Rafael Logrono

Class Announcement!

2012-01-07T14:21:00.001-08:00

Couture Cake Workshop: White Bridal Bliss
Class Fee: $300
Location: Staten Island, New York

Who said white on white cakes are lackluster? In this class students will learn how to create their own 3-tier wedding cake with couture bows and side pleats.

Students will learn:

-proper preparation for a rolled fondant covered cake
-how to cover cakes in rolled fondant for a clean finish
-stacking and doweling cakes for transportation
-applying horizontal ribbons and pleats to cakes
-crafting cheeky and couture 3-loop bows

Student Supply List:

-12 inch round turntable
-large rolling pin
-mat for rolling fondant (optional)
-pasta machine, hand cranking
-2 fondant smoothers
-small paring knife
-12 inch ruler

Each student will leave with a display wedding cake and handouts, along with several techniques on achieving cake designs with clean, couture finishes.

Instructor: Rafael Logrono
Date: Saturday, February 25, 2012
Time: 10am-6pm (bring a light lunch)
Location: Staten Island, NY (private residency; disclosed upon sign up)

Wedding Cake Design Trends for 2012

2012-01-07T14:09:00.001-08:00

Randi of Always Fabulous Events asked me to be a guest blogger on trends in wedding cakes for 2012. After much research, writing and editing, it's here! Take a look at Randi's blog and feel free to share!

http://alwaysfabulousevents.blogspot.com/2012/01/wedding-cake-design-trends-for-2012.html

Lilac, Champagne and Hydrangeas!

2012-01-07T14:01:00.001-08:00

It has been a long time since I've blogged. I have plenty of things to blog about, it's just that my computer has been acting silly and I wasn't aware that I can blog from my iPad. Woot woot!

This was a fun wedding cake to create! The bride had a particular look that she liked, but the design elements were up to me. I made a 5 tier cake with a small separator filled with sugar hydrangeas. Two tiers are dressed in sugar bows, and bottom tier with free form side pleats. The colors included lilac, white pearl and champagne.

Hope you've enjoyed the holidays!

Simply Chic.

2011-11-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to design a cake with these "pinwheel fan flowers." They they look simple, they can be time consuming since each flower has 8 loops to it. If you're type A personality like yours truly, you molded a lot of buttons to get the particular look you want!

Thanksgiving Dessert: Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes!

2011-11-21T11:13:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving day, we will be offering our pumpkin spice cupcakes iced in our cream cheese frosting and topped with a gingersnap! You can order 6 cupcakes at $18, or $35 per dozen.

E-mail me at info@rafaellogrono.com to place an order.
Please allow a 24 hour notice for your order.
Pick-up only; large amounts can be delivered at an additional cost.

If you have sampled them, you know you are in for quite the treat!

Designing Cakes based on Inspiration

2011-11-13T12:47:00.000-08:00

Inspiration is found everywhere; let it be an invitation, a wedding gown, flower bouquet or tablecloth, such things can give your imagination endless possibilities for a cake design. A simple google search can give you hundreds of images that can offer myriads of ideas. These are the designs that you create just because you want to, the ones you design for pleasure; it's those cakes that you've had in your head for awhile, only wishing that a client would order such design.

I have been obsessed with Nate Berkus and his whole concept and approach to interior design, so I decided to base this cake design on rooms! I recently created a Pinterest account and I love looking through pictures and "pinning" them. I have always enjoyed seeing other ways in which the color combination of red, white and black are used, since its such a popular melange.... See where I'm going?? I collected images of rooms, from Pinterest with a color palette of red, white and black.

Here are the rooms that I found, and loved:

ROOM 1: The one thing that stood out most in this room was the rug. There is a sort of quilted scallop pattern in black and white that makes the bedroom pop!

ROOM 2: I love this bathroom! There are three things in this room that I noted. Me being a lover of sugar flowers, I immediately noticed the red anemones in the tub. Also, take a look at the black scribbled pattern on the bathroom rug, it will come to good use once we start designing the cake. The last thing that caught my attention was that tall, architectural mirror on the wall.

ROOM 3: This is the last piece of inspiration for my cake design. Once again, flowers; take a look at those white hydrangeas on top of books that look as if there was wind blowing on them from an opened window. There is plenty of texture in this room, along with a few touches of brown and gold.

Taking into consideration all of the elements I've just pointed out, I begin one of the most crucial parts of cake designing, the sketching. I sketch all of my cakes, let it be a simple 2 tier cake with piped Swiss dots, or a 5 tier wedding cake covered in lace and sugar roses. It's the one thing that I base everything on: the diameters and heights of my tiers, what sugar decorations I need to make, what special supplies I need to order to bring my idea to life, etc...

Finally, here is the cake! Its a massive 5 tier cake with black separators, streaked and splattered black food coloring, red sugar roses and rice paper feathers. I used all of the inspiration above in many ways, some more obvious than others. From the first room, the texture on the floor inspired me to go into my box of flower cutter and disassemble a cutter to get a scallop look to it. I imprinted the cutter to the sides of the tiers after covering them in rolled fondant. From the bathroom, the tall mirror inspired me to make a tall cake! In my opinion, the anemones seemed too dark with the black centers, so I opted for red roses, which are always a beautiful alternative. Lastly, the room on the 3rd picture inspired the wafer paper feathers, which offer movement like the frilly hydrangeas. The feathers were streaked with gold paint as an extra accent (this was my awesome mom's idea). The spherical shape to the lamp inspired the base; my handy man father, made the base using round wooden spheres. He rocks!

Tips on Designing Cakes

1. Look beyond the focal point of your inspiration. If you are looking at a dress for inspiration, which I often do, don't just look at the bow that sits in the middle of the waist, look around it. Look at the lace and embroidery surrounding the bow, look at the pearls that the model is wearing and take a close look at the shoes too! The shoes can always offer a pop of color to a traditional cake design.

2. Look at textures and graphics. Texture is an awesome thing. Seriously! Let it be embossing fondant, adding buttons, or piping embroidery, adding texture to a cake design makes it much more editorial. Graphics and textures don't always have to be 3 dimensional. I have a friend who often uses stamps to give her cakes dimension along with her hand painted designs.

3. Ambiance. The "feeling" one gets from a cake is very important. If I am designing a wedding cake for a very traditional couple, in which the bride is wearing all white and the decor will be in hues between white and ivory, and a guest count of 40, and the only color making an appearance at the wedding is the red cheeks the bride gets after kissing her groom, no matter how much I'd like to, I will not propose a tall, detailed cake. I will look through an inspiration folder (which is something that every bride should give to their baker), and pick out the simplest details. The inspiration is there to make us, the bakers, feel as if we were to be at the wedding. Our goal is to make the cake look as fabulous as possible and as fitting as can be.

4. Add your style! Many times, one is limited to the imagination of a client. It's true! You should always fulfill, if not, surpass your clients expectations, but don't loose you essence and your special touch! Your clients come to you because they like your style and they believe you can bring their visions and dreams to life!

5. SKETCH. Let it be on a sticky pad, graph paper, on a computer software or in your school notebook (which I was VERY known for doing), you must sketch. As I said above, I sketch all of my cakes. Sketches make me feel like I am in control. It's an organization tool as well. From my sketches, I figure out: the sizes of my cakes, what sugar decorations I should make and supplies I need to order to bring my cake to life.

WOW, this was one big blog post! Hope you read it all through and that it was helpful to you!

Until later,

Rafael :)

Blanc.

2011-11-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

C'est gateau de mariage est de palette de couleur "blanc en blanc."

See? I retained plenty of the French I learned from high school (shout out to Natasha!)...

This 3 tier wedding cake is a classic couture, white on white design. The bottom and top tier are covered in fondant pleats, while the tall middle tier is wrapped in a sugar band and a 3-loop bow.

Au Revoir!

The Ultimate Elegant Bridal Event by Bouche Productions at Glen Foerd Mansion

2011-11-12T18:42:00.000-08:00

Are you ready to rumble?? Boxing is on tonight, and my parents have their eyes set on the Pacquiao VS. Marquez fight and I have nothing better to do than to blog! Not that its a bad thing, but lately my "free" time has been quite minimal, and this down time is perfect for blogging!

Last weekend, I had a fabulous time at the Ultimate Elegant Bridal Event by Bouche Productions at Glen Foerd Mansion. I met so many wonderful brides, grooms, family and friends of brides, vendors and wedding professionals. The venue was just... AMAZING. I loved everything about it! The mansion had a very vintage baroque feel to it and every corner you turned, you either had a beautiful scenery to see from the windows or an ornate painting to admire.

Here is a picture of Colleen (more on her below) and I at our table. I have to thank one of our neighbors for sowing the tablecloth for me (I wanted custom tablecloths, to stand out)!

Here are the red velvet cake slices we served. I was very pleased to prove that wedding cakes should taste delicious! I also had pumpkin spice cupcakes, which are perfect for the season we are in. We received tons of compliments on how good our cakes tasted!

Lastly, here is a picture of Colleen and I packing up all our belongings. We were trying to look tired, but I think it was a bit of a cheat cause I looked super fatigued, while Colleen still looked hot! Not fair!

I want to thank all of my baker friends who offered lots of great tips to me, I wouldn't have done it without you! Also, a very special thank you to another baker friend, Colleen Sherman, who assisted me at the bridal show. You were super awesome to be willing to help and you worked your cake away! Like always, an amazing big ole thank you to my parents for being nothing but supportive during the whole process!

Lack of Posting & Wedding Cake.

2011-10-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

Can you notice that I am trying to squeeze in as many blog posts as possible? I have been on a blogging hiatus as of late, it wasn't planned, it just happened.

This is a 3-tier wedding cake inspired by another cake I have done. The cake was covered in white rolled fondant, with ivory lace and hues of champagne. The sugar roses on top were deep burgundy with a lit of purple shadowing. The cake was a "stand" style design, with a small lift under the bottom tier and 4 baroque fleur de lis style appliques as "legs." The cake was filled with our popular dulce de leche buttercream. Until later!

Word. :)

Bridal Show!

2011-10-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to announce that I will be a vendor at the Glen Foerd Mansion Bridal Show put on by Bouche Productions! This will be my first bridal show and I am super excited. There is A LOT of preparation that goes into vending at bridal shows, and I am learning that now. I will surely be blogging about the event, so hold on tight!

Join us on Facebook!

2011-10-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Toy Box Cake.

2011-10-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

I love working on cakes for repeat clients. I get that feeling of satisfaction that you did a job well done with your previous order. I have done a few cakes for this client and it seems that with every one that I make, I get more and more freedom. ...and if you weren't aware, I thrive on artistic freedom!

On to the cake! On Facebook, I described the picture of this cake as follows, "UPS always ruins my packages! My toys were take out, my note was ripped and my package was wet..." Cute and all, but it does not seem that nice since I have an awesome UPS guy, you know who you are! On the contrary, my FedEx people can learn a few lessons from UPS...

Back to the cake... This cake was huge. Massive. Ginormous. Humongous. To put it in simpler terms, it was basically a 16' inch cube. The cake was covered in modeling chocolate panels and all of the toys and packing peanut were done in fondant and sugar paste.

Thanks Jessica!

Blog Post, LONG overdue.

2011-09-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I received notification of my nomination for the "Joven Dominicano Destacado" award (that translates to "Outstanding Young Dominican") presented by the Committee of the Dominican Parade & Festival of Philadelphia. My first thought was of happiness and excitement, my second thought, "I need to bring a cake to this event!"

The theme of the gala was "Night of Carnival," embracing the popular carnivals that the Dominican Republic puts on. These carnivals are not like American carnivals... Imagine that Mardi Gras had a baby with a masquerade ball, and a rainbow chimed in to the fun, with a touch of devil sprinkled on it... Well my friends, that's a Dominican carnival.

The cake I made was probably one of my favorite cakes I've made. I made a wonky cake design, with every color on the rainbow. It definitely was a fun cake! Everything on the cake was edible, from the wafer paper feathers, sugar flowers and gum paste masks.

Did I also mention that I won??

I am coming to North Carolina!

2011-08-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Couture Wedding Cake Workshop
Dates: January 28-29, 2012, from 9am to 5pm*.
Location: TBA (Sanford, North Carolina)
Instructor: Rafael Logrono

Couture cake designs are in! Whether inspired by the ruffles from a Marie Antoinette dress or the embroidery of a Pnina Tornai wedding gown, fashion inspired flourishes on wedding cakes remain a very trendy cake décor. In this class, students will learn how to apply some of fashion’s most popular looks into sugar, such as ruffling, drapery, pleating and floral brushed embroidery designs. Other couture embellishments such as brooches, buttons and dainty bows will be demonstrated. The student’s finished cake will include the sought-after spherical pleated tiers. By the end of this class, students will leave with the confidence to fully dress wedding cakes ready for New York fashion week. Come to class dressed fashionably with an apron.

Most supplies (such as gum paste, molds, royal icing, dummies, board, etc) will be provided by the instructor, with the exception of a fondant mat (any clean surface to roll fondant), large rolling pin (I use a wooden one without handles), a #2 piping tip and 15 pounds of white rolled fondant (email instructor for brand specification at Rafael1812@gmail.com). Students who own a pasta machine are encouraged to bring it to class, if not, instructor will have a few to share.

Class fee: $500 (payments can be made in 3 parts, all payments must be paid by December 30th, 2011; payments are non-refundable)

Contact Amelia Diaz at 706-593-4754 or shantelle@hotmail.com
*Note: Students should arrive to class a few minutes before start time. Class may go over time on each day, by up to 30 minutes.

Vous etez couture?

2011-08-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

oui oui!

Well... this cake is!

Baroque Border & Deep Red Roses

2011-08-09T08:11:00.001-07:00

By now, you should know that wedding cakes are my favorite type of cakes to create. The whole wedding cake process is quite thrilling for me. This wedding cake was exciting for me because I rarely get to make deep red roses! The bride had silver accents on her gown and wanted to have silver on the cake. She also really liked the "stand" look of this cake that I made a few months ago. Hope you like!

Oh! Here is a rose that I had leftover from decorating the cake. Did I also mention I love making sugar roses??

61 and sexy!

2011-08-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

I made this cake for one of our friends. I always joke with her unconventional ways (that's the kid-friendly way of calling it), so the phrase that I hand painted on the cake was fitting!

Inside was a vanilla cake moistened with an amaretto syrup and filled with a toasted almond buttercream. Nutty!

Diva's 1st Birthday!

2011-08-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

This fun birthday cake was for Aniya. We met Aniya's mother in our initial consultation where the main requests were pink cheetah print and bling! I mixed and matched a few ideas from pictures that were brought to me and added a few other elements for a finer finish! There she is! I have lots more to blog about so keep coming back!

Yummy and Chic!

2011-07-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

...that sounds like a great combo to me!

This is a shoebox cake with a gold hand painted design and a red sugar high heel on top! Inside there were 4 layers of vanilla cake filled with chocolate buttercream, chocolate ganache and bits of toffee. Chic and yummy!

Baby Shower Bathtub!

2011-07-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a baby shower cake from this past weekend. The client gave us a picture of a bathtub with a rubber ducky and frog and asked for her cake to look like that. The cake was heavy! The cake inside was a vanilla butter cake filled with a cherry buttercream. Here it is!

Rita & Benjamin

2011-06-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

We met Rita and Benjamin for their wedding cake design consultation quite awhile ago. When we first met, the details of the wedding were very minimal since it was . After a few chances in color, flowers and decor, we finalized the cake design with inspiration from the invitation. Rita has been one of my favorite brides to deal with! She trusted me with the design and gave me freedom to create her wedding cake. She has guts! Hee hee...

Here is the wedding cake. I made a huge rose for the top of the cake, along with some parrot tulips and leaves. Parrot tulips are my new favorite flowers for weddings! The drama that the ruffled edges add to the cakes are intoxicating! :)

Alex's Lemonade Stand, Icing Smiles and a whole lot of sugar!

2011-06-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

Icing Smiles is one of my favorite organizations because it combines my passion of cake making with helping out children with critical illnesses to give them... a smile! The school that Alex, of Alex's Lemonade Stand, attended before she passed away in 2004, has an annual event to celebrate Alex's goal of making money by selling lemonade to find a cure for cancer. Part of the celebration this year was a school-wide fundraising to make a donation to Icing Smiles. My friend and founder of Icing Smiles, Tracy Quisenberry wanted to have one of the Icing Smiles baking partners create a cake in return as a token of gratitude. That's where I come it!

The cake I made was an ode to lemonade! I had design freedom so I listed everything that goes into the making of lemonade and sketched something up: sugar, glasses, stand, mint, straws, water, pitcher, and of course, lemons. I came up with a bag of sugar, a lemon wedge, a wooden spoon, mint and a straw! I added glucose "here and there" so it insinuated dripping lemon juice.

I loved the inside of the cake! I came up with a new cake flavor that is a total keeper. I made a lemon pound cake, moistened with a lemon syrup, filled with lemon buttercream and lemon curd, and iced in a white chocolate ganache. The pound cake recipe not only has butter, but cream cheese as well! YUM! Here is the cake that I created!

A few sculpted cakes.

2011-06-10T18:41:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, one doesn't feel like typing. This is one of the times. Here are a few sculpted cakes I've recently done. A treasure chest, a pretty hat and a suitcase!

Short and Sweet!

Ivory, mocha AND pink??

2011-05-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

There are moments while I work on a cake that I ask myself, "Will this work?" In this case, it was the pink roses. I've grown to love the muted color palette of white, ivory and mocha; the colors seem to work well together. The shade of pink had me nervous but I had to use that shade of pink in the cake because it was the color that the bride's maids were wearing. This is where I say, "Here goes nothing!"

To my surprise, the pink actually worked! The bride was carrying calla lilies in her flower bouquet so I added sugar calla lilies in design as well as the pink roses. The inside of the cake was a vanilla cake with passion fruit buttercream. Here she is!

Talk soon my sweets!

Quick post, big wedding cake!

2011-05-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

I'll make this post, short and sweet... More like,"tall and sweet" but, you get my drift. This was a tall wedding. I have realized something; either I am a slow worker (which I am not), or I seem to only take on projects that have a minimum work time of 5 hours, because boy oh boy, the amount of sleep I have been getting is quite minimal!

So here is the full picture of the wedding cake! The parrot tulips and roses are all done out of sugar paste.

Off to do some school work (cough, cough)!

Fuchsia? Yes, that's fuchsia.

2011-05-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

I am very picky about colors. Rarely do I just use one type color to get a certain shade I want. One of the things I do, is mix a little touch of ivory into most of my colors. The hint of ivory always gives me a nicer tone of color and a more balanced color palette in the final cake design.

The color fuchsia is a very deceiving color to me. When I met this client, she told me that the focus color was fuchsia, but she wanted a Spring feel to the cake with butterflies. I immediately thought about avocado colored hydrangeas and pretty pink roses, I drew up a sketch and she loved it! Then came the fuchsia butterflies.

I am skeptic about the color fuchsia; I once had a client who was not convinced that my pinkish-purplish color was fuchsia. Even after multiple google searches of the color, and obvious matches from what I found and the color of fondant I mixed, still it was not fuchsia.

When I don't get something and have no clue of what to do, I ask my mom. She told me, "it's much more pinkish, and it's bright" (She said it in Spanish, of course). Like every other teenage son, I thought to myself, "Yea, whatever." Redemption time: Here we get this cake order with fuchsia butterflies. I was hesitant about what colors to use to color my sugar paste. Then I came up with the great idea: Why don't I put mami to color the paste for me for accuracy?? Plus, if it wasn't the color, I would blame it on here! GENIUS! I put my mom on the task, then looked at the paste and think to myself, "Uhm, that's hot pink." She continues mixing then I say, "Oh, it's sorta raspberry red." On I went to cut the butterflies.

Fast forward a good 24 hours or so when its delivery time. The cake is put in the trunk and off we went. The roads sucked, but I was positive that I did a good job stacking and doweling the cake. We arrived to our destination and I suddenly get tense from "fuchsia." I carry the cake in, place it on the table, then look around. PERFECT! It was the perfect shade of fuchsia! What did I learn? I learned that there are 2 types of fuchsia: 1) fuchsia fuchsia AND 2) Hispanic fuchsia. Lastly, I also learned that moms DO know best. Well, sometimes at least...

Here is the cake! (you can see the color of the decor from the background)

I'd love your opinion! How are these new (longer) blog posts working out? Are they interesting?

Sweet Charity Event Part II.

2011-05-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

If you just tuned in, read the post below to do some catching up!

Here I am ready to go to Washington DC. In total, we were four people. My anti-GPS father, my the-one-who-kept-me-a-little-less-nervous optimistic mother, our family friend Carmen Lebron and myself. The car was pretty packed. The trunk of the car had the skirt portion of the dress and there was little room for royal icing and a bucket of fondant. Carmen and I traveled 3 hours (well, it was supposed to be 3 hours) with a box and sheet tray on our laps.

Philadelphia to Washington DC: 3 hours
Philadelphia to Washington DC our way: 5 hours

I think that says it all. If it doesn't I'll explain. Everything was great until we actually got into DC. The roads in DC are NUTS. Between tourists, cabs, crazy drivers and rush hour, everything seemed more hectic than what I expected. We exited at the stop right in front of the hotel, took an unfortunate turn left, and off the Virginia we were. Imagine being so close to where you need to be and passing it, THREE FREAKING TIMES. Yes, we made the same mistake over and over and over. One time we went further up north, the other time, we went deeper into Virginia, and the other, we passed the Washington monument. We finally made it to the hotel.

Initially, I was told that the participating designers were to be at the event by 5pm; then I read the schedule, and 3pm was the arrival time. I knew I could get things done in 3 hours (I had to be ready for the photo shoot by 8, and the runway show by 8:30pm). By the time we arrived at the hotel and managed to get the correct parking, it was 7:10pm. I felt like giving up and going to bed (you can see the bags under my eyes in the picture above, I was SUPER tired), but alas, I am not a quitter and it was game time. My mom, Carmen and I got quickly into work. My model, Lindsey Becker, the best model I could have had, was pressing buttons for me. I quickly got help from my dear friend Robin Parker from Albert Uster and a few other people who were at the event helping out other designers. I am forever grateful for the help!

I had NO chance to look at the model as we were dressing her,but once I was done, I stepped back, took a look at her and everything felt so right, and every bit of stress, doubt and dissatisfaction I previously had was worth it. Here's a picture of my model rocking her sugar hat, sugar purse and her sweet jewelery! She also had buttons, a brooch and a sugar magnolia on her.

Here is my model on the runway, working it! The skirt portion of the dress is a 50/50 mix of fondant and gum paste, with a small bottom portion of tulle. I had to have tulle on the portion that was hitting the floor because if it was sugar, I would probably not have these pictures right now! Hee hee...

Once all of the models hit the catwalk, each model came out individually with their designer, then lastly all of the participants came out. Here I am with my model and our priceless expression of, "SUCCESS!"

There were many people who I would not have made it without. First, my mom for being such a trooper each and every step of the way, from sowing to ruffling to constant suggestions. My dad for keeping sane while driving (ha ha ha, hope you know I'm being sarcastic), for going to the hardware store for supplies, and for just being so supportive. A few people here in Philly: Don Jose, Carmen and Marcia. To my cake designer friends, Jade, Karen, Edna, Clara, Amanda, Amelia and everyone on facebook for the support! I couldn't have done it without everyone!

Sweet Charity Event Part I.

2011-04-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

I was invited to the Sweet Charity Event, put on by Heart of America and Albert Uster, that took place April 25th. I was specifically invited to be one the designers for the Des Alpes Chocolate Fashion Show! Before you ask, I am not a chocolatier, I am a cake designer. More on that later.

It was sort of a last minute offer, but I gladly accepted. The theme of the fashion show was "Heroes in Literature." Me loving everything and anything Marie Antoinette, I searched for a female character that makes fashion statements. I choose Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind.

I am a cake designer, and I work with cake. That means sugar, flour, butter, fondant and sugar paste, that does not mean satin, sewing needles or manikins... Nonetheless, I was equally excited and nervous about the project. Knowing that this event is the top 15 charity event in the DC area did not make me any bit saner. When I had ideas in mind, I did not get off the phone. I was calling a few of cake designer friends who were excited for me put did not know what I got myself into!

This is all I kept telling myself:

Yes, that is a piece of parchment paper that I wrote on! I needed motivation, BADLY!

So here I am on a Monday morning, with a skirt that I made the night before with some help from my parents and a retired pastry instructor friend of ours. I started to mold some lace and buttons to be ready to dress my model. I packed all of the accessories including the sugar magnolia and the sugar purse I made.

A few minutes of crazy quick packing, and off we went to Washington DC!

Ok, so that's part one of the Sweet Charity Event blog posts. I don't want to make the posts too long, so part two, is coming soon!

Wedding cakes.

2011-04-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

I love creating wedding cakes. Dare I say that weddings are my favorite type of celebration to create a cake for. There is something about the challenge of creating that "one" special cake, that just speaks to me. It's a way to play along with the perfectionist inside, and mess with the OCD within!

These two cakes are wedding cakes that I recently did. One is a modern couture style with a spherical tier, while the other is more traditional with a contemporary edge. Hope you guys like them!

Phillies First Birthday!

2011-04-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Being from Philadelphia you MUST be obsessed with either the Phillies, Flyers, Sixers or the Eagles. We take our sports very serious. Me being the sports fan I am, I did not have to do any research for this cake. None whatsoever...

Ok, I lied. I am not a fan of sports and the closest I have ever gotten to a stadium is the restaurant supply store right across the football field that the Eagles play in. I think I googled, "Phillies Phanatic" 20 times every hour. My phone was covered in modeling chocolate and cornstarch by the end of the project. I built my own PVC armature for the stand up mascot. This cake was for a first birthday party for a pair of twins!

Classes coming soon!

2011-04-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

I've thought about it for awhile, with many requests. Here is the announcement!

Summer months are approaching! What better way to begin the summer with learning how to cover a cake in fondant, crafting a sugar rose, or making a gift box out of cake? Contact me for group or personal classes!

Garden State Cake Show.

2011-04-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

I love attending cake shows. I've attended about 5 already, and truly love them! Not only is it an event all about cakes, but its also the travelling and seeing new areas that makes it 10 times more exciting. When I saw that my cake friends were planning a show just 30 minutes away from me, I immediately made it a MUST attend event. I also made a competition cake to take along with me.

Two months ago, the Garden State Cake Show took place in Burlington, NJ. I had friends competing both in the live and in the "bring a cake" part of the show, I had friends teaching, demonstrating and vending.

This may sound off track, but it will relate: Facebook is an awesome place. I get to connect with some of my favorite cake artists and build cyber-relationships with them. We feel as if we "know" each other just from social networking!

In New Jersey, I was able to meet some of my cake friends (that I socialize online with) such as Wayne and Chuck (the Swank boys) and Edna de la Cruz. I was able to see some of my other friends such as Carolina Lara and Diane Shavkin AND I saw my cake sister/soul mate, the yin to my yang, Jade Marzipan (hee hee)...

Cake shows are just plain ole FUN. Here I leave you with pictures of my cake!

Rosa's Wedding Cake.

2011-03-31T16:45:00.001-07:00

Tall & Wide... Those are the two words that come to mind when describing myself and this cake! The bottom tier was an 18 inch cake, sculpted down to a 17 inch petal shape. It was HEAVY!

When I make cakes, everything doesn't always go "just right." There are times when I have no clue what to do and I have to think and create on the spot. While making this cake, I totally forgot about the base. I have tons of foam core bases (that's what I use) for my cakes, but not one that measured 22-24' inches wide. Getting concerned, I remembered a trip that I took to the hardware store with my dad several months ago, admiring a round piece of wood, thinking to myself, "that would make an awesome base for a cake." Off I sent my dad to Lowe's to find the base and get me a PVC pipe and an adapter. The base has a rounded edges, eliminating the option of putting a ribbon on the board... Walking around the shop, I looked at a can of spray paint... Then I thought: GENIUS!

No one human in their right mind could have been able to lift this cake. My dad and I carried the cake from the shop to the car, then to the venue. The reaction I received from the venue was awesome!

Finally!

2011-03-27T08:20:00.001-07:00

I finally get a chance to post some of the smaller cute cakes that I've made in the last few weeks! I apologize for the pictures without pretty backgrounds, but with those pictures, you get to see a glimpse of our shop! They balance each other out, don't they?

WOW... Now that was overwhelming!

Grand Baby Shower!

2011-03-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

Designing this cake was fun and interesting. I had a color palette to work with that I had never used before for baby showers: turquoise, lilac and pink for a mother expecting a girl. I wanted to incorporate the turquoise, without making it too masculine. To add interested, I made the bottom tier a spherical shape and the second tier an hourglass. (talk about a lot of work!)

There were a few other must elements like butterflies and hydrangeas, that I had to use. The separator on the 3rd tier has tiny hot pink hydrangeas. The delivery of this cake was SCARY! We had to do a few U-turns to get to the venue, but we made it! (insert: "SCORE!!!")

Sqaure Wedding Cake.

2011-03-12T18:38:00.001-08:00

I love making square cakes. To many, they are scary, but once you get a groove for them, there is no stopping you! What am I talking about??

I don't know.

...Here is a wedding cake I did a few weeks ago. It's a similar design found in a book (by ????) that I have. It's 3 tiers with ruffled flowers on the bottom and top tier.

Slowly but surely, I'll update the blog!

Shame, shame, shame.

2011-03-11T06:29:00.000-08:00

You know what's happening in 8 days, right?? I'll be celebrating 2 months without blogging! I am ashamed, embarrassed and filled with sorrow. My lack of blogging has a few causes. It gets annoying uploading pictures into blogger, time is of the essence, and a new business.

Oh, and just plain ole laziness.

So here is a quick update: We inaugurated our business a few weeks, and I couldn't be any happier. I competed in the Garden State Cake Show, winning 3rd place in my division. I am beginning preparation for a big cake/wedding event here in Philly. So excited!

I have tons of pictures to post and blog about. You'll see a few changes to the blog soon, since this will become my business blog, not just Rafael's Cakes. I am blogging from school, so time to get back to work!

Sweet Forest!

2011-01-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Hope everyone has enjoyed these first few days of 2011! I've enjoyed all of the snow days I am getting... I hear we are suppose to be getting another one on Tuesday, and I am not against that!

I love the snow, but this cake has nothing to do with snow... With that introduction, one would perceive this cake has some sort of winter feeling to it, right? Sorry to disappoint!This cake was made for a beautiful 1 year girl who was celebrating a birthday themed with Tinkerbell. This cake was time consuming, making the final minutes of decorating, very exciting. I had the pleasure of attending the birthday party for the 1 year old and everyone loved the cake! I even encountered someone who stuck their finger in the tree stump, thinking it wasn't cake.

Here is the tree stump with sugar paste flowers and mushrooms.

Have a great end of the weekend!

Hennessy...

2011-01-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

Nope, I am not an alcoholic. As much as it may seem after you read a few of my blog posts, I am not. Well, if I even was, why should I write about it?? This cake was yesterday's only order. It was fun to make and carve. Since I am not an owner of an airbrush (cough cough, mom and dad), I usually paint on my cakes with food coloring or petal dust mixed with brandy, when a certain look is called for. Since I am not an owner of an edible image printer (don't really want one), I had to hand paint the logo of bottle as well.

The cake was not flavored with liquor; it was a dulce de leche filling... One of my faves!

Lace!

2011-01-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

I love lace on cakes... It's a super elegant way to make your cakes runway worthy. Here is a small wedding cake I made with tons of lace and 2 sugar roses.

End of the Year Speech... So he says.

2010-12-30T08:45:00.000-08:00

I want to take the time to thank everyone who follows my blog, follows me on facebook, both my personal and fan page, everyone who has e-mailed or contacted me, anyone who I've created a cake for, anyone who has given me a chance in this year. I've had a phenomenal year.

I began 2010 by competing in a Live Teen Cake Challenge at the NY Cake Convention and did not win, but I did some fantastic networking with people in the industry. A few months later, I attended the Great American Cake Show in Westminster, Maryland; I taught a class, competed both live and with a show cake, and I took first place and best of division with my Japanese inspired cake. Two months later, and I attend the Cove Country Cake Show to emcee the event and live challenge. I also competed with a show cake, winning 1st place, best of division and tallest cake award. Around that time, I was contacted by Cake Central wanting to feature me in their magazine. In September, I read the 2-page spread in magazine and thousands of people who subscribe to the magazine did too. Late August, we were approved by the zoning board to turn our basement into a cake shop. As we end this year, we are in the final stages of opening up Azucar. Yep, we will soon have a cake shop!

Some things that I haven't mentioned are that I did 3 audition tapes for various TV networks that were interested in having me compete in a show. Right now, I am currently working on another audition for the biggest and most prestige cake show of all (In my humble opinion)...

Some specific shout outs that I need to give are to some awesome cake friends that I have... Jade Eye for always willing to hear me whine (I won't use the B word) and being such an awesome person, accent and all! Karen Vazquez of Kakes by Karen in Naples, FL, for always being so supportive and willing to hear and help and for responding to my gazillion text messages and calls. Hee hee... Also to those who give me their opinion with just a call or e-mail when I ask, like Lauren Kitchens and Clara Gold. Also to some other cool cake friends that I made this year like Amelia Monis, Haniya Khan and Melodie Walenius, and Diane Shavkin (my sugar grandma).

Also, a very special thank you to my parents for their unconditional love and support! I know I can be a rough one to deal with because of my constant sugar high, but they are always there to put my in my place. They are the best cake parents anyone can have! :)

Doesn't that sound like a speech I would give if I won an Oscar?? Hahaha!

Finally! Here is the cake that I created. I call it, "The Winter Wonderland Cake." Working on this cake felt like our good ole friend PI: NEVER ENDING.

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679 8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196 4428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273 724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609...

I am enjoying this blog post a little too much! Okay, here is the cake!

Here is a sugar paste poinsettia with "snow..." Hope everyone has a fabulous new year! I hope this new year has tons of sweet things in store for me just like 2010 had. See you all in the next decade!

Olive and Chocolate...

2010-12-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

Great color combination, not a tasty mix! I detest olives... Yes, they are horrible. BARF! But I love olive green, it's my new favorite color!

Back to cake talk... This wedding cake was a heavy one... I thank my dad for being an awesome delivery guy who doesn't yell at me for screaming and screeching and cursing during deliveries. These sugar flowers are beginning to become one of my signatures! They are the frilly and dramatic fantasy flowers that look natural! They are fun to make and not too time consuming... Who am I kidding? They are very lengthy to make, but rewarding. I also thank my mom for being so awesome and knowing that I was on a time crunch therefore pressing the lace for this cake for me. She rocks! The cakes were vanilla and passion fruit buttercream filled. YUM!

Two tier Wonders!

2010-12-28T18:18:00.001-08:00

You've all heard me bitch and whine over all the work that I had this month right? Well, now that this month is history when it comes to cake orders, I will post some pictures. Some of these month's cakes were two tiers... Here they are:

This is a cute baptism cake for a little girl.

This is a birthday cake with butterflies and ribbon roses (we call them "Colette flowers" in my house). The birthday girl specified: Pink!

Lastly, my favorite of the two tier wonders. This is a lilac wedding cake with drapes ruffles and a huge life-like fantasy sugar flower. Can you notice I like mixing fashion with fondant?

2010-12-24T11:00:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays to of my faithful bloggers!

Cake shots!

2010-12-23T14:39:00.000-08:00

Rarely do I post RANDOM pictures of what goes on during the cake production, between, before and after. Well, time has come! Here are a few shots of pictures that I've taken of just stuff, and cake of course...

First picture is a cake I found through my album that I have yet to post. I wonder why? Second picture is a wedding cake with pearled lace that I've yet to post pictures on. I am slacking!!! Third picture is a progress picture of a wedding cake I made last weekend. Yep, you guessed it right, no pictures yet! I also wanted to show off the brand of fondant that I am now using, Massa Grischuna Neutral, by Albert Uster Imports. I LOOOOVE it. It is delicious, I can roll it our super thin, and it is heaven to work with. I had enough trouble with Satin Ice to convince me to make the change... On to the next photo; it's a crumb coated cake it buttercream. Finally, it's my delicious rich chocolate cake... YUUUUM!

Shoebox Cake.

2010-12-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

As I type, I yawn. This is another cake I made this month. It's a Gucci shoebox cake with a fierce sugar shoe. The shoe was tons of work, but very well worth it in my opinion. Hasta luego. :)

My name is Rafael Logrono...

2010-12-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

and I am a horrible blogger.

I admit. I am shameful, but I shall admit. I've been OVERwhelmed with cakes this month and school work has seemed to double all of a sudden. This is one of the cakes I made last week. I have more pictures to post, and I have about 7 more cakes before the year is over. Yes, that is something to "OMG" about. So here she is! She was a very simple cake, 2 tiers, small wedding, dots, sugar flower, all white. Voila!

Busy Boy...

2010-12-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

My feet hurt already thinking about all the cakes I have for this month. Can I start yawning already?? I have wedding and celebration cakes that are one of a kind to create this month! I will be posting each and every one as I make them. I forgot to say, Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish followers!

See you next week!

My Website!

2010-11-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

I've been very occupied working on my website and I'm finally going to publish it! Here's the link:

www.RafaelLogrono.com

Tell me what you think!

Gucci?? NO!

2010-11-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

Why do I get most of my sculpted cake orders on a school night? I have no idea why, but frankly, I am loving it. Even though I moan and I whine about only getting 5 hours of sleep, and being on my feet forever, I really do love it. You know why I love it? Because I can get results like this...

I can't technically say this is Gucci purse because of copyright issues, BUT...

(insert whistle here)

Until later!

Roses are red, Lace is ivory...

2010-11-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

Roses are red,
Lace is ivory,
This was a last minute cake,
But it still was shiny.

There. We proved it. I suck at poems. I've never had an interest in them. I'm more of a cake guy (or snob), you know??

This wedding cake was an interesting one. Not only was I commissioned to do it last minute, but it was for a Monday evening wedding. I worked A LOT over the weekend. I started working on Friday evening and then went non-stop on Saturday. Luckily, I had a bit of freedom with this cake, so I knew not to try to do something too complex and time consuming because of the short time I had.

Nonetheless, Rafael chose to make sugar flowers. Him being a good scholar, he had school to attend. He rushed back home on the Monday afternoon, with no time to spend. He had one more tier of cake to cover, luckily he had the help of his mother. He molded some lace, and it felt sorta like a race. At last he put ribbon on the board, and that's when the rain began and poured. At the end, he was very happy with the time that he spent, by then he was looking for the week to end.

I am such a dork for writing that in 3rd person. And didn't I say I disliked poetry??

SWEET Birthday Cake!

2010-11-12T16:11:00.000-08:00

This topsy turvy birthday cake was created for a sweet little girl turning 1 year old. Tons of work went into this one, but very well worth it. The flavor of the cake was vanilla butter cake filled with a strawberry buttercream.

Couture...

2010-10-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey fellow bloggers and followers! This cake was super fun to make. I love making cakes inspired by fashion! From drapes to swags, buttons and ruffles, I love using sugar to make cakes look runway worthy. This cake is an 8 inch round with a sugar paste peony on top. I used a crimper on the edge and on the base and then I ruffled like crazy!

By the way, I added a facebook "like" tab on the side of my blog, so you all can join me on facebook as well!

Punk Elegance.

2010-09-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

Pheeew... What a Saturday I had! I had a huge cake to do and a small, last minute (I'm beginning to get known for those) 10 inch round cake. The big cake is a 4 tier square cake that weighted close to a ton. Okay, so not a ton, but definitely a lot. My dad and I both had to carry the cake; no one man could have carried it! The flowers are made out of sugar paste, and the cake was piped with black royal icing, it is not done with the Cricut Cake. I have YET to figure out how to use the Cricut Cake, GRRR. Any who, here are some detail shots of the cake! I have to admit, this is my favorite cake I've made (to date!) ... :)

Cake Central Cakes!

2010-09-26T08:02:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend! I created these two cakes for my featured article in Cake Central Magazine. While only one was chosen (along with my competition cake from a few months ago), I am very happy with both the designs I came up with. One cake is a 3 tier "Brush Embroidery Galore" covered in an off-Tiffany blue color with tons of brush embroidery piping and an ivory sugar paste peony. The second cake is a 3 tier square cake that has a modern feel to it. I choose the color palette of blue, green and black after an invitation I found online. There are also sugar paste gerberas on the cake to soften the sharpness of the design. Here are the cakes!

Brush Embroidery Galore

"Simple Funk"

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Elmo plays the keyboard.

2010-09-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

Now that the slow cake months are over, more cake orders are gracing my life. The down side to that is, I just started my senior year in high school. I'll be super busy AND not to mention sleepy. This is the time of year that coffee and I create a tighter bond and relationship. It's going to be one hell of a year, but I have my bullet-proof vest on. Hee hee...

Okay, back to cake. Here is an Elmo cake that I made a few weeks ago. The elmo is made of rice krispy treats covered in modeling chocolate. It was my first time working with modeling chocolate, and it is a whole lot easier to work with than I thought. Thanks to my girlfriend Lauren Kitchens of Fancy Cakes by Lauren for all of her help on the modeling chocolate. I look forward to using it more with cakes!

The cake below was created for a keyboard-playing aficionado. The cake was very detailed and time consuming. I covered the base in fondant and wood-grained it (one of my favorite techniques). The cake was done on a school night and I had plenty of homework due the next day. I ended up sleeping at 12:30am and waking up to finish (well... start) my homework. Grr.

I have to share some pictures of my Cake Central Magazine feature. I received my magazine and LOVED the spread! Did you guys receive it? You can buy individual copies here. Tell me what you think!

Hydrangeas and Swags Wedding Cake

2010-09-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

When meeting with the bride and groom, the bride wanted some sort of fabric impression on the cake. After going through the different options, we decided on a very simple design with swags falling from each tier to the next. I made blue sugar paste hydrangeas and placed them where each swag meets. Here is a picture of the cake at the reception. Hope you like!

Let me remind you guys! The issue of Cake Central Magazine that I will be featured in is out! I am still waiting to recieve my copy of the issue... It's the September issue and on the cover we see a cake done by the awesome Alexandria Pellegrino of Cake Opera Co. I can't wait for you guys to read my article! :)

Who knows why I haven't posted this cake yet...

2010-08-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

I made this topsy turvy cake while making my competition cake that you can see in the post below. I happily took this order 3 days before it was needed because it was a design I wanted to do for a while. It was close to midnight by the time I finished this cake, but my competition cake was in no way, shape, or form, to being complete. Let me remind you that the competition cake had to be out the door at 5am, so I can make it to the competition on time.

Back to this cake. I covered and decorating this cake in record time. I managed to cover, stack and make the figurines in less than 4 hours.

I decorate it reverse a lot times. Things that should be done WAAAY in advanced are the last things I do for the cake. Well, that was the case this time. All of the figurines were done out of fondant after the the cake was stacked (well... fondant and A LOT of tylose; you know how much I love my tylose).

Vote for Icing Smiles!

2010-08-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Icing Smiles is a relatively new non-profit organization that helps get cakes to children with critical and terminal illnesses. I found out about the great work Tracy Quisenberry was doing a couple of weeks ago and immediately contacted her to see how I could help. As I read through the website I was overcome with emotion. Others have been too... so much in fact that poor Tracy is now having a hard time growing her organization quickly enough to connect all us bakers with all these children fighting for one more birthday.

I have offered my baking and cake services to Tracy of Icing Smiles already. The Pepsi Refresh project is where people like us can vote for altruistic projects that we deem worthwhile. At the end of the month, the top 10 contenders get $25,000 to help get their ideas off the ground. Icing Smiles desperately needs this money and this is where we can help!

Visit the Icing Smiles page on the Pepsi Refesh Project at:
http://www.refresheverything.com/icingsmiles

We can vote for them once per day, and if you have a Facebook account, you can even vote for them without signing up for a separate account. If you haven't yet heard about Icing Smiles, please visit their website to read more about the wonderful work Tracy is doing and the stories of the children she has already helped. As I write this they are ranked 335... lets get her down to the single digits, huh?

I copied and pasted this directly from another blogger's blog, so you can too! Spread the word! I started texting my vote today!

Vote from your mobile phone
Text* 101351 to
Pepsi (73774)

*Standard text messaging rates apply.

Rafael :)

BIG NEWS...

2010-07-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hello bloggers and faithful followers! For the few of you who are friends with me on facebook, (Why aren't you??) this won't be news to you since I announced the BIG NEWS to my facebook friends, earlier today.

I will be spotlighted in a featured article on the Cake Central Magazine! Along with my article, there will be a picture of two new cakes that I created. These cakes have only been viewed by a few pairs of eyes and are, in my opinion, beautiful cakes! Hopefully the magazine chooses to publish both cakes, but if they don't, you know I will!

The Cove Country Cake Show...

2010-07-22T15:45:00.001-07:00

With cocoa and powdered sugar all over me, I shall type this...

This past weekend I attended the Cove Country Cake Show in Bedford, PA. My friend Alexandra, the one who makes awesome molds, decided to make a road trip for us to meet. She went from her house to pick me up and them off we went to Bedford... In the trunk were her molds (she had a vendors table) and in the back seat was my competition cake, in two pieces...

In this case, size does matter. I don't know what was more stressful, having a cake in the back seat for 4 1/2 hours (yea, yea. the trip was meant to me 3 1/2 hours but we missed an exit, and we missed it BAD) OR taking it out of a 2-door car. After tilting, pushing, sweating, swearing, cursing, we got it IN the car... Then when we got to Bedford an hour after we planned, we had to take it out. We asked ourselves at one point, "How did we get the cake IN the car in the first place????" Haha! We got it out! Off I went to set up my cake, TWICE. One for the ICES photographer to photograph, and then in the judges room.

At the show, I had the privilege to serve as the emcee for the live cake challenge! It was fun! I felt like Keegan Geerhard... hee hee... Watch out Claire Robinson, I am out to get you! :)

The theme with the show was, "Location, Location, Location..." They wanted cakes with a travel theme to them. Okay, so without further ado... Here is the competition cake!

Off to dust off the sugar....

Modern Baby Shower Cake.

2010-06-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

This baby shower cake has some of my favorite colors on it... I won't lie to you, this one was a tough one to make. Not tough as in decorating, but tough as in designing. Th client wanted "baby stuff" on it. She mainly wanted the baby's footprint, a rattle and baby booties. The rest, was up to me...

In the middle of decorating, I had the cake all stacked and all of the decorations that the client wanted were made. That's all... Huuuummm?? What can I do??? I then decided to give the cake a modern look. The bottom tier had diamonds with buttons and dots. The second tier had the footprint with some string work (I love string work!). The top tier had circles that were outlined by dots. The entire cake was a vanilla cake filled with a yummy strawberry buttercream. Hope y'all like it!

Princess Darien Cake...

2010-06-19T06:44:00.000-07:00

As my buddy Jade Eye of marzipandoll.com (I'll do some shameless advertising for her. Check out her quality silicone molds for sale on her facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=171771&id=272782307050&ref=pb) told me on Thursday, I am the king of last minute cake orders...

That being said, this is a last minute cake order. Keisha, the sweet mother of Darien wanted a really nice cake for her daugthter's 10th birthday. With such short notice, our options were limited... I sent her a few pictures and she was very kind about choosing a cake. She chose a concept, but she kinda gave me a little princess freedom (you know how much I love my freedom).

I advise you, these cake tiers are TALL. They are both 6 inches high! The bottom tier had yellow and purple stripes, and the top tier was quilted. The crown was made a day before the cake was due. With lots of prayers and tons of tylose, I managed to have the crown dried in time. I painted it with silver luster dust and vodka, several times to have an even look. Oh, and the bow was made last minute too. Oops!

Baby in Tub Cake...

2010-06-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

It's a baby shower galore around here... Are there really that many babies on their way? Some of my cake buddies are being tackled with plenty baby shower cakes too... I guess that after wedding season comes baby season... GO FIGURE.

This baby shower cake was fun to make. The baby and all of the decorations, including the towel, soap, ducks, boat and the pearl bubbles are all edible and hand-made. The "water" is piping gel tinted in a very light blue. Here he is:

Graduation Cake!

2010-06-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

This cake was for a graduate of Public Relations and Communications. The TV is made out of rice cereal treats and everything else is cake, except for the diploma, it's all fondant. Congrats to all the grads!

Hey!

2010-05-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I attended the Great American Cake Show in Westminster,Maryland... I competed live (more on that in another post), I taught my first class (more later) and took along my first ever competition cake. With the competition cake, I decided to do something I don't often get to do: wedding cakes... We were reading a novel called the Sound of Waves in English class... The novel had a beautiful cover and each chapter was graced with an aspect of Japanese culture with black paint (boat, cherry blossoms, etc.). I took the book and turned it into a wedding cake! The bottom tier is a hexagon tier with bamboo edging and hand-painted fondant placks. I never knew I could do hand-painting!

Oh! And I not only recieved first in my category... But I took home the Best in Division of the whole entire teen cakes! Yeeepers!

Late, but Happy Easter!

2010-04-09T17:42:00.001-07:00

I'm throwing on my Louboutins...

2010-04-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, the song... And the cake! I made a shoe out of tylose and fondant and a shoebox for Rosa's birthday all in the Louboutin spirit. The base is covered with fondant to look like fabric and with black dots to look like a lady bug pattern. I added a gum paste bow and flowers to add on to the girly-ness. And here it goes, but I DO apologize for the unprofessional pictures!

Communion Cake!

2010-04-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

I made this cake for some awesome people... Well, I think they're awesome... They love my work and are amazed by the fact that I make the cakes. Let's talk about the cake first: Pillow cake holding 2 round tiers with a quilting pattern and a luster dusted cross on top.

When they ordered the cake, they were mesmerized by 3 purse cakes I had on display here at home. When the cake was picked up, their admiration continued... I was still in bed due to the late night of caking, but I had to wake up. I told them, "You want it, you can take it." They were sooo excited to take the display cake! I was super happy seeing that they admired my work, that I even covered the base and put a ribbon around the base... Here is the communion cake!

One Step at a Time...

2010-03-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

Nope, I'm not blogging about cakes, not even a cake picture in site... But it has to do with cake.

My plans for the Great American Cake Show need to to be finalized; I see myself WORKING LOTS. I have a class to teach (where I provide a lot of supplies). Travel arrangements to plan (from Philadelphia, PA to Westminster, MD). Hotel room to book (good price: $79 a night). A LIVE challenge to prep for (where Amelia and I have to bring just about everything). A demo to do at my suga grandma, Diane Shavkin's vendors booth (Which I need to practice for). AND not to mention, just this weekend, I decided that I'd enter the teen division of the competition (Uh oh...). YES, I know, a LOT to take in.

Oh, and I just remembered... How the hell am I gonna travel with all that, plus the personal luggage of 3 other people?? WISH ME LUCK!

Noah's Ark Cake.

2010-03-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Sebastian! The theme to Sebastian's 1st birthday party is Noah's Ark. So what would be the perfect cake?? Well, Noah's Ark itself! I sculpted 12 inch square cakes to look like a boat and I made animal figurines ranging from giraffes to an elephant and from a snail couple to a half dozen birds... I must say that my favorite one was the monkey, with the pig at a close second... Inside is Dominican cake filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.

Uh Oh...

2010-03-12T07:56:00.000-08:00

So here it goes, the good news...

I will be teaching a sculpted purse cake class at the Great American Cake Show! I still have the pictures to upload, but they are on their way...

Also, I will be competing LIVE yet again at the same show. I partnered up with my buddy, Amelia Monis, and we are out for gold, baby! We've already spent hours chatting and on the phone, so you can all expect a great MASTERPIECE! :) I can't wait for this challenge! We have some very talented competition, a good theme and just 3 hours to make our cake.

Thank you all for reading my blog!

Rafael :)

Sesame Street!!

2010-03-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

Ugh. That's all I have to say. Flavors include: red velvet cake with cream cheese buttercream, sour cream butter cake with strawberry buttercream and banana cake with chocolate buttercream. I made a cookie monster figurine out of fondant and tylose, using a clay gun to get the hair effect. I made templates for the "1," the Sesame Street sign and the character faces. All I gotta say is, "Me Want Cookie!"

Chic Baby Shower Cake.

2010-03-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

What can I say, this cake was, "Tres Chic!" Inspired by the other stacked gift box baby shower cake I previously made this year, this cake was a bit more modern with the popular color combination of pink and chocolate brown. The brown elements of the cake are made out of chocolate fondant. I included a fondant rattle covered in pink crystallized sugar (I love this!). I also make a little pink ducky and a few ribbon roses. I made (my favorite things to make!), BOWS!!!!

You had me Topsy Turvy, day and night...

2010-02-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made this topsy turvy cake. The theme of the cake is Bratz, so I created a fondant shoes, purses and make-up and I hand painted each tier with a zebra pattern. The entire cake is vanilla cake with various buttercreams: vanilla, strawberry-banana and passion fruit. Here it goes!

Sea Rock..

2010-02-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

A day before his daughters birthday, a guy says, "I want a cake that looks like a mermaid." Uhm, sir, I would need a few weeks notice to make that cake. A rock from the sea is all I can make you. He pensively said yea.

Well, that's not how the story went, but here is the cake!

By the way, he was really happy with the end result!

Remember....

2010-02-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

I told y'all I have good news??? Well, here is a hint:

http://www.GreatAmericanCakeShow.com/

Mo' Cakes.

2010-01-31T12:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy end of the month for me. This weekend's creations were celebrating a 40th birthday and a Dora themed birthday party. Below is an off-set three tier stacked gift box cake. The flavor was on my favorites: PASSION FRUIT. YUMM!! I had no design in mind since I had artisitic freedom and just biult it as I went. The first tier was a mosterrrrr, 15 inches. I had touse a techniques I never used before: panelling; where I cover each side of the cake individually.

Nothing much to say with this cake... Dora, drapes, stripes, shine and bright!

Until next time!

I have good news to you all...

But not yet.

Sooooooon.

Baby Shower Gift Box Cake.

2010-01-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

I made this cake with the help of Sharon Zambito's Boxes & Bows DVD. The colors were very simple, various shades of pink and white. All the bows were luster dusted and the rattle was covered in a type of sanding sugar I created. Open your gifts!

Happy Birthday LOLA!

2010-01-23T15:46:00.000-08:00

The theme to Lola's birthday party is 'My Little Pony.' Tons of colors and various design options... Flavors inside are brandy, vanilla, rich chocolate and almond. Everything is made out of suga'!

Hollywood Cake! Lights, Camera...

2010-01-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

After sketching a cake design that I fell I love with, the customer didn't want that cake. I was upset but had to please the clients. We were given artistic freedom after being told, "Three tiers, red carpet and stars." I can work around that! So this is what I came up with! Flavors range from Dominican cake with strawberry buttercream, to Rich Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. ACTION!

Strawberry Shortcake 1st Birthday Cake!!

2009-11-23T16:07:00.000-08:00

This cakes is very simple yet adorable. I made a sugar "1" to crown the cake and also made sugar strawberries out of gum paste to adorn the entire cake. I loved this cute cake! And no, it was not strawberry inside! :)

Good News Revealed.

2009-11-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

Are you guys ready?????? Drum roll please.....

I will be competing live in a Teen Cake Challenge at the NY Cake Convention in NYC on January 3rd, 2010. The theme to the challenge will be "School Days..." The admission to the challenge will be 8 dollars and it will be held at Hotel Pennsylvania, right around Madison Square Garden! I will have four hours all to myself and my cake to work some magic. I won't lie; I am excited and a bit fearful. More information will be posted on their site. Wish me luck!!

Polka Dot Birthday Cake.

2009-11-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

This birthday cake is covered with small polka dots in light pastel colors. My brother was a huge help while decorating this cake. He placed the dots onto the cake as I piped onto where they belong. He also had the genius idea of placing the bow on the cake. Inside the cake was a Dominican cake with vanilla buttercream and a rich chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. Thanks Ro!

Ivory & Gold Cake!

2009-09-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite cakes to date. This four tier baby with cake sizes, 14' 10' 7' and 4', had two different flavors: red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and Dominican cake with vanilla buttercream. The colors were obviously ivory and gold and the details ranged from ivory daisies with gold centers, to gold butterflies and a gold "15" topper made out of sugar. My mom gave me the brilliant idea of instead of covering the base with fondant, to drape fondant to imitate a dress: AMAZING! Here are more detail views:

I had to throw this picture in, just for the reader's pleasure. :)

Summer Break is almost Over...

2009-08-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Yes I agree, sad. The new school year is right around the corner and I'm not ready for it. I am not physically, mentally, emotionally and most importantly cakelly ready. I still need to work on summer reading assignments (waste of time) and I need to prepare myself for a tough year. In other good news, there are a few cake classes I wanna take and a few conventions/expos I wanna attend. The first is in Charlotte, North Carolina, the 2009 American Retail Bakery Exposition, www.rbanet.com/ARBE2009/index.html The amazing Ron Ben Israel will be teaching and giving a demo. Last year I saw him and several other cake people. Here's one:

That in my hand was the piece of fondant that Colette demoed brush embroidery on; her assistant gave it to me at the end! This was September 2008 and I still have it!!

Also, there is a convention being planned called the NY Cake Convention. Though still in the process of happening, the organizers have a location and a few instructors on the list. The instructors who currently spark my interest are Michelle Bommarito and Ashley Vicos. The other two on the list are the Cake Diva Charmaine Jones and Lauri Ditunno who appears on Wetv's Amazing Wedding Cakes (one of my favorite shows). I'm really excited about this one; it is set to take place on January 2-4 of 2010. Here's a link to their Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/CakeConvention

And lastly, the ICES Convention. It will take place in San Diego, California on August 12-15 of 2010, almost a year from now! the ICES website is: http://www.ices.org And the ICES Convention of 2010's site is: http://www.ices10.org (still being organized).

Until Next Time!

An Elegant Sweet 16 Cake.

2009-08-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

With the Princess Jasmine theme, this cake involves the gold and deep blue/turquoise and lime green colors. I made tear drop shaped fondant decorations and small stars rising up to the cake. Inside the cake was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting (one of my favorites!). Sorry for the blurry photo, due to the photo being taken with my cell phone!

A Simple Birthday Cake.

2009-08-05T17:50:00.001-07:00

A friend of ours wanted a simple cake for her husband's birthday. Here it is. Inside there is a Dominican cake filled with a guava filling and iced in American Buttercream (specified by her).

Butterfly Wedding Cake.

2009-06-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

After all the drama from the last post, I had to prepare for a cake. Now that Summer Break is upon us (well, me), I have more time and energy to focus on cakes. Here is how the preparation went down:

Marble Cakes were baked. Check.

Butterflies were all dry. Check.

Cakes were crumb coated. Check.

Cakes were fondanted and stacked (Naked). Check.

A Butterfly Wedding Cake. Voila:

A Cut, A Burn & A Beautiful Wedding Cake.

2009-06-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

I love to bake and decorate cakes, but what many people don't know, is that I'm a pretty damn good cook. I love preparing pastas of all sorts, dishes involving shrimp and chicken and creating dinner with fresh and (most of the times) healthy ingredients. I do my fair share of fancy chopping and squeezing limes. Okay, enough blabbing....

I was chopping onions very excitingly last Sunday and then from nowhere, I run to bathroom to wash my finger off and then get my mini first aid kit from my room. I place some neosporen on my index finger and a bubu trap (bandaid). Yes, I almost chopped 1/3 of my nail on my right index finger.

And yeserday :( ... I always get some hot glue gun resedue on me; it doesn't bother, just peel it off and continue with my day. But yesterday :( ... I squezed the glue out, over the air conditioner and HOT glue went on the oppisite part of my elbow (inner elbow; don't know the body part), Ssshhh......IT. I got like an a million degree burn! That's not all. I try peeling it off, and a bit of my skin tags along. :( My inner body is exposed and not to mention the pain...

You try icing cakes with a burn. Especially if your burn is on your left arm and your left handed (ME). I still had to make a wedding cake (Next Post).....

It's Me.... Mario!!! (Cake)

2009-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

A Super Mario Themed Cake we created this morning. I was so darn excited about the design and details. I love details!!! With no character's on the cake, I had to make sure the cake's theme was recognized right off the bat.

First Tier: Light blue fondant, green mountains, graphic clouds, gold coins and A-I-D-E-N

Second Tier: Light green fondant, deep green and white stripes, a few clouds

Top Tier: Marblelized fondant (red & white), stars, gold coins

TOPPER: Brick wall (you'll know why if your familiar with the game!) and a #4

Petit Grad's Hats!

2009-06-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

Hey there sweet peeps! Another graduation order. This time, it was not only one graduation cap, but 24 more small ones. I came up with the idea of baking cupcakes and flipping them around and icing them upside down; yes, clever. After fondanting a big cap, I went off to do the small ones. The petit caps were vanilla and they were crumb coated with vanilla buttercream.

Graduation Cake.

2009-06-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

No, silly. Not my graduation cake, I have two more years of high school to go! It's a graduation cake for a high school grad! The cake consists of several graduation related things, such as a cap and a diploma. The first tier is a textbook entitled "Music," for the grads interest. Some fodantfetti (confetti made of fondant) adorns the base. Congratulations 2009 grads!

And yes, I do have finals this week, so I think I should start doing some studying and writing essays (I agree, that really sucks). That means summer break is upon us! Woooohooo!

Me, Sugar Rose, What??

2009-05-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Yes. My first kinda successful attempt at making a sugar rose. It did not come out as bad as I thought it would. It does take plenty of patience, though. I'll let you be the judge of it:

I found a picture of my first Wedding Cake!!

2009-05-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

With the technology now in day, I was able to send a few pictures from my phone to my e-mail! Woo Hoo! Okay, let me start off by saying this was first wedding cake I ever. This cake was from November 2008 and I was happy with it, taking into consideration it was NUMERO UNO. Drum role please....

I've learned a whole lot since then and I'm still learning. A true artist never stops learning.

Yes, I'm still alive.

2009-05-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

For some reason I haven't been taking pictures of all the cakes lately. It's not because I don't want to, it's that I've been making FRESH cakes, meaning that I am finishing them right on the time of pick-up. Also, my camera is going through puberty or menstruation, one or the other. Its time for a professional camera. I'll list the cakes I've made without pictures. (I may have some soon :) )

1. 2-tier White Communion Cake

2. An Amazing Baby Shower Cake- a huge yellow bed with two sugar baby faces (twins: boy and girl) and a blanket with two baby blocks (blue and pink highlights) and lots of details!

3. A 3-tier gray Wedding Cake (Sounds weird but it was beautiful) with fresh roses in between tiers

4. Small 3-tier Sweet Sixteen Cake

5. Four Tier Faux Cake with extreme royal icing piping and fresh roses and calla lilies (lets not mention the huge catering that went along with the cake order)

So much to chat about but so little pictures! Sorry I'll take more pictures!!!!!!

Emergency, Emergency. Fire Truck Cake!

2009-05-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday Alessandro. A good friend of the family, Carmen Lebron, also known as Carmen Lechon, wanted a birthday cake for her newest grandchild's 1st birthday party. The theme of the party was going to be Shreck, but then was changed to firemen, fire trucks and everything that has to do with fire. I told her to give me the "artists choice" and run with the theme. After some deliberating, this is what I came up with! :

Sorry their weren't any pictures with detail views! The truck looked much nicer in person. There was also a fire hydrant made out of fondant. My carving is actually improving!

Portuguese Flag Cake.

2009-04-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

My good friend from school, texted me during Spring Break wanting a cake for her father's birthday. I accepted the offer (Duh!!). She wanted a Portuguese flag in cake. Since I'm familiar with many world flags, I was like, "Oh that'll be easy; 1/3 green, 2/3 red, a yellow circle and that's it." I did my research and searched through my collection of books and noticed that I was in for some detail with the flag! All the outer decorations were made out of fondant. Inside the cake was a chocolate cake with a raspberry buttercream.

It's A Domino Effect...

2009-04-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

I created this cake for the 72nd birthday of a client's father-in-law birthday party. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a 7-2 domino chip and also I wasn't sure if the birthday boy wanted his age exposed, so that wasn't a possibility. I made domino chips out of sugar- fondant (with tylose for faster dry) and piped swags and dots on the side.

Detail View:

Figurines....

2009-03-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

I tried making gum paste flowers today, and they were okay... But I think this is more my nitch. Making figurines is up my alley, sugar flowers, not quite yet...

Doggy Family

Doggy Family, Part 2

Lonely but, Happy Dog

An Owl, a Giraffe and a rhino (I think that's a rhino, it was on the napkin for the baby shower)

Monkey and Elephant

The dogs I made for the heck of it, but the other animals were for a baby shower sheet cake in the theme of Noal's Arc.