Sunday, March 20, 2011

Sunday Sweets to Put a Spring in Your Step

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Today is the first day of Spring! Time to celebrate all the verdant vivaciousness of the season with a charming cornucopia of fabulous flowers!


Meaning lots of daisies.

Submitted by Katrina S. and made by Too Nice to Slice

Haha! Those really *are* daisies. Gotcha.


And here's a sweet spring shower of miniature daisies:


Yellow and white are so cheerful and springy together, don't you think?


For this next one you might wonder why I'm showing you a shelf full of potted flowers...


...but believe it or not, those pots are cake, and the flowers are handmade from sugarpaste.


Of course, real flowers can be equally Sweet. Here's one of my favorites:

Baker unknown - anyone recognize it?

I love the colors! And that harlequin pattern is one of the smoothest I've ever seen.


And here's one of the best support columns I've ever seen:

Submitted by Promise W.; made by Sugarland

Gorgeous! I would guess it's made from gumpaste, so you could display it as a memento afterward. I love pieces like that; as a baker, it makes you feel your work isn't completely temporary.

[Update: Eagle-eyed reader Jim A. just pointed out the column is actually this resin cake stand. Now I feel silly. It's still a gorgeous cake, though!]



This one reminds me of ivory cameos:


The soft colors are dreeeamy.

This one, too, if you have topsy-turvy dreams:

Sub'd by Vanessa M., made by Ron Ben-Israel (?)

Or, if you're feeling a little blue:

Sub'd by Lauren S., made by Continental Pastries

Imagine the time it took to make each of those little flowers! And I love the textured icing here; sometimes the smoothness of fondant is just a little too modern.


And finally, let's go out with a bang.


Meaning more daisies.


WANT.

I mean, I know this was for a pair of one-year-olds, but a thirty-something can have one, too, right?

Right?



Have a Sweet to nominate? Then send it to Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com.

Anonymous said...

OMG those are the cheeriest cakes i've ever seen :)

Meghan said...

Love the one with the support column you could keep. I made gumpaste calla lilies for a cake once and my MIL kept them. She still has them 2 years later!

Micalah said...

Gorgeous! The flowers look so real! So happy spring is finally here!

Sarah said...

The calendar lies. I still have like two feet of snow in my front yard. At least these cakes cheered me up! As long as I don't go outside, it's Spring in my mind.

Andrea L. Cole said...

I love Daisies!!!

Ellen said...

Wow!

The "cameo" strikes me as the prettiest -- subtle, classy, and I love lily of the valley.

And those plants in pots are phenomenally realistic.

Thanks, as ever, for sharing these with us.


wv - aught.

I aught to be cleaning the hause, but I thaught I'd rather give a thauraugh look at Cake Wrecks!

Jamie said...

My dad and I still have the gumpaste flower bouquets off of his wedding cake 13 years ago. Him for sentimental reasons, me for cake decorating inspiration.

vldecker said...

Of course you can have that last cake Jen, just put a 2 in front of the 1 ;) I'm in love with the corset type tier on the white and green topsy turvy one.

Anonymous said...

The one with the little bluish flowers that you said you liked the texture of the icing....take another look. That is piping.

John Dash said...

That "Wedgewood" green cake with fern fronds and lilies-of-the-valley has gotta be today's Best of Show.

Jabby said...

I want that last cake too! If you take the one off the top, no one will ever know. Hehehe

KB said...

Wow. Love them ALL.

mags said...

The yellow daisy cake is a picture of Martha Stewart's cake. The exact same one on her web site and book .

Muria said...

It's probably a good thing I'm already married, or I would be a demanding bride in the cake department. Gorgeous cakes! I can't decide which one I like best.

And loved the daisy reference!

Muria said...

mags, if you look at Martha's website, it attributes the cake to Gail Watson. It is the same cake, but it's attributed correctly here.
Since I don't frequent Martha Stewart's website, I'm glad to be able to appreciate it here. :)

Christine said...

Beautiful! Thw Wedgewood effect cake is stunning

Daisy said...

Today's Sweets are the perfect antidote to that (not-really-a-wreck) Gerber baby cake!!! I too SOOOO WANT those daisy cakes for my next birthday--and I'm shamelessly in my forties!--but hey, after all, my name is also Daisy! (Thanks for the pretty name, mom!)

Unknown said...

I love how the yellow one does such a good job of reducing the number of daises as it goes down, giving it a cascade effect and really making the daises focal points instead of a dump'o'flowers. One of the rarest skills in any craft is the ability to know when to stop, and that decorator has that down. Bravo.

And yes, a 30-something can want. :)

Anonymous said...

Ahem!!
Gerbera and Margerites..not realy...proper Daisy is Bellis perrenis, the common european daisy a perenial grassland plant growing from a rhizome with a rossette of flat rounded leaves.
The Gerbera family of flowering plants(there is no such thing as a gerber)are a member of the sunflower family.
Marguerite's or ox-eye daisies are members of the chrysanthemum family.
but the cakes are lovely, (apart from the topsy turvey thing thats just grotesque..)
I sugest you go here for plant info

https://www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/

Annette said...

OMG those cake pots and sugarpaste flowers are incredble! Now I want to try that.... wonder if I could that with cupcakes...

Mary said...

WOW! All those cakes are amazing, but I'm especially in awe of the "flowerpots." So realistic! And the topsy-turvy cake is to die for!!

Clara said...

All right! I'm a Clara, and my name never shows up on anything--but now I get a daisy cake!

WV: Mative--With spring around the corner, the rabbits are particularly mative.

Anonymous said...

O M G.

That is all.

Catstina said...

Gorgeous Sunday Sweets cakes!! This is one of my favorites! The flower pots are amazing!! Great post!

mickeyp415 said...

our weather not as spring-y, so those cheerful cakes much appreciated! good stuff, especially fond of the the cake with all the mini daisies.

Unknown said...

Absolutely amazing.
Love them all!

Amy said...

I just love that last one! I don't think I could cut in to it!

Allison said...

I can't get over those potted flowers. I mean, those cakes that look like potted flowers. WOW.

And you're totally right about yellow and white. I don't even like yellow that much, but it's so alive and cheery!

Lara said...

WOW. So lovely. The flower pots were stunningly real, but I think my favorite is the muted green and ivory. Or the one with the little blue flowers. Seems like such a sin to eat them.

Anonymous said...

The topsy turvey cake belongs to Scott Clark Woolley.

Jenn said...

I don't know about anyone else, but I want to see more of the blue and white cake behind the flower pots!!!

Momma Kelli said...

Can I just say that I look forward to the Sunday Sweets post EVERY week? These are just beautiful & make me forget the rainy craziness going on outside. Yay for spring, yay for Sunday Sweets & Cake Wrecks!

Mike Hathaway said...

These are simply amazing!

Anonymous said...

Working in a florist for many years, I have to say I LOVE these photos! Would I refer you to a site for you spelled a flower wrong? Probably not.... if you were a famous floral designer I would understand....

Keep us the great work! Have a happy Sunday and lets hope that the Epcot level doesnt go to orange! I think we are still recovering from the King Cake episode! :)

mn_me said...

That soft green "wedgewood" cake is absolutely gorgeous, stunning, awesome, wonderful! Makes me wish I had an occasion to order such a magnificent creation...

Addie

Birdnest Creations said...

Love everyone of these.

RJ Flamingo said...

I would love that last one for *my* birthday - and I'm 54. :-P Just gorgeous!

Unknown said...

The first cake is so cute. I really like the detailing on the icing and the ladybugs...awesome!!

Stephanie said...

These are all beautifully done, but the flowerpot cakes are AMAZING! *round of applause* :)

Maria said...

these are great!!

Mags said...

whoops! Maybe if I had read a little bit more I would have saw that . It's one of my favorites either way.

john (the hubby of Jen) said...

Hi,

Just so we're all clear.

There are a thousand websites which refer to them as Gerber daisies and a thousand that call them Gerbera. From what I understand, the genus is Gerbera, the common name is Gerber and either is fine. I would like to point out two things though.

They were discovered by a guy named Gerber so calling them Gerber daisies seems to make sense.

The genus of a rose is Rosa but everybody calls it a rose.

Now, is this really important enough to get upset over? The world is full of conflict and tragedy and we're arguing over an a.

I don't know.

john

Karen Horne said...

Well said John!
They're all great, but I had to hold in a squee when I saw that last picture. Beautiful cakes!

Karen

Katie Courtney said...

Very impressive!

WendyB said...

The Ron Ben-Israel cake was originally made for my wedding! He liked it so much he did the same cake in a different color scheme...I think it was for a magazine...might have been Martha Stewart's.

Here are two pix of my original cake.
http://wendybrandes.com/blog/2007/08/happy-birthday-husband/

http://wendybrandes.com/blog/2009/09/your-wedding-wish-is-my-command-now-vote/

stuckinmypedals said...

The honeybees on that last one really put it over the top for me. So adorable!

Lauren S. said...

Oh, how wonderful!! Thank you for posting my wedding cake - the white one with cascading blue flowers. That is indeed piping, not texture. :)

And, it was as delicious as it was beautiful!! Thank you, Jen & CW team. You made my day by posting my cake. :)

Anonymous said...

Daisies, daisies, EVERYWHERE!

I like the second cake, with the yellow icing and the little white daisies. It makes me so HAPPY!!!

Daisies= HAPPY FLOWERS!!! LOVE!!!

Just to let you know, this newest post put a BIG SMILE on my face :)

Anonymous said...

elsie
I think the cake with the harlequin base has a floral top. I've got a florist friend who makes cakes with teensy flowers inserted in floral foam. and those flowers look like tiny green chrysanthemums.

Arlene said...

Ahhh such pretty daisies. Makes me wish it felt like Spring here lol. So nice.

Anneke (Mudhooks) said...

So BEAUTIFUL!

Craig said...

I'll be happier that spring is here when the weather gets the memo.

@Anonymous @ 4:04, I second.

@John (thoJ), couldn't agree more. Wreck on!

@diddleymaz, I could comment on the misspelling of 'really', but I forebear to nitpick.

That is all.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous cakes! But it's not textured icing, on the one where you mention it - it's piped scrolly flowers and leaves. Zoom in! Seems a shame to ignore a nice bit of piping work....

the ginabean said...

the Mini Daisies cake may be my favorite of all time. so darling!

Becky Z said...

I LOVE the last cake! I want it for my thirty-something birthday this year! :)

Laura said...

Gorgeous cakes!

Anonymous said...

@Craig.... Booyah! :)

B.J. said...

Love all the gorgeous flowers! Even better looking than real!

I almost hate that the last cakes were wasted on 1 year olds who won't even remember them :P

Daisy said...

John (husband of Jen, noble defender of CW), I could sooo kiss you (out of gratitude!) for putting nitpickers in their place. If this were a horticultural forum, then I could understand posting a correction for those who mistake certain sunflowers for daisies, but since this is a humor forum, let's make it more about humor, less about nitpicking. (And here in the States, I can't imagine wagging my finger at every florist I meet to tell him/her that their display of "Gerbera daisies" is technically not a daisy but a genus of the sunflower family. Whew!)

Carissa said...

the number of times the word "daisy" got mentioned at the beginning of the post, I thought it was John posting again about all the various lovely "daisies" found on cakes.

cakegrl said...

Cool! The bakery unknown green one in the net is me! May or may not be confusion with a recent name change; that cake was made when I went by She Takes The Cake at www.shetakesthecake.com but now it is Nonpareils at www.nonpareilscake.com. This was the original She Takes The Cake in New York. Glad you liked the cake and thrilled to have a second cake posted on your Sunday Sweets!

Isabella said...

Thank for cheering up my Wednesday. Yeah, I know you posted this on Sunday but this made Wednesday happier too.

Becky said...

Hi! The four tier yellow cake with the gorgeous support column was from our local bakery Sugarland, here in Chapel Hill, NC! You can see the post on their facebook page here - https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=433657&id=50370380327#!/photo.php?fbid=10150162699690328&set=a.10150194726460328.433657.50370380327&theater Hope this helps put credit where credit is truly due! :)

Becca said...

Yellow cake with the small daisies is the opposite of my wedding cake! I had a white cake with yellow daisies! :D SO CUTE! I just love it, and I think it is a pretty popular design!