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!

50th Birthday Cake

Someone from work wanted a cake for her mom's birthday... her golden 50th birthday.  So, this was the result:

The vanilla cake was paired with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, topped with fondant and fondant decorations.  Lots of gold accents here: the numbers, letters and stars and wire were coloured with a gold spray; the pearls were gold lustre-dusted.

Earlier in the morning to early afternoon, the weather was horrible... one of the worst conditions you can get for fondant: RAIN.  Luckily, it let up by delivery time, but we still had to combat fondant's Nemesis #1: Humidity.  Good thing I put toothpicks to help keep the numbers upright for the 40-minute (very) bumpy ride because it arrived intact.

I hope the birthday lady enjoyed her surprise cake!

Happy Birthday!

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!

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!

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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! :)

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.