4th of July | Flag Birthday Cake

| Birthdays, Holidays

IMG_20160705_140634

My birthday is just shy of July 4th, but it has always been fun to combine birthday celebrations with 4th of July weekend getaways and BBQs. This year, still inspired by summer fruits, I made a blueberry buttermilk cake, with pastry cream custard filling and homemade raspberry-strawberry jam. The blueberry buttermilk cake is actually one that I haven’t made in a long time, but I happened to remember it when I was brainstorming and it turned out to be a great building block.

BlueberryFlagCake00004

As for the decoration, I had been thinking about red, white and blue for the cake, but not necessarily a flag cake. But as I was playing with the berry milk crumbs and extra blueberries I had, I kept gravitating towards a stripe theme. To make red stripes on the side of the cake, I frosted with buttercream, chilled the cake in the freezer, and then wrapped acetate strips around the cake.

BlueberryFlagCake00008

I pressed the berry milk crumbs against the exposed buttercream.

BlueberryFlagCake00009

And then pulled away the acetate strips to reveal clean lines.

BlueberryFlagCake00011

For the top, I piped buttercream with a star tip and placed blueberries in between. I wasn’t counting, but I believe I ended up with 47 blueberries. If I had known I was going to fit that many blueberries on the cake, I might have planned for 50 blueberries! Next time 🙂

BlueberryFlagCake00020

BlueberryFlagCake00027

0 comment

Wedding | Milo’s Parents Get Married!

| Milo, Weddings

Wedding00096

You may have noticed that our blog was pretty quiet at the start of 2016. That’s because we were working on a recent wedding — our own! I’m so excited to share some photos of the wedding cake, particularly the gumpaste flowers that were a labor of love over the first couple months of the year. (Photo credit above to the wonderful Tyler Branch Photo.)

With a color theme that spanned a gradient of dusty blues and greens, I made gumpaste succulents, silver brunia balls, dusty miller leaves, silver dollar eucalyptus leaves, and an assortment of white peonies, mums and filler flowers.

IMG_3366 IMG_3361

I had also made a dusty blue dahlia bundle for the surprise groom’s cake, but then forgot the flowers in the hotel room. Bummer.

IMG_3399

Fortunately gumpaste flowers don’t die, so now we have a lovely gumpaste flower centerpiece arrangement to keep as a memento at home 🙂

The cake itself was a Napoleon, which is made of layers of homemade puff pastry with custard filling. After covering with buttercream and creating a tree bark pattern, I sprinkled the top with feuilletine flakes and dusted with powdered sugar. We only made the top tier as a cutting cake (the bottom tiers are dummies), and served our guests with Napoleon sheet cake from Porto’s Bakery which makes a delicious version.

IMG_3370

IMG_3389

IMG_3402 IMG_3400

0 comment

Book Launch | The Crown’s Game

| Other Celebrations

TheCrownsGame00018-banner “Imagine, and it shall be. There are no limits.”

I love that line from The Crown’s Game, as I think it captures what Milo’s Bonbons offers, and what I enjoyed so much about catering the dessert table for the book’s launch party this week. This young adult historical fantasy is set in 19th century Russia and the colorful imagery in this book includes mouthwatering descriptions of Russian desserts. I was tasked with bringing some of these desserts to life. What a fun challenge and opportunity to get creative!

We decided on cream puffs and swans (something I never thought I’d get to make outside of pastry school), individual mini apple sharlotka cakes, bird’s milk cakes and Russian Cream (I’m not sure this one is actually Russian in origin, but the name fits).

TheCrownsGame00028

Apple sharlotka is a light souffle-like cake, made mostly of diced apples, with just a little bit of batter holding it all together. I dusted these with cinnamon and powdered sugar, and then added a little brown butter icing.
TheCrownsGame00010

TheCrownsGame00011

TheCrownsGame00025

Bird’s milk cake is also uniquely Russian, and is made of sponge cake layers with a light meringue-based filling flavored with condensed milk, and a chocolate ganache coating. I also made little nests with chocolate and shredded wheat, topped with peanuts to mimic eggs.

TheCrownsGame00021

Finally, Russian Cream is a delicious take on a panna cotta, using heavy cream and sour cream — not exactly a light and healthy dessert, but does it really matter when the cup is tiny? I topped these with raspberry compote and chopped pistachios, as inspired by The Alison Show blog.TheCrownsGame00023

TheCrownsGame00031

It was a privilege to get a peek inside a writer’s world — what a blast!

TheCrownsGame00026-cropped

 

 

 

 

0 comment

1 2 3 4 5 … 37