The White Flower Cake Shoppe

Recipe 911 with Chef Bill: Red Velvet cake history

2010-07-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

Question:
Red Velvet cakes and cupcakes seem to be popping up everywhere. Can you tell me where Red Velvet comes from and something about their history?

Answer:
I love food questions where the answers seem to draw heavily from the realms of myth and fairy tale, rather than just factual accounts laden with historical data (Blah!). The history of Red Velvet cake is as fabulous and dynamic as the stunning red color and tangy sweet flavor that has made this our number one selling cupcake over the past three years.

The Red Velvet cake’s origins range throughout North America. The cake has been hugely popularized in southern culture from the somewhat odd Armadillo shaped Groom’s cakes (as seen in Steel Magnolia’s) to the subtle yet tangy mid-afternoon treat that seems to embody Southern folks understated and polite, yet vibrant and feisty personalities. Canadians, or humble neighbors to the north, calmly assert the recipe hails from Eaton’s Department stores, where in the 1940’s and 1950’s the cake was promoted as an exclusive Eaton’s recipe created by Lady Eaton herself. Unfortunately for the wealthy department store matriarch, red velvet cake recipes have been found dating back into the 19th Century, well before the fine lady was penning decadent cake recipes in her spare time.

My personal favorite story involving Red Velvet cake is the outlandish drama of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel’s mishap with a vengeful Midwest housewife. The story unfolds innocently enough, a lady from the Midwest visits the lights of the big city, stays at the fancy hotel (the Waldorf Astoria), visits the museums, and of course sees a Broadway show. While at the Waldorf Astoria she dines on their Red Velvet cake. Returning to the Midwest, the lady can’t get this amazing cake out of her thoughts, so she writes the chef for the recipe. The recipe arrives ten days later with a very large bill, $500. The lady phones the hotel complaining to no avail. The lady, not to be thwarted easily, visits her lawyer thinking success is surely near. But to her surprise, the lawyer tells her she legally must pay the bill, even though it was excessively steep in his opinion, because she requested the item in writing. Ouch! The lady was definitely fuming over the outcome, but would not relent. So, the lady decides to spite the Waldorf Astoria by circulating the recipe to everyone she knows, imploring them to forward the coveted high-priced Waldorf Astoria recipe to every last person they know, whether friend, enemy, or apparently even complete strangers. From this seed of frustration the Red Velvet cake spread throughout much of the country, popularizing the dessert into the nationally renowned treat we all know today. What a great story. It’s just so entertaining; I don’t even care if it’s true or merely fiction.

Today, you’ll find countless Red Velvet cake recipes, also known as Waldorf Astoria cake now, stating this is “the original” Waldorf Astoria recipe. As you might guess, the recipes are all different. :)

Spring 2010 cakes

2010-05-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Spring happenings.....

2010-04-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

Check out these Cavs birthday cakes for Shaq and Daniel(Boobie) Gibson

New Tshirts are here! Matt Myers designed an amazing new logo, and created some new White Flower t-shirts. Available in youth-xxl-They are only $12, so show your pride for your favorite cake shoppe today!

New Cupcake flavor is here! Sara's Pancake Delight-Its a white cupcake with a maple frosting, and maple drizzle....trust us, it tastes JUST like a pancake!

Super star wedding couples!

2010-02-07T14:30:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of our favorite professional photographs from some of our vendor friends-Genevieve Nisly, Rad, LCD, New Image and Z Media.

Advanced Cake Decorating Class is here!!!

2010-01-30T17:48:00.000-08:00

So all of you have been asking for it....an advanced cake decorating class is now available!!! On Saturday, April 17 from 10am-1pm, we will hold a class that will feature many advanced techniques such as:

Gumpaste roses, stacking a cake, brush emroidery, quilting in fondant, painting with edible food color, airbrush and more!!! Do not miss this class-we will only be holding ONE per year, so sign up today and reserve your spot. Cost is $150

hello 2010!

2010-01-04T10:47:00.001-08:00

As we say goodbye to 2009, we are humbled by the amount of Love and Support our friends, family and customers have given to us this past year. 2009 was full of challenges and we were happy to see our business grow and change in many ways. We welcomed new employees, opened a location at Beachwood Mall, renovated a new classroom space in Laplace, competed in 2 new Food Network Cake Challenges, and made it through our 3rd and best wedding season yet! We look forward to 2010 and are very thankful that we are able to do what we love and have such a loyal customer base that supports our business.

Thank you Cleveland, from the bottom of our hearts!

Cake Tasting Event Sunday December 20

2009-12-13T12:50:00.000-08:00

Are you planning a wedding soon? Or just love to eat cake? Well, stop by our shoppe at Laplace Sunday, December 20 from 12-4 to sample 6 different delicious cake flavors for only $5. White with raspberry, Chocolate with chocolate creme, White chocolate chip with hazelnut, Red Velvet with creme cheese, White with Cinnamon Dolce filling and Lemon cake with Blackberry-YUM!

We will also be sampling other flavors throughout the day, and free refreshments provided by Caribou Coffee. Meet the designers and our feature vendors, and view our extensive portfolios of wedding cake photos. RSVP today and let us know that you will be joining us. We can't wait to see you then and bring your sweet tooth!

What a November!!!

2009-11-29T16:06:00.001-08:00

This November has been a whirlwind. We opened our second location, The White Flower Sweet Shoppe at Beachwood Mall where we sell all of our yummy retail items-cupcakes, brownies, cakes and cookies.

We participated in The Fabulous Food Show at the IX center where we had a booth and sold all of our goodies, taught mini decorating classes, and did a few chocolate stage demos.

Today we held a cake tasting event at our shoppe, and it went fabulous! Thank you Arne from Plantscaping for your amazing centerpieces, Angela and Kim from L'Nique for the gorgeous linens, and Event source for the cocktail tables. And a special thanks to all of our customers and engaged couples who came out today to taste some cake!

We also are planning on going back for a few more challenges for the Food Network in January-possibly a Toy Story challenge, and a Sex and the City challenge are in the works!

Food Network Horror Cakes Challenge

2009-10-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we had a blast! This episode that aired this evening was filmed last December, and it was really exciting to see it all come together. Yes, our cake was colorful, maybe a touch too whimsical for the judges taste, but how many scary movies are based on unassuming things? Dolls, clowns, those are all really freaky...why not flesh eating pastry????It could happen. next time you are enjoying your favorite muffin, brownie or cupcake, make sure your careful....very careful.....

October cakes so far...

2009-10-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

This month we have had quite a variety of cakes-from whimsical wedding cakes to over the top sweet sixteen cakes....and my favorite-a wedding dress replica cake. Fall colors are my personal favorite, and I love gold accents....It is such a beautiful time of year, and October is our busiest wedding month so far.

At the end of the month, we are looking forward to our 3rd Food Network Challenge-Horror cakes debut on October 25. This was our favorite cake we have ever made, so be sure to watch!

This weekend we will be at The Today's Bride Bridal show this sunday October 11 at The Embassy Suites in Independence. Be sure to stop by for a tasty sample of our wedding cake.

We are also getting excited for The Fabulous Food Show at the IX this year in November. We will have a booth this year, and also be giving some demos on the Chocolate Bar Stage. be sure to stop by and visit our booth- we will be selling cupcakes, cakes and brownies.

Red Hot cupcakes and some amazing detail work...

2009-09-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Cupcake weddings are very popular this year. This cupcake wedding cake we set up at House of Blues was very creative and fit the venue perfectly.

The Mosaic cake is a piece of art-Lauren details it with an edible luster paint that makes it look shiny and have a subtle sparkle to the surface.

More September wedding cakes....

2009-09-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

We love being in this business for many reasons, but the main reason is that every cake we design for our couples is so uniquely different! The month of september has certainly been filled with so many different styles of cake designs, and we love our clients for having such diverse taste-Even flavors of wedding cakes are becoming more creative and less about the traditional white wedding cake. Spice cake filled with Cinnamon Dolce flavored buttercream, Pistachio cake filled with vanilla creme, and Orange creamsicle cake layered with Grand Marnier and Chocolate Ganache are a few delicious flavors we have been working with lately.

September wedding cakes

2009-09-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

Such a variety of designs for our early september weddings!

Vintage chic designs, exotic nature inspirations(including hand sculpted/hand painted butterflies and birds of paradise), A cake with inspiration form an heirloom pizzelle maker, and a navy and butter yellow cake with designs inspired from amazing invitations....these cakes were some of our most memorable and artistic. All of these cakes feature sugar flowers, and were custom designed for each couple with a series of sketches.

More Groovy cakes in August....

2009-09-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

Sculpted sugar flowers are very popular with our brides-they can be taken off of the wedding cake and be preserved as a keepsake. Some of the sculpted flowers featured in these cakes are roses, gardenias, hydrangeas, tulips, orchids and peonies.

Awesome cakes in August

2009-08-22T17:56:00.001-07:00

Check out these amazing cakes we created so far this month-each of these wedding cakes were custom designed for each couple.

What a Weekend!15 footer train, Food Network Party and Debut!

2009-07-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

This was quite a week for us at The White Flower Cake Shoppe. A few all-nighters to create a magnificent train cake, a party at our shop on Sunday that made us feel the love from our customers, and ending the night with watching The Food Network Challenge at Aunt Deb's house with family and friends made us feel spectacular! Thank you to everyone who came out sunday to support us, and we hope that the cupcakes didn't stain your mouths too blue!

The train cake below was a project of epic proportions. A customer ordered this special train cake for his mothers 90th birthday celebration sunday at Landerhaven. I have to say this is one of our best and most special creations we have ever made. Lauren and Matt worked hours and hours on all of the detail that went into this cake. Each box car represented a decade of Lil's life-From the time of her childhood when she picked grapes, to her motherhood years of raising her kids, groovy times in the sixties, and of course all the 85 photos of her friends that were cut out and placed in the windows. Everything was completely edible, and hand painted by Lauren and Matt.

To see more detailed photos, go to our friend Rob's website www.radproductions.org and see his amazing pics-Thanks for coming out sunday Rob and documenting this special cake for us!

On a side note, we are going back to do another cake challenge at the end of August-this time, Lauren will bravely go by herself, and have a mystery client and mystery assistant for the show. Make sure you stop in and wish her luck!

Food Network Sesame Street Challenge-Airing July Sunday 26!!!

2009-07-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

Stop in to the shop this Sunday July 26 from 12-4pm and receive a free Cookie Monster Cupcake with any purchase over $5. We will be sampling cakes and brownies, and offering complimentary Caribou Coffee(and juice for the kids!) Stop in and Celebrate our 2nd Food Network appearance!!!

Groovy cakes, Asian inspired mini cakes and petit fours, and a million dollar bill....

2009-06-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

June has been quite a month! Some of our favorite cakes from the month so far include these mini cakes and petit fours for a wedding at The Botanical Gardens this past weekend designed with an asian flare. Congratulations Lisa and Jim and thanks for letting me have creative freedom with your desserts!

Lauren designed the bright whimsical cake on the upper right for a rehearsal dinner at Stan Hywet in Akron. Lauren hand painted the paisley layer and sculpted the sugar orchids...I love this cake!

This is our first Million Dollar Bill!!! Matt spent quite a few hours hand painting this portrait with edible food coloring....

The cake on the bottom left was designed for our favorite Cintas guy, Steve and his new wife Meghan. We love this couple and couldn't be happier for them-Congrats!

The dessert tower on the right is one of my favorite looks for a wedding. I think it is so visually interesting to display mini desserts for your guests to choose from.

Botanical Garden's cake

2009-06-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

We were asked by the Botanical Gardens to create a cake inspired by The Hershey Children's Gardens-It is the garden's 10 year anniversary this year, and they will be throwing a party to celebrate in June. Lauren created this cake using all fondant, gumpaste and all edible materials. The butterflies and orchids are all handsculpted, and the sundial topper is inspired by the actual sundial featured in the gardens.It is located in their main hallway, so stop in and check it out!

Food Network Sesame Street Challenge-Airing July Sunday 26!!!

2009-05-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

Its Official-We just got word from the Food Network producers that the Sesame Street Challenge that we competed in will air July 26-We will be having a party at the shop to celebrate that day, so check our website soon for the details.....We cant wait!!!!

Super Cool wedding cakes so far....

2009-05-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

This has been an amazing wedding season so far-we have created some really amazing cakes so far...check them out

Made Here TV Show

2009-05-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

So we spent the day friday with a local TV crew filming a spot for a show called Made Here that features Ohio based businesses that manufacture unique products. It was great to meet Davey and Jerry and hang out with them all day while we made cakes. The episode should air sometime in June and will be on Time Warner Cable's local access channel. It will feature us working on the following weddings/event cakes:

Anjulika Singh

Janet Chimples

Lynn-Ann Gries (Bat Mitzvah for Annabelle)

Check it out and get a sneak peek into our kitchen!

Back from Denver....finally!

2009-03-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

Denver was awesome! The challenge was fun, our cake turned out really cool, and we had a blast with all of the other competitors. Our kitchen was next to Mike McCarey's from Mikes Amazing Cakes, and seriously we wish we could have just watched him work the whole time instead of making our cake. The man is a robot. A robot that can make amazing mind blowing cakes.We had a blast with Lauren and Roland too-There was a half time group hug which I am sure they will not air for the show, but overall this was the most fun I have had at any cake challenge!

It just so happened that the day after challenge, Denver got hit with the biggest snow storm of the year. Over 20" of snow! We got snowed in to our hotel, our flight cancelled, but we made it back a day late. Our team of employees did a fantastic job holding down the fort. It was a busy week and we are glad to be back home. It was the first time we returned back from Denver from a challenge that our car was not snowed in at the airport.

The show will air sometime in late summer. It is going to be the most viewed cake challenge ever on the Food Network because of the Sesame Street theme. We were really honored to be part of it and cant wait to see it air. We will feature Cookie Monster cupcakes the week of the air date and they will be sure to turn your mouths blue!

Denver here we come!

2009-03-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

So, I have to say I'm kinda nervous for this one. The past two challenges we have done, Lauren and I made the time to do a complete trial run to time ourselves for the 8 hours to do the cake. This time, we are just winging it. We have been super busy at the shoppe, and have not had any time to work on the Sesame street cake. The sad think is we have had the most time to prep for this challenge compared to the others. Well, say a prayer that our cake does not fall over. And that Kerry Vincent is nice this time. Oh, and that we can deal with the altitude and not feel completely sick like we did for the Horror cakes challenge. If we only had a few more weeks.....it serves us right for procrastinating. I am wearing a pair of bright blue tennis shoes for Cookie Monster, so hopefully that will bring us the luck to win!

Cake tasting....in the dark

2009-03-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

So it figures we plan our biggest cake tasting of the year on 3/15, and the electric goes out at Laplace for 5 1/2 hours....Thank you to everyone who attended-we had almost 200 people come out for this one. We kept it goin with a generator and a few LED lights and made the best of it. At least all of the samples stayed delicious and the sun was shining bright into Laplace providing us with a lot of natural light. It was funny because some of our customers thought we did it on purpose to create some mood lighting-if only we were that creative. Thanks for being patient with us and for coming out today!!!

2 year anniversary at Laplace!!!

2009-03-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

We have been so busy, that we completly forgot that it is our 2 year anniversary today! We officially opened our company back in 2006, but 2 years ago this day we opened our doors at Laplace and had our grand opening. It amazes me how time flies-we started the company when we were 27 and I cant believe we are about to be the big 3-0 in a couple months ! Our grand opening seriously was probably the last time Lauren and I dressed up for something since we are usually in frosting covered chef coats for most of the time now. I remember when it was just the two of us working into the night(and morning) making all the buttercream, baking all the cakes, waiting on customers, decorating all the cakes, and the list goes on...I do not know how we did it and kept going on absolutely no sleep, no time off, horrible diets and complete stress 24/7. Now we are moving away from having such late nights, the stress is getting better and we have a full staff of over 15 people to help us.
Happy Anniversary-heres to many more years!

Back from New York

2009-02-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

We had a great time in New York City! We got to hang out with our competitors Mike McCarey, Lauren Kitchens and Roland Winbeckler. It was a pleasure to meet all of them and we had so much fun hanging out at Sesame Street. We did our interviews with our assigned characters(Cookie Monster is quite the talker!) and then be on the set while they were filming an episode. I can't believe how much production goes into one episode, and how many takes the puppeteers and actors have to go through for one good shot. The sets are amazing-Roland got to go into Oscar's garbage can, Lauren(Kitchens) and I got to sit on the famous stoop, and Mike hung out by Big Bird's giant nest. What a cool experience and when we left, we felt like 5 year old kids all over again!

Lauren(Bozich) and I went to see Stomp at the Orpheum theatre-it was awesome. We ate some great meals, The taxi rides were interesting, the city was incredible, but we are glad to be home.

Our next travels will be back to Denver at the end of March to compete in The Sesame Street challenge. We will be accompanied by my hubby Matt, and my mother-in-law Dianne-it is Dianne's birthday the same day as the challenge, so hopefully she will be our good luck charm!

The Sesame Street challenge is set to air sometime in November 2009, timed with the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. We will keep all of you posted once we know the date it will air, along with the air date of our Horror cakes challenge.

New york, here we come!

2009-01-23T13:36:00.001-08:00

So we are leaving Tuesday for New york to do the first part of our Sesame street cake challenge-I have to interview Cookie Monster and find out what kind of cake he likes! Part of our challenge is to interact with Sesame Street characters, so this should be interesting.....

We had a cupcake tasting day with all of our employees here at the shop to try out some new flavor combos we invented-the winners are....
Coffee Cake
Caramel Apple
Banana Creme pie
German Chocolate
White chocolate raspberry
Mint Chocolate chip
We will be introducing these new flavors within the next two weeks at our shop.Other than giving us all a massive sugar high, it was fun!

Thank you to all of the people who stopped by to say hi at the bridal show sunday!!!!This is going to be one busy wedding season!

Bridal Shows and Kickin it with Kenny

2009-01-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

So we basically never sleep!
We have a bridal show this sunday in Independence
Bridal Show
The Bridal Party presented by Weddings in Cleveland
Sunday, January 4
10 a.m - 4 p.m.
Sheraton Independence Hotel
5300 Rockside Rd., Independence, OH, 44131
216.524.0700
And THE BIG ONE in two weeks
Today's Bride shows
Sunday, January 18, 2009 - CLEVELAND
I-X Center — Cleveland, Ohio

Make sure to stop by our booth to get a sample of our cake and a 10% off certificate!

Monday January 5 from 6am-10am we will be on Fox 8 Kickin it with Kenny. Not sure what we are going to do yet, but Kenny's always fun. Maybe we will have him design a wedding cake......that should be interesting

Thursday January 8 The Food Network is coming to our shoppe to film us for a profile for the cake challenges. This is exciting, but it means we will be doing all of those little fix-it projects that we have put off through wedding season to spiff up the shoppe!

We will also be having a contest soon to see who can invent the most delicious creative cupcake flavor. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them our way!

2008-12-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

so........ we just created this blog for the purpose of keeping all of you up to date with whats going on at the cake shop. We are very EXCITED about these events:
We just created a birthday cake for Jay-Z!
We are going back to do our third Food Network cake challenge in Denver in February-This time a Sesame Street theme!
We are making LeBron James birthday cake next week!
and the best of all....
we just survived another year!

To everyone who supports us and believes in us-Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Have a wonderful happy and healthy New Year!

2008-12-26T15:17:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!