I do over

I failed Cakes by the Pound this week-On Sunday (Funday) Mendy and the bakery appeared in a segment on WeTV's new show called I Do Over.
I did mention the show on a blog way back when we first shot the segment but that was so long ago!  I labeled the blog Flash Back Cake. The reason it was labeled flash back cake is because it was a Do Over cake and anybody doing any wedding over, its gonna be a flashback. I have the cake pictured (again) on the left, for those who did didnt get a chance to scope it out..
Any hoot check out the episode, you can see Mendy do what she does well and get a little looksie at the bakery!
Thanks for reading and enjoy the show.
Gabriel

http://www.wetv.com/i-do-over/videos/i-do-over-striptease-wedding-full-episode

Dia de los Muertos

Recently in the last few months some people may have noticed that we no longer have our Cake studio on Valley Blvd. We have been receiving emails asking us where we have moved too-no fear I am currently in search of a new bigger building. We apparently out grew our first location and decided to make the move. It isn't as easy as it looks finding that perfect spot.
Any hoot, the lack of space and not having a space to work out of was driving Mendy crazy-she needs to make cakes. Mendy decided to expedite one of her career goals and has begun teaching cake decorating classes on a limited bases at The Le Cordon Blue in Pasadena. 
Her position has allowed her to keep her passion alive as well as pass on her knowledge to the next generation of cake decorators. 
Fear not brides to be or special event coordinators, Mendy is still taking on a limited amount of orders. 
We are still searching for our building and seem to have a few possible prospects but until then Mendy will continue teaching what she does best as well as pumping out AWESOME cakes such as this one she did with her fellow instructors Chef Missy Chapman, and Chef Fausz for Zona Rosa Caffe at the Pasadena Play House 
 Mendy spent quite a bit of hours carving out the coffin as well as the skull for the show piece. The coffin and the skull was then covered with fondant, yes all the decorations are edible. After they were covered the best part began-decorating the skull. She hand painted some pretty cool designs on the skull... then fondant patterns to give the skull texture. 
They finished off the skull decoration with some roses and butterflies made by her fellow Chef Missy Chapman, my contribution? I painted the teeth gold and painted the roses with edible gold-yes I stayed in between the lines.
Now for the coffin...I think it was the coolest thing when Mendy started to paint on a wood grain texture-If I would have known how cool it looked I would have had her paint our walls at home.The coffin was finished off with some iron handles made of fondant and some edible laced draped around the top of the coffin.  

Another one of Mendy's co-workers Chef Fausz skillfully and meticulously decorated 2 sugar skulls with royal icing toping off the sugar piece. The finished product is pictured above with Mendy and Missy-Chef Fausz was still in class-JK

Thanks for reading!
Gabriel Vidauri 

The Millionaire Matchmaker Season 3

The Millionaire Matchmaker Season 3 - Wedding Cake Tasting - Video - Bravo TV Official Site

I found this video on the BravoTV site, I thought you might all enjoy Mendy with Miss Patty Stanger. This was done a few years back, or maybe it was last year. Any hoot enjoy the video. If you follow the show Millionaire Matchmaker, you know that the wedding was called off. O'well to bad, maybe we can make a break up cake for Patty! Maybe-
Thanks for reading or in this case watching-
Gabriel

Ruffles have Ridges

The best thing about being part of Cakes by the Pound is to watch the transformation of ideas and elements into a sketch and then into a pretty fricken awesome cake and best of all is the final result and a very happy bride. 

The bride and groom, Karen and John, came in with their Wedding Planner Kelly Lee Gin of Picture Perfect Events . The wedding was held at the Pasadena Langham 

The design of the cake was not yet decided on. After the tasting was done, the creative gears started to turn and ideas tossed around. Pencil and paper met, sketches, emails and phone calls exchanged the result a cake design inspired by the brides dress!! 
Karen (the bride) wanted to surprise John (the groom) with the cake design. The cake had many elements such as beaded boarders, flower appliqués, sugar flowers, a custom sugar mold of an antique   pendant-all hand painted, but the highlight of the cake were the hand made ruffles. Each ruffle was personally made and applied by Mendy. If you take a close look you can see the attention to detail as well as the care taken in applying them. Come to think about it, the patience Mendy displayed in applying each ruffle. 
In my opinion I think the cake came out awesome, I love all the elements as well as how the design allowed each of them to flow. I hope you enjoy the picture of the cake.

Thank you for reading 
Gabriel Vidauri



“A man in love mistakes a pimple for a dimple.”

What does the title have to do with this cake? Probably nothing except that it is a Japanese proverb and the wedding cake pictured has Kokeshi dolls. What are Kokeshi dolls? Well that is what we asked when Gregg and Ariane approached Cakes by the Pound (Mendy) for a wedding cake. 

Since our starting point for the design were the Kokeshi dolls, we had to find out what they were-Kokeshi dolls originate from the Tohoku region of Northern Japan, an area well-known for its onsen (hot spring) resorts. These handmade wooden dolls are thought to date back to the early 19th century when kijiya (woodworkers), accustomed to making bowls and trays, began using their woodworking skills and lathes to make simple dolls to sell as toys and souvenirs to the onsen visitors. The dolls may originally have had a spiritual significance with the kokeshi representing a wish for a healthy child-now you know.

The cake design was a collaboration between the couple and Mendy. The design was started out with just the characters or as we call it in Japan Kokeshi dolls. So we started from the top and worked our way down. Emails were exchanged and sketches were drawn. The result is what you see below. 

Mendy made the Kokeshi dolls from modeling chocolate and hand painted the expression on the dolls with coco paint. The cake also has carefully positioned hand painted sugar flowers. 

Besides making a decision on the cake design Gregg and Ariane also had to decide on the flavors. They ended up choosing wisely-Red Velvet with Godiva white chocolate buttercream and Chocolate Blackout with Valrhona crunchy pearls and Swiss Buttercream. 
The wedding was held at the Surf and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach. Which I thought was pretty cool for a wedding or just to have a drink near the beach.   
We would also like to thank our friends Fleuretica for making this happen. Thanks Euri and Kendra!                                                                                                                                                           

Thank you for reading and my apologies for the hiatus,
Gabriel Vidauri


Working Mans Dessert


We all know that Mendy can make pretty awesome wedding cakes but I always forget how awesome her "specialty" cakes are.  I know she enjoys making specialty cakes, especially when the client gives her creative freedom. So away she went!  This cake was made for Sanz Construction.
She ended up creating this cake: I am sure you guessed it, yep its a workman's tool bag (arent you clever). 

All the tools, pencils, paper and other stuff are all edible and made out of sugar!
Yeah I am proud of her, now only if she would let me sample more of her cakes. 
The tool bag cake is Cakes by the Pound's traditional Old Fashion Red Velvet (colored with red beets instead of food coloring-just like they used to make it in the south), with Godiva white chocolate cream cheese buttercream. 
Thanks for reading
Gabriel Vidauri

Flash Back Cake

These days Mendy has been very busy keeping up with this years wedding season. I guess the economy is doing better, or perhaps more people are cheating on their New Years resolution and slipping on their diets, therefore wanting more cake! Ok its a stretch I know-
There are new pictures on the way from some of Mendy's latest cakes, I just have to locate the drive-hhmm.... not good.
Any how, I bring to you Cakes by the Pound's latest honor. Pictured is a cake Mendy for Wetv's new show, I Do Over with host Diane Valentine . The cake is a interpretation of the 80's meets the new generation. What does that mean? Watch the show!

The show was so much fun to do! Mendy hates being on TV and hates me bragging about it but I write the blogs lol.  The production came by arranged this and arranged that, lit up the shop and bam! They filmed a segment for one of there episodes. Cameras and lights where everywhere. I hid in the back!
Mendy had such a good time with Diane Valentine and her crew she forgot it was for TV. She almost walked away with the sound guys microphone-lol 

Now for the cake-Mendys creation was a 5 tiered Mix of bling and sugar hydrangeas and blood red roses (like the ones we showed up with at the prom in the 80's-I should know).  Each layer also had some handmade and painted gold sugar tiles as well as sugar broaches  and sugar poured jewels. Just enough bling to bring you back to the 80's but without all the hairspray.  

Now for the inside of the cake. There are 5 tiers and I am not sure how they were divided but bare with me. The cake consisted of a vanilla butter cake, with fresh berries tucked in between each layer, covered with a  Godiva white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and MY favorite, chocolate blackout cake with Dark Valrhona chocolate ganache and Valrhona crunchy pearls covered with Godiva white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.

On another note I would like to give a shout out to our friends at the Whole Foods Market on Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, they are always good for cake ideas and inspirations. Thanks guys!
Thank you for reading!
Gabriel Vidauri

Inside Weddings Summer 2011

Summer edition? Really what happen to spring? Right I may have spent my spring days and nights assisting Miss Mendy Pound make all of her fabulous wedding cakes for all the spring weddings-Well spring is gone and here comes summer and here comes the summer issue of Inside Weddings Magazine. 
 
Cakes by the Pound by Mendy K. Pound was very fortunate and honored to be mentioned in a featured wedding done by the magazine-Ting Sung and Che Wang wedding story. The wedding was spectacular. It was held at what was once known as the Pasadena Ritz Carlton and now The Langham Huntington Hotel. 

Now for the cake, It looks awesome! lol my opinion of course and Mendy would just die if she new how I brag about her cakes, so lets keep it on the down low. 
All the decorations on the cake are edible, we can start on what took the most time-the ruffles. Mendy did each ruffle by hand and meticulously made and put each ruffle down herself, I offered to help but all I tried to do is eat the cake-o well
The bottom 2 tiers were my favorite, chocolate blackout with Valrhona crunchy pearls and a whole lot of chocolate love inside. The top tiers were Old fashion red velvet with Godiva white chocolate cream cheese buttercream.  
The cake design was motivated by an old victorian theme and a mix of everybody's favorite vampire flick-Twilight.





Now I just need to explain to Mendy all of the extra Magazines I bought.

White Hot Winter Cake

So first of all, I know its been a while since I have blogged about one of Mendy's cakes. She has been making them because I have been eating the scraps. (My apologies in the lack of attention to the blog-dont tell Mendy, ssshh)
Now lets talk cake! From Mendy's and her clients (Mr Philip and Fiona) mind to this blog! I would like to share this Winter Wonderland Cake.
First the stuff that makes you go hhmmm, the cake or as I like to call it-edible art was a combination of my FAVORITE chocolate blackout cake with Valhrona crunchy pearls and Mendy's in house European buttercream-(tasty) and her traditional Old fashion Red Velvet cake, as you all know and some may not, Mendy makes her Red Velvet with fresh organic beets, and no food coloring, each layer is smothered with her in house Godiva White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream. Yes it is good.
The cake was decorated with a thin layer of white chocolate fondant. The first layer was shaped like a carved pillow for Mr. Jack Frost's head. Mendy hand rolled the quilted pattern and put individual sugar pearls, then  surrounded each layer with "ice" looking sugar, then to give it some pizzaz she made these cool looking "winter" spiky flowers and some dark modeling chocolate branches....but wait there is more..


Since it was a winter theme, she decided to make some sugar icicles from poured sugar. Since the sugar icicles were very fragile so she had to put them on at the wedding. Yeah I was stressing because of time but Mendy-cool as her cake looked.
She carefully layered them to give them a melting affect the result? A super chilling white hot Winter Wonderland Cake!

With the help of the always creative and super awesome florist Fleuretica and the super duper schedule juggler and party planner extraordinaire Kelley from Picture Perfect Events this was the end result-pretty cool in my opinion!

Thank you for reading
Gabriel 

The rabbit hole

As some of you may know and some may not Mendy and I got married this last December. Well for our honeymoon Mendy wanted to revisit the place that had a huge influence on her career-Austria and Germany, the lands of AWESOME desserts! Well I agreed to go because it was also the land of AWESOME beer, but this blog isnt about beer now is it?

Well we visited every single place that Mendy wanted to "sample" desserts or places she passed on her way to work when she was learning her skills. We visited almost every dessert place in Germany and Austria.
One place Demel, which is well known throughout Europe founded in 1786, was a place we frequented often while in Vienna-well about 10 lbs later and at the end of our honeymoon, we went for a last visit.






We had our usual dinner which consisted of 3 pastries each and 3 beers for me, however this time instead of rolling away stuffed with a bunch of yummy stuff that I could not even begin to pronounce the names we decided to explore the facilities. With a little bit of liquid courage I decided to venture into an off limits area, pop the door open and bam, a secret room closed to the general public but not today! It was open for me and my new bride!

It was a small wooden door with a spiral metal stairway leading down to a secret room, just like Alice in Wonderland. It was a room filled with a blue haired woman, an oversize bunny rabbit, a big egg, some upside down cakes or person of some sort and all made of sugar! My apology for not being able to describe what each was made of-Mendy knows-but hey I just eat the cake.
Yeah sounds pretty amazing-I thought so and so did Mendy!
As soon as Mendy took a peek she just went full bore down the stairwell ignoring the do not enter sign, just like Alice down the ole rabbit hole!

Steamed Punked

Ok, yes I KNOW I KNOW, long time and opening up with a repeat? Well not really, this is an update. Mendy made this cake for Tori and Dean's Story Book Weddings. The show aired last night on Oxygen, I am glad I did not do my hair because they didnt show us delivering the cake-but I am ok with that-Mendy has the looks.
Well here is a screen grab of Tori and Dean with Mendy's AWESOME steam punk cake-I will post another recent cake soon.......I promise!
Thank you for reading!


Hello? cricket cricket? Anybody? Its been a while and my apologies for my long absence. But lets just get right into the good stuff, yes?
I what I am going to show you is a sneak peak of a cake Mendy made for Miss Tori Spelling. She has a new show out! Who would have figured? Mendy (Cakes by the Pound) was contacted by the production company of the show to come up with a steam punk design, and Mendy's favorite type of cake is one that she is given creative freedom.
Well then the madness began, the pencil sharpener was working on overload as Mendy started on one of many designs until she was happy with the final one.
Mendy even made the robotic bride and groom topper to match-I thought it was all pretty cool and I am sure Tori Spelling/couple and production company were happy.
Thank you for reading-
Gabriel Vidauri

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Cake

What does a parrot handled umbrella, floral print tapestry bag and a spinning carousel have in common?
Nothing except that Mendy implemented all of these elements to create a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious cake!
We got a call from our friend at Cal-tech's Atheneum inquiring about a last minute cake order for one of their members.  Their daughter was turning 4.
Well the birthday girl loves Mary Poppins and everything Mary Poppins. So a Mary Poppins Cake is what Mendy made for her.
Talk on the street is that Mary Poppins herself showed up at the party and even led a kite flying contest.
I was a bit shocked when I walked into the bakery and caught Mendy watching Mary Poppins-she said she was doing research-her research lasted the whole show!
After her research Mendy came up with this design..



The cake was to have Mary Poppins floral tapestry bag-edible, her fancy parrot handled umbrella (non-speaking-phew) penguins, spoonful of sugar, as well as other elements and oh yes a carousel-
I was even more shocked when she told me she promised the client that the carousel would spin-great, more time in the wood shop for me.

Well Mendy made a fantastic cake-I know I know some of you as we do often wonder, it looks good but how does it taste? Well I would bet money that her cakes are pretty Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I am sure those of you who have had her cakes can vouch for me. Ingredients are the key!
So now for the cake-the cake was our Old Fashion Natural Red Velvet Cake (why is it natural? Pureed Beets for the color) layered with  Godiva white chocolate cream cheese butter cream.
The other tiers were my favorite-Chocolate Blackout cake. Each tier has 4 layers of cake filled with dark chocolate ganache, white chocolate swiss buttercream sprinkled with Valrhona crunchy pearls.
All of this cake talk is making me crave some cake! I wonder if Mendy has any cupcakes left from her 2500 cupcake order from last week?
Thanks for reading
Gabriel

When Pound meets Vidauri

This past year we had a very special wedding to prepare for, it was probably Mendy's biggest and most important wedding. It was also a destination wedding, on a small farm in Northern Florida It was her wedding! TO ME!
Now, being in the wedding industry we know how these things can get crazy. We both didn't want to get caught up in the hype and both agreed we wanted to get married some place special, a place that had a special meaning to us-not a hall or a rented church, we chose her family farm-where I proposed. 
Now the guest list, so many people, who to invite? We sat down, each wrote down our list and realized it was longer than we both anticipated. Luckily we both remembered how frazzled some of our brides are in trying to please everybody and how the whole meaning of getting married gets blown out of porportion becoming more of a big party for everybody else-we tossed the list away and agreed-immediate family only. We both were torn by the decision but realized we wanted a small intimate wedding-it worked.
Well Mendy insisted on making the cake, her mother insisted on making the food, and her father insisted on me showing up. Well the food was great, the cake was awesome and yes I did show up. So here is a small taste of some of the pictures-These were taken by Amber, one of our photographers from Smitten Photos. The pictures I took have yet to be approved by Mendy- :0/ but here is a link from the fantastic photographers who documented our wedding-Amber Humphries and her crew from Smitten Photos you can see some pictures of the wedding and Mendy's AWESOME CAKE!
Thank you smitten!!
Gabriel


Big Red to the rescue!

Big red was smokin red hot from all the mixing and whipping in the shop today. She busted out 2000 plus cupcakes and is still kicking!









We did 2000 cupcakes for E Network's 10th anniversary a few years back and we were happy to be asked again. My best friend Tracy was visiting from Tuscon who also has a passion for baking....we will put that passion to the test, ha.


Nothing fixes a long day of baking like a Humbolt fog salad and a glass of vino! Thank you for dinner Gabriel!! :)
- Mendy

My Fair wedding with David Tutera










Well the show aired yesterday and I thought Mendy did great. We are both pleased on how much air time we got-LUCKY US! We loved the fact the show was able to air the tasting.

Mendy always puts a lot of effort into all of her tastings. I know because I always get to make the coffee. Whoopie! Unfortunately I do not make coffee very well, ask poor David Tutera-after I collected his cup I found a bunch of coffee grinds in it-I told him it was a special Russian blend-he didn't believe me :0/
I noticed one thing missing from the show...the big payoff!

For us anyway. They never showed the cake-well they did show the back of the cake but not the front and the front is where all the action is.
    
 They did not show the hand painted tier made to look like a clock, the talking flowers (they really dont talk but have faces on them-lol) or the drink me bottle. Fortunately Mendy had enough sense to take a picture of the cake-so here it is in all of its glory and a few of some of the smaller cakes too..

Thank you for reading-
Gabriel

Cakes by the Pound + David Tutera=My Fair Wedding this Saturday!

When we were asked to do "My Fair Wedding with David Tutera" we were very excited. Why not the last experience with them was so much fun and such a breeze, everybody involved was a hoot. The cake came out amazing and matched the setting perfectly. Thanks in part to Mendy and David's collaboration on the cake design.
This time it would be a little more involved-the production company wanted to film a segment of My Fair Wedding in our little pastry world-our shop. David and the whole crew were going to be in our shop, lighting, setting up and directing. 
Luckily I was not pretty enough to be on camera, they only wanted Mendy-who wouldn't? Many of you who know Mendy know that she HATES to be on camera, unfortunately for her she looks good on camera! HA! (yes my opinion)
The cake design was pretty frickin cool, the theme  (Alice in Wonderland) was pretty frickin cool, the whole event was pretty frickin cool. Mendy only had a limited amount of time make the cake, not only one but....Oh I dont think I can say-you will have to watch this weekend on the WE network. 
It airs Sunday the 16th at 9:00 p.m.
All and all the experience was fantastic and like always David Tutera and his team were amazing and made Mendy feel 100% comfortable. A huge thank you to David and his team from me! For a sneak peek you can follow the link. http://www.wetv.com/my-fair-wedding/episodes/alice-in-wonderland

Thank you for reading-
Gabriel