A Magnolia Flower Wedding Cake

A beautiful three-tiered magnolia themed wedding cake.  This cake was another one of those "all-nighter" cakes.  The reason = magnolia flowers.  Another reason = we NEVER freeze our cakes - a large part of our success is the quality and freshness we offer, so we alway maintain a strict policy of delivering high quality products that are always fresh.  Oh, and another reason.... we don't have any employees!  So we bake and decorate everything ourselves!  That is a huge reason in itself, I laugh as I post this....  An 'oh yeah' moment...  We are a small business, that is probably an understatement!  However, I do feel strongly about our commitment to quality.  When the owners are the ones putting out the products, the bar is set way high.  We hold ourselves acccountable to our own expectations, every product we sell is our name and reputation on the line.  Our family, our children, our financial future, this is the passion that drives us.  I'll stop here, I believe I am rambling...

Anyway, back to this cake - Magnolias are sooo exquisitely beautiful.  I love them.  I love making them also, but they are (in my opinion) one of the most challenging flowers to make.  I am in no way a traditional baker or cake decorator, so a large part of the challenge lies in making sugar flowers and cakes that are 100% edible.  I do not, nor have I ever used floral wire, or floral tape in decorating my cakes.  The idea of children pulling a petal or flower off of a cake always enters my mind.  I'm a pediatric nurse, if I haven't mentioned that in any previous posts.  So safety always concerns me and anyway, cake and wires.... Just doesn't feel right. (I'm sure I just offended a professional cake decorator somewhere - if so, I apologize...)

I especially loved the topper we made for this cake.  The young bride and groom requested their initials painted into one of the flower toppers.  A brilliant and elegant idea.  Here is a picture of the top portion of the cake:

                                                  Congratulations Elizabeth and Steven!!
                                             We wish you a lifetime of joy and happiness!

First Wedding of October 2012

Congratulations to Casey and Jeremy! Our first October 2012 Wedding! Saturday, October 6th, 2012 was a huge milestone for Bliss-fullness because this was the first wedding cake baked and decorated out of our new bakery and not our home kitchen!! I adore all of our weddings and brides, but this particular wedding has been engraved in the history of Bliss-fullness!

Casey and Jeremy - Thanks for allowing us the honor of making your wedding cake!! Thanks also to Tanganyika and of course, our beautiful friends at the Flower Factory!!

 

 

 

Love and Sleep

Sometimes I feel like I must have chronic fatigue syndrome, but then I realize that my body and mind take a couple of days to recover from all of the work and lack of sleep that I get.  I was fortunate enough to sneak in a power nap today - I know it sounds insane, sleeping on the job, but I really needed it.  I felt so much better, albeit with a red bull in one hand and a coffee in the other, but hey, whatever it takes, right? 

Tommorrow I will be preparing a cake for a beautiful young couple and I am super excited about it!  I love weddings! Love and romance, friends, family, the union of two hearts, and new beginnings.  And the fall is such a great season for weddings.  My husband and I were married in September and the weather was gorgeous! So far this month has been quite beautiful too. 

Congratulations to the bride and groom of our first October 2012 wedding!!

I thought I would share some pictures from our wedding too! 

This is a picture of my husband and I in Dallas.  We stayed at a beautiful historic hotel that for the life of me I can't remember the name!  I will post it when it comes to me...

Our first dance and below, Johnny and I smiling at the camera.

 

Okay, so I googled it - The Adolphus Hotel in Dallas Texas.  If you ever get the chance to visit, you must check it out!

 

 

Another all-nighter...

Another all-nighter tonight...

It is almost 1:00 am and as I sit here in the office, with my pate choux baking in the convection oven, my croissants awaiting their 3rd turn, biscotti awaiting a second bake, and my husband snoring in the back, I realize how blessed we are.  Yes, I said blessed. Even though we are sort of 'stuck' in this position, working 24 hour days at times, we are truly fortunate that we are able to do this.

 I thank God everytime a customer walks in our doors, for all the business we get, whether it be for a small order or a large event, like tomorrow.  We knew what we were getting into when we decided to open a retail front, we were aware that there would be many sleepless nights in the beginning, and we have been well aware that this month, this wonderful October, is going to be CRAZY!  As in weddings every weekend, huge catering orders, business events, and many many custom cakes crazy.  (in a good way, of coarse, the busier we are, the better our business grows.)

So yes, I am happy, over-joyed, tired, and baking all at once. One of these days, we will be able to hire staff and actually have a decent work/life balance.  But until then, we will tough it out.  Whatever it takes.

And by the way, my husband isn't really snoring, but he is sleeping.  Definitely not fair.