Credits:

Event Design: Laura Lorraine Designs

Photography: Brooke Merrill + Randi Marie (The Wedding Girls)

Hair: Rikki Tieman at Hair Ya Go

Makeup: Laura Crivello at Blush Makeup Artistry

Invitations (Images Coming Soon) : Paper Scissors Print

Cake: Shakar Bakery

Location: Palm Springs Californina.

Hotel: Rivera Palm Springs

She was so proud of me when she heard that I started my own cake business and ditched the average 9-5 life style. To my surprise she contacted me to do her grandson’s baptism cake. If you told 11 year old me that I would one day bake a cake for my teacher’s grandson’s baptism I’d look at you incredulously (of course back then I used to want to be a veterinarian). Anyway, we met up for a consultation. Look, here we are:

Her instructions reminded me why I always loved her so much:

“Dare to be different! I don’t want anything typical or conventional. Let’s do a vintage design with a mocha cake with hazelnut filling”

She liked my idea of creating a pillow cake with sculpted doves and a cross, but didn’t give much guidance with the design. Designing a vintage theme for a boy was tricky- a little too many vintage details and the design becomes too feminine. The cake ended up looking like this:

When I was ready to deliver the cake I felt like I was submitting a final exam! I was a little nervous since my customer didn’t want to see the cake at all prior to delivery, she wanted to be surprised. As if deliveries weren’t stressful enough I now had the constant worry that she maybe wouldn’t have liked the design!

Lucky for me, she loved it! She told me she intentionally didn’t give me design details because she wanted to see where my imagination would take me. Again she reminded me of why I always loved her and her teaching style

When I was an amateur baker I took a lot of care in measuring my cake pans to calculate the correct servings. Thanks to my engineering background I even used math for my calculations! My equation was simple for a 2″ tall cake:

C=πD    (C= circumference, π=3.14, D=diameter)

I add 10 servings for every additional inch in cake height.

It boggled my mind when I started talking to other cake decorators and they were quoting 25 servings out of a cake that I could (and personally have) cut 50 servings from! I didn’t understand how that was possible, math can NOT lie! To add to this confusion, the cake decorators told me about  iPhone apps they used to calculate the servings for them and the program was also quoting low numbers. For example, I can serve 18-20 slices from a 6″ tier that’s 4″ in height, but other bakers quote 10-12 servings!

I consulted with a math genius friend of mine, and this was his answer (loved it!):

“For a 6inch cake: So the circumference is roughly 18inches. Doing some trigonometry, with each slice having 3 inch long sides, and a base angle of 20degrees (360/18), each slice will have width (at the widest point) of a little over an inch (1.026 inches to be exact). And the curvature length is 18.84/18=1.0466 like you said.
So in my mind, each slice is roughly a triangle with dimensions 3x3x1.026 inches and a depth of 4inches , and this is understated because it doesn’t include the part that is between the curvature and the 1.026 inch side of the triangle. I think that’s a decent size for a slice.” Apart from being a math genius, he was also raised around a catering business, so I’m pretty confident he knows what he’s talking about.

I have personally called every customer the day after their events to touch base with them and ask how everything worked out. I KNOW my cake calculations are correct because I always ask my customers how the servings worked out for their events. They always say it worked out perfect and half the time they even have some left over!

Take a look at my serving chart, and use this to guide you when ordering a cake. I can’t control how your venue serves your slices, they may cut them way larger than necessary, but these are actual servings you can get from these tier combinations.

I snapped pictures (unfortunately they are poor quality, I’m sorry!) during the process, so here is a small pictorial! But first, the final product:

My team and I sculpted the Han Solo and Princess Leia toppers. Originally, the bride had ordered the toppers from Etsy but they got lost in transit! When she told me this 4 days before the wedding, I told her we still had time to sculpt them for her! She said “Shakar Bakery to the rescue!” haha!

Here are the toppers:

the original toppers: http://www.etsy.com/listing/121408987/polymer-clay-star-wars-wedding-topper

Anyway, my Death Star fed 20 people. To make it you will need:

2 9.5″ Diameter Bowls
Fondant
Whatever cake flavor you desire- make sure you pick a flavor that’s dense. Angel food cake will NOT work with this cake
Chocolate Ganache
Dowels
A thick cake board (I used a 20″ only because I had a display. You should get at least a 12″)
Water to act as glue (a better version is if you purchase tylose powder and mix some into your water!)
Silver Luster Dust

Ok, let’s start!

1. Bake your cakes in the round bowls. I baked my chocolate cakes at 300 degrees for 2 hours to guarantee the center was baked through. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely, then wrap and place in freezer. This will make sure the cake stays sturdy

2. Prepare your chocolate ganache

3. Decide which hemisphere is to be your top, and which is to be your bottom. Once you decide the top hemisphere use a 3″ circle cookie cutter to make the indent where the laser beams are fired from. Note: in my picture you see a dowel sticking out from the center of the cake. That’s because I already measured my center and wanted to keep the hole from filling with ganache.

4. Prepare your center wooden dowel. Measure the total height of your cakes by stacking them one on top of the other (flat sides touching) and subtract 2″ of height. this should be the height of your center dowel. Cut wooden dowel accordingly to this height and sharpen the tip.
5. Prepare your cake board. Measure where you want to center your cake. Grab your dowel and using a hammer, secure it to that point. Remove the dowel and fill the hole with hot glue from a glue gun.

5. Cover glue with black fondant to keep it from touching your cake

6. Roll out your fondant and dye it two shades of gray: one light, and one dark

7. Cover your cakes with fondant, one at a time. Smooth out completely! Using a big brush, apply luster dust to give the fondant a metallic sheen. VERY IMPORTANT STEP FOR THE BOTTOM HEMISPHERE: while your cake dome is still facing up, start adding the dowels that will support your top tier! I placed 3 dowels on every side of the center dowel spaced out in 1/2″ increments towards the edge. I had a total of 12 dowels on my bottom cake, 13 including the center dowel. If this doesn’t make sense, just ask me!

8.Place a cake board on top of the bottom hemisphere (make sure you ganache the top of the cake). Carefully lift the cake and turn it over so that the cake board is on the bottom. Place the cake over the center dowel and mark on the cake board the place the dowel will penetrate. Flip the cake over again, remove the cake board and make a hole where you marked the board. This will make your life easier when you try to place the cake through the dowel.

9. With the bottom hemisphere facing up, start adding your panels. Note: this picture was taken before I evenly trimmed all my panel edges. Be very careful in aligning the panels!

10. Flip the cake over and carefully lower it onto the center dowel

11. Remove the cake board and place it beneath the top hemisphere. This will make it easier to place the top hemisphere over the dowel! Decorate the top hemisphere with the panels. I used this image to guide me:

12. To create the depth between the hemispheres, roll out a thick strip of black fondant and carefully place within the wedge. Make sure to clean up your edges!

It took us 11 hours to cut over 100 0.4×0.7″ panels and to place them on the cake. We are detail fiends! But you don’t have to be Decorate to your comfort level, AND MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Here are pictures of the rest of the dessert setup:

Sweet Surprise #1

Ingredients:

1 box of strawberries
1 bag of dark chocolate chips

Equipment:
Mirowave safe bowl
Piping bag (ziploc bags will work as well)

Directions:
Wash the strawberries, cut off the tops and carve to the center of the strawberry (the deeper you carve, the more chocolate the strawberry will hold). Cut the tips of the strawberries so that they are able to stand upright without falling over.
In the microwave safe bowl, pour in the bag of chocolate chips and microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave, mix, and continue heating in 30 second intervals until all of the chocolate has melted. Make sure you observe the chocolate and don’t overheat or else it will burn!
Pour melted chocolate into the piping bag, or a ziploc bag (once you fill with chocolate, using a scissor cut a small tip off one of the corners).
Fill the strawberries, one at a time, until the chocolate is level with the top. Carefully place the strawberries on a flat container or board and place into the refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden. You can also skip this last step and enjoy the strawberries filled with the delicious melted chocolate!

Sweet Surprise #2

Ingredients:

Raspberries
Dark Chocolate Chips

Place the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave, stir, and continue to melt in 30 second intervals until the chocolate is fully melted.
Place melted chocolate in piping bag or ziploc bag and begin to fill the raspberries one at a time until the melted chocolate is level with the top. Place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or until the chocolate has hardened.

There you have it, two very easy DIY recipes to surprise your loved one! Couple these with a bottle of champagne and romance will be bubbling all night!!

Happy baking!

I’m not a fan of condensed milk. There, I said it. I feel a lot better now! Why add all that extra fat and sweetness to a coconut macaroon??? After researching alternatives, this is the recipe I concocted to create gluten-free macaroons!

Ingredients:
1 whole egg
4 egg whites
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 package sweetened shredded coconut

Pre-heat oven to 350°F

In a small bowl whisk the whole egg until smooth. Add honey, coconut flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and mix until smooth. Add coconut and blend into mixture.

In a separate bowl whisk egg whites on high speed until frothy (about 2 minutes). Fold into coconut mixture.

Spoon rounds of the coconut batter onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper (I tried using aluminum foil and the bottoms of the macaroons tended to stick). Bake in oven for 25-30 min, or until macaroons are golden brown. Remove from oven, allow to cool before removing from parchment paper. If you desire, dip the tops of your macaroons in melted chocolate!

Ingredients:
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup white, granulated sugar
1 cup cold milk
1/4 cup Nestle chocolate powder
1/4 cup Ghiradelli unsweetened dark chocolate powder
3 large eggs
1 and 1/4 sticks softened butter

Steps:

*pre-heat oven to 350°F

1. Cream butter and sugar with your mixer, blending until the consistency is very smooth and creamy
2. add eggs to the butter mixture and mix until completely smooth
3. add milk and mix on low until blended into the butter mix
4.mix chocolate powders together in a separate bowl and then pour the combined mixture into the butter/milk/egg mix. Beat on high until completely blended in
5. slowly add flour into the mix, blending well after every addition

Pour mixture into any pan you’d like to use. With this recipe, I made 12 cupcakes and an 8×11 thin layered cake (like a brownie)!

For cupcakes:
Pour mixture 2/3 full into the baking cups. Bake for 20 minutes.

Happy Baking!!

“The centuries-old Armenian tradition agra hadig is celebrated worldwide by Armenians, no matter where they live — Armenia, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, or the U.S. Agra means “tooth,” and hadig refers to a traditionally cooked wheat dish eaten on this occasion. The agra hadig celebrates the appearance of the baby’s first tooth. The mother props the infant up on a table or on the floor and places five objects in front of the child; the first object the baby selects predicts his or her future occupation. Before the child makes the selection, its head is covered using a veil or a scarf, onto which some hadig is sprinkled to signify a wish for fruitfulness.”

My niece sprouted 4 teeth in a month, so it was definitely time to do an agra hadig for her! We knew she was going to have a very elaborate event, seeing that she’s my niece, and her mother (my sister) is my partner in crime when it comes to designing party tables! (For those of you who don’t know, we go by the name Paper&Fondant when we collaborate on projects! I supply all the desserts, she supplies all the printables!)

We decided on soft pinks and oranges for the colors. I wanted to create a really cute and simple cake, and match my topper to my cake pops! Since this was a tooth party, I created an adorable tooth topper, and made teeth shaped cake pops! The flavor of the cake was vanilla cake with an orange blossom whipped cream filling.My sister created really cute cupcake toppers, and a super awesome banner for my cake! For a splash of color, I chose to add macarons to the tables! Now, I don’t bake macarons mainly because the recipe is too time consuming! I purchased the macarons from Napoleon’s Macarons and everyone loved them! They will definitely be my go-to bakers for macarons!

The table really turned out beautiful! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

My niece went for the whisk and bowl three times!!! (signifies baker) My brother in law wasn’t happy so he made her choose again and she went for the tamborine (I also play music). Again, he wasn’t satisfied and groaned when she picked the level (I’m an engineer and my sister an architect). Conclusion: She’s going to be just like her mama and aunt!

thanks for reading! <3 If you’re a mama planning an agra hadig, don’t be shy and hire us for your event!

Today I remembered I had left over heavy cream and decided to make dark chocolate pudding! Feel free to substitute the dark chocolate with milk chocolate, but make sure you reduce the sugar by half to compensate sweetness!

Here’s an original Shakar Bakery recipe! Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2cup unsweetened Ghiradelli dark chocolate
2 tbsp Corn Starch
1/2 stick organic butter

Pour milk and heavy cream into a sauce pan and cook on high until mixture begins to warm up. In a separate cup, dissolve the corn starch in a few tbsp of cold water. Add sugar and chocolate to the milk and heavy cream, stirring until the chocolate is blended into the milk. Once mixture is about to boil, slowly pour in the corn starch and stir until the pudding has thickened. Remove from heat, add butter, and mix until fully dissolved.

Pour pudding into your individual serving bowls, allow to cool to room temperature before placing into refrigerator to cool completely.

Voila! If it’s too chocolaty for you (is that even possible??) reduce the amount of chocolate to 3/4 cups

Happy Baking!