Wedding Cake Trends Ibiza 2012

A new trend which is really taking off  is a ‘sweet table’  or dessert table-  which includes those fabulous treats  such as macaroons – coloured and flavoured  to match the day– lollipops for the  pure fun,  sweets,  rock sticks  (with or without the couples initial’s or names inside)  whoopee pies  are becoming increasingly popular too, an  American thing now taking of in the UK.  And the lovely ‘cake pops’.  A display like this looks great – but does require a lot of work, so beware it is expensive.

Traditionally a wedding cake was made from the best and most expensive ingredients hence the rich fruit cake which required time and skill. Now as we all have an abundance of food – almost anything goes, therefore couples often as not opt for a sponge cake as it also gives the added benefit of many flavours, of course to have a good sponge cake also requires skill and the very best ingredients.

Some couples even choose  a cheesecake, profiteroles, or similar  – which unfortunately has to stay in the fridge until required  taking away that glorious centrepiece which should be the focus during the wedding feast.

I am now preparing to go to the UK – and during my stay I will be getting married  and YES I have made my own wedding cake, rich fruit as  due to the logistics of taking it to the UK  I needed to make it in advance and take it over in our car, which we did 2 weeks ago.  Watch this space I will post pictures end of November

I will leave you with a few photographs of some of my favourite wedding cake centre pieces of this season at beautiful venues such as:  Amante, Cap Des Falco, Blue Marlin, Gecho Beach Club (Formentera) etc   Oh and just one of my favourite man �  – that lovely ceremony host Hedley Paul – see his website here: www.blessings-on-ibiza.com

Have a lovely winter, enjoy the wedding planning – I am

Eileen xxxx

Winter is finally upon us here in Ibiza, the last tourists are now leaving along with all our direct flights. We are indeed isolated again this winter as Ryan Air is not providing us with the wonderful ‘direct flights’ that many of us have come to rely upon.    So any couples who were thinking of a ‘quickie weekend’ to tie up the bits and pieces for their wedding in 2012 will have to think again or pay extortionate prices to fly  BA or Iberia via Barcelona or Madrid with the added problem of it taking up most of the day.

Please do take a minute to add your signature to the petition for Ryan Air to re-instate the winter flights – it’s in all our benefits. : http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/winter-flights.html

I am about to travel to the UK next week (via one of those routes) to attend the International Cake fair, which is a very important yearly event for my business.  Looking at the new trends, new products, buying supplies for the next season etc.

The change to a finished product by changing the cupcake cases for example can be dramatic, therefore it is important to look  at the new designs  then choosing some from the vast displays in order to make something unique and different!   Styles of cakes also change on a yearly basis – just as any fashion item. Last year saw the start of a new trend which is the ‘romantic shabby chic’,   inspired by the Royal wedding. This coming season sees this trend increasing, with cupcakes being considered as much as a return to the large tiered cakes.  Both styles look impressive, but although lots more work I still prefer the cupcakes , with cupcakes each guest has their own small ‘finished product’ with a handmade decoration, if they don’t wish to eat it that moment it is easy to take away to eat the following day with an afternoon tea or coffee.  Whereas a slice of cake is just that – tastes great J  but has little or no decoration, the venue also have the added work of cutting and slicing the cake for the guests,  – often as not the venue will discourage the guests from having a slice as it saves them the work and time.

I leave you with a few of my wedding cakes of this season……

Enjoy the planning

Eileen xxxxxxxx

Wedding Cakes Ibiza 2012

This season will soon be at a close and most of us in the wedding business are already quite busy for the summer wedding season of 2012.  Here at Ibizacakes  we  are preparing for next season by first of all visiting the  annual international cake fair which is held at the NEC in Birmingham, this is where we are  able to see new products, speak with suppliers, and see the new trends for 2012.   It is an invaluable experience as here on the Island  I am amongst a very small community where ‘sugar artistry’ is quite unique, my competitor’s  use fresh flowers, ‘cut out flowers’ or buy in the decoration.  My passion is making sugar decorations and of course designing the wedding cake to my couples specifications/ideas,  I  absolutely love the final stages of a  wedding cake  or cupcakes  or mini-cakes,  when I can finally put all the  design ideas  together.  Today  I have  now  ready to deliver   a violet cascading roses 3 tier wedding cake, I spent the morning adding the decorations, slowly as they need to be ‘built up’ and then left to dry  then adding another level until I have a cascade down the 3 tiers,  the cake has a rich fruit cake top, so I carefully wired the top flowers so that it can be lifted off from the other layers so that the couple can take it back to the UK,  I hope they can manage this feat!!!!!     At least if the flowers are damaged the cake will still be edible and they will have the photographs of their special day in Ibiza when the cake was still in perfect order.   The venue is the beautiful Amante,   always one of my favourite places. Not only a spectacular venue but  lovely friendly owners and staff, which makes all the difference to us suppliers and especially to the wedding couple and their guests.

Amante are already fully booked for June 2012, as are many of the lovely venues we visit,   there are still availabilities around the Island in the lesser known spots,  that truly are just as lovely.  So if you are still in the thinking/planning stage for 2012 don’t worry  you can still achieve your dream   of a wedding on Ibiza in 2012.

Enjoy the planning  for 2012

I leave you with the finished ‘violet cascading roses’…..

The season is winding down now, with the majority of the wedding events finished, although of course we still have beautiful weather and the weddings are as spectacular as ever, after an almost ‘marathon’ of work I now have more time to design my next cupcake tower for the beautiful venue of Cap Des Falco. This next one will be green and lilac as the colour theme and the beautiful combination of carrot cake and my now very famous lemon cake, the cup cakes are made to my own recipe using the finest ingredients which includes of course locally grown fresh lemons. The cupcake tower should not only look fantastic it should also taste fantastic!
My work is rather like being an artist, I liaise with the couple asking questions about the style of their very special day etc the ideas they would like so that I then get a ‘feeling’ for the cake. Each cupcake tower is unique, even though I am asked for ‘something similar’ to ones I already have on my website, or in my portfolio, – the advantage of coming to see me when on an Ibiza trip is that you get a tasting (and coffee of course!) and of course see much more of my work than is currently on the website.
This season I have made many more tiered cakes, cascading roses being the most popular, but I still make many cupcake towers and really they still are my favourite, they always look impressive, each guest has their own ‘wedding cake’ with handmade sugar flowers on each and every cake, I always insist on a ‘top cake’ to make the cupcake tower look impressive and of course for the cutting ceremony.
I leave you with a few of this year’s unique cupcake towers,
Eileen
www.ibizacakes.com

handmade sugar orchids in the preparation stage..

Wedding cupcakes.

The season is winding down now, with the majority of the wedding events  finished,  although of course we still have beautiful weather and the fewer weddings are as spectacular as ever,  after an almost ‘marathon’ of work  I now have more time to design my next  cupcake tower for the beautiful venue of Cap Des Falco.  This next one will be green and lilac as the colour theme and the beautiful combination of carrot cake and my now very famous lemon cake, the cup cakes are made to my own recipe using the finest  ingredients which includes of course locally grown fresh lemons.  The cupcake tower should not only look fantastic it should also taste fantastic!

My work is rather like being an artist, I liaise with the couple  asking questions about the style of their very special day,   the ideas they would like so that I  then get a ‘feeling’ for the cake. Each cupcake tower is unique, even though I am asked for ‘something similar’ to ones I already have on my website, or in my portfolio, – the advantage of coming to see me when on an Ibiza trip is that you get a tasting and coffee of course!  and see much more of my work than is currently on the website.

This season I have made many more tiered cakes,  cascading roses being the most popular, but I still make many  cupcake towers  and really they still are my favourite,  they always look impressive, each guest has their own ‘wedding cake’  with handmade sugar flowers  on each and every cake, I always insist on a ‘top cake’ to make the cupcake tower look impressive and of course for the cutting ceremony.

I leave you with a few of this year’s unique cupcake towers and I just had to add some flowers in progress orchids 75 of them plus I made a bouquet of trailing orchids for the top cake.   I only make cakes – they are all made with love and passion, every single one is a delight for me……

Eileen

www.ibizacakes.com

Eileen

www.ibizacakes.com

Beautiful edible sea shells Ibiza

beautiful lace wedding cake

6 tiers 30kgs of wedding cake!!!!

Fuschia pink and white Ibiza wedding cake

The season is well under way and I now have a small break before the ‘wedding season on Ibiza’ starts again with a vengeance. I am enjoying this immensely as I have my young grandson staying with me  who at the moment is helping to create lime green roses for a cup cake tower (I do have a few wedding cakes this month) – well – let me explain, he has his own work station and somehow the icing seems to disappear rather than take on the form of a flower  he loves this work which appears to be because he rolls out some and the rest goes in his little mouth!!!!
Whoops ……. Mommy is not too happy about this 

Ibiza wedding cakes as I predicted before the season started have been very diverse this year – following on from our ‘Kate and Will’. I have made many tiered romantic wedding cakes – even as much as 6 tiers extravaganza’s which was for famous Dutch models and the wedding was featured in the Spanish version of the Hello magazine.
It took quite some work to deliver and set up this cake, thankfully I have a Engineer as a partner who was invaluable in helping with the logistics of this cake!! Including carrying it in sections to the private villa where the party was held (the cake weighed over 30kgs!!). It looked spectacular and it was enjoyed by all!!
For cup cakes I have had the pleasure of making some really beautiful cakes, following the ideas of my brides. One of my favourites has to be the very pretty ‘butterfly cup cakes’ following my bride and Groom’s theme I made mint green roses with hand painted edible butterfly’s. A completely different style was a desserts table which was bright red and white with ‘brightly coloured’ extras consisiting of cup cakes, lollipops and macaroons, macaroons are not the easiest things to make 
The most difficult so far this season was making ‘meringue’s for a birthday party, making them is quite straight forward, BUT the humidity on this Island meant that they had to be kept very dry in a room with a de-humidifier working 24hours, transporting them and setting the cake up was a logisitic I fortunately didn’t have to do.
As the sea air is so humid during the summer months, I have to be careful where my cakes are set up as humidity and sugar icing do not mix . Fortunately I have perfected my recipes so that the cakes hold beautifully for the whole evening allowing the cake to be on display throughout the wedding meal ready for the cutting ceremony – which is either after the speeches or before the couple’s first dance.
For the moment I am preparing for the very busy September month, I have lots of different designs to produce, at the moment I am making ‘ orchids’ for 75 cup cakes, very time consuming .

All in all it is a very good season for Ibiza weddings.
I will leave you with a few of this season’s cakes……. />[/caption]

beautiful butterfly's

Gecho Beach Club Formentera

red and white desserts table

The fantastic job of making the Royal wedding cake has gone to that most brilliant cake maker Fiona Bairns. As she quite rightly said she is nervous, privileged and excited about this commission with all the aspects of the work involved creating this once in a lifetime special wedding cake. As with any wedding cake there is no second chance the cake has to be right on the day no excuses it must look spectacular and taste fantastic……..
Fiona will be making sugar craft flowers with help from her team, this work takes weeks and weeks, the delicate roses (my favourite I use many on my wedding cakes), the thistle – I have made these in the past very time consuming, daffodils and last but not least the shamrocks. Kate has commissioned Fiona to make a cake with very clear instructions, each layer to have a different theme, although the whole finished cake will be white and cream – truly romantic. I am so happy they have chosen the romantic style even though it will have a contemporary finish .
This year the overall theme for wedding cakes in England and here on Ibiza is romantic with a ‘shabby chic’ theme. I have many new designs in the process including many with edible lace which is piped onto the cake this gives such a chic vintage feel. Natural is the prevailing colour along with ‘a soft peach’. Colours that can be achieved with the new edible ‘shimmer colours’ that give the right colour as well as a soft pearl glow.
Every year new innovative products come on to the market enabling us cake makers to move forward making ever more sophisticated designs which look fabulous on the day without spending months over the work, which would have in the past made them out of the price range for most young couples.
I leave you with a few of my roses and thistles………..

My winter months are spent visiting International cake exhibition’s and looking at new products to allow me to be at the ‘cutting edge of the market’. I am not a commercial enterprise I make cakes individually and they are made with love and care. I do not ‘mass produce’ using machinery and I do not ‘also make cakes’. My cakes are featured in International magazines. My cake making business is my passion!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I DO NOT USE REAL FLOWERS – they are so beautiful to compliment the tables and the venue, perfect for the brides bouquet , but on a wedding cake the most amazing thing is to have ‘sugar craft edible flowers’ which have been handmade to compliment the theme of the day. These hand crafted flowers can be kept for many many years as a souvenir of this one special day or eaten on the day of course!!!!
This year I have more orders for the traditional style tiered wedding cake, which look amazing, my new rather exciting product this year allows me to make edible lace – in any colour, it is so intricate and looks absolutely amazing, especially with this year’s theme of ‘vintage chic’. I am looking forward to creating some very unusual and very beautiful wedding cakes …….. watch this space!!!! in the meantime I leave you with a few of last season’s wedding cakes…………