Belle Amour: Wedding Ideas Less of the traditional. More of the original.

Whilst I was in Toronto I looked up Style Me Pretty’s recommended local vendors and came across the most amazing cake makers. I sent them an email and they were happy to meet me. And that’s how I spent one lovely afternoon with Alexandria and Jessica of Cake Opera Co.

Awesome image courtesy of 5ive15ifteen photo company

Currently on the verge of opening their first shop and despite the displays not quite being finished I still walked in and ‘wowed’ at what I saw.

Because their cakes are incredible!

Fine food

Alexandria is from a Fine Art background which certainly shows from the cakes she creates. It’s hard to call Alexandria a cake maker when you see her work. Artist is definitely much more appropriate. After obtaining a diploma in Fine Art she travelled to Italy where she furthered her studies of Fine Art in Florence and took on sculpting in Bologna. Alexandria’s time in Europe is clearly reflected in her cakes. A love of costume design mixed with cultural influences has led to the trademark ladies in ornate dress found on many of her creations.

Awesome images courtesy of (from top to bottom): 5ive15ifteen photo company, my own, 5ive15ifteen photo company, mimmo+naz

After developing a passion for food whilst in Italy Alexandria decided to enrol in Le Cordon Bleu’s Pastry Arts programme on her return to Canada. And it was here she met Jessica.

Jessica enrolled on the course after focusing on food and culture during a History degree. After the course she concentrated more on pastries and petit fours, working for high-end French pastry shops in Toronto, Michelin starred Yauatcha in London, and Truffles at The Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto .

Dessert designs

Alexandria launched Cake Opera Co. and, as her skills perfectly complemented Alexandria’s, asked Jessica to come on board. Alexandria takes the lead in the cake department: designing and working on most of the intricate icing work. But Jessica’s skills see her creating certain elements for the cakes such as sugar flowers or macarons and also allowed Cake Opera Co. to offer dessert bars, a huge trend in North America right now.

Their dessert bars can be a combo (or all!) of the following:

• Macarons
• Meringues
• Cupcakes
• Sugar cookies
• Marshmallows
• Chocolate bonbons
• Truffles

All of which come in a range of flavours.

And not only does that all sound great but just look at what a Cake Opera Co. dessert bar looks like:

Awesome images courtesy of (from top to bottom): Rebecca Wood Photography, 5ive15ifteen photo company, Rebecca Wood Photography

Individual & innovative

Cake Opera Co. prefer to make completely individual cakes for every customer. Although clients often arrive at a consultation with a magazine clipping of a particular cake they’re in love with, Alexandria & Jessica like to work with the client and find out exactly what elements of the cake appeals to them and combine it with new elements to come up with something original. Better for the client to get a cake unique to them and better for the girls to not have to duplicate the same cake again and again!

One thing I love about Cake Opera Co. is that they aren’t afraid to create a cake that breaks purist’s rules. Purists believe that cakes should be fully edible: no ribbons, lace or fabric flowers allowed. And they prefer paler hues over black for wedding creations. Luckily Cake Opera Co. are fine with breaking the rules. They understand that if they stuck with purist beliefs they couldn’t be innovative or inject their personal style into their cakes. Cake design would never have evolved if nobody dared venture away from creating white fondant roses on white fondant cakes.

And so Alexandria & Jessica will use black on their cakes. And they will adorn them with lace and ribbon and they’ll even decorate them with creations of flowers that don’t even exist. They stylize the existing to create contemporary and unique works of art that look as awesome as this:

Mmmm flavours

And as a big fan of food I feel like I have to let you know what the amazing choice of flavours are…

• Vanilla: Madagascan vanilla cake with classic vanilla buttercream
• Chocolate: double chocolate cake with a decadent chocolate ganache buttercream
• Lemon Blueberry: Madagascan vanilla cake with lemon buttercream and whole blueberries
• Chocolate Raspberry: Double chocolate cake with whole raspberries and silky raspberry buttercream
• Hazelnut Praline: Double chocolate cake with creamy hazelnut buttercream
• Crème de Cassis: Madagascan vanilla cake with blackcurrant and lavender buttercream
• Nougat Montelimar: Almond cake with honey buttercream & toasted pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds
• Red Velvet: Red Velvet cake with a traditional cream cheese buttercream
• Banana and Caramel: Banana cake with salted milk chocolate caramel ganache and chocolate buttercream

Yum!

A treat for Toronto

Any Torontonians looking for a completely unique cake for weddings or other occasions are lucky to have Cake Opera Co. in the neighbourhood. Even if you have no current need for cake but just want to admire some amazingly artistic creations then go stop by the shop when it opens. It’s going to be beautiful.

Amazing Alice in Wonderland cake created for a Sweet Sixteen party

Awesome images courtesy of Tenuto Photo

Sadly these cakes aren’t available to UK customers. Unless you’re willing to fly the girls over and lend them a kitchen that is; something that some American clients have done! But I believe these cakes are pretty enough to admire and be inspired by wherever you are.

Debs

Vendor Details:
Cake Opera Co. website
Contact Cake Opera Co.
Phone: 905.889.1787

Tags: cake