Chad, our General Manager, led the tour of our gallery, work room, baking room and office explaining each aspect as he went.   Christie, our lead designer, offered demonstrations of rose making, piping and baking.

     At the end, each student was given a deliciously decorated cupcake and went away smiling.                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               This next one is for a one year anniversary cake that mimicked the happy couple’s original wedding cake.

This last one is being placed on top of another larger layer for a celebration party.

 Here’s how we do a 3D cake…..a request comes in and priced out.  Confirmation is made and the process begins.  Research is done and pics are accumulated from every angle.  The cake is baked then cut and shaped to size.  It is then covered with buttercream as you see in this pic

All of the details such as the blades  and turning mechanisms are well thought out with a support system in place.  The cake is then covered with a thin coat of fondant and all the small details are made such as the windows and placed on the cake.  The base of the cake is equally important which for this cake was the tarmac landing circle.

This final pic is the result of all this hard work.   Hopefully the bride and groom are pleased with our work.

What do you think?

Doreen, our faithful part timer, was in the initial stages of cutting the hearts.

                                                                                                                         Even our GM Chad has his hands in the ganache.

One of the highlights of my week is to be greeted by a sweet smile from our new baker, Brenda, who is a single mom with a precious little boy, Logan, age 5.  He  shadows his mom in our bakery when he gets the opportunity to ‘come to work with Mommy’, i.e. during those hurricane days off school.  He reports back to his teacher that he bakes cakes with Mommy.

Brenda is a perfect addition to our staff, fitting in like a glove.  I did a bit of an interview with her.  Here’s how it went:

Which was your biggest week so far?   I believe it was the 2nd week when I was totally on my own.  We had 28 weddings and I felt the pressure.  I knew I needed to get at least 4 batters done of 600 servings each the first day.   Each batter needed about 100 eggs and about 21 lbs of flour, so I was moving.

What was your biggest surprise of this job?     I guess it was  because there are so many flavors, I was not able to just do a batter of vanilla cake but had to rethink it to include just about all of our 15 flavors.  One wedding cake could consist of 4 layers of  4 different flavors, making maybe one 6″ layer – chocolate, an 8″ layer – Lemon Raspberry, a 12″ layer – apple spice and a 14″ layer – mint choc chip.

What is the best part of working at TMB?      ….the people.

What is the most difficult part?     …probably getting our  chocolate 10 lb blocks to the right temperature so I can shave them for our choc curl cakes.

Anything else you want to say?   I am still learning how the different pans are used.  For instance, the baby bassinet cake is baked in an oval  pot roast pan.  Also, the large revolving oven is different for me and I have a few battle scars to remind me.  I am also still learning how to connect with our many accounts to get accurate numbers for the week.  OH, one more thing, I just love my own private baking room with it’s mini back porch, windows to watch the squirrels and deer and of course, the turning of the leaves.

Brenda is good under stress which is very needed during our busy times.  Cakes are changed in size and flavor and sometimes cancelled each week  so she is learning to be flexible.  We are very fortunate to have Brenda and hope she remains part of our team for many years to come.

  We are very excited to represent The Master’s Baker as the only baker at the Open House with Brulee Catering at the Independence Visitors Center in Philly this Thursday, October 27, 2011.  Our new working partnership with them has us preparing hundreds of  servings of Lemon Raspberry cake for this special occasion at 6th and Market Streets.    

Come see two of the best in Philly – Brulee Catering and The Master’s Baker

Brulee Catering was the top pic as best caterer for the Philly Hot List.

brulee-catering.com

This brown flowered traditional beauty is quite pretty and probably matched our bride’s dress. 

This one on the right is very modern with it’s purple gerber daisies and ribbon separators.

What about this top hat as a cake topper, very unusual, huh?  This is what makes our job here at The Master’s Baker so much fun,  meeting so many bride and grooms with so much creativity for their weddings

Fall colored leaf cakes always work bringing in the color of the season.

As soon as I saw this one it was my favorite of the week.  What a stunning and so elegant wedding cake done in black and white.  I think the artwork was taken from the bride’s invitation which certainly sets this cake apart for me.

Here is a old pick up truck for Karen for her 60th birthday.  I wonder what the story is behind that?  I’m sure though that everyone at the party had fun with that. 

This second birthday cake is absolutely beautiful in purple and oranges. 

These are 2 very different cakes for two very different women.  Either way, I’m sure both were very pleased.