Jose Villa asked me if I would make a cake for a Fuji ad campaign photoshoot & Mag Rouge. Of course I said yes (I love everything about Jose – not just his beyond stunning work, but the kindness and sincerity he consistently exudes), but I wanted to get try to get into his head and make sure I knew his vision because as I said to him, “I’m so honored you asked me to participate and I do not want to dissapoint or let you down…I want to be certain I make what you want.”
Jose sent me a couple visuals for inspiration. One was a textured design and one was smooth. I love textured frosting on cakes, it adds dimension and interest and it’s forgiving…extremely forgiving. Texture hides bulges, crooked lines, crumbs, etc. Frosting a cake with texture takes a fraction of the time is takes to make a smooth buttercream cake. So that would have been too easy, right? I opted to go the smooth route. Since I’m completely self-taught in the cake making department, I didn’t really know anything about smooth vs. textured buttercream cakes when I first stared making them. In a sense I started the hard way, and for whatever reason, all of my first cakes had smooth finishes…I think that’s just how I thought they were supposed to be made. Since I don’t use fondant (which gives a nice sleek look), by default I became very comfortable & at ease with making smooth buttercream cakes. However, Jose also requested that the 2 tier cake be tall, very tall, about 20 inches tall. That’s about double a standard 2 tier cake height. I loved the idea of the dramatic height. I just went for it and didn’t really think about the different challenges associated with making each very tall tier silky & smooth. I love that this project stretched me and pushed me to work with different tools and test new techniques (& test my patience). Thank you Jose, for having confidence in me, challenging me and for asking me to participate! Please check out more photos from the shoot here on Jose's blog and featured in Mag Rouge.