FUN AT THE NEWBURYPORT FARMERS MARKET

We had a great day yesterday at the ever popular market held on Sundays from 9am to 1pm at the Tannery parking lot on 50 Water St. in Newburyport. Our PartyCake booth was a hit...who doesn't like cake!? Those who arrived early on at the market were treated to free samples of mini cupcakes with Swiss meringue buttercream. The didn't last long!
We had three types fruit tarts for sale, plum, blueberry and peach. In addition we offered lemon cupcakes with raspberry filling and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and moist chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache and topped with a swirl of mocha Swiss meringue buttercream. Mmmmm...irrisistable.

But the show stopper by far were the six small cakes decorated with fondant frosting and designs. I had such fun creating them and I hope that those who bought them had as much fun eating them. We'll be back at the Newburyport Farmers Market on Sunday September 5th so I hope you'll all come for a visit. There are many local farmers with wonderful produce (many organic options), food sellers, craftsmen, and music. Hope you'll visit.    Check out the market website: http://www.thenewburyportfarmersmarket.org/.                                 

CAN A GIRL HAVE TOO MANY HANDBAGS????

Of course a girl can never have too many handbags. Why a purse is almost like a pair of shoes....there is always room for one more. And what could be more special than a purse you can eat??....that's right a purse made of cake!

Here is a handbag cake that I created for the birthday of a very special young lady. Burberry is one of her favorite brands so I decided to create this Burberry inspired "bag". After baking an amazing red velvet cake in two loaf pans, I sliced each loaf cake in half horizontally and stacked the cakes with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercrean between each layer. The entire cake was then carved into the purse shape and  covered with a crumb coat of Swiss meringue buttercream. I made a large batch of marshmallow fondant which I divided and colored the Burberry plaid colors. After covering the entire cake with the tan fondant, folding in the sides to resemble the way a handbag would fold, I carefully applied strips of red, black and white fondant to give the plaid pattern. The top of the bag was covered with a strip of black fondant imprinted with a real zipper impression and a fondant zipper pull. I fashioned straps and strap bases of fondant also. Into these I imprinted marks to imitate stitching and after allowing to dry for 24 hours, I applied the straps with royal icing. Though the straps were heavy and difficult to stablize, the entire project came out quite well.

The birthday girl was so excited. It was an agonizing decision to cut into the dessert (who wants to ruin their handbag??) but the results were delicious.

Wouldn't it be fun to get a Purse Cake for your birthday, or to give a Purse Cake to a friend? I'b be happy to create one, just contact me.

A CONFECTION FOR ALL OCCASIONS

When I started The PartyCake it was to provide a service that seemed to be lacking...a source for fabulous home baked pies, cookies and specialty cakes that are actually HOME BAKED! Each confection is created by me in my licensed and inspected home kitchen in Newburyport, Massachusetts and delivered by me to my customers and wedding clients.
All of my goodies are made from scratch (no cake mixes, frostings from a tub, etc). No mix can taste as good as a cake made from the best ingredients and none of the funny chemicals and stabilizers found in a box. Frosting from a tub will NEVER taste like my Swiss Meringue Buttercream...so light, not to sweet and such a smooth texture on the tongue. My pie crusts are all made from scratch and the fillings are made of the freshest (and whenever possible locally grown) fruits and nuts.

I hope you all will journey with me on my blog as I share with you my baking adventures...the beautiful, the fun and maybe even a disaster or two. After all...we all have our baking failures.