Katherine, Author at 12 Oaks Desserts

Fall Cake Guide

Posted on October 13, 2019November 6, 2020 by Katherine

Happy fall ya’ll! At 12 Oaks Desserts, the team is excited for the fall, even if we’re not exactly experiencing the change in the weather here in Los Angeles (#heatwave). Regardless of the warm weather, we can still celebrate all things Fall with 12 Oaks’ fall-themed cakes and desserts. I’m super excited to be able to share some of our favorites with you below!

Fall Flowers Chocolate Cake

Allow me to introduce you to our new taste of Fall — our Fall Flowers Chocolate Cake. Once in a while, there is nothing more comforting than chocolate cake, in particular, this beauty, which is swathed in our chocolate sour cream frosting. Chocolate sour cream frosting is both sweet and tangy and tastes especially rich and indulgent (it’s a tried and true recipe my mom who would always use it in her special, homemade chocolate cakes). I love this cake not only for the taste but also because of all the warm and inviting colors. Using a smoothly frosted 7” base, I topped the cake with flowers, choosing specific colors that evoke the changing leaves in Autumn. The effect is simple and lovely. I think this is the perfect cake for a special someone’s Fall birthday party — particularly if they love chocolate as much as I do!

Thankful Drip Cake

I’ve said it before, and I don’t mind repeating it…Drip Cakes are so much fun to create! The inspiration behind our Thankful Cake is that I was feeling a bit tired of the classic Thanksgiving desserts a few years back. Pies just seemed so old hat! So I decided to do a fresh take and bring something you rarely see at the Thanksgiving dessert table: cake! The idea of a caramel drip cake was born! Caramel is a quintessentially Fall flavor — even the smell evokes thoughts of the chill in the air and dressing up for Halloween. I felt that this should be a semi-naked cake to accentuate the effect of the caramel drip. Topping with seasonal flowers, corn cob and macaroons finished the look perfectly and called to mind a classic cornucopia centerpiece. I love to pair a dark chocolate cake with the caramel drip, but carrot cake could be another delicious option. Regardless of the cake flavor you choose, the Thankful cake is truly a showstopper and would be an exciting addition to any Thanksgiving meal!

Fall Brushstroke Cake

Okay, this is my second caramel drip cake entry on this list, but it’s too cool to not include: 12 Oaks’ Fall Brushstroke Cake. For a modern take on the colors of Fall, I love the Brushstroke cake. The brushstrokes are created by brushing melted candy melt onto a Silpat mat and leaving them to dry (putting them in the refrigerator for a few minutes always helps). Once they’ve hardened, I used buttercream frosting to adhere the brushstrokes to the cake in this design and then added a few touches of edible gold paint to really up the wow factor. Really, a brushstroke cake can take on any color palette, but I liked this design for the Fall season, as it resembled quickly falling leaves. One of my favorite things about brushstroke cakes is that each one is very unique. The brushstrokes are always a bit different each time you make them and so each cake comes together differently. The Fall Brushstroke is a great option for almost any Fall event — be it a birthday party, engagement party or Thanksgiving.

Wintery Cheesecake

When thinking about how Fall gives way to Winter, my memories tend to turn towards cozy nights in front of a fire with a glass (or two) of red wine and a slice of 12 Oaks’ delectable cheesecake. To be clear, I’m a firm believer that cheesecake is a dessert-table essential in all seasons, but this Wintery option does feel like a perfect design for late Fall. Our cheesecakes come in five flavors, including Pecan Pie, which we recommend as an excellent option for a Fall cheesecake. With the Winter Cheesecake, however, I opted for the Classic NY flavor (Gotta admit, that’s the favorite in my household.) By topping with blueberries and rosemary, then dusting lightly with powdered sugar, I sought to create a look of freshly fallen snow on evergreens. The kind you’d see after the first snow flurries of winter where I grew up in the Northeast. I love this Cheesecake and its elegant design for any and all of your holiday dinner parties.

Reviewing our Fall Cake Flavors

I just wanted to include a quick closing note on Fall cake flavors — when you’re searching for the perfect dessert for your special occasion, be it a cake, cupcakes or cheesecakes, for instance, be sure to also consider all of the flavors you’re choosing and how those might match the current season or holiday. Sometimes it’s nice when you bite into a cake or cupcake to taste the flavors associated with Fall, be it chocolate and caramel, red velvet, or even carrot cake. I recently worked with a client who requested our chocolate chip cake with cinnamon buttercream frosting for her wedding cake. I’d never paired those flavors before, but they complimented each other perfectly and upon tasting them together, they brought all things Fall to mind. It can be really fun to incorporate those kinds of flavors into your Fall desserts. Just some food for thought!

Yours sweetly,

Katherine & Missy

Mermaid Cake: A Magical Birthday!

Posted on September 23, 2019November 6, 2020 by Katherine

While we always enjoy making our signature 12 Oaks cakes that you can order on our website, like the Sprinkles Birthday cake or our Bare Blossoms Naked cake, we LOVE when a client gives us creative control and trusts us to create a custom cake. Recently, a new client reached out and said they needed a cake for 40 people, with a mermaid theme, but the look and feel of the cake was left to us (So exciting!). Mermaid cakes, like unicorn cakes, are super popular in the little kid birthday circuit, and we must admit that we don’t mind this trend one bit. In truth, there are endless possibilities when creating a cake like this, in terms of color scheme and choice of decoration. For example, fondant molds exist for just about every underwater thing you could think of. We chose to focus on shells, mermaid tails and oysters, but you could also create an undersea world full of sea creatures or coral and wave-like glass pieces by using isomalt. But inspiration struck and we decided to take the opportunity to design a colorful under-the-sea landscape, creating texture with frosting techniques like rosettes, flowers and sea creature fondant figures.

Mermaid Cake for 40 People!

A cake to serve 40 people is pretty big, so we decided to make it tall and designed a two-tiered (9” and 7”) cake with LOTS of flair. The multiple tiers enabled us to create the dramatic, cascading cluster of buttercream flowers in rich jewel-tones. This technique is a popular one with wedding cakes especially, as it produces both a sophisticated and romantic look. With the mermaid cake, however, we felt that the placement of the mermaid tails conveyed a sense of whimsy that was perfect for a 9-year-old’s birthday party.

Cake Molds and Glitter

We make our mermaid tails and seashells using fondant and a silicone mold (be sure to buy this kind as they are much easier to use). We like to buy our molds on Etsy–LolliCakes is a great vendor–they create such fun designs and the molds are very easy to use. After some experimenting, we found that mixing fondant colors in the tail mold and adding a bit of iridescent sparkle by brushing on a special edible glitter finish makes for dazzling tails. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE using edible glitter! Of course, this was coupled with edible gold leaf to really up the wow-factor. It’s worth noting here that the gold leaf can be quite tricky to work with. It tends to easily stick to anything and then can sometimes crumble. If you’re working with gold leaf for the first time (or maybe it’s your hundredth), remember to be patient with it. And turn off any fans that may be blowing in your work space!

One of the design features we particularly liked with this mermaid cake was the placement of the mermaid tails around the cascading buttercream rosettes. This gave the impression of a group of mermaids swimming down through some gorgeous looking buttercream seaweed and algae. Sidenote: what should we call a group of mermaids — a flock? A school? Maybe a gaggle? But we digress…The finishing touch on the Mermaid cake was to create a few macaron “oysters” complete with their own candy pearls to top the cake.

This Mermaid cake was a joy to design, but seeing the birthday girl’s reaction when she saw it was the icing on the cake!

Yours sweetly,
Katherine & Missy

Kids Birthday Party: Dinosaur Theme Ideas

Posted on July 5, 2019November 6, 2020 by Katherine

We can’t say enough times how much we enjoy designing epic cakes and dessert tables for children’s birthday parties. There’s really something magical about a child spotting their cake (or desserts) for the first time and their complete look of awe and joy. What’s even better is the opportunity to recreate, redesign and improve upon those themes.

Jurassic World Dessert

As an example, last fall we created an epic (if we do say so ourselves) Jurassic World dessert table for two very special clients. We’ve had the pleasure of designing dessert tables for these two youngsters for the past 5 years, and their parties are always a blast to plan. Their Mom is a huge help with the brainstorming process, typically we land on a theme and discuss ideas for what we might make, from cookies to cake pops to their always incredible cakes. Last Fall’s theme was Jurassic World, and we were thrilled with the opportunity to create our first dinosaur-themed dessert table. With the movies in mind, we were able to create some custom desserts that were “firsts” for 12 Oaks Desserts, like the Dinosaur Bones (white chocolate covered pretzel sticks) and Test Tube Drinks (filled with Kool Aid).

Our favorite new creation was our Mini Candy Volcanoes, which were upside down sugar cones, filled with popcorn or candy, with a licorice “eruption”.

With two birthday boys, we always make them each a special cake, and the Jurassic World party was no different. One birthday cake was designed with a fondant dinosaur claw halfway out of the side of the cake. The other had an actual toy dinosaur emerging from the cake. The clients were completely wowed and the guests had a blast identifying all of the different treats and giving them a try.

Dinosaur Themed Birthday Party

Then this past January, my very own nephew turned 4 and requested a dinosaur-themed party after seeing 12 Oaks’ pictures of the aforementioned Jurassic World dessert table. After some price negotiations and securing a $5 deposit from his piggy bank, we settled on a dinosaur cake, dirt pudding and cake pops. But the birthday boy gave me total creative control of the desserts, making for an exciting opportunity to create something new and amazing.

Dinosaur Cake

The first dinosaur party included a birthday cake with a plastic dinosaur actually breaking through the cake. This design made for a really cool look, but the dinosaur embedded in the cake made the cake’s integrity a little weaker, so I was looking for a new direction to go with dinosaurs. What I started to get excited about was creating a landscape for several dinosaurs toys, centered around a volcano cake. With a funfetti flavor and chocolate buttercream icing, I design a three-tiered cake, cut into a volcano shape, complete with a fun sprinkle bomb in the center. Because we don’t know what’s in the center of a volcano! With red and orange isomalt “flames” at the top of the volcano, the effect of the eruption was achieved and looked amazing, but I wasn’t totally satisfied.

And then I started thinking about how to really surprise our nephew, asking, what if the volcano erupted?? After a little brainstorming session on how to make that work, I included a recessed bowl at the top of the volcano where I could include dry ice. After arriving at the party, I borrowed a few dinosaur toys from my nephew and scattered them around the base of the volcano cake to create the effect of a “dino”rama. I got lots of “ohhs” and “ahhs” from the party guests when they walked by and started to get very excited for the main event.

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, we crowded around the table and I poured a little water over the dry ice and the volcano began smoking. The effect of the smoking volcano really impressed my nephew and his friends — there were some jaws that hit the floor! Another special touch that my nephew was excited about: we used a recent picture of him hiking, printed it on edible paper and included it with the toy dinos. His reaction: “Hey, that’s me!” It was like he was part of the dinosaur diorama!

Cake Pops and More

This dessert table was a blast to design and create. One thing we really appreciated about these two parties was the chance to create custom desserts to wow our clients and the opportunity to expand on ideas from past parties. And while the volcano cake stole the show, we also incorporated T-Rex cake pops, Dinosaur Bones, our Mini Candy Volcanoes (this time we added buttercream “grass”) and Dirt Pudding.

It was truly a relief that there was a bounce house for the kids to jump off their sugar high. And my nephew loved it so much he’s already making plans for next year’s birthday party! Preliminary idea: tiger themed!

Yours sweetly,
Katherine & Missy

Cake Guide: Trends from 2018…into 2019

Posted on May 26, 2019November 6, 2020 by Katherine

There are A LOT of exciting and innovative trends happening in the world of cakes and cake decorating! Here are 5 trends that were on the rise in 2018 and continue to make an impact in 2019. Some of these cakes we’ve had the pleasure of mastering and some we’re hoping to create one day (hint, hint: contact us for a cake order today!).

1. Drip Cakes

Drip cakes are so named for the lovely and delicious drip technique over the top and down the sides of the cake. The drip can be done with chocolate ganache, candy melt or even royal icing – whatever you find easier! They are super fun and their popularity is still going strong. You can check out some of our signature Drip cakes on our website like our Melting Ice Cream cake (we’d be amiss to not give credit to the AMAZING cake artist, Katherine Sabbath for first originating this design and perhaps even the Drip concept itself), our Thankful cake, and our Ador-a-ball cake. These three cakes really highlight what we like best about creating Drip Cakes. You’re designing in the moment, from color to texture to drip effect — there’s a spontaneity about it unlike some more traditional cake designs. We also like the opportunity to add and combine different elements, like sprinkles, oreo pieces or cake bites to elevate the cake’s look. In our humble opinion, Drip cakes are perfect for all special occasions, be it a birthday party, anniversary or any time you’d like to celebrate!

2. Torn Paper Cakes

Torn Paper cakes are popular on the wedding circuit, keeping with the trend of being non-traditional. The “paper” displayed on these cakes can be created with thin pieces of fondant adhered to each other, wafer paper, or a combination of both to really up the texture factor. One of our favorite creators of this is Jasmine Rae Cakes out of San Francisco. Check out their amazing cakes on their Instagram @jasmineraecakes. Her cake (shown above) was featured in Paris Vogue and we love how it almost looks like a huge flower opening up. It is the complete opposite of the traditional “smooth” wedding cake and instead is a delicate, awe-inspiring cake that one could certainly call art. We’re excited at the opportunity to create our own version of the Torn Paper cakes in 2019!

3. Brushstroke Cake

Brushstroke cakes rose in popularity in 2017 and remain a staple of Instagrammable custom cakes. A Brushstroke cake is the perfect cake for a client who’s looking for a unique, modern look for their special event. The effect is created by using a paintbrush and brushing melted candy melt onto parchment paper or a non-stick surface. Once dried, these brushstrokes are then pressed onto a pre-frosted cake to create the unique textured look. We feature a Brushstroke cake on our website, but give clients the ability to customize the color palette for their cake. For us at 12 Oaks, a Brushstroke cake is a striking way to apply color and texture to create a real showstopper of a cake.

4. Anything Hand Painted

Hand painted cakes offer clients such a personal touch. The sky’s the limit in terms of design and color palette! It’s a little easier to paint on a fondant covered cake as it’s a firmer canvas to work on, but you can certainly work directly on a buttercream cake also. One of our favorite painted cakes, above, is a perfect example of how a cake can turn into art. Doesn’t that one just pull at your heart strings? There are several different brands of edible paints available and after trying a few, we tend to use Edible Art Paint. It’s the most versatile and comes in an endless array of colors. It’s so hard to not buy them all! While we haven’t had the opportunity yet to create a hand-painted cake — we’d love to make your next special event or birthday magical. Order your own custom cake here!

5. Edible “Fabric” Cakes

The newest cake trend that is in vogue? Edible Fabric cakes. Manipulating wafer paper, so that it becomes soft and flexible, gives us the opportunity to design gorgeous, avant-garde cakes. Late last year we attended a workshop to learn some tips and tricks in working with Edible fabric. It’s important to never stop learning! This was such a fun class; not only was it an amazing learning experience, we absolutely fell in love with the edible fabric and it’s endless potential. We worked on creating bows, and ruching, but with a cutout printer, stencils, and countless other tools you can create so many marvelous looks. Our favorite aspect of this cake is the contrasting of textures and colors. The top tier is soft and glamorous and the bottom tier has a more gritty feel to it. But when you put them together, they most certainly work!

These are some of our favorite current trends in the cake biz, but we can’t wait to see what the second half of 2019 holds. We’ll get to see how these cake fashions continue to evolve and what new things will be whipped up to amaze us all. Sounds pretty sweet, right?

Your sweetly,
Katherine & Missy

Hello World! Let’s Talk Frosting!

Posted on February 10, 2019November 6, 2020 by Katherine

Hello, World! We here at 12 Oaks Desserts are SO excited to launch our new blog and share our thoughts, tips and tricks with all of you. With our first foray into the blogosphere, we thought we’d discuss our favorite component of cake – the frosting! Like John Legend and Chrissy Teagan, cake and frosting are a perfect team. There are many effects that you can achieve with frosting, but before we dive into the details, let us give you a little more background on working with it.

FROSTING 101

We’ll be honest, we love buttercream! Making it, taste-testing it, and then eating a little bit more of it! There are several types of frostings to choose from, but our favorite (hands down) is American buttercream. We whip together high-quality butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and a couple tablespoons of heavy cream and voilà! Be patient with your mixer – the buttercream needs to be whipped for at least 4-5 minutes.

CLASSIC BUTTERCREAM TREATMENTS

If you’ve ever made a cake at home before, you’re probably most familiar with a smooth buttercream application. Here’s our little secret to getting a perfectly smooth application: We actually use a sewing tool to get our smooth finish. It’s lightweight and so easy to use. After many trials and tribulations, the two most important things we’ve learned are to ensure your buttercream is the right consistency and practice, practice, practice. Once you’ve mastered this skill you can start creating unique patterns on the sides of your cake including rosettes, ruffles, flowers and rustic finishes. Here’s a shot of one of our favorite wedding cakes with some simple diagonal lines.

TECHNIQUES TO TRY

For the burgeoning bakers out there, who want to try their hand at these frosting applications, here are a few tried and true tricks of the trade. We hope these help you in your cake-baking endeavors!

1) (Warm) Butter is Better: Make sure your butter is at room temperature. However, we know that sometimes cake emergencies arise and you’ll need to make frosting asap. Use your microwave to warm up the butter – just make sure not to let it get too soft or melt! One or two 10 second intervals should do the trick.

2) Level Your Layers: With any cake, be sure to slice the rounded top off the cake prior to assembling to ensure your cake will be structurally sound. You don’t want your layer cake to end up looking like the leaning tower of Pisa.

3) Keep Your Cool: Once you’ve stacked your cake, give it some time to rest in the refrigerator. The coldness will help keep the crumbs in before you start frosting.

4) Practice Your Spin Moves: A good turntable is key. Our lives changed forever when we upgraded to an Ateco turntable.