and Princess Grace, pictured on their 1956 wedding day with the wedding cake, as effortlessly graceful as the beautiful couple.

One of the chief cooks, David Avery is pictured here with one of several of Charles and Diana's 1981 wedding cakes. Only recently, a former royal servant sold a 9'' slice of the marzipan-based cake which she had stored, wrapped in cling film for 27 years, for around $1300AUD. Traditional fruit cake with marzipan, this cake extravaganza was covered in white icing with a sugared onlay which featured the royal coat of arms.

Ah, one of my favorite royal stories of all, Prince Frederik and 'our Mary'! Like Princess Mary herself, the cake was both classic and feminine.

Easter time at Planet Cake!

Given what we do, it's no surprise really that we LOVE easter time in here.
Reason #1 Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate
Reason #2 We will use absolutely any excuse we can to get into the dress-up box.

With most of our crew at the Sydney Royal Easter Show this morning, I've turned our office into our own cosy little rabbit warren and am presently munching my way through a good portion of the bag of Cadbury eggs which have found their way onto my desk, while trying to resist the temptation to model my bunny ears yet again.

 

 

We received a phone call earlier this week for a seriously monumental cake, seriously last minute which saw half of our team pulled off their regular duties and thrown right into the deep end. While I am sworn to secrecy at this stage I can tell you this was probably the most exciting, stressful and ground-breaking cake we have ever made....trust me you're going to want to watch this space.

Until then however, I can tide you over with Margie's orangutan from last week. Made for a special benefit event, for which all attendees were required to don red wigs (Paris cut quite the image last week in a purple dress, bright orange bob, complete with leopard print heels I must say). The cake is a life-sized 3D baby orangutan which quite frankly, a mama orangutan could easily have mistaken for her own. I have to say this is one cake I am glad not to have seen cut.

After designing and completing 20 individual cakes for the 20 finalists of Cleo's 2011 Bachelor of the Year, this week we helped winner, Eamon Sullivan celebrate with this huge cake. It was really down to the wire with this one, with Emma and Ritzy still glittering the cake at 5pm as Carlos strolled through the doors to collect it. Time-consuming, yes, but well worth the effort. While Emma may still be picking glitter of various parts of her, the cake looked just stunning in all its glory at the venue. Oh, and the bachelor wasn't too bad either.

Luckily, it's a short day in here for the long weekend, or else I could well be in danger of death by chocolate! Wishing all of you a safe and wonderful long weekend, full of happiness and of course chocolate.

X

Japan Relief Cupcake Workshop

In aid of the Japan Relief appeal, Ritzy and Naoko will be holding two very special cupcake workshops on May 25th, with $100 of each registration going directly to the Japan appeal. We will run a morning and afternnon workshop during which you will decorate and take home six very cute, Japanese inspired cupcakes. There are only twenty spaces available in each session of this one-off workshop, so get in quickly to avoid dissapointment.

http://www.planetcake.com.au/courses/cake-decorating-sydney-details.php?cn=Japan+Relief+Appeal+-+Cupcake+Workshop

Believe it or not, we get our inspiration from all manner of sources when it comes to cake decorating and as such try our best to keep a constant finger on the fashion pulse. No surprises then that we were extremely honored to make this weeks cake for Leona Edminston's celebration of ten years in the business. Antony's design was based on one of Leona's newest season frocks, as seen below, and was made by the very talented Ritzy. A big congratulations to Leona Edminston and a thank you to Vogue Australia who were so kind as to post pictures of the cake on their Facebook fan page.

While they may not have the uber-cool factor, these two wedding cakes epitomize traditional beauty, with an elegance that will never go out of style.

Unfortunately the picture doesn't really do it justice, but this 3D speedboat was seriously big and it was very "interesting" watching Paris trying to get it from kitchen to car in one piece this morning, taking into account Sydney's torrential rain and her 6'' leopard print stiletto's. As always, she handled it like a pro and the cake has now made it safely to its destination.

Dessert Table Elements

We have long been a fan of Libby Mariner's Polka Dot Cookies and were thrilled to welcome her aboard as our first guest teacher of the year. Like all things sweet, tables of delectable, bite-sized cookies and cakes have taken off as the latest must-have for all sorts of events from weddings and baby showers to corporate events and children's parties. The three day course covered Cookie Queen Libby's signature butter cream whip, cookies and cake pops, with a touch of PC figurine modeling taught by Anna Maria.

One of 'Those' Mornings

This morning started out as one of those days. You know the kind I'm talking about. After a slight air-con mishap we walked in (veeeeeery early) this morning to find a majorly important cake feeling softer than Santa Claus' belly. Eeeeeeek! On top of that we had a visit from a lost local canine and a seriously stressed out delivery guy. Thank God Antony was on hand with his world-famous cake surgery skills and disaster was (narrowly) averted. I absolutely wish I could show pics of this cake of which I speak, at this stage however it's Top Secret...but trust me, watch this space! As for the puppy, it's family were located and said delivery driver is, I'm sure currently unwinding beer in hand. So all's well that ends well here at Planet Cake this week.

While I can't show what left our doors at the crack of dawn this morning, I am thrilled to bits to be able to share with you this truly unique wedding cake. I have been known to wax lyrical about my favorite cakes, however on this occasion I believe I will hold my tongue as I think this one speaks for itself.

Oh, and just a couple of other things the guys threw together this week: