For the Love of Cake! by Garry & Ana Parzych: May 2013

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Inspiration for a Desert-Themed Wedding Cake - Flying a Wedding Cake from NYC to Tucson, Arizona

We are working on a very special cake for a very special bride who is getting married in Tucson this weekend...the lovely Anja Winikka and her groom-to-be, Ben Bullington!! Having worked with Anja, the online site editor of The Knot, for many years, we know that few can surpass Anja in her wealth of experience and insight.

We're very excited to be designing Anja's and Ben's wedding cake and personally flying with it from New York City to Phoenix, and then driving it to their reception in Tucson, Arizona! Here is a peek of from where we drew our inspiration. Stay updated with our cake journey on our Facebook and Twitter

We're very excited to be working with Ara Farnan from Rock Paper Scissors Events, who is designing the whole event, and Ceci New York, who designed beautiful artwork for the invitations based on the gorgeous Tucson landscape, with rich and vibrant colors against the desert neutrals and blue skies.

Besides the rich colors of the Arizona desert and stunning oranges, pinks, and greens of the desert flowers, we were inspired by Anja's unique engagement ring, and used its details in our custom wedding cake design.

Ana's sketch for Anja's custom wedding cake

Around the base of each tier of the cake, you can see the flower detail of Anja's engagement ring band, as well as the unique desert flowers that decorate the five-tiered custom design. We cannot wait to share the final result with you all on Saturday! Don't forget to stay updated with Anja's cake transformation from inspiration to reality on our Facebook and Twitter!

For more details on Anja's wedding, visit Anja's blog, here

Art-Themed NY Bat Mitzvah Cake

We had so much fun designing Jacoby Sayre's Bat Mitzvah cake! Her playful artist-themed reception inspired us to create a five-tiered vanilla cake with chocolate fondant, which we "splatter-painted" with multi-colored icing, a la Jackson Pollock. The top tier boasted a gum-paste painter's palate with brushes and fondant paint colors, which spilled down the cake tiers. The base of the cake was decorated with Jacoby's name, and pink and orange flowers, all in the same style and font as the invitation and celebration details.

We tailored our original design to include colorful glittered cupcakes along the base of the cake to hold the candles for the traditional candle lighting ceremony.

We had so much fun creating the splatter-painted look of Jacoby's cake, it was a great way to add color and playfulness to the cake. The splatter-paint look was used throughout the event design, on the table and couch linens, and even on the dance floor. Ana always designs a cake thinking that it's going to be the centerpiece of the event, and this cake fit in perfectly.

The bright colors decorating the outside of Jacoby's cake didn't stop on the outside! We created six layers of multicolored vanilla cake with vanilla filling. It was a fun change to use a lot of color throughout each element of the cake.

We loved the whimsical event design, including the decorated ladders and mannequins, the splatter paint decals on the floor, and the table centerpieces made up of fresh flowers, painter's palates, easels, and bottles of paint. There was not one part of the ballroom that was not filled with bright paint splatters, art, and fun!

We drew inspiration from the flowers on the invitation and menu, and the bright primary colors of the art theme. The menus, invitation, and party favors of Reed Cohen Papers and Events offered us whimsical details and the font we used for Jacoby's name on the cake base.

Invitation by Reed Cohen (on a black backing)

Jacoby's invitation was printed on translucent plexiglass, which is becoming a modern alternative to paper invites. We recreated the flowers featured on the invitation in fondant on the base of the cake, and used the pink and orange color scheme in elements of the cake decoration.