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!

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

Summer is Here!

June was so busy for me... I also took an insurance course on liability.  Interesting stuff.  While doing that, I was working on various projects.

Baby Shower Cupcakes

This was for a lady who had a traditional baby shower... when she herself is not traditional.  The cupcakes were chocolate, vanilla, and lemon, all topped with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  I also made red velvet with cream cheese icing.  All the toppers were made from fondant/gumpaste.

Congratulations!

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Summer Sprinkle Cookies

The end of the school year is here... so, these are cookies made to thank teachers and co-op placement staff.  I made it summer themed and chose to have simple shapes (only the beach ball was used with a circle cutter, the rest were handcut from templates).  The sugar cookies were brushed with corn syrup before having the sanding sugar coating.  The flip flop straps and watermelon seeds were royal icing dots.

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Princess Ruffle Cake

I had altered a previous fondant design that was requested, and made a buttercream version instead.  The upside down ruffles were piped in gradated shades of pink.  The crown was fondant/gumpaste mix and sprayed with gold.  The cake board, I used marshmallow fondant and stamped a blossom cutter along the edge.  This cake was red velvet with cream cheese filling.  I wonder if the crown was eaten...

Happy Birthday!



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Flower Cake Pops and Flower Pot Cake

This was made for my step-mother-in-law's birthday.  She loves gardening and such, so I thought it would be neat to make cake pop flowers stuck into a flower pot cake.  The pops had flourless chocolate cake (my step-brother-in-law is allergic to gluten and he was going to this shindig).  After baking, it was still very wet, but I guess that's normal if there was no flour to absorb the moisure.  I definitely didn't have to add any icing when I formed the cake balls.  Then I just cut circles of yellow fondant to form petals around it.

The terracotta colour... I got it right in one shot! :) One drop of red, brown and yellow to the white fondant was all it took.  I had to carve down the cake to a flower pot shape before it was covered with the fondant.

The "dirt" was just crumbled chocolate cake.  I rubbed green petal dust on the cookie sticks so it wouldn't be just plain white.  I wasn't sure if painting it with gel paste would soften the stick, so I didn't attempt it.

Here's the sad story... the day of delivery, it was so hot... humidity is not a friend of fondant.  We also had to travel to Brampton, which was about 1.5 hour drive away.  I also had errands to do before, so let's add another 40 minutes to the trip.  It was at this point, I saw that the flowers were skewered through!  I was so upset; I should have realized that the flowers would not survive the ride inside the pot.  Next time, all cake pops will be lying flat or upside down!  The cake tasted good (lemon with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream), which was its saving grace.

Happy Birthday, Lynne!

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Baptism Cake

Solmaz, from Dress It Up Inc., ordered this cake (top tier vanilla, bottom tier chocolate; both with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream filling) for a little girl's baptism.  She had a specific design in mind, and it had to have pink and white gerbera daisies, sparkly pink crosses, pearls, a banner, and matching gerbera daisy cupcakes (not pictured).  All the white daisies have pearl lustre dust on them.

The flowers took a long time to stiffen (due to hot weather).  The crosses were all hand-cut, because I could not find any small cross cutters that were less than 1 inch!  I had to combine 4 thin 11-inch round cake boards because I couldn't find an 11-inch drum cake board.  I also added a 6" thin board to the bottom so it would be easier to move around.  I hope Kira liked the final results!

Congratulations, Kira!