50+ wedding cakes in Grand Central Station

[sherribabee]

Colleen and I are going to show how to make those flowers during the demo and I'll try to remember to take some closeup and process shots.  I found out on site last night that I can't do the demo with tempered chocolate that we had planned--turns out no approval of electricity for either a microwave or induction burner was granted--so we're going to change gears this morning and prep for modelling chocolate techniques (and just bring all the tempered elements done in advance.)

The list of "bakers" is up:

http://www.brides.com/cakewalk/

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I'm going to try to make it there for Steve and Colleen's demonstration this afternoon. If I do, I'll take as many photos as I can. I hope my boss doesn't mind me taking a REALLY late lunch today.

[cakesuite]

Well, I was there, and it was worth the trip. There was a bamboo cake that blew me away. And the Taj Mahal was exquisite. I hope somebody here has photos to show.

The cake designers were all absent, unfortunately. I would have liked to ask some questions.

A few cakes weren't labelled. Steve, which was yours?

Edited May 24, 2005 by cakesuite (log)

[sherribabee]

RATS! I couldn't make my escape fromt eh office in time to see Steve's demo.

I'll be going tomorrow during lunch for sure and will take lots and lots of photos.

[wordplay]

My batteries ran out before I could take a photo of each cake, but I did take one of the bamboo. I had almost made it around that entire side of the hall too. Steve's cake smelled deliciously chocolate-y; a lot of people were tempted to taste! I'll try to post photos later.

I asked several people on the floor what the demo schedule is, but no one seemed to have a definite list. It's too bad I couldn't take a 3-hour lunch! I'll be back tomorrow to take more photos...

[BROWNSUGA]

Oh, I wish I could be there!!! I love this thread. I will patiently wait for more pictures.

[mukbo]

I was there Today. I really enjoyed watching all the cakes, demonstrations and tasting..

I took pictures of all the cakes.

Edited May 25, 2005 by mukbo (log)

[mukbo]

These are a couple of them. Enjoy~

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Edited May 25, 2005 by mukbo (log)

[chefpeon]

Hey Steve.....

Say I wanted to participate in one of those grand cake show thing-o's.

How does one get a "heads up" on those kind of events?

Or does one have to be invited to participate?

[chefpeon]

Ooooooooh!

I really love the horizontal striped one!

And I can pick out the "Margaret Braun" right away!

[Pan]

Thanks for posting those! They're impressive. This one is my favorite:

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How did they do that?

The one with all the writing on the sides and the purse on top is also beautiful.

[bloviatrix]

I'm going thursday morning. I can't wait - they look stunning.

[chefette]

Ruth Seidler

printed yellow fondant folded

XOXO Katrina Rozelle

Le Gateau Cakery

Cheryl Kleinman

Sylvia Weinstock

tall pink w ribbons

Carolyn Wanke

Very Different Cakes, Hollywood, CA

Marion Cardwell Ferrer

Jan Kish

Beryl Ann Byrd

Kate Sullivan

Ellen Baumwoll

Nhora De La Pava

Catherine Warner

green vows

Anna Paz

Martine Holzman of Lexington. KY

Rosemary Littman

Colette Peters

Margaret Braun

Cake Crumbs

Marina Sousa

quilted

bamboo

[chefette]

I will put up the remainder later today. We'll edit in the names of the cake artists--so if any of you go to Grand Central today, make little notes of who did which of these cakes and pm me or Steve, so our journal here is accurate. It's important we credit the artists. The information on the Brides/cakewalk site is not very helpful, nor is the little handout they give you at the event.

[Steve Klc]

Say I wanted to participate in one of those grand cake show thing-o's.

How does one get a "heads up" on those kind of events?

Anne--based on some of the pms I've been receiving, there's wider interest in this aspect, so let's pull that out and discuss it in a general thread: just how do pastry chefs, bakers, cake artists, get known, get asked to be involved in opportunities like this, what have been some strategies that have worked for people getting their first media placement, etc. We have a first batch of cake photos tweaked in Photoshop and ready to post. I'm attaching the names of as many of the cake artists to their cakes right now that I can remember--then we're back on the road to DC and will followup later.

pan--all that exterior work on the cake you like, by Margaret Braun, is piped royal icing.

And as everyone will see when we load more images--the edible printed transfer technique was very popular wrapping, there were at least 8 cakes using it. Since the Hall was very dark, we're only going to post images of cakes that we thought were lit fairly well and captured the colors of those cakes correctly. We'll need help from the eG community to identify a few artists and cakes that we didn't remember.

[Wendy DeBord]

That's as good as any art museums exhibition! ......I wish this exhibition traveled from city to city, it should.

[DiH]

That's as good as any art museums exhibition! ......I wish this exhibition traveled from city to city, it should.

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Ditto !!

Di

[sherribabee]

I just got back from the cakewalk.

WOW!

I snapped a pic of each cake which I will upload as soon as I can. That's a LOT of pics, people. I didn't have enough time to note who did each cake, but I will probably go back tomorrow during lunch and take better notes to identify each cake.

[chefette]

We Take The Cake

Kerry Vincent

Betty Van Norstrand

swans

Steve Klc

Lori's Creative Cakes

Lisa Raffael

Laurie Lucov

Jeri Gotlieb

Gail Watson

Funky Black & White w red flowers

Condra Easley

Chocolate

Cakes from Cabin Ridge

Cakeline

Butterflies

Michelle Bommarito

pink rose swag

Ayoma Fonseka

All White

Alladin

[sherribabee]

OK, here are the images. I tried to capture the designer's name in most of the photos, but in some cases, you can't really read it or it's not visible. I will do my best to identify each cake tomorrow and post the info under each photo.

[sherribabee]

My goodness, chefette! It seems we were both posting photos at the same time.

Well, at least we know we got them all!

[chefette]

Here are some pictures of the media gala last night.

Fun Bars at either end of the hall that would not let us have drinks until the official start time about 1 hour or so after we were in the hall. They had two fun Asti spumanti drinks:

A cherry fizz drink with cherry puree and asti - it looked like a pain to make since the bar people had to pour a bit of puree into each glass - add some spumanti - stir and then add more and stir again in most cases - as the evening went on I noted a few new solutions for making the drink concocted by inventive bartenders- including shaking a batch in a pitcher and pouring. The other drink was a lemonade - a slice of lemon - something pink and asti. They also served mini astis with straws, unfortunately I completely forgot to photograph one.

One of the large Bride's Magazine posters

Each cake was presented on a sort of white quilted pedestal. Some of the cake pedestals had Asti Spumanti bottles as the top support. You can see this in the photo of Steve being filmed by the Food network people about his cake:

The event was held in a magnificent space, Vanderbilt Hall at Grand central Station. Here is a picture of the chandeliers

Here is the obligatory posed shot of all the 'bakers' and that's Maria McBride-Mellinger--the person who pulled this all together--in the center of the group looking radiant in fuschia pink:

and here is Steve with an idol of his, sugar artist Betty Van Norstrand. Steve's enjoying the cherry spumanti drink (Boiron fruit puree, we saw the containers) while Betty is sipping a Mini Spumanti. I personally did not feel that the straw enhanced the experience.

The passed tidbits, unfortunately, did not include cake of any kind.

The little amuse bouche were very glam and very good:

'grilled cheese' - two tiny cheese tuilles with a creamy cheese filling and a tiny brunoise of oven-dried tomato on top;

'duck quesadillas' - really my total fav! a bite size three-tiered tidbit with duck - maybe confit onions or a compote and a tiny spot of sauce on top;

'tuna' - a tiny perfect square of seared tuna raw on the inside with mango chutney resting on a corn chip;

'fava bean' - sort of a chutney of fava bean on a micro-round of toast;

small perfect watermelon balls on skewers dipped in some spumati glaze;

and marshmellow kisses.

I should have documented the food because it really was splendid - so small and so perfect and so good but getting your hands on any was a feat.

[jgarner53]

Truly, these pictures are all spectacular, jaw-droppingly beautiful! Really, some tremendous cakes there. Thanks for taking the pictures and making us feel like we were there!

[Pan]

Congratulations on your great work, Steve! And I love this one, too:

[Hope you don't mind me borrowing your photo for this post, Sherri.]

Also, the bonsai cake is simply amazing!

I'm sure all of us have our own favorite cakes, but they're all so impressive and I really appreciate all the time Chefette, Sherri, and Mukbo took to shoot and post those photos.

So, I have another question: What if any elements in these cakes are inedible or otherwise wouldn't be meant for eating, if the cakes were in fact delivered for a wedding reception? Or is that the wrong question?

Edited May 26, 2005 by Pan (log)

[joshalow]

Thank you so much for posting all these beautiful cakes! I've really enjoyed looking at them all. Wow! There are sooo many I like!!!

Are these cakes going to be featured in Brides magazine? !

[JeanneCake]

Congratulations on your great work, Steve! And I love this one, too:

So, I have another question: What if any elements in these cakes are inedible or otherwise wouldn't be meant for eating, if the cakes were in fact delivered for a wedding reception? Or is that the wrong question?

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Each reception facility is different - usually I go over all the elements (flowers, ribbon) with the manager before I leave, when I give them a sheet with a cutting grid and the flavor(s) in the cake. Everything on a cake has to be edible, as far as the letter of the (health dept) law is concerned. But when I buy gum paste flowers, they are clearly labled for decoration only, not to be consumed, so that could technically be a violation...

Just recently, though, I've received (by mail and by fax) sheets from places that state very clearly no inedible elements - e.g., dragees but ribbon was ok and they would remove all flowers from the cake for serving. I'm pretty sure that something must have happened at that one place that prompted it because I've not seen or heard anything like that before. Their instructions said they would refuse delivery if the cake had inedible elements on it...