Sunday Sweets: Flowery Praise
September 14, 2014 Today? No sculpting. Just beautiful cakes-that-look-like cakes, plus gorgeous sugar flowers.
LET'S DO THIS.
;)
(By Cakes by Mifa)
Those soft ombré ruffles are like a dream vacation for my eyes. Ahhhh. And isn't it amazing how that one sugar branch makes the whole cake?
I love how the lilies pop on this monochromatic number:
;)
(By Dream Cake Factory)
Like a line drawing come to life!
I've seen wedding cakes modeled after the bride's gown, but here's a first for me: one that matches the Flower Girl!
;)
(By HapiCakes, now renamed Hazel Wong Cake Design)
Ah! So perfect!
The baker calls this next one "coffee and cream":
;)
Fantastic brush embroidery on the flowers, and those soft ruffles & flower sprays are putting the "chic" in "shabby chic."
Or, for a more modern look:
;)
(By Ames Cake Creations)
If this were an art exhibit I'd call it, "Flower, Deconstructed." So cool!
And if you really want to amp up the drama:
(By White Rose Bakery [now closed], via The Perfect Palette)
It doesn't get more timeless than this! Wowza.
Most sugar flowers are technically edible, but of course you wouldn't really WANT to eat them.
Buttercream flowers, on the other hand?
;)
(By Arty Cakes)
Delicious *and* delightful.
Here's another cool design: the bottom tier looks like one giant flower:
;)
Or maybe more like four giant flowers, put together. Whichever, I LIKE.
And these bright colors & little corkscrew vines = instant summertime fun.
;)
(Google can't find this one at all, so I think it must be from Facebook. Anyone recognize it?)
Looking at this, I almost don't mind that it's still 93 degrees outside. Almost.
And this cool blue beauty has a retro flair to it that I'm really digging:
;)
(Photo by Captured Moments Photography, but there are so many I can't tell which one, and baker unknown. Anyone recognize it?)
Really love the modern shapes to the tiers, though, which complement each other beautifully.
And finally, a pastel rainbow so stunning I had to look three times to make sure they weren't real flowers:
;)
Mmmmm. Rainbowy flower goodness. And the quilting! And gold leaf stripes! Definitely my happy place for the day.
Hope you guys found some happy here, too! Happy Sunday!
Be sure to check out our Sunday Sweets Directory to see which bakers in your area have been featured here on Sweets!
*****
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Reader Comments (29)
These cakes are ART. Breathtaking!
SQUEE!!!!!
(In Gordon Ramsey's voice) "Stunning!"
(you have to do the two-hand gesture at the same time while saying that)
Still 90 degrees outside? Yikes. You need to move. We're getting gloriously cooler and cooler over here in the west...
Anyway. Now I'm hungry. I'll have to have pancakes instead of real cakes though, I guess.
I am squealing with delight... literally! My dog is looking at me like I'm crazy. I love that shade of orange.... the purple.... oh, I could go on and on! Truly gorgeous!
That hyacinth ruffley one is jaw droppingly beautiful, and I love the shapes of the aqua retro one. As for the temperature, Jen, no sympathy here, I'm afraid. In my part of Upstate NY, we are currently at 48F with some lows this week predicted to be in the 30s. And it is still September :-(
Absolutely gorgous!
But you have ruined us. I can't help imagining a wreckerator version of each one.
All these cakes are absolutely stunning! My mind boggles at the elegant artistry. But there's only one that simultaneously takes my breath away and makes me want to eat cake: that buttercream creation by ArtyCakes. Beautiful and delicious looking!
Hey Jen! Wow! I'm so honored! Thanks for choosing my purple flower deconstructed cake!
Just an FYI, I'm in Chubbuck Idaho.
I am glad you have the Sunday Sweets Directory after clicking on the first 3 links and finding out these bakers are in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Singapore respectively. An ordered cake would make me swoon (and the overnight shipping fees would make me cold and clammy!).
Gorgeous Sunday Sweets as always. Thanks for posting!
Wow! The cake in the 3rd photo (light brown, w/peach roses and ivory ruffles) should be replicated in fabric, and made into a dress; it's pretty enough to wear! I'd turn the ivory ruffles upside-down, so they wouldn't catch cake crumbs...=^~.~^=
@RachelCrazyMum: I'm in central Vt., it is currently a balmy 46 degrees, with tonight's low around 35. I don't like the cold, but the trees are starting to turn, and it is breathtakingly spectacular up here when it pops in earnest.
I wonder if the bridesmaids at the wedding where the last one was served wore different colored gowns.
Send the one with the impossibly delicate buttercream blossoms over to my house for brunch today, OK?
OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Maureen: actually, I believe Chef Ramsay would say...ahem..."Absolutely amazing! Well done!" (He says that first A LOT, usually about ingredients.)
Here is 91 today, 95 tomorrow and 96 yesterday (in Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA area). But that didn't prevent us from going to a Maker Faire at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Engineering). My geeklings were SO excited! And there was a Dalek there...and R2D2 (with several friends), running about...and Darth Vader...and a Tesla Coil!!
Ah...my people.
They are all fabulous but the one with buttercream frosting flowers looks like something my Mom would have done so that makes me smile.
Is it strange that I noticed on the "Shabby Chic" one that the ruffles are upside down? The cake is superb, one of my favorites, but I just can't unsee the ruffles going the wrong way. My brain wants them going down not up. A bit OCD, I know but I can't help it.
I have a serious question about the multi-tiered Sunday masterpieces. When, on a weekday, you show a bad three-tier cake, it usually sags or slumps. Well, yes, it's made of cake, not concrete, you'd expect it to. But on Sunday we get tall towers that are utterly vertical. What kind of cake are they made of? Do they have a rigid skeleton inside? If not, what's the magic?
I am British, and for much of my life the standard high-quality wedding cake had three tiers separated by rings of little plaster columns. Each tier rested on a cake board, so there was no problem at the bottom of the cake. But how were the columns under the upper tiers kept from sinking into the top of the tier below? They were always fruit cakes of great density and rigidity, topped with a layer of marzipan under white icing of tooth-breaking hardness. But you wouldn't think that this was enough to bear two heavy upper fruit cakes.
Do I spy some beautifully done Cornelli lace??? On Coffee and Cream? Yesssss, way to go. (I learn so much in Cake Wrecks.)
The deconstructed flower really speaks to me, but I would love the butter cream flowers. So beautiful and so tasty.
Eek so perfect :D
These are ALL spectacular, but that coffee and cream cake is stunning, upside down ruffles notwithstanding. The lace looks so much like fabric, and the flowers look SO real. These really are artistic treasures.
These cakes are beautiful and that turquoise one with "pearls" totally reminds me of my sweet, departed grandma. But I have to admit, what puts a smile on my slightly evil face is imagining how those cakes will be wrecked by amateur immitators! Especially that first one: I can see someone jamming a stick of wilting blossoms in a cake...
Oh, this blog has corrupted me!
@Sandy:
I see what you mean, but actually I've seen ruffles (fabric ones, I mean) that looked like that. If the fabric is pulled very tight, it IS possible. Not usual, though, I grant you.
Hope this helps. Having twin special-needs kids, I realize how frustrating it is when your brain gets "stuck". And you can't help it, either, which makes it worse.
[sigh of contentment] I love beautifully created cakes that look like cakes. The coffee and cream cake is perfect simplicity. The turquoise and pearl cake is simply sweet. What a peaceful display today.
I have clearly been looking at this site for too long, because I could not help but imagine the wreck version of each of these lovely creations!
Thanks for the beautiful Sunday Sweets on my birthday! :) Now I want to dig in to some of those! :)
That blue cake is so enchanting that I felt I had to accept the challenge to track it down. I *think* the original photo may be from here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/villadeamore/6601570965/in/set-72157628638224347 (the flickr site of Villa de Amore, a wedding venue in Temecula, CA). And I'm pretty sure this is the correct photographer: http://www.capturedmomentsphotographyus.com/ That's as far as my sleuthing skills have taken me.
[Editor's note- Thanks for looking. Sadly, I don't think either is right. The Villa site is a little too... vague and I'm not sure if they're a scraper site and the photographer uses a different watermark. Fudgesickles. Thanks again. -john (the hubby of Jen)]
These cakes are beautiful. I really like the use of colors in each of them. My favorite is the one with the giant blue flowers making up the second tier. Its really simple but elegant and it just pops, you know?
ooh pretty! lots of daisies here today :)
and Tachybabtus there are dowelling rods pushed into each cake and the pillars are resting on them, you can see this technique used on the showstoppers on Bake Off nearly every week.
@Tachybaptus: for the tiered cakes with pillars, I think rods of some sort are inserted into the lower cake under the pillars to take the weight of the upper tiers. They are then hidden by the pillars placed over the top.
These are all gorgeous, but I have never seen dogwood used on a cake before, so the Mifa one was definitely my favorite.