Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Cake Tuesday!

Here's another new favorite. The wedding and reception were at a private residence up the coast, north of Santa Cruz. A large tent was set up, and huge mossy branches were hung from the center. All the centerpieces were beautiful oranges, greens, and browns, with eucalyptus leaves and mossy branches tucked in with fresh flowers. Images of fluttering monarch butterflies were projected onto the ceiling, and paper monarchs were scattered around the room. It was very natural looking, yet surprisingly elegant and dramatic, too.

So we started with several of my signature monarchs - ever since the television appearance I can't tell you the number of butterflies I've made, and I still get a kick out of them.

The cake was wrapped with white chocolate, and each layer was topped with fresh organic ollalieberries. I made branches out of gumpaste, and covered them with tiny torn bits of sugar to resemble lichen and moss. All the eucalyptus leaves were hand-formed, and the butterflies, floating on the tiers, were mixed with gorgeous fresh flowers to perfectly complement the setting. Ta da!