When you get a request for a garden-themed bridal shower cake for a bride who happens to love garden gnomes, what do you make? A giant mushroom with a gnome, of course! Add in a couple of strawberry plants and butterflies....and viola! The gnome and all other decorations are completely edible, but seriously, who'd eat a gnome?

It seems that Groom's cakes are becoming popular again. Many brides are requesting surprise cakes for their grooms to be served either at the Rehearsal Dinner or at the actual wedding. This one was based on the groom's favorite beer and pizza. The 'ice bucket' is the cake itself, the 'beer bottles' are made from Isomalt that was poured into a mold specially created from that particular brand of beer, with an edible image label, and the 'pizza' (with pepperoni and pineapple which are his favorite toppings) was made entirely from sugarpaste.

It's not very often I get a request for a completely "outside-the-box" wedding cake, but the couple who ordered this one wanted something different and fun, incorporating the colors of their wedding. After coming up with a few different sketches, this is the design they chose...a topsy-turvey cake with lots of sugar flowers between the tiers. It went up to Rancho Llano de los Robles...a really beautiful venue for a wedding! The talented folks at SNL wedding solutions were kind enough to send me this photo they took of the cake.