It’s day five of our brand new cake series – The 2015 Wedding Cake Preview! We’re spending two weeks oohing and aahing over marvelous cake designs and getting the scoop on 2015 cake trends from the ladies who know. Top cake designers were asked to predict which cake trends will be hot in 2015. Based on their insights, this talented group got busy creating innovative new cakes, exclusively for this cake series and especially for you! I hope you’ll join us as we debut a new trend-inspired design each day. At any point, you can catch up with the entire cake series HERE.
We’re starting off the week with cake number five! Our fifth design is all about hand-painted details. Hand-painted cakes have been growing in popularity over the last several years and we love seeing this trend continue to grow and evolve. From intricate details painstakingly crafted with exact precision to more free flowing watercolor renderings, hand-painted cakes can adapt to almost any style. Today’s hand-painted design showcases a softer take on pattern, perfect for 2015.
The fifth cake in our series comes to us from Robin Martin, owner of Gateaux Inc. in Plymouth, Minnesota. Robin has such a knack for creating classic designs with new innovative techniques. Not only does she create gorgeous cakes as the owner of Gateaux Inc., but she is the mastermind behind an entire line of cake stencils which are nothing less than brilliant and appropriately branded as the the Evil Cake Genius line. Constantly dreaming up new ways to make our cake-decorating-lives a little easier, she made a wonderful new addition our talented team of contributors in 2014. Over the last year, we’ve learned how to make a stenciled lace cake and how to make amazing butterflies with realistic (and yes, stenciled) details, thanks to Robin’s techniques. Robin’s painted rose cake blew us away with it’s intricate details and achievable paint-by-numbers approach. So it’s only fitting that Robin share a hand-painted cake with us today!
With a modern bohemian feel, today’s cake sports a southwestern arrow design in shades of soft pink, blush and gold. A 2015 update to hand-painted tiers, this cake is a unique blend of watercolor, pattern and color. It boasts the structure and clean lines of chevron but with the subtle shading and freedom of watercolor. Not to mention the gold-dipped feathers and contrasting blue tiers that complete this stunning look…
Robin Martin of Gateaux Inc. shares the inspiration for her design:
“We based this cake on my favorite trend in the wedding cake world: hand-painted tiers. So far, we’ve done very romantic, traditional painting on wedding cakes, but this trend is evolving into a more graphic-but-bohemian look (if you can imagine those two together) . We looked to southwestern folk art for this cake’s inspiration, but rather than literally interpreting the geometric patterns of the textiles, we looked to the paintings of Georgia O’keefe for a more feminine take on the region. What resulted was a graphic-watercolor look.
The remaining tiers were painted with a gold patina. While our initial instinct was to accent the tiers with gum paste floral, our good friend and style guru, Amy intercepted, and suggested the gold-dipped gum paste feathers, as tribute to the desert landscape that is the home of our inspiration for this cake.”
Robin Martin of Gateaux Inc. tells us about her technique:
“The watercolor chevron pattern was painted by wrapping our Evil Cake Genius southwestern chevron stencil around the tier, and painting it with a mixture of cooking oil and petal dust. The Gold Patina was painted with our Evil Cake Genius gold powder mixed with vodka, which was also used to gild the tips of the gum paste feathers. The feathers were hand-cut and imprinted with a sculpting tool.”
VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake : Gateaux Inc.
Chevron Stencil : Evil Cake Genius
Cake Stand : Sarah’s Stands
Learn From This Baker : Robin Martin’s Tutorials on The Cake Blog
