At the cake shop not all business is strictly cake.  We’ve recently been collecting egg shells and other organic waste such as carrot peels (from our carrot cake recipe) and the banana peel we ate for lunch to use in our compost pile.  We then mix them up with other waste from the house such as grass clippings, dead leaves, sawdust from a recent tree removal, veggie waste from the kitchen etc.  Every other day or so we give the pile a good stir to make sure it’s getting enough air and in a month or two we’ll have nutrient rich compost soil to add to our home garden.  Exciting right?  Sure beats just tossing all that good stuff in the garbage where it would end up a landfill just sitting inside that plastic garbage bag forever.

Since I’m not the expert on compost as much as I am on cake here’s a link to more info about composting at home.  It’s super easy.  You just need a designated spot in your lawn (we have ours in trash barrels with air holes punched all around the sides), add a good mix of green and brown materials (just no fats or meats please), keep it moist, warm and let the air circulate, give it a little time and voila! you have better and cheaper fertilizer than you could buy in the store.  Make sure you get some of those wormmies in there too; they’ll help you break down all that stuff in no time.  You know when it’s finished it’s magic when it’s black and crumbly just like soil.  Just mix in with garden soil or sprinkle around already planted plants in the garden, front lawn, or even potted house plants.

Last weekend we created a marathon of a wedding cake order.  Instead of the usual, more formal sit-down dinner, this couple decided on a cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvres to be passed around.   So we made 100 mini wedding cakes, one for each guest, to be passed around on waiters’ trays.  It took a good portion of our week to plan, bake, make roses, and decorate these cuties, but was totally worth the effort.

First off, here’s a couple shots of our wonderful decorators assembling the minis.

Here’s a shot of some of the minis with the large wedding cake, which was mostly for display and the cutting ceremony.

Here are the minis all finished and ready to be delivered.

These were literally a single serving of cake, two if you’ve had a large dinner

If you’re imagining these adorable little guys being served as your wedding dessert just keep in mind that this is one of  the most expensive options we have available.  It takes a whole lot more decorating hours to decorate 100 individual servings to look like mini wedding cakes than it does to decorate all 100 servings at once.

My new favorite wedding color combo is officially yellow and gray.  The flower pattern is hand-painted onto the cake and was inspired by the design on a wedding invitation.

Two years ago today we opened up our shop in Winthrop.  We had been in buisness since October of 2008 working out of a residential kitchen until the time came when we needed more space and more help.  We opened up our current shop and now have 10 fabulous employees.

A huge thank you to our wonderful crew of bakers and decorators and dishwashers who’ve made Amanda Oakleaf Cakes such a huge success.

And of course a huge thank you to our most wonderful customers who keep comin’ back for more delicious cake year after year.

Our crew with our mascot Dr. Fresh.

A reporter/writer from Dig Boston came to visit us a couple weeks ago and wrote this lovely article about us which is in this week’s Dig!  It’s one of our most favorite write-ups of all time : )

For our cake fans who exist outside the great city of Boston here’s an online link to the article.

http://digboston.com/taste/2012/03/oakleaf-cakes-extreme-edible-art/

Here is a wedding cake we designed last week that has definitely found a spot in our category of favorite ever wedding cake designs.  It’s our rendition of what’s popular in the wedding world right now, dusty rose, fabric and lace ruffles, broach flowers and anything vintage!  This cake is fairly large standing 3 feet tall (including the stand) but we’d be happy to adjust the height and design for anyone wanting something similar for their special day.

Any schmo can grab some flowers and chocolates while waiting in line at the drug store, but if you really want to show that someone special how much you care, we’ve got just the desserts to do the trick this Valentines day.  And if you weren’t already scoring enough points with our tasty pastry, our gift certificates for cake decorating classes are a great date-night activity that will make you seem ever-so-thoughtful!

Here are just a few of the many treats that will be stocking our V-Day cake display:

Read the rest of this entry »

So by now you’ve probably seen the amazing Stormtrooper cake we made last week for the Arisia sci-fi convention.  Unfortunately, due to all the craziness associated with just trying to complete the cake, we didn’t have a chance to shoot any video.  We did however get a TON of really cool photos.  In fact, we got so many photos that we were able to stitch together this pretty sweet stop-motion gif of how the cake being cut up and eaten.

So, without further ado, I give you a little animation we like to call “How to eat a stormtrooper.”

This may be the world’s most epic cake.

This beautiful cake was created for the hungry patrons at the Arisia Sci-Fi Convention in Boston, MA.  The stormtrooper stands at 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed at least 300 lbs, and fed nearly 600 hungry conventioneers!

The building of the Stormtrooper cake was an epic event in and of itself.  It took our entire wonderful crew of ten people two full weeks of to put this guy together (although the cake wasn’t added until 2 days before it was to be served).  Along the way we even had to invent completely new cake making methods so it could be put together modularly onsite, hold its fondant over long vertical stretches, and stand on two beautifully sculpted Rice Kripsy legs that supported his 300 lb body –all while keeping every bit of cake tasting light, fluffy, and delicious!

It was a challenge to say the least, but we’re all incredibly proud, as we think it is perhaps the greatest sculpted cake ever created.  A bold statement for sure, but we think think that the photos speak for themselves.

Check out the pictures below to see how it all went together!

http://imgur.com/a/lQpF0

Update: We made a pretty cool animated gif of the cake getting sliced and eaten!

Today is the day! We deliver our most epic cake ever to Westin Waterfront for the Arisia Sci-Fi Convention where it will be on display today and then devoured tomorrow!  The only way to see him assembled is to be at Arisia : )

Of course we’ll post process pictures for those of you who are not able to make it.  So check back after a couple days for that.  Here are a couple teasers for now.

Yes, his brains are made of delicious cake. 

This make-shift robo-krispie box trooper is hanging onto our stormtrooper’s arms until he’s ready for assembly.

Sexy Stormtrooper legs…mmmmm.