My Sister's Wedding

Yet again I am a delinquent blogger. Facebook has consumed me so updated photos are found there. However, I promised myself to find time to blog about this one as this is particularly close to my heart. My baby sister's wedding cake.

I flew 16 hours to Asia, our hometown Manila, to make this one. Weddings in Asia are quite different from weddings here in the United States. To start, there were 800 guests. Yes, read that right...800. But don't worry, I did not have to feed all 800 guests cake. I needed to enjoy my vacation too, right? Given the number of guests, the wedding coordinator required me to create one that is at least 5 feet tall.   Basically one as tall as me! I've made cakes of such height before back in the early '90s when cake separators and stairs were a big thing but these days, it is rare to see one being used. Aside from the height, the biggest challenge for me was the covering huge cake. Biggest tier had a diameter of 24 inches.  I sure wished I had a sheeter then but it saved me the trouble from going to the gym!

Lace & monogram both hand cut

My sister could not decide on how she wanted her cake. She did like the ruffle and lace cake I've made last year so we did a combination of both, added their monogram and some bling. Each ruffle took me at least 30 minutes to make, and every piece of lace and monogram were hand cut. A lot of work and it was all labor of love.  Seeing my sister happy and loving her cake made it all worth while.

Here are some photos of the beautiful couple, their beautiful cake area (not just a table but an entire area dedicated just for cake) and their cake cutting.

Side view of the beautiful cake table

Cake Cutting. Always my favorite part of a wedding.

A dreamy shot of the cake by their photographer Pat Dy

Best wishes my dear sister Tara! To my now brother-in-law Dennis, welcome to the family and congratulations! Remember these words below from my speech :)

"A wise man, I think it was Confucious...

Awise man and husband once said...

The key to a long, prosperous marriage is repeating those three

special words... "Honey, you're right""

Albert & Erica

Happy 2013 to all! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. 

I am going to start this year's post with a wedding cake unlike any other I've done before. Most wedding cakes I've done is inspired by the bride's dress, the venue or the color theme. This wedding cake, on the other hand, is very personal to the couple as each tier tells something about the them.

Starting from the bottom: The bottom tier represents the bride's family, their dogs and their life in the Philippines represented by a horse drawn ride called the kalesa, which used to be the primary mode of transportation. The next tier up is the couple's tier which includes the groom's love for cars (and he was very specific about the shape too!), the proposal and more importantly, their new journey ahead with that aspect represented in red for emphasis. The third tier from the bottom shows the Golden Gate Bridge as the couple got married in the BayArea and starting a new life in San Francisco. The next tier up shows the family of the groom, his triplet nephews and  the family's 2 dogs. And lastly, the top tier is the initial of the couple: AE for Albert and Erica. 

Here are some day shots to show clear details.

One other thing that makes this cake different from any other I've made is that the idea came not from the bride, but from the groom. He was very specific of what he wants on the cake and we didn't mind as we loved the idea. I say "we" as this was a collaboration with my sister as well who is a graphic designer. She worked with the groom  to put his vision on print while I executed the design in cake.

Albert and Erica's ceremony and reception was at the penthouse of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The balcony had a beautiful view of the city and a library which reminds me of a small version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast library. It even had a secret door which according to the hotel, was the escape door of Marilyn Monroe and Kennedy (who had an affair according to history) as Jackie was on her way up to the Penthouse. And guess what? The library was for the cake and the cake only for that night. So talk about pressure of making it really nice right?

Full view of the library. Well, almost. 

Believe it or not, I love cake cutting photos. 

Congratulations Albert and Best Wishes Erica! Wishing you both a life full of happiness and great adventures.