Tackling Cake Competitions... A different approach...

Each year in April, there is a cake competition in the Philadelphia area to benefit City of Hope. And since 2011, I've entered the competition with a goal in mind. I'll bet you won't ever be able to guess what my goal was...ha ha

The first year, I'd never entered any type of competition before. In fact, I was still a baby to cake decorating.  I had only begun decorating 3 short years before. So for me, I felt very much "out of my league". To go up against bakeries and cake shops that have years of experience and awards under their belts was daunting. And quite frankly, my attitude was a little different than most. If I didn't think I could win, I didn't want to bother with the time or expense to enter. So... I approached it from a different angle than most would.

I researched winning cakes, and then set out to design my cake based on what it took to make a competition cake a "winning cake". I looked at how many various techniques were used, how well they were used, complexity of design, neatness and precision, etc. And I decided that whatever subject matter my cake was going to portray, it HAD to show a variety of techniques and mastery of each of them. Piping, stenciling, hand painting, modeling, sculpting, sugar work, gravity defying, etc. etc. And then I spent a great deal of time planning out the structure and sketching. Then set to work on all the details. It took a LONG time to complete the cake. But hey... It won! My first year, nobody knew who I was. No one had heard of me. And out of 5 potential awards, I walked away with Best Tasting, Most Artistic, and Best of Show. Not bad for my first competition. Hooray!!!

The second year was a little different. I had decided to merge my cake shop with another local shop and we wanted to collaborate on a cake to prove that together, we were a strong and talented team that could accomplish great things together. Again, we approached the design through the eyes of a judge. What would it take to make a winning cake. And we put quite a bit of time and energy into the cake. We spent more time planning and preparing for the build of the cake than we actually spent on making it. But in the end, it paid off. This time we won People's Choice, Best Use of Theme, and Most Artistic. As far as Best Use of Theme, well, the theme was "Under the Big Top". So you can see that we built an entire circus "under the big top". 

The third year and I believe my final year, the theme was "At the Movies". Since the merger with my business partner failed miserably, my new team and I decided that it was important to compete again to show that we were still a strong and talented group of artists who together could accomplish amazing things with cake. We wanted our customers to see that artistically, nothing had changed and we were still capable of producing phenomenal edible art.

So Clara and Kevin and I set out to plan our cake. This time around, we chose a theme we could have some fun with. And what's more fun than a Children's cartoon? We chose Beauty and the Beast. I have to say, of the cakes we've pulled off, it's the most AMAZING show stopper! My team kicked boo-tay! Again, we approached the design with the judges in mind. We wanted to show a variety of techniques and skill level. And with 3 of us working on the cake, there had to be elements we could each work on individually to show off individual talents and skills so when put together, the whole would be remarkable. It it was! 

 For the third consecutive year, Truly Custom Cakery, LLC received the award for "Most Artistic". I am so very proud of my team. My 19 year old assistant Clara created the Beast (all by herself with NONE of my help!), she did the rose, chandelier, and much of the castle. Kevin did all the stained glass work, sketched the whole design, airbrushing, and helped make sure that the characters had "life" to them. My tasks were Belle, Mrs Potts, Lumiere, and Cogsworth (with the help of Kevin). And when it was all said and done, it was AMAZING!

We've had it on display in our shop since April and it's such fun to see the reaction from our little customers as well as the adults. Oh yea... and my staff proved that we are indeed, an incredible team!  I love you guys! You're the best. I've never had so much fun at work and cherish all the laughter and ribbing that we have enjoyed. 

Cupcakes fit for Royalty!

Tomorrow's Cupcake Flavors are: 

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - Chocolate Chip Pound filled with caramel filling. Iced in chocolate chip cookie dough vanilla buttercream. Rolled in Chocolate chips and topped with a nice hunk of Cookie Dough! MMMMMM My FAVORITE THIS WEEK! 
• Raspberry Lemonade - Lemon Cupcake with Raspberry Lemonade Filling. Topped with a Raspberry Lemonade Buttercream and drizzled with lemon curd. For fruit lovers, this is our most popular flavor! 
• Pumpkin Praline - An Amazingly moist pumpkin cake filled with a Pecan Praline filling. If you are sad that the holiday's are over, grab a complimentary cup of coffee, close your eyes, and take a big bite of this amazing treat. Your mind will take you back to pleasant holiday memories in no time! 
• Chocolate Lovers Delite - Double Chocolate Cupcakes with a White Chocolate Ganache filling. Iced with our own Chocolate buttercream and drizzled in white chocolate. A chocolate lovers dream come true!
• Vanilla Wafer - An OH SO MOIST, white vanilla cake. Filled with a vanilla mousse, iced in vanilla buttercream, and garnished with vanilla cookie crumbles and a white chocolate dipped vanilla wafer. Another one of our most popular flavors! 

How big are these Gourmet Cupcakes? Just take a look at the photo below! 

Cupcake Pricing:

1 @ $4.50

4 @ $16.00
8 @ $30.00

Friday: 9am - 6pm

Saturday: 9am - noon

315 E Street Road

Warminster, PA 18974

(At the intersection of Newtown Road & Street Road. 

About 1/2 way between Jacksonville and Davisville Roads.)

We also offer our breakfast pound cakes in Chocolate Chip, Blueberry, and Buttery Crumb. $15.00/cake

Gluten Free Cupcakes available in 1/2 dozen increments by pre-order only.

 And we ALWAYS have Truly Custom Crunch in stock!

A Match Made in Cake

I am so excited to share this wonderful news! For a couple of months I've been working with a very talented fellow baker/decorator on plans to merge our custom cake shops and move into a retail location. All of our planning is coming together and we are very excited to announce that we will have plans to open our retail location before the Summer of 2012!

Suzy is an incredibly talented cake artist located in Penndel, PA. She's been featured in several magazines and has won some local awards for her work. Our skills and talents compliment each other nicely and we are very excited to be working together. Please feel free to check out Suzy's work at http://www.CakesbySuzy.com. One of the things I love is that our quality and look is similar. We are truly a Match Made in Cake! 

What does this mean for our customers? 

• We'll  have a showroom complete with displays and a place to do consults and tastings!

• Better Availability! With the move to a shop with commercial equipment, we'll be more efficient. We can focus on our strengths and delegate tasks accordingly. And that means that YOU will get better service AND a better product.

• TWO AWARD WINNING Cake Artists in one location! What could be better than that?

• A merger of our menu's which will give you more options. Over time, this will expand to include some specialty flavors. Stay tuned!

• More price points so that you can come to us for the big events and the small ones.

When is all of this happening?

We still have some details to work out and of course there are several different parties involved. We anticipate that we'll be open before June 1st of 2012, but we'll let you know an actual date as soon as we get it.

Where will the shop be located? 

• We are still negotiating the terms of our lease, but the proposed location is at 315 E Street Road, Warminster, PA. (Bucks County)

• It has easy access to the turnpike, I95, 611, and several other major arteries in the area.

Will I still have to order my cakes well in advance?


Our availability will be better once we merge, but we'll still be a custom cake shop. And custom cakes require advance planning and time. You won't need to order SO far in advance, but you will still need to order at least 2 weeks out for custom cakes. More detailed and larger cakes will need more time. So it's always best to contact us as soon as you know you are planning an event where you will be serving a "special" cake.

Will you have a greater variety of products available?


Over time we will start introducing some new and exciting options. However, our goal in the beginning is to focus on the orders we already have in the books and make sure those customers are well cared for during the transition. After we are settled, we'll start rolling out some new options!

Truly Custom Cakery Takes the Cake!

The 2011 Competition took place on Monday, April 11, 2011 at the Lowes Philadelphia Hotel and benefited City of Hope; a leader in Cancer Research and Treatment.

There were 40 entries in the 7th Annual Event and included Pastry Chef's from across the area. The theme this year was Historical Romances - Love in Any Age.

Once I knew the theme, I just had to choose a direction and design for my cake. I did some research on the most romantic couples in history and decided on Romeo & Juliet. Once I figured that out, I went through SEVERAL revisions of my design. There were frustrating moments as well as moments of inspiration that had me bursting with excitement and possibilities.

I researched architecture, the foliage of Italy, the clothing of the era, the writing style, and styles of cake that would best convey my vision. I also spent a lot of time pouring over the cake photos from The Oklahoma Sugar Arts Show to see what the masters considered a worthy competition cake. This may have been my first competition, but I really wanted my cake to be on par with the masterpieces created by the top sugar artists in the nation.

It was finally decided that the cake had to have a variety of mediums, needed to show mastery of several different techniques, and it needed to have a LOT of detail. When it was all said and done, I had spent about 2 months doing research as well as prepping detail pieces for my cake, planning, making custom molds, and sculpting.

About a week before the competition, I spent some time creating a new dark chocolate cake recipe and deciding on my flavors of cake to serve the judges and the attendees.

I chose a 2 layer cake. Dark Chocolate Cake & White Almond Sour Cream Cake separated by homemade Raspberry Filling and iced in Chocolate Buttercream. The Dark Chocolate Cake, Raspberry Filling, & the Chocolate Icing are all scratch recipes that I created myself. So it meant a LOT to me that they won!

The design is a table with a cup of coffee and a napkin and a very old, bound manuscript of Romeo & Juliet open to the balcony scene. The idea is that the story is being read and is coming to life in the form of a cake and bursting out of the book. So without boring you with any more details, here are my photos of the cake and some from the event.
















I want to add a special note here that my husband, Matt played a HUGE role in my success. He built and stained my custom table. He prepared the framework for the cake so that I could build a tree into the garden tier. And he helped at home A LOT so that I could focus on filling orders and getting ready for the competition. AND THEN, as if that wasn't enough, he helped me on the day of the event by loading, driving, unloading, and serving cake. After it was all done, he helped me get it all home safe and sound and then gave me a back rub. He is an amazing husband and I'm so very proud to have him!


I took this picture from the hallway during the judging when we weren't allowed in the room. The judges did not know who the cakes belonged to so the judging was based completely on taste and talent. It was really nerve wracking to sit out in the hallway and watch. After the event ended a couple of the judges came up to me to congratulate me and tell me that they had judged my cake. It was a very surreal experience and one I'm not sure has totally sunk in yet.

The biggest surprise for me was that I won best tasting. It truly was the icing on my cake last night! Thanks so much to City of Hope, Mark Kingsdorf, Harry Giordano, my husband Matt, and my dear friend Suzy. I feel very blessed!

LET THEM EAT CAKE!


For more photos of the event, cakes from other competitors, and info on the prizes, visit us on facebook!