60th Wedding Anniversary Chocolate Cake
It must be anniversary week or something 
This cake was created for the 60th wedding anniversary for a couple in our church who used to be missionaries in Europe for 45 years.
What a great example of dedication to their marriage and vocation these two are!
I made a four layered chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache and raspberry fruit filling split with marzipan. It is iced in milk chocolate buttercream and embellished with piped decorations.
There are sugar-pearl centered rosettes, chocolate and ivory fondant flowers and butterflies, and an intricate chocolate and vanilla buttercream piped border.
It is a contrast caged shell border with piped vines and hearts.
Fall Flowers Anniversary Cake
If you have read this previous post you know already that I am in love with the colorful beauty of fall.
No surprise then that I was extremely excited when I received the request for this 50th wedding anniversary cake and was asked to make floral decorations in gold and rust tones fitting for the season.
I made golden yellow gerbera daisies, chrysanthemum in burnt orange, and autumn rust-red roses. The flower bouquet lies on a bed of fall colored leaves in yellow-reds and red-browns.
To complete the bouquet and to add height to the arrangement light brown acorns and deep red hypericum berries are included.
Who would have thought that as a cake decorator I would also feel like a florist at times 
The cake flavor was lemon poppy-seed with a light and fresh lemon mousse filling, iced in vanilla bean buttercream.
I usually pipe rather simple borders, but this special cake called for something a little more elaborate. But the white-on-white effect still maintains the elegance of this fall bouquet cake.
New Features and Travel Blog
I am very happy to be able to tell you that all new features and changes on this website are implemented and functioning.
In other news…
My husband and I also started up a traveling blog. In the future you will be able to check out what we are up to on www.brauntravels.blogspot.com
I hope these changes improve functionality and that you enjoy them. If you have any questions or suggestions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Changes
The seasons we observe in nature are all about change. In my opinion fall is the season that depicts so wonderfully how change doesn’t have to be frightening but can be something very beautiful and colorful.
This large sheet cake was created for the installation service we had for our new assistant pastor and his family. It was a layer of chocolate and one of vanilla bean cake split with a chocolate mousse filling and iced in vanilla bean buttercream.
It is decorated in an assortment of gerbera daisies in the fall colors of dark red, orange and yellow.
There are also some changes lying ahead for this site. Some of you might have read my contact page, where I announced a while ago that my husband and I are planning to travel Southeast Asia, Thailand majorly, for the next year or so. (We will have a blog, once it’s up I will share the link)
This means, I won’t be able to take on any cake orders this time. But it doesn’t mean this blog will be quiet in this time. Not at all actually.
I still have many pictures from cake projects that are waiting to be edited and blogged about.
Also, while I might not be able to do big and fancy cakes, I cannot see myself not baking in the year ahead. I will be sharing with you my baking experiences with Asian ingredients and hopefully all the new recipes I learn (there will be a new recipe tab).
The cakes I will be doing, will be mainly for my husband and I, so this will give me a chance to try out all these new techniques I have been waiting to do. And very willingly will I be sharing these together with tutorials.
There is also my Etsy shop that I will keep running and continuously adding new items. Have a look! I have already added a number of new articles since last time. Soon there will be a tab that will lead you directly to the shop.
So, please hang in there with me, while all these changes are being implemented. I am excited about all the changes laying ahead in the near and far future, and I hope you will be with me!
Sacher Torte Take Two
Shortly after creating this Sachertorte I received another request to create this Austrian specialty for a couple from Edmonton, who were celebrating the husband’s birthday while in Kelowna.
Since this cake was for a gentlemen’s birthday, I focused on a more masculine design with gold lettering, a piped chocolate buttercream border, and an abstract decoration from dark chocolate shavings with gold sugar sprinkles and dragees.
Specialty Ube Halaya Cake and Cupcakes
I had never heard of a purple yam cake before when I received an inquiry to make one. But I was intrigued just by the colourful and fancy sound of it. So I started researching and found that it is a Philippine specialty, where purple yam actually is called ube (oobee).
Allrecipes.com had this recipe which sounded very doable. I called up a local Asian food store and luckily they are carrying purple yams.
So I started my first try at ube cake, cupcakes actually. The recipe is very similar to a chiffon cake with added ube.
While purple yams are really deep purple coloured, after adding all the other ingredients the batter looked rather grayish, so I had to increase the amount of food colouring. The cupcakes came out great, really fluffy and light. I added a buttercream frosting swirl that I still had with some sprinkles.
From the success with the cupcakes, I dared trying a ube cake for the customer. He let me know that he used to get one every year in Vancouver and I found out that there it was paired with a ube halaya frosting. Ube halaya is another dessert specialty from the Philippines with cooked ube and condensed milk.
Here are the cake layeres filled with ube halaya buttercream.
For the filling I simply mixed some ube puree with sweetened condensed milk and added this to my standard buttercream with a tiny bit of purple food colouring.
The cake was frosted in a piped vanilla buttercream pattern with a few rows of ube halaya buttercream.
Soft pink and white gumpaste daisies finish the design.
I was so excited to receive this great feedback from the customer:
I just wanted to let you know that the Purple Yam cake you made was absolutely amazing! My girlfriend loved it, as well as everyone at the party.
It was actually better than the one we used to get in Vancouver, thanks again!
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