Austin is well known for their rustic venues and brides swoon over different ideas to capture that rustic feel into their cake. I am so excited about this cake we made for a precious couple at Twisted Ranch this past weekend. Design and floral by Pink Parasol tied everything together in a pretty little bow to make the entire wedding flow perfectly.
The bride and groom wanted a grand elegant wedding cake that tied to their theme of rustic chic. So we got to work designing! The 4 tiers gave the cake a grand appearance while the hand painted brush strokes gave the design a tree-like resemblance. To make the cake even more rustic, buttercream barbwire cascaded down most of the tiers. The third tier encompassed a hand painted heart with their initials to give the cake a cute, personalized factor. And the fondant belt buckle completed the rustic look. However, you can't have a rustic chic wedding cake without the chic. Enter the beautiful spider mums and a touch of bling. Adorning each spider mum is a small cluster of rhinestones, just for a little pop of bling. And incorporated in the belt buckle are some small silver dragees, giving the buckle a little pop of pizzaz! And what is the point of a cake if it doesn't melt in your mouth? This adorable rustic chic cake was a French Vanilla Cake with a Strawberry Filling and Buttercream Icing. How's that for yumm!!
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Would you like an opportunity to sample any flavor combination of your choice? Would you like to mix and match different flavors and fillings to see what flavor combination will be perfect for your wedding day? If so, you don't want to miss our Custom Tasting!
So what is our custom tasting? Our custom tasting is one evening every few months where we open up our kitchen and allow you to choose your samples to taste. We will bake them fresh specifically for you! How does this work?
It's that time again! Time for the Austin Bridal Extravaganza! In case you missed the details....it'll be held this Sunday, June 11th from noon to 5:00 pm at the Palmer Event Center!
Now that we got the fine print out to the way, let's talk about the show! There is so much I don't even know where to begin. I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'll just touch on one of the most important "do not do prior to the show" things that almost every bride does. Do Not Eat Prior To The Bridal Extravaganza!!! The show starts at noon and your mom and best gal pals are with you. It's only natural to want to grab a light lunch to enjoy the company and fill up before a long day of wedding shopping. But, don't do it! The Bridal Extravaganza is filled with cakes, catering, and other delicious treats. And of course, they will be offering samples of some of their tastiest and most mouth watering treats and appetizers. This is a great opportunity for you to sample for you to sample some of the best caterer's and cake bakers in Austin side by side. In fact, it's the only place that you can! You don't want to be so full from lunch that you miss this opportunity. Come hungry. Sample the catering. Enjoy the cakes and treats. You will definitely be full by the time you leave, but you will have either found the perfect caterer or baker or will be well on your way! See you all at the show on Sunday!! Wow! I cannot believe it has been so long since my last blog post. We have had a lot on our plates...in addition to being in full swing for wedding season! I have some fun news to share. If you saw my facebook live last week then you already know. But, if you didn't...we are expanding!
Since I opened my doors in 2008 I have been slowly growing every year and last year had the honor of making 100 wedding cakes for lovely couples in addition to birthdays and other celebration cakes. With my little rental kitchen and my home office for the business work, I can't take on much more than that. But, I don't want to stop growing either. So, my husband and I began to brain storm. We talked at length with other professionals with much more wisdom and business experience then I have. We had 2 realistic options. One option was to go out and open a store front. After much thought and prayer we decided against that. The main reason was the overhead. I love the personal relationship I have with brides. I love that I work with couples from start to finish. I spoke to several coordinators and venue owners that I work with I asked what was one thing that stands out about our cakes. And the answer...you're consistent. Since I'm the one baking and decorating every cake the product is always the same. If I had a storefront I would have to take on a lot more cakes to pay for the overhead. That means I would have to hire more staff and I would be having other employees baking and decorating your wedding cake. That creates inconsistency in flavor and design. And I didn't want that. I wanted my customers to be able to sit down with the person baking and decorating their cakes and know in full confidence that their cake was in good hands. So with that being said the storefront door was closed. And the door to option 2 was opened and everything started falling into place...rather quickly too. With our children getting bigger and our house seemingly getting smaller we thought...why not combine the two. Why not purchase a larger home on some land and build a commercial kitchen on that land. I would have basically my own storefront but without the overhead. I would have a kitchen and consultation room and storage...all right there accessible to me. So we found a great realtor and she began to work tirelessly for us to find the perfect spot. Let me tell you that was no easy task. The zoning had to be right. The location had to be right. The school had to be right. The house had to be right. And the land had to be right. In 4 months we found it! And two weeks ago we closed on it and moved in! So Kayla Knight Cakes has officially moved to Round Rock. We are about 5 minutes north of the heart of downtown Round Rock...much more centrally located for Austin/RR/Pflugerville couples! Currently, we are in the middle of our two phase expansion. The first phase is getting the family moved in. We are in the process of unpacking and getting settled in. Today I spent all day painting my new home office...exciting! Once we complete that we will be renovation on an already existing 550 square foot structure on our property. This will be the new home of Kayla Knight Cakes. I will definitely be blogging and keeping everyone informed (with photos) as phase 2 begins until completion. And when it does...we will have some form of fantastic grand opening! We had a blast making this little guy for a wedding recently. He is an adorable way to dress up one of your favorite characters to incorporate it into a more formal event, like a wedding. While precious on the outside, he is made of chocolate cake with a bavarian cream filling on the inside! So, as tempting as it is not to cut into him, you'd be missing out on a very tasty treat if you didn't!
We are so excited to be planning our first ever custom tasting! This tasting will be an opportunity for you to create the perfect flavor for your wedding cake. One thing that we pride ourselves on here at Kayla Knight Cakes is the taste of our cakes! Another thing that we strive for is a 100% custom flavor. Because of this we do not pre-select fillings and pair them with cake flavors. We let you choose!
So at our custom tasting you can pick any 3 of our flavors and any 3 of our fillings. I will bake them fresh for you and leave them separated for your tasting. This allows you to mix and match the various flavors and fillings at your tasting to figure out what flavor combination you want for your wedding cake! And the best part...it's free! So, here's the rundown! Currently our appointment times are still pretty open. We have 5:20, 5:40, 6:00, 6:20, 6:40, 7:00, 7:20, and 7:40 pm available. Email me with your top two tasting times along with the 3 flavors and fillings you wish to sample. Then, on March 28th you along with two other guests (fiance, mom, bff, whomever) join me at Kindred Oaks and we will have the tasting of a lifetime! During our time together you can create your own flavor combinations and we will custom design the perfect flavor for your wedding cake! Feel free to email me with any other questions and I look forward to seeing you at your own custom tasting! Custom Tasting Kindred Oaks March 28, 2017 5:00-8:00pm Contact me to schedule your appointment time and select your flavors! Tastings are a wonderful opportunity to sample a baker's cakes to get an idea for their texture, moisture, and overall flavor! And every baker constructs their tastings in different ways.
Today's trend in tasting is to choose your cake flavor in which you will taste for the consultation. As of recent, we did not offer this to brides. The reason? Because we are a small family owned and operated bakery. The average sample cake tastes 3 hours to create from baking to icing. If I were to make 3 sample cake samples per consultation, that's 9 hours of preparation just for 1 consultation. Let's say I meet with 4 brides in a day (sometimes less, sometimes more). Well, you can do the math. Not to mention the time for the actual consultation and then let's not forget the wedding! So custom tastings for every bride is just not a realistic option since we don't have a full time staff member to only bake sample cakes. And why would you want that? Don't you want the person who is making your wedding cake to make the cake you sample at your consultation too? However, we have wanted to provide this service to our brides so we got together with some of our favorite wedding guru's and came up with a plan. And here it is: Consultation Tasting: Our tasting at the consultation will remain the same. The consultation is when we will sit down and build your cake from scratch. When we sit down to design your cake I will offer a free tasting at that time. Those 3 flavors you sample will be 3 of the flavors I am creating that week for weddings. This gives you an exact representation of what your wedding cake will taste like and gives us the time to focus on our weddings and special event cakes for that weekend. After all, that is what we are here for...to make every wedding cake we create beautiful and tasty! Custom Tasting: Every other month we will schedule an evening at one of our favorite venues. During our 3 hour block we will schedule 15 minute tasting sessions. This tasting will be a mix and match tasting. When you schedule your tasting you will choose 3 flavors and 3 fillings to sample. The samples will be presented in pieces, not as a slice of cake. Bakery terms...deconstructed tasting. This allows you to try and create different tastes and you can mix and match the different flavors and different fillings at once to see what flavor combination you like the best. Since this will be a 15 minute session, it will only be used for tasting purposes and the design aspect of the cake will take place during our consultation. Since we just had our Grand Tasting this past weekend, we hope to introduce our first ever Custom Tasting in March! Be on the lookout in our blog, website, and social media for that date so you can sign up and choose your flavors! We are so excited to be hosting another Grand Tasting! First things first, what is a Grand Tasting! Well, let me tell you. It's a wonderful Open House style cake tasting. Bring your family and friends and come taste some of our most popular cake flavors this season! This tasting will give you an opportunity to taste our classics as well as some unique flavors you may not have considered for your wedding! I'm sure you would love to know what flavors we will be serving. Well, wait no longer! We will have our classic French Vanilla cake with a light and fluffy Lemon filling, a moist Banana Foster cake with the rich Caramel filling, a decadent Chocolate cake with Bailey's Chocolate Mousse filling, a flavorful German Chocolate cake, the sweet Pink Champagne cake with Strawberry filling, and the traditional favorite Italian Cream with Cream Cheese fillings. All cakes will be iced in our yummy Buttercream or Chocolate Buttercream icings. Mouth watering yet? Once you have sat down and enjoyed a little sampling...of everything, then grab one of our albums and check out some of our previous cakes to get ideas for your cake. Walk around from table to table and get inspired with our mock cake tables. It's never too early to figure out how to display your wedding cake! We would love to sit down with you while you munch on cake and answer any questions as well as discuss your wedding cake! So, here are the important details you need to know: Well, it's almost here! Time for the Austin Bridal Extravaganza! The January show is my personal favorite. Often times when I talk to brides and ask what they thought of the show I am met with, "Overwhelming!" Well...let me give you a few tips for you aren't quite so overwhelmed!
My first tip...relax and enjoy it! The Bridal Extravaganza is a one stop shop for all your wedding needs and planning a wedding should be fun...so don't stress about planning your entire wedding in one day because it won't happen. Bring your mom, friend, fiance, whomever and make a day of it. Eat a light breakfast and skip lunch (trust me on this one...you will leave full). Arrive early. The Bridal Extravaganza opens at noon, so arrive a few minutes early to allow yourself to park and get in. Once the doors open start from one end of the room and work your way through to the other end. Take your time and enjoy the booths. You can get lots of ideas from different decorations placed in booths. Ask the booth if you can snap a photo of something you like to remember for later. As you make your way from booth to booth, check out their decoration. Do you like it? What about the people in the booth? Are they friendly? Taste their food...is it good? Smell the flowers...are they fresh? You should be able to get a good feel from somebody based on this. If you like what you see/hear collect their information. Ask a few questions like if your date is available, pricing, style, etc? If you like what you hear put a star on their brochure and maybe add a few notes. If you find a wedding professional that you just love and know you want to work with, go ahead and sign a contract. Bring checks/credit cards to leave a deposit. This will make sure you aren't disappointed if you contact them a week later and your date is gone. When you get home organize your brochures while it is still fresh. I like to organize them by category. Put all your photographers together, bakers, etc. If there was somebody you really liked put them on top. If you didn't like them put them at the bottom. That way you know your top choices when it's time to set up consultations. And while you are there don't foget to come grab some of our cake!!! The holidays are a wonderful time of year for so many reasons. But for many couples in love there is one more special reason...engagement season! Yes it's true, 33% of couples will get engaged sometime between Thanksgiving and New Year. And why not, it's the perfect setting for a romantic proposal. Maybe you are one of the 33% newly engaged couples and if so...CONGRATULATIONS!! So now what...you have a ring, maybe a date, and probably a pinterest board! Am I right? Where do you go from here? First things first, find your venue. Securing a venue secures your date, so you are able to meet with other wedding professionals. But, the size and decoration of your venue will give you the right direction for the rest of your wedding. It will help you with your guest list. You can't have 300 people at your wedding with a venue that only holds 150. And the decoration or theme of the venue will help you as you choose your dress, flowers, cake, etc. Once you get your venue, when is a good time to meet about a cake? The standard answer is 6-8 months prior to your wedding. Usually that's when we start booking up our weekends. Remember, we can only take 4 weddings per weekend. If you are getting married during a popular month (like October) or a holiday (don't foget Memorial Day or Labor Day weekends too), you may want to book your date 8-12 months in advance. Popular months and holidays will book up faster. Sometimes there are just some weekends that are randomly popular and book up fast. Take the weekend of June 17th for example. That weekend is booked already and has been for over three months. Why? I have no clue. Just a popular weekend I guess. That is why I suggest calling us once you have your date secured and let's chat about your wedding cake. You may still be figuring out the final guest list or even your colors and design. That's ok. We will design based on your ideas at the time and can always make changes as the planning stages progress. Besides, it allows us more time to get to know each other and learn your vision for your wedding! On the flip side, is your wedding coming up crazy fast. Go ahead and give us a call. You never know what weekends are still available or if there is a last minute cancellation which opens up the perfect spot for your wedding cake! |
AuthorKayla grew up in the wedding industry and has grown to love all things wedding. Please enjoy reading her thoughts and experiences as she continues to walk in family tradition. Archives
July 2020
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