The Architecture Of A Celebration Cake

The Chocolate & Orange Wedding Creation Assembled Yesterday.

Initial Sketch After Consultation With The Clients.

Some Of Our Chocolate Spheres.

Ian Concentrating On The Chocolate Centre Piece.

Close Up Of The Spheres.

The 'Jaina' Chocolate Is Bleached With Titanium Dioxide.

The Chocolate Centre Piece.

The architecture of a cake? We take our creations seriously and work a lot like architects in constructing our unique celebration cakes. From conception to consumption we work closely with our clients to ensure we make exactly what is wished. We pride ourselves on making cakes "that are as interesting on the inside as on the outside", this particular design was layered inside with a dense and moist chocolate brownie, burnt orange cream and 'Tarakan' chocolate mousse. The brief was to finish the cake in dark chocolate glaze and ultra white chocolate glaze and topped with a bespoke chocolate piece. The deep red flowers set off the cake stunningly in a distinct 'Art Deco' style. We met with the clients a number of months ago for the initial consultation and then set to work on a sketch for us to work with. The next stage was a delivery of small samples of the cake with different flavours inside, we were told that the orange flavoured one was the favourite, which worked really well with this time of the year the best for oranges in Australia. As our cakes are made to order and of a fresh nature, the cake was started on Thursday with the brownie base being made, as well as some of the chocolate shapes for the centre piece. On Friday we assembled the mousse and burnt orange in frames with the base and we got to work on the top of the cake. Saturday morning was spent glazing the top and bottom tiers in dark and white and finishing the deep red flowers for the top. We then went to the venue with all of the components and assembled the creation there. We were happy with the result and received great feedback from the venue staff, hopefully the clients enjoyed the cake as much as we enjoyed making it. We currently have several of these projects lined up for the coming months and have taken orders for as far as November 2011. More and more people want something different for a celebration cake, especially weddings, they seem to want it to be delicious as well as strikingly beautiful. That is our ethos as well, why pay for a cake for a wedding that no one really wants to eat? We hope you enjoy an insight into the process of one of our creations. Let us know if you wish Burch & Purchese to create something special for your event!

Update - Consultancy, Cakes & Finding A Home!

First stages in development of a new dish for a well known restaurant in Melbourne.

A chocolate cake design for a client entering a major pastry competition.

One of our wedding celebration creations earlier this month for a client in Melbourne.

Self made design ideas for the next phase of our business.

One of our latest creations for Sofitel's No.35 restaurant.

Firstly we must apologize for our absence from posting anything on this site for the last three weeks. We try to keep as updated as possible but sometimes it is just to busy to post, this has been one of those times! We thought we would give you a quick update from the world of Burch & Purchese and an idea into what we have been doing and what we have been planning.
Firstly we completed a consultancy job for a restaurant here in Melbourne and we have one commencing this week for a very well known two hatted restaurant. Once completed we will reveal the venue so that if you are in the area you could sample some of our creations. We get approached quite frequently from establishments wanting to employ our knowledge and experience and we are happy to help in any way we can. We firstly ask to see current menus and current equipment and space and speak to the chef involved to try and find out a bit about his or her food style so that the cuisine matches. We feel the desserts should be an extension of the savoury menu rather than an add on and as such like to tailor the sweet menu to provide a seamless flow. We also like to provide contrasts in texture, flavour, temperatures, colour and cooking techniques - armed with this information we set to work compiling a menu using locally sourced ingredients and seasonal produce. The first image above, is of the initial stages of working out a dish, we have all the information and now it's time to put our experience into practice. We always use sketches to help us imagine how a dish looks on the plate and then we start to work on the individual recipes for all of the components. One thing we do remember is the level of staffing ability at a particular restaurant, we don't want to do anything too complicated if there is a chance it cannot be practically replicated. At the same time we like to add new techniques to the business involved and try to create a balance. The second image shows a design we have made on behalf of a client who is entering a major chocolate competition later on this year. He wanted to get an idea of how we would approach the rules, theme and execution of a particular section of the competition - Entremets. We provided the clint with a sketch and demonstration of the architecture of a gâteaux just to help him in his entry. These two recent jobs show the diversity of our consultancy experience and for us it is an enjoyable arm of our business as it lets us work with a range of different personalities and improves our overall understanding or kitchens, cuisine and problem solving.
The third image down is of one of our unique tailored pieces created for a clients wedding just recently. The client had a theme of roses and really like our previous crystallized rose petals on other works. We incorporated this component into the garnish for a rose scented chocolate piece that the client enjoyed immensely.
We have also been looking hard for the last 8 months for a permanent home for Burch & Purchese, we have had many emails from members of the public asking us where they can sample our creations and we would like to say "Be patient" - it WILL happen soon but this process always takes longer than imagined. That said we feel we may be able to make an announcement on the next phase of our business here very soon! We are confident of securing a deal in Melbourne this year and have even gone so far as to start the interior design process - starting with transferring some of our previous creation images into smart waterclolour wall mounted designs.
Of course we are still consulting for No.35 restaurant and we have created this stunning chocolate & pear dish which is perfect for this time of year. So if you are in town, check out the dessert menu there and we hope to announce other places where you can try our work very soon. For now, thanks for your continued support and we will keep you as updated as possible on some pretty exciting events planned from now until the next Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in March next year.
Darren & Ian