Let Them Eat Cake #2, New York, New York #5

You have to love a dancing cup cake. We did. This New York institution had queues ten deep at the counter when we called in. When we finally made it to the counter we could see and smell why.

Leaving aside the cup cake flavours (not that you would want to when they include chocolate, vanilla, lemon, maple & walnut, lemon poppy, orange & carrot), it was the icing art that caught our attention.

How perfect would these be gracing a spring or garden wedding?

Butter, sugar, colouring and flavouring, apparently in the hands of someone with the right talent, can be transformed into the most delectable blossoms. It's not an icing decorating style we're particularly familiar with in Australia (please let us know if you know of a similar local talent), but it is simply gorgeous, delectable, almost too pretty to eat.

We could try and put it better than the New York Magazine but won't try: “The blossoms on Cupcake Café’s cakes set co-owner Ann Warren’s cakes apart... her colors, shapes, and arrangements seem to bloom from roots beneath the frosting.”

The cupcake craze sweeping the bridal market as an alternative to a more traditional wedding cake shows no sign of abating (thank you Martha Stewart, thank you Miranda and Carrie in that episode of Sex and the City where they devour some on a bench outside Magnolia Bakery in Bleeker Street).

The cupcakes I've photographed here are beautiful examples, and we've got some incredibly talented cake designers in Australia who do wonders in the miniature (Cake Occasions for one), but we're sorry to report we've also witnessed some really, really poor examples of the art at too many weddings. Just be careful when shopping around, and don't base your decision on price alone or you could end up spending the night with a new husband on your right, and a tier of cupcakes on your left that look like a labour of love by your baby brother for his school's mother's day bake stall (and yes, scary but true some have looked that bad and there was no brother involved).

Contrary to perception, cup cakes, if done with the love, care and attention they deserve, are not a cheaper alternative to the trad cake. To decorate one this beautifully, and then duplicate it 100, 150, 250 times over, is every bit as labour intensive as a three tier creation.

So enjoy these delectable cup cakes in mind and spirit, if not in person, and we hope they inspire you to create little wonders of your own - be it at home, or for the party of your life (call in the professionals).

Alicia x

Let Them Eat Cake #1, New York, New York #4

What a gem of a cake artist studio. And we wish we could share the recipe for their triple chocolate spice cookie with you (but we're working on it).

We visited City Cake's Marc Matthias to get a feel for what the ultimate cakes look like in New York and were blown away by the attention to detail and creativity of the team behind this leading studio.

With clients like Kate's Paperie (the exquisite green cymbidium orchid cake you can see above and alongside, and more on this incredible stationery store soon), Rachel Ray (an extraordinarily detailed bowl of spaghetti bologonese on a red and white checked place mat) and a couple who commissioned a massive $US4000 crocodile cake for their reception at the top of the Rockerfeller Centre (they'd married in a swamp), chef Marc Matthias and cake artist Benny Rivera, are on the city's must-call list for event cakes with a difference.

We loved this tower of cushions in their window, the detail of the cherry blossom (see below), the whimsy of their royalty cake which took a painstaking 20 hours to create and mould (see below), and being able to take a peek at the original artworks that are the starting point for each and every one of the cakes that you can see here. And unlike a lot of the cake studios in Australia - they still bake their own on site, specialising in the liquor soaked cakes that are a Latin American speciality. Harder to mould...but so worth the effort when it comes to eating them.

We asked Marc what the hottest cake trends in NYC are, and he said it's all about the personal (the alligator cake case in point). Whilst corporate clients have always aimed for a cake that represents them, their message or the fun of the theme party they are staging, wedding couples are finally moving away from the traditional and incorporating motifs and designs that mean something to them (at Form Over Function we've been encouraging this for some time, too).

Marc shows us photos of the chic, sleek wedding cake enveloped in octopus tentacles because it meant something to the couple, as well as a dizzying array of grooms cakes which are apparently hot, hot, hot. Bride gets the pretty, chic or whimsical cake of her dreams; groom gets the car/the golf bag/the surfboard cake of his dreams (one had a butt cake created - yes, a female derriere in red knickers).

The grooms cake is not a trend that has taken off in Australia yet, but we work with cake designers who would love to see this happen. It's quite a nice idea really, especially when it's a wedding where the bride gets the whole thing to look like her vision, rather than theirs (something we try to gently discourage at Form Over Function - it's a wedding for two, not one after all).

Enjoy the edible inspiration.

Alicia x