Sometimes a birthday cake comes along that is just too fun and sweet not to share with everyone.  We got a phone call in February asking us to make a 2^nd birthday cake for a little girl named Nila (her 1^st birthday cake is actually shown in Year of the Firsts).  Her parents wanted to keep the same hourglass shape as her 1^st birthday cake but totally change up the design except for 3 important elements: her name, her age, and the color pink!  They had seen a cake on our website and wanted to incorporate the theme of that cake and the elements that they wanted included.

Along with the main three pieces that they wanted was to have an elephant on top of the cake (again…elephants are popular for infants and toddlers!).  So Ellen, who decorated this cake, made her girly and purple while wearing a little yellow flower.  While designing, we decided that we could seamlessly incorporate the number 2 if the elephant was holding it, rather than it sticking out on a wire or being larger and covering up other decorations.

The last important addition was a giraffe—pink of course!  This giraffe came out cuter than any of us anticipated.  She honestly looks like a tiny stuffed animal with her stitched up potbelly, heart-bottomed feet, and “oh my goodness” expression.  And let’s not forget her shimmering blush.  Way to go Ellen!  We’ve made tons of figurines over the years but I think this one went towards the top of the list of favorites.

As previously stated, Nila’s name is obviously a key component to the cake.  But like the number 2, we wanted it incorporated into the design as opposed to just “sticking out.”  The final version came out just the way the design was intended with a white flowered base to fit in with the other flowers, and then Ellen used “tap-it” cutters to make a loopy version of Nila’s name.  And voila—the cake is finished!

The cake itself is buttermilk with lemon buttercream on one tier, chocolate cake with chocolate hazelnut buttercream on another and is covered in a mix of vanilla and chocolate fondant to get that light brown look.  We did the math and all elements covered + extra cute decorations + delicious flavors = Super cute and tasty birthday cake.  Happy birthday Nila and we hope to see you next year!

Included are some pictures that we took to show you what graduation is like for us.  Enjoy and congratulations to all the graduates around the country!

Our speed racks on Friday filled with cakes of all sorts of flavors like chocolate, buttermilk, and Hummingbird.

Just an example of cakes from Thursday. This year’s design for round cakes was Maize n’ Blue ribbons and balls.

Oh Michigan cookies! For graduation we write the year on the cookie (instead of a football which is what we use in the fall).

This is the virology cake for Dr. Johnson. We know there is influenza and the HIV virus. Anyone out there who studies virology know any of the others?

Boxes all folded up and ready to be filled with cakes…this isn’t even for the biggest day!

Seeing matzo ball soup on the menu, with no mention of it being a Jewish dish, was intriguing to them. Even more interesting was that the matzo balls were swimming in goose broth instead of the chicken broth usually found in the U.S. version. The goose broth was rich and complex, and was served along with an entire goose leg as a garnish. Then there was the matzo ball itself: It was much coarser in texture than any the Bakehouse crew had previously experienced, and it was flavored with fresh ginger root! (Don’t let your bubbe read this…)

Interestingly, Hungarian cuisine and Jewish cuisine are quite intertwined today. Matzo ball soup is often on menus, latkes are readily available and cholent, often served with pork, is surprisingly common. Jewish communities have existed in Hungary since at least the 1100s and their impact on the nation’s cultural landscape is significant. World War II brought the same fate to Hungarian Jews as it did other European Jews. But this occurred much later in the war since Hungary was an ally of Germany, and maintained its independence until the spring of 1944. Some Hungarian Jews fortunate enough to survive the Holocaust returned after the war, only to find themselves living under repressive Communist rule.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the community became more visible and vibrant. Budapest now has the largest and most active Jewish community in Eastern Europe, and 90% of Hungary’s Jewish population lives in the capital. The result of 900 years of Jewish/Magyar co-existence is an interesting assimilation of Jewish foods into the Hungarian standard cuisine. What we might think of as Jewish food here in the U.S. is simply considered Hungarian food in that country.

One of the goals of the spring 2012 trip was to explore Jewish cuisine in Hungary, which makes sense as Zingerman’s has its roots in Jewish food. Toward that end, the group decided to pay a visit to Tibor Rosenstein. Tibor is the chef and owner of Rosenstein, one of a handful of restaurants in Budapest known for their Jewish offerings. He survived the Holocaust as a baby, and was raised, along with his sister, by resourceful elderly grandparents. After finishing middle school, he chose cooking as a trade because “eating is good, and everyone must eat.”

Tibor built on what his aging grandmothers had taught him: cook what is locally available with love and great care. He opened his restaurant in the early 1990s, and he cooks what his grandmothers cooked. The food that warms your soul is what makes an impression, and his restaurant is a wonderful representation of Jewish and Hungarian traditional dishes served in an elegant setting. One of the best parts of the restaurant is Tibor himself. He is an energetic, smiling, and passionate chef. Truly inspiring!

Returning to the matzo ball soup… At his restaurant, Tibor makes a flavorful goose stock using a mix of vegetables such as mushrooms, parsnips, celery root and Savoy cabbage. But the crowning jewels are the matzo balls. Tibor welcomed the Bakehouse group into his small, but efficient kitchen (check out the Bakehouse Facebook page for a video from Tibor’s kitchen!) to show us how he makes his matzo balls, using coarsely crumbled whole matzos, whole eggs, goose fat, fresh parsley, and fresh grated ginger root. We left his kitchen prepared to bring Hungarian matzo ball soup to Ann Arbor.

Intrigued? We promise a tasty experience whether you’re a matzo ball soup novice or connoisseur. Come and see us at the Bakehouse on Fridays and try our tribute to Tibor’s soup.

Chrissy Abe- Bakehouse staffer

So you might have read a few times in previous blog posts that we often come up with cake designs based on invitations.  We love it so much that we thought we’d create an entire post on the subject so you could see what we mean.  Invitations give us an idea of not only the colors of the event but also the style and feeling—is it elegant or whimsical?  Modern or traditional?  Is there a unique component on the invitation that you’d like replicated on the cake?  All of these ideas give us the freedom as well as the parameters needed to create a unique cake that is designed just for you (or for whomever you’re throwing the party).

These particular cakes are baby showers and their corresponding invitations, but know that the concept holds true for any and all events, including weddings.

The above photo with the gray elephant was originally based on a photo that the mother-to-be brought in but of course we had to make a few changes!  First up, colors.  The invitation had wonderful subtle tones of gray and yellow that Stephanie really wanted to pull into the design.  The shapes came next with wanting to incorporate the solid stripes at the bottom of the invitation and the polka dots on the elephant.   While not taking a too literal translation of the invitation, she decided, with the father-to-be, to make a fondant ribbon with small polka dots to match the idea of the elephant.  The final finishing touches came with the elephant and blocks—it is a baby shower cake after all!  When we delivered the cake, Tanya, the mother-to-be, was also dressed to match—way to coordinate Tanya!

I wrote briefly in the last blog post about gender revealing cakes so here’s another one for you.  This one is a bit more of a literal translation from invitation to design with the focus being on the big question: boy or girl?  The pastel dots were added for a soft yet playful finish and were inspired by the bottom of the invitation.  And the inside, well they went with raspberry buttercream and raspberry preserves because it was a girl!

When Danielle and her husband came in looking for a shower cake they were anticipating having to get a sheet cake as they didn’t think it was possible to put their invitation onto a tiered cake.  It was one of those times I’m happy to prove someone wrong!  Their invitation was perfect for a 2-tiered cake.   We pulled the colors straight from the invitation using that yellow oval (which I guess is kind of the like the sun?) as our focal point.  Stephanie then painted the little boy’s name using the same style font that’s on the invitation.  From there it was a painting free-for-all with all of the woodland animals all around the cake.  I wanted the owl and it’s branch to be a part of the plaque so the whole design was inclusive.  This cake was definitely unique to the couple but also as a shower cake itself since it didn’t have any “traditional” baby shower elements.  That’s part of what it is so enjoyable about designing cakes from invitations—no two cakes are the same!   The parents-to-be were thrilled with their cake and we couldn’t have been happier, especially since they didn’t think it could happen.

Oh Baby!  The colors were the most important part of this baby shower cake design.  The customer didn’t want anything extravagant or over-the-top, just a nice sweet cake honoring the style of the shower.  We were inspired not only from the colors in the carriage but also the beautiful font and wording on the invitation—so it had to go on the cake!  The larger green dot on top of the cake was designed to hold a glass figurine topper that the party planner wanted on the cake.

Last but not least is another, yet very different, elephant cake (elephant’s are very popular with showers and first birthdays).  This was one of those consultations where the customer gave us free reign on the design, let us do what we wanted, and just gave us the invitation.  Since the invitation was quite modern, the cake needed to be too.  Clean lines, simplistic, yet stylish—that’s our modern.  One of the best parts was the opportunity to make a gray cake.  People often get “scared” of gray cakes, and we understand why.  It can be dark and doesn’t always look appetizing.  But nowadays, especially with all of the different styles and decorating techniques out there, gray is one of the more interesting colors to use on a cake.   Back to the design…Katie took the script and bold fonts from the invitation and used them for her own inscription.  Lastly, she included the water droplets with the elephant; and although it’s hard to see on the invitation, the stitching around the border of the circle and we also used it as the border of each tier.  And when we delivered the cake, there were variations of the invitation, like table numbers and place settings, all around the room all showing the elephant or water in one way or another so the cake fit right in!  Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?!?

I hope you enjoyed your “lesson” on invitation inspirations.  Bring one down and see what we can come up with!

This cake design came from the “vintage carnival” theme of the shower. Baby Jacob apparently was affectionately being called “Mr. Jacob” by the family so that just had to be part of the inscription. The painted family of elephants added the delicacy while the colors and tent top finished off the vintage feel.

I woke up to birds chirping and rain coming down the other morning and that only means one thing: it’s finally spring!  Thinking about spring got me thinking about new life (you know that whole April showers brings May flowers saying), but instead of thinking about flowers I thought about babies.  The little bundles of joy that come into our lives are a wonderful reason to celebrate—with presents and cake abound!  We’ve been making quite a few baby shower cakes over the past few months and have many more planned in the coming weeks.  And in a couple months, Katie, one of our decorators is having her baby shower so all the more reason for us to celebrate!

This sweet little 2-tier cake is perfect for a little boy’s baby shower. Change the colors and the idea is great for a girl!

While we’ve made plenty of shower cakes over the years, it’s becoming almost a regular occurrence to have one every week or so.  I’m not sure what’s changed but we love it!  Baby shower cakes come in lots of different shapes, sizes, and colors.  Often the designs are based on the décor of the shower, the nursery colors/theme, and I’d guess, most often would be from the invitation.

The mom-to-be’s nickname is Birdie. What else could you put on the cake besides these mama and baby birds then!?!. The cake design and colors are based on their modern invitation.

The other trend is for ordering “gender revealing” cakes and cupcakes.  Parents choose not to find out the gender of their baby from their doctor and instead we get the ultrasound results.  We then fill the cake with either blue or pink vanilla buttercream (or raspberry, strawberry, or cherry buttercream for pink options) and of course keep the big secret when the cake is being picked up!  When the parents cut into the cake at their shower, or sometimes a gender-revealing party, the buttercream shows the gender.  A fun and tasty surprise!  This cake is one that we feature on our website and is pretty popular although there are many ways of designing gender-revealing cakes.

It’s a surprise present!

Some shower cakes, like the treasured first birthday cake, are often picked just because they’re adorable and you want them!  And you know, that’s totally okay.  We think they’re cute too.  So please enjoy our collection of some past and present baby shower cakes and stay tuned for next week’s post on designing cakes from invitations.

As you might guess, this was a shower cake that we made in the fall. Fittingly, the pumpkin tier was our delicious spicy pumpkin cake.

What a perfect belly!

We love all things cake.

Check out our cake blog! It is packed with dozens of pretty pictures and fun stories about cakes we have had the honor of creating. The blog, written by one of our talented cake designers Emily Grish, gives you a behind the scenes look our cakes.

Visit us for cake! If all those delightful photos of cake on our blog made you drool a little, come and visit us at the Bakehouse. We’d love to give you a taste of the real thing. This month try our Berry Patch cake with vanilla bean pastry cream and fresh strawberry filling. Get a taste of summer in our Caribbean Cruise stuffed cupcake with coconut cake, lime curd and rum butter cream. Don’t stop there. We have seven cupcake flavors, one for every day of the week. Or go for a Zingerman’s classic, the Hunka Burnin’ Love chocolate cake. Cake heaven awaits you. Stop in for a taste!

Today is the first day of spring and it’s 30 degrees outside—thank you Michigan weather.  But inside the Bakehouse we’re ready for spring and its holidays.  Easter and Passover are just around the corner and we’ve got lots of delicious and pretty goodies.

Along with our custom cakes, our days are filled with icing and decorating our wholesale cakes, and around this time we include some holiday specials.  This year, our Easter cake is vanilla chiffon cake with a blackberry buttercream filling.   And it wouldn’t be an Easter cake without a cute, pink fondant bunny!  Every year, we make egg-shaped citrus butter cookies covered in marbleized spring fondant colors.  This year we also added some Easter cupcakes in buttermilk and chocolate flavors with green vanilla buttercream with a fondant Easter egg decoration.

The rich dessert is what we affectionately call “the Passover Torte.”  Really, it’s a rich, unleavened chocolate cake made with matzo meal.  We then cover it in dark chocolate-orange glaze and coat the sides in toasted almonds.  Delicious!

Happy spring and happy holidays everyone—and here’s hoping for better weather!

There are many reasons to add that little extra figure to your cake.  Sometimes it’s a replica of a pet, sometimes it tells a story about the person or couple that the cake is celebrating, and sometimes they’re just flat out too cute and that’s why you want them.  Any and every reason is a good one.  We make them out of whichever medium necessary for them to look their best, whether it’s simple fondant, gumpaste, or chocolate.  Added bonus—you can save them! Check out some other figurines we’ve made and their corresponding cakes and see if you get inspired!

The little baby Converse shoes were an adorable addition to a baby shower cake for twin boys. The cake itself was inspired by the invitation, especially its colors.  These mini replica shoes have all the tiny details of layers and stitching that real shoes have…including the lacing.

Another great idea for baby shower cakes is to have the design be inspired by the decor of the nursery. In this case, jungle themed. The animals came right from the fabric (and were then saved as mementos).

Ummm…adorable! We got into this discussion about what makes animals modern. Do you know? This is what we decided. The little lion and tiger make wonderful, keep-able toppers for the this modern jungle birthday cake.

Like our tattooed couple, this bride and groom topper was based on the actual appearance and dress of the couple on their wedding day. The topsy turvy cake was already a juxtaposition of styles combining a funky shape with romantic, white lace molding and pink roses. So why not add a traditional yet non-traditional topper?  Sounds good to us!

Okay back to baby shower cakes. This buttercream cake was also inspired by their invitation which had multicolored polka dots. We talked about adding a sweet little animal figurine to keep in with the concept, but the grandmother-to-be decided to surprise her daughter by requesting a “cute little blue robot.” The mom-to-be works in robotics so she thought it would be fitting, but still appropriate for a baby shower. The robot and all his little pieces are all rolled gumpaste balls–chubby little thing isn’t he?

You can’t have a race car themed cake without race cars! These little guys were molded out of our vanilla fondant and ready to race down the track! Should some little one WANT to eat them, they’d be pretty tasty.

One of the more unique requests we’ve had was to make these Korean wedding ducks–one is the bride, one is the groom.  Apparently in Korean tradition the actual ducks always stay in the home and their position explains the relationship of the couple. If they’re facing each other, nose-to-nose, the couple is happy; if they’re facing away, tail-to-tail, that means there is trouble in the marriage. Obviously, in this case, we’ve got them nose-to-nose! These ducks were molded out of gumpaste and then painted with specific colors which determine the bride and groom representation.

The dogs on this birthday cake were gumpaste replicas of a young boy’s two dogs. The cake, especially the dogs, were a surprise to the birthday boy so the mom emailed us pictures of the dogs for us to use to make the figurines as realistic as possible.

Can you tell we love animals? This little gumpaste horse was made just to be cute. Every farm needs a horse, right? I think he might be a little bashful.

Last but certainly not least is what I believe to be our most unique request thus far. A lobster wearing a U of M scarf. As you can see, Sunny was turning 80 and having a huge party with 100 guests. But how to incorporate 2 very important things: She’s originally from Maine, but loves U of M and has lived here for years. Only one answer–a lobster wearing a scarf! This leaping lobster was molded out of white modeling chocolate that was dyed red. Realistically creepy…and just as tasty…but in a totally different way!