"Art of the Table" at The Bellamy Mansion

The Bellamy Mansion, built in 1859, is one of North Carolina’s most spectacular examples of antebellum architecture. It is now a museum of History and Design Arts. In March, the curators of this mansion held the second annual event called “The Art of the Table.” It was a collection of creatively themed "table tops" designed by more than 45 representatives of various design businesses, and exhibited throughout the mansion's twenty-two rooms.








We, The Dessert Divas, were asked to do the featured dessert for the Opening Black Tie Gala.














We created this three tier square cake of chocolate and vanilla layers frosted with our Italian vanilla buttercream. It was decorated with royal icing appliqués designed to reflect the damask fabric used to decorate the event, and topped with a royal icing “garden fence” designed after the wrought iron fence that is around the Mansion. Within the “fence” and down the side we placed handmade sugar paste magnolias.



Because our goal is for our cakes to taste as good as they look, we were very pleased at the response of the 200 guests. Cake lovers raved, but the greatest compliment was when several people commented to us that though they usually do not like cake, they loved ours!





The Dessert Divas in the Bellamy Kitchen!

We were pleased to be asked to decorate the Bellamy's kitchen.
When we first toured the kitchen, we were amazed to consider how their "dessert divas" might have cooked any cakes in this oven! It is challenging enough with a 20th century convection oven!


This is a "before" picture.















This is our design "after!"


























And we had the opportunity to serve samples of our Praline & Chocolate Ganache Cake to the more than 800 people who toured the exhibit.