National Capital Area Cake Show

I recently attended the National Capital Area cake show in Burke, VA. This is the first year this show has run since it split off what used to be called the Mid-Atlantic cake show. I entered the wedding cake competition and the theme this year was “Our Dream Wedding”. We were given background information about an imaginary couple (how they met, what they do for a living, etc) as well as information about their wedding (when, where, flowers, color scheme, what they want the cake to look like). We then had to design a wedding cake and grooms cake that incorporated at least 5 pieces of the information we were given.

2009 National Capital Area Cake Show

All the cake tiers and the cake board are covered in ivory rolled fondant with cranberry and gold accents. The cake is topped with 3 hand made white gumpaste lilies (one of the flowers in the Bride’s bouquet) that were brushed with white luster dust. The stamens were painted with gold luster dust to match the other gold accents on the cake.

The main inspiration for the wedding cake was the bride’s theme of “Tradition with a Twist”. I used a combination of topsy-turvy tiers with geometric red accents to create the optical illusion that the cake is actually twisting. I also incorporated all three of the bride’s colors (ivory, cranberry, and gold). The gold decorations on the cake were modeled out of fondant using a mold and then hand painted with gold luster dust.

To keep with the groom’s wish that his cake not “clash” with the bride’s cake I kept the style very similar but inverted the color scheme. I also wanted to highlight his interest in Impressionist art. One of the most famous impressionists was Claude Monet. Monet loved to paint many types of flowers including tulips (another one of the bride’s flowers). The image on top of the groom’s cake is a reproduction of a painting by Monet called “Tulip Fields in Holland”. The image was printed using edible ink on an icing sheet.