wedding cakes

Daughter's Baking Grand Opening

We’ve been huge fans of Daughters Baking for the past few years and did an interview in 2019 with owner, Mallory Webb, about this fabulous boutique cake shop and how it all started (read interview here). At the time, it was being run out of a shared kitchen in Homewood, AL by Mallory and one assistant. Since then, the business has grown to a fully staffed team and now Daughters Baking is opening it’s first storefront in the heart of Mountain Brook on July 29th, 2021. During this busy time, Mallory was kind enough to answer some questions for us about her blossoming business, so we hope you’ll take a look!

What made you decide to open your own storefront?
In our previous location, we were limited to only serving customers via online pre-order, and we had limited customer engagement. We have dreamed of having a storefront for awhile so that we can serve customers more conveniently, and accommodate last minute and walk in orders - as well as smaller cake portions for those cake cravings! We also plan for the storefront to allow us to accommodate our bride and grooms more easily in working with them.

What do you wish your customers knew about your cakes/your business?
I hope our customers know that this business is so much more than just about making great cakes. we truly want to be a positive influence in the community and beyond, and to spread joy and hope to people through these cakes and the business. This is both to our customers and to our staff.

Do you have a favorite cake flavor? If so, which one?
My favorite is a special item we did last year - the Coffee Banana! I love our Banana Layer Cake as well. and the Pumpkin Brown Butter!

What's your favorite part of running your business?
It is hard to say at the moment! It feels like i am doing so many different things at once. I think goal setting, building up team members, and building a foundation to a positive work culture is fun to me. I enjoy the leadership element of establishing overall operations and work culture.

What are you looking forward to for Daughter's Baking?
I am looking forward to when all new people are fully training, and we are operating smoothly being located in the new storefront, and we can start getting creative with what we want to do with the space — like wedding tasting events, bridal events, parties, and more! We can also start playing around with new products that we may want to serve!

Our goal is to never sell out of our menu item cakes. However, all cakes are first come first serve for the day, unless pre-ordered 3 days in advance via online or paying in the store. Once we open the store, we will have smaller versions of our cakes - served in 5 ounce cake cups. We also will have a “tasting package” option that gives customers an opportunity to try four different seasonal flavors in a 2.5 cup portion.

Daughters Baking store hours are Monday - Friday from 10—5pm and Saturday from 10—2pm. If you’ve never tried one of their cakes, we highly recommend visiting the new storefront! To read more about how this wonderful Birmingham business got started, visit Daughters Baking’s website.

Expert Tips: How to Choose a Wedding Cake Style

Trend Alert: The Most Beautiful Wedding Cakes Right Now

Wedding planning includes making a lot of decisions. Some of them are downright boring, such as choosing the seating arrangement and making a realistic budget. Some can be truly wonderful – there is nothing boring about trying out wedding dresses or choosing a wedding cake by looking at pictures that come quite close to being a work of art or coming up with your own unique idea for the cake style. If you are having any doubts about the cake, here are some trendiest wedding cake styles you should know about.

Images courtesy of Unsplash

Floral Cakes

Floral wedding cakes are always in vogue, but the style, texture and dimension of flowers are changing depending on the current trends. These days “the rosette” look is taking over the wedding cake world, with its allover textural sugar roses. Since they are very rich in texture, they are usually subtle in color, mostly only white, pale pink and beige. Fresh flowers are still on top of their game (and on top of many wedding cakes), and sugar-made flowers made a huge comeback in the form of bouquets.

Rustic cakes

Rustic wedding cakes are usually associated with a woodland theme. Their main characteristic is that they are mostly minimalistic and the color of choice is almost always white or ivory. The decoration is subtle, yet very eye-catching, because it contains fresh flowers and leaves. What truly makes these cakes stand out is the display which fits in with the theme perfectly. A wood tree ring is the ideal rustic cake display, and it can be further decorated with foliage and moss.

 

Illustrated cakes

Do you want to have the concept of your first date drawn on your cake? Maybe the theme from your wedding invitations? Would you like to have the lyrics from your favorite songs written on the cake? How about an illustration of a superhero? A classic art masterpiece? A graffiti from your neighborhood? With the new trends of hand-painting illustrations on wedding cakes, anything is possible.

All-white

It’s always a nice day for a white wedding, so why wouldn’t it be a nice day for an all-white wedding cake? You may think that white wedding cakes are boring and not worthy of such a major event, but there are beautiful ways to make them more outstanding, by adding all-white embellishments. White details like sugar flower cascades, piped embroidery, jeweled decorations or quilted fondant can transform the plain white cake from monotonous to impressive.

Fruity

If you are one of those wedding guests that always choose fruit instead of chocolate cake, fruity cakes which are not only made with fruits, but also embellished with fruits, could be the thing for you. A pear on a cake top instead of a flower, might sound silly now, but when you see it in reality, it may blow you away. All fruits can be used to make the wedding cake more beautiful, including plums, strawberries, raspberries and oranges.

 

Ombre design

From hairstyles to fashion and interior design, ombre style of painting has found its way into every aspect of our lives, including the weddings. This glamorous and whimsical way of color transitions is truly an artful idea. Depending on your taste, you can opt for a rich saturated hue that fades away toward the top or the bottom or make a transition from orange to yellow and then to white. For the most subtle and sophisticated effect, choose a cake that goes from ivory to white.

No wedding cake at all

If you want to make your wedding day as unique as it can be, you can consider giving your own twist to the traditional cake:

●      Many catering companies are offering an interesting candy bar station, where you will have bottles and jars filled with homemade sweets and decorated so that they match your wedding theme.

●      In some confectionaries you will even find individual wedding cakes that can be made with special inscriptions for each guest.

●      A three-tiered cupcake, macaroon or donut tower has become such a popular choice that you can find it anywhere.

These were some awesome wedding cake (or not) trends you should consider if your wedding date is getting closer. Each of them is beautiful in its own way; you just need to find the one that suits you the best.

 

Georgia Selih is author @highstylife.com. By nature an artist, by profession a journalist. An irreparable print lover who is enjoying this hot digital affair.

A.joy Cakes &Co.

Amanda Hinton is the creative mind behind A.joy Cakes & Co. Amanda and her family moved from Louisiana to Birmingham at the beginning of this year, and wanted to re-brand her business, and thus, A.joy Cakes & Co. was born! Hinton was born in Texas, and she made her first creative cake at the young age of 17, and since then her love of making and decorating cakes has blossomed. She creates the most gorgeous wedding cakes, as well as fun and quirky birthday cakes. She has a knack for paying attention to detail and creating the most unique cakes for each of her clients!