Lightning McQueen Cookies

2 posts in one day?! Well, today was the last day to post, otherwise, I wouldn't have time to do so during the week.

This was a Disney's Cars request. My client wanted Lightning McQueen cookies (no problem, now that I have my food-safe printer). This was my second attempt with edible images, so another lesson learned: don't put the image immediately onto the wet icing, as the image sank into the icing and created a little depression (easily fixed by piping a border onto the icing sheet edge). I guess it's the weight of the paper that caused the dip. They turned out awesome!

She also wanted a cookie cake.  Literally, cookies stacked to resemble a cake. Her son isn't a fan of cake, but loves cookies, so I made double chocolate chip cookies (4" and 6" in diameter) as the "cake layers" with drippy royal icing in between as the "filling." To top it off, I made a royal icing transfer of McQueen's tire, adding the birthday message onto it.  The cookies themselves are nice and chewy... yum! :)

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Chester Cookies

Okay, so this past week I missed posting my last order. I went back to work after 12 months of maternity leave and an additional 6 months unpaid leave (to wait for a role to open at a closer office to home)... so, it was kinda hectic. :)

Here is an image of cookies for a little girl's birthday, based on the titled character, Chester,  by Canadian author Mélanie Watt. This was a great time to test out my printer that prints edible images.

Prior to the actual print job, I looked online for a circle template (the package didn't say where to get one and eventually, the found it on the website of the store that it came from). It was a fiddly process, because the circles on the sheet didn't match up to the template (!!!) and reading the advice of the virtual community, I practiced on regular paper until the alignment matched the icing sheet. Then it was just a matter of placing it on the flooded cookie (I decided to cut around the image, first). I thought that it was OK to brush corn syrup onto the back of the image (my cookie icing had already dried and I read too late that images need to be put on WET icing). But, lo and behold, the next morning, I find air bubbles underneath the image! :( Luckily, I was able to smooth the bubbles out. Lesson learned: place images right onto wet cookie icing. 

Regardless of my hardships, the client and her recipients loved them, so I did my job. :)

Square Tiered Wedding Cake

This cake was based on an existing design (source unknown; the client provided me with the image). But the only thing that was the same was the square layout.

The top tier was chocolate cake; the middle, vanilla; the bottom, chocolate surrounded by vanilla. The original concept was to only have white chocolate ganache as the final layer. However, the ganache was not opaque enough (the 3 cake layers showed through), so a layer of white fondant had to be added. The filling was orange orange-flavoured Swiss meringue buttercream.

The black beads were made from chocolate marshmallow fondant. The purple lilies and orange orchids were gum paste. The cake board was purple royal icing with sanding sugar.

This was also my first tiered cake to be stacked on-site. I'm half-glad for this because the bottom 10" tier alone probably weighed 30 lbs or more! Not-so-glad because the product is incomplete when it leaves home-base, there's more pressure to finish in a certain window of time (I was there for an hour when I thought I'd be done in 30 minutes max) and a lot of things can happen at the venue.

Congrats, Tanya and Yaniv!

Ruffle Cake

I had a request to make a cake for a birthday that had to have flowers on it. We decided on chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and Swiss meringue buttercream icing. I wanted to try out the ruffle technique, and I loved how it turned out! The flowers were made from marshmallow fondant (MMF) with silver dragee centres, and they were painted with pearl lustre dust. The text and dots were piped with dark chocolate. The pearls were made from MMF, too.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Tire Cake

This past Tuesday, event planner Solmaz from Dress It Up Inc. (solmaz@dressitupinc.com), called me because her client wanted to know if I could make a carved motorcycle cake... for this Saturday! What?!  Less than a week's notice? I had to decline because that was not enough time to design, plan, and execute (I prefer 4 weeks lead time for carved cakes). So, the client settled on a replication of an image she found online. I've made some changes to make it my own, and it turned out great. And I hope the client likes it, too!

The cake was vanilla with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream filling, covered in dark chocolate ganache, then topped with chocolate marshmallow fondant (which was also used to make the silver pearls). The cake board was covered in normal store-bought fondant and was made to imitate asphalt. I was happy that this order was completed in three days (only possible because my schedule was free and the design was not super complex).

 ... without motorcycle...

... with motorcyle!

Happy Birthday Chico!

I'm 30! Now what?

I turned the big 3-0 yesterday. I wanted a beach party (something different), and left all the planning to James. We went to Ashbridges Bay, and we were there for a few hours and left as soon as it started to get hot (1pm). A few people made it out to say "hi," but the majority declined due to the weather or prior plans.  I really appreciated those who made the effort to wish me a "Happy Birthday" in person! :)

We journeyed back home; both boys were done and slept for about an hour (yes!) and I did the half-awake, half-asleep nappy thing in the passenger seat. When we arrived home, James told me to start dropping our stuff in the house. "Surprise!" yelled the guests. I wasn't expecting a surprise party at all. It was a good feeling. :)

Anyway, you'd think I'd make my own birthday cake. Well, I planned to, but didn't have enough time to design and execute it, so it was easier to make desserts instead with the free pockets of time (and unlazy moments) I had.

I made chocomint brownies in honour of James' birthday (his is 10 days before mine) since he loves them. I was supposed to make his cake in conjunction with mine, but since I scrapped the idea of making my cake, he didn't get one, too. The brownies were baked in mini muffin pans and were topped with milk chocolate.

Chocomint brownies

The next things were chocolate cake balls. It's chocolate sour cream cake mixed with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing, dipped in dark chocolate, then rolled in icing sugar. This was basically a sugar bomb!

Chocolate cake balls

I also made vanilla cake balls. It's just vanilla sour cream cake with Swiss meringue buttercream icing, rolled in icing sugar.

Vanilla cake balls

Of course, there had to be some sort of cookie. I made the popular oatmeal chocolate chip. I didn't put as much oatmeal, so it didn't spread as much. It was chewy and not too crisp on the outside.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Lastly, I made chocolate banana cupcakes with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing. Super moist cake with smooth icing - how can you go wrong?

Chocolate banana cupcakes with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing

I brought these treats to the beach (not knowing that guests were at our house instead) but, later, they were also enjoyed by the party guests.

I had to "earn" coins by doing various stunts to "buy" my big-ticket gift  <insert bridal shower memories>... which was a brand-new Canon printer for edible printing jobs! Now I can print images of ANYTHING to top cookies (usually) or cakes or cupcakes! :D

Thanks to all that were able to take part in this big milestone with me, and to those who couldn't make it but passed on the birthday greetings. An even bigger thanks to my hubby, James, for keeping me in the dark so I could be surprised. I love you, but I will get you back for the coin game, just you wait.

Holy, Batman!

No, I don't have anything on Batman. It's his sidekick, Robin! I had a request for superhero cookies, and Robin was the lucky guy. He's a royal icing transfer on top of a flooded cookie.

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I have a couple of belated items that didn't get posted at the time of making it. These were made to accompany the wedding cake photo shoot. The cake pop is about 2" in diameter and the 2" shell cookies were hand-cut.

Purple cake pop

Shell cookies
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Did I mention that my website (www.carriescreations.ca) is up and running? You can view my creations in the gallery and see what I offer for services. Blog link is still there, so you can always see what's new.