Event Recap: National Guard Deployment Ceremony

09 Jan Event Recap: National Guard Deployment Ceremony

Jewell Events Catering was thrilled to donate an extraordinary 3D cake to the 108^th Sustainment Brigade of the Illinois National Guard for their Deployment ceremony on January 4^th, 2014. Approximately 280 soldiers of the Chicago-based brigade were deploying to Kuwait in support of Operating Enduring Freedom.

We were so excited to bring something special to troops that defend our freedom and their families. When it came time to decide what type of cake to serve we decided to make it fun and memorable since we have an amazing bakery and an excellent team of 3 dimensional cake modelers. One of the most important images to the 108^th Brigade was their Army Combat Service Identification Badge which is a pentagon shape with a Y that represent the points of the Chicago River meeting. We decided to turn that patch into a vertical 4-tiered cake.

The idea was that if you looked downward vertically at the cake that you would see the badge. The Cake took the different shapes within the pentagon and built each layer of vertically. We started with a 2-foot wide hexagon base rising about 6 inches and being comprised of chocolate cake with an Italian Buttercream frosting covered in red fondant. The next layer up was a circle topped with white vertical stars circling the next layer up. The second layer was a delicious Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese frosting that resembled carrot cake but was so much tastier. That too was covered in red fondant and the stars were white edible sugar. The third tier was also a circle and made of a decadent Pistachio Cake with Vanilla Italian Buttercream frosting and covered in red fondant. The top tier was yellow sponge cake with caramel filling covered in a blue fondant and had the white Y symbol in the middle. Directly in the middle of the Y was the National Guards Minuteman posing with his rifle. He was made entirely of modeling chocolate. He stood about 6 inches tall at the top of the cake. Almost every little boy in line for cake took special notice of this particular piece of magical chocolate and asked who got to eat that part.

Kayla, one of the bakers who took part in the over 8 hours of cake preparation volunteered to cut the cake and serve our military men. She was very proud to describe the cake baking process and talk to all of the families and National Guardsmen that came up to admire her handiwork. Even though she was trying to expertly cut into the massive cake supported internally with dowel rods and serve up to 1000 people she enjoyed all the pictures and questions. Many of the admirers told her that they too were bakers but had never dreamed of making a cake like that. Many of the reception guests were taking pictures of the cake to share with others. Being able to share this in this celebration was a joy to Jewell Events Catering and we were proud to donate to such a worthy group!

Check out this recap of the event on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAIaUXXorxE