Cakes for a Cause

My friend Carrie asked me this summer if I would be willing to practice up on my cake making skills by making a cake for Scarlet Cord's fund raising event. I was happy to be able to help out in this way, and to take on the challenge of creating a cake that fit the style and theme of their organization.

Scarlet Cord is a non-profit organization serving women on Portland's Eastside streets that find themselves homeless, in poverty, alone, sex trafficked, drug addicted, or just in need of a friend and warm meal on a Friday night. Their first ever fundraiser included a partnership with a budding fashion designer to create an evening of fashion, silent auctioning, music, and guest speakers. They called this event The White Event and I brainstormed as to how I could create a cake that would embody this theme of "whiteness".

The theme of "white" was intentionally chosen to represent the sense of purity the organization intends to bestow by their actions on these women who at times have been used, abused and feel emotionally damaged. So in thinking about making a cake, my mind turned of course to the symbolism of a wedding dress; clean, white, pure, beautiful and representative of starting fresh in a new relationship.

As I brainstormed about how to design this cake, I knew I didn't want this cake to look like an obvious wedding cake, with the bride and groom cake toppers and all. Instead I thought about making the entire cake look like a wedding dress, with pearls and tool and satin ribbons and all. Then of course I would add a scarlet cord to finish off the "dress". Here are some pictures of the cake building process and the final product.

If you or someone you know has an upcoming event with a need for a specialty cake, they can contact me on my blog profile to discuss cake design and pricing . I'd be glad to help!

Intro to Wedding Cakes

Last summer my friend was planning a wedding on a tight budget. She needed a cake and I thought, I like to make cakes, why not give it a try. So I watched Ace of Cakes and I watched youtube videos on applying fondant icing and I spent a few hours at the cake supply store picking the saleswoman's brain.

I knew I would need to do a few practice rounds of cake making and throughout the early summer I arrived at various potlucks with different varieties of vanilla cake in one hand or lemon in the other. I found very willing tastetesters available to give helpful feedback. Here are a few of my first trial cakes:














Several things went wrong with my first cakes; runny icing, cracking fondant, nearly burnt edges, but with each cake I learned more about what to or not to do.

I knew I'd need to make larger cakes for the final wedding cake and be able to support them into a three tier formation. This had me a bit nervous. I studied how to insert dowel rods so that the cakes were able to support the weight of the fondant iced cakes. I was making a three-tiered square cake with each layer measuring, 12", 9" and 6". I learned that cake making calls for a bit of structural engineering skill as well as culinary artistry.



My kitchen and dining room were transformed into a cake building stage during the last week of July 2009 before the August 1st wedding. This also happened to be the week of 100+ temperatures, which helped to keep the fondant pliable and me running outside to run my hair under a hose to cool down every half hour.



Nonetheless, I built the cakes at the wedding site and with the addition of several purple orchids,


they had a lovely wedding cake.

And how did the cake taste? Well, I know many came back for seconds.



If you know of someone who needs an inexpensive cake this summer or fall, I am available to make cakes at rates cheaper than your average bakery because I'm still working to improve my cake baking skills. To discuss pricing on your particular wedding cake, please email at the contact info. on this site. I am able to do fondant or butter cream frosted cakes. We can discuss the possibility of decorations including fondant sculpture designs, icing designs, flowers, ribbon or cake toppers.