Unknown Gender Baby Shower Cake

I had a request for a simple baby shower cake... one bootie blue, one bootie pink, because the gender was a surprise.  This chocolate cake with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream was covered in fondant and the cute phrase: "Pitter patter little feet, babies make our lives complete... Congratulations."

Congrats on the wee one's future arrival!

Reptile Birthday Cake

I had less than a week to make a reptile-themed cake for a 6-year-old girl.  Yes, that's right, a GIRL!  I took the order because it was for someone I know plus I thought it was doable (it was finished 12 hours before the deadline... I am a hopeless procrastinator).

The party was being held at a reptile zoo (boy, was it busy for a Sunday!) and I delivered it using the worse roads ever, but the cake arrived intact.

The top tier was vanilla cake and bottom tier was chocolate cake, both filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  All the decorations were fondant.  I thought it would be cute to have 6 things to represent her age, since she was going to have a number 6 for her candle.  My favourite item was the lizard dusted with gold.

Apparently, the cake was devoured and not even one reptile was left.  That's when you know you have satisfied everyone's belly. :)

Happy 6th Birthday, Victoria!

March Madness!

Well, not exactly... but it is when you have an exam to study for... and I do procrastinate... a lot. :)

Here's a recap of my month plus one from today:

Easter Egg Cookies

I have a co-worker that really loves my cookies, whether it be gingerbread or sugar.  This time, she wanted sugar cookies in egg shapes.  Unfortunately for me, I do not have an egg cutter besides a really big one.  So, I took a normal circle cutter and bent it into an egg shape.  I mourned the loss of the original roundness but I didn't want to waste time to buy another cutter.

Then, it was just a matter to piping some royal icing as outlines or whatnot.  To get the sprinkles to stay on the cookie, I applied a thin layer of corn syrup, and waited for it to dry.

And she loved them! :)

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Super Mario Birthday Cake, Take 2

I remember making cookies for Riley when he turned 1... now he's 3!  Where did the years go?!  He's really into Super Mario anything, so it was also his cake of choice.  His mom told me that the kids do not like fondant at all (bad experiences).  Instead, the chocolate cake had vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream filling and sides, and white chocolate ganache on the top.  Mario was actually a royal icing transfer, as were the dots, squids and coral.  The green blocks had to be made of fondant but they can be easily removed prior to eating.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Riley!

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Sonic Birthday Cake

Originally, Kaiden wanted a Wolverine cake.  Then I was told he had changed his mind and wanted a Sonic cake instead.  The design is loosely based on what my friend had submitted.  I decided to make a royal icing transfer of Sonic's head in a ring.

The cake was vanilla with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  The whole thing was covered in blue fondant, and fondant and royal icing details.  I am super proud of the yellow and brown checks... those took the longest to make! 

 

Happy 5th Birthday, Kaiden!

 

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Mini 60th Birthday Cupcakes

These chocolate and vanilla mini cupcakes with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream were for a 60-year-old.  The topper design was based on the actual decorations they had for the party.  The black fondant circles were splattered with orange, blue and green colours.  Then, I piped teal and purple royal icing on top.  For the final touch, I sprinkled disco dust all over them.

Happy 60th Birthday!

Owen's 3rd Birthday

Our little Owen turns 3 tomorrow (Feb 12)!  We had his birthday party this past Saturday and I made it a pirate theme.  Not because he was into pirates.  That would make sense.  It was because he has a new costume that I thought he'd be too big for this coming Halloween.  Practical mom, eh? :)

I made a banner via Vistaprint, that had a pirate ship (it was a template design).  I had little "booty's" for favours that included candy, chocolate gold coins, a map, an eyepatch, a bandana, pirate tattoo and stickers.

Luckily, I had booked the Friday off work, which was when the horrendous storm hit... I spent a lot of my party prep time shovelling snow!  The change in plans made me cut a lot things out, just because I didn't have the time (ie. helium balloons were out of the question with unplowed snow on the roads; no cake cannon-pops; no railing for the ship).  The pirate ship cake was a down-to-the-wire effort, finished at 2am on Saturday morning (the party was set at 10am).

I enlisted help from friends, because I needed it.  They helped me with some food prep and putting up streamers.  Thanks, Ya & Matt!

The majority of guests made it to the party despite the weather conditions.  What troopers! :)

There were only 2 activities... only because a) I was running out of time, and b) the attention span of little kids is extremely short. We played "X" Marks the Spot. The map was hand drawn by James and the challenge was to put the treasure chest on the X... blindfolded. In truth, I don't think anyone won.

The other game was a simple coin toss... get 3 coins in a bucket, you get a prize (candy). There was no limit on how many attempts you make, but it ended up with the kids throwing coins everywhere. The best part: bribing them with candy if they helped pick them up (which they did). :)

At one point, Owen had a bloody nose from bumping into another kid... how fitting for a pirate.  He didn't like us trying to stem the flow, though.

Let's get back to the cake... chocolate with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream and strawberry crispearls.  I carved it, then ganached it, then applied strips of chocolate fondant planks to the sides and top.  Easy, but a bit time-consuming.  My chocolate cake is not ideal for carving, but for little projects, it's OK.  So, I had to add supports to keep the ends together.  I added  inedible masts and a little pirate gingerbread man, or "BBs" as Owen calls them (see, I didn't even have time to make royal icing).  Final touches: cannonballs (Whoppers), cannons (Rolos) and a turbulent sea (blue buttercream).  This little 9" cake was carved down, and it was enough for the guests (only maybe 6 servings left over).

 

Happy 3rd Birthday, Owen! <3

Let Them Eat... More Doll Cake!

This past Saturday, we celebrated the birthdaysO of 4-year-old twin girls with a pajamarama party!  Obviously, they like princesses, so their mom asked for Rapunzel and Ariel doll cakes (and she provided the dolls and design in mind).

The Ariel cake was chocolate cake with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream and strawberry crispearls.  The "ocean" was the same buttercream tinted blue and had a few seaweeds, flowers, and pearls throughout.  The fin and scales were piped with green buttercream.

The Rapunzel cake was chocolate cake with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and milk chocolate crispearls.  Under the fondant dress was dark chocolate ganache.  It was a triple chocolate combo!

Transporting the cakes was fun... I had to actually hold the Ariel cake, since it was stuck on the cake stand.  Rapunzel sat in a box, so no worries there.  Good thing our friend didn't live that far.

The only thing I didn't really like about the doll cake pan (I've only used it once before) was the baking time.  My chocolate cake is pretty moist, so I was afraid of burning it by leaving it in the oven longer than the recommended time of the pan's manual.  Having said that, the concern was whether the cake would slide easily out of the pan without leaving any cake stuck to the sides.

I was happy that the girls and everyone loved the cakes... this will be the end of doll cakes for a while...

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Clara & Giuliana!

Why, Hello, Tink!

First post of the new year... a little belated!  I'm sorry it took me a month!  New year resolution starting in February: weekly updates! :)

I'm going to be discussing the cake I made for this past Saturday.  A Tinkerbell doll cake for dear Solmaz's daughter's 4th birthday.  Her birthday was in December, but the party was postponed.

I finally purchased a dome pan for doll cakes.  Yes, no more stacking layers then carving them down! :)  It will help cut down the cake prepping part, especially when I have two more doll cakes for this coming weekend!

Solmaz showed me a design from Kat's Cakes, and this is my take.  I made the fondant petals more distinct in hue (light to dark, from top to bottom).  The petals, I've added lustre dust for that little sparkle that fairies have.  Of course, frilling took the majority of my time for this cake!  I added a ribbon sash which was meant to conceal a gap from a pull-string that chimed and made the wings light up.  I like the simple butterfly at Tink's waist.

The cake board was yellow fondant, embossed with butterflies; also it was my first time using corn syrup as an adhesive to the board (instead of piping gel).  It seemed to get the work done, so I guess anything sticky would suffice.

The cake was chocolate, which I cut in two and added a third base layer (it didn't seem like a lot of cake since Tink was a shorter doll than the standard).  The filling was strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream with Callebaut strawberry crispearls (yummy chocolate-coated puffed rice cereal).

Here's the pic of the cake in the venue... with Solmaz's scrumptious macarons in the background (something I haven't attempted yet, but I plan to... eventually).

All in all, everyone was happy with the cake... Solmaz, the guests, Melina, and myself! :)

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Melina!

Fuchsia Birthday Cake

Happy mid-October!  That means Halloween is coming up... then, Christmas!  I can hear you all protesting... :)

Anyway, on to my latest cake.  It was for one-year-old Tasha, and my neighbour friend wanted something similar to the boy baby shower cake I made, but change it up for a girl's birthday.  And add a "1" block on the top (made of Rice Krispies treat).  I used hot pink a.k.a. fuchsia fondant (white chocolate and regular mixed) so it's not the traditional baby pink.

Before I covered the chocolate cakes in fondant, they were filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and had a dark chocolate ganache shell.  The block also had white modelling chocolate before the fondant treatment.

Everyone was happy with their cake... some kids had seconds, some kids asked for seconds but were denied the request by their parents (smart!), some ate part of the cake but mostly the fondant and were bouncing off the wall (William).  The birthday girl seemed to enjoy it as well, even though she was stripped down to her diaper.

 

Happy 1st Birthday, Tasha!

Team Umizoomi Cake 2.0

Remember how I made a Team Umizoomi cake for William (almost 2 years ago)?  Well, since that post, I've received queries on how to make it, can I make it for their child, etc.

Today, I delivered my second Umicar cake for a 3-year-old who had a Team Umizoomi theme for his birthday party.

I did everything essentially the same, except the fondant was not made of marshmallows nor orange flavoured.  I have to admit, I had an easier time the second time around (except for the "painting" part... I made the second lighter colour of the car out of fondant/modelling chocolate since the painting was not opaque enough and it was too streaky).

Here's the original:

 

Happy birthday, Noah!

May Happenings

I've been busy.  Had to deal with a chicken pox scare (it was dermatitis), then a lice scare (it was sand), then chicken pox again (this time, William got it for real).  And on top of these medical issues, I had orders, and this is what I made...

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Bridal Shower Flower Cake

This was a red velvet cake underneath the lavender fondant.  I made brush embroidery flowers with royal icing and fondant ribbon roses on top.  I had to put pearls on because they go with the roses.  It has a really vintage feel to it.  The client had it made for her VP; hopefully, it was shared at the office, but the intention was for the VP to take it home to enjoy it with her husband-to-be.

Congrats, Catherine & Lincoln!

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Fun Fair Cupcakes

William is going into kindergarten this fall (where did my baby go?).  I made a donation last year for their auction (cookies), but this year I changed it to cupcakes.  In addition, I was also able to sell mini vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  100% of the proceeds were donated to the school.  I brought 48 of these minis... and sold them all in an hour, with the help of my neighbour's daughter who goes to the school (a familiar face to help rake in the sales).  Awesome. :)

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Tropical Sweet Sixteen

This was secretly a black forest cake!  It was my first order for this type of cake... and I used real cherry brandy - kirsch.  The cherries were marinated in the stuff and I even used the leftovers to douse the bottom cake layer... it smelled so boozy!  Since the theme was tropical, colourful hibiscus fondant/gumpaste flowers trailed off the cake on top of whipped cream and tan coloured whipped cream were piped along the sides to resemble a straw grass skirt.

I also made a cupcake bouquet.  Green vanilla buttercream-topped chocolate cake with teal and fuchsia hibiscus flowers.  I dipped one end of a lollipop stick into melted chocolate before inserting it into the cupcake.  It worked out great... but I don't think it survived in the vase during transport :(... I'm guessing because there wasn't much stability for the sticks not to move around (the white stuff was vase filler) even though I put a blob of fondant into the vase before filling it.

Happy Sweet Sixteen!

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Baby Shower Cake and Cupcakes

This chocolate cake was simply adorned with fondant/gumpaste blossoms with sugar pearl centres, buttercream ruffles, and a fondant top. It was filled with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.

The cake was paired up with mini cupcake favours (chocolate with pink vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and red velvet with yellow cream cheese icing).  I had to figure out how the guests would take them home.  Initially, I wanted to use a cupcake wrapper and a handle, but I thought it would be too flimsy.  So, I happened upon espresso cups at the dollar store, which were the perfect size (no handles needed!).  I wrapped the cups in pink scrapbook paper.  I wanted to put the cups into individual plastic packaging, but my cookie bags didn't have a flat bottom, so the cup refused to stay upright.  I just put the cups into a 12"x12" box, as is.  I'm sure most people would consume these bites before arriving home, anyway.

Congratulations to the parents-to-be!

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iPad Birthday Cake

My most favourite cake this month... this iPad cake (chocolate cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream) was so fun to make!  The toughest things to do were the letters, but I think my X-acto knife cuts were decent.  I wish I had an iPad myself for a model, but I only had online images to work with.  I heard the the cake was well-received, which made my efforts even more worthwhile.  Everything was decorated with fondant/gumpaste, with royal icing text, and the cake was covered in fondant.

Happy Birthday, Rex!

Go Leafs Go!

I had a request to make a cake for Saturday, no special design required, only that it had to say "Happy 70th Birthday Dad."

I found out he was a Toronto Maple Leafs fan... I can imagine how hard it is to be a Leafs fan (my husband is one, too)... at the time of the order, the Leafs lost 10 out of 11 games! As a result (and by fan demand), the head coach was fired and was replaced by another, who lead the team to a win this past Saturday night. What a nice birthday gift! :)

The cake was chocolate with sweet and rich chocolate icing. The top was made of fondant and gumpaste with the TML logo, and edible food marker. I used my new dough scraper (baby shower prize) to guide the icing into a smooth finish. Another plus with this icing recipe is that the cake can be left at room temperature for a few days without fear of "melting!"

Happy 70th Birthday!

February Projects, Part 1

I don't seem to have the time to do post updates immediately after a project is completed anymore. Sorry for the delay. :(

Hence, "Part 1."

Big orders coming up to finish off the month (actually, they're due the same day - wish me luck), so stay tuned! :)

Chocolate Cake Cups

These one-bite treats are addictive. Very popular at the office, it will satisfy your chocolate craving. It is a combination of my chocolate cake recipe, vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing, topped with Belgian milk chocolate.

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Good Luck Cookies

Someone from work decided to take an opportunity out of the department, but she still would be in the same office. I wanted to make farewell treats, anyway. The sugar cookie was simply adorned with a horseshoe and written with edible marker (some people that I used a Sharpie - I thought that was funny).

Congrats and Good Luck, Sara R!

* * *

Baby Shower Cupcakes

My first-time Mommy friend was having a baby shower and I was asked to bring something. Initially, I had wanted to make the vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream blue, but the prams were blue (moulding wafers). In the end, I thought the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes made a better impact with its simple adornments (and no one had blue teeth).

Congrats, Sara & Rob!

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Owen's Thomas Cake

My "little" 25-pound baby turned two this month. He's not speaking with words yet (long story short, we found out he's only been using 35% of his hearing but will be having surgery to correct it), but he seems to like Thomas. Due to my schedule and whatnot, I only could decorate his cake on the DAY OF HIS PARTY. Talk about pressure! Being off maternity leave to plan parties is tough! It took me 3 hours, but I thought it turned out OK. Thomas in his most basic form. The whole cake top was fondant, with a non-edible birthday flag. The cake itself was chocolate with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Owen!

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Purple Ruffle Cake

My colleague wanted a red velvet cake for her friend's birthday. A girl who likes purple and girly things. I chose pearls and ruffles because she sounds like a classy gal. The cake top is black fondant with a royal icing message.

Happy Birthday Nida!

Doll Cake

This cake was made for no particular occasion. My colleague wanted to be a nice grandma for her granddaughter, and ordered a doll cake. 

Why were Barbie's arms raised? Well, the text that was on the cake board said "Soccer Star Kendra" because the little girl is into soccer, so I thought it would be funny for Barbie to allude to the "gooooooooooal!" stance that many players use.

This was my first attempt at a doll cake. I didn't get a special pan (I was considering it) but used two 8" rounds and two 6" rounds. The chocolate cakes were stacked and chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream were iced between the layers, then carved down to a dress shape (so much cake was lost... but, I plan on making some form of cake balls out of them - I hate wastage). Then, I made a hole in the cake and dug out some cake. I plastic-wrapped the doll from hips down and inserted her into the opening. The bodice was made with chocolate fondant and decorated with pearls. Finally, ruffles were piped with pink vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream with pearls randomly throughout.

I hope little Kendra liked her cake, because I do! :)

Delayed "Happy 2012!"

The past couple of weeks were used recovering from all the festivities and my hectic December. But I'm back to updating the blog! :)

For New Year's Eve, my colleague requested a vanilla/chocolate cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing. No theme in particular, so I wanted to do a more text-y cake. I decided on a few lines from the classic song that is sung to ring in the new year.

CRAZY, BUSY DECEMBER!!!

I haven't been updating my blog/website for the past couple of weeks due to CRAZINESS! Did I already mention that I have 4-hour commute to work in total, a husband, and 2 boys under age 4? Adding orders to the list make for lack of sleep and the feeling of not finishing in time (but I always do).

So, I will try to *briefly* mention what has kept me so preoccupied...

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Pittsburgh Steelers Cake

Made for a football fan, this chocolate cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC) icing was topped with a royal icing transfer. Surprisingly, I was told it was easy to cut into; possibly due to it resting on the buttercream, which broke up the molecules in the royal icing. A test for me to experiment with in the future.

* * *

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Snowflake Cookies

The cookies were sugar and gingerbread cookies for the staff at the IRBC. The design is similar to what I made in the past, but with the addition of an edible image of the IRBC logo in the centre. Did I mention I love my edible ink printer? :)

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Red Velvet Minis with Rose

So, my colleague wanted to bring these cupcakes for her niece's birthday. Initially, the niece said yellow was her favourite colour but then changed it to purple. Her mom wanted a rose on the cupcake, so I made them in purple and rested on cream cheese icing. The kids went to town so fast on the cupcakes that my colleague was not able to take even one photo of her niece enjoying them. To be 4 years old again...

* * *

Trifecta of Destination Wedding Cakes
Another colleague requested to have cakes made in honour of her daughter's wedding. The wedding was in Punta Cana, so parts of the cakes had a beachy theme. She was very generous and shared the cakes with us at work (which was her intention all along!). To make my life easier, I decided to change the order into three smaller and shorter cakes instead of two higher cakes (I had to commute by transit, after all).

Bride's Cake

Her daughter had calla lilies in her bouquet, which I made with fondant. Ruffles were everywhere to make it look like a bridal. The cake was vanilla with vanilla SMBC icing.

Beach Cake

Palm trees meeting together was the idea for this chocolate cake with vanilla SMBC icing.

Message Cake

So, I didn't end up having room for the text on both the first two cakes above. It was written on this one instead. This cake ended up having one layer of chocolate cake and one of vanilla, all iced and filled with vanilla SMBC.

Congrats Melissa and Lee!

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26th Anniversary Cake

My colleague wanted a little vanilla cake to celebrate her anniversary. I put puddle dots and a couple of fondant flowers to decorate it very simply.

Happy 26th Anniversary!

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13th Anniversary Cake

Another colleague's anniversary was on the same date as the above client - weird, huh? She specifically requested for a chocolate ganache filling, which I did but also covered the top and sides of the vanilla cake with it. The sides were finished off with SMBC. The second request was to make it colourful (for her kids) because this was also the first anniversary cake that was homemade (she never had time to make it herself).

Happy 13th Anniversary!

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"Just Because..." Cakes

A colleague wanted to do something nice for a couple of people at work, so she ordered two generic cakes that could be served over the holidays. The cakes are vanilla with SMBC: the first one with fondant calla lilies and sugar pearls; the second one with rosettes and sugar pearls.

* * *

Snowflake Birthday Cake

This short vanilla cake with sweet vanilla icing just had snowflakes piped all over the fondant top.

Happy Birthday Nana!

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21st Birthday Cake

This was the chocolate birthday cake with teal vanilla SMBC for the last surprise birthday party my colleague was going to give her son. SMBC 21's were placed on the black fondant top. It looked kinda retro, but I'm glad to hear it was enjoyed by all.

Happy Birthday Josh!

* * *

Gingerbread Christmas Tree Cookie

Of course, with all the baking I do, I had to bring something to work to share. I made some gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies (not pictured) topped with royal icing.

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Girly Cupcakes

I had a request to make fuchsia SMBC cupcakes with girly teal and white toppers. The cupcakes were vanilla, chocolate and red velvet, topped with alternating white/teal butterflies, flowers and pearls. I really liked how the teal glitter made the pearls shimmer.

Running Graduate Birthday Cake

This request is for a guy who is a runner and has also completed his Master's degree. Yay, for higher education! :)

I thought it would be great if I merged the two things... I made a dark chocolate transfer of a graduate, running, and also sporting shorts and sneakers. White chocolate was used to outline the figure and it was placed on top of a dark chocolate disk.

This was a very moist, 3-layered chocolate cake with whipped vanilla icing.

Happy Birthday Uncle Marc!