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! :)

Delayed "Happy 2012!"

The past couple of weeks were used recovering from all the festivities and my hectic December. But I'm back to updating the blog! :)

For New Year's Eve, my colleague requested a vanilla/chocolate cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream icing. No theme in particular, so I wanted to do a more text-y cake. I decided on a few lines from the classic song that is sung to ring in the new year.

Chocomint Brownies

Mint and chocolate... how can you go wrong? :) I whipped up a batch to bring to work (part of my holiday baking tradition). I hope everyone enjoys them tomorrow!

P.S. This update is short and sweet on purpose! :)

CRAZY, BUSY DECEMBER!!!

I haven't been updating my blog/website for the past couple of weeks due to CRAZINESS! Did I already mention that I have 4-hour commute to work in total, a husband, and 2 boys under age 4? Adding orders to the list make for lack of sleep and the feeling of not finishing in time (but I always do).

So, I will try to *briefly* mention what has kept me so preoccupied...

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Pittsburgh Steelers Cake

Made for a football fan, this chocolate cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC) icing was topped with a royal icing transfer. Surprisingly, I was told it was easy to cut into; possibly due to it resting on the buttercream, which broke up the molecules in the royal icing. A test for me to experiment with in the future.

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Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Snowflake Cookies

The cookies were sugar and gingerbread cookies for the staff at the IRBC. The design is similar to what I made in the past, but with the addition of an edible image of the IRBC logo in the centre. Did I mention I love my edible ink printer? :)

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Red Velvet Minis with Rose

So, my colleague wanted to bring these cupcakes for her niece's birthday. Initially, the niece said yellow was her favourite colour but then changed it to purple. Her mom wanted a rose on the cupcake, so I made them in purple and rested on cream cheese icing. The kids went to town so fast on the cupcakes that my colleague was not able to take even one photo of her niece enjoying them. To be 4 years old again...

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Trifecta of Destination Wedding Cakes
Another colleague requested to have cakes made in honour of her daughter's wedding. The wedding was in Punta Cana, so parts of the cakes had a beachy theme. She was very generous and shared the cakes with us at work (which was her intention all along!). To make my life easier, I decided to change the order into three smaller and shorter cakes instead of two higher cakes (I had to commute by transit, after all).

Bride's Cake

Her daughter had calla lilies in her bouquet, which I made with fondant. Ruffles were everywhere to make it look like a bridal. The cake was vanilla with vanilla SMBC icing.

Beach Cake

Palm trees meeting together was the idea for this chocolate cake with vanilla SMBC icing.

Message Cake

So, I didn't end up having room for the text on both the first two cakes above. It was written on this one instead. This cake ended up having one layer of chocolate cake and one of vanilla, all iced and filled with vanilla SMBC.

Congrats Melissa and Lee!

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26th Anniversary Cake

My colleague wanted a little vanilla cake to celebrate her anniversary. I put puddle dots and a couple of fondant flowers to decorate it very simply.

Happy 26th Anniversary!

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13th Anniversary Cake

Another colleague's anniversary was on the same date as the above client - weird, huh? She specifically requested for a chocolate ganache filling, which I did but also covered the top and sides of the vanilla cake with it. The sides were finished off with SMBC. The second request was to make it colourful (for her kids) because this was also the first anniversary cake that was homemade (she never had time to make it herself).

Happy 13th Anniversary!

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"Just Because..." Cakes

A colleague wanted to do something nice for a couple of people at work, so she ordered two generic cakes that could be served over the holidays. The cakes are vanilla with SMBC: the first one with fondant calla lilies and sugar pearls; the second one with rosettes and sugar pearls.

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Snowflake Birthday Cake

This short vanilla cake with sweet vanilla icing just had snowflakes piped all over the fondant top.

Happy Birthday Nana!

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21st Birthday Cake

This was the chocolate birthday cake with teal vanilla SMBC for the last surprise birthday party my colleague was going to give her son. SMBC 21's were placed on the black fondant top. It looked kinda retro, but I'm glad to hear it was enjoyed by all.

Happy Birthday Josh!

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Gingerbread Christmas Tree Cookie

Of course, with all the baking I do, I had to bring something to work to share. I made some gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies (not pictured) topped with royal icing.

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Girly Cupcakes

I had a request to make fuchsia SMBC cupcakes with girly teal and white toppers. The cupcakes were vanilla, chocolate and red velvet, topped with alternating white/teal butterflies, flowers and pearls. I really liked how the teal glitter made the pearls shimmer.

Let It Snow...flakes!

I finally got to make my cookie donation for work's United Way bake sale this past week: snowflake gingerbread cookies. I'm glad they sold out, as well as most of the other baked goodies; more money for the charity!

My other set of snowflake cookies were for a colleague's university alumni event. She wanted half the order gingerbread, the other half sugar. They were so cute and enjoyed by all!

My last snowflake item was for little girl's party. Blue and white cake pops with snowflakes; sounded like a simple order at the time. I had problems with the quins because they didn't want to stick onto the chocolate (too much chocolate coating resulted in the quins drowning; too little chocolate dried up quickly and the quins wouldn't stay on). The snowflake quins were also a bigger sprinkle, so it made it harder to work with. If I had more time, I would've attached each quin individually onto the pop.

Blue pop: chocolate cake; white pop: vanilla cake; both pops have Swiss meringue buttercream mixed in the cake, then dipped in white/coloured chocolate and snowflake quins

Christmas is less than one month away! Let all the bake-a-thons begin! :)

Something Blue Manolo Blahnik Shoe!

This was my first completed shoe ever... fortunately, it only took me the second try to get it right! Researching online, I encountered someone who made as many as nine attempts before she was satisfied. I do not have that sort of patience.

So, my colleague turned 24 and wanted me to create a shoebox cake (she's shoe-crazy). She decided to challenge me to make Carrie Bradshaw's satin "Something Blue" stiletto from the first "Sex and the City" movie. And challenging, it was! If the shoe was a sandal, instead of a closed-toe full pump, it would've been a breeze.

For structural purposes, it had to be made out of gumpaste, with a bamboo skewer in the heel. The blue parts were brushed with pearl lustre dust to give it a satiny look. The blue shell and the beige lining were on top of each other so that it would match up when it was cut. I cut a rectangular opening in the insole, then wrote the label onto a frosting sheet to appear under the opening (because my research showed the label in inset in the insole instead of on top of it). Finally, all the edges were finished with stitching marks, including around the label.

The shoebox is made up of three layers of chocolate cake filled with ganache, iced with ganache, then topped with marshmallow fondant. The real shoebox is just plain white, so I wanted to give it some flair with some contrasting striping, which was also brushed with some lustre dust.

I truly enjoyed the process of making this shoe (not the first attempt, though) and the results. I could not find a template for closed-toe pump, so it was only by trial and error that I was able to form the shape. At least I know now to use a sole pattern that is slimmer in width to achieve a slender toe box.

Bring on the next shoe order!

Happy Birthday, Vasiola!