It’s that time of year again! Our third annual holiday series…. The 12 Cakes of Christmas has begun!! Over the next month, we’ll be oohing and aahing over twelve marvelous cake designs, created especially for this series! All brand new, never seen before, and created by some of your favorite bakers! For our theme this year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on our favorite Christmas memories and traditions. As the month of December rolls on, our days often become saturated with to-do lists and holiday tasks. The merriest time of year becomes the craziest time of year! So throughout the hustle and the bustle, I hope you’ll check in and let us provide you a little refuge from the holiday mayhem. Because here on the blog, we will be celebrating the little things that make this season shine bright. Each of our featured bakers was asked to create a cake based on a classic Christmas tradition.
Okay, so it’s officially day two! Our second cake celebrates the season of gift giving and the joy of sharing with others. A present, no matter how big or how small, spreads cheer in hearts of both giver and receiver. Who doesn’t love the excitement of a beautifully wrapped box, treasure awaiting inside? The Second Cake of Christmas was inspired by…. gift wrap!
The second cake in our series comes to us from Stevi Auble, owner of Hey there, Cupcake! located in San Diego. This is Stevi’s second year to wow us, as we fell in love with her winter white cake from last year’s Christmas series. Oh, and we can’t forget her shimmering silver snow cake, from early 2012. Stevi leads the way when it comes to designing cakes with edible papers such as rice paper and wafer paper. And now this trendsetter returns to the blog with a cake that takes wafer paper to a whole new level of gorgeous. From bold black and white details to a block of Emerald green and a touch of metallic gold, this cake captures so many of 2013’s hottest trends. It’s one part edgy to a thousand parts gorgeous, with an innovative style that is both elegant and unique. Stevi’s creation is a perfect little present, all wrapped up for us to enjoy! It’s time for The 2nd Cake of Christmas!
Stevi of Hey there, Cupcake! shares the inspiration behind her design:
“For this cake I really wanted it to reflect my personal favorite holiday tradition of gift wrapping. I love seeing trees with beautifully wrapped packages piled high beneath them. There is something about the perfectly mismatched paper and ribbon that is just so appealing to my eye and that’s exactly what I wanted from this cake. So I took some very traditional patterns, the plaids for instance, and used them in a nontraditional way.”
Stevi of Hey there, Cupcake! tells us about her technique:
“I printed the patterns onto wafer paper and transformed the sheets into delicate flowers. To keep the look modern and fresh I used a classic but bold black and white houndstooth print to cover the bottom tier and a playful red and white polka dot print to mix in with the plaid flowers. The gold leaf 2” tier as well as the small bows were included for some contrast and sheen. So while this cake is very traditional in its overall color scheme, the mixed prints, patterns and differing tier heights help keep it fun and whimsical.”
Thank you to Stevi of Hey there, Cupcake! for creating this stunning gift wrap design. And to Caleb Ackley for the gorgeous photography.
If you want to learn the secrets of Stevi’s wafer paper flowers and decoupage, be sure to check her new online class at Craftsy. She’ll teach you how it’s done!
Tomorrow we move on to The 3rd Cake of Christmas plus a new recipe for your holiday entertaining. It’s going to be a two-post kind of Wednesday that you won’t want to miss. While you wait, click on through to enter our mega KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway! One lucky reader will win a top of the line, 7 quart KitchenAid! Enter to win here!!
VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake : Hey there, Cupcake!
Photography : Caleb Ackley
Inspiration Image : Ikea via Babble
Learn From This Baker: Delicate Wafer Paper Flowers with Stevi Auble on Craftsy
This design just makes me happy. I’m curious, how did you print onto the wafer paper? Did you feed it through your edible printer? How did you keep the colors from running together and from dissolving the paper? I get wafer paper from my local cake store, but one drop of any kind of liquid and it’s toast. Thanks for any advice you can give. This is such a neat and creative way to decorate.
I’ve never been a big fan of plaid, until now! Gorgeous work!
Beautiful combination of prints and solids. Certainly puts the “Merry” in Christmas for me! Thank you!
stevi… it is AMAZING! of course it is! love this cake so much. thanks for sharing it! can’t wait for the rest of the cakes to be revealed, too! 🙂
We love the mix of houndstooth with the Christmas colours. Such a lovely modern take on a festive cake!