At Lavonne, we make cakes for different occasions, and our custom cake specialist, Chef Joonie Tan, creates multiple creative and unique cakes that span a variety of themes.
Custom cakes have become an extremely popular trend today, and for us the great part about this is the level of involvement with the customer and the cake artist. It’s all about getting to know what the customer wants, and our Chef Joonie makes sure they get exactly that. With her own unique touch added to it, of course.
This section features her pick of the month, the cake she had most fun working on and she takes you through the technicalities and the process behind the cake making.
For the month of June, it’s her award-winning Fuchsia themed wedding cake.
Why did you choose this cake?
Chef Joonie: The customers who ordered this cake are really nice people. The great part about them is that they gave me a lot of flexibility in terms of style and design. They were very open to ideas, and I could be as creative as I wanted.
So, was it complete freedom or did the couple have any specifications?
Chef Joonie: It was the groom who approached me about the cake first. He was very clear about what he wanted. There were only two request from the couple’s end-
that the cake should match the wedding theme colours, which were white and fuchsia, and because they really liked sugar-crafted flowers, they wanted that included in the design as well.
Take us through the thought process behind the cake.
Chef Joonie: The flavour decided on was one of Lavonne’s bestsellers- the signature chocolate cake. I am a great admirer of the minimalist style of design and try to incorporate this in my cakes as well. Since I was given a lot of freedom, I focused on keeping the cake classy, kind of following the less-is-more principle.
Since the cake was going to be minimalistic, the flowers needed to stand out. I made three Peonies for the three tiers of the cake, from gum paste and used a different approach while creating them. The Peonies were the perfect choice for the flowers, because of the scope of detailing they provided. I went through different levels of shading, so that the flowers would add that extra burst of colour to the cake.
What was the technical idea behind this design?
Chef Joonie: I do a lot of research around themes and trends for wedding cakes, and I happened to see some black and white designs through this research. Being a lover of the minimalist style, this unusual combination caught my attention and I was waiting for a chance to try it on one of my cakes.
I sketched the design and showed it to the couple, and they approved it. I was lucky to have customers who were really open to my ideas, and this cake is a result of that freedom.
This particular creation by Chef Joonie went on to receive a lot of acclaim and also won a series of awards. It won two awards from CakesDecor.com, which is an international cake artist forum- the first being the prestigious Editor’s Choice Award and the other being the Top 3 Cake of the Day award. You can read more about that here.
Watch this space for more from Chef Joonie about the process of customisation.