Happy 2013!

Our own Anna Ellison – Executive Chef of Charm City Cakes West –  teamed up with Caljava to create this fantastic instructional video demonstrating how to make a perfectly pleated cake. Anna’s skill and Caljava’s gorgeous flowers make one beautiful team – check it out!  Anna has more videos on the way – so subscribe to the Caljava channel to make sure you don’t miss them.

Check it out:

Pleated Cake Tutorial

Now this is fresh- a few weeks ago, CCCW made a cake for Breville USA, makers of the non-cake version of the Dual Disc Juice Processor pictured above (and demonstrated in the documentary ‘Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead’). As a thank you, Breville delivered a juicer to the bakery, and we’ve been experimenting ever since. Checkout some of our more compelling findings, and please share any of your own discoveries with us via Twitter or Facebook.

“Pearkle” by Anna

-2 Pear

-2 Handfuls Kale

-1/4 Lemon

“Red One” by Lauren F

-2 Tomatoes

-2 Stalks of Celery

-1/2 Green Onion

-1 Clove of Garlic

“Dreamsicle” by Sean

-4 Carrot

-2 Pear

-1 Orange

“Green” by Beverly

-2 Apples *Green

-Handful of Pinapple

-1/2 Lime

-Few Leaves Mint

“Green Dino” by Katherine

-4 Leaves Dino Kale

-3 Carrots

-4 Stalks Celery

-1/2 Cucumber

-1/2 Lemon

-Parsely

“Special Ravens Blend” by Mark

-4 Beets

-4 Carrots

-Chunk of Ginger

-1/4 Lemon

-Dash Old Bay/ Splash National Bohemian

Nothing goes better with juice than a beautiful cake, and Anna gave us just that with “Winter Rose”, the stunning design pictured above. We haven’t juiced flowers yet, but suppose that it’s only a matter of time.

Looking ahead, we’re going to be WORKING WITH THE GRAMMYS! Duff and the gang will be appearing (with cake) at the GRAMMY Foundation’s 14^th Annual Music Preservation Project Event – One Night Only: A Celebration of The Live Music Experience on Feb. 9^th in Los Angeles. Tickets are $25 and support a great cause.

That’s all for now- have a wonderful winter weekend, and GO RAVENS!

Howdy ho! Here’s what’s happening!

Coming Monday, August 8th at 10:30 PM to the Food Network…Duff’s new show Sugar High! The premiere episode features Duff tooling around Los Angeles in search of the City’s most outrageously good desserts. Set your DVR’s because it’s a really funny and fun show!

Duff has finally gone and gotten himself a Twitter account. There was some confusion a couple weeks back because someone had been posting as @Duff_Goldman and pretending to be Duff, which was weird and creepy, but The Real Duff got that taken care of right quickly. So now you can read all about his wacky day-to-day antics and where he’s traveling to next and what 140-character thoughts are currently inhabiting his head. It’s good stuff, so follow him!

That’s it from the 410, my friends. Hope you’re all having a terrific summer!

xoxo,
Mary Alice

This week’s staffer is Jared, who is Duff’s right hand man. Here’s his interview!

Full Name: Jared Hughes Sanford
Nickname(s): Stretch
Work Title: Manager of Affairs
Hometown: Park City, Utah
Pets: Diego the wildcat
My Themesong: Karma Chameleon
What is your favorite word? Gossamer
What is your least favorite word? Ummmmmmm
What turns you on? Cornbread, dancing, biscuits w/butter and honey, good posture, swimming in Mountain lakes
What turns you off? Bad breath, overly competitive people, humidity, wetlook hairstyles, filth and clutter
What sound or noise do you love? My daughter’s voice
What sound or noise do you hate? Christian rock
What profession, other than yours, would you like to attempt? Hotel critic or park naturalist
What profession would you not want to participate in? Anything military related
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive? “Love your work, kiddo.”

Hey Friends!

Some of you may remember from way back in the way back machine Elena made a really super cute cake that was nicknamed the “Rambo Rubber Duckie”.

The story behind it was a sweet tale of love in the supermarket. Andy first noticed his sweetheart in the grocery store, and dubbed her “SMG” or, “Super Market Girl”. “SMG” also stands for “Sub-Machine Gun”. She had a penchant for rubber duckies and voila – the Sub Machine Gun Toting Girlie Rubber Duckie Cake was born. It was a big hit with Andy AND his girlfriend (now wife!).

Well, apparently this cake struck quite a chord with Ace of Cakes viewer Angela…she loved the mash-up so much she got a TATTOO of the Rambo Duckie Girl!

How cool is that!?! We’ve never seen a Charm City Cakes cake tattooed on anyone before, pretty flattering and amazing. Angela wanted to make sure to give props to the tattoo artist who did it, Chad Whitten at Forbidden Fruits Tattoo in Augusta, Maine.

Pretty fabulous, if you ask me.

xoxo,

Mary Alice

Bon weekend, friends! Last night I was searching through our cake photo library for a particular picture. While I didn’t find the photo I was looking for, I did find some shots of some SUPER CUTE cakes from the last couple of weeks. This level of cute cannot be contained and must be shared.

First up – Mary Smith’s Angry Birds Ipad masterpiece! If you’re a fan of the terribly addicting game, you’ll appreciate how spot-on her figures of the birds are. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just admire the cuteness.

Up next, Erica decorated this adorably original wedding cake, featuring lovely spring cherry blossoms and the best part – the bride and groom on top in ninja form, with their cats in kimonos. Love. It.

Ninja Zoom!

And finally – we’ve been very honored to have created the cake for Samson the Elephant for all three of his birthdays. Samson lives at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and his birthday parties are always a big event! This year, Elena created his cake and the result was just adorbs.

Here is a great video of Samson eating his special-for-elephants cake and the crowd singing him “Happy Birthday”!

Well that’s enough cute for one Saturday morning. Hope you all are having a sweet and lovely weekend!

xoxo,

Mary Alice