Cake tasting with Haidee and Wilson

Cake tasting is definitely one of the "treats" included in planning any wedding! Yesterday Haidee, Wilson, Haidee's sister Aimee, and their friend Lillian, met with BethAnn Goldberg, owner of Studio Cake in Menlo Park, to sample several of BethAnn's yummy cake flavors, and to discuss the design of their wedding cake.
I was fortunate to "discover" BethAnn just as her business was getting started, about 18 months ago; in that time her business has quickly attained local and national popularity! The amazing turtle cake, which she created for Abby and Joe's wedding in August, was featured when she was interviewed for the "Dreamers to Doers" contest, on the Martha Stewart Show this Fall. See my post: http://jeanmarksweddings.blogspot.com/2008/11/turtle-cake-on-martha-stewart-show.html

As Haidee and Wilson enjoyed the exotic and traditional flavors of BethAnn'a cake, she looked at examples of the Vintage Era/Art Deco theme which will be threading through each element of Haidee and Wilson's Merchants' Exchange wedding this June.

From the details around the ornate frames which will be used for the table names at the wedding reception, Beth Ann and Haidee came up with ideas for a cake design to repeat several of the same "bling-y" touches which were so prevalent in the 1920's and "30's. The focal point of the cake design will be the vintage looking cake topper, which Wilson's parents used at their wedding, almost 40 years ago

BethAnn sketched a quick drawing of how Haidee and Wilson's wedding cake might look, just to give them a visual of one possibility.

When I first met BethAnn, besides loving the flavor and texture of her cake, I was immediately impressed that she offers full color drawings of each couple's wedding cake, as it appears in its final stage, to the bride and groom, as a hand-done reminder of the fun they had designing their personalized wedding cake.
Here BethAnn shows a sample of the drawing she did for one of her clients, alongside the photo of the cake as it was displayed at their wedding.

BethAnn has just been selected to participate in a Food Network Challenge in February; Shreck, the Musical, is the theme for this challenge, and BethAnn will be one of 4 contestents across the country challenged with creating a cake based on one of the 4 main Shreck characters...BethAnn will be doing Princess Fiona, who was herself a bride!
If you are curious to see what BethAnn will come up with, she and her assistant are building a full sized "Practice Fiona", all day on February 14th, at her studio...the cake will be over 3 feet tall, which is a lot of cake, so she is inviting everyone to come by to watch her work, and help eat the "left overs"!
Haidee, Wilson, Aimee, Lilian and I are planning to be there!


Studio Cake, 104 Gilbert Avenue, Menlo Park, Ca. www.studiocake.com