August & September’s Cakes

Busy as usual with my lovely cakes…

I had yet another Angry Birds cake.  This time, it was a request for the classic game.

 

I really love creating this guys by hand out of fondant.

Angry but loveable.  Can you blame them?  They’re only protecting their eggs….

I then had the cutest baptismal cake to fashion.  The request was for the baby bum cake.

 

The lovely Godmother who requested the cake, also suggested the cutest saying….

 

 

How can you not melt?

Then there was my son’s 3rd birthday cake.  He’s a big Big BIG fan of Disney Cars.  Last year I made him a Mater – the tow truck cake. This year he asked for Lightening McQueen.  I won’t be surprised if he asks for another character out of the movie next year for his birthday.  Did I mention he’s a big fan?

 

 

I wanted to take a picture of him with his cake.  He stood next to it enough times to seem like it was a possibility, but he’s like his mom – we run from the camera all the time.  Hahahaha

Last but not least was an adorable Dora ballerina cake for my best friend’s daughter.

 

It was fun molding Dora the Explorer in ballet mode out of gum paste.

 

Breaking my usual tradition of covering my cakes in fondant, I covered this lovely confetti cake in a tasty vanilla buttercream.  Yummy and good for you too.

And the orders are slowly rolling in for October as I type this newest blog entry.

 

First Birthdays

Celebrating a 1st anything is very special.

Especially for parents of a baby who encounters many many first time moments….first step, first words, first tooth and of course…first birthday!

Ah, first birthday, what a special time … naturally I don’t remember mine.  I don’t even know if I have any pictures of that day (must ask my parents).  I’m assuming there was singing and a cake involved somewhere amidst that day.  For my daughter, I baked up cupcakes and slathered a thick serving of icing over it to make a cupcake-cake (this was pre-elaborate cake days).  I am also about ease – if I don’t need to do simple math to figure out how many pieces to cut the cake, all the better!

For my son’s first birthday, his was the beginning of the elaborate cake era.  I baked up 3 different flavoured cakes (chocolate, vanilla and confetti) and created 3 large “square” wooden blocks  (ok, they looked far from square blocks, but rather squished up blocks), each block spelling out my son’s name.  (For his cake, yes I had to use simple math.)

My babies are no longer babies (sniff – wipe away single rolling tear).  My daughter is now 5 and my son is 3 … time flies, doesn’t it?  And now I have friends and family who are celebrating their little ones first years, and I get to be part of such a great day all over again.

My neighbour asked me to create a cake for her son’s 1st birthday.  His love for Mickey Mouse being the focus of the cake.

Without having to make the famous mouse himself (afraid I wouldn’t get his face done properly), I focused on his iconic ears in the form of the famous Mickey Mouse hat and the red shorts and white buttons on his pants.

As a special treat, I wanted to create a “smash” cake … a smaller cake in a soft icing that the birthday boy or girl gets to literally “dive into” to everyone’s delight.  Really, when else in your life can you get away with such behavior?!  LoL

In September, my husband’s cousin’s son’s first birthday (are you still following me?) requested a baseball themed cake.  Specifically one  featuring the Toronto Blue Jays – her husbands beloved team.

 

As an additional surprise, I whipped up a smash cake in the shape of half of a baseball.

 

Happy 1st birthdays baby S and baby A.  No longer babies now!

July’s cakes

Oh my goodness – July has been busy… my little kitchen oven has been working as hard as the sun this summer month….

My neighbor called me on behalf of her friend for a birthday cake.  A birthday cake shaped like an owl for her 3-year-old daughter’s birthday (seriously, I love kids today!  My cake was still a slab or a round…ohhhhh).

Then I had a New York city cake.  This was set on a girl leaving for New York University in the fall.  I wanted this to be girlie and fun.  Think “Sex & the City” – in cake form.

So what’s NYC without buildings?

Or Broadway??  I took pieces of fondant and drew on iconic broadway posters – my favourite (to draw and watching the actual performance) was “Wicked”.

I even created fondant pieces of shopping bags and of course the Tiffany jewelry box.  What is NYC with some hardcore shopping?!

Put it all together and you’ve got my interpretation of a girlie view of NYC!

My next cake I did was an ANGRY BIRDS SPACE!  I have been looking forward to doing this cake since it was first requested!  Why, you ask?  Because I’m a geek and a fan of the entire angry birds series of games …  don’t believe me?  Look at my iPhone (then shake your head).  Hehehe.

Creating all the Angry Bird characters makes me happy.  Can’t you tell?

Then I created the moon.  I’m so proud of how it looked.

Throw on a bunch of angry birds and one scared green pig…and voila!

The last cake I created for July was a cake for my husband.  He celebrated his 35th birthday.  Coming up with an idea for his cake took a lot longer than my 5-year-old coming to a decision on her cake.  After much back and forth….originally he wanted a Guiness can cake, then a hamburger (he had that one last year), he finally decided on a BBQ cake.

This included 2 “skewers” of fondant meat and green peppers and button mushrooms.  And yes I made sure to marble the meat – BBQ grill masters be proud!

So that’s a summary of my sweet July.

Bring on August…. more cakes to come

Sesame Street Cake

Sunny Day
Sweepin’ the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street ….

Hahaha…that song’s in your head now, isn’t it?  

It was in my head when a new client emailed me for a cake for his son’s 2nd birthday party.  He emailed me a couple ideas for a cake: bold colours, alphabets and numbers scattered around, and a few sesame street characters to finish off the piece.

That was the fun part.

I started off with my favorite character: Cookie Monster.

I started off with a rice krispie body and head.

Then covered him in blue fondant, which i scored to get his messy furry look.

And what is Cookie Monster without his own accessories?  COOKIES!!!

I then started on Big Bird.  Of course I wasn’t going to put a 7′ tall bird on this cake, but he turned out to be just as cute.

I layered on fondant feathers for a ruffled feathery look.

Elmo was done the same way as Cookie Monster – except in red fondant, of course.

And “Tah-dah”…. Sesame street couldn’t get any sweeter….

 

 

Cowgirl Birthday Party

Ah Summer time – school’s out, the days get longer and both my kids get a year older.  Yep, both of them are summer time babies.

This year, my daughter is turning 5 (it’s an important milestone in kindergarten terms).  She’s a great kid with a mind of her own, and so we asked her what kind of birthday theme did she want.  After much, much, MUCH thought on what to have, she finally settled on: Cowgirl.

We live in the suburbs – she has never ridden a pony, nor seen a rodeo, but she wanted to be a cowgirl.  How I love my daughter!

So right away, I got to work on her cake.  But first my daughter pulled me aside and instead of chocolate or vanilla, she asked for a rainbow.

Sigh…

So I baked up 6 layers of white cake, each coloured in different segments of the rainbow: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.

Stacked each in that order and decorated the cake in a simple cowgirl theme.

I particularly loved the handkerchief detail.

When it was time to cut the cake, I honestly held my breath as I cut out a slice and slide it onto the plate.  Every little girl screamed with delight (I’m really not exaggerating – a small group of 4 and 5 years olds screamed) when then saw the “rainbow” inside.

All in all, it was a great birthday party for my little girl.  She had a blast…. now onto my son’s 3rd birthday party next month.  Stay tuned.

Have your cake…..

So yes, I’ll be the first to admit that I have badly neglected my little blog.  Sigh…So much for new years resolutions….

But like always I’ve been busy…baking and designing cakes, of course.

What have I actually created, you ask?

In December I was playing with cakes … these little bars are my “just a taste” cakes – when you don’t want a whole cake…but still want the decadence of sweetness.  Hehehe.

I like these cakes the best for their simplicity.  Because I was only trying it out for the first time, all three bars were vanilla and buttercream frosting, but I’m willing to make varieties.

In February there was the Barbie silhouette cake….

And what is Barbie without her accessories?

The Lego cake.

I wanted this unique cake to look like the classic Lego figures had come to life and had decided to cover up a large Lego block in fondant.

Viola!  Lego Cake!

And then I designed the Phineas and Ferb cake for a friend of mine from work for her son.

I had taken the time to paint out the cartoon characters on gum paste.

And I wanted to do the very first episode with the roller coaster….

And of course Phineas and Ferb!

In the lovely month of March, I did a bridal shower cake for a lovely bride-to-be (whom I was honored and privileged to do her wedding cake and cupcakes this past May.)

Which was followed by a Dinosaur birthday cake for another friend of mine, for her little boy….

Yes, Dinosaurs celebrate birthday’s with 3 year old little boys – haven’t you heard?!

Last but not least was a Hiking Boot cake, requested by a gentleman who read my blog (yeah!!!) and simply requested this unique shaped cake for his sister’s birthday.

So there you have the last six months done in up in sweet cakes.

Hoping to bring you more soon.

L

Baby Showers

This past weekend I was asked to create two separate baby shower cakes.  One for an old friend from high school and another for my best friend.  Both blessed with beautiful babies.  A girl and boy respectively.

For my old high school friend, she requested a red velvet and cream cheese cake done up to look like a present in pink and green.  Special Delivery.  Just like her little girl.

Then my best friend, who gave birth to her third child 3 weeks before his actually due date (he really wanted to make an appearance!) was holding a baby shower the same Sunday.  Not only did she need a lot of clothes for this little boy (her previous 2 kids are girls), but she had sold a lot of baby items just previous to discovering her pregnancy.  Hehehe.

It figures, doesn’t it?

I was given free rein on what to design for her.  Knowing that she loves to do cross-stitching in her free time, I happily created a simple cross-stitched center-piece.

After trying to recreate a cross-stitch look of strings on the fondant surface (and helpless flubbing by screwing up the last “e” in Welcome that I tried covering it up with fondant “string”), I have come to the very strong conclusion that I hate cross-stitching and give my best friend a 1000 kudos for her patience in her incredible hobby!

All in all both cakes were well created for two wonderful little individuals, newly arrived in the world.

Welcome!

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes

Hmmmm …. I love cupcakes.  If you’ve been reading my blog, you probably know that already.

So when I came across a recipe for something called CHOCOLATE MUD CAKES … well I couldn’t resist. Could you?  Okay, so the word “mud” in food based items is never an appeal for good eats.  Actually visions of my youth playing in the backyard in muddy pockets of dirt with buckets and pails, pretending to serve up “appetizing” meals come to mind.

I found the recipe through “Planet Cake”

Great book on first time cake decorators with fully illustrated pictures and how-to steps.  And near the beginning of the book is our Chocolate mud cakes recipe.

I used my favourite chocolates for this wonderful recipe:  Cadbury and Ghiradelli.  Yum.

Then assembled all the ingredients together….

Mixing it all together, out came the most incredible chocolate cupcakes I have ever made.  So moist and delicious.

I think the next time I play with these cupcakes – and trust me that will be soon!  I will create a well in the middle and drizzle in some Dulce DeLeche for that extra punch.  MMMmmmm decadence!

Cakes for April and May

What I enjoy most about my job (besides creating unique cakes and bring smiles to people’s faces), is getting actually the initial request for a cake.  The specific idea that someone wants brought to life in cake-form.  What I also find interesting is how sophisticated birthday cakes are getting (not like the rectangular slab cakes I grew up with) and what kids are now requesting….not just vanilla birthday cake (although this is still classic!)

Late last April into earlier this May I had a few birthday cakes and a first communion cake to work on.

My friend asked me to do a puppy themed cake for her son’s birthday.  The birthday party had cookie shaped like dog biscuits, and party plates were replaced with (new) doggy bowls.

Instead of doing a large 3D form, I opted for a 2D relief of a puppy.  All formed with yummy rice krispies.

I then simply painted on the spots and doggy paw prints.

She had also requested another birthday cake in May for her daughter’s 9th birthday.  A “Twilight” themed cake.  Twilight – as in the vampire books/ movies that are the craze among preteen girls.  Okay I’ll admit that I’ve watched the movie and have read all the books and I’m all for Team Edward…hmm I spoke too much…. anyways, moving on……

The birthday girl was all for Team Jacob (hence the little fondant wolf howling at the top the cake).

For the first communion cake, I was asked to create something with pink and purple flowers and white fondant covering the base.  I tried using my flower embossing templates to give dimension to the plain white background (in pictures it looks horrible because my camera is really really old!)

 

The Merry “Marry” Month of May

To say that I’ve been busy this month is an understatement!

This month I have been busy making cakes and over 100 gum paste daisies. Yep – you read that right.  Over One Hundred gum paste Gerber daisies.  For those of you thinking, “What?!  That’s crazy!” … where were you earlier?!?

The daisies were for my best friend’s little sister’s very anticipated wedding.  Years, months, days and seconds went into planning the incredible event.  And in the whirlwind of wedding planning bliss, I was asked to make the wedding cake and cupcakes.  Yay!

So on May 1st, I started making little Gerber daisies….

And I didn’t stop until the Tuesday before the wedding (true story).

The lovely bride requested a simple wedding cake (vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream), covered in blue fondant and white Gerber daisies (of course).  And the cupcakes (approximately 132) were evenly divided between vanilla bean and chocolate, all topped with buttercream icing and a daisy.

This was my first time displaying all my baking efforts for a wedding, so finding the perfect looking cupcake tower was a must.  I love the look of cupcake towers – my sister had one for her wedding 2 years ago and there are a variety all over the internet now a days.  I finally found it at Golda’s Kitchen – a simple round 6 tier tower that I can easily decorate with whatever ribbon accent along the edge.

Very pretty isn’t it?

It’s prettier completely filled too!

As an additional surprise the bride requested a grooms cake for the rehearsal dinner.  Because the groom is a HUGE Boston Red Sox fan, she asked for a simple baseball cap.  Love it!  The groom apparently couldn’t get enough of it during the dinner, pretending to wear it or place it on everyone elses head.  LOL.  I’m just glad it was a hit.

 

I have to admit that doing this wedding, delivering the cakes and cupcakes to the reception hall, and walking all the boxes straight into the large walk-in freezer of the kitchen made me feel like a real cake designer.  The feeling was continued into the next day when I arrived to set up the cupcake tower and set up “my vision”.

And the wave of pride seeing the happy couple next to their cakes just made my spirit soar.

Congratulations to Ashley and Christopher.

May all your days see sunshine and daisies.