Cake Endeavours

One of my favourite bloggers is I AM BAKER and when I saw her video tutorial for her  Cable-Knit Sweater Cake  I knew I had to do my own version. This was a 3 layer 8" gingerbread cake with cream cheese icing.  I followed her instructions in the video for the decorating that was very easy to follow.   In addition to the sweater cake I made a 6' vanilla cheesecake in the Instant Pot then covered with homemade cranberry sauce. I love my mom's vintage Christmas table cloth!  Her Christmas baking in the background is always a big hit. We did not go hungry.

Clover never ceases to amaze me in what challenge she dreams up for me to do for her son's birthday cake.  This year was no disappointment!  The baking was the easy part for this cake!  The cake was technically a 3 tiered cake that was about 9" x 10".  The tiers were separated with a half inch black cake board cut down to size.  The bottom was chocolate, then vanilla and then cookies and cream.  All were covered in vanilla butter cream before being covered in red fondant. Thankfully Mr T's cousin Amanda was over visiting for the weekend and ended up helping me a lot with the cake.  She built the handle for me using cardboard and electrical tape.  She also told me that it was customary to have stickers on your toolbox so I printed off some plumber related ones and laminated them.  We even got the cake done early and delivered.  Woohoo! Can't wait for next year's challenge!  That's a joke. P.S. Now in my Instagram and ...

 This has definitely been the year of the unicorn for cakes.  8" 3 layer vanilla cake with sprinkles and filled with butter cream.  I love these eyelash cutters I purchase from Etsy.  They work perfectly for decoratin. Rea's favourite colours are pink and purple; so I added as much as possible.

For Brian's birthday cake I made a 2 layer 9 x 13 chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing.   Brian is a hunter so I found a silhouette of a deer to cut out in fondant to add to the cake. Mr T thought it would be funny if I added a red nose.  Sometimes he has a sick sense of humour. :)

 I'm still on the fence about cupcake cakes.  Never sure if I love them or not.  However, they are super practical; especially for serving.  You don't need an knife or plates and forks. To make the unicorn cupcake cake I used 24 vanilla cupcakes with confetti sprinkles mixed in.  On the 18" x 18" board (good luck finding a box though) before decorating the cupcakes I put a dob of icing on the bottom to glue them to it.  I recommend putting it in the fridge for 10 minutes for the "glue" to set otherwise the cupcakes will slide around when you're trying to spread the icing over the cupcakes.  The ear and horn were made from fondant and painted with edible gold.  I had meant to do another layer of the white icing before adding the mane colours but forgot about that and had also used up all the icing by the time I remembered anyway.  The cake was a hit at the party which is the best part! :)

Unicorn cakes seem to be very popular these days.  They are fun to do.  My arms have been getting a work out mixing all the colours.  I'm definitely not used to that.  However, once everything is all mixed and bagged the decorating goes really quick compared to fondant decorating.  This cake was a 4 layer 8" cake. The bottom two were chocolate and the top vanilla.  I automatically made a three layer chocolate cake and thankfully when I went to put the cake together I checked my message feed on what age Victoria was going to be.  I then realized I had forgotten that it was going to be 4 layers and half vanilla.  Grr!!!  No fondant covering on the cake.  Ack!  Getting the butter cream icing super smooth is a never ending battle.  At least the unicorn's mane covered some of the imperfections!  This time for the ears I used a heart cookie cutter which worked out perfectly. This cake was for the grown up birthday party...

I love doing birthday cakes for these sisters.  Their mom always does such fun themed parties for them.  This year's theme was obviously unicorn.  Each cake was 6" round and three layers. Sofie had requested strawberry cake with butter cream filling.  Her decorations were more pastel colours so I decorated hers first.  Once done I darkened all the colours for Chloe's cake. Chloe's cake was cookies and cream flavoured with butter cream flavour.  I bought the different eye cutters for the unicorn cakes from Etsy.  They were definitely worth the investment.

For this baby shower cake I made an 8" chocolate cake with salted caramel filling.  I think it's my personal favourite combination. I found the ribbon in my stash and though it perfect for the base of the cake. For the cupcakes I made 2 dozen lemon cupcakes with strawberry icing. 

When I was asked to make this cake I had never heard of Lady Bug and Cat Noir.  Fortunately, I was able to ask Miss E for information and Google the cartoon.  This was an 8" vanilla cake with butter cream filling.  For the decorations I made Cat Noir's mask and green paw prints; Lady Bug's mask and little lady bugs around the cake. Mr. T was kind enough to deliver this cake out to Ajax before his 2nd delivery in the next post.

This Thanksgiving the "kids" took over and made it an Oktoberfest themed dinner.  This way no one was slaving in the kitchen while everyone else was mingling in the living room.  Fortunately it was a beautiful day and we got to hang out on the deck.  My contribution to the meal was Black Forest cake and apple strudel.  I would have preferred to use fresh cherries but they are out of season.  We had dinner at my parents' house and I didn't think a whipped cream covered cake would travel well so I assembled the cake once we got to their house.  There were chocolate flakes all over the kitchen.  Oops. :)

Today was my 4th wedding cake this month and also a wedding that I got to attend.  The cake was a 6" carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  I think the bride and groom are saving it for themselves as we didn't see out on a table.   For the sweet table I made 13 dozen cupcakes: carrot cake and red velvet both with cream cheese icing, vanilla with butter cream icing and chocolate with chocolate fudge icing. Congratulations Jacklyn and Brent!

I can't believe Keaton is 10 years old!  So when his mom asked me to make his cake almost at the last minute, I couldn't say no.  Even though I'm working on a wedding cake.  I knew I could squeeze this one in. The bottom tier is an 8" vanilla cake with butter cream filling.  The top tier I had extra carrot cake batter so I decided to go with it.  Turns out Keaton loves carrot cake.  Yay! 

For this wedding cake I did a 6" carrot cake with cream cheese filling for the top of a cupcake tree.  I dry brushed the burgundy dye on the edges of the fondant For the 6 dozen cupcakes they were all cookies and cream flavour,  We delivered these to  Krumbs  in Newcastle for the wedding tomorrow.  It's always a crap shoot for me when I'm dying icing a dark colour.  It's supposed to be burgundy but in some light it looks chocolate.  A semi-pro tip: make sure your dye is fresh; if it's old you'll never know what colour you'll get.

When I was asked to a Peppa Pig cake I was super excited.  The show came out when Miss E was older so we were never in the Peppa Pig phase.  However we love the scene  Peppa Pig Can't Whistle .  It cracks me up every time! This was a 6" vanilla cake with strawberry filling.  Such a sweet cake. 

I've known Cait since before she was born.  She's a cousin of a cousin if that makes sense.  For the longest time we were the only girls in the family and when our shared cousin Kim came along we were both super excited.  So when she asked me to do her wedding cake it was so much fun to get to reconnect with her and to meet her fiancee.  For this three tiered cake the 10" was lemon with cream cheese filling, 8" was strawberry with cream cheese filling and 6" carrot cake for the top with cream cheese filling.  On the front as per their request I drew on the Phoenix.  It was so humid in the condo that I couldn't trace on the design fist so I ended up free-handing it. Mr T and I delivered the cake to the venue along with cupcakes that I forgot to take a picture of.  We weren't setting it up so we were able to drop everything off and go. Fortunately Kim had her cell with her and was able to take a few pictures of the cake for me with the top...

Today is Mr. T and my 17th wedding anniversary.  Hard to believe it's been that long already!  Why not make a wedding cake and deliver it to Creemore as our way of celebrating?  Miss E didn't want to come for the ride so we had a lovely scenic drive up to Creemore.  The town is so nice.  The wedding was taking in place in their backyard.  It was spectacular with what I think is the Mad River running in the backyard.  This is the first of 4 wedding cakes I'm doing this month.  Crazy!  3 of the 3 have the birch tree effect as decoration. This cake was three tiers: 10" marble, 8" chocolate and 6" vanilla. After we dropped off the cake we took a drive up to Wasaga Beach to look at all the beach front houses.  I can't remember if I've ever been there before but there was lots to see.  Mr. T bought us some chip trucks fries for our dinner.  They were super yummy. :)

Lindsay is having a birthday party for her mom and sadly we're unable to go but I wanted to make a contribution for this awesome lady's special day.   I made the Perfect Chocolate cake with whipped cream filling.  I tried a new technique for icing the cake.  With the 1M Wilton tip that I normally use for making rosettes I went around the cake  piping out the icing.  Not bad for my first time.  For the top I added some chocolate shavings.  The topper I made from my Cricut Air machine. Happy Birthday Vickie!

Melissa used to be a co-worker of Mr. T's.  She was an amazing help when Miss E was born.  She even took me to renew my G1 (learner's permit for driving) so that I would finally get my license when Miss E was a few months old.  So, when she asked me to make her wedding cake I was very excited! This three tiered cake had a 10" vanilla with salted caramel filling, an 8" cookies and cream with buttercream filling and a 6" chocolate with chocolate fudge filling tier.  All covered in buttercream icing. Our friend Liz was visiting this weekend and while I was making the cake she kindly picked out the silk flowers from Michael's to add to the cake.  She has awesome taste. :) For the topper I made it using my Cricut Air machine and cutting out "love" 3 times and gluing the layers together and then onto a skewer. Originally the plan was to have the verse from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 written around the bottom tier.  Unfortunately with the hum...

My director's daughter threw a surprise party for her today and I volunteered to bring the cake.  She was definitely surprised! Meaghan had sent me a picture of what kind of cake they were looking for to go with their Hawaiian theme.  Last night I made the decorations.  The flowers were painted with diluted food colouring to make them look like watercolour flowers and leaves. This was a 9 x 13 cake that was half chocolate and half vanilla flavoured.  Then covered in turquoise coloured fondant. I don't often do slab cakes; I always forget how annoying the corners are to do.  Whether it's with icing or fondant they can be such a pain.  It's so important to get the icing as square as possible otherwise the fondant over top will look wonky.  This one came out pretty good.  Regardless, the birthday girl enjoyed it. :)

I was asked to make this cake for Lina's daughter's 23rd birthday.  This is only my 2nd time doing a naked cake.  A naked cake is a cake without a full coating of icing or fondant.  It is  basically a crumb coat.  For this cake I a three layer 8" chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling.  First, I leveled off the three layers, then piped the white butter cream around the top edge of two layers to form a dam for the chocolate filling.  I let them set in the fridge for about 15 minutes.  Once set I added the chocolate filling and covered in icing.  It was so strange to be done at that point.  I just had to add the flower. The flower is made out of fondant; made a few days in advance starting with darker fuchsia to lighter to give it an ombre affect.  I added a dab of icing underneath to offset it slightly. Mr. T was kind enough to deliver out to Brock St. where conveniently a 7-Eleven was close by again so that he coul...

For the baby shower I made 4 dozen cupcakes; 2 dozen in vanilla and 2 dozen in chocolate.  I covered the vanilla cupcakes in blue buttercream icing and added a blue gum ball to finish it off.  I love these gum balls that the Bulk Barn now carries.  They come in pink and blue and a beautiful pearl finish. For the chocolate cupcakes I first covered them in white butter cream icing then added the fondant decorations.  The little feet are so cute. Mr. T delivered these out to the east end.  He has no problem delivering a cake when there is a 7-Eleven close by.  For this delivery it was practically next door.  He loves himself a Slurpee.  They are slowly disappearing from Toronto which makes him very sad. So, he does not miss an opportunity to grab a Slurpee when he can. 

I'm so glad I got to make Santiago's cake for his first birthday!  He is one of the sweetest most adorable baby ever.  Though he's not a baby anymore :( His mom's request was for a Lion King theme cake with cupcakes.  The cake and cupcakes were both banana flavour with peanut butter icing.  Oh boy!  It is an awesome combination.  So glad we had left over icing. :) First I baked the cake and cupcakes.  While they were baking I started on the decorations for the cupcakes and the cake.  This took most of my Friday evening.  Thank you Albena! It was so humid even with our a/c blasting.  I could not get Simba to look right.  It was so frustrating.  I resorted to printing off a picture and laminating it.  At least Santiago can have a keepsake if he wants.  When I went to decorate the cupcakes the liners had peeled off on their own.  It looked nasty so, I took them all off and had mini cakes instead....

It's been a while since my lovely co-worker Clover sent me a picture and said that she wanted me to make it.  Of course, it's never a simple cake.  She likes to challenge me.  Especially covering a chocolate cake in white fondant in the middle of a heat wave... For this 6" cake I made five layers filled with chocolate filling,  The cake was over 6" tall.  Not easy to cover in fondant.  Thank goodness there were lots of decorations to cover up some of the wrinkles.  Next time, I would cover it differently.  Rather than rolling out one big circle and draping over the top I would do it in two parts; 6" disc for the top and then a 6" x the circumference to have one seam at the back.  It could easily be covered by the dripping gold.  The roses were made a few days in advance to allow them to dry out.  This morning we dropped off Miss E to catch her bus to camp.  She's going for a month and is super excited.  We had t...

These cute little cupcakes are for grade 8 graduation.  The school colours are black, white, silver and gold. I made 5 dozen vanilla and 5 dozen chocolate mini cupcakes in black liners.  Each was covered in white butter cream icing.  Mr. T found these awesome silver and gold Wilton stars at the Bulk Barn.  He is the best procurement manager. :)  I will definitely be using these again. 

I love doing a cake that is tailored to the birthday girl's like.  Isla's party was going to be a beach theme and she loves pandas.  So, I made an 8" vanilla gluten free cake with a panda snorkling under water. I had some green fondant and blue fondant that I mixed together but not completely to give it a watery look.  I added 8 candles around the cake for extra decorations and to cover any marks on the fondant. The purple flippers are my favourite part.  So much fun.  Mr T and I delivered it Isla's party.  I love that I got to see the birthday girl's reaction to seeing her cake.  So glad that she loved it.  

To celebrate Father's Day and my Mom's birthday I wanted to do something different.  I came across this  recipe  on Pinterest.  Over the top fun! To start off, I bake three 6" layers of chocolate cake as per the recipe.  Followed by the Nutella flavoured icing and then the ganache.  I added the toasted walnuts (they really do tasted amazing and completely different toasted!) and marshmallows into most of the ganache.  I save some ganache for dripping down the sides.    To assemble the cake I piped the icing around the top of the first two layers to form a dam.  Then added the ganache mix and stacked the layers.  After it set for a while in the fridge I covered the cake in the icing as smooth as I could get it. Finally topping the cake with the plain ganache and allowing it to drip down the sides.  To finish off the cake I piled the rest of the ganache mixed on top and then added more marshmallows and toas...

To celebrate Father's Day and my mother-in-law's birthday I decided to do a white cake.  But I couldn't not have chocolate as that is my father-in-law's favourite.  Thanks to  I am Baker  posting this recipe that incorporated brownie and cake I thought it would be perfect. I even tried my hand at doing a Swiss meringue butter cream for the first time.  The taste is very unique but it's a lot more work than American butter cream.  An inside shot to see how the cake was put together.  You take two 8" pans and bake the brownie mixture first and let it cool.  Then you add the cake mixture on top, bake and let cool.  To assemble, I made a mocha filling between the layers.  It was quite good if I do say so myself. :)