Its Lions Tigers and Betty White?

Yes, I it has been a while but not too long this time. As many of you know Mendy decided to take on a little more these days and give back to the future Pastry chefs and started teaching cake decorating classes at Le Cordon Bleu.
Well guess what? They (who is really they?) I guess in this case the PR people at the LA Zoo, asked the school to make a very special cake for Betty's (5th or 6th) 90th birthday party at the Los Angeles Zoo and the school asked Mendy to lead the team!

Well I tell you what, this cake is going to be hard to beat! I know, I have seen it-its awesome! I am sure Betty White will think the same, she is an avid animal lover and sits on the board for the Los Angles Zoo. Well the project started about a 1 month ago-sketch after sketch and finally a design everybody thought suitable for the event.
This was a school project, Chef Mendy Pound led the design team that consisted of students who contributed with the decoration. All of the students came in between, before, and after classes donating there time to help in making, painting and sculpting the elements for Betty Whites Cake. Here are the ROCKSTARS pictured!

The cake had to feed over 1000 people so this task was left to another talented instructor Chef Paul Rocque -he volunteered his students. And boy did they come through!

The whole team came through, the result was the cake pictured.

Thanks for reading-
Gabriel

Pasadena Magazine

Many of you may have already heard but then again some of you may not have-Mendy has been teaching cake decorating classes at Le Cordon Blue as well as making awesome cakes such as the one featured in this months (January 2012) Pasadena Magazine-hot off the presses.

Cakes by the Pound was approached by Pasadena Magazine to design a different style of cake for their January Issue, one that would "flirt" with the imagination yet have style.

Mendy came up with what you see pictured. She implemented blown sugar decorations, hand paintings finished off with gold painted accents (all edible) -even the stand is edible! Just kidding, its made of wood, that would hurt your teeth if anybody tried to eat that, or you would get splinters in your gums.

Back to the cake - The cake flavors are.....oh wait buy the magazine to check it out.

Thanks for reading

Gabriel 

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