wedding cake should be a fusion of personal style and good taste–literally! Gallery House can design a wedding cake for you that will taste as good as it looks! Plan to order your cake three to ten months in advance of your wedding. We limit the number of cakes per weekend, so that your cake gets our total attention. All of our cakes are baked from scratch. Fondant gives the cake a porcelain-like finish. A nice look for wedding cakes is to start with a buttercreme covered cake and add fondant embellishments. Before you book your wedding cake with us, we'll let you taste cake and different coverings. We'll help you from this point, and design a cake that fits your style and budget! One of the main reason brides choose Gallery House to create their wedding cake is because we don't require you to pick from standard cake designs. You shouldn't see your cake at another wedding, because we make every effort to design a unique cake that fits your desires, style and budget. Call for an appointment today for a private design consultation and wedding cake tasting Tasting cakes are small round cakes, custom baked for your tasting appointment. One of the best parts of any wedding is definitely the cake. Although you may think it is just a cake – your wedding cake will, in fact, be the centre piece of your wedding reception.
Wedding Cake tempts Taylor-Smith back into the swim
Andrew Webster November 25, 2007 IT'S a walk around the block by her usual standards, and she might be long retired, but ocean swimming legend Shelley Taylor-Smith knows her competitive instincts will take over when she competes in the Express Glass Island Challenge at Coogee today. The 2.4-kilometre swim around Wedding Cake Island is regarded as one of the premier events on the summer calendar and one of the few the 46-year-old has competed in since her retirement eight years ago. "I'll finish easily, but I'm not sure where I'll finish," she laughed. "But when I get in the water that eye of the tiger will kick in. Let's see what happens." Taylor-Smith has won marathon events all over the world, and broke the world record in 1995 for swimming the 48km distance in five hours, 45 minutes and 25 seconds. She is now pushing to enhance the profile of ocean swimming, especially with open-water swimming included in the program at the Beijing Olympics next year. "Events like this one at Coogee certainly help change attitudes about the sport," she said. "We are ranked No. 4 in the world, behind Russia, Germany and Italy. It deserves higher recognition." More than 1000 competitors are expected to enter the event, now in its seventh year, at Coogee Beach this morning. Among them will be former ironman champions Dean Mercer and his wife Reen Corbett, who will fly from Queensland's Sunshine Coast to join local girl Candice Falzon as the headline acts in what organisers say will be the strongest field ever assembled. Falzon, from nearby Maroubra, won the women's event last year. She finished a most creditable 14th in the gruelling Coolangatta Gold last month and is again expected to excel at Coogee. The main event begins at 10.30am, and is preceded by a 1km "Splash and Dash", which starts at 9.15.
Cookie secrets yield sweet success
By Laura Tonkyn, Journal staff Thursday, December 20, 2007 RAPID CITY - There is sure to be a yummy array of gingerbread, brownies, spritz, Mexican wedding cookies and more -- much more -- on holiday cookie trays this year. But for many bakers, the tray isn’t complete without some beautifully decorated cutouts – the stars, ornaments, bells and snowflakes created from a favorite sugar cookie recipe. It’s a time-consuming process – making and cutting out cookies -- and that’s not counting the patient hours of painting on the decorative frosting. Recently, Connie Suto, a Rapid City restaurateur and master baker, showed a roomful of baking students at Someone’s In the Kitchen how to make sure the long hours of baking result in stunning holiday cookies. Suto’s cake and cookie expertise, along with her delicious luncheon menus, have been bringing customers to her Mount Rushmore Road eatery, Piece of Cake, for 2-1/2 years. And 16 years ago, it was cake design that provided her a start in the business. “I used to sell insurance, and my mom brought in a cake,” she said. “A gentleman saw it and wanted us to do his wedding cake.” Soon Suto was baking cakes for the man’s friends, and her business grew from there. Suto grew up on a ranch west of Hermosa, and cooking was always part of the rural lifestyle. As a young woman, Suto discovered she enjoyed artistic activities such as watercolor painting. “For me to design cakes is just natural,” she said. “It all comes together. I always loved to cook and make people happy.” Today, Suto bakes and designs cakes for about 150 weddings a year, plus many other celebration cakes. It’s her sister, Karen Heinrichs, who bakes most of the cookies at Piece of Cake. But Suto has lots of cookie know-how herself. “A key to sweet stuff is using pure vanilla,” she said. “Once you are used to that, artificial makes things taste yucky.” Suto says she uses real butter, fresh ingredients and pure extracts in the roll-out sugar cookie dough used for the holiday cut-outs. The dough should be between 1/8- and ¼-inch thick, and when baked, should be slightly brown around the edges. “It has to be sturdy enough to hold the icing,” she said. “And it has to taste good and look good.” Suto’s cookies have a special ingredient that makes them taste particularly good – but that’s a trade secret, she said. When measuring the flour, spoon into a cup and level with a knife. Don’t compact it by tapping or packing. And don’t overmix the dough, Suto added. “Incorporate your flour, then stop mixing.” When rolling out the dough, take the scraps and add them to a new piece of dough. The unbaked cookies should be placed on an aluminum pan, never a dark pan. “Insulated pans are great,” Suto said, because they brown evenly. For cakes, and for cookies, too, an inserted toothpick should come out with crumbs on it. “If your toothpick comes out dry, your cake is dry,” Suto said. In her cookie class, Suto used Royal Icing for decorating. “We use it on these particular cookies because of the pulling technique,” she said. Buttercream icing is likely more flavorful, according to Suto, but does not have the decorating ease. A good number of people give up on decorating cookies because they start with store-bought frosting. “It has horrible results,” she said, adding that a poor outcome is likely caused by wrong tools and wrong products. Proving her point, the results were amazingly fine at the cookie class Suto taught. Each student used three decorator bags of Royal Icing, one white, one dyed green and one dyed red. Each also was provided with a fat tip, two thinner tips and a supply of toothpicks. The fat tips were used to fill in the background of each cookie with white frosting, while the thinner tips were used with the red and green bags to begin the design work. After a line of colored frosting was squeezed onto the filled-in cookie, the toothpicks were used to “pull” the line into beautiful patterns. There was a festive spirit as the class worked on their cookies, with some students showing amazed pride at the successful outcomes. “What’s great about it is that everybody’s cookie looks different,” Suto said after the class. “There are always some people who are very artistic. They try it my way, then they do something different.” Once students learn the basic techniques, Suto encourages them to experiment with different colors and patterns. She does advise a little caution. “Cookies can be complex. People start with too much and can get overwhelmed. Start with the very basic and get very beautiful cookies,” she said. But her class is really about giving people the tools to free up their Christmas creativity. “A lot of people come in skeptical and think they will be bad,” she said. “We prove them wrong.”
What's hot in weddings -- and what's not
December 22, 2007 By Anja Winikka Scripps Howard News Service What's in: Invites that wow Let your invites be the star of the show. Choose a design that will make a bold statement about the two of you and your wedding day -- think two-color fonts, envelopes lined in a bright color or a funky wedding motif. Keep the focus on the invite design and colors; skip all the individual inserts -- simple tri-fold invites are in. What's out: Overstuffed envelopes. Even the most glamorous brides are eco-conscious and are choosing to nix the wasteful paper inserts; now they're directing guests to their wedding Web sites for all the extra info. What's in: Eclectic decor Find ways to add elements that reflect you as a couple. Mix and match colorful vases from an antique store or fill bold-patterned tea cans with flowers for your cocktail tables. For added wow, tent your ceiling with punchy fabric or hang a few vintage chandeliers in your space. What's out: The same vase and flowers at every table. It's all about an unexpected pop of style. What's in: Signature bars Signature cocktails have gotten bigger and better -- now, the entire bar has a theme. Think margarita stations, drink menus with four signature cocktails (Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue), or wine-tasting tables. What's out: Vodka shot ice sculptures. Don't let your wedding turn into a frat party. If you want to serve shooters, make them wedding-worthy by dusting the shot glass rims with edible gold flakes and passing them around during the cocktail hour. What's in: Six-course meals You may have a gorgeous wedding cake, but the dessert course is your chance to serve some old-time favorites and really impress. Opt for butler-served apple pie a la mode, strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, or a rich chocolate mousse garnished with chocolate shavings. Then, to amp the wow factor, lay out an artisan cheese and Port wine buffet. What's out: Overlooking the dessert course. Cake is important, yes, but adding in something sweet at the end of the meal really packs a punch. What's in: Longer celebrations A wedding is no longer just a one-day celebration -- the event has turned into a weekend of gatherings for family and friends. Invite guests a day or two early and throw a welcome party (a clambake or cookout perhaps). After the reception, invite all your guests to an after-party with fireside s'mores. The next morning, plan a post-wedding brunch send-off. What's out: Having a "club-like" after-party. Wild and crazy after-parties don't suit today's couples, who are more likely to invite friends of all ages and backgrounds and want to keep the gathering more intimate and memorable. What's in: Honeymoon hopping Can't decide between a relaxing beach vacation or an active, adventurous one? You don't have to. Plan to do a little hopping while on your honeymoon. Use the interactive map on the honeymoon channel (TheKnot.com/honeymoon) and choose two or three destinations for your once-in-a-lifetime trip. What's out: One-sided honeymoons that benefit either the bride or groom. This should be the trip-of-a-lifetime for both of you. What's in: Going green Planning a wedding is the ideal opportunity to show off your socially and environmentally conscious side. For decor, use potted plants as your centerpieces instead of pesticide-treated flowers. Reduce paper by directing guests to your wedding Web site and avoiding paper-packed invites. And, in terms of the menu, serve up in-season courses and hire a caterer that uses locally grown ingredients. What's out: Bridezillas who are stuck on themselves. Planning a wedding is the perfect place to exercise socially responsible decision-making.
