Summer is Over!

August has come and gone... September is upon us (Happy Labour Day!).  Back to school... but first, here are few orders created during the past week:

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Three Little Pigs Birthday Cake

Little Joaquin turned 3, and the theme was The Three Little Pigs (obviously, lol!).  The fondant pigs were swimming atop of a chocolate ganache "mud" bucket cake.  The chocolate cakes were covered in chocolate fondant "wooden planks" and green fondant.  The filling was chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream (the family loves chocolate).  The evil wolf was made of fondant, with the wanted-poster invite as inspiration.  Little Joaquin savoured biting into the wolf, lol!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Joaquin!

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60th Birthday Cookies

Our friend's in-laws were both turning 60 later this year.  They decided to throw them a surprise party, MONTHS before their actual birthday, lol.  So, I made these teal/white/disco dusted sugar cookies for their favours.

Happy 60th Birthday!

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Sports Birthday Cake

My colleague ordered this cake for Japhet, who turned 13 this year.  He plays football and soccer, so the theme was sports-related.  One layer was chocolate, the other was vanilla, and the filling was chocolate ganache.

 

Happy 13th Birthday, Japhet!

July, Where Did You Go?!

July.. the month that flew by...!  What was I up to... here's a synopsis:

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Red Velvet Cake Pops & French Macarons

I was requested to make some sweets for a wedding... and the bride-to-be wanted macarons and cake pops... in ivory, grey and pink colours.  The macaron Swiss meringue fillings were filled with opposite-coloured shells.

Congrats!

 

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Butterfly Cookies

This design was based off a face painting on the birthday girl... cute! :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Mieke!

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Shoe Cookies

My co-worker was leaving for school in the States (to become a lawyer)!  She's such a fashionista, I made her shoe-shaped sugar cookies with pink outlines in different designs.

Good luck, Jola!

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Hollywood Cake

An 18-year-old requested a glamorous cake for her birthday for her Hollywood themed birthday party.  The stars had to be gold and the other colours had to be red and black.  The red marshmallow fondant was flavoured with black cherry Jell-O.  The top tier was vanilla cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream while the bottom tier was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache flavoured Swiss meringue buttercream.

Happy 18th Birthday, Melanie!

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!

Cookies 'n Cakes

Baby Boy Onesies Cookies

My favourite CIP (insurance courses) instructor, Melanie, was due to have her first baby (note: since I made contact with her last, she was having her baby!).  I wanted to ship her a box of cookies to celebrate (she ate them before the baby was born, so I guess he had a taste of them, too).

Little boy onesies for a really lucky baby!  Mel is into ATVs and such, and I would not be surprised if he rode on that before a tryke.  Oh, the poor Mennonite neighbours! :)

Welcome, Baby Boy!

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Theatre Birthday Cake

My friend, Yahaira, wanted to practice making a cake for her son's upcoming birthday, so we made a cake for her friend's birthday, as a test.  This was also a test for me, because I haven't taught anyone how to decorate anything before.

He was into drama, so we made that our theme.  We made marshmallow fondant (it was giving our hands a workout!) to cover the chocolate cake (not homemade but the vanilla filling was).  Luckily, she had gloves so we didn't get red or blue stained on our hands when we coloured the fondant!

Pretty good work for a beginner, eh?  Hopefully, the birthday boy appreciated the effort!  I am proud of my students' (her husband helped out, too) work!

 

Happy Birthday, Dan!

 

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Ariel Birthday Cakes

Big girl Nikki turned 5, and she loves the Little Mermaid.  Now, this is my first Ariel cake, so I had a few challenges... one being working with the gumpaste!  It didn't want to harden, so I don't know what's up with that.  Gumpaste is supposed to dry faster than fondant, so how come it didn't work for me?  Oh well.

The chocolate cake was filled with pink vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and covered in blue fondant.  I added ocean details as finishing touches.  The brown sign is made with chocolate fondant.

I made a second sheet cake, because there were a lot of guests.  It was decorated with flowers, lettering and buttercream. 

Happy 5th Birthday, Nikki!

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Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing

Sorry, don't have pics of this one... I had to make it twice because I forgot the add sugar the first time (don't ask how I missed it!).  This was for a playdate lunch, so I cut out pieces with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, then piped a heart with the icing.  It was so yummy!  I will make this recipe again, and I'll do the same design so I can post up the image.

 

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The following two items were for a bake sale at work to help raise money for the United Way: 

Milk Chocolate Fudge Crackles

A new recipe... had to use 1/2 tablespoon scoops because 1 tablespoon-sized made the cookies spread horrifically.  The smaller size made the cookies bake evenly and enticed those who would've refused a larger cookie (due to diet).  What a mess I made when rolling the cookie balls into icing sugar! :/

Snowflake Gingerbread Cookies

A classic, just in time for the holidays!  I changed it up by having a darker blue tint for the royal icing, as well as adding silver dragees and random pearls throughout.  These, I packaged then tied with blue curling ribbon, as I thought it would be great to save for later or for a loved one.

End of Summer... Boo Hoo Hoo!

Alas, the hot weather will be coming to an end.  Summer vacation over.  School begins.  See you later, August!

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Giant Incredible Hulk Cookie

This year, The Avengers came out in theatres. How fitting that my co-worker's nephew wanted a Hulk cookie. Not any normal sugar cookie, but a HUGE sugar cookie. This one was about 10" so I had to put it on a 12" board. The royal icing covered the entire cookie, and I added edible marker details. Let's just say it was a smashing success!

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Barbie Silhouette Birthday Cake

Dear Solmaz requested a cake for a little girl turning 1.  I modeled the design after Bobbette & Belle's Barbie cake... simple silhouette with girly frills.  I used hot pink, rather than baby pink.

The 3-layer chocolate cake was filled with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream.

Happy 1st Birthday, Kira!

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Star Wars Birthday Cakes

Lucky Joaquin got two cakes for his 2nd birthday... a tiered cake with R2D2 and various fondant Star Wars icons along the sides, and a sheet cake with fondant Yoda.  R2D2 was made of Rice Krispie Treats and fondant.  Yoda is just plain fondant.  The cakes itself was chocolate with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream (Yoda cake) and chocolate ganache (R2D2 cake).

 

 

Happy 2nd Birthday, Joaquin!



Wedding Cake Showcase

I have been working on these dummy cakes for quite a while now; only when I have free time or when the boys are asleep. That's the bonus of the cakes being fake, you don't have to worry about it spoiling. I will be having them photographed professionally, so it will look better than what I have here. The purpose of this exercise is to show some of the techniques I can do for future orders and to give inspiration. Enjoy! :)

Embroidered flowers

(4" high dummies in 6", 8" and 10" rounds)

This style is relatively simple. Royal icing is piped on, then brushed inward for dimension. The marshmallow fondant (MMF) leaves were cut and overlapped to finish the borders, and I made them in the three sizes from smallest to biggest; they were also highlighted in white. The cake board was covered in thinned royal icing and sanding sugar was sprinkled on. Royal icing dots were piped randomly on. The fondant was made from marshmallows with strawberry J-ello and a bit of leftover orange MMF.

Sea elements

(carved 4" dummies in 6", 8" and 10" rounds)

I decided to make it topsy turvy. For the bottom tier, I folded strips of berry J-ello MMF and had it wrapped around. Royal icing items: dots, netting, and coral topper (using a grape stem as a base!). Other items were MMF: lily and lily pad, pearls, plants, and coral. The sand is made with light brown sugar.

Vintage pearls and roses

(4" high dummies in 6" and two 8" rounds)

This cake was the most time consuming: each ribbon rose was rolled and formed by hand. I really like how it looks vintage yet unique with the 8" high bottom tier. The purple MMF was made using grape J-ello, but it wasn't dark enough, so I painted all the roses with a violet/almond extract mixture. Of course, a pearl collar had to be a part of this creation, topped with little blossoms to add interest.