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Hey! Cake mavens in Ontario....


Sugarella

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I. AM. TRULY. AGHAST.

I've had the new early spring 2006 issue for a while now, but just flipped through it for the first time this evening. And to my horror, my absolute HORROR, there it is starting on page 47. Make your own wedding cake! Sure kids, why not? It's eeeeeeasyyyyyyy!

Somehow I knew this day was coming...... :hmmm:

Gawd.... where to even begin. The baking directions are sketchy. The directions for making the meringue buttercream (all 6 sentences of it) are incomplete and will result in absolute failure by the "home baker" who is being encouraged to make this wedding cake, with the article implying this may very well be one's first attempt at icing a cake ever. The dowelling instructions are also incomplete and will again result in absolute failure. And of course cake boards, dowels, spatulas, piping bags and tips, and rotating cake stands are all "available at high end kitchen stores," you know. The cake pans, however, you are to rent from "stores that sell cake decorating supplies." :blink:

Now, the cake recipe and presumably the decorating of it was done by one Eshun Mott, whereas the article was written by one Robert Hercz, who, according to his biography, has previously won the Arthur Andersen award as business technology writer of the year! Woo-hoo! Now, the magazine unfortunately does not state whether both the article and accompanying directions for making the wedding cake were written by the technology writer, but shall we assume they were? Or should we assume the recipe developer and cake decorator Mott wrote the directions in such a way as to make it impossible for anyone to actually replicate? Regardless, there are absolutely no directions for actually decorating the cake, although the cake is clearly decorated.

As the article states, "The tapered, towering, pedestal mounted structure, coloured and garlanded to match the bride, is like a small effigy of the bride herself." We'll give Mr. Hercz the benefit of the doubt here and assumed he was tired when he wrote the article, and assume he instead meant ICON of the bride herself, as an effigy of course is a crude representation of a hated person, not unlike a voodoo doll. But I digress. For those of you who cannot get the magazine, apparently the bride, assuming the cake was designed in her image, is Minnie Mouse if Minnie Mouse in fact is a cheap whore. :hmmm:

But again I digress. Aimed towards the "home baker," the article then goes on to quote Anne Yarymowich, executive chef at the Art Gallery of Ontario, a popular wedding reception venue in these here parts, with anecdotes regarding modern wedding cakes. One can certainly assume the article's author did not inform Ms. Yarymowich she was being questioned for a DIY bake-at-home, try-to-bring-your-own-home- baked-wedding-cake-into-a-health-inspected- public-venue, because of course that would be illegal in Ontario, wouldn't it?

Just think of how hilarious it's gonna be when so many brides stay up all night every night the week before the wedding trying to get this thing done with such bad instructions, only to find their wedding venue won't, not wait, cannot legally allow them to bring it in and serve it?

So.... for those of you who can get hold of the magazine, as you as horrified as I am by this, or am I just overreacting?

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Just think of how hilarious it's gonna be when so many brides stay up all night every night the week before the wedding

Shouldn't surprise the groom on his wedding night when the bride says "you ain't gonna 'get lucky' tonight, buster! I am exhausted and aggravated!" :angry:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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I THINK you may be overreacting some, but not being in the biz very long and not having seen the article itself...

It would seem to me that if you've never baked a cake before, that this proposition would end up being expensive. You have to buy all the equipment to frost, board, and dowel the thing. I'm doing a cake now on which I will make no money when I consider I had to buy all new pans since I don't have that size. Yet, that is my investment for future orders.

And, even such that I know how to create a wedding cake -- I wouldn't even want to do my own. Who needs that stress right before the wedding?

There have been other articles in other magazines that show you how to do your own cake. As well as books on the subject. So I'm guessing it isn't going to have any impact on the bridal business. Perhaps by word of mouth, the message will be OMG, don't ever try to do your own, I did, and it was a disaster.

Perhaps the author was right -- it is an efigy of the bride herself, as she goes down in flames and has to hire a cake artist at the last minute for twice the price to bail her out...

Cheryl, The Sweet Side
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a DIY bake-at-home, try-to-bring-your-own-home- baked-wedding-cake-into-a-health-inspected- public-venue, because of course that would be illegal in Ontario, wouldn't it?

Erm? Why exactly would this be illegal? I have made several home baked and decorated cakes and taken them to public venues. No hall, restaurant or other wedding location has ever objected.

It's a cake, not steak tartare.

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Erm? Why exactly would this be illegal? I have made several home baked and decorated cakes and taken them to public venues.  No hall, restaurant or other wedding location has ever objected.

It's a cake, not steak tartare.

All food in Ontario needs to be produced in a legal, health inspected facility; even just candy. The AGO, being a public space, would of course require this for outside food being brought in for any event, and I've personally been required to provide documentation that I'm legal before delivering wedding cakes to some places.

If you haven't had any problems delivering home baked goods to various places, good for you. Perhaps the venue isn't aware of the law, or didn't bother to read their liability insurance policy carefully either. (Allowing food produced in a space that isn't health inspected would void most liabilty policies.)

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As the article states, "The tapered, towering, pedestal mounted structure, coloured and garlanded to match the bride, is like a small effigy of the bride herself."

:laugh: I haven't read the article, but that line is hilarious.

Let's hope very few brides-to-be actually attempt to do their own wedding cake. It would be very sad if the centerpiece at such an important event does not look as good as she expected it to look.

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Geez... I'd like to read the article just for a laugh.

I liked the NYTimes - I think it was the NYTimes? - article that had the two writers attempting to make the cake for their friend's wedding... and chronicled all their trials and tribulations, as well as their costs: pans, books, ingredients, more ingredients for when they screwed up, etc. Much more realistic, and very grounded in reality. I'd like to see the tech writer attempt the cake project :blink:

You know what the other thing is that people forget when they consider making their own wedding cake? Transporting it! A work acquaintence was thinking about making her own wedding cake... until I reminded her that on the day of the wedding, when she has a zillion things going on, someone - either herself or a friend or a relative or whoever - was going to have to drive that cake over an hour from her home to the reception, and she'd have to hope that it got there in one piece. She changed her mind pretty quickly.

I made the cake for my own wedding. Why? Because I wanted a whimsy style cake and knew that it would be out of my budget if I didn't make it myself; because I didn't want fondant and I wanted to use my mother's buttercream recipe, the one I grew up with and love; and yeah, I wanted the challenge, because I love making and designing fun cakes. However, I made three test versions of the cake, gave myself plenty of time to set it up, and arranged for the venue to store my cake overnight. I knew what I was getting into! :biggrin:

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