Wedding Cakes-Inspiration and How to-Cake Decorating
Wedding Cakes-Inspiration and How to-Cake Decorating
Lisa Sammons Events loves working with talented wedding vendors….
This article is about one such a vendor, Erin Gardner, of Wild Orchid Baking Co. If you are engaged, we bet you are already following her on Instagram & Pinterest… Ms. Gardner & her Wild Orchid Baking Co. are every where!
Cake Designer and Baker Erin Gardner developed her cake skills as a pastry chef in numerous New England kitchens and is constantly expanding her skills & techniques taking classes around the nation. One notable class she attended was with Ron Ben-Israel in NYC, focusing on sugar paste flowers.
After Ms. Gardner attended Ben-Isarel’s class, she met him again, this time on an episode of his Food Network show, Sweet Genius! Master Pastry Chef Ben-Israel hosts Sweet Genius on the Food Network (for Erin’s “episode” see season 2 – Baby Genius) The show is an amazing showcase for America’s premier pastry chefs competing against one another through three rounds of challenges judged by Ben-Israel, along the way testing their creativity, ingenuity and imagination.
Image: Food Network-Sweet Genius
The chefs are given surprise ingredients, an inspiration and a limited amount of time; with those three elements as a guide, they must create a delectable chocolate, candy and cake dessert. The winners from each round advance for a final test, with Ben-Israel crowning the remaining chef Sweet Genius and awarding them a “winner” of the competition. It goes without saying that Ms.Gardner won the competition!
A few more accolades that should be noted…Ms. Gardner’s shop, Wild Orchid Baking Company, was featured by Brides Magazine as one of the 100 best wedding cake makers in the country. Brides Magazine also included one of Ms. Gardner’s cakes as one of America’s Prettiest Wedding Cakes in their issue.
AND !!! Erin’s first book, Great Cake Decorating, was released in 2014. In her first book, Great Cake Decorating (Taunton Press), Erin shares her tips, tricks, and techniques for creating delicious and beautiful works of sugar art at home.
Real Wedding Planner Advice: This would be a great book to purchase for cake design inspiration too!
Wild Orchid Baking Company, a custom cake design studio, is located on the coast of NH, serving coastal NH, ME, MA & beyond. Cake designer Erin Gardner believes that “great cakes start from the inside out” and only uses fresh, high quality ingredients; creating all of their cakes, buttercreams, and fillings from scratch.
Aside from Ms. Gardner’s stunning and creative cake designs, her commitment to fresh, high quality ingredients and her personal high standards in cake production, freshness, and TASTE! are what makes Wild Orchid Baking Co one of LSE’s Certified Vendors. (and as a side note, they “get” hospitality and customer service as well…)
On to Cakes, Inspiration, & How to!
Every single flower, leaf, and bud that you see on all of Wild Orchid Baking Co.’s cakes is hand-crafted out of sugar paste by cake designer Erin Gardner.
Another place you might come across Ms. Gardner’s cakes are on the pages of Town & Country, Brides, OK Magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, Grace Ormonde, American Cake Decorating, just to name a few…!
If you don’t know about Craftsy, take a minute to check them out here. Erin has a few classes going on the Craftsy site right now – and there are always sales!!
Real Wedding Planner Advice: What a fun idea for bridal showers and bachelorette parties! Purchase a class-“Cake Decorating” (for example) and make a party out of the DIY class!
Ms. Gardner also reveals her techniques for making any design into a custom stamp using money-saving household materials.
A fabulous “girly-girl” cake in mint green – Perfection!
Here’s an adorable seaside themed cake with cupcake accessories!
Gorgeous for any season, this cake is FABULOUS! For a close up of the sugar flowers scroll back up to the beginning of this article. Fantastic detail and design.
Love the texture in this cake, and just look at the sugar peony, unbelievable!
Real Wedding Planner Advice: Ask your baker to tie in the design or fabric of your wedding dress into your cake design! Your wedding planner can help you with this and can coordinate with your cake designer. It’s all in the details!
We hope you enjoyed this article! We’ll write more about Cakes (and Erin Gardner’s Wild Orchid Baking Co) soon, as well as Craftsy – what a fun idea for wedding gifts too!
They have Cooking demos, DIY crafts, knitting classes, and more! *check out their FREE classes here too!
Image: Jay Clendenin
To see Wild Orchid Baking Co. in a REAL Lisa Sammons Events’ Wedding, you can see them here at a recent LSE July Bride’s wedding reception.
To contact Wild Orchid Baking Company for a Cake order, please visit them via LSE’s Certified Vendor Catalog Page or you can also reach them here on their contact page at the Wild Orchid Baking Co. site.
Article: Lisa Sammons – Owner/Principal Planner & Lead Designer – Lisa Sammons Events /Contributor & Features Editor: Style, Inspiration, & Design
We are REAL Wedding Planners servicing New York and New England.
We also travel to where ever our clients need us.
If you are planning a destination wedding, we are happy to plan your wedding … where ever and whenever!
Are you a DIY Bride and just want a few pointers or a consultation?
We are happy to meet with you or set up a call.
Feel free to contact us at anytime to set up a DIY planning meeting. We are happy to help!
moc.stnevesnommasasilnull@ofni or via phone @ 603-828-6490.
We look forward to speaking with you!
