Jessica Onions of Layers Cake Design- Durango, Colorado
Congrats to Jessica for winning 1st place in the professional visual category and 3rd place in the People’s Choice award at the 2008 Chocolate Fantasia Event.
We asked Jessica to sum up the current cake trends this year as well as tell us about some unique cakes she is designing, here’s what she has to say:
The bride who comes to Layers Cake Design is looking for a modern, stylish and sophisticated wedding cake, with bold color accents, and sometimes personalized in very unique ways. Bringing in colors from the invitation, reception or bridesmaids dresses onto the wedding cake is huge this year. This can be done by tinting the fondant frosting to match the colors used in the wedding or by recreating bold patterns on the cake to match their invitation design or reception decor. Other brides are adding bold color to their cake with fresh flowers.
Popular cake flavors for this year are: chocolate cake with a raspberry preserves filling, red velvet cake with a vanilla buttercream filling and carrot cake with a vanilla buttercream. Offering a variety of flavors for guests is also popular this year. This is done by making each cake tier a different cake and filling combination.
80% of my brides order fondant covered cakes. Fondant frosting gives a wedding cake a smooth, professional appearance, keeps the cake moist longer, and provides a sweet, marshmallow-like flavor and texture. Fondant also offers the opportunity to create unique designs and scenes on a cake, that buttercream will not.
Personalized wedding cakes are very big this year and continue to gain in popularity as the bride and groom want to showcase their unique interests onto their wedding cake. Next month, I will be creating a wedding cake with a river and kayaking bride and groom coming down the river. This three tiered cake will be covered in fondant with the kayaking bride and groom hand crafted from edible gum paste.
Another cake I will be creating this fall is a representation of the events that the bride and groom will be partaking with their guests earlier on their wedding day. It is complete with an aspen grove hand painted on the side of the fondant covered cake with edible food coloring, train tracks, jeep tracks and a jeep cake topper. This wedding cake will be a reminder of the day’s events. Something the guests will surely enjoy at the reception.
The majority of brides come to me with a photo of a unique wedding cake design they have found on the web! I think this is great! Researching the type of cake design you want before meeting with me, helps to give me a better understanding of the style you are after. However, we can always start from scratch and create a wedding cake from your own imagination.
If you're looking for a fabulous baker in Southwest Colorado contact Jessica at 970-749-9004 or jessica@yesdurango.com or visit her website at www.layers-cakedesign.com
Jessica describes three of her recent wedding cake creations:
Left Photo: Beautiful red roses separate three vanilla fondant frosting covered tiers with fondant swags and chocolate swirl details. The top and bottom tiers consisted of walnut and raisin studded carrot cakes with vanilla buttercream filling. The middle tier was a southern style red velvet cake with vanilla buttercream filling.Middle Photo: Hundreds of fresh flowers adorn this dramatic five tiered wedding cake. All five tiers were covered in rich vanilla fondant frosting with each tier consisting of a different cake and filling combination ranging from a moist chocolate cake with raspberry filling to a walnut and raisin -studded carrot cake with vanilla buttercream filling.
Right Photo: Inspired by the bride and grooms wedding invitation design, this elegant and stylish wedding cake consisted of decadent chocolate fondant frosting covering a moist yellow cake with vanilla buttercream filling.
