Food Network Challenge: Newlywed Cakes

Newlywed Cakes…….?

The first thing I thought when Food Network asked me to do this Challenge was, “What is a newlywed cake?” I asked the producers to elaborate. They wouldn’t. In fact, they told me that Newlywed Cakes will be a challenge with a mystery client, a mystery assistant, and a twist in the judging.

No, no, no…. I’m not the right girl for this Challenge. I need time to plan and practice. I can’t jump into the bottomless pit of mystery. No. I will not do this challenge.

That was my stance until the producer of the show called me again the next week and talked me into it, telling me it will be a fun show with a lot of interaction. Ok. I’ll do it. So back to my question…What is a newlywed cake?

I thought about what it meant to be a newlywed. When I was a newlywed we had gifts and moving boxes, packing peanuts and wrapping paper…It was all over our new home. Pictures of our honeymoon, and after the long wait, our wedding portrait. This is a common story among many newlywed couples and I’m going to turn this into my blank canvas in order to tell a story of this mystery newlywed couple.

Many times in mystery challenges cake designers bring stacked tiers that look like wedding cakes. They fill up the sides of the tiers with items made to please the client. A lot of these cakes turn out great. But I love to sculpt. That’s what I do best and it’s what I bring to Challenge every time. If done well, a sculpted cake can score high points, too.

So, instead of planning on stacking round tiers and placing objects on them I came up with another plan. Essentially, my approach was very similar to what the other decorators where doing with their cakes…. Items of significance….anything on this cake that can personalize a newlywed couple. I just chose to present these items in a different way. I needed to stand out in order to win.

The morning of the Challenge was when all the missing parts came together. Each contestant got a newlywed couple. The theme was revealed… “Each cake should represent your couple’s new life together.” The husbands are our assistants and we were to design our cake together. The wives were banished from the studio all day. The cakes would be placed 4th through 1st. The 1st place cake must be identified by the wife as her cake in order to win.

The couple I got were Trey and Mandy. Trey was a great assistant. Funny and smart and very eager to win. I asked him what he thought a newlywed cake was. He was just as baffled as I was at the mention of this. I told him my idea and that I needed him to fill in all the blanks, choose the color palette (preferably his wife’s favorite colors), and make all the key design choices, including what items are in the boxes, on the scrapbook and how it’s all designed.

It was important to me that I keep the theme of this cake “newlywed.” Meaning that I wanted Trey and Mandy represented as a married couple. The theme was “their new life together” so Trey and I worked hard to make sure that all the items on the cake were post-wedding, not from when they met or anything before their wedding.

The big cardboard box tier at the bottom of the cake was to hold a large item that Trey and Mandy had bought or received for their new home. Trey chose their new dining room table.

The gift box was to hold anything that Trey thought Mandy would find significant. He bought her a diamond necklace after they got married, and he wanted me to incorporate her favorite flowers…calla lilies. Trey designed the box to match the kitchen bar in their home, which had a cool pressed letter design, and he wanted me to use the colors in their home…pink and teal. We created wrapping paper for the bottom box in the same colors to pull our palette together.

The scrapbook…. I wanted to use this for Trey and Mandy’s memories or wishes of the future. He chose their honeymoon on the beach in Mexico. Perfect!!!

The wedding portrait on top… Now, I had always intended on creating a wedding portrait of the mystery newlywed couple on my cake. I didn’t know that the cake would have to be identified by anyone until the morning of the Challenge. I had the portrait planned since I began to design this cake and the Food Network producers knew about this. Why they choose to edit this in the show as a “last minute” idea is beyond me. You can even see Trey using the stencil and pre-colored edible papers I brought to create the portrait.

No element on this cake was an after thought. It turned out that the portrait was a great idea because of the “identity” element in the end. Trey and Mandy are an inter-racial couple, but that really didn’t matter because each couple was really different from one another. One couple both had brown hair, one couple both had blonde hair, and one couple was a man with grey hair and a woman with brown hair. Each couple was very distinguishable from the next.

Trey and I had problems from the edible paper ripping, to the lid of the box sagging. But we finished on time and it was the first time in Challenge that I was able to finish a cake to completion. It felt great, and I felt lucky to have had Trey as an assistant.

I will never do another mystery challenge. Even though I won, I struggled with this one. There were too many variables, too many unknowns. I much prefer doing a character driven cake at Challenge like Mary Poppins or Elmo or Spongebob. Although the character challenges are technically more difficult and take longer to prepare for, I am able to create better work without the panic of the endless guessing games of mystery challenges.

Lauren Bozich's wonderful 2nd place cake. I loved this cake. Lauren is a friend of mine and a gifted artist. I knew she would be able to make a ton of different items for her cake and boy, did she. Every item on her cake is easily identifiable. She's a great artist and came close to beating me!!!

Lauren is Teaching!

Muppets: 101 with Lauren Kitchens

9am to 5pm, Saturday January 30, 2010
$275 per student

at Cake Carousel in Richardson, Texas

In this fun, hands-on class, learn how to muppetize anyone, even yourself. Lauren will guide you step by step using the same techniques she used in Food Network Challenge to make a one-of-kind edible muppet.

You will build your muppet on a decorated fake tier while learning to sculpt with rice cereal treats and modeling chocolate as well as fondant work and airbrushing. All supplies included.

Visit http://www.cakecarousel.com/ to sign up!

Spongebob Challenge!!!

Lauren competed in her fourth Food Network Challenge called "Spongebob Cakes" celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon.

Her cake..... Mr. Krabs!

The air date is April 4, 2010

Food Network Challenge

Watch Lauren muppetize the judges while making her Elmo cake in
"Food Network Challenge: Sesame Street Cakes."

Watch Lauren's first Challenge... "Disney Classics Cakes."

Watch for Lauren's newest Challenge set to premeire January 10, 2010.

"Food Network Challenge: Newlywed Cakes"

See below for show details...

Food Network Challenge Newlywed Cakes

I shot my third Food Network Challenge called

"Newlywed Cakes"

This Challenge had a mystery theme, mystery client, mystery assistant, with a mean little twist in the judging.

Everything was revealed to us just one hour before the competition began. It was the most difficult Challenge I've done so far.

What a day!!

The episode is scheduled to air January 10, 2010.

Food Network Challenge Sesame Street Cakes

The begining of the day was wonderful. Here I am next to my Elmo armature getting ready to make the cutest cake I've ever made. My assistant, Heather, and I had all the kinks worked out during practice and nothing stood in our way of having a great day at Challenge...




...Until thirty minutes after the clock started, Heather severely burned her hand with sugar that was heated to 340 degrees. Our judge, Kerry Vincent, was the first one to come to our rescue. While the producers were bringing us bandages and burn ointment and calling the peremedics, Kerry and I were wrapping Heather's hand. I thought for sure that our day was over.






I don't know how she did it, but Heather kept working! I thought I could just get the muppets finished and submit them for judging. Heather was responsible for the two large cakes in our peice. I never imagined that she would be able to continue such a huge job with that hand in such pain. There was no stopping her.





My character was Elmo and I designed the cake as a Sesame Street parody of Food Network Challenge. Sesame Street has always used parodies on their show to entertain parents and older siblings. It's a great idea and I thought I would pull this parody idea into my cake.


Elmo is the star of my parody cake, as he has just been named the winner of the Monster Network Challenge. He is standing on top of the judges table holding his winning cake in the air. His assistant, Goldfish Dorothy, has her gold medal around her fish bowl. The host of the show, Cake'in Gerhard (Keegan Gerhard), holds Elmo's medal in his hand. The two judges, Cookie Vincent (Kerry Vincent) and Patrick Cakestand (Partick Coston), look on with excitement.


Here you see me talking to the third judge, Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of Sesame Street. At that point, she was sold on my idea.






The whole set is very calm and quite all day.





I made Elmo out of rice cereal treats and red modeling chocolate. The fur was modeling chocolate that I pulled through a pasta attatchement on the Kitchen Aid mixer. I think Elmo took me two hours to finish. We were so behind with Heather's burn.





There's Patrick looking over our judges' table cake. I try hard to read him when he comes around my kitchen.





Keegan is looking at the cake after I got Elmo and Cookie on. He gave me a big smile!





I'm starting to work on my third muppet, Patrick Cakestand. For some reason I was able to finish him in half the time which gave me some time to help Heather catch up.





The finishing touch on Patrick was his uni-brow. The real Patrick hated this, but I told him that I gave him the uni-brow because his eye brows are the only hair he has on his shaved head. Plus, the uni-brow is a classic muppet feature.





On to my fourth and final muppet, Cake'in Gerhard.





The chef's coats were made from a wonderful and unusual sugar product called Sugar Veil. It is pure white and very shiney. I was able to cut the pieces from large sheets that I had made.





Heather and her burned hand....Still working with a smile!





With thrity minutes left, all four muppets are up and ready. Now it's time for Elmo's cake and poured sugar fish bowl (the cause of Heather's burn).





Rush, rush, rush.... Getting little details finished as best we can.






I had to climb a ladder to get Elmo's cake up. The entire cake stood almost 5-feet tall.





Here's the winning cake. Mike McCarey's Big Bird. It was incredible. I've never seen a cake that perfect in person. He deserved his win!





Mariane Carroll's Cookie Monster cake. So cute! I loved the chef's hat and the smiling stick of butter.





Roland Winbeckler's Oscar The Grouch cake. It was great. The sugar "trash" he made at the bottom of the cake was fantastic!





So, by now you know that we didn't win. But we got the silver medal. We were both so proud to have finished the cake, especially under those circumstances.





Our cake still makes me laugh.






The judges, both sets, posing with the cake.... Classic!





Here's Mike McCarey. Check out his website. You won't believe his cakes. http://www.mikesamazingcakes.com/





Here are Marsha and Roland Winbeckler http://www.winbeckler.com/
Marianne Carroll and Lauren Bozich http://www.whiteflowercake.com/





Here are Kerry and Cookie. A match made in Heaven!




Ahhh, the silver medal. Next time gold....?




Food Network Challenge Sesame Street Cakes, original air July 26, 2009 on Food Network.

Food Network Challenge Sesame Street Cakes airing this Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 7:00pm central time

Food Network Challenge, Sesame Street Cakes

I just shot my second Food Network Challenge.

This one was "Sesame Street Cakes."

Wait until you see these cakes!

It is scheduled to air on July 26, 2009 on Food Network.

Food Network Challenge...At Sesame Street!

The Food Network sent me and my competitors to New York on January 28th to visit the set of Sesame Street to prepare for the next Challenge we're doing in this spring. It's a Sesame Street themed Challenge and we are all making a muppet cake. Our Challenge will be filmed at the Food Network studio on March 25th.

From the left, this is Roland Winbeckler (one of the pioneers in American cake decorating and an incredible cake artist. Remarkably, this will be Roland's first Challenge), Mike McCarey (a master cake sculpter, a Challenge multi-winner, and my hero), Marianne Carroll (incredibly creative cake designer and a Challenge veteran). I'm up against some tough competition, but I can't wait!

Me on the Sesame Street stoop.

I'm making the Elmo cake for the Challenge. Each of us interviewed our muppet. This is me during my interview with Elmo. After the interview was over Elmo called my 4 year-old daughter, Stella, in Dallas. She LOVED it!

Here's Marianne interviewing Cookie Monster. What a cute couple!

Roland interviewing Oscar. This was a hysterical interview! Even the cameraman was having trouble holding the camera still. We were all laughing.

Mike interviewing Big Bird. He even prepared a custom "knock-knock" joke for Bird.

Roland snooping around Sesame Street. I'm sure there's some good stuff in that can!

Mike, Marianne and I wanted pictures in Big Bird's bedroom with his huge nest.

This was an amazing experience. I can't even explain how emotional I was all day. From Sesame Street to the brilliant cake artists that I look up to... I was overwhelmed!

Wish me luck for the Elmo cake I'll be making in March on the Food Network. All the cakes will be great. This Challenge will air sometime this year to head the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street.