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