It’s our third annual holiday series…. The 12 Cakes of Christmas!! We’re 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. It’s a feel good month, 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.
And now it’s time for cake number three! Our third cake celebrates the sounds of the holidays and the act of spreading Christmas cheer through song. There’s nothing like a festive round of fa-la-la-la-la-ing to get you in the spirit. Especially when it’s sung by a group of merry people outside your door! The Third Cake of Christmas was inspired by…. caroling!
The third cake in our series comes to us from Robin Martin, owner of Gateaux Inc. in Plymouth, Minnesota. This is Robin’s first year to join our Christmas series and we are thrilled to welcome her. We’ve been a fan of Robin’s cakes for years now and it’s easy to see why. After falling in love with her Alencon lace cake back in August, we about died when she shared her step-by-step tutorial teaching us how to make it. Robin has such a knack for combining classic style with modern techniques. Just like her fabulous lace cake, her Christmas cake comes to life with the help of her very own line of custom mesh stencils. The end result is something truly magical. And definitely worth singing about! It’s time for The 3rd Cake of Christmas!
Robin of Gateaux Inc. shares the inspiration behind her design:
“For my inspiration, I quickly chose the tradition of Caroling. I miss this tradition, and hope that one day it makes a comeback. The thought of going out in hoards, and spreading Christmas Cheer “Guerrilla Style” door to door, has always been a favorite of mine. I love the “random acts of kindness” spirit of it. To this day, I can’t feel the two smallest toes on my right foot when the temperature drops below 20 degrees from “an old caroling injury” sustained while caroling in middle school, back when no self-respecting ’80’s girl would consider wearing sensible footwear. I outgrew the bad hair, and the blue eyeshadow, but the frost bitten toes are a constant reminder of a Christmas not-so-long-since past.
Even now, my house (largely due to my husband) is filled with Christmas Music from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s eve, when I have to threaten bodily harm to get him to retire Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole from their seasonal crooning duties for another year.”
Robin of Gateaux Inc. tells us about her technique:
“The cake is covered in an antique gold luster fondant. We created custom mesh stencils of Caroling sheet music, and “printed” ivory fondant with black royal icing. The edible sheet music was airbrushed to give it an antique feel, and wrapped around the side of the tiers. We added Fa la la la la in ivory royal icing to make sure there was no possible way that anyone could get away without a song stuck in their head after looking at it. We finished the top tier and the middle tier with solid white chocolate bells airbrushed in gold luster. The cording was made by running fondant through a clay extruder (my favorite tool to love/hate). A fresh coat of metallic gold luster finished the cording.”
Robin of Gateaux Inc. gives us the scoop on the coordinating cookies :
“We added a bowl of Christmas cookies to the mix, because any good caroler should be rewarded with cookies, and any bad caroler should be offered cookies to fill their mouths and get them to shut up! Our cookies are actually my husband’s grandmother’s recipe. We dipped them in Royal Icing and after allowing the icing to dry overnight, we used our Peace, Joy, Noel mesh screen set like a stencil with antique gold royal icing. The edges of the cookies were painted with corn syrup and rolled in sanding sugar to give them a wintery sparkle.”
Thank you to Robin of Gateaux Inc. for creating this spectacular Christmas cake. And for making us smile with her love of caroling. I don’t know about you, but I’m inspired to turn my Christmas music up a few notches… and get baking! Robin always has the best write ups on her blog… if you’ve never checked it out, you should. I love hearing the stories behind cakes, don’t you?
Tomorrow we move on to The 4th Cake of Christmas and it’s another beauty. In the meantime, you should seriously enter our mega KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway! One lucky reader will win a top of the line, 7 quart KitchenAid! Friday is your last chance to enter, so what are you waiting for?
VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake : Gateaux Inc.
Mesh Stencils : Evil Cake Genius
That is truly beautiful.
I absolutely adore this one! I think it is my favorite of all Christmas cakes, past and present. Carols and holiday music are really a special part of Christmas for me. This cake brings that all together along with the vintage look I love. Gorgeous!
Gorgeous!! It’s the first time I see a screen print on a cake and I’m amazed! LOVE IT.
Absolutely glorious!
It is glorious! Just beautiful! BRAVO!!!
This cake is absolutely stunning!
Although it’s been said many times, many ways, Robin is one of the best in the business! Her creativity is off the charts. Her level of perfection is unparalleled. Her sense of humor and zest for life will surely turn a meeting with her into one of the highlights of your life! There are reasons she is, indeed, the “Evil Cake Genius!” And, to her caroling cake I say, “Bravo, Robin! Bravo!”
Wow really neat!
An exquisite cake and I love the story behind it too.
Oh! So beautiful,, I really will have to keep practising.
What an exquisite cake – I adore everything about it! 🙂
This is just beautiful and I love the concept with the sheet music! So clever and pretty!
¡Una belleza!
Thanks everyone, for the kind words. Thank you Carrie, for including us in this lovely tradition that you’ve created!
I love Christmas carols, and I usually start singing them before Thanksgiving!
Wow – I can tell this took a lot of time to make – and it was worth every second. Simply perfection! Well done! (Fa la la la laaaaaaa..see now it is stuck in my head)