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!

Welcome, Sweet Baby!

She's here... Baby Amy... 4.5 weeks early!!!

No, she is not the daughter I've always wanted ("Amy" was also the name we had chosen if we had a girl), but a couple of good friends'.  I can't envision having baby #3 right now, but my husband seems to think I'll change my tune once I reach 35 and both boys would be in school.  We shall see.

To celebrate Amy's arrival, I made this cake for our friends... chocolate cake with pink Swiss meringue buttercream.  I thought I'd try the "naked" look with shell-like piping.  It looked really girly, I must say.

Welcome, Amy!

Kid Stuff

Did I mention I was thinking about my "new year's" resolution for 2013?  It's a little late, I know, but I thought that something easy would be to have weekly blog updates.  So far, I don't have a post for every week since January... maybe I should set up a reminder in my calendar... yeah, that can work! :)

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Dedication Cakes

There was a lot of e-mailing back and forth regarding a dedication cake for baby Sydney.  Eventually, we settled on a design that mashed together several images found online. 

The chocolate cake was gluten-free, covered in dark chocolate ganache, then pink fondant.  The cake was flourless, but contained a lot of chocolate, making it super rich.  All the decorations were made with a fondant/gumpaste mix.

Sydney's mom was so impressed with the finished product, she requested to have a secondary fruitcake decorated.  I kept it simple, as I had a short time to complete it.  The embossing was highlighted with pearl lustre dust and the I wrapped a frilled fondant ribbon around the base of the cake.

 

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Mickey Cake Pops

Cute little Mason turned 2!  He is a fan of Mickey, hence a Mickey-themed party happened.  I made chocolate cake pops (chocolate cake + vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream + dipped in dark Belgian chocolate + dipped in coloured moulding wafers).  These favours took me FOREVER to complete... the orange and yellow chocolate decided to not have the proper viscosity (not thin enough), so I only managed one cake pop for those colours.  I have great respect for all the cake artists that use the chocolate medium, because I had such a tough time and can't imagine it being my choice of decorating.  I am so happy the guests loved it (they were eyeing it when it first showed up).

Happy 2nd Birthday, Mason!

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!

End of December 2012!

Hiya folks, I didn't forget to post, only that I lacked time!  This month, it has been CRAZY, with the holidays and all, but I didn't think it would have prevented me from blogging for such a long time.

I will try to keep it short... but here's what I've been doing this past month... enjoy! :)

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Heart Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing

Here's the pic, as promised!

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IRB Cookies

I received an order for logoed cookies once again this year... but I encountered a hiccup.  I haven't been using my edible ink printer since last Christmas, so the ink dried up on me!  Looking at the cartridges, it appeared full but I guess it was just dried up colour.  Lesson learned: to extend life of ink, remove from printer when not in use and seal it with plastic wrap then in a resealable container.  I ended up having to pipe it all by hand but Sean (the client) was happy with it.

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Mint Chocolate Brownies with Candy Cane Sprinkles

I consider this treat my signature dessert.  I baked these for a United Way bake sale at work, and also for my Christmas potluck as favours.  What I did different this year was melted milk chocolate chips with mint chocolate chips to spread on top of the brownie and I decided to "garnish" the brownies with crushed candy canes for a holiday touch.

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Christmas Cookies

Gingerbread is King during Christmas time.  During a work vendor sale, where it benefited United Way, I reduced my prices for sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies.  I wasn't going to offer gingerbread, but a colleague suggested that I add it to my sale, since it's very Christmassy.  I pre-sold 5 dozen of each kind and all were redeemed before Christmas (cookies are great to give away or shared at home).  A few people said that the cookies were thoroughly enjoyed (albeit too quickly) when they were served.

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Handy Manny Cake, Take 2

Another blast from the past!  Little Mikayla, who turned 5, wanted this cake ever since her mom showed it to her when I first made it.  It's funny how she still loves Handy Mandy and didn't change her mind on what her birthday cake would look like when the date loomed closer.   To please most of the guests, the cake was vanilla with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC).  There are a few changes to the design, so it's not the exact replica of the original.

Happy 5th Birthday, Mikayla!

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Montreal Canadiens Cookies

Originally, these were supposed to be baseball sugar cookies.  But the time frame was too short, and I was requested to make Montreal Canadiens logoed hockey pucks, instead, for a later date.  I made royal icing transfers of the logos, which was way easier than piping it directly onto the cookie.  It felt weird making hockey cookies when there wasn't a hockey season this year... but it felt weirder, maybe even blasphemous, that I was making logos of the rivals of the Toronto Maple Leafs (James, my husband, is [unfortunately] a fan).

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Cupcakes with Candy Cane Sprinkles

This was also a Christmas party/dinner order... the last one for me this year.  I was told not to make it fancy, so I made my chocolate cake with vanilla SMBC.  I couldn't leave the top go untouched... I decided to add of touch of festive with crushed candy canes.  I was told that they were enjoyed by all.

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Panettone Bread Pudding

No pic of the bread pudding I made with panettone.  It was the first time I made it, so I baked it longer than the instructed time.  In my defense, I was worried that it didn't set, and I would hate for guests to become sick from uncooked eggs.  I could not believe how much cream and eggs were required.  You do not want to know!

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Gluten-Free Banana Cake

For my dear step-brother-in-law.  We are having a Christmas brunch, belatedly, and I wanted to bring something that most would enjoy.  I reduced the sugar because I added an extra banana, but I think maybe I should have also put in more rice flour because it didn't set as hard as I'd like (even thought it was in the oven for over an hour).  Still, it was tasty and not overly-sweet.  I would make this again.

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That's it!  Have a great time up to the new year, then an even better 2013!