Author Archive

Recently we have had a lot of brides choose their favorite salads for the wedding reception dinner.  Salads can be an interesting first course or a main entree.

Strawberry With Goat Cheese Medallions

Entree Salads

Mediterranean Salmon Salad with Torched Lemons

Greek-themed Salad

Every year members of our team travel to Vegas for continuing education and inspiration to help develop the catering division.  A Catered Affair has grown tremendously from the new ideas, concepts, sales and marketing tips as well as friendships with caterers of all sizes from across the world.

Here are a few photos from Catersource 2010

Clean and Colorful Buffet Decor

Pink and Green still popular

Animal Prints are HOT!

Amy Witcher posing with the CATIE award display!

Be sure to drive by our building Events@1418 located on 1418 Church Street, Nashville.  We have a large photo of the winning cake on display!  Yes, we are still glowing

Recently we found a box of ancient photos and negatives ( yes, we have been around long enough to have negatives!) and the team thought it would be fun to do a little show-and-tell.

Today we begin Time Warp Wednesdays -a Blast from the Past!

First Cake from The Bake Shoppe - circa 1997

Hmmm, part of me hestitates to tell you about it – but here goes:)  This was the VERY first wedding cake ever made by The Bake Shoppe.  Many of you have heard me tell the progression of the business — began with desserts and added catering and so on.  This was the first cake — delivered to a bridal show in Smyrna Tennessee — I was so incredibly nervous, I was sick over it!

We were so new at it – we didn’t have a portfolio of pictures – so we copied ideas from Collete Peters – decorating diva with amazing talent.  I believe that we ended up making most every design she published!  Thank you Collete for putting out good instructions.

Today we are proud to say we no longer add fabric to the cake ( that is tulle hanging off there!)   and we have a very talented pool of artists who make really fun stuff — and they know what they are doing and don’t have to get sick over it.

Of course, this was the very best the company could do at that time – we were very proud of that moment!  As always, I say let’s move on and do something new and better!

The Bake Shoppe participated in a wonderful fundraiser, Glitz and Glam.  This fundraiser benefits AGAPE Animal Rescue – this program saves thousands of dogs from euthanasia each year – by creating foster care for those dogs.

We had fun with the theme and created this huge dog house – complete with “bling” on the fire hydrant and sugar roof shingles!

Dog house for AGAPE Glitz and Glam

Sugar dog with Bling Collar

Dog house and all decorations are entirely edible

The uber cool team at Phindy Studios has provided some great photos of our Julie/Julia open house event.  Just to get your juices flowing……

Hand-turned Vegetables - a labor of love!

Our Own French Ladies

Sautee - Action Station

Chicken Gelee - served as a room temp entree

Madelines- our pastry team is AMAZING!

The theme was BUTTER!

Delicious Berry Charlotte by The Bake Shoppe

Ebelskivers – I have seen these unique cook pans in the Williams Sonoma catalog for some months – just knew that there had to be some application for our clients.  After visiting with some folks at Catersource last month, I knew that purchasing the pan was the thing to do so that we could begin playing around with these.

So far the sweet ones (what a surprise) have been the experiments — but savory morsels are to follow.  Because we don’t have our own pictures yet – please follow the link to see the pan and a video — maybe you will have some ideas to share with us!

Wasn’t William Sonoma smart to get the exclusive on the pan!

What an honor!  The Bake Shoppe took part in Vanderbilt University’s first CupCake Challenge and we WON!  We are thrilled!  We are proud.

The competition was very tough – there were 8 companies vying for the coveted honor – wonderful companies from each area of Nashville – The CupCake Collection, Gigi’s Cupcakes, Whole Foods, Bread and Company, Sweet and Sassy, Provence Bakery and FiddleCakes.  We were excited to part of such a great field of bakeries.

Just a reminder of some other mini dessert ideas that you can have for your special event – Mini Collection is a short video of desserts

What a month March has been.  Where did the time go?!  We have had so many exciting things happening in March that the month seems like it flew by!  Here are a couple of things that have kept us so busy this month!

CATIE award winner for ‘Best Celebration Cake’ for 2010

We are more than honored to have recently received the CATIE award for Best Celebration Cake from the International Catering Association in the month of March.  In earlier March, we travelled to Las Vegas in hopes to leap from nomination to award winner for the CATIE award.  We designed an extraordinary celebration cake for the Ronald McDonald House Birthday Party.  Inspiration came from a patchwork birthday card and the design seemed to flow from there.  For the full story about the CATIE award winning cake, visit the ICA website at http://catie.internationalcaterers.org/.

Year of Giving Kicks Off

The first few events for our Year of Giving had great turn out.  For those of you that haven’t heard, here at Main Event Productions, we have deemed this year the ‘Year of Giving’ for the community.  We have been able to begin plans for 8 complimentary events for various non-profits around the community of Nashville.  We have held 3 of those events this month and had a great time at each event!  We are looking forward to the more to come, but March kicked off the ‘Year of Giving’ with the first events being very successful!  Thanks to the Tennessee Kidney foundation, Youth Villages, and Hearing Bridges for giving us the opportunity to serve you for all you do for Nashville!

The year has already been so ‘event-full’ with so much more.  We can’t wait to see what April brings!

Some recent wedding cake designs

Woodsy Themed Wedding Cake

Tree Themed Wedding Cake

Special monogram for wedding cake

Kerri Zelenik, owner of Kerried Away Couture, recently held one of her popular design parties at Events@1418.  Guests enjoyed mimosas and brunch style hors d oeuvres.  thanks to Evin Photography for the images!

Kerried Away Couture

lobster tartlette by A Catered Affair

more appetizers by A Catered Affair

Kerri Zelenik - Kerried Away Couture