Our second version of the Strawberry Shortcake cake was created for a little older birthday girl than the more popular Strawberry Shortcake #1 design. This 3 layer 12 inch cake features strawberry cake, with made from scratch vanilla butter cream layers of icing and serves 25-30 guests. The strawberry shapes are made from vanilla fondant. While Kenfections does not normally create cakes for a gathering of under 40 guests, we would love to talk with you should you need a completely customized cake in the Charlotte NC area.

This three layer boys birthday cake is the second one we have created for Colleen M from Davidson NC. The cake represents construction, cars and a truck.  It’s a chocolate cake with Almond flavored icing throughout the cake. The one added tweak to make the cake stand out is the use of fiber optic lights that we placed within the cake itself. Special effects are our specialty so if you are looking for something unique to feature at your next child’s birthday,  drop us a note via our Contact Us page to start the process or throw an idea our way.  The sky really is the limit.   Colleen’s last cake was the Sesame Street Cake we did last year.

Over this past weekend, one of our clients had her mother turn 90 years old so she was looking for just the perfect balance of taste and nothing too elaborate. The cake is our coconut flavored specialty and iced using our butter cream icing. As we come to expect, our clients spoke raves regarding the coconut flavoring without the flakes. The chocolate butter cream icing is made entirely from scratch using actual Nestle cocoa powder.  Would you like more information on what we can do JUST for you? Anniversary coming up? Need a grooms cake? We specialize in the most flavorful custom designed cakes you could ever imagine. Be sure to visit our gallery for more inspiration.

Our can of Spaghettio’s cake is enough to serve 25 guests and makes for a great fan of this lunch and dinner favorite. The 10 year old who eats these by the caseload belongs to us at Kenfections. Born just a few hours prior to the 9-11 attacks, he is the one thing that makes us most proud on that day and honored to have shared a momentous day with so many hero’s that sacrificed their lives for and in defense of our country over the past ten years. It is also why we started to support the 9-11 Memorial and Museum each year with a donation in our son’s name.

The cake however was a chocolate fudge cake with Almond buttercream icing.  The Spaghettio’s were made from gumpaste as well as the a majority of the other details. Fondant was used to make the lid of the can.  As you can see, this is another ordinary product that we can turn into a custom cake for any birthday, groom, or baby shower.

The Death Star cake from Star Wars is one of the crown jewels of any Star Wars fan’s Birthday, Groom or even a wedding cake. This planet has been replicated thousands of times yet the one we are working on for mid October 2011 will be unlike any other. If you like special effects, it’s got em.  If you like flavor, it’s most certainly got it. Kenfections version of the Death Star will be large enough to accommodate over 30 guests and will likely be our most technically challenging cake design since the Sprint Cup Trophy cake we completed in 2009.  If you are a Star Wars fan, this will be a MUST SEE. We promise not to disappoint.

OHHHHH MAN, soooooooo close! Any Regrets? No way. Disappointment? Surprisingly, NO.  The Next Great Baker show was an AWESOME experience that boosted my confidence in knowing that my work was even good enough to be considered for a nation competition in just 2 YEARS of starting this cake company.

I just want to extend an enormous and sincere “THANK YOU” to each one of you who took the time out of your days over the last two weeks to vote and often repeatedly vote for yours truly.  It just must not have been God’s timing for me to get there yet and I just want say how incredible this NEXT GREAT BAKER chapter was,  especially with how fast this all came about after less than two years of hijacking the wife’s hobby.

Think about the significance of all of this.  Decorating cakes was never even a thought until my wife took a class in 2009.  This whole thing started by accident and with the help of a few key individuals.  I was able to make it through thousands of other entries from around the country to then be featured on TLC’s website for a spot on a national forum!  Only in America!!! How cool is that?  The audition in New York afforded me the opportunity to visit Carlos Bakery,  hang out with some of the cast of Cake Boss, visit my brother who lives in Hoboken and spend a day with him at one of the most influential and historically sacred places on the planet, Ground Zero.   That place really puts things into perspective as to how privileged each of us are to live in a country that you can have opportunities like the one’s I’ve had and remember back to sitting in a hospital room holding your hours old first grocery goblin while Islamic cowards are crashing planes on behalf of their “peaceful” religion.(Yeah I’m pretty passionate about that as you may have heard)

I owe some VERY special Thank You’s to some very key people who really deserve the credit for me getting the Next Great Baker opportunity.

1. Deborah “Fred” Bembenek for her persistence in insisting that TLC recognizes my work.
2. Stefan Brandow for his fantastic videography, creativeness and so much of his time.  Super super talented video guy even though TLC asked him NOT to edit the video the way he hoped he could.
3. My sister Kristin Leonard, Karen Heneks, Michelle Elwell & Katrina Hull- The official groupies of Kenfections that helped reach countless people from all across Facebook and afar. Karen even started a Kenfections cake Event Page for our Next Great Baker effort.
4. Donna Bedford for her encouragement and unwavering support.
5. Lauren Domm from the Examiner for her GREAT article on our grooms cakes.
6. Sandy Culver for her inspiration to ALWAYS GO BIG.

And certainly my wife Janah for putting up with the late nights, weekends and her daring me to take a cake class that I led me to hijacking her new found hobby and letting me go crazy with it.

So, what’s next?  EVERYTHING is next. Nothing bad came out of the experience and I’ll keep diggin with wherever these cakes take us.  It’s a great hobby that is really relaxing if you like to build things, which I do more than anything.

Thanks again everybody and try to check back soon to see a Star Wars Death Star Cake unlike any you may  seen before.

Sincerely,

Ken

Please visit our Thank You Message

 I was recently tracked down by the people at TLC and asked to audition for Season 2 of the Cake Boss’s Next Great Baker series. There were a few thousand entries and I was able to make the semi-finalist round of 5  after my audition at Carlos Bakery in Hoboken, NJ.  

Let me just first say that the #13 has always been my lucky number and as luck would have it, TLC selected 12 candidates and wants America

Super professional young man who's Buddy's nephew

to select the 13th Contestant by voting online.  This process is eerily similar to  “Bump Day” at the Indy 500 where the last qualifier for the annual race can be eliminated if someone posts a faster 3 lap average speed before the track closes.  In this case, I am “The Bump” or also referred

Colleen Odegaard and Ken Ungaro

to as “The Bubble”.  In order to make THIS Bake Race, I have to have more votes than any of the four other contestants vying for the 13th Position on The Next Great Baker.

Voting may be well over today but “Why should I have voted for him over the other three?” Simple, there are 5 Reasons.

1. Our online cake Gallery
2. The “Ultimate Cake Challenge” video.
3. Our Facebook page and read what our fans are saying.
4. I have four boys to feed and one is about to go to college.
5. Then watch my Next Great Baker Raw Video on TLC.

Sincerely,

Ken 

We are proud to preview our next very unique creation for a new Charlotte area client.  There is a ton of hours and effort going into making sure this cake is the centerpiece of the event, which remains a surprise. The cake is a replica of the bridge of the Star Trek Voyager complete with characters and fiber optic lighting.   Here is a preview of what the project will reflect when we are done.

We invite you to check back as we make progress on this one-of-a-kind cake over the next week and a half.

Voyager Bridge Components

A 40th Birthday is the one last milestone before the big Five O arrives.  This two tier 40th birthday cake is half chocolate and half vanilla iced with our signature icing and covered with chocolate fondant that tastes very similar to a tootsie roll.  We are proud to have been asked to make yet another cake for Wendy L, of Concord North Carolina.  Wendy previously had ordered the Lego “John” cake for her son in 2009 and this time the 40th birthday party is in Virginia where Wendy will be delivering the cake to.  The green as well as the silver effects on the cake are luster dusts.  This cake yields approximately 40 servings. Thank you again Wendy!!

This camping cake was a request from one of our returning Charlotte clients who was having a surprise birthday party for her hubby.  The campground has their family lounging around the stream and features a camper trailer made from crispy treats, fondant and chocolate.  The cake is actually banana flavored featuring our signature butter cream icing all the way around.  Characters are made from gum paste and the trees are sitting atop a pretzel stick.  Everything on this cake is edible and will serve just over 50 guests.  Photos of the custom creation will be posted right here AFTER the party tonight.